Capsule post, Autumn 2012

Hrm. So.

Any of you who are familiar with my blog know that I tend to go quiet for a while and then catch up, during which time I just don't write anything at all or I write a bunch of stuff but leave it in draft purgatory. Well, the past few months has been no different - many things have been afoot, so this has had to take a back burner to the rest of life.

Let me just give you a quick rundown...

• Took a final swim in the pool before it closed for the season, by myself (first time ever!) - the heater had broken yet again, so even thought it had been jeezly hot the water was, well, not quite frigid, but less than ideal.
  
• Attended J*&P's annual End Of Summer party again, fun as always!
  
• Dr Who returned for Matt Smith's third season and has not disappointed yet! I also doubled my Dr Who DVD collection when Amazon.ca had an unannounced sale on a ton of their stock, including most of my 'want it' list. 15 DVDs/DVD sets, including the entire Trial season. No, my collection is far from complete, but I really don't have far to go to have my 'want it' stories checked off.
  
• Went to a few really good Dr Who Toronto Taverns, including a specially-planned extra one to coincide with Rob Shearman's latest visit to our fair city, which was lovely. We got to have dinner and visit, so all is well, huzzah! He's got a new short fiction collection out (Remember Why You Fear Me), you should definitely run out and get it! And, while you're at it, pick up Helen Marshall's collection too (Hair Side, Flesh Side). You're welcome.
  
• Picked up a new tarot deck: Zombie Tarot. It's delightful. The case looks like a box of ammunition. Also passed two of my decks along to another deserving enthusiast who will give them the exercise they will need, that was lovely.
  
• Our office took the whole firm to Canada's Wonderland for an Autumn morale-booster kind of day, and it was as awesome as it could possibly be. Jennskoot and I were inseparable and went on practically everything, including the scariest rides in the park multiple times, we giggled all day, spent time with co-workers and friends and generally had an awesome time. And she won a Minion to match mine!
  
• Went to a birthday party in Burlington, the party room at that condo is unbelievable, so amazing - and on the way back I SAW A HAWK CATCH A MOUSE, right there, on the side of the highway, awesome! Went to another birthday party in Oakville, which was wonderful, but we were stuck in the worst traffic jam ever on the way there we were ridiculously late when we should have been early. Gah.
  
• Got a bizarre 24-hour kind of bug that had me so sick I had to actually get off the subway on the way into the office. No, I did not push the emergency assistance buttons, if you have the ability to just get of the damned train you do that. Discovered that Summerhill Station is the least useful station to get off at before 9am if you need a coffee shop to sit down in and get your bearings and perhaps use a washroom. Because there's nothing there before 9am.
  
• Went home to visit my parents for Thanksgiving, took hours to get there because the schedules changed the day AFTER I was traveling, but of course the schedule I looked at online that morning didn't tell me that, so I was stuck at the station for about 90 minutes before I could go anywhere. The visit was nice though, did Mum's nails for her with my gel Sensationail kit. Which, btw, I'm still in love with. I don't do it every two weeks, I want my nails to have recovery time, so I do them with the gel, and once that comes off I leave my nails bare for at least a week, then the next nails I do are non-gel. Still impressed.
  
• Started back to darts for the season. I'm definitely improving. I'm not amazing, but I'm much better than I once was. If only I could find the time to practice on a non-dart night! I want to get to the point where I'm not surprised when I hit the thing I'm aiming at.
  
• Toronto FC - well, the last game I saw was less than stellar. We didn't win, but even so, it was a dull game, nothing was happening (other than one cheeky player #23 I think? I liked him), no action, no one seemed to know what they were doing, two of the players weren't just unlucky but were actively BAD and picked fights with the referees. TFC would have been better off short-handed than they were with those guys. *sigh*
  
• Introduced still more people to the joys of Cards Against Humanity.
  
