the fridge hates me, and the toaster's laughing at me.

When folks say "Christmas is a magical time", I don't think they had "Refrigerator comes to life and drops door in protest" in mind.

For the past 2 years, my appliances and I have been getting along.  I think they're happy that I'm back to drinking coffee.  Espresso actually.  So Juan Valdez and my house really have nothing on me anymore.  Do you hear me, Juan?!  Don't come 'round here, or I'll kick your ass. You and your little donkey too.  

The bathroom's all prettied up.  The dishwasher, washing machine, and garage door opener are happily working away.  The garburator and oven still need fixing (a fuse is busted), but they more-or-less do their jobs in non-cranky fashion.

As for the fridge, I try to keep her loaded with delicious healthy things like cruciferous veggies and cottage cheese.  Maybe she's pissed that Roomie keeps jamming Coke and other such evil products in her busty innards.
Perhaps HE is the reason why she decided to do this...

So, if she's going to be all weird, bitchy, and door-droppy, could she have at least done it on Roomie's watch instead of mine?

All I was doing was putting groceries away.  And NOT sneaking snacks, as my awesome-yet-evil buddy Camille suggested I was REALLY doing to all and sundry on Facebook.

I figured out that the door dropped due to the pin in the hinge falling out.  I didn't need to reverse engineer the thing.  I didn't have to find the schematics.  I just used the miracle of sight.  And my brain.  And what little logic I'm capable of these days.

No problem.  Easy fix... IF I HAD FOUR ARMS!!!

My awesome and generous friend Sue was going to come over to help me put it together, but I didn't want to yell at her, and when any kind of appliance fixing happens in my house, there is a high probability that yelling will occur.  And I'd much prefer to yell at Roomie.  (Just kidding.  I don't yell at Roomie.  I just look at him disapprovingly.)

So, since I was going to wait 4+ hours for my dude to come home, my clever friend Antiquark2 (name has been changed to protect the guilty) suggested I channel good ole Red Green and secure a blanket on my fridge with duct tape in the meantime to keep the cool in and the cat out.
Et voila...

Okay, overly-long story short,  my he-man came home and fixed the fridge with me.
Like a scene from a bad porno...

"Hello, ma'am, I'm here to fix your fridge."

"It's over here, beside my... bed."  Bow-chicka-wah-wah...

No, not really.

Huzzah!  Fixed fridge!

bathroom: before & after.

I tend to anthropomorphize almost everything around me.  The snobby indignant cat.    My keys that take such pleasure in hiding from me.  The proud self-sacrificing sushi I ate last week.  (I know, crazy.  But if you've read me for a while, you can't be surprised.)

And after The Water Leak Disaster of 2009 I told you about, my bathroom was sad.  He (yeah, apparently, he's a boy) was feeling old, neglected, and... incontinent.  Sad.

See?  Look here.  He's all torn apart from in the water leak aftermath...

BEFORE

Fast forward 2 years.  I know I lasted 2 years with that disaster.  It wasn't pretty.

Now, thanks to the awesome Jared and his team at Winnipeg Building, who came through for us when other lame-o contractors wimped out and bailed, our bathroom isn't sad anymore.

It's simple and stylish.  And it looks BIGGER too.

THE AFTERS...(with commentary!)

Like in the rest of the house, we decided to stick to white walls with an accent colour.  In this room, the accent is obviously "espresso".  As you can see, we don't do matching towels.  Min likes pink.  Lam likes blue.  I like white.  Roomie just likes "soft and absorbent".  I also insisted on hooks, which make it much easier for kids to keep their towels in "not on floor" mode...

The shower head is on an adjustable bar so that it can be slid down for shorter people, and up for taller folk.  The curtain is on a curved rod for more elbow room.  We thought the covered bathtub/shower was going to be a space hog, but it's one of the elements that makes the room look huge...

We traded up from a pedestal sink to a spacesaver one with storage.  This bathroom was hurting for more storage.  It's where we store toilet paper and cleaning supplies...

Speaking of storage, we had the linen closet (the dark monolith on the left) built in so that we can have all the towels and bath crap IN the bathroom instead of the linen closet OUTside in the hall.  Mittens thinks it's all groovy...

