an inauspicious start

yesterday was a bad start to the semi-new me. first of all, my face exploded. we went for a long hike at the farm and i must have gotten a little windburned. my skin was flaky and dry when we got back, but i attributed the extreme flakiness to a combination of my naturally sensitive skin AND not showering and wallowing in my own filth for 3.75 days. in the grand tradition of me aggressively treating my facial skin ailments with concoctions of my own devise and aggravating what would probably be fairly benign issues, i went to town on my face and scrubbed at it with a washcloth followed by a VIGOROUS exfoliation with a tea-tree oil-based (drying!) facial scrub (micro beads!) which resulted in my face exploding in protest at the layering of irritants upon already inflamed dermis. yikes.

then, my attempts to attack work with renewed vigor and zest and commitment to excellence (it says that on my resume) were foiled by a pounding, splitting headache that kicked in promptly at 2pm. possible causes for the headache:
i) my blood sugar levels protesting mightily against the resumption of pre-holiday eating habits and portions (read: a diet of FOOD and not cookies)
ii) my body (and mind) putting up a vigorous protest against returning to the daily grind
iii) being unused to staring at a computer screen all day
iv) all of the above exacerbated by my attempts to maintain proper alignment and good posture at work and at my desk

whatever it was, i was in abject misery all the way home...i managed to soldier through and work with the dotytron to put together the dinner pictured below, the consumption of which provided some temporary respite. i then changed into my jammies, unsuccessfully attempted to cajole the dotytron into reading to me out loud while petting my hair, drank a couple of sips of rooibos tea he made me, read a bit of "i like you: hospitality under the influence" by amy sedaris and PASSED OUT at 7pm. i woke fitfully a few times to randomly proclaim, "what the F**K is going on, here?" *slips immediately back into deep slumber*, i also woke five times to demand that the dotytron pop a lindt lindtor chocolate ball from the candy wreath into my mouth (to think i used to lament the loss of toblerone from the swiss chalet festive special!) anyway, the nuts and bolts of it is that i woke up this morning feeling like a zillion dollars after 12 hours of sleep.

last night for dinner we made pork stroganoff over egg noodles with steamed-then-sauteed brussels sprouts. i LOVE brussels sprouts. (is it brussel? or brussels, plural?) i was also preening over my thrifty homemaker idea to take the package of pork cutlets and, rather than slice them all into a GIANT stroganoff (as is my natural inclination), instead separate them into portions for 3 meals - pork stroganoff last night (livened up with parsley, dill, caramelized onions, and mushrooms alongside the de rigeur sour cream); and schniztel and ma po tofu for another day. THRIFTY NIFTY ME! i effin' LOVE pork stroganoff. especially with fat egg noodles. fat egg noodles are one of my obsessions this winter.



tonight for dinner the dotytron made that spicy grain soup we like. it has bulghur, brown rice, and barley, in a dried ancho chile-kicked up broth with shitake mushrooms, carrot, and zucchini. we had it with cheddar/scallion quesadillas and tomatillo salsa and sour cream. i also did my exercises tonight so i'm feeling pretty good about myself (as opposed to how HELL i felt about myself yesterday when i could barely do up my work pants...lol!)

my lunchtime work french class was today and it kind of kicked my butt a bit. there were only 3 of us in class, so we did some review...can i just say that ce-la and celui-la are mega confusing and the bane of my existence? however! my pen ran out and i did get to use the phrase (J - correct me if i'm wrong): "est-ce que je peut utiliser ce stylo-la?" about 20 minutes after doing the exercise, which was thrilling to say the least. anyway, i've totally forgotten the endings for the weird verbs. any french-proficient readers care to help me out?

etre
je suis
tu es
il/elle est
nous ???
vous ???
ils/elles sont

avoir
j'ai
tu as
il/elle a
nous avons
vous avez
ils/elles ???

savoir
je sais
tu ???
il/elle ???
nous savons
vous savez
ils/elles ???

comprendre
je comprend
tu ???
il/elle
nous ???
vous ???
ils/elles ???

faire
je ???
tu ???
il/elle ???
nous ???
vous ???
ils/elles ???

basically, i can't even remember the endings for the basic ones (-ir, -re, -er) let alone the tricksy ones. and i don't know what venir means, but that i can look up. [edit: it means "to come"] it's always a bit of a pill making myself go to french class at lunch (it happens once a week), but when i do go, i love it, so i should stop finding excuses to surf the net and be a dink and just go...i've gotten so much better already!

tomorrow i'm availing myself of the free course from the school of continuing studies at u of t that you get as alumni. you basically get any course up to a value of $600...i REALLY want to take mandarin, but that only costs like, $300, so i think i'm going to do the smart (read: boring) move and sign up for "the foundations of project management" which costs $599. i'm terrified by how bored i'm going to be and how angry the boredom will make me.

k, that's enough outta me for one day.

fin.