Christmas 2008

Christmas was a little crazy this year. First there was the party with my dad's side of the family. It was out in the country at my cousin's boyfriend's house. There was pool and ping pong and darts and air hockey, food and wine and beer, and a silly gift exchange.



Next we had dinner with A&S and S&L. Good food, good company, cookies by the fire. A&S even surprised us with a gift each. J and I scored a crock pot! I've wanted one for a long time.



Christmas Eve we chose to skip a family dinner with J's family and instead go to LB's house for a dinner party. LB's family has a tradition where they get a bottle of vodka and go around the table during dinner doing shots until the bottle is gone. J, LB, SB's parents, JP and CC did the shots like champs and everyone was quite festive. We had a ton of food, vodka, wine and even saw Santa who came to give LB's 2-year-old son a present. I drove us home on sheer ice.



Christmas Day was busy. I woke up early, super excited to give J his present. Since we bought the piano we decided we weren't getting anything for each other, but I couldn't resist getting J a stuffed Wall-E and Eve from the movie Wall-E. They are so cute. J was surprisingly not hung over, so we headed over to his parent's house pretty early. We opened presents there and then went to his grandparent's house. We saw his whole family and opened more presents.

We left not long after lunch to head to my parent's place. We opened more presents there and had our first turkey dinner. The food was good and it was nice seeing my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and the deer.



After dinner we headed back to J's grandparent's house for another turkey dinner. J ate again like a champ but I couldn't handle more food. We were actually home pretty early, exhausted from the excitement of the day, and all the turkey, and happy to see Sandy.

Boxing Day we avoided the malls but bought some things online. We managed to score another dinner with family, but again were home pretty early to spend some time alone together. Seeing everyone is nice and that's what you do at Christmas, but it's also so nice having some time just lying on the couch in your own house.

Another couple of dinners with J's family to round out the Christmas week, but yesterday it was back to work, for a few days at least. Still trying to figure out plans for New Year's.

Pre-Christmas

The time leading up to Christmas is strange. People get a little crazy and put up all sorts of decorations and lights and start baking like it's their job. They go to malls and spend lots of money, finding that perfect gift. There are lunches and dinners and parties and gift exchanges and get togethers. And it all leads up to one day - Christmas.

Christmas is generally pretty chaotic. It used to be that I would rush home after finishing my last exam, start and finish all my shopping, see as many friends as I could, drink and be merry, and see my family for the traditional things. Things are different now that I'm out of school and living in my home town. I get my shopping done early, I hardly bother with cards and don't bake. I see some friends that come to town but I see more family. We sometimes rush between my family and J's family, but we try to balance the two as best we can.

We slowly get the house decorated for Christmas: putting up lights, putting out some candles, and eventually getting the tree up. The tree isn't a big deal because we don't have many ornaments (can't when you have cats).

I think the biggest thing for me around this time of year is seeing just how cranky people get. It goes against the whole idea of Christmas. I'm not a religious person, nor do I enjoy Christmas carols or eggnog for that matter, but people are just awful around Christmas. Our worlds move so quickly and to add all the obligations this time of year, often not-so-spectacular weather, and the stress of seeing everyone you possibly can... people just lose it. It's interesting.

All that to say, I'm happy it's almost Christmas. I've seen a bunch of family already and will see more in the days to come. I will give gifts and receive some. I'll eat all the turkey I possibly can and groan when my belly is too full. I'll avoid singing Christmas carols.

And then I'll be happy when it's all done and people can go back to being their regular selves, though full of turkey and eggnog.

A week and a bit in pictures

I went to my work's Christmas luncheon. It was at a reception hall down the street. It was incredibly snowy out so the turnout wasn't as great as last year. The food was good though and it was nice to socialize with the people I work with every day.



L&S hosted their annual Christmas party. J dipped into the red wine and showed everyone up at RockBand.



SM is a great host - there was lots of food and drinks and music.



J left Sunday afternoon for a week of training in Markham. I took the opportunity to go to Walmart (J hates Walmart). I drove all by myself (eee!) and roamed around the store. I was able to pick up Christmas presents for my family and didn't punch anyone in the head. Feeling a little more Christmas-y, I decorated the house.



