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Hopefully getting back to blogging

January 22, 2009 by Tricia

I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting much in the last week and a half or so. I’ve been very sick again.

I was actually in the hospital last week for a few days. My Crohn’s really flared up so I had to be treated in the hospital and stay there for observation for a while. God I hate being sick.

I haven’t been doing much since I got home. Just resting and slowly getting a bit better.

While I was away from home our closest neighbors- the ones on the other side of our semi-detached house had their baby! I didn’t even know she was so close to her delivery date. They had a little girl. I haven’t met her yet, but I did hear her cry once. I’m sure we’ll hear the baby more when she gets a little bigger and has stronger lungs for those cries!

Our other new neighbors – on the other side of our house – seem to be stocking up on cat supplies! Earlier today I saw the “boyfriend” going in and out of the house with Cat litter bags! They told us when they moved in that they have two cats, but with the amount of cat liter they brought in earlier today they either have a houseful of cats or they got a deal on the stuff! LOL

Hopefully I’ll feel well enough to get back to regular blogging soon. In the meantime I’m going to watch some of the shows we’ve been taping on our PVR .. I’m looking forward to seeing CSI and Ugly Betty tonight.

I hope you’ve had a better week than me!

Thinking about getting a home security system

January 20, 2009 by Tricia

Back in 2001 when Chris and I first bought our house I remember that our insurance company told us that if we installed a home security system they would take a percentage off the cost of insuring our home.

At the time we were just about to start doing major renovations on our home – knocking down walls etc so it didn’t make sense to have a security system installed. (We still have some home reno projects (stalled ones) on the go too) Plus we live in a pretty safe neighborhood.

Even though our neighborhood has few break ins it’s always possible that something could happen. In fact there was a home invasion just a few blocks from us last year!

Earlier today I decided to take a look a the home security systems offered by ADT. They are offering discounts on some of the packages installation fees (one package is as low as $99 installation after a $200 mail in rebate!) and all of their monthly monitoring fees seem reasonable at a range from $33.99 to $48.99 per month.

I can’t remember exactly what the discount was that our insurance company was offering if we got a home security system, but I believe it was something like 10% off the monthly insurance payment. That discount would likely pay a large chunk of the monthly security system monitoring fee. Sounds like a win win situation to me!

Obviously a security system will help prevent a house from being broken into, or if it is broken into alarms will go off and the police will be sent to the house quickly likely preventing a large robbery. However, did you know that there are a number of other services that come with a home security system? Well … depending upon which one and which service you use of course …

You can get security systems that monitor your house for fire, carbon monoxide, flood detection and ones that you can push a button on the installed system or a hand held device to alert the police, fire department or ambulance in an emergency. Some home security systems even have a voice system where you can talk to someone directly at the monitoring service during an emergency.

I certainly like the idea of a security system that not only protects my house from burglars but that also monitors for fire and carbon monoxide! My parents had a security system that did all of that plus was able to contact the various emergency services and they were very pleased with it.

Chris has always like the idea of use having a security system so I guess we’ll look into it further over the next week or so and perhaps have one installed soon.

Do you have a security system in your home? Are you happy with the system and the monitoring service?

Ok snow, you can stop now

January 7, 2009 by Tricia

It’s been snowing here in Toronto since last night. Steadily!

We’ve had everything from snow flurries to freezing rain to ice pellets. It’s only snowing at the moment, but it’s going to keep laying down the fluffy stuff until sometime tomorrow. (Actually it looks like it’s going to snow on and off until Tuesday!)

I shoveled last night when the snow on the ground was light, and a few times today when it was heavy and wet. Now my back is aching. Plus, with that slippery layer of ice underneath the snow in some areas you just about need to have safety equipment on while you’re shoveling! LOL Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but still … enough already!

I was saving the end of the driveway for when my husband came home from work. With my back already aching that heavy slushy snow that the snow plows leave at the end of the driveway was just too much for my back to handle.

Our new neighbors weren’t out there shoveling the driveway at all either. That ticked me off a bit since they now own half the driveway. However they managed to redeem themselves by early evening. You see the new neighbor has a snow plow business (pickup trucks with shovels on the front) and he brought one of his trucks over to clear out a parking space for his car in front of their house … which of course meant that he also scooped up that big heavy ridge of slushy snow at the end of the driveway.

So that took away the worst shoveling job and Chris had much less snow to remove when he got home from work. It only took him about ten minutes and since he wasn’t all that tired from shoveling we both took the dog on a long walk through the snow streets. Now that made us all tired!

I just hope that the snow that’s falling now and into tomorrow is the light fluffy kind. I don’t mind shoveling that – even if the shoveling does get to my back, I can still usually get the job done before my back is really bad.

Is it snowing in your area too? How are you coping with all the shoveling? No … don’t tell me you have a snow blower or that you live in a warm climate! Arghhh!

It’s been one of those days

January 3, 2009 by Tricia

Have you ever had one of those days when every thing seems to go wrong? Sure ya have.

Well … I guess I’m having one of those days. First, my husbands alarm clock decided to go on the fritz. The alarm was turned off but for some reason it still went off at midnight last night and it kept going off every once in a while until we took the batteries out of it. Then, as I was setting up my alarm clock so he could use it a button got stuck down and I can’t change the alarm time!

So that’s two clocks in one day, but that’s not all!

One of the lights we have in our living room is a tri-light so we can set it on low, medium or high lighting. Wouldn’t you know that as soon as we got home from grocery shopping (we never grocery shop on Saturday but we did this evening) the light started fizzling out. So I guess tomorrow we’ll need to go out and not only buy at least one new alarm clock, but also some tri-light bulbs!

I guess that’s not a terrible terrible day, but it makes me wonder what will happen next! Hopefully none of our more major electrical appliances decide to go on the fritz.

I hope that your day was better than mine!

Why am I so tired this week?

January 3, 2009 by Tricia

I don’t know why, but all week I’ve just been exhausted. I swear I could sleep day and night. Maybe I’m still recovering from having a houseful of guests last weekend or maybe I’m tired because my Crohn’s has been flaring continuously without any sign of getting better.

I also started taking high doses of Vitamin D this week after being diagnosed with very low Vitamin D levels. I wonder if that can make you more tired than usual? I don’t think it should, but stranger things have happened. LOL

In other news … our neighbors house has finally been rented and the new people moved in today. Actually they’ve been moving in slowly all week, but today they had a moving van and they are here for their first overnight stay.

I’m not sure that I’m going to like these new people. So far they seem like real duds. Maybe they should have looked into Wilmington NC real estate instead of moving in beside me!

They just don’t seem there when you talk to them. Oh and get this. We have a shared driveway, but it’s so tiny that you can only park one car in the drive at a time … so the guy comes up to us and says that he’s just going to park at the end of the driveway (on the street) from now on. Uhm … isn’t it illegal to block a driveway?

Anyway I guess time will tell if the new people will turn out to be Ok neighbors or big pains in the butt. My guess is that I won’t be out in my garden much this summer.

Hopefully getting back to blogging

Thinking about getting a home security system

Ok snow, you can stop now

It’s been one of those days

Why am I so tired this week?

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