HAPPY NEW YEAR (AGAIN)!

It's the year 4703 according to the Chinese lunar calendar, and it's also the year of the dog. My Chinese astrology prediction for this year says:

The Charming RAT 'Tze'

Now is the time to put your life in order and balance any areas of your life that have taken too much prominence lately. Your nervous system could feel tattered as a result of prolonged emotional drama and a steady dose of stimulation. Use 2006 as a new beginning of perspective and strive for serenity. JAN continues to be a healing month and a four star energy period! Everything looks a little cheerier now as restless Rats navigate back onto a productive path. New ideas flow freely and many possibilities and choices are offered to you. FEB is a useful period for making changes to your home. Greatest benefits surround projects in the southeast areas of home or office.

I'm happy to see that my horoscope mentions making changes to my home because I am still planning to do renovations! The end of 2005 was unproductive in that sense -- we hardly did any work on the house.

The southeast area of the house is in the kitchen by the window and stove. I guess a "great benefit" would be the installation of an exhaust fan over the stove as well as new curtains for the window. Maybe I should try to do that in February and see if it brings me extra good luck!

Anyway, this year, I'm aiming to accomplish some kind of home improvement every month, no matter how big or small the task.

In January, we fixed the humidifier. If you look closely at the before and after photos of the furnace from one of my earlier blog posts, you'll notice that the "after" shot has blue painter's tape over the hole where the humidistat was located. We took it out to figure out what was wrong with it, and it turned out that the power adapter no longer worked. In an attempt to save a buck, I tried to find a new one at Active Surplus, but they didn't have any with the power rating we needed. So, I ordered one on eBay for about $25. Unfortunately, that one arrived broken! Finally, we went to Home Depot expecting to have to blow at least $150 on a whole new humidifier system, but we found a little power converter (that was meant for a different system) which would work with ours. We just had to do a little bit of creative wiring to get it hooked up. I took a few pictures of this project, but I have to organize the shots before I post them.

Finally, to motivate and educate ourselves about renovating, Georges and I started taking a home repair course at George Brown College this month. We've been to two classes already, and we have four more to go. So far, it's been interesting. I'm looking forward to the next class because I think we'll be learning more about hooking up electrical wiring, which is something that sorely needs attention in our house.

Happy new year!

I can't believe it's already 2006! The holidays flew by in a frenzy of baking, my nephews and niece tearing through embarassingly big piles of gifts on Christmas day, trying to be a good host to our holiday visitor, Madeleine (Georges' mom), all followed by a very welcomed and welcoming getaway to Montreal to spend new year's with Georges' extended family.



It was a good holiday with the right balance of stress and relaxation. The hectic days leading up to and including Christmas allowed for a nice contrast to and better appreciation of the winding down of the year.

The best gifts I received this holiday were opportunities: the opportunity to get to know Madeleine better and learn more about the young Georges; the opportunity to meet new people (such as the highly animated and entertaining Genny, daughter of Georges' cousin Sophie, and Sophie's dad Jean who lives in Red Deer, Alberta); the opportunity to practice my French (which, I discovered, has deteriorated significantly); and, of course, the opportunity to spend time with the people I love.



For the new year, I wish everyone happiness, good health and an appreciation of where they are, what they have, and what they do (or at least a good time in pursuit of those things). Enjoy 2006!