when there is too much to say

when there is too much to say, we resort to pictures telling the story. this is one of those times.

we went up to the cottage friday night. we went into town saturday for lunch and to get some things. there was a huge fire at a gas station.



(for more pictures, believe me, there are tons, click on the picture and look through the others in my photostream)

we saw lots of wildlife. there was a huge porcupine on the road on the drive in and lots of loons and ducks on the water. the ducks were my favourite because of the blue on their wings.



we bought four trees to bring back to town. it was hilarious getting them all wrapped up for the drive on the back of the trailer.



the trees survived the two hour trip and have been planted in the backyard. the idea is to cut down on the noise from the street behind our house and to provide some shade and privacy. the shade and privacy will come later once the trees mature.



then yesterday was my favourite coworker's last day. she's leaving a month earlier than planned for her mat leave. we threw her a shower.



it's going to be a lot quieter here without her. maybe i'll get more work done. then again, maybe not.

bad, bad blogger

truth is, i've been neglecting more than just this blog. i haven't been taking as many pictures lately or uploading them to flickr. i've been reading a lot and sleeping more than i usually do. that's the truth.

j won our little harry potter race. he finished book 7 before i finished the first three. but, if i had left our bet at me only reading the first two, i would have won. i underestimated j's determination to finish the last book (so as not to have the ending spoiled for him).

if you pay close attention to this blog, you know that i normally update my blog from work. work has been incredibly busy this week. a lot of people are on holidays and another girl from my group just found out that her last day is monday (she's pregnant and is leaving a month early for sick leave). we're not quite sure what will be happening to her workload but i have a sneaking suspicion that i will be shouldering a lot of it.

pay me more money? please?

we're heading off to the cottage tonight. i'm not sure how i feel about this yet. part of me wants to get away but part of me wouldn't mind staying home. but we will be getting some trees on the cheap out there so i can look forward to having a tree-i-ful backyard very soon.

turning the world red

i had seen maps like these before but i only now found the website. you get a list of countries or us states or canadian provinces and you check off the ones you've been to and the website generates a map with those places shown in red and the rest of the world shown in blue. neat.

my world:




isn't that sad? and the worst part is that it colours the whole country red when in reality, i've been to a very small bit of each country.

and for kicks, canada:




more kicks, the us:




what does your world look like (myworld66 website)? i'm challenging myself to turn the world red. red red red. my maps are somewhat depressing.

weekend meltdown

this was the best weekend yet of the summer. it was jam-packed of friends and family. friday night was more of a date night though. we got a call saying my rings were ready for pickup. the white gold was turning yellow so we took them in for free rhodium-plating (white gold is just yellow gold with rhodium plating). my wedding ring was ready but not my engagement ring. the wedding ring is sparkly white. white white white! after that, we had dinner at moxie's in bayshore and i had the best club i've ever had.

the harry potter movie came out last week so we went to a smaller theater and saw it and stopped at the bookstore afterwards to buy the latest and last book in the series.



j and i are racing: he's reading this book and i've started at book #1. i have to read the first three before he finishes this one. i'm off to a good start - i'm almost done the first one.

saturday, we were getting set to go to the beach so j could windsurf when sylvia called and asked if i wanted to go to the beach. perfect! i dropped j and his windsurfing gear off and went to bayshore again. there was a big sale on bikinis so i bought a nice blue one and headed back.



i hung out with alan and sylvia while j was out on the water. alan took a try and managed to fall about a kazillion times AND cut his leg up pretty badly (alan, hope it's getting better and not infected!) the weather was perfect and it was such a good time.

we had quick showers at home and then headed over to my aunt and uncles place about 30 minutes away for a bbq dinner. there were only 6 of us (a small family gathering) but it was nice. we had steak and salmon and potatoes and veggies. and wine. there was lots of wine. i personally don't like it, but those who do, drank a lot of it.

since we were already out that way, i called s&l and basically invited ourselves over to their place. we sat on their amazing porch and ate cheese and drank wine (again, not me, but there was wine to be had). we hadn't seen them in a while so it was nice to just sit and chat.

by the time we got home we were so exhausted in that we-did-so-much-today happy kind of way. we crashed into bed and slept hard.

sunday we were up pretty early (early for us on a weekend) and went to home depot and bought some gardening stuff. we put some edging and mulch around our tree in the front and j planted the japanese maple in the back. we also bought some lie down lawn chairs at walmart (maybe not the best quality but they get the job done) so we read in the sun for a while. it was nice.

work has been getting busier and busier. there might come a time when i can't blog from work anymore. imagine that.

the couch saga, part two

so you all know that the couches we bought back in november finally got delievered only to not fit down the stairs. they were taken back and we were given credit at the brick. we went to the brick and sat on all the couches and found some possibles but not some we-love-them-so-much-es.

