official last post of 2006

friday night we went and saw the good shepherd. it was good but super long so i'm glad we both had a chance to nap that afternoon. thankfully we were sent home early and had lots of time to do stuff. but with the napping and all there wasn't any time left for shopping (i'm feeling the urge what with avoiding the boxing day madness and everything) so we ate and saw the movie instead. we got stopped by the ride program getting on the queensway. the cop took his time looking us both over because pointing a flashlight at somebody is so very intimidating. but then i realized that there's a big bar in the same mall and so there are probably people who drink there and do drive. after a bit we were on our way.

going out on friday nights always make the weekend seem longer. we have monday off so it is a long weekend, but it will feel like a super long weekend this way.

we did a bunch of stuff yesterday. we both got haircuts, we ordered a new fridge (we're doing a fridge-swap with j's parents to make our moving easier), we got some wine for tonight and we stopped by the new house. it was just after the sales center closed to we couldn't go inside but we peaked and saw that we now have hardwood and carpeting. it was dark so i have no idea what it all looks like but it's exciting. we're a month away now. that's not long at all.

then we partied. we went to vik's parent's house and ate pizza and played with his new wii. i have to admit it was pretty fun.




tonight we're party hopping. we have three parties in town that we'd like to attend so we're going to make it happen. i even bought a new shirt so i'll look pretty... new haircut, new shirt and some hotpants. what could be better?

some people never get tired of saying "see you next year!" this time of year, but i am. maybe i won't see you again until the next calendar year, but i'll see you soon. hopefully tonight will be a good time whatever you're doing and wherever you are.

a year in review

you know how this time of year, the end of the calendar year, people get all reminiscent of the past twelve months and begin looking back as well as looking forward. we look back to scrutinize ourselves and our lives, to see if we did all that we could have done and to see if the things we did were worth doing. we look forward to resolve to do more things, bigger things, better things. i'm not one for new year's resolutions. i like how i live and know that there are things i want to work on, but i don't need the coming of a new year to finally resolve to change those things.

instead, i give you this: a year in review. i've put together some pictures in an album on flickr that i think really put my 2006 in perspective. when i watch it as a slideshow (tip: change the speed so it doesn't take five hours) i smile. i don't think that i've captured everything i did over the past twelve months and i don't think some of the pictures are going to make sense to everybody who looks at them. you won't be able to tell that for four months we had an extra person and an extra cat living in our house. you won't be able to tell that i played baseball three days a week or that in july i got my first job in my field. but you can tell that i did stuff and that it was a happy year.

so i propose that you read the following highlights of my year and then go take a look at the album. i think the perspective from the words will help you smile more during the picture show. but if you're impatient, just scroll to the bottom for the link.

- the day before new year's eve last year, i went and got my hair cut real short. why i did that in the winter, i do not know. so we went to a party with our friends, me wearing a new sweater and a new hair cut. j wearing his drunken grin.
- it's so typical of our cats to want to lie with us on the couch
- j took his first road trip. he went to detroit with some car guys and was a changed person after that.
- i went out with some ball girls for a drunken night on the town near my birthday
- the turbo arrives in the mail and j drools while waiting for warmer weather to install it
- rolo and sandy get their pictures taken in the bright winter light
- a close up of my eye shows off the strange colour (more blue in the picture that normal) and my crazy short hair
- j flew to thunder bay to drive back with his sister, sj, who came to live with us for four months
- we went out for a fun night for alan's birthday
- easter always brings the gold chocolate bunnies so they gathered around our telus phones just like in the commercials
- j is super happy while installing the turbo (and again once the car works properly again)
- we bought a house
- the three cats finally start getting along and are seen on the perch together
- my cousin gets married down south and has a reception here in town
- a beautiful night shot of a baseball game in orleans
- i get a nast bruise when hit by a pitch
- rolo flops over your shoulder when you're in the bathroom
- we go out and have a crazy night downtown (including lots of puking and fighting and cops) and finally conquer p who passes out in our bathroom with cats walking on him
- the cats love warm, clean laundry
- the sunsets are beautiful at the cottage
- a quick trip through the bonnechere caves and total darkness
- our fridge decided it's had enough on the thursday before the canada day long weekend, try getting a fridge then
- canada day was a crazy night downtown and then an even crazier bike ride home in the hardest rain ever, and then a long and slow drive to the cottage
- a brand new shiny fridge
- finally got to play in the hope beach volleyball tournament with some mazda people. it was busy and hot and burn-y
- a mazda meet at vincent massey park with ground hotdogs and posing on the cars
- our second anniversary
- dinner and bowling for p's birthday
- our first tent
- multiple nights out at gracies with the baseball team
- a huge storm knocks trees over at the cottage with minimal damage
- j buys a windsurfer
- the mega mazda meet in the city with tons and tons of mazda 3s cruising through the gatineaus and downtown and finally ending the night at the race track
- one crazy night it stays well over thirty degrees late into the night
- the sharks get silver at the provincials in st. catharines
- fun little trip to niagara falls
- the family gathered in town for mom's birthday
- progress on the building of the house
- carly and kerry get married
- j's birthday season: out with the guys, cake at home, dinner at lonestar with the big goofy hat, cake at the grandparents' place
- my attempt at my first knitted sock
- another new hair cut
- my arm bruises big time from my first time playing volleyball in years
- our second annual potluck dinner for thanksgiving where we cook the turkey and everyone brings everything else
- the arboretum is a great place for pictures
- vik proposes to karen and there's a huge party
- j and i go see deep sea at imax
- sandy models a little pink toque that i made
- richard and j iron on freezer paper stencils
- j breaks down and gets an xbox
- it snows in october
- we get a pvr and are super happy
- until rolo spills the milk
- a fun picture of the cats in the bathroom
- rolo models a pink scarf i made and then donated to the snowsuit fund
- we join j's coworker adam as he falls off the vegetarian wagon and eats a huge plate of ribs
- we meet new friends at alan and sylvia's house warming party
- the pile of scarves that my knitting group made and then donated to the snowsuit fund
- sandy watches tv for the first time
- my second annual christmas cookie exchange
- i play hockey once a week in a league out of carleton university. rolo likes my hockey bag
- rolo gets in the christmas spirit with a candy cane
- the house is almost done and all the neighbours have moved in
- some christmas decorations get in some nasty poses
- we party with j's coworkers
- and party some more: k's work christmas luncheon, work potluck, baseball party, family party
- we catch our first mouse
- a homecoming of sorts when friends get together at richard's family christmas party for some rum... er, fun
- a crazy pink and red sunset on christmas eve
- the christmas tree and finally all the family get togethers over the christmas break

so as you can tell, we did a lot of stuff this past year. and if you've gotten this far you deserve to finally see the pictures so here you go. enjoy!

project 365, the beginning

i warned you so you can't say you didn't know. i am fully on board for project 365 where i take a picture every day for the next three hundred and sixty-five days and post them all in an album on my flickr page. i'm excited and nervous all at the same time. will i be able to take a picture every single day? will my pictures be interesting or at the end of the year will you just see three hundred and sixty-five pictures of my cats? time will tell my friends. only time will tell. i'm hoping i'll be interesting enough or at least find interesting perspective on every day things. here's hoping.

and here's some information on the project in case maybe you want to hop on board. everybody's doing it.

some background on project 365
my flickr album dedicated to project 365

dates: december 28, 2006 - december 27, 2007

so check back early and check back often and feel free to give me little pokes and prods if you see me slacking. wheeeeeeeee!

oh the places you will go

i don't even know where to begin. five days have passed but it feels like 50.. because i know exactly what fifty days passing feels like. you know i do. maybe a c-day wrap-up is in order. i'll do my best.

decemeber 22
we got to leave work early last friday in the spirit of the season. and we did. i don't know what else we did. let's assume it was fun.

december 23 - saturday
ah, sleep-in day number 1. we slept in. then we did stuff i'm sure. the big part of the day was the c-day party at the kellands place. it was an alcohol-full festive mess of debauchery (not on my part of j's part, but for some). i was not in the mood to answer the "and how do you know the kellands?" questions all night which i assumed would be plentiful. it was not like that at all. it was a kind of homecoming with friends arriving from out of town and getting together for the first time in months. it was fun.

december 24 - sunday, c-day eve
sleep-in day number 2. as far as i can remember, this was a family day. there was swiss chalet for dinner (j's family tradition) and some frantic present wrapping that hadn't been done yet.