• This was the season of many medical appointments! First I got to see the endocrinologist my GP set me up with for my PCOS - the appointment was very long and involved many measurements and observations and questions, after which I had to get blood work done - which was also long and involved, I had to fast for longer than I usually expect to, then they had to take A LOT of blood out, I had to drink 'orange juice' which was neither orange nor juice and I almost puked it, then I had to sit in the waiting room for TWO HOURS and then they took more blood. Then I had to see a dietician and a physiotherapist just to chat about things and get some pointers, then a second round of bloodwork (my first round had everything basically normal but one liver enzyme massively spiked, which was almost completely normal after the second round, huh). From all of this I've ended up with two things that I'm loving a lot - a pedometer (it was suggested to me that this would be a great way to actually see how much walking I was doing daily, and it's great) and an awesome app - My Fitness Pal. So easy to use, gives you so much information, tracks your progress, gives helpful encouragement, I can't recommend it enough. I have another follow-up to do next month with the endocrinologist. I also visited my dentist and had to get more fillings - but these ones settled in just fine, no problems. If only the last ones would settle... but to be honest they're better than they were before!
  
• Did so much laundry one day that my vent got clogged (yes, I clean my lint trap every dryer cycle) and caused condensation all along my exhaust pipe, which then dripped down onto a shelf, across and onto the floor - soaking three of my Shakespeare volumes in the process. Well, when I say 'soaking' I mean they got wet, but luckily the ones in question were still sealed so no damage *phew*.
  
• Finally got my first tattoo! Two days after my Mum's birthday, Jennskoot came with me to Way Cool Uptown and I finally got that 45 Adapter design I wanted. And it looks amazing. Of course I broke out in hives before we even started and she had to go to the store and get me a freezy pop to put against my neck to cool me off, but luckily it didn't affect the tattoo at all. She came over afterwards and we watched a bit of Dr Who, then the Boy and I went to the book launch for Rob's and Helen's books, which was also great. There's nothing like hearing a story read aloud by the author.
  
• Dressed up for Hallowe'en in Kitchener again this year - went as Bettie Page pre-stripping, I looked fantastic, I must say :) I bought two wigs too, one for the costume and a different one (blue!) just to wear to work for the day, which looked totally cool and I wish I could do that every day. Attended J*'s Autumn swap, great as usual!
  
• Booked our trip to Mexico for January! Also booking an all-weekend Open Water Diving course through Toronto Scuba Club, so I can dive while we're down south!
  
• Movies: saw Cloud Atlas (which was better than I thought it would be - I expected to love the visuals, but having never read the books I assumed I would become completely confused and that it would be another movie like The Fountain, too big for its britches, but I was wrong and I'm glad I saw it) and Skyfall - twice! Yes, this is now officially my favourite Bond movie. And it was an awesome movie in its own right. Javier Bardem was more enjoyable than I expected, and there's nothing that needs to be said about the joy that is Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. Also saw Dark Knight Rises (enjoyable, but a waste of Tom Hardy) and Premium Rush (Joseph Gordon Levitt as a bike courier, non-stop adrenaline for the whole movie, highly recommended).
  
• Enlightenment - we've now officially reduced our annual output, so a little less stress on my part *phew*
  
• Harry did his usual magic on my hair again, but we went a bit more angular and I totally love it! I wish I could have bangs, but my hair just won't lay flat like that for an extended period - so I bought fake bangs! Haven't worn them yet though, kinda nervous about it...
  
• Joined Ancestry.com and lost myself in it for a couple of weeks, it's amazing how I can have one side of the family back past the 1400s and yet the other side won't even go into the 1800s.
  
• Lots and lots of work over the season on the new website design for my firm, and we finally launched it. I think it's gorgeous. I didn't design it myself, but I standardized the design so it would actually work instead of being a hot mess.
  
• Decided to cancel my Loose Button Luxe Box subscription - after the switcheroo they pulled this summer, they would have really had to hit it out of the ballpark to keep me, and they did not. I did, however, continue with Glymm and I don't regret that one bit. I also started receiving Top Box, and I'm LOVING them, so I am happy with that!
  

Okay, so now you're all caught up! I think.