Check out this awesome floor!  It's not heated, like I'd hoped, but despite being vinyl, it's incredibly warm to the touch.  And the textured bamboo pattern looks natural and beautiful.  I'm glad the flooring lady convinced us to take this...

Yes, we didn't get our heated floor, but instead, we got a heat lamp.  It's built into our exhaust fan, but on a different switch.  Isn't it great?!...

I hope y'all enjoyed my happy bathroom tour.  It's been a long time coming, but totally worth the wait.

big steaming mess. and mixing metaphors. i think.

Remember when I said it usually looks bad before it look good.  Or something like that.  I'm paraphrasing.  Anyway.  You can usually replace "it" with "my hair", "my garden in spring", "the flan I made last night", etc.

Today, it's my house.  There are mounds of clutter everywhere on their way out of my house.  Unfortunately, I can't really tackle them with Lam and me sick... again.  Sigh.

It's times like these that I sit on the couch, box of tissues in one hand and remote control in the other, and stare at the crap and wonder when my house will ever look the minimalish paradise I plan it to be.

So, I have to remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, and you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

It then follows that my journey to my Roman construction site with a mouth full of elephant will start with my diningroom...

See?  It's a freakin' CAVE!  How cavey?  We have to always turn on the light in the daytime to have lunch.  Not good.
The clutter is leaving, and in a move that I know would make Francine of Miss Minimalist cheer, I'm painting the walls white.  Okay, three of them white.  One will stay red.

Super, mondo excited.

Deadline:  May 31.  Sigh.  Wish me luck.

the iterative declutter: family room.

The road to minimalish-ism is paved with lots of looking-like-I-should-be-on-Hoarders.  But after 3 passes, we've finally got the family room cleared up a little!

The kitchen counter needs to get done, but hey, the overall clean up isn't that bad, eh?!  We're definitely more than halfway there.  Maybe another 2 or 3 passes, and we'll be done this area.

The clutter was mostly kids' toys, so together the kids and I separated them into KEEP and GIVEAWAY piles.  Roomie went through the GIVEAWAY pile to make sure we weren't giving away things we weren't supposed to, like his old childhood toys.  And now they're ready for this summer's Big Garage Sale.

Yup, we worked so hard.  How hard?  Check out the Before and After...

BEFORE

AFTER

it's curtains for you, uh, house.

Oh, my lovely internets, I've been disgustingly productive.  For the past 4 days, I've been in the Curtain-Sewing Zone.  <cue the Twilight Zone theme>

Now, keep in mind that I'm a knitter/crochet-er.  I make gorgeous crap with yarn, yet when sewing, I'm a spaz.  Oh, let's face it, I'm an all-around craft spaz.  Need I remind you of my non-zen origami fiasco of 2010?
Yeah, that wasn't pretty, and neither was my house this week.  It looked as if the sewing section of Walmart threw up in my diningroom.  Black and white thread everywhere.  Scraps of fabric and bobbins crammed in inappropriate places.  And I still can't find my seam ripper.

But really, if we wanted to save over $1600 (would you like my firstborn too, Sear's drapery department people?!), I had to buy inexpensive ready-made curtain panels, rip 'em apart, bring all the ripped bits together, and magically make them look better and not mangled by Ms. Craft-Spaz.  Oh, the things I do to save a buck.

Project #1 was a curtain for Mini's new loft bed.  She chose both fabrics herself.  And she loves the finished product -- and the fun new place where she can hide her crap.

Project #2 was much more involved and long overdue.  After suffering the same old mind-numbing beige sheers on our livingroom window for 8 years, I decided to sew a brand new, more privacy-preserving set.  I figured our neighbours were probably sick of watching us on "Naked Cartwheels and Interpretive Dance" Thursdays.
Just kidding.  They're on Wednesdays.

The catch with these curtains is that they're on a special track, need curtain hooks to hang off said track, and need pleats sewn into them for the curtain hooks.  PLEATS.  Dang!

But I did it.  I sewed the frickin' pleats, and by the night of day 3, my livingroom window looked like this...

Stop laughing.  <sigh>  Yes, it looked like crap from the outside (okay, from the inside too), but if my neighbours can survive my dumping mulch all over my lawn in 2006, they could survive this.

But already, it was looking less sheer-curtain poo-ish.  Roomie even said it looked "fresh". 