I wasn't entirely alone this week. Monday night A&S came over for dinner and Wednesday night I went to J's grandparent's house for his aunt and uncle's birthday celebration. There was cake and lots of singing.



That night, I got home and parked in the road. It snowed a lot and the plow had come by. I went inside, said hi to Sandy, put on my snowpants and my new boots (thanks SJ!) and headed out. Our neighbours are out of town and we agreed to take care of their driveway and in return they've let us use their snowblower. I've never used one before, but I read the instructions and got it working. Our combined driveways are 4 cars wide and 3 cars long. That's a lot of driveway. I was thinking of just doing a little lane so I could get in and out, but a nice guy came by with his huge snowblower and helped me. In an hour the whole thing was done. And my feet were nice and toasty in my new boots.

After parking the car in the garage, I was getting out and snagged my headphones on part of the door. The earbuds ripped right off the wire. I had to root around to find another set so I wouldn't go crazy at work.



Thursday night after work, I headed into town (away from home) to meet S&L in Chinatown for dinner at Jadeland. It was the most chinese chinese food I've ever had. It was snowing again so driving wasn't the most fun but I got home eventually. Meanwhile J is in Toronto playing with fluffballs. What a tough life.



All in all, not a bad week. I have really great family and friends - thank you for taking care of me this week.

Back at it

I stopped going to the gym when I started training for my half marathon. That was back at the end of June. July, August and September, I ran my little heart out. I ran the race at the end of September then I promptly took up a more sloth-y lifestyle.

My gym membership expired at the end of September and I didn't bother to renew. I wasn't sure at that point what sports I would be doing, whether I would continue running outside all winter. I finally decided to not play hockey or volleyball this winter. I thought about trying a martial art or taking dance lessons, but shied away from both because they are complete unknowns.

Three weeks ago, I decided I would renew my gym membership. I also decided I would try and go to the gym three times a week - on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I managed to go the first Monday and Wednesday but was too sore to go that Friday. Last week I was good and went all three days. It feels nice to work hard and have sore muscles. I didn't realize how much I missed it.

Driving 101

My driving has been steadily improving. This is my last week with J in town so I made a bold statement Monday morning: I was going to drive to and from work each day this week! Monday was a little shaky. Tuesday it snowed and J decided it would be better if he drove. Yesterday was a little better. This morning I had no problem.

Being in stop-and-go traffic for multiple hours in one week is trial by fire. You either get it or you don't. I'm happy to say that I am much more confident driving than I was a week ago.

I even took the car out by myself for about an hour and a half (two 45 minutes trips) last night. My leg is really sore. I've been told you get used to clutching but still get shaky after about 30 minutes of stop and go.

I'm a little embarassed to say that while I was super new, I was completely unable to do anything other than drive. I would do something wrong, ask J why the car was shaking/making that weird noise/bucking around wildly, and not be able to listen to his response. It was sad. But now! Now I can carry on a conversation and the car doesn't suffer the consequences.

I am officially getting there. The true test will be next week when I am left to my own devices. I get nervous just thinking about it....

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

J and I loved the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show last year so when I got an email about pre-sale tickets forever ago, we bought some. Tickets for us and also for SM, LS and S&L.

J and I met S&L for pho before the show. Poor SM was doing a french test so the four of us met SM and LS at the show. We were sitting to the left of the stage, near the front.

The show was similar to last year's but still good. And this year they had a female violinist who was awesome. She made me want to play the violin so I can only imagine what the boys were thinking.

The lights were crazy. I'm almost sure I had a seizure at one point when the bright white lights were flashing.



The best part though was when three of the members of the band "entered the stage" by being lowered down from the rafters on these platforms. That was fun.

I would recommend the show when they come back next year.

4th Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange

This year I decided to do two cookie exchanges - one for my friends and one for my baseball girls. Two Sundays ago was the first of the two with the non-baseball girls. There were six of us, all decked out in red, white and green. It was nice having a smaller group - better conversation and fewer cookies (too many cookies and you end up feeling sick).

The boys were in the basement killing zombies and rocking out, while we were drinking wine, munching on cookies and having a good time. The cookies were incredible. Two cookies tied for first place so when the boys came up they weighed in on the voting and SM and JY ended up figuring out a winner.



Good times.

