Yay bike ride!

With beautiful weather, and recent rains clearing the air, I couldn't resist a bike ride this afternoon!

I rode over to and up the bike path along the former rail tracks to Chief Peguis Trail, noticed there was a path along CPT and so rode it to Rothesay (it is just gravel, and so not as nice as the bike path), then came back home via Rothesay, Roch, and Brazier.

First flower of the season:

(Crazy early spring!)

Mylo: Almost Done

I thought I might be done last night, and so I signed the front and cleaned up the edges. (Amazingly... usually I only remember that as I'm about to do the varnishing.) However, my luck for remembering didn't hold... when I got home, I remembered that I had intended to add some colour to the centre of the ring on the chain. Whoops.

Oh well... I'll look at it all week, and decide if there's anything else that needs changing too. Since I'm apparently not done, is there anything else that jumps out at you as needing touching up?

Illogical

I have a business calling card for my distance ed teaching. It's not working. DE is trying to sort things out, but what they did so far didn't work. (I only just had the opportunity to test this again now... no phone in my other office.) Since DE is now closed for the day, I thought I'd try calling MTS, to see if I could find out what is going on.

1. The number on the back of the business calling card sent me to the residential services... which doesn't have access to business files. *Why* don't they put the correct number on the card?

2. The business services close at 4:30. So, if you're travelling on business and get stranded somewhere outside of MB business hours, and your calling card doesn't work, you're SOL.

Wouldn't you think the business customers would get *better* services than regular Joe-blow off the street? (After all, businesses are probably paying something ridiculous for big contracts.) This is just weird.

(Thankfully the student who wanted me to call yesterday was able to use skype, so I got him sorted out okay. However, I'd like to have a card so that I *can* call students when they request the call, if it happens again.)

New Mittens

Another thing I'm feeling unreasonably pleased about:


This pair of mittens I just finished. Crochet top, knit ribbed cuffs. These are now the light mittens that live in my spring/fall/rain jacket, for those cool, would-be-nice-to-be-wearing-mittens days. (My old pair is probably around ten years old now, and is getting thin. I've already patched them once using yarn that I begged off someone with some in their stash. I feel guilty about begging for more. They're pre- "save leftovers for patching" mittens.)

Mylo Update

Not done yet, but feeling exceedingly pleased with myself. ;)

Wacky Bikes!

Saw this on a friend's blog:

Have I mentioned I hate washing dishes?

My gashes:

The three red spots are where chunks of me are missing.

The dishes:

Washed: two glasses, two water bottles, one water bottle lid. Unwashed: everything else. (Broken glass is in the trash.)

Random thoughts:
1. Why does it hurt more this morning than it did last night? (Probably the shock has worn off.)
2. Even with bandaids, my pinkie is locked in "karate chop" position. (But right now is no time to practice karate chops.)
3. I finally have a use for those really big bandaids that come in the package. (One covering the big gash, regular bandaids for the other gashes. The big bandaid is a bit overkill, but the regular bandaids weren't quite big enough.)
4. I'm getting lots of simpathy winces when people ask how I'm doing. (I'm never quite sure if I should just say "fine", or tell the truth when people ask that.)

On tap for tonight: stop off on the way home to buy frozen pizza (no dishes required) and gauze, and tape (to replenish the first aid kit). And possibly more big bandaids, since there's only two in the package.

That's going to leave a scar...

You know what sucks worse than being up late creating an exam?
1. Deciding you're hungry, and what you have to cook requires a frying pan that is dirty.
2. Looking at the not-too-big pile of dishes, and deciding you might as well wash the bunch.
3. While washing a glass, a big triangle pops out, and the sharp edge gouges three large chunks of skin out of the side of your hand and pinkie finger.
4. *Before* you wash the frying pan you wanted to use (hence you still can't cook)... in fact, you barely just started, and so, after bandaging up your right hand, you have to gingerly fish out the rest of the dirty dishes from the highly-sudsy water with your left hand while being careful not to encounter the shard of glass that's still in the water.
5. And then, to add insult to injury, since the tape in your first aid kit is getting rather old and thus not too sticky, you decide to put a cotton glove over the whole shebang, impeding your ability to type with any accuracy. (Besides the fact that the bandage prevents you from using your pinkie anyway, which is a problem with touch-typing.) Oh, and the touch-pad doesn't work through the cotton glove.

*sigh* Time to call it a night. Hopefully by morning I can get away with just a bunch of bandaids, and so will be able to type then.

Too much of a good thing?

Back in December(?) I filled out a form for a Breathe Right strips sample. I've been tempted to try them for a while, but, with my tendency to be allergic to adhesives, I didn't really want to spend the money on a box. (Plus, I never think about it when I'm in the store, just when I see the commercials.) They were switching sample styles (to the new Advanced style), and sent an e-mail that they had to wait for the new stock to arrive.

Thursday I got my samples. Rather than show up with an odd-looking nose on Friday, I waited until Friday night to try them.

Friday night I washed my face, figured out how to remove the backing, then applied the strip. My nose immediately expanded to about three times its normal size, and, holey *crap*, I had never been able to suck that much air through my nose in my life!!! At first I thought the dry air would irritate my nose, but it didn't.

I slept *soooooo* well last night!

I was kind of reluctant to take the strip off in the morning, because it was so nice to breathe so well. However, the package says not to wear for more than 12 hours in a day. (Darn.) When I did take the strip off (close to 12 hours after putting it on), the adhesive preferred to remain on my nose than the ends of the strip. I got some of it off with a kleenex, but the rest had to wait for my shower.

To help get the gunk off, I decided to scrub with a facecloth. (Normally I just lather up my hands and wash that way.) I was really enjoying the feeling of exfoliation I got with the cloth, and was thinking perhaps I should shower like this normally. (Would my zits clear up if I did?) I scrubbed all over, and several times on my face.

When I got out of the shower and dried off, I discovered my face was all red. (Take the day off, Rudolf, *my* nose, forehead and cheeks will outshine you!) Uh... perhaps I shouldn't have been *quite* so vigorous? I put some hand lotion on my face.

I think I'll be checking out the prices the next time I'm in the store. (Even better, the sample package came with *two* $2 off coupons... which probably means they're not terribly cheap.)