last night we went to sofa world, which is where we got our upstairs couches, and found some we really like and are on sale. perfect.

more news on those later. we still have to figure out what we're doing and maybe wait until next paycheck.

and i raa-aaaaa-aaan, i ran so far awaa-aaa-aaay

i signed up for the running room's 20 minute challenge without really knowing what it was about. all i knew was that i would get some exercise and a hat. well, i got both.



please excuse the sweat stains. it's already been bathed.

i met j's parents at the store, got my blue hat and ran 4.35K in just over 20 minutes. it was nice.

but man, blue hats were everywhere. i felt kinda silly running around with that thing on. me and a million other people.

after the run, i went over to the ball diamond because my old team was playing. i said i would go to provincials with them so i figured that getting a couple games in before then would be a good thing. i ended up playing for the other team (my team had 9 but the other team only had 8). it was a nice little game because i didn't see much action in the field so i'm not super sore today.

and i'm not too sore from my run. good times.

after the game, we headed over to jp's house for a team bbq. it was really nice to see the girls again. i miss them WAY more than i miss playing. in that league at least.

and that's my wednesday story. will thursday's story be any better?

the new do

last week i called to get my hair cut but my girl was on vacation. so yesterday was the day.

yesterday was also the day, finally, for our couches to be delivered. you might remember me being all excited about some nice leather couches we bought back in november. well the delivery got pushed back and back and we got calls and the old house got calls, but finally they showed up with the couches yesterday.

the couches wouldn't fit. our basement stairs are a straight shot but the entrance to the stairs is 90 degrees off. they were too long to make the turn.

so j, after being called into work early and going back home to accept delivery, was p.o'd. so he took a nap. can you blame him? they took the couches away and gave us credit.

too bad the credit is with the brick, who has been hassle after hassle. but anyways, we can find other couches, and now we know the maximum couch length that will fit.

after work, since i had this hair cut at 4 (we get off at 3), we went to the brick and sat on every leather couch they had. there are a couple contenders, but we might wait a bit for a good sale.

and then i got my hair cut. i hadn't really thought about what i wanted so i left it up to my wonderful hairdresser. she delievered:



and by the way, i asked j to take a picture of me and i came out looking a lot like a lesbian (not that there's anything wrong with lesbians, i'm just not one and would rather not look like one) so i resorted to the bathroom shot. i think it turned out rather well.

i'll keep you updated on our couch situation.

blood a boiling

i forgot to tell you about the blind girl. after all j's volleyball games were done saturday, we were heading towards the exit to the park. we were both tired and trying to beat the rain so we were focused. walking quickly and focused.

and then i tripped over a blind woman's cane (the stick that they move in front of them... i think 'cane' is misleading). i stumbled and quickly apologized. i really hadn't seen her there.

not 10 seconds later we saw someone else trip over her cane.

so we watched her. and thought to ourselves: would a truly blind person, uncapable of seeing at all, be at a volleyball tournament by herself?

and after watching her trip more and more people we realized how mean this girl really was. she could not have been 100% blind. she was purposefully putting her cane in front of people and tripping them. and then she was mad when you tried to apologize.

let me tell you, my blood was boiling!

i think that losing my sight, of all the senses, would be the worst. it would be a scary world without sight.

but for this woman, who obviously had some vision, to go around and trip people on purpose, in a huge crowd of mostly drunken people, is just not right! was she feeling sorry for herself? is she just a mean-spirited person?

i admit that i haven't known anyone who was blind. i haven't had much interaction with people who couldn't see, well or at all. though there was this one time, on campus in my first or second year of university. there were three blind students and i saw one of them, obviously turned around standing in the middle of the street. i went to help her get to the curb and she yelled at me saying that she could do it herself. that, i kept telling myself, was her being frustrated and not with me trying to help and that she would have done the same to anyone who tried to help her.

so there's frustration, which i can understand, and then there's the blind tripping girl. un.believable.

long weekend

this saturday was the HOPE beach volleyball tournament. unfortunately, the guy registering my team screwed up so i didn't get to play, but j did. he played with some people from work. they were in the competitive division and won every game until losing in the court final.



i didn't stay the whole time. i had to leave for a bit to pick up my race kit and get groceries. i was very tempted to nap but i was a trooper and went back to the tournament. i was, after all, the team's official photographer.

after quick showers we headed out for s's birthday. we went to the new heart and crown for food and drinks. because being out in the sun all day wasn't enough, j drank lots of beer and rye and coke. he was hilarious.



sunday morning we had to wake up early to get across town for my 5K race. i felt like i was the one nursing a hangover, but i was able to run and finished in under 30 minutes.



