Tuesday, October 31

what, too soon?

when south park aired an episode for halloween that included steve irwin dressed up as himself with a stingray hanging from his chest, maybe they asked each other "what, too soon?" when they received the backlash from people all over the world. maybe they didn't.

i've been thinking about christmas. what, too soon? i don't think so. and i only say that because it's not too early for people to be asking me what i want for christmas. hello people! it's just halloween now. simmer! but i don't really talk like that so i just calmly tell them that i'll come up with a list.

lists. i'm known for my lists. i like lists. i come by it naturally. my mom is a list maker. lists help me organize myself and plan out the things i have to do or buy or the things i've accomplished. they make me feel good and on the ball.

but sometimes lists don't do everything. can you blame them? they're only as robust as they are created and most people make pretty skimpy lists. so i propose that instead of the usual christmas lists (1. a pony 2. popsicles 3. nintendo) we use a survey to let people get to know us and our interests and will therefore be armed when deciding what to get for us. on board? good. copy and paste the following survey, delete my answers and put in your own. post said survey on your blog or in the comments. change the survey if it doesn't include something important to you.

so let's all get to know each other while pining away for some great christmas gifts!

survey ahoy!

Batman's Wonderful Christmas Survey 2006

1. Where are you in life? (i.e. do you have a partner, kids, a house, a useless university degree and no job, cookie dough and Oprah on tv, etc?
Well thanks for asking, Mr. Survey. I am married with two cats. We recently bought a house and will be moving at the end of January. (aka: Buy me house things!) I would say that my university degree is useless but I finally landed a job in my field, so, thank you university degree. You are not useless.

2. Do you have any hobbies, passtimes, stamp collections, other things that might be useful, present-wise?
Let's see. I play sports (hockey and volleyball currently, baseball in the summer). I knit and I scrapbook and most recently I've taken up freezer paper stenciling. I love to read novels and magazines and blogs on the internets. I sometimes go to the movies and went to the IMAX for the first time recently. Did you know that they have season's passes? Oh, and I like the Disney animated movies and there are tons out this year (hint hint).

3. Are there any specific stores that you often shop at and would love if you had copious amounts of money in the form of gift certificates to spend there?
I'm glad you asked. I get a lot of my clothes from Suzy Shier, Old Navy, and Sport Chek though I would be willing to branch out. I don't often buy books but I like to so Chapters/Indigo would be a good one. And since we're moving soon, we'll be spending a lot of time (read: money) at places like the Brick, the Bay and various other stores (possibly Rona, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, others? Any ideas?) What else? I print my pictures at Photolab.ca for my scrapbooking and buy lots of stuff at Michael's for my other hobbies.

4. Are there things that if you had a lot of money you would buy but since you don't you don't? (This is an ugly-worded question, but don't judge!) Big things or little things, just try and make them somewhat-realistic-for-someone-to-buy-you things.
J and I would maybe get a PVR or a Rogers digital box. I can't really think of anything else so I'll stop there.

5. Are you okay with regifting?
Absolutely. Isn't there a saying about waste not want not? Does that even apply here? I think that if you receive something that is nice but not necessarily something you want, giving it to someone else is completely okay. Just don't throw it out.

6. Do you currently subscribe to any magazines?
I was very fortunate to have subscriptions to Reader's Digest, Chatelaine, In Style and Macleans all given to me. All of these subscriptions are on their last legs.

7. What are some present ideas that you've given to other people or heard of that you think are awesome ideas and woud love to receive?
I personally think presents like movie passes, hot air baloon rides, magazine subscriptions and gift certificates are great. I've been given framed pictures of my cats before and that was nice (thanks A&S!) and hot chocolate powder for work (thanks R&M). What I'm trying to say is that I've received many wonderful things in the past and the best presents weren't always the more expensive ones. I love the idea of being able to use the gift in some way and getting/receiving gifts that are personal.

8. Speaking of personal gifts (this will only work with my previous answer... oh well), do you like to receive hand-made items? What colour is your main winter coat?
Love it! I have a bright red winter ski coat and a long black wool coat.

9. What are some things that you get every year that you love? And hate?
I get socks every year from my parents and I love it! I don't think I get something consistently every year that I don't like. Sure there have been presents I haven't liked but I can't think of any right now.

