Painting and tomorrow's lunch menu

[Eleonore Beaudoin]

Today needs to be painting.

Life seems to be telling me to schmuck oil paint and go with water base.
Else with the two coastings needed, I still could not shower by Monday
morning. Argh!
I am just missing a bit of caulking for the washroom window, that &?% gap
between the wall and frame. Had I seen it the forst time around (can not
see it actually: too narrow a space to climb over high enough to see:
impossible: I can only feel the hole and add caulking byb now), and I am
all out. That is, there is a tube with some elft in it, plenty, but the
landlord gave it without a closing cap:(. So it probably dried out, if
there still is hope for the cap I invented to maybe have kept things in a
way where I could break or cut the end and get some fresh caulking out of
there. If not, I will break the thing opened or saw it. Too narrow a hole
by now to be bothered with buying some and too upset at landlord to pay
more money for him to do HIS job, nah! Thank God I did not wait for them
though, since they never gave any sign of life about caulking or painting
the window frames and fixing the walls they damaged in doing that job.

I might give one coating of opil to the washroom, then let that dry and
use it as is al week then next weekend give a second coating, Thing is,
that washroom was treated--demanding 5 days of very hard labour in
impossible humidity upstairs- to rid of any possible fungus and such that
seemed to wanna thrive in there. I certainly do not intend to give it any
friggen chance. And sicne they will not install a friggen fan,
well...Better safe than sorry. Can NOT leave a hole behind the window....

So today will be taping around the wondow frames, inside and out, i.e.
against the wall and against the glass, and then painting, water for most
and in the end shall see how I feel about the friggen washroom....In fact
I shoudl start with the caulking on that one....After a good bath sicne I
can not shower, and sicne thecaulking will need dry...sigh...Until
tomorrow evenign at least which still leaves me without a shower for next
week. ARGH! Fourth time I add caulking to that window, all others were
done in one shot....Save study that will require touch ups, given the huge
holes they left where the window sills used to be under the window on each
sideoles that were patched but where oen shows an indentation still, if I
am tempted to paint it as is by now:). Over the study window, water
dammage up to the ceiling line. Apparently there is water leaks from that
exterior wall, and over the staircase, at the opposite end of the house.
Sigh. At that rate I woudl bet the entire attic must be wet and crawling
with fungus of all kind....So that makes it discouraging to work so hard,
when all can be for nothing, specially since they will one day have to do
something, be it when the friggen ceiling falls on me over the staircase....

To break the monotony, I am thinking of doing something a bit more
creative. Like cooking something fun yet fast enough given the work needed
in the house. So for Sunday noon, maybe a nice salad, and then something
to choose to cook for main course.

Saw somthign interestign yesterday: lasagna rolls. Ie. cooked lasagna
strips, 8, then some chopped chiken or turley the recipe goes, with
riccotta or cottage chease, the meat already cooked and added on the
lasagana strips, 1/3rd cup at a time for meat and chese together, then a
cheese and estragon sauce with other spice and processed swiss chese the
recipe goes, mixed in a pan with a bit of flour and milk.

But I am thinking of some variation of this. First the image of th recipe
looked too bland with white pasta. So shall see what I can get for veggie
pasta, lasagna if that can be found. To add color. Then I am thinking of
tastier and less dry inside. You can not pick up the roll to eat it as it
is anyway, so...

I am thinking more on the line of a filling made with maybe chiken, maybe
soemthign else, but with a taco mix instead for taste added to the meat
and less cheese. Maybe adding grated chese, two pinches, per roll, and
keeping more for the sauce instead.
Processed cheese my schmurf!

For the sauce, I am thinking more on the lines of bechamel, the creamy
white making a nicer presentation with ''colored'' pasta, with some garlic
for taste and who knows what else.

Only, I am flat broke and want to keep it to minimum buy as that will need
be on the card, no choice. Still got to eat....

I THINK I might have a can of mushroom soup left, so maybe I will use that
for the sauce basis instead of doing the bechamel from scratch, adding the
ingredients to that, then putting that in the oven mainly to let the
tastes mix, since all is already cooked by then.

Ask me why, me thinks adding leaks to the rolls woudl make a nice
difference....Or horserasish if any....

Anyway. By Sunday I might not be up to cooking at all.

For now I have coleslaw mix bought in a bag at 99 cents that will need
eaten and make for a fast meal today.
And balance for the fattier meal Sunday.

If I had money, I woudl add artichokes hearts to the salad...Hmm...Yup.
That woudl be good:).

But maybe it will end up an omelette, eggs being cheaper to buy and making
for more meals for the same price....Mpft.

Shell sea....

alking about Chelseigh...He acted odd last night, lettign go of a bit of a
whistling noise every now and then. Checked under the cage blanket to see
hwo he was: he seemed okay save for the fact that eh did not sleep in the
nest with the female budgiie and woudlnot want in there either....
This mornign I heard him sbneeze a few times:( Probably he felt a cold
coming and did not want to infest the nest. Budgies are apparently maniacs
with not wantign contact with anything thatahs cold or flu, somehow. They
avoid ME when I have a cold, too, staying in heir house inside the cage,
hidden, and not coming out save when I am not there I guess sicne they
still managed to eat in those times.

