Hella Stella

So, in the past two days my dick of a landlord has turned off our heat, turned it back on, acted surprised when the pipes froze, didn't fix the frozen pipes, removed our old heater, put a new one in, and then *eventually* turned the heat back on to a toasty 13 degrees.

That man is building up some bad karma, let me tell you. Especially considering that it was -30 while this was going on.

The only good thing to come out of this weekend is that we got to bond with our neighbours. They were out of heat for an entire day, so we had them over for dinner during one of those brief moments when the house wasn't frigid.

Anyways. I apologize if things are quiet here... But venting about my landlord is about all I can muster. In the meantime, please enjoy this picture of Morty creating a drool sprinkler. When he starts shaking himself like this, we all duck.

My spike in stats tells me that y'all like weird smiley-face pictures. Or perhaps it was the pink shoes that did it. Either way, noted.

When it started pouring yesterday, I wasn't able to get the clothes off the line in time. I left them there, thinking that the rain would have to stop sooner or later. It did stop - and promptly resumed snowing. With some crunchy ice for good measure.

Sigh.

The clothes are still out there, because I am stubborn as shit, especially when it comes to battles I can't win. I guess the weather has bested me this time though, and I'll have to take the clothes down shortly (Confidential to Spring: You are going DOWN).

My taxes are in, and magically I don't owe any money. Next year I probably won't be so lucky, but man am I ever glad I don't need to fork over some cash to Revenue anytime soon. My work T4 is always pretty predictable, but since I also file taxes as a musician, I never know what to expect. The year I recorded the album I was in the red by, oh, a lot of money. This year I almost broke even. Next year? I guess we'll see. I'm not actually expecting to gig excessively this year, so I don't think the cash will be flowing into my pockets. Not terribly surprising.

Today is my BH's last official day of class. We celebrated last night by trying out a local Ethiopian restaurant. The people who run the place are very nice, and the food is okay, but the overall experience was underwhelming. In a way, that works in my favour. It just means I'll have to keep trying out Ethiopian restaurants one by one.... In hopes that I find one nearby that I love.

My Easter plans are still pretty minimal, although I do want to take out one of my closest friends for a nice strong martini. She's had a rough week and could use some alcohol and raunchy conversation to cheer her up (got your back, HH).

If you don't have Megacoat, try wearing the following:

socks
undergarments
silk long johns
thick jeans
undershirt
t-shirt
sweater
fleece over-sweater
wool coat
giant thick scarf
wool hat
leather fleece-lined mitts
ski goggles
bad-ass winter boots

I thought people would stare at me in this getup, but as it turns out, no one gives a shit when the weather gets this cold. People will wear whatever they can to stay warm, and if that includes giant ski goggles, so be it. I can now safely say that I walked 40 minutes in -26 weather (which apparently felt like -39 with the wind chill) and I was toasty warm except for my thighs.

I couldn't feel my thighs at all.

No, seriously, I kept hitting them with my mitts and I couldn't feel a fucking thing.

But now the feeling is coming back! Tingle tingle.

Next year I hope to buy a longer coat so that I don't lose my thighs in a tragic walking-to-work-in-the-cold accident.

Now if I can just survive the walk home....