december 25 - monday, c-day
after a choppy sleep it was present time. i threw on my pink reindeer pyjamas (yes, i own pink reindeer pyjamas) and we all gathered in the living room (where all = me, j, j's parents and sister, and the cats obviously) and opened presents. i got a new battery for my ipod and a bathrobe (pink!) and disney dvds. good haul. j seemed happy with his sweatshirt (really nice under armour sweatshirt) and snowpants and snowboarding gift certificates. then it was go time. off to j's grandparent's place for more c-day fun. and to make long stories short, we went to my parent's place afterwards and then back for c-day dinner. we had some time alone at night with the cats. that was nice.

december 26 - tuesday, boxing day
there was no shopping on boxing day. there was another sleep-in (surprised?) and then more family stuff and then another c-day dinner with my family in kanata. i was supposed to play hockey but when i got there the arena was closed (would have been nice to know!) so i went home and spent some quality time alone. there was not enough of that this break. we sorted out our gifts and put some things in their places before going to bed.

december 27 - wednesday, NOW
now i'm at work. it's 9am and i've been here for two hours. i'm happy i have a good battery in kevin (my ipod) because there are about 5 people here and it's quiet and boring and dull. did i mention that i'm kind of tired? since most people are still off work, things are happening every night this week. thankfully getting off at 3pm allows much time for napping.

anyways, for pictures chronicling the holiday season go to my christmas 2006 album on flickr. i will be updating tonight with all the pictures.

my new task is to put together a birthday wishlist, you know, now that i know what i did and didn't get for christmas this year. there are benefits to being a january baby.

cheese, the good kind

and you thought i might be kidding about the mice... fraid not:



that little mouse came from under the stove. we trapped him in a victor live trap baited with cheese. and we caught and released another one last night... if they aren't, in fact, the same animal, we're clearing out the mouse population. fingers crossed this little guy wasn't industrious enough to find his way back inside in less than 24 hours and back into the trap. we do not have an endless supply of cheese here people!

so i'm feeling good today. we had bank things to do yesterday after work and while i wasn't stressing about it, it feels nice to have it done early (on time according to them, early according to what my brain tells me). and i learned about all bank drafts and what "in trust" means. why didn't i learn about any of this? i really think they should teach financial stuff in schools. even just the basics about not spending more money than you have. i'm sure that would help a lot of people. thankfully i already know that one, but it was definitely painful, as a 25-year-old, being told about "in trust" by someone who's thinking to himself "man, this girl is dumb!" let's clear something up here: i'm not dumb, i just didn't have a rich great-grandmother who left me a trust fund, paving the way for me to learn about these things early on in life. and to continue being fair, neither did he, i just missed something.

after that we napped on the couch. i was SO good this week and didn't nap even though i was painfully tired monday, tuesday and wednesday. i powered through it and was only slightly bitchy at at least one point each of those days. the first day that i've had enough sleep and don't think i'm tired, i nap. makes perfect sense. but it meant that dinner wasn't ready until 9pm and so we were up late. no problem because it's friday! and it's the friday before a long weekend. and not just any long weekend, c-day long weekend. sad that it's more exciting to me that it's a long weekend that that it's c-day. that christmas spirit i was oozing apparently dried out, crusted over and fell off. and if that doesn't gross you out, i don't know what would! here's to the long weekend and c-day!

i also managed to see that i was thinking about costa rica all wrong. i'm worried about the food over there, me not being so much a fan of diarrhea, and was thinking that our two lodging options were resorts (expensive!) or hostels (cheap but scary*!) and then i remembered that there are also hotels and that hotels do not normally have minimum stays that most resorts have. and that if we wanted to stay at a resort, we would just go down south, like everyone and his dog has done, for cheap. we want to go to costa rica for a bunch of reasons:

- not everyone has been to costa rica
- the wildlife and windsurfing are plentiful and amazing, and
- we don't travel much so we're going big

we picked up two travel books yesterday from a travel agency and read all about the tours these companies offered and the resorts. it all sounds wonderful but it all sounds super expensive. we just bought a house, we can't necessarily afford $6000 for two weeks of structured time down there. and so, as we were falling asleep (j was falling asleep and i was reading) i realized that we need to book our flights and book our first night in a hotel close to the airport and just go. we have a lonely planet guide book, we'll have access to the internet, and we have an idea of the places we want to see and the things we want to do. the rest, we'll sort out when we're down there. and that is the plan. off to check flight prices.

* hostels are scary because we've never stayed in one before and every time we've travelled, we've stayed with family. we are very not worldly when it comes to travelling so be nice.

ps. this means that, for my birthday, i would really appreciate gift certificates to mec so i can buy a pack. in my mind, a pack suits this kind of travelling much better than suitcases.

project 365

i'm toying with the idea of doing project 365. i think it would be (very) challenging but with amazing returns. imagine being able to flip through a year of your life. it's almost like being a celebrity.. you ever think about how many pictures celebrities have taken of them daily? they'd never have to look far for a decent shot of themselves. i digress, project 365 sounds neat so i'm going to think about it some more.

i have exciting news, but it's about wildlife. well, the wildest of the "life" that lives in our house currently. that's right, i'm talking about mice. about 4 am the cats and i were woken up by a loud bang. they bolted out of bed, i rolled over and fell back to sleep. the bang was the sound of the live trap closing and trapping a mouse inside.

we took the trap with the little guy outside, camera ready, and let him go. he needed lots of convincing to leave the trap, but finally jumped out. he was so weee! j was amazed the mouse ate all the cheese. i wasn't one bit surpised.

i'm thrilled that we caught our first mouse. i'm assuming there's more than one, but hopefully we can clear them all out. maybe we should start seriously looking at how they're getting in so they don't turn around and come back in. thursday night's plan? super.

other than mouse hunting we have to go to the bank tonight and sign mortgage papers. as you can see on the top right of this blog, we have 40 days left until the house. a couple more than that until the big move, but 40 until we sign up for the biggest debt of our lives and finally get the keys in our grubby little hands*. exciting!

* i don't think our hands are grubby or little

i tried to make rice crispie squares last night. who knew you could screw those up. i've seen the commercial where the mom tricks her family into believing she slaved over a hot stove for hours when it really only takes a couple of minutes in the microwave and some mad stirring. but i screwed it up. i put the rice crispies in the melted margarine instead of adding the marshmallows. they snapped, crackled and popped. i scraped them out and started over. my squares are a little dry but eatable. and they're c-day-coloured.

after that fiasco, i watched an episode of gilmore girls and then went to bed. i was asleep by 8pm and loved every second of my marathon sleep. i have some work to do (at work - who woulda thought?!) and then it's off to lunch with my old group. should be fun!

i'm a machine!

i say i'm a machine because, well, i am. i was tired yesterday, but i managed to get lots of stuff done between work and hockey, i played really well (i got to play forward) last night, and then i came home and relaxed. i got to bed just before midnight and slept well. until the puking this morning, but that can be forgived.

i got up by myself and got into work earlier than usual. it felt nice to zoom myself into work, taking the route i wanted to take. tomorrow and friday are both half days and then it's c-day time. does anyone else just want to get on with it?

* it was rolo puking, not me

plans

this time of year, the time leading up to c-day (i like it!), is full full full and you really have to schedule time off. time at home. time not doing anything. so when someone calls/emails you asking if you want to do X you can say no, sorry, i have plans. when really your plans are to wear the biggest comfyest joggers you own while eating a tub of ice cream lying on the couch watching whatever's on tv. at least that's what i would do.

even though i have lots to do. you know, i haven't been keeping up with my knitting or scrapbooking and i'm kinda feeling bad about it and maybe a little overwhelmed. okay, a lot overwhelmed. i feel like there just isn't enough time in the day to get all the things done that i want to have done. but then i shake my head because this stress is completely self-imposed and silly. at least i know it.

i've finally decided what to do about hockey. (maybe i mentioned this already...) i got put on a city hockey team after i thought it was too late but i haven't paid anything and will have to pay $45 for insurance and then $15 a game if/when i play. i've seen this team play and they are about the level i last played at for city. i would need some time to catch up, but afterwards i feel like i would fit in well. so right now i haven't paid anything for that team and am not committed hardly at all. but it's there. i can always decide to play. i think it's a pretty good deal, and $15 isn't that much for a game.

and then there's intramurals. i've decided to sign up for the january - may session. i know i've complained about the intramurals lots but the pros outweigh the cons so i'm going to go for it. so i'll have volleyball monday nights and hockey tuesday nights with possibly some extra hockey thrown in every now and again.

i do, and will still, miss the gym, but it just isn't part of the plan right now. and if this weather keeps up i could be running outside all winter. and i have some yoga shows recorded and find that i'm enjoying them. so there you have it. i finally made a decision and am feeling relieved about it. now to remember my cheque tonight for hockey.

what else do you want to know? i'm tired, exhausted really, i'm a little hungry but no longer stressed. i would still like to get more knitting and more scrapbooking done, but at least i've figured out hockey and now christmas. all that's left is to deal with the mouse situation.

finally!

this is the first monday in a long time that i feel rested and recreated* and satiated from the weekend. i feel like i had a weekend and i did all sorts of things but i also slept enough. it was the perfect balance of stuff and sleep and fun. ahhhh...