10. This is an open question for anything you think hasn't been covered. Say whatever you want to say!
Coming soon: Batman's Second Annual Cookie Party, by invitation only (space is limited - sorry!) Invitations will go out to the people who attended last year and then I will open it up to others. Hopefully this will take place the first Sunday in December like last year.

it looks strange without a title

last post i forgot to put a title. i was going to write the post, which are never planned by the way, and see what a good title would be. i just never went back. oh well. i'm back to my old ways of putting a title and then writing the post. they will therefore remain unmeaningful. hope you don't mind.

okay, so i rocked volleyball last night! last week i was pretty annoyed with how i played. i had a bunch of boneheaded moves and was even laughed at by all the players, both on my team and the other team. but not last night. last night i had some great hits and tips and plays in general. i finally felt like i was contributing something other than my serves. it was a nice feeling. nevermind the fact that the other team wasn't very strong. we took them in three straight sets in under an hour.

and then we ate chocolate. that's my kind of volleyball.

so i was pumped about that. and i knew that i already had a lunch ready for me for today and we had already done groceries and all i had left to do was shower and go to bed. we were in bed at 11:30 and i was finished my book by midnight. but for some reason i was dead this morning. just dead tired. didn't want to get up and was a basketcase for the first couple hours at work. definitely a day i wish i drank coffee.

j and i put our plan into action last night and got groceries soon after work. we planned out our dinner for tonight and got some new things (like fish!) to try for this week. and tomorrow we're meeting with someone at the bank. did i tell you that our bank lady up and left for toronto and no one told us? is that right? is that normal? what if we hadn't called? but we did call so everything's okay. i guess. back on point: we will also drop off our passport applications (a full application for j and a name change for me) wednesday so we can go on our trip.

trip! travelling! somewhere hot! dare i say a honeymoon? yay!

in conclusion, i really want to travel because i think i would like it and i need something new to read. thank you.

Monday, October 30

i wish i had stories for you. stories of the wild and crazy parties i went to, or the wild and crazy things i did this weekend. i don't. for the most part i stayed home. i was in need of a nothing weekend and i got it.

friday night we went out for pho and then stopped by m&m to talk to some mazda people. the pho was amazing. my chopstick skills were absent. in my defense i was super hungry and needed to just shovel the food in. and so i did.

and then we went home. i knit.

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j quested - wow. we're the ultimate partiers.

this blog is boring.

saturday we partied though. we partied like we were 50! j's dad turned 50 (happy birthday!) and we had dinner and cake at j's grandparent's house. it was nice and relaxing.

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sprinkle in some random shopping and some scarf losing and that's my weekend.

but we have plans. we're both getting in the live to work rut and aren't happy about it. we have some ideas of how to change this and how to make ourselves happier but it will take some adjusting.

for now i will try and concentrate on making myself happy and possibly running again and eating better. sounds easy.....

Friday, October 27

how did this happen?

all of a sudden i haven't blogged for two days. i love it when my friends, and people i don't know but still feel like i know, blog every day. just so that i have something to read. and then i don't. i do have some excuses but i won't bore you with those. because i finally have pictures!!

like i said last post, j and i went to our new place wednesday morning for the electrical walkthrough so we were able to take pictures in the house without being illegal (we signed a contract saying we would stay off the property unless we were with an urbandale representative).

cement truck pouring porches:
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this is actually the house next to ours but i like the truck.

we love all the windows (we added two.) living room (with fireplace):
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we are positive this is where the cats will hang out most of the time. we'll be putting their cat hotel (aka cat perch (am i spelling that right?)) in the corner there.

dinning room:
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go to my flickr page for all the pictures. and leave comments - i love comments!

okay, enough about the house for today. i could go on and on and on and on and on but i won't.

we went out for pho last night. we really like the little place right near us called pho thi. it's new and clean and always busy and no one ever laughs at me for being a complete spaz with chopsticks. it's amazing that the food actually gets to my mouth. that didn't stop me from stuffing my face though and being content for hours.

i managed to get a bunch of knitting done last night. i'm working on a pink basket weave scarf for eve's pretty in pink contest. hopefully i will be done soon.

anyways, it's almost halloween and i've been invited to two parties this weekend and a family dinner/party thing. i personally don't much like dressing up so i'll be at the family thing where i can be myself.

oh! this is a reminder to myself really: there's a sale on prints at photolab.ca so print your pictures!