(Cookie Exchange 2008 - Whole Set)

This past Sunday was the cookie exchange with the baseball girls. Again, there were 6 of us. It was so nice to see the girls again. Lots of the cookies had nuts though so I stuck to three kinds.



(Sharks Cookie Exchange - Whole Set)

My absolute favourite cookie of the year was JK's mint chocolate chip cookies. JK, you are MY winner!

Madly

I have been madly uploading and putting descriptions on pictures so I can post about some of the things I've been doing lately. It's a slow process when you don't do it often. And now it's time for bed SO I will have posts with pictures for you next time.

I'm such a tease.

Believe me

Believe me when I say that I've been busy. I do things, I work hard, I play hard then I come home and do not want to write about it. But I will. So much is going on these days and I think I'm getting sick but I will still go to work and I will still go to the gym and I will still do the million and one things I have to do because that's what you do. And I will tell you about it, at least the summary, at some point. I might even include some pictures, if I get around to uploading them. Oof.

Running out of time

I feel like I am running out of time. There are things that I have to do or be able to do by a certain date. For example, I have to bake 4 dozen cookies by 7pm tonight and I have to know how to drive the new car by December 15th. It's amazing what a little pressure will do.

The cookies I chose for tonight - for my 4th annual Christmas Cookie Exchange - are called Chocolate Crinkle. I tested out the recipe earlier this week and got good feedback from the test subjects (my and J's coworkers). I meant to bake them yesterday so I wouldn't have to worry about it today, but that didn't happen. So this morning I made the dough and threw it in the fridge. Not sure why it has to be refrigerated, but it does. I am a good girl and follow instructions. Three hours later, time to bake! I haven't done the final count, but I have well over the 4 dozen cookies required for the exchange. Phew!

The car. I have been out driving a bunch of times, always with J and hardly on big roads. Mostly at night too when there are fewer cars on the road. I tend to get a little panicky when I have someone behind me. I hate that I can't always get going as fast as I'd like to and I'm always worried about stalling. But I'm getting there and actually took the little car out on my own today. I went to the grocery store (I'm positive J will be ecstatic when he doesn't always have to do groceries with me) to pick up some food and some prizes for tonight.

I made it there and back without stalling and actually only had one hitch - I tried to start it in 3rd gear again. And succeeded! But bad. I know that. I wish there was a little thing on the dash that would show me what gear I was in. Without J in the car I tend to talk to myself.. you know, the typical pep talk: "I can do this! I'm doing great! I haven't stalled yet - it's a miracle!" When I finally get back home and turn off the car, I feel a big sense of accomplishment and of relief. Eventually driving won't be so hard.

Maybe I'm not running out of time after all....

Piano Man

J is the new piano man.



This is our new piano - a Roland digital. It's black. That's all I know.

Oh, that and J is a happy camper. Good enough for me.

Jo-Ninja!

I joke with my coworkers that I'm so stealthy that I'm actually a ninja. We've had many conversations that end with people rolling around on the floor - apparently the idea of me being a ninja is hilarious. J just might sometimes call me a "clomper-saurus" among other, non-ninja names.

So anyways, this comes up at least once a week, me being all ninja-esque. So much so that one day this week, a coworker of mine came into my office with a huge gron on her face. She tells me to close my eyes and put out my hand. I'm a little worried, but also expecting chocolate.

I open my eyes and see this:



It's a JoNinja. It's so cute.



But as you can see from the tag that came with my little JoNinja, you're supposed to attach it and its little bell to your enemies so they can't sneak up on you. I've attached it to my purse which completely defeats the purpose. Ah well, it's really cute.



And I have a genius plan for my little joninja - I'm going to take it on our future trips and take pictures of it around the world, a la gnome from the travel commercials. You know the ones. Little JoNinja, you are giong to be a world traveller!

Blogging from the couch

It's Friday night. The work week is done and I'm lying on the couch with my sleeping husband and purring cat, watching tv and catching up on the internets. Heaven. It was a long week.

My big news from this week is that I started a project at work. When I spoke with my boss last week, I was told that I would abandon my current work and take on this project. Because of this and that, I took on the project but wasn't able to get rid of my workload. Like I said, it was a long week.

And my eye is twitching.