* recreated may or may not be an actual word

except for friday night. friday, if you'll remember, was a potluck lunch at work. something i ate didn't like me at all and i was gross all friday night. i thought maybe it would pass and i tried to go to my baseball christmas party. i lasted about an hour and a half and it was painful. but i did remember to take pictures. here's one of me with k2 and emily.



we had food and drinks and a gift exchange. i scored some nice smelling body wash and hand lotion. it's orange. but then i was whisked away, taken home, and made to eat crackers and drink juice. i was yucky.

oh, before the party, we had a bunch of food delivered so we have boxes everywhere. having all sorts of boxes around leads to packing. j packed up 8 boxes saturday while i made cake. then we went to dinner at s&l's swanky apartment. they made crazy good tapas for dinner which was very new and exciting. we got to try all sorts of things we'd never had and the conversation flowed for the whole time we were there. we got home happy and full.

sunday was a weird day. we got up late, got some groceries, then had a nap because all that was so taxing, and then we had to head out for my family christmas.



it was fun as always. we scored a nice picture frame, a can of beer and a can of vanilla wafer cookies. but sunday's fun didn't stop there.

fast forward through some tv watching, internet surfing, and some sleeping, until about 5 am when we're both woken up by a loud sound. like a cat screeching, trying to run on the hardwood. j went to investigate. rolo would have, if not for the horrible lack of purchase on the hardwood, caught a mouse. apparently we have mice. and apparently rolo was super happy with his hunter-self and was head-bonking up a storm. j cleaned up everything and found out where the mouses are coming in, and for this i am grateful. i stayed in bed and when he finally came back to bed for the last 10 minutes or so, i remember saying that i'm so glad we're moving into a new house.

and i am. and now, so are j's parents. that was enough to convince them to buy a condo. i don't blame them.

the spirit and where to find it

i think i found some of that elusive christmas spirit i was talking about yesterday. let me tell you where it was hiding: in my world of not-getting-enough-sleep. last night i was asleep by 10pm. i had been needing a night like that all week and i finally got it and this morning, lo and behold, i woke up as little miss sunshine. no joke. i found my christmas spirit.

so i put on christmas socks, the only pair i own, and some christmas-y underwear (use your imagination because that's all i'm giving you!) and grabbed the pasta salad i made last night and went off to work. this isn't just any pasta salad, it's christmas pasta salad. i put red and green peppers in it and put the whole thing in a green ziploc container and toted it in a red plastic bag. i'm OOZING christmas spirit today.

the pasta salad is for a potluck we have this afternoon. and then there's a potluck dinner/party tonight with my ball team. i have a feeling that tonight's going to be very centered on two people and possibly not the most fun in the world, but at least i'm mentally prepared for that. i still have to wrap the present for the gift exchange and figure out what to bring for the potluck. oh, and figure out how i'm getting there, where "there" is, and other logistics like that.

you know, this time of year is kind of overwhelming with all the potlucks and parties and gift exchanges and people you should see and santas everywhere. at least it's 8 degrees out and not blizzard-y. that would make it much harder but MUCH MORE CHRISTMAS-Y!! get my point, winter? you're supposed to be here and well, i miss you. i never thought i would say it but the snow is what makes christmas christmas and as much as i hate trudging through 7 feet of gucky brown snow and sludge to get anywhere for 4 months of the year, the new, fluffy, sparkling white, pretty snow really signifies christmas and WHERE THE H*LL ARE YOU, SNOW??

i admit, i spent one christmas in florida when i was younger. that was the year i learned the truth about santa clause: he can't give you as many gifts when you're away from home (read: your parents spent all that money getting your sorry ass to florida so they can only afford a couple presents for each of you). to be fair, i think my parents took us to florida then because we had free accomodations and they didn't want us to miss school. i think that was the trip my brother stood on a red ant pile thingy and got little red bites all over his body and cried for days whill being slathered with calamine lotion. good times.

all that said, and there was a lot said, i want some snow because i can only ooze this spirit for so long without it.

no comment

finally this week is winding down. last night was supposed to be my crash-super-early-in-bed-by-7pm night, but it was not to be. if i had eaten dinner earlier, i would have for sure been in bed early, but i didn't and so i wasn't. i went out just after 7 to get us dinner, ate, watched tv, watched more tv and then applied for a job. i wasn't in bed until almost midnight.

but this morning i felt better than i have all week. it's definitely about the quality of sleep instead of the number of hours. i hardly woke up at all, i didn't have nightmares and i woke up happy. this isn't to say that i won't crash later on, but today's a half-day at work so i should be okay.

today's a half-day because we have the big agency luncheon. it's at a banquet hall down the road (i make it sound like we live in a very small rural village) part of me wanted to show up at 9am because everyone gets off at the same time but i start earlier than most people. is that fair? when i worked at alcatel i used to come in late on fridays when i knew we were getting off early. i was much more picky about work hours in those days though. when you hate your job, you count every minute you're there. i'm not that way now.

the job i applied for last night is two levels up from what i have now and i'm so not qualified. but there's another posting going up within the next two months for a position one level above where i am and i feel completely comfortable applying for that one, not that that stopped me this time. ah well. i did have a heart to heart with my boss about me and my job and she said that i have absolutely nothing to worry about and that i ask good questions.

does she know i blog from work?

this morning, i was thinking about christmas, because really, it's coming up soon. but i feel like we already had christmas. my christmassy-mindset peaked about a week and a half ago with the cookie party and i haven't thought much about it since. this year, alice the christmas-camel has two humps, because i'm sure it will peak again on actual christmas. here's hoping.

anyone have plans for new year's? new year's is always less than you think it's gonna be. it never lives up to the hype, not for me anyways, so i've stopped building it up in my head. it's really just another night. every day is just another day if you don't care. but it's weird to think about how new year's means more to some people, like a friend of mine got together with her boyfriend new years a couple of years ago. the night likely means more to her. but at the same time, every day is somebody's birthday and means it's a special day to them when to you it's just a tuesday. days are really only what we make of them. when the weeks and months fly by it's probably because every day is just another tuesday.

i don't want every day to be just another tuesday.

keep the date

it's weird, and sometimes neat, how dates remind us of events. okay, thinking about it more, it's not weird at all. what i'm trying to say is that december 13 once meant something to me. something about a boy. i was "asked out" by my first real boyfriend at a school dance on december 13th. it was the start of an interesting relationship. the relationship ended in a nasty way, with his mom and her religion coming between us, but looking back, that was a good thing.

i learned about religion and how it can sometimes ruin a good thing. and about how mothers can sometimes ruin a good thing. but to be fair, the good thing didn't have a chance to go bad. we were young. it was new and exciting. but man, were we ever wrong for each other.

and so over the years, i stumbled my way in and out of other relationships, using the things i had learned in that first relationship from that first boy, but always making some sort of mistake along the way. and finally it clicked: i can do better. obvious? maybe to some. it took 4 years of my blind stumbling until i came to this realization. this epiphany.

and now that i've found the guy i'm more comfortable in my own skin. i have newfound confidence and am growing, from those first awkward kisses to the person i am now. there's nothing like the first days and weeks of a new relationship where everything tingles with excitement, but there's something to be said for the love and support you get from knowing someone so well.

