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Hump day – how’s your week going so far?

July 23, 2008 by Tricia

It’s already the middle of the week and I feel like I haven’t managed to get anything done yet!

I always seem to feel terrible with my Crohn’s but the past two or three weeks have been really bad and it just seems to be getting worse. The minute I wake up I’m in pain and sometimes the pain in my abdomen even wakes me from a deep sleep. All day every day I’m in pain. It dies down a little now and then, but then it seems to come back with a vengeance.

The fevers have been really bad lately too. It seems that when the pain is at it’s worst I usually don’t have a fever, but then once the pain dies down a bit the fever perks up and of course the fevers leave me feeling washed out and shaky – shivering or too warm depending whether the fever is starting or beginning to go away. I think I’m starting to get an idea of what menopause must be like for some women. BTW the fevers and chills I’ve been experiencing are definitely not menopause. I’m too young for it and it’s been ruled out by a few doctors … it’s just a multitude of low grade fevers each day caused by the Crohn’s – yet another lovely symptom. I probably have an abscess somewhere in my abdomen although they haven’t been able to find it yet (they have searched! believe me they’ve searched!).

I seem to finally be in a mood to write, so I’m just going with it. Actually we’ve had a lot of weird weather here this past week and we’re expecting severe thunder storms so I’m trying to get as much writing done as I can before the storm starts just in case the power goes out yet again.

On Sunday we started having power failures. It began at 3 in the morning for an hour and then we had three more power failures throughout Sunday morning. Then on Monday we had a two hour outage in the morning. Nothing to do with storms.

I still don’t know why we had so many power failures. I know there was a fire in the area Saturday night and on Sunday morning a huge transformer under an apartment building (a fair distance away from where I live) exploded leaving 900 apartment dwellers homeless … but I don’t think either of those things would affect the power in my immediate area.

Yesterday a big truck knocked down the power line that goes over the street just a few houses away from us, surprisingly not causing a power failure in our home. However it did cause the street to be blocked up by police and hydro trucks for a while. One of our neighbors was moving out of her house at the same time so there was a big uHaul and an American Van Lines truck taking up our whole side of the street. This was at the same time that the Power people and the police were blocking off part of the traffic on the street so it was a mad house around here!

Well I guess for a sickie I’ve had a lot of things going on in my immediate neighborhood to keep me occupied. Life is never boring around here and I’m thankful for that!

So how has your week been going? Are you glad the week is half over or are you just cruising through without a care?

Do you ever get the urge to redecorate a room?

July 23, 2008 by Tricia

I really enjoy decorating my home and picking out furniture and accessories. I’ve always been interested in decorating.

It goes back to when I was a young teenager. My mom was very handy and she decided that my room needed an update so she took me to pick out fabrics for curtains and a comforter for my bed that she would then make herself. We also picked out wallpaper for my room as well.

Once we’d made our decisions I helped my mom make the items for my room and paint and wall paper my room. Then it was my turn to decide where I wanted my furniture. Naturally with the room having a whole new look I put the bed and other furnishings in different areas than they had been prior to our re-decorating.

After that, at least once a year I’d move my furniture around to give the room a different look. That habit stuck with me when I moved out of my parents home and went on to live in my first apartment and now our house. I still move furniture around or buy new pieces to change the look and feel of the room.

I’m not planning on buying any new furniture in the near future – we still have to finish our renovations – however, the interior decorator in me is jonesing to re-decorate. So, I satisfy that urge by occasionally going out and looking at new furniture with friends or relatives that are thinking of redecorating their home, or I browse online in order to find items that I might want to use in our house once we are done renovating and I can finally start re-decorating!

One online store that I’ve visited a few times is Concept Furniture. They carry a large variety of styles of modern furniture. The majority of their furniture is made in Europe – Italy, Spain, Belgium or Germany – and I think their selection is absolutely gorgeous.

If you are thinking of redecorating a room or perhaps buying furniture for you new home why not take a look at Concept Furniture? You’ll find a large selection of furniture for bedrooms, living rooms and dining rooms including tables, closets, entertainment centers, tv stands and more.

If you are interested in tasteful quality decor visit Concept Furniture.

Another day at the beach

July 19, 2008 by Tricia

I’m so tired right now.

