developments

(and, no, this isn't another breast-centric post.)

1. after many years of holding my ground and refusing to budge on the issue, i bought myself a small space heater on tuesday morning. i named it peter. peter the heater. even though i know i'll be buying a home sometime before next winter (she said, crossing all appendages) and hopefully won't need a space heater in the new place, i was tired of wearing fifteen layers just to watch TV on my couch in january. so, on my fabulously snowy walk to the office, i stopped at canadian tire and located the heater i wanted (i'd spent monday night reading online reviews). tuesday evening, i plugged peter in and my apartment temperature rose from 16ºC to 20ºC in about two hours. not bad!

2. apparently, veterinarians in canada are wary of participating in interviews for articles that will be published in a retail magazine. i contacted seven different vets, and two different veterinary colleges, and only ONE sent a reply: "not at this time." the rest didn't respond at all, even after follow-ups. i was set to give up on the four pet-health stories i'd been assigned when, FINALLY, i received two responses late last night. one from a renowned cat behaviourist, one from the canadian veterinary medical association. pet stories: back ON.

3. coincidentally, my day-to-day work may go on hiatus soon. my boss and i were talking today, and he said the departmental budget is stretched as far as it can go at present (and for the first quarter of 2013), so "it might be a good idea" if i took a couple of weeks off. he's assured me he can always justify having me come in, but this worries me a little -- with all the growth our department is experiencing, and all the full-time positions set to be filled (mostly design, web and sales jobs), i expect that budget may snap altogether. hopefully, i've proven myself important enough to keep around if it comes down to, "okay, who's dispensible?"

4. weather-permitting, YB and i will finally have a shopping day this saturday. we both missed all the post-christmas and post-new year's sales -- i was sick for the two weeks after christmas, and she was sick for the next two weeks after that. so, this is a belated "let's see what we can get for almost nothing!" outing. our plan is to go west or north. she's hoping to buy seeds for the 2013 gardening season; i'd like to buy snacks for sunday's SAG awards. we'll head out early and, hopefully, come home with a trunk full of booty.