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.

on the integration of the herd

as you all know, we have currently four cats in our house. thankfully our little house comes with a basement, complete with a door. our two little cats are free to roam the main floor and the second floor while the two intruders, aka j's parent's cats, are living in the basement suite. this is working out okay and thankfully isn't a permanent situation.

without central air, our house heats right up. the basement is the coolest place in the house but our cats can't go down there so they're left to melt upstairs while we slink down there after work to hopefully not wake up in the pile of sweat that would be napping on the ground floor or second floor. if both me and j are in the basement our cats sit at the door and howl. it's cute at first but i break down and go back upstairs.

anyways, a minor inconvenience.

but, the bigger problem is that we can't physically spend enough time with each cat. the result? all four are starved for attention and shedding like mad.

it would be awesome if they could all live in harmony, as one big herd, so a couple of nights ago we let our cats into the basement. here's how it went:

- chester (big white male) was on the couch
- sydney (round gray female) was on the floor
- sandy (cute orange female) and rolo (svelt brown male) made their way downstairs

sandy got downstairs, realized something was off and stayed near the stairs, even going back up a couple. rolo made a slow and low to the ground beeline for sydney. a potential mate, we're thinking he's thinking. chester stayed on the couch, not seen by either sandy or rolo. rolo has eyes only for sydney.

rolo makes his way over to syd who is hissing and growling something fierce. rolo just wants to sniff her but she kepps slowly moving away. finally she runs around the couch. rolo chases her and comes face to face with chester who has leapt to the ground.



rolo and chester face off in a screaming match. you should have heard them - they were both emitting this high-pitched growl/howl without opening their mouths. after about 5 minutes of the howl-fest, we scooped up rolo and sandy and brought them back upstairs. seems like the herd mentality will take some time to form. we have just over a week left.

unveiling - the new car

lumi

almost right after i got my license i got my own car. it was a 1984 pontiac parisienne (think huge boat of a car). the way my family worked was that we had three cars, all pieces of crap, but 3. my brother and i had to drive ourselves to all of our sports and my mom was an on-the-road salesman. it worked out. the pontiac lasted a while and was eventually replaced with a 1992 chevrolet lumina, or lumi.

the saturn

shortly after j and i started dating, his parents bought a new car and the old family car was given to him, a 1992 saturn sl1. so, for as long as we've been together, we've each had our own car.

mazda 3

until 2005. at the end of 2004 i was starting to have trouble with lumi so we bought the mazda 3.



r.i.p. lumi

we didn't actually get the mazda until february but by then lumi was no more. the poor car would shut down while i was driving along and would sometimes emit a cloud of black smoke from the steering wheel - try driving with that in your way!

hello turbo

spring 2005 was when j installed the turbo in the 3. you know, zoomzoomzoom! after a solid week he got it working. all of a sudden we had to put 94 octane in the car and fill up almost twice as often.

good bye saturn

the summer of 2005 we decided that we didn't really need two cars, especially with the mazda being new (and therefore reliable) so we shipped the car out to j's sister.

having only one car was mostly okay, we learned to coordinate everything and bum rides when we both had things to do. this was easy once i knew enough people who lived near us.

welcome back saturn

there were times over the next year that having only one car was tricky. i know it caused some tension so we decided to start looking for another car. something good on gas. then j's sister gets a job overseas and gives us back the saturn.

r.i.p. saturn

only problem is that the saturn can't be safetied. we donated it the fire station about a month ago. there were tears in j's eyes as we drove off in the mazda.

goodbye turbo

j decides it's time to get rid of the turbo so him and a friend take a whole saturday in earlier this month and put the car back to stock. back to putting regular gas in the car less often. beautiful!

we drive to hawkesbury to sell it.

rex

we still wanted a second car and j was feeling sad without a turbo so he went on auto trader and found the perfect little car. introducing our new 1987 mazda rx-7:



we bought it before we left for bc but only picked it up this past monday night. it still isn't plated and is sitting in the garage. it is a two door, "2 cylinder" (aka rotary engine), turbo charged sports car. it needs no work to run and will be easy to sell when the time comes.

and there you have it, a short history of the cars we've owned.

trip wrap up

i am incredibly busy at work (it's always this way after spending time away) so this will be short. all of my pictures are up on my flickr site.

we flew to bc.



we saw titanica at the imax.



we surfed in tofino.



we saw colourful sea creatures.



we hugged trees in cathedral grove park.



we napped with kitties.



we* swam in the sooke river.