Earlier today Chris and I took Midnight to Petsmart to get some dog food and to get some new toys. Midnight’s a big chewer so she’s going through her toys fairly fast. I wish we didn’t have to keep getting her so many toys, but it’s better for her to chew on something like a toy than my stairs or the living room table leg like she has done in the past!

It was another hot day here in Toronto so we decided to take our Lab to Cherry beach so that she could cool off in the lake. I guess we were there for a few hours. Midnight had a great time playing with one of her new toys in the water (an orange training dummy) and did her best to keep the other dogs from stealing her toy. Most of the other dogs that were at the beach today weren’t big swimmers so Midnight was able to keep her toy to herself by swimming further away from shore than the other dogs dared to go.

She had a great time but I still think she had a better time two weeks ago when we first took her to the lake for a swim.

We’re all tired after our day out. Midnight is crashed out on our lazy boy chair. Chris is lying on the love seat and I’m stretched out on the couch. Midnight loves lying on the furniture – especially where ever we were just sitting. I really have to check out some furniture stores or pet stores to see if they have any dog style couches as I’m sure she’d love to have her own piece of furniture. She’d still steal our favorite spots too I’m sure!

It’s supposed to be warm here again tomorrow but it’s also supposed to rain a lot so I guess it’s good that we got outside to do some fun things today.

What did you do today? Did you spend any time outside? Do anything fun?

We’re going to a Tom Cochrane concert next week

July 17, 2008 by Tricia

I got an email from my brother last night. Remember I told you last week that he told me that he was going to try to get Chris a free pass to the PGA golf tour? Well he managed to get two passes!

Now I’m not all that interested in watching a golf tournament, but I do believe that I will be going. You see at the end of each days rounds, well the last three or four days of the tournament anyway, there’s going to be a free concert. Our passes are for Saturday July 26th (at Glen Abbey) and that evening Tom Cochrane and Red Rider will be putting on a concert.

I love Tom Cochrane’s music. I guess one of his most famous songs is Lunatic Fringe or perhaps Life is a Highway. I like all of his music and I’ve never managed to see him play live so this will be a real treat!

I just hope that I’m feeling well enough to go that day. My tum has been causing lots of problems in the last two weeks. Darn Crohn’s. I’ve had terrible fevers and lots of abdominal pain, plus I’ve been losing weight. It’s like I’ve been taking Phentermine or something the way my weight is dropping. That’s the bad thing about Crohn’s, well one of the bad things – you can really lose a lot of weight very fast when you are in a flare. It’s bad.

The last time my Crohn’s flared really bad and caused a lot of weight loss I lost about 40 pounds that I did NOT need to lose in less than a month. I hope that’s not going to happen this time too.

Anyway, I’m glad my brother got us the passes and I’ll be resting up over the next week in the hopes that I can go to the golf tournament and concert.

Turtles, Ponds, Native plants all at the Brick Works

July 13, 2008 by Tricia

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Last weekend Chris and I and our puppy Midnight decided to go to The Brick Works.

They were having a walking tour that discussed the Brick Works and the lost rivers of Toronto.

I think Chris got more out of the discussion and history than I did, but I was certainly enjoying the walk and the scenery. Midnight had a ball too – of course she kept wanting to jump in the ponds ( a no no for dogs at the Brick Works as it’s an ecological preserve with rare native fauna and flora) since she was so hot. She also wanted to jump into the water to catch the gold fish (not native, dumped fish) and a Mallard duck that was swimming by.

As you can see she really wanted to jump in. We had to hold her back!

Along with old buildings, native plants and native wildlife there are some beautiful ponds in the old brick quarry that was used to dig up clay to make a good portion of the bricks that make up a good portion of Toronto’s older homes (like ours!).

During our walk I spotted a turtle sunning itself by some native water lilies.

You can see more pictures from The Brick Works and some of the native plants growing there on my Gardening Blog if you’d like. Oh yeah, did I mention that the Brickworks is almost in the center of the city and that it’s only about a ten minute drive (or bike ride) from our home? Great place to go on a nice day.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Hump day – how’s your week going so far?

Do you ever get the urge to redecorate a room?

Another day at the beach

We’re going to a Tom Cochrane concert next week

Turtles, Ponds, Native plants all at the Brick Works

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