More dental fun

A few years ago, shortly after moving here, I went to the dentist and got more than I bargained for. What was supposed to be a checkup ended up being a pretty nasty root canal.

So of course, I had to do it again.

I went in for a checkup a while ago, at a new dentist near here. She told me she wanted to redo all my fillings, and give me a deep clean.

I had my upper wisdom teeth pulled on the first visit. Then back again.

So I had three fillings done a couple of weeks ago, but due to them being very deep, it was a long process and I had to book back in for the rest - that was today.

She did the deep cleaning (which isn't much fun, actually), then started one of the new fillings. Very quickly she found it was decayed to the root - guess what - another root canal is needed.

So, I have to go to a specialist for the root canal (need to book that), then go for my lower wisdom teeth to be removed before going *back* for the capping on the rooted tooth.

All of that, and my dental deductable is at maximum already. Bitch and moan about the NHS, but financially it won't screw you.

Rewarding weekend

Saturday started with me getting up and getting Dancers car into the dealership for it's service. Almost two years and 23,000 miles on the clock!

When we got home, we buckled down and did all the food preparation for the next week. I cracked off this shot of the fruit salad we make weekly during that



After that we did a trip to Home Depot to buy some new shrubs and some gardening equipment. The shrubs they planted before we moved in have died off in the last year, so we decided to start again.

Today was the work day though. We dug some trenches to lay some edging, dug up the old shrubs and planted the new ones. Laid down some paper to smother the grass, then started mulching. We had 9 cubic feet held back for the job. Turned out we needed a bit more. We ended up dumping almost 21 cubic feet! It looks great now though.

Next job is to finish up the footing of the trees.

Geeks turn

I got poked that I haven't updated recently - so I will :)

Firstly, and of course in my world, most importantly - we bought a new grill. We had a two burner Charbroil, which is a cheap model. We bought it 2 or 3 years ago, and it was showing all of the hundred or so dollars we paid for it, by falling apart slowly. The handles got smashed over the winter too, making opening the grill lid up a bit of a challenge.

So after a ton of research, lots of umming and aaahing, reading websites, walking in and out of Home Depot repeatedly, we finally pulled out fingers out and bought a grill. It's a 3 burner Blue Ember - made by the Canadian company, Fiesta Grills. It's all steel, has great burners, a side burner, porcelin grates, which sear nicely. I'm actually very suprised by how much difference there is in the cooking, having never bought a good grill before.

The first thing I did was make some awesome home made burners and get some friends over :)

Next up on my list, I'm still dropping weight, but now I've moved out of weight loss mode and into muscle building mode, so the pounds are coming off slower, but I hurt more the next day. I'm down to 209lbs, from 255lbs on New Years day, and I see a personal training twice a week for a work out. Matt the trainer is awesome. More and more people at work are noticing a difference, which is nice to see, finally. It's been a long road!

Summer is here, so hopefully more time on the deck burning food on the grill and more time on the drive burning fuel in the firepit. My parents are coming out over Independance Day, which I'm very much looking forward too as well.

Where does the time go?

Things have been extremely busy on the homefront lately. The first is we bought a new grill, but as it's Geek's toy, I'll let him talk about it on here.

One of the biggest things here in recent weeks is it's time to go back for the Green Card. His was a conditional, so we have to go back and get that conditional status removed. We've spent time gathering up the assorted paperwork we need, and now it's in the hands of the lawyer. We'll keep everyone posted.

Another big thing is that I'm finally ready to let go of a bunch of dead weight from my past. And I mean that literally. I have a TON of old paperwork and general crap from my previous marriage that I really don't need. We kept everything, old statements, old bus passes, you name it. There were 3 large paper sacks and a crate with 4 trashbags and the rest just dropped in the crate. I didn't want to kill my shredder shredding all this, so I did the next best thing. I'm burning it. There's too much sensitive info that I didn't want to just dump the stuff in the garbage (I certainly don't want my identity stolen, and I'm going to assume he doesn't either). There was a couple of bits in there that are still relevant and didn't get destroyed, but I've made a fair dent in this. I've still got two bin bags from the crate and all the paperwork that was dumped in the crate to burn, but overall it's gone very well. Hopefully this weekend won't be so windy and we can light up the rest of it.

On the dance front it's been both good and bad. I've got some shows coming up (good), the classes I'm teaching seem to be going really well (good), and the class I'm taking is going pretty good (good, will get back to that one). The bad bit is that I had to drop out from the retreat this year. I was really bummed about it, but it would run me close to a grand again and I just can't justify it. We are really making a concerted effort to reign in some of the debt, and the money I would spend on the retreat could make a nice dent in the debt. So I really couldn't justify it. I'm sad though because I love seeing the people there, and last year I got so much out of it. I know I would've this year too. Oh well, now to save up for next year. :)

Tribal is going really well. I was taking the 2a class privately as I couldn't make Wednesdays. We were tested to see if we were ready for Tribal 3. I honestly didn't think my test went that well. I couldn't hear her call the moves. Partially because I'm still having ear problems and it's affecting my hearing and partially because when I dance I kinda lose myself in the movements and music, so having to listen for the next call was a bit challenging. But I must've done well enough as I passed. :) I don't believe she passed me out of kindness, but that all three of us did deserve to move on. There were two other ladies who tested and also passed. The did an excellent job. I'm really excited about Tribal 3 and learning combos and really dancing as more of a "troupe" than a class.