I've got it in my head that my eye twitch may not be due to stress but due to eye strain. That's why I got my glasses so I decided to actually wear them. I've been bad about wearing them unless I feel pain, like when I watch movies at home. So I was good and wore them this week. I had a ton of people comment.. I obviously don't wear them often.

So after work today, J and I stopped at the new pho place between work and home. It was nice. Then we went to the piano store and bought a piano. No kidding. It's being delivered Tuesday so I will have pictures and the whole story then.

Now I'm catching up on tv and couch-lying. It's going to be a good night.

It's short

I knew I wanted to cut my hair. I didn't know how short. I went to my regular girl, told her I wasn't sure. She combs it out, pulls it and puts the scissors against my hair. "How about here?" she asks. "Sure" I said. Turns out, that was really high up because I have super short hair now.



I've had it shorter and I will get used to it. We'll just have to see how it goes tomorrow morning when I'm left to my own devices for making it look good. No more throwing it back in a pony tail.

Yaris!

We've been thinking for a while about trading in the Mazda 3 for something smaller, more fuel efficient. We test-drove a whole bunch of cars a couple of months ago and decided on the Yaris. Because it's near the end of the year, we thought it was a good time to buy. We went in a couple of weeks ago to see if we could get a 2008. The saleswoman wouldn't even check for one. The next week, J called another dealership and spoke with the manager. This guy was awesome; he found us a car, got it shipped to town, and gave us good service the whole time. We got a decent value for the 3 on the trade in and walked away with a brand new car.



It's a 2008 Toyota Yaris 5-door hatchback RS. It's a cute little black thing, apparently more peppy than J was expecting.



I can't comment myself because I haven't driven it. It's a manual transmission - I've driven stick before but not often enough to feel comfortable. I'm confident that I will learn quickly but I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for myself for losing a bit of my freedom when we handed over the keys to the 3.

Here we are, all happy in our new wheels:

Thank you

A big thank you to our family and friends who have been SO supportive this past week. Like they say, when it rains it pours and we definitely have had a rough go.

Our little family is recovering. Sandy is almost her usual self. She is a little clingy and a little loud, but she is coping. She's even spending more time with J than she did before. I think she can tell he needs the lovin just as much as I do.



Life goes on and that means dealing with things like a broken dishwasher. Our dishwasher, which we bought when we got the house less than two years ago, is already broken. A guy came last week but the replacement motor he brought wasn't the right one and so he left with the promise that he'll order the correct motor and will be back. We haven't heard from him yet. So two people that hate cleaning in general and dishes specifically have been doing dishes only when absolutely necessary. Where are the dish fairies?



Hallowe'en also came and went. This is what I think about that:



But ducks make me happy. We went with S&L and A to Mud Lake and saw plenty of ducks. It was a nice day and I'm glad we got out.



Poor S (of A&S) couldn't join us so we went over after our walk and hung out and eventually pigged out on chinese food.

Whole set - Mud Lake.



And the big news round here is that we bought a new car. We should have it next week so stay tuned....

Wednesday

Wednesday was one of the worst days of my life. It started out like any regular work day; J and I got out of bed, showered, and were getting ready when we heard a bang from downstairs. With cats, this isn't abnormal. Our dishwasher stopped working so the sink was full of dishes. It sounded like Rolo fell into the sink. J went down to check it out.

Rolo was in the sink, on top of the dishes, not moving. J screamed Rolo's name and when he did it a second time I knew something was wrong. J was panicking and I was yelling at the voicemails of multiple vets that were greeting my desperate calls. We packed up our lifeless cat into a carrier and hopped in the car.

Of course it had to be the day after the first snowstorm of the year and the drive to the vet took way too long. We were both in shock but determined to make it to the vet. J did an awesome job of keeping the car on the road and I did a good job at yelling at all the innocent people driving to work like they do every morning.

We finally got to the vet and answered all the same questions they asked when I finally got a live person on the phone on the drive over. They showed us to an exam room, but only a minute later ushered us into another room with couches. That's when I lost it. That's when it became real.

The vet came in, delivered the bad news. Rolo had died, most likely from a heart attack. Would we like to see him? I surprised myself by saying I would. They brought him in and we held him and consoled each other for I don't know how long, cursing the "couch room" the whole time.