and sylvia, who has never run 5K finished in under 30 minutes too.



the four of us went out for breakfast. it would have been the perfect morning except my stomach wasn't happy. i'm blaming it on the crappy food i ate saturday.

after stopping in to see j's parents and cats we got home and fell asleep. i napped for almost 5 hours and felt terrific. j left me at home and went windsurfing. i hadn't showered after my race so i cleaned the bathroom. the cats weren't happy about being locked out of there, but them's the breaks, kitties!

i was obviously really tired because i was able to fall asleep before midnight. and now it's monday. back to work. i came in to find an email about my boss - she had her baby (a girl) and is doing well. we're still waiting to hear about another coworker who is due today.

and that's all for now.

trying times

in my head: testing, trying, challenging...
so i came up with 'trying times' as the title of this post. clever.

i wrote an exam today for a position here, at my work. it was an open-to-the-public posting that a million people applied for. i'm underqualified but decided to write anyways for the experience. turns out, the test was VERY general. i guess they want to create a large pool of "qualified" people. i say qualified, but if it was just based on that test, a monkey would be qualified. (watch i say this now and i don't get called for the interview!) anyways, we'll see how it goes.

last night was wonderful. i, of course, had a nap after work and woke up to an empty house. (where empty = four cats but not one single j) i took the car and went to a baseball game. my old team was playing and it was nice to see them all again. but no one wanted to come out for dinner so i went and bought myself a cosmo and had pho all by myself. it's the first time i've ever been to a restaurant (save a fast food restaurant) by myself and i have to say that i had a really good time.

and since i was reading all about make up and boys in the magazine, i decided to go across the street to the drugstore and talk to the nice girl about make up. and i actually bought some!

i'm telling you - this was a very strange night for me, but it was so good. i'm lucky enough to like myself and i'm at the point where i don't get a lot of time to myself (with the carpooling to and from work every day and the lack of sports (sports provide lots of time in the car driving to and from games alone) and stuff like that) so it was really nice to just do what i wanted to do when i wanted to do it. i felt like i was back in kingston, only with less studying-avoiding going on.

or maybe that's not true because i didn't study for my test today. hmmm, hadn't thought of that!

so that's my story. i have an hour left of work for today and then tomorrow's friday. it's been a long week with not enough sleep. but the weekend should be good. there's HOPE on saturday (i'm not playing but i'll be on the beach tanning) and then there's the 5K race sunday morning. not sure what sunday afternoon will bring but i'm hoping for some baby green herons!

so. very. tired.

we had a good anniversary. thanks to everyone who commented and called.



we got home from work and napped. we were both woken up by the phone ringing. again and again. we went and bought new sheets and had dinner at montana's. we tried to see a movie but were an hour or more early for anything good so we went home instead. we watched some tv and played some internet and went to bed. nothing startling, but what were you expecting from an old married couple?

happy anniversary! happy anniversary!

that's right - we just hit the three-year mark.

we made it from here:


to here:



not quite sure what the celebration plans are for tonight. i'm hoping for dinner and some sheet-shopping. and maybe a movie. that's what we've done the past two years. well, last year we bought a tent instead of sheets, but the dinner and a movie thing has been the same.

busy, but relaxing

point: i managed to remember that the 070707 flickr event was happening saturday and took some nice pictures. i'm trying to learn more about the digital slr camera so i'm playing around with the settings to see what the pictures look like. i really like the macro function. i can take pretty flower pictures.



point: we put up the curtains in our bedroom.



point: i went out and drank lots of beer saturday night.



point: we bought a cat brush called the zoom groom and i brushed half of rolo away.



point: i had a photoshoot with rolo and this is my new favourite picture of him.



point: i don't really have much to say. i had a good weekend. this coming weekend is hope saturday and my 5K sunday. it's pouring today and so is cold and damp in the office. i need to get some work done. and that's it. not mind-stimulating today. unless you like bug pr0n, that is.

bits and bites

funny story. we checked the mail yesterday and had three pieces from our car insurance company. they all had to do with the new car and were all addressed incorrectly. without giving away my address all i can say is that, among other mistakes, instead of "circle" they put "curcl". i'm not even kidding!



as expected this week has felt like an eternity. i've been going to bed late, getting to work on time (somehow) and then napping in the afternoon. it's a bad cycle because the napping leads to the going to bed late, which leads to the being tired during the day, which leads to the napping. you get the point. it's a spiral that's tough to break out of.

and it's all the weekend's fault. the weekend allows me to stay up late and sleep in. i don't know about you but i can't get up early if i don't have to. i am not a morning person, but that doesn't mean that i need 3 cups of coffee to be coherent. i'm good to go without a jolt of caffeine and i'd like to keep it that way.

