Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



You are here: Home / Archives for Home and Lifestyle / Life with Chris

Barbecue time

by

We’re having a BBQ for the first time in a while this evening. Chris has either been tiring himself out working the early early shifts or working the 12 noon to 8 pm shifts at work so we haven’t been having as many barbecues that we normal do this year.

Tonight we’re having some grilled sausages – those cheese grill’ems or however the name is spelled. I love them. They don’t love me and they aren’t good for us but they sure do taste good.

Of course we are balancing it out with a salad full of cucumber, carrot, a variety of leafy greens, tomatoes and a light vinaigrette dressing, as well as Frenched beans.

Time to eat! What did you have for dinner tonight?





Why do we have more money living in a house than an apartment?

by

It’s amazing how much different our life is since we got our house six years ago. We’d been living in a small apartment, paying fairly low rent given the area – and we didn’t really have the same kind of bills that we have now that we have a house, but it always seemed like we were struggling to get by.

When we living in the apartment we were both paying off student loans, had a car payment, paid for cable, internet, car insurance, and telephone and paid our rent (only $725 which is cheap for a nice apartment in a good area of Toronto). We both had full time jobs that paid decently too.

I really have no idea how we got by without having applied for a student loan consolidation. We would have saved a lot of money on interest and our monthly payments probably would have been lower too.

Still we pushed on. The student loans were our biggest bills other than rent back then. I am glad that we don’t have student loans to pay off anymore. I’ve thought of going back to school but it’s the loans that scare me! If I ever do back to school you can bet your boots I’ll be consolidating the loans next time.

I think getting a house gave us more of a sense of responsibility. We used to buy what we wanted when we wanted. Now we think about it for quite a while. We still buy what we want but by the time we’ve put all that thought into it we’ve often saved the money to pay for that item outright.

I know our living expenses are higher in the house – mortgage, property tax, water bill, telephone, cable, cell phone, internet, electricity, oil for the oil furnace, insurance – no car or student loans anymore though, and yet we still seem to have extra money and I’m not even working these days.

Sure I make some pretty good money via the internet, but Chris makes less than he did when we lived in the apartment so income kind of evens out. As I said it must be just that we are more responsible with our money these days.

The flu or something

by

Chris came home sick from work yesterday. He’d worked all day feeling awful and was still feeling terrible by the time he got home that evening. It seems that it’s a flu bug or something – you know fever, sweats, sore muscles and joints plus the ever embarrassing crampy tummy and runs.

He had a really high fever a few times through the night and didn’t end up going to work today. Good idea actually since he works in the OR recovery room. Those people don’t need to be exposed to virus’.

He actually thought he was getting better by this afternoon, but his neck really started to ache a little while ago and I felt his forehead and sure enough his fever had returned. I’m not sure he’ll be going to work tomorrow if this keeps up.

As much as I feel bad for Chris I’m also in “Stay Away” mode. Considering that I have Crohn’s and it’s an autoimmune disease I’ll likely end up getting what he’s got. Usually when I get sick it’s a much worse version than those who’ve had it before me so I’m looking at him with dread.

I do think I might be getting the bug too because I’m headache and achy. I certainly hope I can fight this before it hits!

Boys and their toys

by

Do you remember I was talking about how Chris wanted our basement, when we are done our renovation, to be a true rec room? Well, after having so much fun over the weekend with his sister and brother-in-law he’s adamant that the basement must be a rec room full of manly toys to play with or on.

You see, once my brother in law came back from the concert that he’d gone to – Roger Waters, he said it was fantastic! – they all went out to play pool, and later they came back and we played poker. Now along with the pool table that he’s got his eye on he wants us to look at poker tables too!

Geesh! I just bought him a new video camera! Now he wants more toys? Don’t they usually say it’s the women that spend all the money shopping?

Well at least we never impulse buy. Anything that I write about that we’ve purchased, particularly if it’s an expensive item, is something that we’ve thought about and discussed for quite a while.

Maybe he’ll get his new toy, but we’ve got to finish the basement first!

House Guests, the Museum and a Psychic Reading?

by

Don’t you just hate it when people drop in unexpectedly? I do. Since I’m sick and never know how I’m going to feel from one day to the next I like to at least know in advance when someone might be coming over.

Well on Saturday we got a call from Chris’ sister. Her husband was coming to Toronto to go to a concert. We knew about this because he’d called the day before to ask Chris if he wanted to go – he didn’t, and to see if he could stay over Saturday night.

Ok, so we knew our brother in law was coming for a visit. Fine. But when Chris’ sister called she said she’d decided to come and that they were bringing their young daughter with them.

Needless to say I didn’t get any work done over the weekend. I have several posts to write and I’m slowly catching up. If you are one of the advertiser that’s waiting for an article it’s coming!

While our brother in law was at the concert Chris and his sister partied a bit – even going over to the neighbors who had pestered us twice that day to come visit with them while I ended up spending time with my niece. I wasn’t about to turn my back on my little niece and leave her to amuse herself in a very adult household. She’d have been bored to tears poor girl.

The next day we went to the Royal Ontario Museum. I’ve got some great pictures of the buildings! They re-did the ROM and the architecture is amazing! It’s all glass and crazy angles. Beautiful.

We also ended up visiting a psychic! There are few shops near my house and my sister in law had always wanted to get a Psychic Reading so she did. It was pretty interesting.

Guess what? She’s going to have some turmoil in her life, maybe around her job, but then things will settle down over the next few months and she’ll be very happy with both work and family. Wow … She is actually in the midst of changing jobs. Her new job is a government position and she’ll have to draw on all her past experiences in her new career.

I didn’t get a reading done. I didn’t want to end up depressed.

Meta

Search this site

Tags

blog blogs camera Canada Chris computer crohns dinner dog Family flower flowers Food friends funny garden Gardening Green Thumb Sunday Health and Fitness Health Fitness and Beauty holiday home Home and Lifestyle house husband IBD Inflammatory bowel disease Internet Music neighbors pain photo photos plants puppy Shopping sick sleep spring Toronto TV Video visit website Wordless Wednesday