Again, J stepped up and paid the vet and somehow got us home safely. We spent the day alternating beween mind-numbing quiet and all-out sobbing. I have never felt as broken and I have never seen such pain in J's eyes. It was absolutely awful.

Thanks to our wonderful friends who came by with food (I would not have eaten had it not been for you) and who came to spend some time with us. We needed your support and you definitely delievered.

It's going to take a while before we're back to normal. For now, we don't want to talk about it. We don't want to answer questions. Mostly, we want our lives to be as normal as possible. We will tell you if there's anything you can do.

Rolo was our little brown buddy. He was incredibly soft and cuddly, he loved water and had a touch of OCD. Tuesday night, he ran around with Sandy being all crazy and he slept with us, and Wednesday morning, he licked the water after my shower and while I brushed my teeth and purred with J after his shower. He was a happy little cat right to the end. My heart is broken.

Weekly blogger

I don't know what it is but I haven't felt much like blogging lately. But that's not all; I haven't felt much like working or going out either. I think it might have to do with the changing seasons.. it's getting colder and darker and I just want to curl up on the couch with the cats.

That's exactly what I did with myself last Wednesday and Thursday nights when J was still out of town on training. I didn't choose to be alone so I was lonely. Really lonely. And the worst part is that he leaves again this Sunday for another course. Another week alone.

But Friday was nice. I got into work early so I got to leave early. I was home maybe half an hour when J got home. It was so nice to see him. We celebrated by spending the night together - we went out for dinner, did some shopping (I got a new coat) and hung out. The cats were possibly more happy than I was to see J, especially Rolo who would not stop purring.



Saturday J convinced me that he should put up the Christmas lights. I'm thinking it's only October, he's thinking Christmas!!! We don't always see eye-to-eye when it comes to Christmas things. He started putting up the lights, but didn't finish. We did a little more shopping before heading over to S&L's for a lazy Saturday.

Sunday was a weird day. We got home early afternoon. The cats were obviously super happy to see us. J was running around like mad trying to do laundry so he would have clean boxers and socks to wear to work Monday. I thought I would nap. I had just fallen asleep when S&L came over. They were looking at open houses and were using our place as home base for houses in our area.

We went and saw the grossest, most disgusting house I've ever set foot in. The previous owners went bankrupt and obviously didn't clean ever. It was so gross. I gagged when we went to the basement because of the smell. Too bad because the house is on a nice street and isn't a bad layout, but to make it live-able, S&L would have to spend big bucks. Not worth it. Things picked up from there when we went through model houses, which are always spotless and decorated all nice.

Next was birthday dinner for J's dad at his grandparents' place. We were both exhausted but lasted through dinner and cake and presents and puppy licks. Not much longer. We left and only stopped to get some much-needed fruit before getting home and collapsing into bed.



Monday (yesterday) night, J decided to change the headlights in the car. One of the HIDs had burnt out (or was otherwise not working) and J wants to put the car back to stock so we can use it as a trade in on a new car (more on that later). I watched tv while he worked away. Changing the headlights is not a small task with our car.



The big news from today is that I had an interview this morning. It was the most relaxed interview I'd ever had. Two managers (females in their early 30s) asked me a bunch of standard questions and since my current job is so similar to this one, my examples were all recent and relevant. I think it went well. I will have to do some soul-searching if offered the position, weigh out my options, but I will deal with that if and when it happens.

It was rainy and gross all day but then it snowed. For the first time this year and it's still going. The snow isn't just melting when it hits the ground, it's coating the whole world in white. Insane.




Now we're all caught up. I can't say it won't be another week before I post again, but you never know.

Lots and lots

Lots has happened since I last posted, and even before that since I was trying to catch up on posting about the wedding. Let's start with Thanksgiving. Since J and I started dating back in 2001, this year's Thanksgiving was the least busy. We had one family dinner and that's it. Good thing too since we were in Hawkesbury for most of the weekend. We were home Sunday for I can't remember how long before heading to my parent's place. My brother, SA, was in town (he was in Slovakia last year so it was nice to have him there) with his girlfriend, M. We did the typical family things: took a group picture, had dinner, played cards.



I had diet coke spilled all over me and J got two magnets caught on his arm hair. Never uneventful. J also made a giraffe out of the pieces holding my wedding bouquet together (the bouquet found a new life in my parent's house).



