…read books. Of the classics/greatest-books-of-all-time persuasion. I just don’t read enough good stuff anymore, in part because of Budsie but also because I’ve gotten so used to reading school books all day and night that I’ve lost my habit of reading fun books before bed. This morning I was tidying up my bedside table (read: chair – we really must get bedside tables) and I noticed that all of the books under it concern eco-citizenship and feminist theory. Riveting stuff. So today I cleared all of this away and left room for the trusty Vogue magazine and one classic novel. My goal is to read one classic novel per week for a grand total of 52 books by the end of this calendar year. For those of you paying attention, I’m behind by six books. Meh, I’m sure I can catch up.

Why classics you didn’t ask? I’m going with classics because there are a bunch of titles out there that I keep meaning to read. Like “Crime and Punishment”. or “Middlemarch”, or “Lolita”. Classics also appeal to me because most of them can be found at the library. And since Ezmy is unemployed (well, employed as Budsie’s mum but he only pays in poo and hugs, currency which is unlikely to get me far at the local bookshop), free library books are best.

I must also admit that this classics kick was prompted by that most popular of memes out there: the BBC book list. We’ve all seen this list in one form or another, as well as the BBC claim that most people have only read 6 of the 100 titles listed and yadayada (god, don’t get me started on how awful the English programs of some highschools must be if people are only covering six of these…you all needed Miss White, clearly). After perusing this list, I’ve decided it’s a crime that I’ve only read just over half of these titles. So this list will work as my base.

Now, arguably, the BBC book list is incomplete. I mean, what kind of greatest books booklist doesn’t include titles such as ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being” but does include “The Da Vinci Code”? And not all of the books are ‘classics’ per se. But I do so like lists (as I’m sure I’ve alluded to several times on this blog, checking things off lists ranks up there with long showers and coffee in terms of pure awesomeness for me). So I’ll replace Dan Brown with something else. I’m open to suggestions.

First up: ‘Love in the time of Cholera’, a book I’ve started once before but never finished because it failed to keep me awake during 3 am boobfeeding sessions and was therefore replaced with iPhone Sudoku and a re-read of The Deathly Hallows.

Phew, what a day. The Budsie is still sick but he’s managing to sleep in his crib for the time being (which is great because after two nights of Kicky Kickerston, my poor battered body could use the break). Poor sod – all feverish with a red throat and flushed face. A funny thing about babies and getting sick though. So A. and I go to look up a few things we should be keeping an eye out for, you know, just in case this fever turns into something like small pox or autism. And one of the things to “look out for” is a sore throat. I’m sorry but what? How the hell are we supposed to know if his throat is sore? He’s eight months old for crying out loud. He can’t tell me anything and he certainly can’t point to his throat so as to demonstrate the location of his pain. Pfft.

(time out because kid woke up…sigh)

(later the next morning)

Anyway, so because of Budsie being sick, my daily resolutions had to be kind of small. Here they are though, in all their glory:

Feb 8: ezmy resolves to…

…put DVDs and CDs into their appropriate cases. What? I said they’d be small resolutions. But really, this isn’t small. We have an enormous DVD and CD collection. And I’m notorious for putting DVDs and CDs in whatever case is lying next to them, thinking to myself as I do it “don’t worry, you’ll definitely remember where you put *insert awesome CD/DVD* later.” I don’t. And just the other day, something tragic happened: I forgot where I had put my Queen: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 CD. Gasp! It took me two hours and many, many CD cases later to find this kick ass album. Something must be done. So I’ve now put the CDs and DVDs in the correct cases and resolve to keep them this way. A. will be thrilled. I think he was getting a little of tired of finding ’27 Dresses’ in the case for ‘Good Fellas’.

Feb 9: ezmy resolves to…

…find a place in this house to keep bus tickets. And then to always have bus tickets in said place. Yesterday, I was running around trying to get a sick baby ready for the bus to go to the doctor when I suddenly realized that a) I had bus tickets but b) had no idea where these blue paper gems were. Ten minutes, and one missed bus, of frantic searching later I found some in a couple of different coat pockets and in a pair of jeans. Cursed Past Ezmy, she will be the end of me. So now there is a spot for bus tickets. It’s next to the phone and the Get Fuzzy calendar, just in case you were interested.