Wednesday, October 25

where is the love?

my blisters were getting better and then i played hockey last night. i was hoping i would be okay, and my left foot is, kinda. my right foot is not. ouch! it was extremely painful and dashes any hopes i had of running. anyways, not to worry. my work is very laid back and the people here don't mind if i wear socks and birkenstocks.

j came home last night with a spanking new sun computer and was content to set it up after work. i was content to sleep for 2 hours in my warm bed. but napping really threw me off and i spent a long time trying to fall asleep last night. at 3am i turned out my light and prayed for sleep.

it finally came, but just my luck, this morning was our electrical walkthrough so we had to get up early. i only scored myself 3 hours of sleep. i see myself as a basketcase all day but who knows. j is always his most productive when he hasn't had much sleep. maybe i can be productive too. and then again, maybe i'll sit all hunched over in my cubicle rocking back and forth. we'll have to wait and see.

right, the electrical walkthrough. basically we went through the whole house and had the location of all the outlets and lights pointed out to us. it was very disorienting because our house is a mirror image of the model home, but i think that will be nice in the end because we won't always think of the model home (which is obviously professionally decorated and upgraded through the roof). our house will be our house. hopefully everything we chose looks good because we have no one to blame but ourselves! we took pictures so check my flickr site tonight or tomorrow for those.

right. work.

Tuesday, October 24

how is it possible?

i don't get how the weeks and months can fly by but then a single morning at work can feel like three days crammed into one. how it is already almost halloween? why is it dark when i get up in the morning? there's a time change soon and that will help with the morning darkness but it won't stop the days from flying by. hmmm.

yesterday after work was like a black hole for me. we got home and then i had to go to volleyball. but really, i had three hours at home. i didn't eat, i didn't do anything. i was a little beyond hungry at volleyball and only survived because k2 went and got me a granola bar thingy. she's a life saver. at volleyball, i had some good plays and i had some bad plays. some really bad plays. plays where everyone was laughing. at me. it was unfortunate. but then i had some really good plays and everyone was happy (on my team, everyone on the other team just had a point scored against them). i was having trouble concentrating.

but then i realized that maybe i play sports because for that hour or those two hours i don't think about anything. i just play. or maybe it's just because i always have played. we'll never know.

i'm definitely feeling the urge to start running and then i remember how gross and wet it is outside and nix that idea. i can have a soft belly for the winter, can't i?

you don't want to read more rambling, do you? okay bye.

Monday, October 23

because you all know it's coming....

... the weekend update.

i hate to do this to you but i never remember to post on the weekend. so you'll just have to put up with a longer post from me. sorry!

friday

since we had thursday off friday wasn't all that bad. plus i got to go out for lunch and that took well over an hour. we went to a little vietnamese place called sweet basil. i had chicken and shrimp over egg noodles. it was good but not filling enough. but it was nice to go out with my new group. i forgot that they don't know me very well and were surprised with all the "what university did you go to?" and "what does your husband do?" questions.

i mentioned to my new boss that i would be taking some holidays in march or april. maybe i'll have indeterminant by then (indeterminant for all you non-government workers is a full time job without a determined end date. right now i'm term and have an end date set for next july) but i'm not counting on it. government moves like molasses.

thursday sleeping in led to a very late thursday night, which led to a rough friday morning, which then led to a huge nap friday after work. and then it was quadruple-date night. we went to glow-in-the-dark mini put with three other couples. i lost. but i always do. it was still fun though. and then we went to kelsey's and i had really really good shrimp pasta alfredo. mmmm.

saturday

we slept in saturday (of course) and only got up because the phone rang. we did some shopping and then went to j's grandparent's place for dinner. j's grandfather's two brothers are in town and it was interesting to meet them. and as always the food was great.

then we went downtown. we met a bunch of people at pier 21, a random bar with a strange mix of people and i proceeded to drink lots of beer. for unknown reasons we left that bar and went to a strange grunge bar that smelled like smoke and didn't have anywhere to sit. we drank gross beer out of huge bottles. after that we went to chris' apartment and vlatko showed me how to draw faces. i need some practice.

we got home and i slept. i slept hard.

sunday

again with the being woken up by the phone sunday morning. somehow j can actually get himself out of bed when the phone rings. not i. i did lie in bed looking out at the snow though. snow! in october! before halloween! eeep.

we stayed in all day. i knit while we watched the wild. i had the girls over for scrapbooking and sj stopped by.

monday

tonight is volleyball. my blisters are at the point where i can bear to have shoes on but i'm not overly thrilled with it. hockey tomorrow night will be the big test. a demain!