We didn't have other family dinners because J's family was all out of town.


J and I went for a hike with S&L on Pine Grove Trail. I think that was the holiday Monday. Thank goodness for that day. It was a day of recovery and laundry. The hike was nice.



(Whole set - Pine Grove Trail)

The week after the wedding and Thanksgiving I hardly went to work. I stayed home feeling like crap. At least the cats were happy and I was happy to catch up on all the tv I'd missed the week before.

I was finally feeling more like myself Friday so we had S&L over for dinner. Saturday we went to a party at LS&S's place (J works with LS). I hadn't seen that group of people forever and one of the couples had recently gotten engaged so there was lots to talk about.

Sunday we went to Little Italy for brunch with S&L. We stopped at the Arboretum on the way home. The weather was perfect and I got to climb the big beautiful tree that I had only seen from the street (while driving, biking, busing or running past).



(Whole set - The Arboretum)

After the Arboretum, we picked up J's rental car. Now he's in Toronto for training. He left Sunday afternoon and will be back Friday night. We've been talking using Skype which is really nice.



People have been taking good care of me this week. His parents fed me Sunday night, S came over to hang out Monday night and S&L fed me last night. Tonight was my first night alone.. well, alone with the tv and the cats. Rolo has really been missing J but he cuddled up with me tonight. Sandy is under him under the blanket.



Only two more nights alone.


If you're interested, the Ski Show is happening this weekend.

A&S Get Hitched

We woke up early and started getting ready. Well, L and I did. S woke up, stumbled to breakfast and came back to the room and J didn't get up at all. Slacker.

L and I packed up the car and left the boys. We met the girls at the hair salon. It was three or four hours of standing and sitting and talking and finally getting our hair done.

Then we went to one of A's aunt's houses to get ready. J was super and brought us food while we put on our make up and dresses and got S all ready to go. We did some pictures in the garden outside then hopped in the car and headed to the church.



The ceremony went well. A only cried a little (sorry A, but it was really cute!) and S's voice held up so her vows were not only in Dutch but in a sexy gravelly voice.



Here they are, all married and happy:



After a group shot at the church, we headed to the golf course for the photos. For me, it was a very strange thing. We were hanging out; A&S, their families, the wedding party... and so many of those people were couples. J was at the hall setting up the photobooth and taking pictures. I felt incredibly lonely and I didn't have my camera and feel like I missed about a million great pictures.

After pictures, it was almost time for dinner. We were like celebrities and were introduced as we entered the hall. It was fun. Dinner was good, the speeches were good, the slideshow S's dad did was funny. J MC'd very well, even after a lot of wine. Then we danced. We danced until the hall closed.

It was a great time. Congratulations A&S and thank you for including me in your big day. I can't wait to see all of T's pictures.


My whole set on Flickr.

A&S Rehearsal Day

Rehearsal day started off with almost an entire day of work. J and I left a little before 3pm and took the scenic route to Hawkesbury. We got to town with enough time to check into the hotel before heading to the church. We found the church okay and found our friends. The rehearsal went well: we walked, we stood, we sat, we listened and we talked. It was interesting.. not something I'd ever done before.

We got to meet S's family, which was nice. Then we went to a local restaurant for dinner. After dinner, A&S gave each couple in the wedding party a bottle of wine and an AH Photography original framed picture. I'm hoping it will go over our fireplace.



After dinner, we went to the golf club to finish decorating the hall. There wasn't much left to do so we played around with the photobooth set up.



The original plan was to head out to the only club in town, but with (almost) everyone feeling somewhat sick we opted to go back to the hotel instead. S&L and J and I were sharing a room (the only way L and I could convince the boys to stay in town that night) and I definitely pulled the sleep-over giggle fit when the lights went out. I'm extremely mature.

Everyone was really excited for the big day and it was only one sleep away.

Cirque du Soleil!

I've always wanted to see a Cirque show and last night I finally did! Corteo is playing in town so J and I went with S&L (I should mention that L is NOT sick unlike what I implied in my previous post and J is no longer sick.)

After work yesterday, J and I went to Moore's to buy him a tie for the wedding tomorrow. It's black with orange in it to match my dress. He's going to look sharp.