Well, we’re caught up. I’ll post today’s resolution during the next nap. I actually haven’t decided what it will be yet. So many things to fix.

…well that’s not entirely true. I have been doing the daily resolution thing but have had no time to write about them. The Budsie’s been a little out of sorts – fever, stuffy, not sleeping properly – so no time to write posts. Back tonight with luck.

For now, I’ll simply say this: coffee is the best thing ever. It saves lives.

…take her vitamins. And while we’re on the subject, I also resolve to throw out the imitation Centrum that’s been sitting in the back of our medicine cabinet for 250 years as well as the unopened Amoxicillin, prescribed to me for a sinus infection that disappeared that day after I purchased the antibiotics, and the Advil that neither of us uses and that is therefore several years past the expiry date.

What is it with people and their pills? Have a gander at anyone’s medicine cabinet and you’ll be sure to find some random medication or vitamin supplement that’s been sitting there since they can’t remember when. We’re particularly protective of our vitamins, probably because they were purchased during one of those I’m-going-to-make-myself-over-into-a-healthy-person phases. That and they don’t come cheap. I once dated a guy who had a whole shoe box full of expired vitamins that he just couldn’t part with. He was crazy in a lot of ways, but that was one of them. Huh.

Anyway, I resolve to take my vitamins. I was pretty on top of them when I was pregnant, in part because the way people go on, you’d have to be a satanic child-hater to not take multivitamins during pregnancy. And I stayed on the vitamin train until I stopped boob-feeding because, well, I had leftovers from the pregnancy and wasn’t about to throw $30 down the drain. But I’ve felt lacking in vitamins and such lately, and I want to clean out our medicine cabinet. So I’m going to take them each day until they run out. Then I’m not sure what.

Riveting resolution, I know. But I’m tired and Budsie was on a nap strike today so this is what you get.

…except that while the pie was tasty, it was so not worth the effort. Pastry and I simply do not get along. Ah well.

I would keep writing but there is another blog that requires my attention this fine Sunday evening. Zoe the House Cat is returning to an interwebs near you….

…eat dried beans.

I have three giganto bags of assorted dried legumes in my cupboard. You see, I buy dried beans like I buy basil plants: with crazy motivation at the time of purchase but little follow up. If I’m feeling particularly organized, I might get the beans into some water to soak over night in the fridge. And I promptly forget that I’ve done this and two months passes. Or worse, six. Then, one horrible day, I discover an unassuming Ziploc container in the back of the fridge. A container that was pushed around during various fridge cleanings, probably even pulled out a couple of times in the beginning, sniffed at, and popped back in. A container that eventually, forgotten, started migrating to the back of the fridge to hang out with the 300 year old baking soda and the Worcestershire sauce. And I think to myself, “huh, when was the last time we had leftovers of anything that A. didn’t take to work?” Thirty seconds later, I curse Past Ezmy as I begin to peel fuzzy green sweater from yet another destroyed Ziploc container.

The thing is, dried beans are so very cheap. And, as an added health bonus, dried beans have not been sitting in a tin can soaking up salt as well as the contents of said tin can. But most importantly, they are cheap. So a couple of days ago, I popped a bunch of white navy beans in a clear Pyrex container (learning!), added some water, and placed them in the front of the fridge. They are on the stove cooking as we speak. And a new crop of kidney beans is in the fridge, patiently waiting to be turned into chili. Holy organization batman!

Tonight’s dinner will be a Potato and White Bean pie with a side of beets and greens. Stay tuned for a recipe post…

…get a degree in physics. Then I will invent a time machine, travel back in time to oh about 10 hours ago, and punch Last Night Ezmy in the face. There’s a reason I haven’t been drunk since my mother’s wedding in August of 2009. Hangovers blow. And hangovers with an active 8 month old son? Yeah, they blow more.

Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

…to get this tipsy every so often. Because it’s in everyone’s best interests for me to let my hair down, so to speak. Drunk Ezmy is one of the best Ezmy’s I know. She’s relaxed, she’s comical, and she’s a damn good time.