After the dust settled and the "it's so old, it doesn't have a reverse lever" sewing machine was put away, my curtains were finally fit for display.  Gorgeous, non?!

So proud!
Unfortunately, beside the beauty of the new drapes, my loveseat looks like crap...

livingroom: before & after. ish.

I'm sick. Again. Meh, I've been healthy for the last 3 months, and well, I'm overdue for another one of these phlegmtastic events.

I don't like being sick, because (a) it feels super crappy, and (b) I get nothing done.

Now, Roomie tells me that I'm not just sitting around doing nothing -- I'm healing, resting so that my body can get better faster. Ain't he the sweetest thing?! Yeah, he is.

But I still can't help but feel like a little lazy girl.

Then I look at pictures of what I've done, and I'm reminded that I'm not really a bon-bon-eating, watching-my-soaps-all-afternoon kind of mama.

Pictures like the changes to my livingroom! I still have to change the area rug and curtain, put up the new bamboo blinds, and get a new coffee table/ottoman, but it's at 90% which is close enough to show off. It's nothing like the family room metamorphosis, but the energy is so much better than it was before.

Check out the before and after...

before.

after.

You like?

family room: before & after.

This post could also also be called My Family Room Grows Up. Really!

Many moons ago, I complained that my family room looked like a dorm room. That's totally not hyperbole, people. I had a futon, mismatched picture frames, a crap load of clutter on the kitchen (in the foreground), and the Vim-green walls that look like they've been there since the 70s.

But now, with the new paintjob, the new couch, the made-over lamp, beautiful framed pictures painted by Mini and Lam, and a little decluttering, it's totally brilliant, my lovelies! Have a look at these Before and After shots...

Before.

After.

So, what do you think?!

"okay, I've had it" #1: frontyard garden.

Note: I'm still in recovery-mode from Thursday's extravaganza, so no, I didn't do any of this gardening over the weekend. Please don't worry. I am, in fact, resting. Thanks! :)

If you've been reading me for a while, you'll know I've been all hot-n-heavy about my frontyard garden. The moment I was able to, I worked my pretty little bum off to turn the green wasteland that was this...


... into this...


Pretty, eh?! And for a while I was so proud of its organic eco-friendliness, lush beauty, and ability to cut in half the amount of time my husband looks like this...


Oh, yeah, so sexy.

But it hasn't been all sunshine and roses. (No, I didn't actually grow roses.)

OMG, the weeding, the mosquitoes, the dying plants, the invasive ones, the anthills!

When I came back from our week-long camping trip, there was an elm forest in my front yard garden! (Thanks for not chopping down your old sick elm tree, Ned Flanders!) The leaves of one of the hostas had been eaten up by some kind of crazy hosta-eating bug, and the Scotch moss had morphed into an anthill!

THESE GARDENS ARE NOT LOW-MAINTENANCE, PEOPLE!!!

So, after 4 years of this, I decided to simplify and create a more minimalist garden...

1: Pare down the number of plant varieties. But all still perennials, of course. I've got it down to raspberries, peonies, irises, ferns, lilies, chives, purple coneflower, bergenia, sedum, hosta, primula, and chinese lanterns.
And I'll be paring down more in the future. Maybe give away the sedum and primula next. Baby steps.

2: Bring in the eco-grass. This isn't your same old Kentucky Bluegrass. I want to stay environmentally-friendly with grasses native to Canada. That means fescue, baby. And as you know, my lovely readers, I'm all about the au naturel lawn, so watering, fertilizing and mowing aren't things I want to devote my time to (see picture of my lawnmower man above). I just want a place to have picnics with my little girl in the sunshine.
I bought this...
... and after moving my plants to the perimeter, I threw the seeds in the soil in the middle of this...


The grass is growing as I type. Really! It's actually pretty cute out there. :)

Looking forward to only doing some work in my garden in the future.

demise of the heinous lamp.

Despite what the title says, this isn't a story of me destroying a perfectly good working hand-me-down lamp. I'm all about the reuse, Internets.

Instead, please think of this like Darth Vader killing Anakin Skywalker. The lamp, seduced by the better-looking side of the Force, ceased to be Heinous Lamp... and *became* Pretty Lamp.

I've always loved the shape of this lamp, but the orange faux-marbling made it look like someone threw poo at it.


Time for the spray paint.