Because of our stop and some crazy insane traffic we didn't get home as early as expected and so I scrambled to make us food before we had to leave. There was tuna helper in the cupboard so I made that. BIG mistake. J smelled it and remembered that it had made him sick last winter. I ate half of my bowl and felt gross.

With upset bellies we hopped in the car. The show was right beside a big mall so we stopped in and bought Pepto. Friends, my first Cirque show and my first gulp of Pepto all in the same night. The Pepto was disgusting but my stomach did feel better.

Now, the show! The show was incredible! If you can make it out, you really should go. The athleticism, musicality, and strength of all the performers was spectacular. I'm not the gushy kind of person, but it really was an amazing show. Oh, and the abs on the guys... wow.

Maybe because I grew up doing ballet and gymnastics (possibly something you didn't know about me) I left there wanting to run away and join the circus. I'm not sure what I would specialize in exactly, but it would be something cool. It was all pretty cool.

This was our last outing before the big wedding this weekend. We got home from the show after a quick stop at McDonalds (you know, some quality food after the dinner from hell) and started packing. The plan is to leave this afternoon from work, get to town in time for the rehearsal at the church, check into the hotel before dinner and then collapse into bed. I am sick you know. Or maybe we'll hit up the only club in town. I made sure to pack my dancing shoes.

Gatineau Park - Fall Colours

Even though we're all sick, S&L and J and I decided to head over to Gatineau to hike around Pink Lake. This was an afternoon dealie because we (J and K) like our sleep-ins. We met at the info center to get a map. Very useful.

Until you go off the map. That's right, off roading. The Pink Lake parking lot was full so we kept driving until we came to the Mackenzie King Estate. We hiked around the area where Mackenzie King lived (? I'm not really sure. I didn't actually read any of the information plaque things that are everywhere. Oops.) and took some trails that weren't on the little map we had. No matter, we're adventurers.



It was the perfect day though, just chilly enough for me to wear my tuke! There's something so comforting about the first tuke-wearing day of the year. That could be just me....



But really, the weather was beautiful and being outside was a nice break from being a sickie inside. Though after 2 hours or however long we were out there, we were ready for the couch. But not before getting food. We stopped at The Works. I think they should have named the burger I chose the "messiest, don't eat this in front of cute boys" burger. I was covered in sauce but it was delicious.

We watched Iron Man and all tried to stay awake. Party animals I tell you. I had only seen one preview for the movie, but really liked it.


Check out the whole set from our hike on Flickr.

Sharks year-end party, only 3 months late

Our summer baseball season ended a long time ago.. I don't even think we played a game in August so our year-end party was a tad on the late side. But we're all busy and blahblahblah, but we finally picked a date and decided on a potluck. Party was set for Friday night at BC's house.

Because I wasn't feeling well all week I wasn't really looking forward to making something, and let's be honest, I don't like cooking / baking on the best of days. I finally decided on a frozen lasagna that I threw in the oven as soon as I got home from work so it would be mostly cooked by the time I had to leave. We also had baked brie, fruit and cake dipped in chocolate and salad (best salad ever and I have the recipe).



There was cake and cookies for dessert. Good food, as always.



Not everyone could make it and actually only 6 of us were there. It was really nice seeing everyone and seeing BC's new house and new puppy and new turtles. Turtles!

More running

So the 5K race went really well. RS and I made our way over in time for race kit pickup. There were three government departments participating. We were given a long sleeved yellow shirt, our timing chips and our bibs then we stood around until the race started. It was windy and cold and even rained for a bit. If I wasn't sick before, I sure would be after.

We debated over how many layers to keep on. I erred on the side of caution and kept on everything (three shirts and a sweatshirt). I was a huge, yellow marshmallow.

We lined up with the other runners in a sea of yellow. A cannon was fired and we ran. The course took us along roads, through parking lots, through the forest single file, along the river and back to the building. I crossed the finish line in just under 28 minutes, being cheered on by L who came to watch and RS who finished a good 5 minutes before me. He actually finished 15th overall.

Here we are, back at the office, giddy to be big yellow monsters in cubicle land:



It was interesting to run in a small race. There were under 200 people running (almost 500 total for the 5K and the 2.5K walk). Everyone got a door prize (I put my pedometer to use already) and hung around for the awards ceremony afterwards. It was fun.