I am so very tired of television.
Monday through Thursday, we have a least an hour's worth of television on our "Must Watch" list, and I hate it. I'm starting to feel like our lives after work are ruled by TV. It may be because it's staying lighter later and I want to be in the sun, or because it feels like if we don't watch the planet will implode. We might miss something important! Or funny! We might be out of the loop when our co-workers talk about shows the next day!
So. We could get a DVR to watch our shows on our schedule instead of on their schedule. Or, we could just get rid of the cable all together. I'm not big into spending more money to watch tv, so come June when our current contract is up, I think we're just going to drop down to internet and get rid of our cable package. If we really miss watching certain shows, most are available online, or we can just wait till they're on DVD and get them from Netflix. I just...I have so many books to read, and I want to spend more time out of doors this summer (providing it's not as moldy as the last two), and I miss doing crafts and just relaxing after dinner. Mondays are the worst- we rush home, rush through our workout so we can have dinner ready by eight so we don't miss anything....and then I just feel rushed all night, which doesn't help with my anxiety and inability to sleep. And reducing my stress is always a good thing.
Oh TV, I can't say I'll really miss you. Most of the time, you're just filler, and I have music and DVD's for that if I need it. I survived perfectly well before I knew about any of these shows, and I'm sure I'll make it without watching them as they air again. (In fact, I think CBS is the only station that doesn't allow you to watch the show online. JUMP TO THE 21st CENTURY, CBS. JESUS.)
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Self Sustaining
Like probably everyone else, we're trying to find ways to save money. A big reason that we've sat down and gone over the money we spend with a magnifying glass is we ended up owing on our 2009 taxes- awesome. Fortunately the government allows one to pay in installments instead of demanding the full amount by April 15th.
After adjusting our withholdings yet again (We already both claim zero, but now have to take additional amounts out every paycheck. It's Fucking. Retarded.), we've found that the thing we spend the most on is food. That's not terribly surprising- when you're allergic to the things found in most prepared foods and have to make most of what you each from scratch, those raw ingredients rack up the grocery bill pretty quickly. I wouldn't be eating egg and dairy anyway, but not being able to include wheat in my diet is the real killer- it's used in just about everything as filler (and holy FUCK do I miss bread. I haven't found a decent wheat free bread yet, and it makes me crazy. You know how much cheaper my lunches were when I just made sandwiches? A LOT. An average of about 10 bucks a week if I got real fancy, and now I spend about 6 a day.).
So, in an effort to cut our grocery costs for at least the summer, we're attempting to turn our balcony into a garden. I grew up having all our of our summer fruits and vegetables grown at home, and I miss that. Three different types of pears, grapes, apricots, apples, melons, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, several varieties of squash,cabbage, lettuce, herbs galore....my childhood home was a veritable paradise.
Last weekend, inspired by the 71 degree weather, we loaded up on seeds and a mini greenhouse to get us started. We began with two different types of lettuce, spinach , green onion, green pepper, peas, cucumbers, chives, and corn (we thought it'd be funny, I don't know.). Yesterday, we moved over everything but the chives, green onions and green peppers to their new homes (the chives and green onion are growing sooo slooowly, and the green peppers haven't even started shoots yet), and so far, the cats have left them alone, and this morning everyone was still upright and perky. We won't be able to move them outside anytime soon, so I'm not sure why we thought March was a GREAT time to start growing things. They are taking up all available window space right now, and we aren't even done yet.
Buoyed by our early success at not killing the little tender shoots, we're still planning on getting more: tomatoes (but specifically Jetstar, because they're low acidic and I love them, but can only find them online so I'll wait till mid-April on those), a squash, dill, and carrots. We've run out of planters but have been turning juice bottles into self watering planters, and my gram gave us the idea to put some of them in hanging planters to give us more room on the balcony. We're lucky, in that our balcony is long, and we get afternoon sun (hot and happy for plants), we'll just need to maximize our space to give everyone room to grow.
I really hope this endeavor works out. I hope that we are so overwhelmed with successful plants that we end up having enough to give away. In fact, if it does work out, we've decided to invest on an indoor green house (something like this) so we can potentially keep some veggies going all year.We've thought about the air garden but...no. With all it's crazy chemicals and the size (we could seriously clear one of those things out in a day, so...) it just wouldn't be practical.
After adjusting our withholdings yet again (We already both claim zero, but now have to take additional amounts out every paycheck. It's Fucking. Retarded.), we've found that the thing we spend the most on is food. That's not terribly surprising- when you're allergic to the things found in most prepared foods and have to make most of what you each from scratch, those raw ingredients rack up the grocery bill pretty quickly. I wouldn't be eating egg and dairy anyway, but not being able to include wheat in my diet is the real killer- it's used in just about everything as filler (and holy FUCK do I miss bread. I haven't found a decent wheat free bread yet, and it makes me crazy. You know how much cheaper my lunches were when I just made sandwiches? A LOT. An average of about 10 bucks a week if I got real fancy, and now I spend about 6 a day.).