* j swam. i did not. *

we took a harbour ferry.



we admired the sunset over the clouds from the plane on the way home.



and now we're home. the basement cats are no longer hissing at each other but all four are getting very curious about who's on the other side of the door to the basement.

ah vacations....

we're home

we're home and home is so nice. i can't believe we stopped smelling the new house smell because it's still here. it's so nice to be back. we came home last night (thanks for the ride, s&j!) to a paved driveway and a tree in front of our house. plus the super excited kitties.

we landed just before 11pm, got home just before midnight, dumped our stuff and said hello to our cats, dropped the other cats in the basement suite, and headed out for food. mcdonalds was one of the only things open so we crammed gluteny goodness in our bellies. we were parked in the mcdonalds parking lot, stuffing our faces, when two bike-cops came by. i guess there's been some stuff going on near our old place to warrant having cops on bikes. and i'm talking bicycles here. good thing we weren't drinking or anything.

we got home before 1am and decided it would be good for j's parent's cats if we hung out with them in basement. i didn't mention this earlier, but the new tree meant that we didn't have phone, internet or cable tv. love the tree, hate the incompetent tree installer guys. so with no internet to distract us, a movie sounded good. we sat down, our cats locked OUT of the basement, but didn't get very far because of all the screaming. our babies were obviously lonely. so i went upstairs and hung out with them. it was good because i was able to unpack everything and get the house cleaned up while j was able to stay with the newbies for the transition scary-new-house phase.

and now we're here. the cable guy came while i was out shopping. that's right - i went out and bought clothes for myself!! we have internet and phone and tv again so it will only be a little longer until i can get all the pictures onto my flickr site. sit tight!

home coming

we're heading home tomorrow and i have to say that i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready (spongebob reference). this has been an amazing week. we ended it off with a trip downtown today. we did some shopping and ate lunch then walked along the harbour. we went through the undersea gardens and saw the live show with the diver in the aquarium. then we took a harbour ferry most of the way back home and walked the rest of the way.

i was thinking that this week i've gotten outside more than normal and the air here is less muggy. it's refreshing, but at the same time i can't wait to be back in the hot hot heat of the summer in ottawa. victoria is pleasant and comfortable but just not summer-hot. the sweat-as-soon-as-you-leave-conditioned-air hot. you know, hot hot.

what i'm not looking forward to is going back to work. but you knew that.

wetsuits are actually wet

okay, i never knew that you got wet when wearing a wet suit. now don't laugh, i don't think this is intuitive at all. i thought it was a suit you wore in the wet, which it is. i just didn't realize what kept you warm was the layer of water against your skin. so, if you didn't know that, now you do and now you don't have to feel stupid - i didn't know either.

when surfing in canada, you need a wetsuit. all year long. the water was about 12 degrees but the air was a little warmer. we booked our lessons with surf sister, a little, female-run surf shop out off tofino. the surf was unrelenting but not too big. i was able to stand a bunch of times, but took a weird fall and hurt my back a little, just muscle though. we have a bunch of good pictures, some funny ones of us in our wetsuits.

victoria to tofino is about ottawa to toronto, but with more mountains. on the way out there yesterday, we saw lots of big birds and actually saw a cougar!! it was incredible - the cat was SO huge. in tofino we saw lots of anemones and starfish. i couldn't believe how brightly-coloured the anemones and starfish are - green, blue, purple, pink and orange. and then on the drive home we stopped at cathedral grove and saw a black slug and the biggest tree.. it was huge!

the best part of this vacation is that i feel like we've been here for weeks already. it's been so relaxing and that's exactly what i needed. we have some more things planned for the next couple of days, but nothing too big. i've mostly given up on whale-watching because we're not in the right season and it's super expensive. the cougar mroe than made up for that! so that's the story for now.