Min's a pretty crafty girl, so she threw on her paint smock and decided to help out. Lam was official photog.


This project took less than an hour to do from beginning to sitting-on-the-end-table-lookin'-purty. And considering it was my first ever foray into the world of spray paint, I think our reborn lamp looks quite lovely and significantly less poo-ish.

kitchen/family room: before & after.

My husband is not only cute, he is also very smart. Smart enough -- 5 years ago -- to know that you do not argue with your 6-months-pregnant wife, no matter how incredibly, obviously WRONG she is.
Like when she decides that the most perfectly gorgeous colour for the cedar-ceilinged, open-concept kitchen/familyroom addition is... green.

Oh, he's clever, so he knew we'd end up with...

Kitchen - Before

Family Room - Before

...and still he said nothing. I think he was afraid I'd finally go through with my threat of sitting on him. I was a very heavy pregnant lady.

Luckily, after Mini was born, the pregnancy hormones washed away, the fog lifted, and I realized my terrible sin against the gods of good home aesthetics.

Look at it! It was like living in a cave! A cave where the Vim Monster came and threw up.  And made a mess of my house. Threw toys around. Put various papers on our counter, and littered our fridge door.  Uh, yeah, the Vim Monster did all of that. Bad, bad messy Vim Monster...

Ahem.

Anyway, so what now? Well, I knew that...

(a) the green walls are competing with all the wood, so the wall had to be neutral to allow the real showpiece of the room to shine: the cedar ceiling.
(b) the ceiling made the room dark, so the walls had to be light.
(c) we would NEVER paint the cedar ceilings.
(d) Roomie hates beige.
(e) I've always wanted all-white walls.

So, after 6 bloody years of staring at depressing Vim-puke walls, I hopped on our new ladder and started slapping on the same white paint I used in the livingroom, and ended up with...

Kitchen - After (Night)

Family Room - After (Day)

Gorgeous, eh?!!!

Oh, but check how this room shines at night!

Family Room - After (Night)

I still need to get new window dressing for the kitchen and iron the curtain in the family room, but still, OMG, what a difference!!! Very happy. The work was worth it.

Yes, you may now applaud. xo

lusting: frilly shower skirts.

Isn't this the cutest?! It's a shower curtain from Anthropologie. It's like a giant skirt!!! I'd love to have something like this for my new bathroom. ($138)

It also comes in my favourite colour (burgundy). See?


(via design is mine.)

I give. you give too.

If you've been reading me for a while, you'll know that I've been working my ass off to declutter and simplify my home environment for years. No, that's not hyperbole. I've mentioned it every New Year's Day for the past 3 years.

Throughout our wild goose chase ongoing journey toward minimalism, we've tried to be environmentally and socially conscious, not so wasteful, more giving. Since 2007...

• the Goodwill truck's been to our house 4 times to pick up no less than 20 boxes and bags of donations in total.

• Roomie and Lam have delivered 5 large boxes of toys the kids decided to donate to the Children's Hospital.

• we've donated various clothes and kid furniture, including our beloved playpen, to a woman's shelter.

• I've bagged up and boxed up outgrown kids' clothes to pass on to village friends with younger kids than my own.

Decluttering has become an excellent way for us to teach our children kindness, consideration, and giving to others.

Like all long-term projects, there are periods of productivity and periods of "I'd rather stuff stinky cheese up my nose than declutter". Believe it or not, I took this picture after a rather productive afternoon...

Yes, it's been MUCH worse than that. "Forest of Boxes" worse.

Oh, but it does get better...


Looks good, eh? Yeah, but that's not the end of it. Because that's just one end of the room. The other end of my livingroom looks like this hot mess...


And it's at this point that I stalled. I was ready to head out and buy some blue cheese for nose stuffing. Very bad news, indeed, as it's been over a year since I've done any clearing in this room. (Yes, there are hot messes in other rooms of my house.)

Now, I'm ready to finish this room once and for all, thanks to AndreAnna. She's given us until April 1st to purge and donate as much of our crap as we can for her 1st Annual Blogger's Spring Giving. This may just be the kick in the pants I need to finally get this room DONE.*

On April 1st, I will post a picture of my livingroom sans clutter. And I'll also share with you the places I've donated to.

I throw down the gauntlet and challenge you to do the same. I know, short notice, but any amount of clearing and donating can benefit at least one person. Your trash could be someone else's treasure!