"every time i hold you i begin to understand
that everything about you tells me you're my best friend"

christmas spirit

seems like the christmas spirit is just oozing out of people these days. here, a photojournalistic approach to the holiday season:

1) the tree is up:


2) the decorations are up:


3) even the cats are festive:


and that concludes my version of christmas. and now for my weekend update. friday j and i napped, him until some reasonable hour that wasn't too late, me until 8pm. oops. and then we started "packing". packing in our case involves going through all of our accumulated crap and making piles. one pile of garbage, one of goodwill, one for stuff to keep, one..... and so on. we basically end up with a mountain of piles and our crap out in plain sight. maybe not the most effective use of our time. though we do throw stuff out every time.

saturday we went to the house again. all the pictures are up on flickr but i've made them private. you don't get to see them. i will tell you that the counters, cupboards and ceramic floors are in. the tubs, toilets and sinks are in. we were very relieved when we saw all the colour combinations because, really, we are not interior designers. we were most worried about the kitchen. it turned out pretty damn good.

okay, saturday night we went to a christmas party with some of j's coworkers. it was fun and nice to see some of those people again but there was buddy. buddy was the annoying spouse of someone and he was, well, annoying. i don't know who from j's work will read this so that's all i'll say except i hope i don't see buddy again. really.

i don't even know what we did yesterday. stuff. good stuff i'm sure. and then there's today. this morning i had an exam for a job at cfia (canadian food inspection agency) and i bombed it. bombed in a bad way. yuck yuck yuck. i did see my old roommate from university there though and that was nice. don't think i'll be seeing her at that job though. erg.

and now i get to move my little cubicle. i'm all packed up just waiting for the guys to come. apparently they came by when i was out, a la while you were out, except they didn't move any of my stuff. time to be proactive? yes.

make me laugh!

went to absolute comedy last night because some friends "won" 10 free tickets and asked us to come along. it was a great show. my only beef was that the waitress spilled beer all over my coat. a good excuse to wash my winter coat, but i hate smelling like beer. the only time i don't mind is when i'm too drunk to notice and, if you know me at all, you know that that doesn't happen very often.

the reason i put the word, won, in quotation marks like that is because our friends got a call saying they had won ten free tickets, but then we find out that another guy who was there also got a call that same night (he wasn't home and they didn't leave a message). we're trying to piece it together and finally were shown the answer: at the end of the show the waitresses leave comment cards with the bills. they must have filled one out last time we were there (back in june or july sometime) and the club must call everybody at some point. i wonder.

but it meant we had a pretty cheap night out and were home before 11 and asleep soon after that. perfect. and tonight we have no plans. none yet anyways.

last night before we went out j went to the gym and i did yoga (at home? by myself? strange, i know). i had recorded a yoga program that aired on rogers tv (channel 22, baby!) it turned out to be pretty good and for the first time since i dumped my gym membership, my muscles are tired. tired in a good way. it feels nice. i'm going to try and record more of these shows and do yoga when j goes to the gym. sounds like a good plan, but will it work? who honestly knows.

i have a feeling this is going to be a slow day. they're physically moving our servers, or something like that, so we don't have access to our database or our shared drive. everyone was told to save work to our computers and so i did and i'll be able to do some stuff. but then we have our little group's christmas lunch. across town. all afternoon. hmm.

this is my new group. they're... well, they're different. they are much different from my first group, but until monday, i still sit with my old group. am i ever going to miss them when i'm gone. there are four or us who talk away all day long through our cubicle walls. i've been told that where i'm moving to is much quieter. in fact, the only "talking" i'll hear is the admin talking on speakerphone. hello! cubicle life does not jive well with speakerphone. idiot! and the music when you're on hold, apparently he blasts that as well. thankfully i have kevin - he's my ipod. i know i've been a little harsh abou kevin lately (he can't hold a charge for more than two albums) but i do appreciate the noise (of my choosing - but that's another story) to block out the crappy noises.

plus my monitors in my new cubicle face the hallway for everyone to see. no more posting from work? crappy. maybe it'll make me a better employee. or maybe i just won't care and will go on doing what i do how i do. cause that's how i do. either way, i'm not terribly excited to have to move. i'm putting off packing until monday (why do it now when i can procrastinate?) and will grudgingly leave my little office home. yuck.

but it's friday! yay happy friday! i'm manic.

straight edge, that's me

i'm back to telling you the truth: i went to bed early last night. proud? me too. it was just after 8pm that i curled up all cozy in bed. this was after four and a half hours of staving off sleep on the couch. i watched some good tv, but that's all. i have nothing exciting to report other than the fact i got a free pass to see a comedy show tonight so that's where i'll be. and that's all.

i lied

i remember seeing a tee shirt on some girl who-knows-when and it said "boys lie". it's so true. but really, everyone lies, even if only by omission, everyone does it. i lied yesterday when i said that i would get to bed at a decent time last night. even though i was home by 8pm i wasn't in bed early. and i sure wasn't asleep before the clock struck 2. and that, my friends, is not a whole lot of sleep. tonight or tomorrow (i'll leave it open so as not to lie to you again) i am going to crash hard and hopefully be in bed asleep before 8. wouldn't that be lovely.

i did manage to squeeze in a nap yesterday though. i was lying on the couch and it just happened. apparently i was tired enough and conked out for a while, maybe an hour, and the cats were good. this is very unusual.

j woke me up and i had to go almost straight away to hockey. this was probably the best game i've played this season. i opened it up and scored a goal on my first shift. i finally aimed my shot not at the goalie, but at where the goalie wasn't. that's a good rule of goal-scoring, but not easy to do. the goalie makes such a good target. anyways, i scored that goal, i might have got an assist on my team's second goal, i only had one penalty, and i had stellar passes all night. that feels good.

and i was asked to play in a tournament in january for a city team who will also let me play with them for the rest of the season and the playoffs. i'm still debating as to whether i'm going to play in the league again starting in january. maybe you can help.

pros
- one night a week, same night every week
- not far from home
- i get exercise
- i'm starting to like my team

cons
- level of play isn't the greatest
- very expensive
- i might not be on the same team

i'm just not sure what i'm going to do without it. well, i'm exactly sure what i'm going to do without it: not play hockey. i will have volleyball once a week and hockey with that other team from time to time, but no other sports/activities. so i'm torn. i don't know what to do.

after hockey, i did laundry and watched tv. the victoria's secret fashion show was on. they brought sexy back. definitely.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

i ain't joking:

the hedge on the far side of our house is apparently being overgrown with some red-berry-producing vine and i love it! i've been staring out the kitchen window this whole past weekend at these little red berries as it snowed and rained and froze all pretty. i finally threw on my boots and coats and grabbed the camera and took a picture. pretty, eh?

last night's volleyball game didn't end well, but i had a good time. seems like every week i do two things: i learn something new (good!) and i injure myself (bad!). this week i learned that i'm approaching short serves too head-on and need to get under them more AND i managed to bruise the heel of my right hand. thankfully i use the mouse with my left hand at work because it's really painful.

one of my coworkers who is pregnant (there are 6) let me touch her belly today. i was able to feel her baby's head. it was neat but the whole idea is alien to me. i honestly can't imagine what it would be like to have a little person inside of me. anyways, it was interesting but strange.

thankfully my game tonight is an early one so i'll be in bed at a decent time. next week is going to be killer though. but that's next week... still have to get through the now.

welcome!

welcome back, my valued readers. i took a much-needed break and stayed away from work and blogging and people and the outdoors for days. i'm not sure it helped much as i still feel somewhat sick, like this bug won't be shaken, but i slept lots and did stuff that needed to be done.

side note: i sound so hard done by but i'm totally not.

quick recap of my life since my last post: thursday was a regular day. we stayed home friday and slept in until after noon. it was nasty out and we didn't leave the house. saturday was much of the same except it was sunny and we left the house eventually. we got to finally meet sj's beau.

yesterday was my second annual christmas cookie exchange! 15 lovely ladies participated in this event.



i love this picture and am sad that it's blurry:


we had a good time though and ate lots of cookies. i'm in awe of the cats though. rolo was into everything (i had them locked up for a lot of the night, but let them out nearing the end when i had to get coats from the room they were in) and didn't puke.

congratulations to becky, specialk and caroline who won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively. everyone's cookies were great!

other than that, sandy figured out the tv and watched for a bit:


our cats are like a little married couple, even though they are brother and sister:


i went out to get a couple of things before the party and saw this, birds on a wire:


doesn't it look like winter has been here for a while? well this was just day 2 of snow. hmm.