the titanic sank

we went downtown today to the museum to see the titanic imax movie. the movie itself wasn't great. it really seemed like they only had so much footage of the wreck so they had to fill the rest of the time - only 45 minutes - with fluff. the exhibit though was good. when you went in they gave you a boarding pass so you were one of the passengers. it made it more real.

there was a lot of walking and my feet are kinda sore but a big dinner and a nap solved that.

i'm finding that i'm really missing my cats. and that is all.

vacation postings

the title of this post just made me realize that i haven't finished telling you about our costa rica trip and for that i am sorry. but now, currently, i am in bc on another vacation. i always wanted to do this: vacation as much as i could while still getting paid for it. you better believe that everytime i get another vacation day credited to me, i promptly book it. i'm even considering taking unpaid leave just to get away from the day-to-day that i'm finding so very draining.

but back to the vacation. we arrived in victoria on time, which is a miracle considering i almost made us miss our flight out of ottawa. we got up on time and were ready to leave when the cabbie rang the doorbell at 5:50 this morning. we got to the airport just after 6am for our 7am flight. we checked in and got through security with no problems. i left j in the terminal to go buy a book and some orange juice. on my way back to him, we passed, apparently he was hungry and in search of food. that's when i realized i no longer had the sweatshirt i had brought. i went and found him and we argued about the orange juice for a while and then i left the orange juice with him and went back to the check in area and found my sweatshirt. this is all very intriguing, i know. i made crankypants j stand in line at the tim hortons to get a muffin hoping that it would make him chill out a little. because we had tons of time. obviously. the line was long and we ended up talking to some strangers for a while and on our way back to the terminal we heard our names being called over the pa system. apparently, boarding had started half an hour earlier and we were the last ones to board the plane.

then j fired me from being the trip planner. the best thing is that he didn't even tell me that i was in charge of getting us on the plane on time in the first place so i maintain that it's half his fault. ah the joys of travelling.

but all that to say that we didn't miss our flight and now we can laugh about my poor organizing skills. or my timing skills. or whatever i'm lacking. at least they pronounced my name properly. that was nice.

we had no problems from ottawa to toronto, no problems in the toronto airport and no problems from toronto to victoria. we both slept for part of the long flight but were still super exhausted when we got in. we ate some food and then napped.

the cats warmed up to us pretty quickly and are now acting as if we never left. chester, the big white male cat, is huge and SO white! sydney, the small but huge gray female, is bristly and sad looking, but friendly.

i've been reading up on some places we might visit but still haven't figured out actual plans for our week here. thankfully, we have free accomodations and food (fully gluten free for a week - watch out cheeseburgers, i'm coming for you when i get home!) so we have some money to play around with. i'm thinking surfing, whale watching and trail hiking. it is cooler here than ottawa but nowhere near as humid. i'm hoping for some beach lounging as well. beach lounging will hopefully lead to tanned skin. here's hoping. so stay tuned - these free accomdations have wireless internet ripe for the picking (who actually says that anyways?) and possibly for the picture downloading. we shall see.

honestly time, where did you go?

the time is flying by. all of a sudden it's the day before we leave and i'm not ready. i'm sitting at my desk, freezing because i forgot a sweater today, blogging instead of working. and there are things to do at home but once i get home i'm so tired that i don't do them. it's awful.

and that, my friends, is why i need a vacation.

so, vacation i will!

j's parents are flying us out to victoria, bc so that we can fly the cats home. his parents are moving back here but are driving across the country and don't want to take the cats with them. we will house the cats.

this is somewhat complicated by the fact that our two cats have food out all the time but the other two are fed twice a day. we will have them separated full-time at first, but will likely have them running as a herd by the end of the two weeks.

but before all that, we get to spend a week in bc. at first i really wanted to see everything i could, but now, in this exhausted state, i really just want to find a nice beach and lie on it for the whole week. is that so wrong?

but i'm guessing, i will spend a day or two lounging around and then be rested enough to want to do some things. i'm hoping so at least.

long (car) weekend

it wasn't supposed to be, but i didn't get out of bed yesterday and made it, a long weekend. i was tired. let me break it down for you.