Thursday, October 19

mental health day

you know when your lack of sleep plus the crappy gray rainy weather is just making you feel like crap? and then you eat some ravioli with ground beef in it and you never eat ground beef and your stomach is hurting and all you want to do is crawl into bed and not leave for a whole week? yeah, well that's how i was feeling. and apparently j wasn't feeling so hot either so we took the day off.

work has gotten pretty busy. i started a post yesterday but never got around to publishing it so i deleted it. basically, what i was going to tell you, in a kazillion more words, that i played two hockey games tuesday night instead of just one (one of the teams playing after mine needed a spare so i stuck around and played), and about 5 minutes into the second game i could feel the blisters starting. true to form, i had two ginormous blisters and cannot wear shoes. but i've learned and that's the important thing. thing #1: i am not cut out to play two games in a row, and thing #2: not all people wearing socks and sandals want to be wearing them.

last night we headed to kanata to alan and sylvia's house for dinner. the food was awesome. we had veggies and dip and cheese and crackers and then chicken, rice and salad for dinner, and apple crumble for dessert. it was really nice to see a&s and to meet their friends who were a lot of fun. we hadn't yet decided to take the day off so we left early and were in bed by midnight.

this morning our alarms were going off in sequence (j's, mine, j's cell phone, and then mine again and so on) and i heard j ask if it would be okay with me if he stayed home. i said yes and quickly asked if it was okay with him if i stayed home. he said yes so we stayed in bed until almost 1pm. marvelous.

our productivity didn't end with the enormous amounts of sleep though. we took the car in and got the snow tires mounted and the oil changed and while we waited we looked around at furniture and found some things in canadian tire that we needed. we also stopped by future buy (future shop + best buy) and got an external hard drive (we're getting more and more paranoid about losing our pictures if anything were to happen to the computer) and new earphones for j. we also looked at laptops because we think that's the way we'll go in the new house.

lots of talk about the new house today. no new pictures though. we were thinking of going out today but ran out of time. we are currently waiting for the last of our down payment cheques to come out so we can finally know the exact final price of the house. we think we're on track for saving but we're not entirely sure. and once we know all that we can start buying appliances. sweet!

i will leave you with a picture of rolo mushed in the xbox box:

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Tuesday, October 17

and the betties take the gold!

my volleyball team is called the bumpin' betties. we won last night. we lost the first two sets and came back by winning the last three. it felt awesome. and my arms aren't bruised and i don't think they will be. good times.

i got home around 10:30 and still needed to do groceries. so we did. i have carrots and yogurt and crackers again. life is good.

except i'm dead tired. you know when you wake up and it's still gray outside and you've been having nightmares and you've slept in a little too long and you really just wish you could stay in bed until tomorrow? well that was me this morning. yuck.

and at work, i recently switched groups. this is after a month of part timing in two groups, i've finally made the move. and i don't have a lot of work yet so i was reading cnn.com and found molecular expressions by davidson. take a minute to look at some of the art. do you drink strawberry daiquiris in the summer? this is what they look like under the microscope. how about a rum and coke? (from the cocktail section but there are so many others so check it out!)

i still don't have any pictures of my shark bag to show you (out of sight out of mind you know) and no more knitting to report. in my defense, the beginning of the week is heavy on the sports. i did decide to donate my pink hat to charity and that qualifies me for eve's pretty in pink contest. if you knit, this is one of the easiest contests ever so head over there and check it out.

Monday, October 16

friday saturday sunday

friday

i had plans to go out friday. i really did. for real! but i didn't go out. i didn't see the baseball game i wanted to see and i didn't go to the bar i wanted to go to. sad really.

what i did do was sit on the couch with my cats and knit while watching the last episode of season 2 of grey's anatomy. and then i watched all the bonus material. now i have to catch up on the episodes from this season that i've already missed.

i did get something accomplished though friday night. i knit a toque. it's pink and it's very wee. wee enough to fit my cats perfectly. do preemies come this small?

