Groundhog Day.

Today is the day we've all been waiting for.  The most important day of the year.  A date marked on calendars around the world, subject to innumerable day-by-day and hour-by-hour countdowns.

That's right- it's Groundhog Day.  The one day of the year when everyone's two favourite things- Science, and giant, hibernating, burrow-dwelling rodents- come together in a weather-predicting frenzy the likes of which the world rarely sees.  These brave, furry souls carry the hopes of ALL the world's citizens on their tiny little sloped shoulders, heralding a return to the icy depths of winter or the gift of an early spring, as they search for their shadows (which is remarkably difficult when you're hauled, sleeping, out of your burrow and hoisted 6 feet in the air above some jackass wearing a top hat and tails.  But I digress).

Today, take a moment to thank these selfless, courageous creatures.  Without them, and their amazing weather predicting abilities, Winter would never end and all would be lost (FACT- it's SCIENCE, look it up).

Yours in Groundhogginess,

Kat.

P.S. I am fighting off REAL feelings of Groundhog Day (like the movie) because it's housecleaning day AGAIN and I'm all like "Wasn't it JUST housecleaning day?" and then I remember that yes, it WAS just housecleaning day because I kept skipping my regularly scheduled cleaning days and had resorted to cramming "Clean House" into my To-Do List at every opportunity, in order to try and catch up.  Which was a massive fail, since I procrastinated my way through the extra clean up days twice as well as I procrastinated my way through the ACTUAL clean up days.  And I am in severe danger of doing that again and ending up even further behind if I don't GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND START CLEANING.

Over and out.

Doggie Diet.

Yes, again.

I took her in to the vet today for her annual checkup.  Not only has her weight not budget an ounce since the last time she was in, but she was actually up a bit.

I thought it was just because of excessive treating and my sub-par dog walking skills.

But when he listened to her oddly-low heart rate, he had another thought- Low Thyroid Function.  The first symptom is unexplained, almost irreversible weight gain.

So, for the next month, the dog is on a calorie restricted diet.  Like "Get out the scale, we're weighing each and every kibble" restricted.  If the combination of diet and her normal exercise doesn't spur any weight loss, then we head back to the vet for bloodwork.

I am bracing myself for a month of "Why are you STARVING me, Mom???" sad puppy-dog eyes.  That, and emptying the garbage cans every day to stymie trash can scavenging for anything resembling food.

January in Review.

Ah, January.  I firmly believe it is the hardest month of the year.

First of all, you have the holiday hangover (figuratively speaking....and depending on how your New Year's Eve was, perhaps literally as well)- coming back down from the whirl of parties and get togethers, all the food, all the shopping and decorating and running around.

Then there's the fact that it's (usually) cold and (definitely) dark- although I can't really complain about our weather, seeing as how it was 5 degrees ABOVE ZERO today and almost all the snow is melted.

The month is long- 31 days.  And the only holiday day is, by a cruel twist of fate (or scheduling), the first day of the month....leaving a long, 6 week slog to Family Day in February.

And finally, it's the time of year when we all set lofty goals for ourselves- Lose 10 pounds!  Go to the gym EVERY DAY!!!  Get organized!!  Vaccinate orphans in Peru!!!- and fully expect that we will not just meet those goals, but exceed them.

So, January is a hard month- lots to deal with, lots of pressure.

This year, I didn't make any resolutions....until the Lunar New Year, when I resolved to drink more water because I spent several days feeling like I was going to die due to being dehydrated (and so far that hasn't happened....but I have 11 months left!!  I can turn it around, I swear!!!  DON'T LEAVE ME, I CAN CHANGE!!!!!)

Anyway.

This month, it felt really good to get back in the groove of going to Mysore every day.  After the initial PARALYZING PAIN AND STIFFNESS subsided it's been smooth sailing...I've even picked up one of the poses I had to drop because my muscles and joints had tightened too much over Christmas to actually GET INTO IT, and I'm baby-stepping my way towards headstand, which is exciting.

It didn't feel good to be so far OUT of the groove with the house.  It took me three weeks to get Christmas dismantled and put away.  It took me two weeks to get laundry under control.  And I am still trying to get the Post-Christmas Deep Clean done.  I haven't even been able to get all the dishes off the counter- not ONCE. I have To -Do Lists and schedules, I have the supplies, I just lack the Get-Up-And-Go to get it done.

The weather was FAN-TASTIC, with the exception of one week that was really, really cold.  And I don't know if it was the nice weather or what, but the days felt SO much longer than they actually were, which was nice.  I didn't feel as "I don't want to get out of bed or brush my teeth or shower" as I have during Januaries past (although I definitely felt more anxious than I have in a while, and a crazy sore throat kicked in today).

All in all, it wasn't a bad month, but it wasn't a great month.  I am no closer to achieving the goals I set for myself- I haven't even taken a step towards them.  I am starting February in the exact same place I started January.

Okay February.  You're up next.  Bring it on.

On Vignettes.

Today, Jules over at Pancakes and French Fries wrote a post about vignettes.

Vignettes are the only difference between MY house, and the houses you see on design blogs or in magazines.

Well, vignettes and a crapload of dirty dishes.
And tons of empty walls.
And scratched floors.
And piles of undone laundry.

But mainly the vignettes.

Every time I see a vignette in a photo, I think "Hey, that looks really nice."

Followed almost immediately by "I wonder how long it takes them to dust all that stuff?"

Which is the main reason my house has no vignettes- the more stuff you have OUT, the more stuff you have to dust.  And when you're like me, and you routinely consider selling your house and moving instead of actually CLEANING it, the less things you have to wipe down or dump shed dog hairs out of, the better.

A Messy Cook.

I am potentially the messiest cook known to man.

Today, I made:

-two loaves of bread-ish stuff, to be frozen, sliced thin and baked a second time into Raincoast Crisp-like crackers.

-Cranberry sauce (yes, like at Christmas) to be mixed in with yogurt and granola, or spread on toast to increase my Vitamin C ingestion.

-a batch of Breakfast Bean Cookies (about two dozen)

-a cobbled together dinner of freshly-cooked pasta and home-made tomato sauce from Friday.

This adds to the giant pan of granola I baked yesterday, and the loaf of Caraway Rye bread that Andrew baked this morning.

As a result, I have no clear counterspace- every inch is either covered with food, or (more likely) dirty dishes.  I have no clean measuring cups, very few measuring spoons (if I have to measure anything other than an eighth of a teaspoon or a full tablespoon, I'm screwed), no butter knives, no spatulas.  Dishes are stacked into precarious towers, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be throwing Saran Wrap over the pots I cooked in and jamming them right into the fridge, because I don't think we have enough clean Tupperware to house everything (it doesn't help that I melted YET ANOTHER Tupperware last week by putting it on a still-warm burner after cooking dinner).  I had grand plans of baking bagels after dinner tonight, but I can't- I have nothing to measure ingredients with, and no place to work.

It's like this EVERY time I cook, especially if I do a lot in a short time.  And it takes me days to clean it up and get through the backlog of dishes (and heaven help me if we don't have leftovers to eat and I have to keep cooking dinners along the way).

Needless to say, I don't "clean as I go"- if I stop for anything, even a bathroom break, it takes me AGES to get back on track.

So, I push on, leaving a trail of destruction in my wake.