Are you with me? Just head over to AndreAnna's place, get the details, and join us!

* - Or at least, to the point where I just need to change the area rug and curtains.

so long, fort awesome.

Every winter, Roomie and the kids make a quinzhee, a snow shelter or cave, in our back yard. It's a fun and simple activity all the "outdoors folk" in my house (ie. not me) really enjoy doing. Plus, it's a chance for Roomie to impart an important survival skill to his kids -- in case they find themselves stranded in the middle of our Canadian wilderness in the dead of winter with nothing but a shovel and their incredible cuteness.

See? Incredible cuteness.


"Fort Awesome" is in honour of the mansion of our favourite eccentric billionaire, Jimmy James on NewsRadio.

This year, with the crapload of snow shoveled from our walkway and raked from our roof, Roomie was able to throw the biggest snow hill yet. After giving the snow hill some time to settle and harden, he excavated a huge multi-roomed quinzhee so the kids can have a little cave to hang out and play in.
Shovel-shovel-shovel, throw-throw-throw, dig-dig-dig, then BAM! -- a place for survival and tea parties!

Sadly, we have to bid an early "Bye-bye now" to Fort Awesome. With temperatures rising to 10C (50F), we'll have Puddle Awesome before we know it*.

Out go the blanket that kept bums warm, the plastic ninja sword to keep the crazies out, the tea set that refreshed little visiting friends, and the cool light that made Fort Awesome look so very awesome.
For Daddy.
When he'd hide there.
At night.
Like a mole.


So, adieu, Fort Awesome. See you next year! We'll all miss you.

* - Last year, this time, it was -19C (-2F).

the end is NOWHERE NEAR near.

Before you say anything, no, our bathroom isn't done yet. Actually, they haven't even started, and I still have a hot steaming mess of yucky-old-bathroom. But I gotta say, for now, I'm okay with that.

Why, Nenette? Why are you content living with the Disgustington model of bathroom decor?

Actually, it's hard to explain. It has everything to do with the energy in this house. It's all up-in-the-air, in-feng-shui-limbo, the-exact-opposite-of-grounded, and all the other non-one-word synonyms for "unsettled and chaotic".

Frankly, at this point, if I have strangers coming into my house to interfere with my space (yes -- interfere with my space) and stir up the already-frantic energy, the question "What does Nenette look like when she goes totally bitchcakes?" will be unequivocally answered.

And I'm convinced the crazy energy in the house is thanks to the number of unfinished projects* slapping me in the face...

• Sort toys for the Children's Hospital and Goodwill.
• Finish sorting other crap for sale, disposal or Goodwill.
• Finish viewing the last of the VHS tapes (I'm now at the crap-quality Red Dwarf episodes taped from Public TV).
• Sew the "Olympic fire mitts" for Lam's school play.
• Sew the box pleat curtains for the livingroom (because the Sears interior designer quoted $1634+tax for custom-made, just about sending Roomie into shock.)
• Put up the blinds in the kitchen and livingroom.
• Put up diningroom photo frames.
• AND ON, AND ON...

And no hyperbole anywhere to be found.

And many of these are not projects you can just stash away until you're ready. No, I have light fixtures, bathroom fixtures, toilets (okay, just one -- but it's in the livingroom), window blinds, cans of paint, bags and boxes of toys, and cans of paint in every corner of the house.
And I see this crap every single minute of every single day, because I'm a STAY-AT-HOME-MOM, and my unfinished house is my frickin' office!!!

It's no wonder really that my stress level is sky high right now. I'd go on about that, but that's a topic for another soon-to-be blog post.

Anyway, don't get me wrong. I'd like to get my bathroom done soon, but I'm not rushing anyone.

Meanwhile, one glorious item has been settled: Our new couch was delivered! On time and assembled... by 2 very cute and competent delivery guys. And the best thing? The kids love it! Slowly, my house is becoming more and more like the warm cozy home I've always hoped for.

Check it out -- oh, btw, the green wall will be painted white this summer, so this isn't the final iteration of the room...



What do you think?!

* - And these don't include the projects on Roomie's list, which he can only tackle on the weekends or holidays.

juan valdez & my house conspire to keep me caffeinated.