So, in an effort to cut our grocery costs for at least the summer, we're attempting to turn our balcony into a garden. I grew up having all our of our summer fruits and vegetables grown at home, and I miss that. Three different types of pears, grapes, apricots, apples, melons, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, several varieties of squash,cabbage, lettuce, herbs galore....my childhood home was a veritable paradise.
Last weekend, inspired by the 71 degree weather, we loaded up on seeds and a mini greenhouse to get us started. We began with two different types of lettuce, spinach , green onion, green pepper, peas, cucumbers, chives, and corn (we thought it'd be funny, I don't know.). Yesterday, we moved over everything but the chives, green onions and green peppers to their new homes (the chives and green onion are growing sooo slooowly, and the green peppers haven't even started shoots yet), and so far, the cats have left them alone, and this morning everyone was still upright and perky. We won't be able to move them outside anytime soon, so I'm not sure why we thought March was a GREAT time to start growing things. They are taking up all available window space right now, and we aren't even done yet.
Buoyed by our early success at not killing the little tender shoots, we're still planning on getting more: tomatoes (but specifically Jetstar, because they're low acidic and I love them, but can only find them online so I'll wait till mid-April on those), a squash, dill, and carrots. We've run out of planters but have been turning juice bottles into self watering planters, and my gram gave us the idea to put some of them in hanging planters to give us more room on the balcony. We're lucky, in that our balcony is long, and we get afternoon sun (hot and happy for plants), we'll just need to maximize our space to give everyone room to grow.
I really hope this endeavor works out. I hope that we are so overwhelmed with successful plants that we end up having enough to give away. In fact, if it does work out, we've decided to invest on an indoor green house (something like this) so we can potentially keep some veggies going all year.We've thought about the air garden but...no. With all it's crazy chemicals and the size (we could seriously clear one of those things out in a day, so...) it just wouldn't be practical.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
That soggy feeling
So, it's been awhile. I'm consistently overtired, and despited wanting to get on and journal or comment on other people's journals, I'm fucking tired.
This past week kicked my ass, too.I'm not good with time changes anymore; they wear me out. On top of that we had some massive flooding, which did not help me get a restful sleep at all. Here's the thing: if you leave our driveway going right, that's a big dip in the road, and the beavers so it floods at the slightest hint of rain. If you turn left out of our driveway, it's the Shawsheen river, a generally boring slow thin river. But the 8 1/2 inches of rain we got last weekend exploded all the rivers around here. To say they were swollen is a major understatement. We can normally only see the barest edge of the Shawsheen through the trees behind our house. By Tuesday, it was about 15 yards away.
Monday night, they sent us all home from work early to make sure we could all get home. And while the grocery store across the street had it's parking lot swallowed up, our road was still passable.
Cut to Tuesday night. The rain had stopped the day before, and I wasn't that concerned that we had much to worry about. When I got close to my exit from the highway, traffic was stopped. Not moving slow, but stopped, and the exits were backed up onto the highway. No big deal, I thought. I'll just go to the next exit, and come up from the other direction.
Nope. Cops were blocking my 2nd choice route home, because, as it finally dawned on me, the Shawsheen cuts through Andover too, and if I couldn't get over it in Lawrence, going 2 miles down the road probably wasn't going to be any better. I got back on the highway, panicked, because if the road was flooded where it was high on a hill, the dip 20 feet below was probably impassable, too. Where would we stay? How would I get to the cats? I wasn't too worried about the apartment itself- we're at one of the highest points in the area.
As it turned out, the Shawsheen had overtaken the road, but it wasn't too deep- the highway was backed up because drivers had to go slow, and single file over the two-lane part of the road to get through. When I got to it, since my adrenaline was up anyway from worrying about getting home to my stupid cats, I was terrified of being coming one of those people you see on the news who's car get's carried down the river because they were stupid enough to think they could go through it.
Once I got safely home, I called Anton to let him know not to try the back way, to take the highway even though it was going to take FOREVER, and sat to wait, gnawing my nails. Sure, getting through in my Jeep is one thing, but he drives a lower to the ground Seabring. And I think at that point I was just worrying to worry (once I start, I can't stop! Yay, anxiety disorder!).
But, he made it, and the river backed off a little more every day. We were definitely luckier then people closer to the Merrimack in lower parts of the state, for sure. My boss had about 10K worth of damage to his home, and was still pumping water from his basement on Friday. We've been rewarded with some beautiful weather- yesterday, the first day of spring, was 71. Absolutely gor-geous.