it's my opinion that tim horton's is trying to take over the world, one cup of coffee at a time. have you ever noticed that there is always a line up at tim's? always. it's incredible. and it's just coffee. i really don't get it. and i don't want to.

i'm taking part in an internet photography thing tomorrow. it's a flickr group called 070707 where 7777 members take 7 pictures tomorrow, the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of the 21st century. the hardest part will be remembering that tomorrow is the day. the second hardest part will be taking 7 pictures of things that aren't my cats.

apparently tomorrow is considered a lucky day and is the most popular day this year to be getting married. in ottawa alone, 3 times the normal amount of weddings are taking place. imagine the actual number of weddings around the world taking place tomorrow. thousands? hundreds of thousands? either way, it's gotta be lots.

it's mine and j's anniversary coming up on tuesday, speaking of weddings. it rained a little on our wedding day, but that's supposed to be lucky. and we've lasted so far and that's more than some people can say.

and that's the end of my rambling thoughts for today. have a really good weekend and check back on monday.

paved road to mercury

i know the title doesn't make any sense. that's not so strange, is it?

we got home from work yesterday to a paved street. our street specifically. it was dark dark black and wonderfully smooth. and now the manhole covers don't stick up a foot past the pavement (we have two right in front of our house that were a little problematic). our street is finally looking complete.

and now for the mercury part: i went for a run last night and it was raining. the rain formed beads on the new pavement and looked like little balls of mercury. it was really neat.



the only other news i have is that i got an email about a written exam for a higher position at my current job. i'm excited but not too excited.

and am i ever looking forward to the weekend!

you know

you know how short weeks always feel even longer than regular weeks? why is that?

and you know how getting up on time for work on a monday after a long weekend is the hardest thing to do? i understand that one but i still hate hearing the alarm only a couple hours after falling asleep.

all that to say that yesterday was a long day but my nap after work was incredible. and then we went for dinner with a&s. it was really good food and great conversation. we definitely don't have groceries in the house, but we had a great time. and it was nice to see their little kitten again - she's grown but is nowhere near chester-size.

speaking of chester, i fed him and his sister before i went to work yesterday and j, who wasn't feeling well and stayed home, fed them again when he got up after 11am. oops! tricky cats can convince you they haven't eaten in days if they want. and they've learned that we come from upstairs so they'll wait at the top of the stairs, clawing at the door. our cats don't like that and patrol the door, even though it's closed.

and on an entirely different note, i'm frustrated with myself for not being active so i signed up for a 5K race in two weeks. it's the same weekend as HOPE so i knew we wouldn't be wanting to be out of town and it was only $20. $20 to get my ass in gear - perfect! anyone wanna run with me? it's sunday, july 15th at 9am.

there were some other races listed but i would really like to get out to the cottage or go camping at some point so i'm not signing up for anything else. speaking of the cottage, we have to find out if it's being used and when so we can work around that. ah the things to do.

fountain of youth

i'm not that old, but this weekend i felt young. like a teenager again.

a neighbour of ours went and bought $100 of fireworks and called us saturday night for a little preview. 6 of us made our way to a park a little down the main street from our houses. we set off 6 fireworks. just a teaser.

as we were walking to the park, i was feeling like we were teenagers. before we could drink and go to bars we used to walk around the neighbourhood lots. drunk, but that's not the point.

they were planning on setting off the rest of the fireworks sunday night after getting back from downtown. we didn't go out with them and were surprised when, last night, we got a call asking us to come to the park again. they hadn't set them off sunday. we were in luck.

so off we went, like teenagers again, joking at our rebelliousness (i'm making up words). this time, there were more people and we had over 20 fireworks to set off.

and then the cops showed up.

a cop car flew down the main road with its spotlight aimed at us, screeched to a stop at the park and the cop ran over. i couldn't believe it. he asked us all for id and got nervous about my hands being in my pockets. because i had a gun. obviously. at least that's what a concerned citizen called the cops about - the loud gunshots coming from the park. the day after canada day. with strange bright lights in the sky immediately following the bangs.

"hands out of your pockets!"
"show me some ID!!"

way to be contradictory. of course i didn't have id on me. we walked to the park. so he took my name and date of birth and everyone's names and ids and went and sat in his car for a while, no doubt checking us out. he finally came back out, gave our ids back and told us that it was a $400 fine for setting off fireworks in the city. of course we denied having set off anything other than sparklers, but the call about the gunshots and the garbage can full of exploded fireworks was working against us. but then he told us to be on our way. we took our time leaving.

and that is how to feel young again. walk to a nearby park. do something borderline illegal. get the cops called on you. give cops attitude. laugh about it the whole way home.

i hope your canada day had more fireworks and less cranky police officers.