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i followed the pattern for a toque that should have fit my head. and i don't even have a big head but this will never fit my head. so i'm going to donate it and just keep my fingers crossed that babies are actually that small. what do you think?

saturday

i had plans to help a friend move on saturday. i really did. for real! (deja vu?) but i didn't help her. instead j and i ran around all day. we put gas in the car, we went looking for a coat for me, we got cat litter, we had wendy's, we checked out the new house (no change, but shingles soon!), we got j a winter coat.... and then we were cranky. honestly cranky.

so i took a nap.

sleeping is the best way to be when you're cranky. and while i was sleeping j went out to tag ball with our friends for matt's birthday (happy birthday, matt! hope you like your card!) i woke up two hours later in the dark by myself. the crankiness had passed.

so i went shopping.

i went to michael's to check out the big yarn sale and was mega disappointed. but they had scrapbooking stuff on sale too so i bought some markers and some random things and then went downtown to meet j and friends at elgin street diner. we ate and were merry.

and then we went home.

i watched over the hedge while j played wow. over the hedge was funny. i also worked on my red scarf.

sunday

sunday we were supposed to get groceries. didn't. instead we hung around all "morning" (aka early afternoon) until richard and tania came over for some stenciling fun. my freezer paper stenciling fun was finally here! richard used a pumpkin carving template for a halloween shirt (picture on his blog) and tania used an abigram of her name (picture on her blog). i made a shark stencil and put it on a white canvas bag. i really liked how it turned out. i didn't take a picture yet so you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

stenciling took longer than i thought it would and i hardly had time to shower and eat before rounding up the scrapbooking girls and heading out to barrhaven. i had so little time that i actually forgot my book and had to go home to get it.

and when i was heading back to barrhaven i almost hit a pedestrian. i was a little shaken up and pissed but i won't bother you with that story.

i managed to get two pages done on my wedding album. i'm happy with that. two pages a week isn't bad, especially when all i wanted to do was knit.

speaking of knitting, i found out last week that there's a knitting group at work. they meet wednesdays at lunch. i'm looking forward to my first meet this week.

and now it's monday.

Friday, October 13

eureka - i've got it!

i know what i'm going to do this weekend! i'm going to (finally) make a freezer paper stencil. and you thought i had forgotten about the whole thing. well i haven't.

there is a flickr group dedicated to freezer paper stenciling. you can see so many neat designs. make sure you take a look at the discussions to get instructions and ideas.

OR click on this link for a super helpful tutorial by man duh. i can't believe how well laid out the whole tutorial is, complete with pictures and tips.

so friends, i'm thinking sunday is the day. please email me (myfirstnameATgmailDOTcome) or call if you would like to come. i have the freezer paper, iron, xacto knife and cutting board, paint brushes and limited paint (blue and black only). you need to bring a picture for your stencil (preferably black and white and not too intricate seeing as how this is my first time and likely your first time) and whatever you want that stencil on (shirt, pants, bag, whatever).

sunday. stencils. be there.

date night

j and i went and saw deep sea at the IMAX last night. we went to the 7pm show (not to early not too late).

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i really enjoyed it. i had never been to a dome imax before and can't remember the two other times i had been to imax shows at all. it was really interesting and visual. i wouldn't mind going again and seeing something else (hint!hint!)

after the show we drove around downtown for a while. i wanted to get a picture of a stone angel for a flickr group i just joined. they have weekly contests for people to go out and take pictures of specific places or things. i'll have to go out again and get that picture.

it's been a long time since i've driven around downtown at night (except driving straight to the market or something) and the drive from portage to elgin is beautiful at night. i really wish we had had our good camera on us and didn't have to pee (oops!) and could have spent some time taking pictures. better do it before the snow.

did you hear about the snow? southern ontario got some snow but nothing compared to buffalo and other parts of new york who got upwards of two feet! welcome to winter, suckers.

anyways, last night, on top of seeing deep sea, we watched the movie click (check out my library for more details) and then i watched an episode of grey's anatomy and knit. i'm making myself a red scarf and will make a matching touque if i have enough wool left over. and then it's on to something pink.