i am an addict

i have an addictive personality. i haven't done much reading about this but i believe it runs in families. my family to be exact. i get stuck on things and do them lots and lots. eventually i stop and maybe that makes me not an addict at all. but really, when someone (i won't say who) merely mentions marble drop on her blog, i play until my wrist hurts for weeks at a time. soon my little go at marble drop will be over and my wrists will be shriveled up and whimpering but will eventually get better. why do i do this to myself?

marble drop surely isn't the worst thing to be addicted to. i mean, it could be worse. believe me, it could be much worse. but something mindless like marble drop (or minesweeper from way back) gives me a chance to not think and to, therefore, think. i read an article about multitasking and how to multitask and always be on the go is to sacrifice things like our short term memories and quality of life. weu enjoy things less when events are packed in like sardines. so mindless repetitive tasks, while keeping my hands busy, allow my mind to wander and come up with all sorts of interesting things. i do some of my best thinking while zoned out in front of the computer. maybe that's a kind of multitasking, i'm not sure.

my work involves a lot of multitasking and juggling multiple files at once. i'm still trying to get used to this. the hardest part i find is keeping track of all the little things going on in every file. when you're walking down the hall (going down to the caf for some food or leaving for the day) and someone stops you to ask about the file there's no way of remembering what they're talking about. some people can do it. not me.

since i started this job (in october in honest, since i moved groups then) i've found that i'm stressed. and i didn't realize this because i could tell i was stressed. apparently i don't know these things. my body has to whack me over the head, literally. i've been clenching my jaw so tight that i've been having headaches. i do it all the time now, but now that i've realized it, i do everything i can to stop it. i'm used to having mindless jobs that a trained monkey could do. maybe this is why they pay me the big bucks.

speaking of jobs though, i got an email yesterday about a job. it's a technician job at canadian food and inspection agency. i've been screened into the competition and have been asked to write the exam. it's time to talk to my boss. as a term employee (in government-speak, that means i have an end date, mine happens to be end of july 2007) my job is not guaranteed and so i've still been applying to jobs, though much less frequently than before. i don't want to have to take time off work to write this exam if they will give me a permanent job here. make sense?

i hate talking about money and contracts and jobs and any kind of topic related to those things. it's like confrontation, which i avoid, sometimes at all costs. but i figure that with all the christmas festivities coming up, me bringing up my position with my boss can happen in a more casual setting and i'll try and be very honest about it: i need some security. please give me a permanent job. how does that sound? maybe she'll whip out the papers right then and there and i'll be on my way. again, wishful thinking.

at least i'm not addicted to working. working makes me stressed while marble drop lets me consider the finer things in life. it's almost like seeing a psychic, which i've never done, but i assume it's similar, and so i will consult with marble drop tonight. marble drop will know.

the betties are back!

my volleyball team (the betties from the title) won last night after a 3-week non-winning streak. i'm not sure we played differently than the past two weeks yet we pulled it together and won in the 5th set. it was fun and my knee doesn't hurt. i was pretty worried about that.

as promised, some house pictures. we went out there after work yesterday to get our final price. they screwed up the paperwork so we haven't signed anything but we have a much better idea what we'll be paying (it's about time!) and now we know we have enough money saved up. can you say relief?

and now, some pictures. this is the front door:


and the view from the front door:


and that's all i'm going to post here. all the pictures - and believe me, there are lots - are up on my flickr page so go check it out! and the rest of the development will be under wraps. we have to keep a little mystery to our first new house. plus, this way, you'll have to come over and see the final product. am i mean? possibly.

i hope you enjoyed following along for the past 7 months (no, really. april 23 was the first picture and now it's the end of november. amazing.) the next two months will surely fly by, as the holiday season usually does, and then we'll be in the new house and we'll do a grand unveiling of the inside with all our options on display. fingers crossed everything matches!

the last weekend in november

the last weekend in november has come and gone and was rather uneventful. we didn't go out friday night instead opted to stay in and watch tv. saturday we did what more people should do around christmas time: bought ourselves stuff. we were both in need of new clothes so we braved bayshore for two hours and came out victorious.

new clothes mean laundry.

i did some more freezer paper stenciling. i made a prize for the cookie exchange and two christmas presents. i won't be putting up pictures until after the exchange and after christmas, for obvious reasons. it was fun though. much easier the second time.

yesterday was weird. we had gotten a phone call last week about a free meat sample. i said they could come and drop it off no problem. what i didn't know was that it was a sales pitch too. so we sat through this sales pitch. we may have even purchased something. i'll be sure to discuss more later once i know more and have tried everything out.

and then today, j got something done in a simple phone call that i had been trying to do for weeks. he got the final price for our house. so we're heading out there after work tonight. we'll get the final price and hopefully get a walk-through because, after seeing k1's house pictures, i realized we hadn't been inside out house for ages and there are likely lots of changes. we will have pictures up tomorrow, as promised.

also to come, pictures of my cookie attempts for the exchange this sunday, and sandy helping me bake. that should be "helping".

ps. my knee is feeling much better. i still don't know what i did to it but the pain has gone away.

charity

here's a picture of all the scarves we gave to the snowsuit fund:



new pictures of the house tuesday.

when the doctor stands you up

we got in the car yesterday after work and i decided i was going to go to the clinic. yesterday was the day. my knee had been feeling better but there was still pain when i did certain things. so we went and got gas and a car wash and by the time we got to the clinic the doctor was "done for the day" and the next doctor wouldn't be in for over an hour and a half, would i like to wait? hell no! i have better things to do with my time (read: play marbledrop, it's addictive so don't say i didn't warn you). i didn't go back and i likely won't go today. i haven't had any pain today so far (i know it's early) but i am expecting some pain tonight because my knee seems to be worse at night.

besides, if it is something bad, the pain won't go away and i'll know for sure. that's maybe not the best approach to one's health but it's an approach and it's my approach. i'm going with it.

we've been really bad at domestic things lately, like "getting groceries" and "cleaning", so the cupboards are bare and the house is dirty. that's how we roll. the cats don't seem to mind because their little food dishes are always brimming with kibble. i call them my little hippos. back to the point: i got us mcdonalds last night. and while i was driving home with the greasy smell overloading my senses i realized that we won't have a mcdonalds close to us at our new place. what were we thinking?? maybe they'll build one. or build that bridge into barrhaven so it'll be a quick hop over the river for my grease-fest. remember when you were 17 and the alcohol was a hop, skip and a jump over the river in hull at the dépanneur? me too. gotta love mcd's and quebec's lower legal drinking age.

after chowing down, i went knitting last night at sylvia's house. you can hardly tell they had a party, except all the new plants everywhere. i have been mia so far this year for knitting and it felt nice to see those girls and sit and talk and knit. i finished a christmas gift scarf and had time in the car on the way home to think about christmas and the cookie party coming up and other things. apparently i needed some downtime to let my mind wander and come up with things i'd missed. also, we decided that all the charity knitting we did last winter would be donated to the snowsuit fund. i gave in everything today and it feels SO GOOD. there was 9 or 10 scarves, one pair of misshapen mitts, and 5 hats. good work girls!

today's friday!!!

lovin it

guys, i am just loving all the comments you are leaving. i can't thank you enough. really.

you obviously all have lots to say about travel and believe me, i'm listening! i'm such a travelling-virgin so i have lots to learn. while about 80% of me really wants to pack up and go on a last-minute week-long all-inclusive RIGHT NOW the other 20% of me knows that my days off are limited and therefore extremely valuable. i'm going to wait it out until costa rica. we'll get two weeks off at once and the thrill of doing something not everyone and their dog has done and we'll likely be staying at an all-inclusive resort down there anyways.

bottom line: i'll wait, but i won't stop dreaming. AND i will eventually just pick up and go somewhere last minute for really cheap.

while dreaming about travelling and far off exotic places i've never been, my life is still rooted here and it's not all that boring. my knee was feeling a little better yesterday afternoon so j and i decided to go to ikea. we're keen on design ideas with the completion of the new house on the horizon (68 days till we close!) so ikea is a great place. we took our time and looked at all the rooms and things.

we were pleased to see that they have a good variety of mirrors. our house will not have mirrors or any hardware in the bathrooms so that's something we'll need to get. that was a decision we made so that we can have something different and hopefully fun and cool instead of the regular rectangular mirrors and whatever-the-standard-is fixtures.

