I'm so excited. I can actually feel the season change. I love it! I'm dying to break out my fall clothes. Scarves and coats and turtlenecks. Ian and I had an issue this weekend with it being too cold to have the sliding doors open. YAY!!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Super Frustrated
Today I went to Cambridge Memorial Hospital to have lung function tests. I did a whole series of breathing and holding my breath... I had an audible wheeze when I had to push out my breath. At the end, the technician asked me when the last time I took my blue inhaler. I told her it was last night. She said well I don't know why you are on it. Your levels are normal. I said are you saying that I don't have asthma and she said well I don't hear anything (Note: She didn't listen to my lungs with a stethoscope). The test isn't designed to rule out asthma but after I gave you the shots of ventolin there should have been a noticeable jump in your levels. There wasn't.
Uhm... okay??? So you're saying that the issue I've dealt with for most of my life is gone. GREAT! Just one problem... I wheeze daily, I sometimes wake up and need my inhaler in order to breathe deeply. When I took Advair last year, it was the best my lungs ever felt. But I couldn't continue taking it because it gave me severe anxiety. If I don't have asthma than what do I have? After asking her this and her retreating on her diagnosis of non-asthma, she said there is another test that can be done. I inhale a histamine and see what my reaction is. GREAT. Love it. Look forward to it.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Cottage Country
Since moving to Canada, I've heard this term a lot. Coming from California... when I hear the word "cottage" I think... countryside... far away... mid west. What does it mean for here? Areas surrounding major cities usually set on lakes. There are a lot of lakes and rivers around where we live. EVERYONE I work with either has a cottage or rents one. It's a big deal. One of my new co-workers has a cottage built in 1918 complete with working outhouse (meaning only an outhouse for them to use - EW). It's very strange to me coming from an area where you don't usually hear of people "going away for the weekend". Mostly you hear of big camping trips or in the winter trips skiing, etc. You can easily go to the beach of course... but, even working at Amgen, you never heard of people going away for the weekend. It was vacation or nothing.
Here... every weekend people plan to drive up to their cottage. It's not just reserved for Amgen either... in line at the grocery store I heard a woman talking about her cottage and at the bank. I think eventually Ian and I will set up a cottage fund. =P It's been suggested that he and I rent in various locations to get a feel for different areas. The best part is that it isn't too terribly expensive. Renting depending on the area goes from $700-$1000 per week and if you buy, a decent, smaller sized cottage on or near lake can run about 100k (this is according to a co-worker who just bought one). Fixer uppers are even better... I think it would be fun (Ian probably wouldn't!) to find a cottage in need of "some" repair and fix it up on the weekends. Well, one can dream~
I Need A Nap
The caption reads "Why is this sloth smiling? 'Cause he prolly had a 23-hour nap". I need a 23-hour nap.
My Very Bad Thing
Happy Birthday to me... Happy Birthday to me... On Sunday, Ian and I went with his parents to Costco. As those of you who read this may know, Costco is the 7th circle of hell. It is a place where money goes to die. Our total spent for this trip: $606. How on earth did we manage to spend that much? Very easily... I've been wanting a netbook for a long time. What is a netbook? Basically, a very small computer. It has a 10 inch screen. It weighs about 3 or 4 lbs and is about 1 inches tall. This means of course that it has no cd drive. Why would I want something so small? I like to sit on the couch and flip through the news... or write an email. I have a gigantic IBM laptop that Erik had given me. It's huge (I've dropped it a few times trying to hold it in one hand...) and gives me a bunch of errors because it doesn't like Vista on it. This will be really nice to travel with as well. There are many reasons... but anyway... it was the lowest price I had seen at Costco. Most I've seen are $450 or more. This was, if I remember correctly, $339.99 - Happy Birthday to me! (The other portion of the $606 was spent on stuff we really did need... chicken, shampoo, scissors, etc.)