Squeaks has eggs in there since a good while maybe for the sixth time.
Previously they never hatched ad she gave up nesting, after throwing each
egg out of the nest, which must mena she realized they were not good. This
time I think they both hope very hard the eggs are good,therfore the dad
with the sneezes being thrown out of the nest or deciding not to sleep in
the nest....
They act a bit differently....Is it cause they sense the eggs woudl be
good? Or cause they sense a flu or cold? Time will tell. I woudl be very
surprised if an egg ever made it with them....Simply, Squeaks will nest
over them but will seem to not rememebr hwo to count and will forget one
egg or the other by her, not covered, for hours, then later will get that
one with the others but another oen yet she will miss....Therefore
mythinking theyc an not hatch. Unless one per chance happened to be nested
over at all times....

If they still nest over the eggs by next weekend, I will start wondering
for sure....

Is it a bue moon this month??

Titan just left her own eggs, yesterday, and usually she will be like a
week gradually leaving the eggs, going back less and less often to nest
over them before giving up. A few days after that her heat time will start
again when she will be ever so cute and wanting pats and all that. But
thsi time, she elft the enst and already seems in heat!
Given hwo sick she was just two days ago still, this is peculiar. Telling
my mom abotu that, she said ''Hmm..., maybe this is a blue moon this motnh,
two fulkl moons maybe??''. That woudl make sense onlyI dunno where the
moons are at. Anyone know if this month has two full moons?
Or if it is near full moon right now? Or just passed?

This makes it so Titan now flies everywhere in the house and can get her
toes into paint on window ceilings. Compicates things....Means wI will
have to keep all doors closed in aall rooms, which means longer to dry....
And it means that I can not do both floors at once....

Anyway.

Sunday, the arco goes up, after tryign to figure out HOW to make it rest
on that fragile viynil new window frame that stuiiks out about 2.5 inches
where windows slide closed. Like rails at the basis of each window, which
menas the airco would rest on that: so heavy it is, it would break it
instantly. Very breakable lastic, that ''vinyl''. Will have to come up
with some 2 x 4 ooden block or something that woudl rest over that, to ut
the airco on, which means one heck of a puzzle for the plexiglass around
it....Lots of going back and forth to the hardware store then. And to
think, it was all done last eyar to fit the widows that were so narrow,
verical aircos beign so hard to find and so darn expensive....Wndows then
opened sideways in the dining room. Now they are he guillotine type, which
means any other airco woudl have fitted in. Sigh. Me and timing.....Timing
and me....

I still never found my pile of clean cl9thes from wehnt heyc ae to work in
the bedroom....Will have to do huntign again, but by now, I am scratchign
my ehad and if I don't dare believe they woudl ahve stolen the pile of
(new) clothes, I gotta wonder where one earth it is hiding....
Tw pais of brand new jeans, worn once, are missing, and soemthign like 10
new t-shirts. Unisex, therefore the men coudl always wear them. But darn,
makes no sense they woudl ahev done that, so me thinskthey still have to
be in here. Go figure....

Gotta fnd that for next week.

At work, one of the women must be in her bad time f the moth and is her
usual pest contriol witch. Rude, uneducatedly so too, by her natural
personality, when she gets worse it just is unacceptable in a workplace
period. Sorry for the bad pun:).

I caught her moaning tot he boss saying ÔWell well, she did some work,
today!!ÔÔ as if I never worked. But me thinks it had to fall into ears
that knew betetr. For ehaven's sake I sure woudl think so!! I have not
handed my reports yet sicne I am alone tocover the office for thos tasks,
with the colelague working from home. But so far Ic ans ee I did more
revisions and errata than he gal who does *only* that and nothign else
from home. I *klnow* that woudl they pay attention to thse number,s the
idiots woudl question MY numbers. But I have proof to back it all, keeping
copies of everythign I do. Takes time on prodction to do that, but with
them, goota cover my back, and speciallywith that jalous witch, Miss
Conttrol. She wnatsto control eveythign and then breaks down in moodiness
oif an unacceptable kind in a work place. Thing is, she won her position
without a regular competition, which got an entire enquiry going. The boss
has heavy connectiosn with the union I think it is, so the complaints were
brushed off, and the six who opposed her now are on her blacklist, so to
speak. But I had oeverheard her arrangign the compeition papers that were
never posted in the ofdffice nor on the competition openings site at all,
tellign the gal she wanted to have the job, a long tiem friend, the Miss
Control one, that she shoudl not write this and that because I* had the
qualificatiosn for that, with Miss Control reacting by saying ''Her???'',
and thus startign to ate my face even more for elarnign I did have the
qualificatiosn for that position. She then feared me more than the oens
who filed a grievance against her and the boss, and to this day does all
she can to discredit me.

