Annoying things:
- MDay ads & marketing, reaching a fever pitch this week. Bah, humbug...
- The master bathroom sink, which has always been sluggish, but always responded to a dose of baking soda & vinegar followed by hot water, clogged up a week ago Thursday (April 25th) and refused to clear.
- Related annoying thing #1: Called the plumber who handles the overall plumbing systems for our building on Thursday morning. He told me he'd try to come that day and, if not, would call me on Friday to arrange another time. He didn't show up all weekend :p -- but when I messaged him on Sunday, he did apologize and came early Monday morning.
- Related annoying thing #2: Paying him $250 (plus tax!) for half an hour's work (!!).
- Related small pleasure: Having a functioning second bathroom sink to use in the meantime...!! (A second bathroom was not high on our list of "must-haves" when condo shopping, but this is not the first time we've been VERY glad we have it!)
- There were a LOT of long faces around here last Saturday night/Monday morning: The Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the first round of Stanley Cup playoffs, in overtime, on Saturday night. I don't know how many times they've wound up playing Boston in the first round of playoffs -- when they've made the playoffs! -- and lost, but it's been a LONG time since they've bested Boston and gone on to the next round.
- My beloved Winnipeg Jets were knocked out of the first round by Colorado. :(
- There are still two Canadian teams left in the playoffs (Vancouver & Edmonton -- who are playing each other!). A Canadian team has not won the Stanley Cup since 1993 (31 years ago). :(
- The last time the Leafs won the Cup was in 1967 -- 57 years ago!! (My husband was 10 years old at the time and remembers it well!)
- Someone in the neighbourhood blasting music at top volume on Sunday afternoon... it was mild enough that we had the balcony door open, but we had to close it (and we could still hear it faintly through the closed door/windows). Hopefully this is not a preview of things to come this summer...!
- How many guys (including my own dh.) are simply not getting the "man vs bear" debate going on right now (and why so many women are saying they'd choose the bear). One friend pointed out on FB that she probably wouldn't be in the woods by herself anyway (true for me too -- lots of things could happens beyond the whole man vs bear thing, right?). Another (a former blogger), lives in an area where close encounters with bears are not uncommon sight -- but, she added, "They never followed me off busses. Nor demanded I smile, nor catcalled me or slipped roofies in my drink." Exactly.
- The price of books these days -- including e-books! (All prices quoted Canadian prices/dollars.) Hardcovers are now about $40, paperbacks $25. Current or recent e-books seem to start around $15 (minimum) lately, and are often priced at $18-20 or more. I keep a (very long!) wish list, consult it frequently, and snap up copies when they're on sale for for $5 or less. (Annoying thing: It seems like the bargains have been further and fewer between lately.)
- Example: I'm dying to read "Prophet Song," but it's not in paperback yet -- the hardcover is $40 and the ebook is not that much cheaper at $32 (!). (For an EBOOK!!) Seems kind of ridiculous.
- Example: "The Postcard" by Anne Berest has been on my wishlist since it was published. Hardcover, $40. The ebook is $31. (!) The paperback just came out -- $29. (I caved and bought a copy -- I get a 10% discount with my Plum points card. But I still think it's ridiculous.
- Example: Barbra Streisand's memoir -- which, admittedly, has a pretty hefty page count -- is $63 (!!) for the hardcover!! The e-version is $22 (which does seem more reasonable by comparison, albeit still slightly ridiculous for an ebook, I think...!). (No paperback yet.)
- (Yes, I know the library exists...! ;) )
Small pleasures:
- Our new vertical blinds! :) (Why didn't we do this years sooner??)(The pandemic, for one thing...)
- Milder weather, finally!! (although not always sunny skies...).
- Italian pastries with my tea for the last few days -- takeaway goodies from dh's uncle's 90th birthday party this past weekend.
- Getting dressed up and putting on makeup (for the party -- I wouldn't want to do it every day anymore, but once in a while, it's kind of fun...!).
- Putting on a pair of pants I hadn't worn in a while, and having them still fit! ;)
- Having a good hair day, too!
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
I confess, I kept hearing about "the bear" but didn't know what it meant, so had to look up the whole debate. Bears are awfully scary in a country where almost nothing living is scary to - nothing except rabid dogs and men! But I totally get the answers. So many men mansplaining to women why they are not scary. Argh.
ReplyDeleteI know you probably don't want to hear, but paperbacks at C$25 don't seem so bad to me. You're getting them several dollars cheaper than we would here. I don't wholly understand how ebooks are often so expensive, but I guess the same amount of effort and editing goes into them, (probably more to get the right software etc) and the platforms where they're sold take a solid cut (perhaps the equivalent of printing costs for a hard copy?). In the early days of ebooks, the super cheap ones I used to buy drove me crazy with poor proof-reading and editing, and the software just didn't work properly. It's still not great, given the huge leaps in technological advances elsewhere. Frustrating to get a less-than positive experience for not much less than a paper book.
Yay for pants that fit AND Italian pastries! That's a good combo!