i love my fridge!!

I love my new fridge! It has a stainless steel front and it looks classy. It also has the fridge part on top and so everything is higher and there are fewer incidents of "male refrigerator blindness." The bottom mount freezer allows for easy and convenient stowage. Overall this machine is just a great fridge. 


The old fridge FROZE anything that was near the sides or back, greatly reducing capacity. The ice maker was finicky and the water dispenser gummed up after a time.


But there's one thing the old fridge would allow me to do that the new fridge won't...

I could stand with the fridge door open and eat out of the fridge for hours with no noticeable consequence. The old fridge allowed for late night snacks and early morning chow downs without complaint.


If I leave the door open on the new fridge for more than ONE MINUTE, it will beep! If I don't close the door immediately, it will gve me a few seconds to comply and then the beeping increases in volume and intensity!!!


I am reminded that I shouldn't be eating out of the fridge and the SLEEK, CLASSY FRIDGE ignites all the guilt and remorse that goes with trying to sneak a treat undetected.


So "thanks for nothing, Fridge!"

i love my fridge; part 2

sometimes i wonder....

My sister doesn't blog but sometimes life is just so BLOGWORTHY...so even though this story is not mine, it deserves to be told.


Yesterday my sister's purse was stolen! She had her cell phone in her pocket but everything else that is important in life was in her purse; car keys, house keys, mailbox keys, credit cards, ID, club cards, health care info, etc., etc., etc.....


After a few quick, panicked calls to cancel credit cards, she proceeded to try and figure out how to proceed.


How could she get home if she didn't have the keys to drive her car? Then she remembered her AMA (Alberta Motor Association) membership and knew that they would come and let her into her car and make her a key! Brilliant! 

AMA: Hello. Thank you for calling AMA. How can I help you today?


Sis: Hello, I need someone to come help me get into my car and make a key. My purse has been stolen and my car keys are in my purse. 


AMA: Could I have your membership number please?


Sis: I have a membership but I don't know my number because my membership card is in my purse and my purse was stolen. If I give you some personal information, can you look up my number?


AMA: Of course....(there is an exchange of information and a few tricky, security questions and then a loong pause) ...Um, it would seem Sis, that you had an AMA membership but it expired a month ago.


Sis: Seriously??!! I thought it expired October 1.


AMA: Actually that would be August 1 according to my records...but the two months kinda sound the same so it's an honest mistake- hee hee. We could probably take care of you today if you would like to simply renew right now over the phone.  If you would give me your credit card number.....


Sis: I don't have a credit card number because I just cancelled all my credit cards two minutes ago because my purse was stolen! etc. etc. etc.......


You get the idea! 


And you guessed it; Sis figured out how to get home and is slowly piecing her life back together... 


....and the girl at the AMA is still wondering what she said to deserve that kind of crazy reaction!

making peace with my OCD (part 1)

Yesterday I drove to Chatters to buy a bottle of hair conditioner. Now, for most of you that may not seem like a significant event but for me it was HUGE!! and here's why; "my shampoo bottle wasn't empty yet."

I've never been able to make myself get just one bottle of either shampoo or conditioner. I like everything to match and I need everything to be even. Running out of shampoo before the conditioner bottle was empty or having no conditioner but a little bit of shampoo has always been traumatic for me. I've spent many hours of my adult life adding water to make the conditioner go further or transferring remaining shampoo to smaller, travel size bottles so I could go get a "matched set" of shampoo and conditioner.

But the other morning as I was slowly panicking in the shower when I realized it would be a couple of weeks before I was out of shampoo, I had a thought. "Lorri," I said to myself (in the best grown-up voice I could imagine) "This is absolutely ridiculous! There is no way you have enough time or energy to even out these two bottles (and get to work on time)...plus, every time you dilute the conditioner, it really doesn't work as well. It's time to get ahold of yourself. Throw away that EMPTY bottle and go buy a new supply."

So I sucked up all the courage I could manage that early in the morning, squeezed the absolute last drop of conditioner out of the bottle, and tossed it out of the shower, in the general direction of the trash can! 

It was a moment of liberation (about 30 years in the making) as I accepted that it was OK to just toss that empty bottle and carry on...

So yesterday I drove to Chatters and bought a SINGLE litre! (Deep breathing exercises all the way there and back.)

(one-one liter bottle of hair conditioner)

It was a little tough this morning. 

But I managed to complete my whole hair routine without hyperventilating OR scrounging up some smaller matching bottles in which to pour equal amounts of shampoo and conditioner to set in the shower. (Don't laugh...I have a cupboard full of empty "same size" bottles that I have used over the years to insure I had equal amounts of shampoo and conditioner within my grasp.)

And tomorrow's another day! I'm so excited!! This was such a big step; complete freedom is just a few more containers away. (Maybe I'll tackle the toothpaste tubes in the not too distant future.)

some days i feel like this....

Every once in a while, I come across something that makes me laugh outloud. I think I want to read this book just because it has an awesome title!!


If you have read the book and it's dirty or disgusting, don't let me know. I want to love it for its cover.....

adventures in online banking...part 1

A few years ago I got miffed with my local credit union when they changed the rules about charges for debit card transactions. (Who knew that UNLIMITED meant 40?) I closed my accounts and took ALL my money (all $141.78) down the street to the local Alberta Treasury Branch (ATB for short). It's worked out well for me. "Unlimited" meant "as many as you want" and the ATB has been especially consistent, if not a little archaic in the way they do business. Nothing ever changed and I always knew what to expect from my ATB.

A few years later I graduated from "telephone banking" to "online banking" and an entire universe opened up for me!!! And the online website NEVER CHANGED! It was always the same and I knew exactly what to expect.

That is, until last week. The bank actually CLOSED all online access for two days for "upgrades". 

I don't know about you but in my universe "upgrades" is code for "screwing around and messing everything up". 

Well, I finally tried to get on my online banking today and things weren't as bad as I expected. The only thing that seemed a little odd was that all the bills that I usually pay online were no longer listed by the name of what it actually is. For example Telus Mobility, BMO Mastercard, etc, etc. Suddenly all my bills were just numbers and I was supposed to make a nickname to identify each company. 

Just as I was thinking of the raunchiest, rudest names to call my bills I was reminded that whatever I chose would be readable on the teller's screen at the bank. I guess I won't use "freakin' filthy fone bill" after all.