I stopped drinking coffee the day after my 40th birthday.
Woohoo! Look at me -- caffeine-free! Finally. After 3 years. Here I am. Back. On. The. Wagon.

Ditching the luscious black gold is the first step in my half-assed, full-on-cockamamie plan to recapture my hot and sexy 2006 self. When I was a healthy 118lbs. When I was energetic, happy and never sick (like I am right at this moment, crap). When I felt satisfied after only a 3/4 full bowl of food, NOT 2 full bowls. When I felt like I had more control over the crap in my life -- DAMN YOU, KIPPLE!!!
And when my reaction to stress was a hula workout or a cup of soothing hot green tea, NOT a big slice of cake with a large double-cream coffee chaser.

Like on November 3, when Mini and I found ourselves with a basement full of smoke, and my nerves all a-buzz from the fear that my billion-year-old furnace would go tits-up and blow-up, taking us, our belongings, and mementos with it. (Yes, I live in Die Hard world.)
The event was traumatic enough for me to almost not notice the super-cute firefighters... almost. I KNOW!!!

Thankfully, it was just an ancient car-battery charger (not the furnace) that shorted, singed my basement floor, and created a helluva lot of smoke -- but no flames. That was all.
Still, it was definitely a three Vietnamese Coffees (Starbucks VIA Italian Roast with condensed milk) type of day.

But that was pre-birthday.

Since I actually quit, I had been doing really well. No cravings. Only two days of real soul-crushing headaches. No desperate need to sell my kids organs husband's crap house for coffee money. No sneaking off for secret rendezvous with my secret lover Tim Horton. I felt good -- I was 4-days caffeine-free -- I was totally rockin' it. Yay me!!!

Then, like clockwork, the shit decided to hit the ever-lovin' fan.

I was hanging at my dear Glonor's bridal shower, eating insanely tasty Filipino food, schmoozing with my mother's old church friends, blissfully unaware that, back home, my husband's minor chore of unclogging the slow-draining bathtub had escalated to a torrent of water through the bathroom floor down into the powder room one floor below!

See the cracks in the ceiling?! (Click to enlarge, if you want.) Yeah, water. Through that.

Mayhem had apparently ensued. On the main floor , Mini -- who was the first to spot the downpour -- was screaming up the stairs "Daddy! Daddy! It's leaking! Leaking!" Lam was chasing after his little sister, because he thought she said that she was leaking, and tried to keep her away from the carpets.

And Roomie was frantically trying to call my cell phone, which I never heard because Glo had 100+ people at her shower. Glo also has loud friends.

In a desperate bid to find out where the leak was starting from, and unable to get any input from me, Roomie literally took matters into his own hands by grabbing our trusty hammer and smashing holes into the wall on the other side of the tub.

Good news: Roomie found the source of the leak.
Bad news: Our stairwell looks like that picture right there.
OMG: A Moisture/Mould Inspector said we had to hire someone to completely gut the whole bathroom and ceiling of the powder room below to take care of any mould problem.

Pre-birthday Nenette would've said, "Screw this! I'm going to Starbucks!", also hit Tim Horton's, and spent the rest of the night downing choccolaccinos at Baked Expectations.

Instead, post-birthday Nenette made herself a cup of green tea, hugged her family, and daydreamed about the super-awesome bathroom she's going to have after all the dust settled.

So, nice try, Senor Valdez. You can keep your 100% Columbian coffee. My green tea and I -- oh, and my soon-to-be heated bathroom floors -- are stronger than whatever unholy bargain you made with my house.

I'm breaking up with you, SIGG -- it's not me, it's you.

Yes, folks, the love affair is over. I've decided to break up with my SIGG.

On August 24 just as I got back from camping, I received the news -- via an email from my favourite organic food store EatIt.ca -- that SIGG bottles made before August 2008 contained "traces of" Bisphenol-A (BPA) in their liners. Testing revealed that BPA didn't leach out of the liner, but if I wasn't comfortable with that, I could email SIGG for instructions on how to send in my old bottles in exchange for one of their new EcoCare-lined ones.

See the image above from treehugger.com? Yeah, if you have the one on the right, you can send it in for the one on the left.

Now, instead of getting the word out right away, I sat on this information for a while because, well, I was busy, but mainly because something didn't quite feel right.