Thursday, October 12

bits and bobs

i've had pretty focused posts lately and i need a random post where i can throw everything out there. plus i have no more pictures to show you.

j and i are going to see deep sea at the imax tonight. i got the idea from tania's blog and am really excited to go. i have a feeling it's going to leave me wanting more though since a lot of my courses in university showed films that were very in depth about the species and the ecosystems. i just found out that it's narrated by johnny depp and kate winslet so that should be interesting.

i'm surprised it's not morgan freeman.

moving on. it's been really rainy and gray for the past couple of days (can you say we were spoiled with the weather last weekend?) so i've been sluggish. at least we made it into work today on time.

expect more house pictures because we've heard that they've started putting shingles on the roof. we'll probably head out this weekend. i will update you on all the goings-on of the weekend on monday.

i have this nice feeling about money and have this whole month. we decided to pay all of our october bills (minus the ones that get taken directly from our account) early on in the month and so have hardly anything money related to worry about. our last house cheque comes out early next week (the last of the $10,000 down payment) and then we will finally be told the actual price of the house. AND we can start buying the big things like appliances.

i can't wait until we're actually in the new house and we can see how our stuff fits and what it all looks like together (and start buying new things to finish the look... and eventually paint!) we're in a good situation of already living in a house so we have a lot of stuff (no more echoing for us!) but that will just make moving more expensive. i'm rambling.

check out the ViKaren pool on Flickr and email me if you want to join!

Wednesday, October 11

fun with the camera

when i got up monday morning (monday was a day off remember?) the sun was shining bright. this made me want to take pictures of the cats. i might be a little crazy. here are some of the best shots (more on flickr).

sandy
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rolo
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the both of them
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the colours aren't as bright, but this is one of my favourite pictures of sandy
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Tuesday, October 10

the rest of the thanksgiving weekend

(read friday's post and then saturday's post first)

i was really hoping to sleep in and not be disturbed by a vomiting-on-me cat. and my dreams came true! i slept and i slept some more. finally!

we really only had one thing to do sunday and that was go have our third turkey dinner with my parents and brother. so that's what we did. we spent a good 7 hours over there.

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and when we got home i crashed. i poured myself onto the couch and slept. apparently i was a little tired. so we didn't end up going out. i slept and j played computer games.

monday was the bonus day off. we slept in because that's what days off are for and then i did laundry that i had been putting off for a long while and j helped a car guy fix some stuff on his car. i eventually gave up on laundry and went and read outside. again, it was bright and sunny and warmer than expected.

we spent the night watching grey's anatomy and playing computer games (guess who did what!) and finishing up the laundry. it was a nice end to a super long busy packed weekend.



if you know vik and took pictures on saturday, email me (myfirstnameATgmailDOTcom) and i will invite you to the group pool i set up (link here). otherwise you can just go take a look at the pictures so far.

catching up to saturday

(scroll down and read friday's post first)

remember that i was looking forward to sleeping in? all was going according to plan until 8am. i was sleeping away until i woke up to the sweet sounds of rolo puking on me. honestly, i opened my eyes as he was starting to puke. i hurled (hurled? get it?) myself into a sitting position and managed to escape actually getting puked on but the bed wasn't so lucky.

and you know that half-awake i-just-almost-got-puked-on feeling? well, i was a little dazed and knew one thing - that i didn't want to sleep in puke but that i was definitely going to sleep more. so j, the great guy that he is, went and cleaned up the puke on the floor (one just isn't enough for little rolo) and then put a towel down on the bed and took my side. my hero! so we slept all out of whack on the wrong sides of the bed until noon.

when i got up to pee i noticed all the dried puke on my sleeve. i hadn't been as quick as i thought. gross. needless to say everything got washed. at least we got clean bed out of the deal and my day could only get better.

activity #1: the arboretum
j and i acted like tourists and took the camera to the arboretum. i had never actually been so i was really happy to have the opportunity to walk around in the warmer-than-expected weather.