also, we stopped by the dining room section to look at bar stools. our kitchen is open to the living room / dining room and has a bar counter. we ended up sitting at a table and both finally saying that we don't like the table and chairs we bought at the brick. the set was definitely the one we liked most at the brick but it really isn't us and feels so wrong. i didn't want to admit it so i never told j about it. apparently he was thinking the same thing (miraculous!) so we decided right there that we would cancel our dining room table and chairs from the brick. i am SO relieved. i was really worried about the similar-but-likely-clashing wood tones everywhere on the main floor and the fact that j had said not too long ago that our house was going to have a cottagey feel. no thank you. the table at ikea that we like it still wood but it's brown-black and has two leaves that are stored inside the table when not in use. it has funky chairs that are so much more our style and smaller so less intrusive. i'm positive this set will look much better in our space.

that was a load off. until we went to the brick. we went right there from ikea hoping we could cancel the order without having our invoices with us. it's all computerized, right? it is, but the orders weren't exactly done right in the first place so we had some issues. we left a little frazzled and worried but j went back and sorted everything out. no more dining room set but everything else is secure. perfect.

and then i ate red meat. we had meat lasagna and i haven't paid for it yet. i'm very impressed with my stomach. we caught up on the episode of house we missed two nights ago and i went to bed early. i didn't go to the clinic about my knee. i didn't get anything else done but i'm happy. sometimes it's good to not do a lot.

the knee issues

like i said yesterday, i did something to my knee. i hurt it. i hurt it good. i hobbled around yesterday at work, wondering what i did to myself. i took some advice and didn't do much last night. i was flat out on the couch icing and not-icing and icing and not-icing.

even when j's dad had a contractor over. i was interested in the plans for the house but didn't walk around with them.

j was really good to me. he brought me things and made me dinner. what a nice boy.

i heard from my hockey team captain that we lost last night. she even said that they missed me. i wonder.

but since i had the night off i was able to catch up on some tv that i had missed, watch some new tv, and be in bed before 10. so today i feel good. i'm not painfully tired and counting down the hours starting at 8am - believe me, that makes for a VERY long day - i'm as perky as i ever get and productive. it's nice in a way to have deadlines. dealines keep a girl honest. though i still take time out to blog and read the internet news and dream about costa rica.

i find that from mid-october to mid-december and mid-january to mid-march is when i really want a vacation. i find myself thinking about hot places and time off and activities i could do. are other people the same? i know a friend here at work is heading to mexico for a week in two weeks. and i know lots of people who head south at least once a year. and then i wonder why my priorities don't take me on a vacation that often. why am i so different? can i afford the money and the time off work? certainly because other people can. then why don't i do it? there's something about me, something that runs deep, that won't spend the money.

though i read in an article about happiness on cnn.com that said that taking a trip is better bang-for-your-buck than buying expensive things. and the reason, expensive things are around long enough to disappoint you whereas trips have an end date and leave you only with memories, often good ones. i sent the article to j in hopes of getting a little week-long trip before costa rica out of the deal. no such luck.

thankful.. and it's not even our thanksgiving

i wanted to thank everyone for their comments to my post yesterday. without comments i find my blog rather boring so it was nice to have something new to read everytime i came back. and yes, i check my blog often during the day. what can i say?

yesterday was the most frustrating day i've had so far at this job. i had to deal with some not-so-pleasant people (you might even say they were bitchy) who kept jerking me around and taking their time with time-sensitive things. yeah, thanks. it's one thing to be genuinely busy and swamped with work but it's quite another thing to be busy because you take 23 15-minute breaks a day and then choose my invoice to train another person with 5 minutes before the end of my day, which you know is at 3 because i've told you. some people. but then i had some help from a friend and was able to leave only 5 minutes late and everything got done. i have more deadlines this friday so i'm going to be busy whether i like it or not.

when i finally saw j after work and we were walking to the car, i vented EVERYTHING from the day. poor guy. and then i took a huge deep breath and was okay. we got home and i put on my pj's and read in bed before i fell asleep for 2 hours. it was great. and when i woke up there was dinner ready for me. i had time to eat and watch millionaire and go to my volleyball game.

we lost again, second week in a row and i'm not entirely sure why. i don't think we're playing much different than we played the first 5 games, all of which we won. i don't know what it is. i got home and a very sleepy j stumbled downstairs and said hello and stumbled back upstairs and was asleep in minutes. i was up late, that's what napping will do, but i got to read and spend time with my cats so it was okay.

and now we're here. my big plan for today is to get through the next 6 hours of work and then not nap and go to bed early. i did something to my knee last night so i'm skipping my hockey game so these plans are attainable. with a little luck.

it's fixed!

i broke down and upgraded my template to go along with the new version of blogger. i tinkered with it a little and am semi-happy with it. but the biggest thing is that the comments are working again. and not a minute too soon! i'm borrowing this from my aunt-in-law (i've never said those three words together like that before but there you have it) inner dorothy: it's thanksgiving delurking week!

this whole week please leave comments on every blog you visit even if it's just a "blogstone" (where blogstone = (o) ) to let the blogger know you've been by and read their words. blogging is about community so let people know that you're there.

and now, the regularly scheduled weekend updates.

friday: friday friday friday. i definitely napped after work. i definitely made some yummy perch for dinner. i definitely caught up on a bunch of shows i had recorded. i definitely knit and spent quality time on the couch with my cats. definitely.

saturday: saturday was a busy day. we did some running around and then made our way to kanata for a little get together at j&s's place. we ate and watched tv and talked. i got to see their house and their new cat.

we left early and went to a&s's place for their two-monthiversary housewarming party and what a party it was! there were lots and lots of people and food and beer and cake. j has a new friend. her name is lindsay and we met her and her husband about a month ago. they are both really nice people.


sunday: we checked out the house. the brick is almost all done.

i was talking to sylvia about this on saturday night and finally looked it up: it's 71 days until we close. i guess the countdown should now be officially on. except christmas stands in our way.

we broke down and got pizza for dinner - at least we have food for lunch - and then i went to k2's for scrapbooking. i brought my knitting instead, i'm not feeling the scrapbooking. but i had gone into the craft room earlier and the kitties found a great nesting spot and were absent for a lot of the night.


it was a late night but an okay morning so far. i'm hoping to nap tonight before my volleyball game because i have big plans of not living to work. and to do that i have to sleep enough so that i can go out and be social every opportunity i get.

comments not working

sorry everybody, but since i made the move to blogger beta, my comments aren't working. i haven't had a chance to really look into it, but i will. for now, if you have something burning to say, please email me ( nananabatmanATgmailDOTcom / work: myfirstname_mylastnameAThc-sc.gcDOTca).

yesterday i did some wonderful things. i read a bunch of a magazine that came in the mail, i napped, i didn't cook dinner, i saw a movie, and i saw the dancing with the stars finale. what a night!

i napped so i could go out. i didn't cook dinner because we stopped for subway on our way to the movie. i saw the prestige and then watched my pvr'd episode of dancing with the stars. AND i was asleep before midnight.

i really liked the prestige. it was fun and twisty with so many things that i didn't get, but in a neat way not in a super-confusing-i-hate-this-movie way. i haven't asked so many questions after a movie in a long time.

did i mention that it's almost christmas? i can't believe we're half-way through november. what happened? why is time flying by so quickly? it feels like i'm observing life as it flies by instead of participating. but then i think about it and realize that i am doing things, maybe not enough things, but things. i have friends and hobbies and ... things. is this normal? does everyone feel like this? is it because we haven't had any sunny days in the past forever? where do we live, england?

that was enough ranting to get the blood flowing.

i'll leave you with this: ohmibod. it's something i read about in chatelaine yesterday. it made me laugh. and then it made me wonder. ps. it's not safe for work. in fact, the site is blocked for me. go home and enjoy!

change is upon us

blogger has been updating things and now i'm using the beta version. so i'm still getting used to some of the new features. i don't know if i like this version better yet but we'll see after a bit.

more change: i'm moving cubicles this week. or so it said in an email that i was forwarded from a coworker, not my boss though. i'll be closer to my team and the elevator but farther from my old coworkers and the bathroom and the kitchen. tradeoffs. i will definitely miss the chatty-ness of the people right around me. we have fun over here.

we're starting to buy christmas presents but couldn't help but buy a sonic game for the xbox. i loved sonic when i was younger, probably because we had nintendo not sega. this game though isn't the original sonic but it's still good. and worth the $20. i played until my hands hurt. i just don't have the stamina i used to when it comes to console games.