1: Why are they just telling us now?
- They certainly knew back in August 2008, when they decided to go non-BPA. In fact, according to Michael Hill (AP), they've known since June 2006. Instead of getting the word out then, SIGG officials allowed countless healthy-conscious men and women, parents who care about their children's health and hydration, buy their products for another 3+ years thinking they and their loved ones were safe and BPA-free.

2: But tests show the liners don't leach BPA...
- It doesn't matter that the liners don't leach BPA -- we weren't told they had any in the first place. In my email from EatIt.ca, owner Sabrina Longobardi said "Based on the information available up until now, there was never any evidence to show that SIGG bottles liners were created with BPA." It was clear that she was disappointed.
Many products out there have never hidden the fact that they contain BPA, and this allows us to make informed decisions. SIGG never gave us that choice. I feel duped.

3: Why do WE have to pay to ship our BPA SIGG bottles?
- When our Canon digital camera broke (even after warranty), Canon shipped, fixed, and returned our camera. Canon didn't charge us a penny. When Lam's Nintendo DS broke (the hinge cracked, affecting the top screen display), they shipped, fixed, and returned it, and Nintendo paid for everything.
But with SIGG, we have to pay for our own shipping? After shelling out $25+ for a product that was NOT what we thought it was in the first place?

4: Why does it feel like they're purposely making it hard for us to return them?
- Okay, so they want us to email them for instructions, and they want us to pay for shipping. Oh, but hurry, we have to do it all by October 31, 2009. I don't think I've encountered this kind of difficulty during toy recalls. (BTW, SIGG apparently isn't calling this a recall.)
Now, I hear that the folks in the US can just bring their bottles to their nearest Whole Foods, but this information is not on their website. Simran Sethi, who feels more than a little duped because she's been on Opera singing the praises of SIGG, found this out when she recently interviewed SIGG CEO Steve Wasik. Did I have to know the CEO to find out?

Sorry, SIGG, how can I trust you? You aren't the bottle you said you were. Good heavens, it was like finding out that the hottie I met on LavaLife faked it all and is really a ringer for George Costanza. Which never happened, yo.



Anyway, if you still want to go SIGG, just email them to start your exchange process.

As for me, I think I'm done.

my plants kicked me in the bum while my daughter danced...

Behold! My front yard garden. Ain't it splendiferous in all its awesomosity?! (Thanks, Country Girl! ;D)

Go on. Click on the picture for a better look. Really, it's worth it, if I do say so myself.

Thanks to the *ALL DAY EXTRAVAGANZA* of dividing and transplanting of plants, and redesigning of the flowerbeds, I...

• didn't have to spend more than $19.50 on new plants (bought at my kids' school fundraising).
• only had to buy $4.00 of top soil.
• have a fuller, better-looking garden rather than just a lawn.
• now have sore arms, sore legs, and an aching back.

Yeah, that last one was a testament to how OUT OF SHAPE I am. Remember the 2lbs/week I lost? Yeah, well, I got sick and gained most of it back. I'm one of those crazy people whose appetite goes up when I'm sick. Unreal, eh?!
I lay around, blow my nose, cough, and moan... and eat. And I crave mostly bready things. Yup, sick and carby. That's me.

Anyway, I've been wanting to dig my fingers in the soil and get dirt under my nails for months, since this...



In my excitement, I pushed myself with some wild and crazy digging, dividing, and hauling of big bags of dirt. I would've also used some of our compost, but Roomie snags all of it for his veggie garden out back. Maybe if I make with a striptease, a forbidden dance, or maybe a sandwich, he'd spare me some. So, yeah, sore and achy.

Anyway, here are a few close-ups. I divvied up the bergenia, primula, and my son's purple plant that I don't remember the name of. You'll notice some allium, snow-in-summer, tulips, lamb's ears, creeping thyme, sedum, and maybe the creeping jenny. Sadly, the coleus already looks crappy and wilted. We'll see if it bounces back along with Mini's liatris -- fingers crossed.



And speaking of darling Mini, here she is dancing around Mommy. She spent most of that afternoon outside, visiting the neighbourhood kids, riding her bike, and making rock soup. Mmm... rock soup...

Okay, tell me, is Mini's pose in this shot reminicent of the Sasquatch pose? Roomie was the one who made the connection... sigh... I really don't want to say he's right, but...