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we saw tons of people and dogs and ducks and geese. there was even one wedding.

activity #2: the new house
we had some time before our next activity so we went to our new place. we now have windows.

view from the front
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and back
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we also walked to the edges of our lot in the back to get an idea of the property size and are happy with the bigness.

activity #3:
this activity was actually planned. we were all supposed to be at vik's parent's house at 4 because vik was going to propose to his girlfriend karen and wanted us all to be there when she said yes. it seemed kinda weird to me but it worked out well for them.

we were all hiding in the house waiting and finally they pulled in and vik did his thing.
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and then the party got started. there was lots of champagne and food and cake. but we couldn't stay too long.

activity #4:
we had to head back for thanksgiving dinner with j's family. it ended up just being j's grandparents, sj and us. the food was amazing and we ate lots. second turkey dinner done.

activity #5:
after a quick stop at home we went downtown for an apartment-warming party for chris and joe.

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there were so many funny things that happened. richard ate a whole plate of celery, a girl showed up and was constantly thrusting her chest out (i said 'thrusting' for a reason), the elevator door wouldn't close... and lots of other things that i can't remember. it was a good night.

for some reason the party died down right when the bars were closing so there was a lot of traffic when we were leaving the parking garage. we got home in one piece and fell into bed. i was hoping that i would get an actual sleep in without being puked on.......

playing catch up - friday

we had an extremely busy weekend so i'm going to split my story up into a couple of posts, maybe even three. i'm telling you we did lots! here's my friday story complete with pictures.

j left work after lunch on friday so he could get home and cook the turkey. he ran home... like on his two feet. ran. home. anyways, he got home and was a cooking machine all afternoon.

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tonight was the night for our third annual friends potluck thanksgiving dinner. three years ago this started because we wanted to use the stuff we got from the wedding. and now it's in its third year. this year was a little different though because one of j's coworkers brought his 2 year old girl. and she fell in love with me. she kept saying my name over and over. it was really cute.

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so there was tons of food and a couple bottles of wine and three whole pies! we all ate until we couldn't eat anymore and then we ate some more. people started to leave around 9:30 and then we went out and saw the departed, a new movie with matt damon and leonardo dicaprio. i really liked the ending because it was not your typical good-guy-kills-bad-guy good-guy-gets-girl ending. watch it and you'll see what i mean.

i was painfully tired by the time we got home and fell into bed looking forward to sleeping in after a long week........

Friday, October 6

there's something in the way you move

the combination of nighttime and driving alone and the route i was taking made me think. i thought back a bunch of years to summers when i was still living in my little city and you were living in yours. i would finish up whatever activity i had (often sports, sometimes family obligations or other friends) and jump in my car and rush to you. we would spend our time together and eventually i would get back in my little car, with much less enthusiasm, and drive home.

i drove fast there so i could see you for longer, i drove fast on the way home because it was 4 am and i started work in two and a half hours.

i hated that you were twenty minutes away and i couldn't spend more time with you. and this is after being separated by ten times that distance. twenty minutes all summer and two hours the rest of the year.

and that's what we did for two school years and two summers. and then the magical night when you proposed. i was still living at home but we stayed together that night. about a month later i moved in. and two months after that we were once again apart.

i spent more time in my car those three years than i have since. i bonded with that car. there are songs that will bring me back to those late night drives (races more like) when i was lonely or upset or excited but i was flying home to be with you.

and, as i found out last night, that need-to-get-there feeling doesn't go away just because we are no longer separated by distance. the car might have changed and i might have grown up a little but that doesn't mean that i won't come flying home to you.

Thursday, October 5

i woke up on the cranky side of the bed

you heard me: i'm cranky! i can't blame it on the weather, my time of the month.. nothing. i'm just cranky. and that's almost worse than having an excuse. i have no idea what's wrong with me. just don't talk to me.

i had an okay day yesterday. work dragged on and on and i got frustrated with my files, but that happens. j and i cleaned the house and i felt really good about that. and i watched grey's and i love grey's and was on the edge of the couch for the whole last episode. i went to bed around when i normally do.

and then i woke up on the cranky side of the bed.

i came to work and had to dive again into my crappy files that i'm really starting to dislike. at least this is a long weekend and i have lots of turkey to eat and lots of things to do. let's just hope i can find my happy pants and put those on.