Boss is changing her ways. She seems to make it a point to give me all
sorts of tasks that are not the regular type, liek research and lists in
double and so on, as if to make sure I am too busy to do my regular tasks.
I even wodner if I will ahve to ebat it by doing some at home to check
mate what I can....

Yet, with all that going on, work was less harrassing than usual and the
week felt like a baulm. After telling the coordinator of another team that
her emails to the world sayign that if I had ''done my job properly in the
first place'' they all would not be in that poop., I informed that
coordinator by emial that she seemed to be under the impression sicne a
while that this task was mine, but that in fact not only it was not, it
was logistically impossible for our office to take that in charge, given
tat it belonged to website technicalities which were not in our mandate. I
do the revision, not the construction. Adding that I did not know who
betweenm our office and hers was supposed to do that job, but that woudl
taht person eb among thsoe she cc'd her false impression to, that oen
woudl now sit on it and imagien the job now was mine. Not. Never was,
never woudl be. Therefore it might eb good idea for her to contct all
thsoe she emailed in cc sicne weeks and let them knwo that this never was
my job to start with.

Boss did not liek the tone fo my letter. But I had sent the boss emails
about this growing problem sicne weeks and mnonths now, raised it in
meetigns, was told by the boss she woudl take care of it, and even staretd
sending the boss cc's of all I was sent with beign told our office (and me
specifically woudl nto eb doing our job, and hwo it was cc,d t every
direction in the depatment.
Thing is, the coordinator is also a heavy conencted one, and the boss
seems to never want to be the carrier of bad news. I even felt thatif the
boss said she did not liek the tone of my email, her agreign that however,
it is an mportant thing to set the clocks right and to let them knwo it
was not our job, adding that I was right and it definitelyw as not one of
our tasks at all. And finishing ehr amil with, can you believe this ÔI
will wait to see what she replies and if needed necessarily sic) I will
take care of it''.
Hello? Eerythign shwoed it WAS needed ''necessarily''. (sic:):)),. But
that shwos how even nwo she woudl not want to be the carrier of bad news,
when that is her job to do that. I did nothign ebefore exactly cause of
that but when it came to cc'ing the entire directorates that (my name
woudl not be doing ''her'' job, I felt I had a human right to straighten
that record and set the clocks right.

he result was that thsi week was the qietest one in years. All those tasks
I was sent and all tose emails I ahd to reply to all the time sayign it
was not my job, that I woudl be happy to help ifI coudl but that it was
not my task, and that some parts of it were impossible for us to even do
since we had no ccess to the technical side of the website...all the tiem
the4 coordinatore kept ignoring those emails and sending me more and mor
and more to do, or to reply to the same way, ignoring all my sends sayign
it was not my job, until I sent it black and white.

For the tone of my email, well, it was very very polite, in fact, and I am
sure that any unbiased committee woudl in fact declare that given how my
work was said to be poor when it was not even my job to do (bt the
dcoordinator,s team, is my guess, in fact), they woud all agrethat in fact
they woudl find it extremely polite, and that I woud ahve had a right to
file a grievance or skip the polite tone.
I reread m email and foudn it exactly polite, kind, etc.

I never was sent an answer. It was ignored liek all others, and no emails
were sent to anyoen that I coudl see to correct the bad reputation I was
made for soemthign that si not even mien to do.
I can see the coordinator is very upset at me and now acts like oen
refusing to do HER job when I send info for the revisions. I am now
answered ÔThank you for so informing me''. It is not information only, it
is to be taken action on. But that is okay: so long as I have a cpy of the
emails that prove I noticed a mistae and signaled it, if they do not
correct it, I am cleared anyway!

Of cours,e given the connectiosn they have, theyc an do anythign they
pelase at all.
But that they can do anytime anyway, and tellign them that their job is
theirs and mine is mine did not create that fact.

Time will tell.

I have proof of past production and how the numebrsd were rigged for the
colelague to rpetend she did way more than she did too, so f they try that
way, well, tough luck.

BUT. On a daily and hourly basis, the stress level is shrunk by 100 times
so far due to the fact that I do not have to spend all my time answerign
emaisl about things that are nto even of my own duties.

On the other hand, at tiems the boss asking me for other tasks makes me
feel like maybe she knows the other irectorate coudl doall they can to
pull the plug on me, and to diversify my asks so that they coudl not cut
my position entirely, i.e. to show I have other needed dutis than just the
revisions.

As I said , time will tell.

Well, that was the report of the week:):)

Ad now it is weekend.

Time for another coffee to prioritize in my head, then set the logistics
tothis Saturday then get to work on the &?% windows. I so wish I coudlwork
on other things I already had planne,d but as it is I have to redo the
painting I already had done as it was that very oen that was dammaged by
the windows work:(.

But I decided that I woudl paint this friggen place and *I will*, nah!

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