Now, though. It's starting to cool again and it's supposed to be raining for a few days this coming week. I'm paranoid about going to work and not being able to come home. Or losing power. I hate losing power and it happens EVERY TIME IT STORMS. Massachusetts is not well prepared for the repeat power outages and flooding- it seems like EVERY FUCKING TIME it rains, it floods. Seriously guys? Figure something out!
Off to find a canoe.
This past week kicked my ass, too.I'm not good with time changes anymore; they wear me out. On top of that we had some massive flooding, which did not help me get a restful sleep at all. Here's the thing: if you leave our driveway going right, that's a big dip in the road, and the beavers so it floods at the slightest hint of rain. If you turn left out of our driveway, it's the Shawsheen river, a generally boring slow thin river. But the 8 1/2 inches of rain we got last weekend exploded all the rivers around here. To say they were swollen is a major understatement. We can normally only see the barest edge of the Shawsheen through the trees behind our house. By Tuesday, it was about 15 yards away.
Monday night, they sent us all home from work early to make sure we could all get home. And while the grocery store across the street had it's parking lot swallowed up, our road was still passable.
Cut to Tuesday night. The rain had stopped the day before, and I wasn't that concerned that we had much to worry about. When I got close to my exit from the highway, traffic was stopped. Not moving slow, but stopped, and the exits were backed up onto the highway. No big deal, I thought. I'll just go to the next exit, and come up from the other direction.
Nope. Cops were blocking my 2nd choice route home, because, as it finally dawned on me, the Shawsheen cuts through Andover too, and if I couldn't get over it in Lawrence, going 2 miles down the road probably wasn't going to be any better. I got back on the highway, panicked, because if the road was flooded where it was high on a hill, the dip 20 feet below was probably impassable, too. Where would we stay? How would I get to the cats? I wasn't too worried about the apartment itself- we're at one of the highest points in the area.
As it turned out, the Shawsheen had overtaken the road, but it wasn't too deep- the highway was backed up because drivers had to go slow, and single file over the two-lane part of the road to get through. When I got to it, since my adrenaline was up anyway from worrying about getting home to my stupid cats, I was terrified of being coming one of those people you see on the news who's car get's carried down the river because they were stupid enough to think they could go through it.
Once I got safely home, I called Anton to let him know not to try the back way, to take the highway even though it was going to take FOREVER, and sat to wait, gnawing my nails. Sure, getting through in my Jeep is one thing, but he drives a lower to the ground Seabring. And I think at that point I was just worrying to worry (once I start, I can't stop! Yay, anxiety disorder!).
But, he made it, and the river backed off a little more every day. We were definitely luckier then people closer to the Merrimack in lower parts of the state, for sure. My boss had about 10K worth of damage to his home, and was still pumping water from his basement on Friday. We've been rewarded with some beautiful weather- yesterday, the first day of spring, was 71. Absolutely gor-geous.
Now, though. It's starting to cool again and it's supposed to be raining for a few days this coming week. I'm paranoid about going to work and not being able to come home. Or losing power. I hate losing power and it happens EVERY TIME IT STORMS. Massachusetts is not well prepared for the repeat power outages and flooding- it seems like EVERY FUCKING TIME it rains, it floods. Seriously guys? Figure something out!
Off to find a canoe.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
You know what drives me bananas?
People using pictures of their kids as their profile pictures. Not pictures of them WITH their kids, just their toddlers. This is part of the reason I unfriended most of my high school classmates because of this (and because of their obsession with JESUS and making multiple posts a day about JESUS and FREEDOM and all sorts of thinly veiled racist comments.)
Though, the only reason I friended any of them was to see what they look like now and how shitty their lives are. Since most of them don't understand privacy settings on Facebook, I can do that without friending them. Hurrah!
(Don't act like you don't troll Facebook for former classmates doing the exact same thing. It's awesome.)
Though, the only reason I friended any of them was to see what they look like now and how shitty their lives are. Since most of them don't understand privacy settings on Facebook, I can do that without friending them. Hurrah!
(Don't act like you don't troll Facebook for former classmates doing the exact same thing. It's awesome.)
Welp.
So, I'm not going to make the 40 uninterrupted days. Tuesday I pulled a muscle in my neck and by Wednesday evening the act of turning my neck was enough to make me dizzy and nauseated, so I sat it out. What can you do?
Anyway, I'm making little bits of progress still. Nothing earth shattering but enough to keep me going. It really just highlights how much work I have ahead of me though, so quitting altogether is out. Baby steps, I guess. I can't make it past level one of the workout program because I have virtually no upper body strength,but I'm getting there.
Anyway, I'm making little bits of progress still. Nothing earth shattering but enough to keep me going. It really just highlights how much work I have ahead of me though, so quitting altogether is out. Baby steps, I guess. I can't make it past level one of the workout program because I have virtually no upper body strength,but I'm getting there.
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