Wednesday, October 4

i wasn't joking

in yesterday's post, i wasn't kidding when i said i was bruised. see:

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you thought i was joking, right? it's weird though, the bruises are only on my right arm. both arms hurt though and i'm convinced the bruises just aren't visible everywhere else. what pain!

and to never again have cut up knees from volleyball i went out and bought knee pads. i've never had actual volleyball knee pads and was worried that they would be super expensive. not the case. they were under $20. i didn't even get air miles.

i'm figuring that the guy helping me must have thought i was a lesbian though. don't get me wrong, i know lots of lesbians and don't have a problem with them, i'm just not a lesbian. but anyways, i went in to the sports store wearing joggers and a sweatshirt with my skates. gave them to another guy to get them sharpened and then asked the first guy where the knee pads were. i think the only thing that could have made it worse was if i told him i played baseball too. or if my girlfriend was with me.

hey, it was like when sj and i used to go grocery shopping together, dressed in a similar way. i'm convinced the cashier thought we were a drunk lesbian couple. drunk because we were always laughing at something and maybe swaying... with hunger of course. we had a good laugh about that. every time.

remember how rolo plays hockey - and by plays hockey, i mean to say he likes to sit on my bag - well he was at it again last night only this time he was yelling at the rest of us the whole time. it was strange but funny.

Tuesday, October 3

did i get beat up?

we had our first volleyball game last night. my arms were red and ouchy after 10 minutes. now they're bruised and hurting. honestly. bruised.

i'm really impressed with the level of play. it's better than i've ever played so i'm a little out of my league but i am sure that i will get better. at least i can serve.

we played 4 sets and i sat out the first. i had a hard time getting used to the rotation. we're playing 5-1 and i'm playing right side. this basically means that i'm opposite the setter and i get to hit offside when i'm in the front row. i hit left handed so this is perfect.

except i don't remember how to hit.

so after the game one of the girls showed me a couple of things that made complete sense so i'm going to try and hit like that. before my arms get better i'm going to practice the approach with the jump (watch out, kitties!) and then outside with a ball. once i get used to the rotation and can hit, i think i'll be set.

and on the family side of things, we finally sorted out all of our dinners and our schedule for thanksgiving weekend. i'm already looking forward to monday when we have the day off. is that bad?

Monday, October 2

grey's anatomy weekend

friday

j and i worked 9-5 friday and i spent all day miserable from pho nam (remember?) and right near the end of the day, after everyone had left, i found some pretty huge problems with two submissions of mine. yuck! i did everything i could but left without accomplishing anything. that's a great feeling.

so we got home and i went to work on having a nap on the couch. j needed protein so off he went and off i went. he came back with a huge tub of protein and GREY'S ANATOMY SECOND SEASON ON DVD!!! you must realize at this point that i'm in love with grey's anatomy and must suspect that i spent a lot of time this weekend watching my new favourite show. i had already rented the first season a couple of weeks ago and hunkered down and watched 6 episodes that night. j was out trying to see a movie.

saturday

saturday was nice. i slept in and when i woke up it was bright and sunny and i was warm and rested and covered in cats. heaven. we ended up doing things. things like going and seeing the cheo dreamhome - holy sh*t! it's enormous! i definitely would not want to live in a house that big though. we went out of curiosity.

and then we went to our little house and found this:

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a red bike on the roof. sweet!

when we were poking around a mother and daughter pair were walking around some of the lots nearby. the daughter is apparently moving in just up the street, though we heard all this from the mom. the daughter seems lovely (i'm being sarcastic.. she was obviously in a cranky mood and didn't want to be there. hopefully that isn't her permanent mood).

and then i watched 8 and a bit episodes of grey's that night while j went out with the guys to a rock and roll show at barrymore's. sounds like they had fun.

sunday

the sleeping in trend continues but this time it was dark and gray when we woke up. we went and saw my parents. apparently my mom broke her wrist. she tripped over some wood (that will eventually be shelves) and could only use her right hand to break her fall because her arthritis is super bad in her left hand. this happened a week ago and i only found out now. yep, way to keep me in the loop, mom.

i was in desperate need of some retail therapy. my version of retail therapy involves being out in the stores and looking at price tags. i don't necessarily need to buy anything, though sunday i did. we went to the mall close to us and i bought two sweaters on the cheap, one black and one dark brown. i was a happy camper.

and then we made spaghetti. there's something so nice about making your own spaghetti sauce and chopping up all the veggies. and then stuffing yourself. mmm.

and to top off my weekend, i had a scrapbooking night with some girls. i got a page done in my wedding album. progress - slow but steady.