hockey last night was probably the best game i've played in this league. my team is in 2nd place and we were playing the 4th place team but they brought it good. i was very tired nearing the end of the game, though i am used to having more people there and therefore getting less ice time. at least i didn't get any penalties and even scored a goal. it wasn't a pretty goal but a goal.

after hockey i decided i was going to go get groceries, because when it's 10pm and you get up at 6, groceries is a good idea. stupid girl. i got groceries and am happy about that but this morning was rough. i was a zombie for the first hour at least. i did it to myself.

i went to the doctor today to get a prescription refilled.. or so i thought. i was told to strip down and cover myself. what? apparently i was in for a full physical. i talked them out of that and just got my prescription. sweet. i also found out that we'll need only one shot to go to costa rica in the spring. (richard, have you had your hepA shot? you need it!)

now i just want to nap and nap and nap but friends are going to see a movie tonight. it's an early movie but should i do it? i'm exhausted and the weekend is still two and a half days away. decisions decisions.

weekend round-up

thursday night we went out to the outback for a falling-off-the-veggie-wagon party. j's coworker adam has been a vegetarian for three years and decided that he had to give into his meat cravings that had gotten worse and worse.



we were positive that he was going to be paying for it that night and the whole next day, if not longer. but he was all fine and at work friday and a happy camper. that bastard!

but it was fun. the restaurant is a little pricey compared to what we're used to but the food was good and we only had ranch dressing spilled on us once.

friday night j and i went our separate ways and each saw a different movie. in a different theatre no less! j's dad thinks we're swingers - i think borat has no appeal. that's what j saw. he said it had funny parts but overall wasn't that great. i saw babel with brad pitt and kate blanchette. it was an interesting though convoluted story line with crazy cinematography that made me want to puke the whole time. yuck.

saturday was a strange day. it's honestly a black hole in my mind. i can't say that we did anything, interesting or not because i can't remember.

i do remember though that we went to m&j's new house for a little get together. their house is really nice, very open and spacious for a townhouse with a nice layout on the main floor. i will admit that i like our house better but it is our house afterall.

sunday was a family day. we went and saw the house first (our little family):



we have brick on about one third of the house. i am super pleased with the colour of the brick. i was hoping for not-red brick and we didn't get red brick so it's perfect. other than the brick there aren't many changes, none that we could see at least.

then we went to kanata (my family) and hung out there with my brother, his girlfriend, his roommate and my parents. i got all covered in cat hair and loved by the dog. after a quick stop at home we went to j's grandparent's place (j's family) for dinner.

we stayed much later than usual and were going to go out but ended up just sitting at home (j played wow while i watched tv shows and knit). it was nice but not a very good use of a non-work-night-sunday night.

monday was our free day off thanks to the government and remembrance day. j got up pretty early and took the car in then walked from the car place to the gym and then home. meanwhile i was comfy in bed. we got the exhaust leak fixed and an oxygen sensor thingy installed (it's all very technical) so j can now play with the fuel-oxygen ratio.

j's dad came over and we all went and voted. larry o'brien is the new mayor. i don't know how i feel about that. at least i voted and can now gloat/bitch about the results (i won't tell you which because i just don't care to talk about politics). other than i we ate food and did stuff around the house. i vacuumed under the couches where 6 mousies were lying in wait. toy mousies. the cats are extremely happy and crazy now that those have been unearthed.

i caught up on grey's anatomy and prison break and some other shows i had pvr'd, got about half way done a christmas-present scarf, and still got to bed early. and that's the weekend. now it's back to work and back to waiting for the next weekend.

pretty in pink entry # 2

ta daaaaa! my second pretty in pink contest entry - a basketweave scarf:



i have no idea what it measures because i'm not that way inclined but i can tell you it's not as long as the scarf i normally wear. i didn't think it had to be. it's to be donated along with the puny tukey.

and, for good measure, here is rolo modeling the scarf:

i love my cats

we did the unthinkable yesterday: we went out right after work. we went and got catfood and then got groceries. and we were still home before 4pm. and that's why i love working early.

president's choice has a new kind of cookie, chocolate brownie somethings that are SO GOOD. so. goood. also, the knorr dinners that you see advertised are pretty good, but small. we had just enough for the two of us with no leftovers for lunch. not great for making a meal stretch but good tasting.

the title of this post is "i love my cats" and here's why. i was talking on the phone yesterday after work to someone who talks a lot. you know the type. you get them on the phone because you need an answer or two and before you know it they've rambled on for an hour.

so i was on the phone and i thought the conversation was coming to an end and i had to pee. put two and two together and you find me making my way to the bathroom. the conversation didn't end and i bounced around from room to room. but the kitties, well they were in the bathroom because they burst in there every chance they get. and what do they find? a lady bug. so they're "hunting" the lady bug and chirping away and i'm thinking 'i really should go get the camera' and i know that i'll have time because talker is still talking.

so long story short (almost done i mean) - i got this picture of the cats and i love it!



other than taking pictures of the cats, i also watched tv and saw a man almost win a million dollars on who wants to be a millionaire. and the best part is that he knew the million-dollar question but walked away with $500,000 instead. i don't blame him but he was so close. and why is it that i like to watch america's next top model? i'm not proud of that, believe me.

for unknown reasons we stayed up late last night. late like almost midnight. i'm guessing today will be a yawn-er-rific day. it's already starting....

a little grouchy

this isn't always the case, but today i will admit that i am grouchy. something about having nightmares and then having to wake up when it's still dark out and then heading out in the rain. at least it wasn't cold. see, i'm still optimistic.. just grouchy.

i may be getting sick and i may not be eating enough fruits and vegetables and i may have not done groceries in over a week. hmph!

but on the bright side of things it's hump day. half way through the week and then it's the long weekend. this time last year we were getting all ready to go to thunder bay to visit sj. we spent the long weekend trying to get her cat to come near us and watching a tattoo show on one of her exotic channels. i was also able to meet some of the family that i hadn't met before.

this year we have plans to take the car in on monday. after this though it should start the first time every time (it's running a tad rich) and that will be nice when it's minus a mazillion degrees out.

last night we played the last place team in the hockey league. i don't know what the final score was because they stopped putting up our goals. our superstar player was not being very sportsmanlike, which i don't like, but i can't say anything. she's one of those 18 year old "popular" girls. the ones that still intimidate me, even though i've got years on her. years and years. stupid girl. anyways, i had an awesome breakaway and put the puck in the net, not because we needed the point but because i deserved it.

the great part was that my finger didn't bother me at all. it only hurts now and then when i'm typing. i did block a shot with my ankle though. it hurt more than i expected but no bruising or anything.

i'm looking forward to filling the house with food tonight and lounging around in my track pants watching all of our exotic channels, which are still new and fresh and great.

little bo-bo

my volleyball team lost last night. for the first time this season. but it was a good game - lots of good rallies and close sets. it was strange though. the ref wasn't calling lifts or when people touched (or sometimes got completely tangled in) the net, but then i get called for sliding a little under the net, not touching anybody though. odd. anyways, at one point, i went down for a ball and managed to flip a nail backwards. well that is PAINFUL and a little bleedy. it was right near the end of the game thankfully because i was seriously considering taking myself out of the game.

note to self: cut fingernails, at least a little shorter than they are now. stupid.

other than that last night was pretty uneventful. we went over to jr's house after our game and watched the hockey game. man, the sens sure can lose good. they were ahead 3-0 and lost 4-3. wow.

we're getting more used to our new early schedule. the sun isn't up on our drive in and the lights aren't on when i get here but i'm here. and i get to leave early.

and let me just end this post by saying that work is really picking up. i have lots to do and here i am posting. something i maybe need to work on....

more pictures!

the focus for today's post is the new house (sorry if you're getting sick of hearing about it but really, it's so exciting!) we went out there yesterday. there are some changes: we now have a garage floor and a front porch. there is insulation on all the walls including in the garage. we have a door from the garage to the backyard. and the whole house was wrapped up getting ready for brick and siding.

pictures:





saturday night we went shopping! i mentioned this last post but now have pictures to share. our new washer and dryer, the couches (ours will be brown) and the dining room table:







and so my wishlist gets shorter AND longer. we no longer need to buy these things but there are things we didn't have on our list before. i will be making a whole post for the house wishlist, more for me than anything else. but in case you're curious i suppose.

we had a great time last night with the pvr. we were playing with the features - recording, pausing, rewinding and fast forwarding live shows. i recorded some shows last night that i can watch after work when the soaps are still on and j's at the gym. good thinking. anyways, the pvr is the neatest little thing.

m asked about the smart car in the comments from saturday's post. the smartie felt very stiff and jerky (the transmission feels so much like a manual, even in full automatic mode) but handles well and obviously can turn on a dime and would be great for parking. as for the size of the car, when you're sitting in it looking forward, it feels about the same size as our 3, but then you look back and the car ends. i personally think that it would be great as a commuter car, but i don't think we can afford to have just a commuter car. it just isn't practical enough. but if money were no option i would buy one in a second.

go out and test drive one. that's the best thing to do. and test driving costs you nothing but some of your time. just make sure you try the horn. i do love the idea of a two-person car that's super fuel-efficient with low emissions though.