friday
we went to m&m to meet up with some mazda people. i hadn't been since last year so it was nice seeing some of those people again. i would like to say it was nice meeting the new people, but i really didn't do a whole lot of socializing. we did play with a guy's camera and took some long exposure shots of the car while j ran around it with his blue led flashlight.



saturday
we went to my family's annual cottage party saturday. it was fun like always and j got to break out his windsurfer for the first time this year. the wind wasn't strong enough but he was in the water so he was happy.



sunday
sunday was de-turbo the car day. me, being a smart cookie, decided that we should rent a car before getting started so that we could get to work monday morning if it didn't go well. (this is not me being pessimistic, this is me learning from experience... the putting-the-turbo-in experience.) so j, with the help of d, took the turbo out and put the car back together and had it working in only 9 hours. we were able to take the rental back that night and only paid for the one day.



monday
well, like i said, i slept in and didn't go to work yesterday. work has been charging ahead, day after day, leaving me tired. so i spent the day at home, with my cats, in my pyjamas. beautiful. later on, we were out and about, looking at lawn mowers and patio furniture, when j's cell phone rang. j found a 1987 mazda rx-7 for sale on auto trader and had been emailing the seller. he could finally have us over to see the car. we raced over and ended up buying the car. we can't pick it up until after our holidays (we leave friday for bc) but j's super excited.

and that sums up our weekend. we've had a whole lot going on related to cars but soon enough things will settle. we have the mazda 3 back to stock and we will have the turbo sold and the rx-7 bought. and we've already thought of a name for the new car. i will wait for the official unveiling.

you didn't think they could actually win, did you?

so the sens lost. i can't say i'm all that surprised. i was more surprised that they did well for as long as they did.



and then i did what, i'm guessing, not a whole lot of people do, and took pictures of my tv. but really, let's pretend i was actually at the game. i wasn't. i'm not very good at pretending.

r.i.p. saturn

this little blue car is a 1992 saturn sl1 that j's family bought new. it has been in the family ever since and was the first car j drove and the first car he owned. he bought it from his parents in 2003 and a couple of years later, when we got the mazda, he sold it to his sister. she signed it back over to us right before she left but it can't be safetied (or would be too expensive) so the decision was made to get rid of it. j looked around for options and learned that fire stations accept old cars - we would donate it to our local fire station.

last night, we arrived at the station unannounced and knocked on the back door. the firemen were all very happy and laughed through all the paperwork. i don't think it's often they get cars donated.

i asked what they would be using it for. this particular station has the jaws of life on one of their engines and will be using the car to teach firemen how to use the jaws of life and make them better at rescuing people. the car will go through 5 or 6 different situations and will be unrecognizable by the end of it.

we are both super happy with all this. it's such a nice feeling knowing that the saturn will be used well and j is happy knowing that it was always in his family. r.i.p. little saturn. you were a good car.

finality

you know that feeling when you finally finish something? the sense of accomplishment. a job well done. well, i finally finished the scrapbook i made for my wedding.



in my defense, i've been doing other things... things like watching hockey. unfortunately the sens are down 3-1 in the series. it could all be over in a couple of days. but it could turn around for them and they could play more than one good period of hockey. you never know.



there was a letter at our front door when we got home yesterday. it was notice that they are going to be paving our driveway next week, weather permitting. paving! our driveway! with that done, our house will look complete from the front. well, from the whole outside too, because you wouldn't think of eavestroughing and a deck and a fence and things like that, would you?

i have to admit that i think about them. i even started sketching out deck ideas last night. i think the idea of a deck seems much closer with the sale of the turbo. and the fact that we won't need a new transmission on the mazda (no turbo, no need for a better transmission), and the fact that decks are awesome! so we're at least going to look into it and see, roughly, how much a deck would cost. we'd both rather do it right the first time instead of spending less but settling for something we aren't 100% hapy with.

cause that's just how we roll.

comings and goings

comings

our new barbeque was hooked up saturday. now all we need is somewhere to put it so that we don't have to drag it between the garage and the back of the house everytime we want to use it.

goings

j's sister left saturday evening for afghanistan. she is on a 6-month rotation, providing fitness and leisure programs for the troops. or, possibly, working at the tim hortons.

