Rae Roy

What a shitty day! So my bathtub got overrun with sewage from another unit. The toilet would gurgle, then stuff would flow into my tub when people above flushed. It seemed like it had resolved, so I had cleaned it up, took a shower, and went to bed. At 1:30 AM, I awoke to more gurgling and saw this: I rinsed that out and went back to sleep. When I got up in the morning there was this. So, I was heading out to Canadian Tire when I ran into the cleaning lady who lives two doors down. She had no issues, but we called the emergency line and then waited most of the day for a plumber to come. While waiting, it got worse. Much worse. Eventually, there was the superintendent, the cleaner who is also an owner, a board member, and the neighbour, who was also having the issue. The plumber had to take their toilet off to clear the blockage that may have been related to an adorable and mischievous toddler. His mom didn't speak much English, but was very kind

Meatless Bibimbap Rice Bowl on my chair because I'm still decluttering. It's taken me eleven years to figure out what my food issues are. Years ago, in 2013, I went to a nutritionist who put me on a gluten free diet. She also advised I change some things up. At the time, I was eating fewer grains, organic meats, salmon (yuck unless it's sushi), and some vegetarian meals. I felt better, but never fully. I still had discomfort in my abdomen, but it was better than pain throughout my entire body. So I did a low FODMAP thing for a long time thinking that it was IBS. It must be the onions and garlic in my food, right? They're known for causing issues and they're in all the things I'm eating, so why wouldn't it be that? Cutting them out helped very minimally. Somewhere along the way, I confirmed that I was having trouble with lactose. Not like most people do. I get itches in uncomfortable places and hives. Lactose free milks and cheeses entered my life

The drive to North Bay was pretty smooth until I was 30 minutes away and ran out of windshield washer fluid. That was the first time that ever happened to me. Luckily, about 10-15 minutes later, there was one last gas station where I could fix that. Since it's my busy season, I worked the mornings and took the afternoons and evenings to spend with family and friends. My brother stopped by with a special gift, a new ornament for the tree. My mom loved ceramic Christmas trees, so it's a perfect way to keep her with us at Christmas. His friend, Fawn, helped him get it made. She has a YouTube channel you can check out here: https://youtube.com/@thethriftyfawn After that, I visited friends in the slightly rural part of Callander, Ontario. We were having a lovely time catching up and then the evening had a surprise in store. Someone in the area had hit a small deer with their vehicle. My friend's dad skinned and gutted it in around -20C (due to the windchill) weather.

I finally learned to crochet and I have mixed feelings about it. My first two crochet projects: A basic square and a Woobles mini briefcase. Durability It's interesting because it allows for a thicker product made faster than double knitting. And thicker means sturdier, which is excellent for things like toys or objects. The difference in thickness seems to be because of working with each stitch more than once or at least that is how it feels in comparison to knitting. Counting I rarely have to count beyond cast on with knitting unless I need to do a decrease or increase somewhere. I don't mean the basic counting like knit one, purl one. I mean, counting the whole row out to be sure I still have the number of stitches I started with. I've literally never needed a stitch counter in the 15 or so years I've been knitting.  Crochet, though? I regularly feel like I'm going to lose my shit due to the constant need to count. Even with all the counting, somehow,

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay There are many days I think I haven't achieved nearly enough with my writing or that I feel behind in life. What I've realized is that sometimes I'm too hard on myself. When I look at the past decade, and shortly before it, I've been through a lot. There was a miscarriage in 2011.  In 2012, my workplace was divested, my marriage ended, and I somehow managed to get my blue belt in karate.  2013 came and I moved 4 times. The first move was out of the marital home. The second was to Ottawa. The third to a temporary place while I waited for my condo keys. I did all of that while playing roller derby and studying iaido. Then 2014 brought with it my roller derby team winning the championships, but I got injured and had to do a lot of rehab on herniated discs in my neck.  In 2015, I woke up with crippling pain in my ankles and was diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome. In 2016, I won a couple of bronze medals in iaido, the sword-based martial

Image by Muhnaufals on Pixabay Due to the following spammer, I've disabled comments on my blog as I'm way too busy for nonsense.  If you want to reach out to me, I encourage you to contact me through my contact form or via my social media accounts or to comment where I share my blog posts, namely on my Facebook account or through Goodreads. I'm currently most active on Instagram and Facebook. Google, please let people block individual problem people on our blogs. Ayesha please get a new hobby.  https://www.blogger.com/profile/15486878100637374184 I suppose I now have one less thing I need to moderate.