So. Much. To. Tell. You.

tons of stuff to say.

today we got our new pvr!



along with it we got about a gazillion more channels so we've been flipping through them just because we can. also, we've recorded a bunch of shows just because we can. see a trend? it's all so novel. the kitties agree:



we also went buckwild in the brick and bought tons of stuff! (pictures later.) we bought two leather couches for the price of one. they're chocolate brown (like rolo!) and super comfy. we bought a dining room table with two leafs and 6 chairs for half price and a washer and dryer (gas dryer) on the cheap. it was some mega sale thing and we definitely cashed in. AND everything will be delivered to our new house (the couches not until march but everything else the day after we move in) so it's all very perfect and exciting and lovely (and expensive, but you know) so we're on a high right now.

also we test drove a smart car today. holy. go and do it. and make sure you honk the horn. i did and both j and i burst out giggling. the horn is so high-pitched and squeeky and totally not intimidating or mean. fun!

and one last thing, right before dinner was ready tonight (we made fish for the first time ever - it was good) we were in the basement and heard a noise from the kitchen. it sounded like rolo had knocked a plastic cup on the ground. turns out he had and he had knocked over the milk container. there was milk everywhere:



i came upstairs. it was so cute. rolo was sitting on the counter looking down at his mess. and then i got closer and saw that he had some milk on his chin, like a milk mustach but a milk beard. it was hilarious.. and gross all at the same time. i laughed.

and then i thought of this and how similar this was:



j got cheerios everywhere. note to everyone out there: cheerios are much easier to clean up than milk.

so that's my story. we also went out last night. j tried to see the borat movie but ended up hanging out at east side mario's instead (i napped) and then we went to richard's house and watched nacho libre. don't see it. it was awful. and we saw my parents today and i got some books from them. that's about it.

tunnel vision

there is a tunnel that goes beneath a major road near my office. this tunnel let's me go from the parking lot to my building without having to cross said major road. it's nice and probably important at stopping all sorts of dangerous jaywalking attempts. come to think of it, it may be there because of some jaywalking-attempt gone bad. i wonder.

either way, there is a tunnel. i go through this tunnel twice a day and always enter and exit right in the middle. the tunnel has a slight arch so i figure there's less of a chance of spiders being in the highest part of the opening and that's usually the case. except the other day when there was a spider dangling from the absolute middle. i almost walked right into him.

my other tunnel story has to do with leaves. it must be some sort of wind phenomenon but when i showed up at work one day earlier this week, i was greeted with TONS of leaves all along one side of the tunnel and since i am 6 i happily trudged through them, laughing. when i got to the other side i looked back to see another hc employee shaking their head. they probably wish they were as uninhibited as i. at least that's what i'll tell myself.

the leaves were gone by the end of the day. another miraculous wind story? i do not know.

well, i was going to tell you that we didn't do anything last night. that we took our night off after our first day of starting early. but we went out. first of all, let me say that it was marvelous getting home so early, except the tv programming sucks (until we get more channels that is!) but that didn't stop me from watching crappy tv. anyways, we went to a lighting store not far from our house and got some good ideas for our new house. since our dining room (see alan, only two n's this time in dining) and living room are essentially one big room, we're thinking that having the same lights in both rooms will be best. and we found some that we like.

and then we went out for pho. this crazy little pho place is like the crazy kitchen in that the floor is all bumpy and shifty and makes you dizzy just walking around. for reals. j liked this place best but i enjoy the closer place better. is it too much to ask to have a chicken vermicelli? instead i had spring rolls, shrimp on sugar cane - which is pretty disgusting - and meatballs. at least j gave me one of his shrimps. they were the regular kind.

but after that, we went home and i did veg out on the couch. my pink basketweave scarf (oops, i spelled it "skarf" at first and was wondering why it looked so wrong...) is almost done and then i'll have to find something else.

i'll leave you with this, the first snow of november (not of the season though):

i was mistaken

i thought this post was going to be entirely different (note that i haven't actually written it yet, but i can feel it) - i thought that since we started on the 7-3 track that i would be grumpy and groggy and otherwise unpleasant, but i'm happy to report that i'm pretty much like i normally am in the morning, it's just earlier. and maybe i'm a tad bit hungrier. but not grumpy and certainly not groggy.

last night was a relief. last night we went to the bank where we'll have our mortgage for the next five years and met with our new banker (our banker up and left for toronto without mentioning it to us) and were told that we're on track for everything and we will be able to get our money out of our rrsps. about one third of our savings is in there so not being able to get it out would have been somewhat disasterous. AND our interest rate went down as of today. perrrfect!

if all of our numbers are correct and we pay only the mortgage amount (no extras) over the next five years, our 25 year amortization turns into 16.3 years left instead of (25-5=) 20. how exciting is that? the last thing we want to do is have a mortgage forever so we'll be doing everything we can, short of eating grilled cheese sandwiches while sitting on lawn furniture, to be free of this debt sooner. and thankfully we're in a good place to make that happen.

aside: matt and julie, we want to know about your new house! we want details and pictures and a tour!

another aside: congratulations to jessp who just landed her first teaching job. the poor girl is going away all weekend and starts monday, but i'm sure she'll do great. good luck, jess!

back to me, because this blog is all about me. so because of this move to starting work at 7am we had to get up early and wanted to go to bed early. somehow i tricked my body into believing that it was tired before 11 and managed to actually fall asleep so that when the alarms - we have 3 - started going off at 5:20, i was okay. we put j's second alarm and my alarm in the hall and across the room to make ourselves get up. tonight i'm going to make sure the heat will be on that early because doing that to yourself is cruel, but is even worse when it's frigidly cold out of bed. we were up and showered and at work all before 7am. amazing. and, the absolute BEST part of this whole deal, is that we get to leave at 3pm. leave at 3!

also, did i mention that traffic before 7 in the morning is non-existent? it took us just over five minutes, definitely less than ten, to get here this morning. there will be less of a difference after work but still.

and that is my take on things before 8am.

unnormal

i actually remember when i was younger learning about how to make words mean their opposites using little words stuck on the beginning. moral -> immoral, usual -> unusual. but why is normal -> abnormal? i think it should be UNnormal. UNnormal it is. at least for me. on my blog. because i said so. pffffftt!

i added a link on the right to my christmas survey, well the post where i talked about it. so you can click there and see my answers instead of having to wander through my old posts and eventually archives. thanks to everyone who has already posted (captain pants and tania). it's fun so go and do it! don't have a blog? answer in the comments. don't miss your chance!

back on track: unnormal. i was thinking that yesterday was halloween and i must say it was the least halloweenie halloween that ever halloweened. honestly. we didn't carve a pumpkin. we didn't put up any halloween decorations. we didn't make costumes or go out. the only thing halloweenie about yesterday (and this whole week) is the prevalence of chocolate. and this is no good. it makes me crave carrots and salad and other green things. but i still eat the chocolate. oh yes i do. and then i complain when my teeth and insides start rotting. yummm!

also a little unnormal for yesterday: i got home from hockey and i sat my sweaty little self down and watched tv for two hours. and then i showered. i didn't sweat as much as i usually do but it's still gross and not something i normally do. unnormal i tell you.

oh! one of my christmas-y wishes has already come true. we are getting a rogers pvr this weekend! j was on the phone last night with the rogers people and managed to score us a pvr, tons more channels, and got us 9 months of free home phone. i don't know how he did it and i don't want to know. i'm just amazed and impressed and looking forward to vegging out in front of the tv with all my halloween chocolate. winter's the time to fatten up so that's what i'll do!