In other news, tomorrow’s resolution may concern hangover beverages and resolving to not drink as much. Pfft. Don’t listen to Tomorrow Ezmy. She’s just bitchy and headache-y from the awesome times that Today Ezmy had. She’ll get over it.

Wooo!

…learn how to program her damn heater. If she can find the manual that is…*shuffles through box labeled ‘Manuals’, congratulates self on organization, then sighs when realizes that the heater manual is not in this now useless box*.

(time out to look for manual)

*realizes that there is an online manual! Sings praise for the interwebs once again*

Success – well, hopefully. I’ll find out tomorrow when I wake up to either a) a cozy condo, or b) a frigid igloo. But this resolution is indicative of a larger problem. I have no idea how to work ANYTHING in this house. I could make the excuse that when we moved in here I was super duper pregnant and on bed rest but really, I’ve been un-pregnant for awhile. I need to get on top of this house stuff.

Sometimes I really miss renting. Because when you’re renting, this stuff is not your problem. Renting is kind of like being famous – if something goes wrong in your place, you have people who take care of it. But owning means there is no perma-stoned landlord living in my basement to help me with my various household woes. Of course, owning also means that I don’t have to call an off-site landlord who might never show up to replace the refrigerator for the umpteenth time. Owning also means that I can do laundry all day long and into the night if I so choose. Ok, owning rocks.

But if I’m going to truly succeed at owning, I need to figure out how to use the heater and other appliances. I sense a number of resolutions along this line in the coming months.

*Update from yesterday’s post: yeah, the purple leggings have to go. I’m not sure what place in my life I was in when I purchased these, but they look like I felt in 2005 – pathetic and mismatched – so I’m assuming it was around this time. The addition of wicked boots did help them out but not enough to justify the closet real estate these leggings take up. I’m sure they will make someone else very happy.

…put on pants. Every day. That it has taken me until February 3 to make this resolution is kind of sad. But as a stay-at-home mum with no car in a freezing cold city, I rarely have any real reason to put on pants. Occasionally, I do change from pajama pants to nicer looking pajama pants, but I don’t think that counts. The thing is, Budsie doesn’t care if I’m wearing pants. All he cares about is that I’m able to roll around on the floor with him and groove to Queen’s Greatest Hits Vol. 1, which of course I can do in boxer shorts and one of A.’s old university sweaters. But Budsie is not the only man in my life that I need to be thinking of. Poor A. probably doesn’t need to come home from a long day of bringing home the bacon to discover his wife consuming said bacon in the same pair of pajamas that she’s been wearing for a couple of days. He’d never say anything but I doubt it’s as sexy as I’m making it sound. And really, if I’m going to pretend to be working from home, I should probably dress the part. So long, daytime sweatpants. It’s been a slice. A nice, comfy, oh so cozy slice.

As part of this whole put on pants resolution, I’m also going to try to wear the clothes that I never wear. Like that white skirt in the back of my closet, the one that I got from a thrift store back in the spring of 2009 but still haven’t worn because it’s just too white. Or the red and cream flowery number that I can’t wear outside because one gust of wind and voila! Ezmy undies! Or that navy blue fitted T-shirt that never sees the light of day because it’s one of those shirts that shows sweat stains mere seconds after putting it on (don’t you HATE those shirts?). Or anything else in the back 1/3 of my closet. What better way to test drive these items again than in the comfort of my own home with only Budsie and A. to judge me.

So I’m going to wear these articles of clothing and make an effort to turn them into outfits. Because maybe I’m not giving them a chance to be brilliant. Maybe if I pair the too white skirt with something too dark, the contrast will look spiffy. And maybe those purple leggings that have been rolled up the back of my closet since 2007 just need a pair of wicked boots to make them come alive. However, if these efforts do not work (and I suspect that they will not in most cases), then these items are on a one way train to the Salvation Army. Today’s creation includes the flowery skirt and shirt noted above along with some navy blue tights that are a little worse for wear and a great pair of red flower earrings. The earrings will stay but I see a train ticket in the rest of this ensemble’s future…