comings

we got the saturn back. we picked it up sunday evening and dropped it off at canadian tire to get it safetied. as long as it doesn't cost too much. it will be nice to have two cars again.

goings

my brother left sunday. when i'm not sure because he didn't call me. he's gone for a year-ish in prague for work.

comings?

we looked at trees yesterday. we really want to tree-if-y our backyard. did you know that trees, delievered and planted, are expensive? also, in our house contract, there are trees that we are not allowed to plant. none of the ones we like are on the no-no list so we're okay.

goings

late last night, j sold the turbo kit. as soon as we know the saturn works, we (and when i say that, i really mean "j") will take the turbo off the mazda and zoom our way towards 87 octane and a fist full of cash.

(future) comings

a fist full of cash just might become a nice deck in the backyard. or an air conditioner. or a boring extra mortgage payment.

goings

we might have to kick rolo off the island for pooping in the closet. no joke, i went in to hang up some cothes and almost died from the smell. i did some detective work and found two poops in the back of the closet. not his fault, they were locked up saturday morning while the gas guys were over. what IS his fault is the brand new poop that was in there this morning. rolo, you are this close to being voted off the island. THIS close!

running with the pictures

this has been a long week but it's finally friday. friday friday friday. something i ate yesterday or the night before didn't sit well and i was in a world of hurt yesterday afternoon and evening. i got home from work and went straight to bed. it worked out because i got to finish the book i was reading but it was not fun. i was finally feeling better later on and ate something around 10pm.

since i slept and stayed in bed so long i wasn't tired as early as i usually am and found time to upload pictures from the race last weekend. i made a whole set on flickr but here are some of the good ones.

before the race:


during the race:


ending the race:


we also are the proud new owners of a front lawn:


and a new scratching post for sandy, who just loves the carpet on the stairs:


tonight i will take a picture of the new barbeque to show you all how pretty and fancy it is. it's big and shiny and new. i hope everyones weekend plans are coming together. we have a family dinner saturday night after a farewell to j's sister. i still can't believe she's going. isn't this a great picture of us?

green green grass!

before:



after:



they still have to do the front yard but does the backyard ever look good! we need to get a sprinkler and start watering the new lawn, soaking it twice a day.

and, not sure if i mentioned this, we bought a barbeque last thursday. it's being delivered tomorrow and the natural gas is being hooked up saturday. all i need is a "chaise longue" and i'll be all set for the best tan ever. and full belly i guess. i'm hoping ng bbqs won't be as scary as propane ones. did i mention that i hate barbequing because of the explosive nature of propane?

tanning, barbequing... best. summer. ever!

i run you run we all run run run

title is definitely not as good as the ice cream chant. oh, the ice cream chant....

i ran on saturday. i'm hurting now but i was pretty much okay for the race. i was really worried about my calf and how it would feel (ie. hurt) but it was fine. my time was a little slower than last year, just over an hour total, but i finished and i didn't hurt myself more. so i'm happy. and i do have pictures, some really good ones, but i haven't taken them off the camera yet.

it was a busy weekend and i'm guessing this will be a busy week since it's the last week in the country for my brother and for j's sister. not sure exactly how that will make us busier than usual though.

okay, more later when i can post some pictures.

where did the time go?

has anyone else noticed that it's the end of may already? honestly, what happened? this year is flying by. maybe by not playing baseball this summer i'll have a chance to spend some time relaxing and actually notice the time as it passes. maybe but maybe not.

my race is tomorrow. it actually snuck up on me too. maybe it's because i haven't been thinking about running lately and actually haven't run in two weeks. i'm going today after work to switch to the 10K and maybe look at shoes. they always have tons and tons of shoes there for real cheap. the past two years i've been able to find my kind in my size for about half the regular price. good deals.

for some reason, the week after the long weekend is always a tough one and this week was no different. i was getting about 5 hours of sleep a night and finally crashed last night. my big plan was to go to bed early without napping after work. i was doing fine until i went to read my book in bed. it was hot and i was obviously super tired so i fell asleep. for two hours. but was it ever nice! and i was still able to fall asleep at night, about an hour later than usual. not bad.

so today i'm feeling good. we got to work pretty much on time and get a little break for a funeral (j's grandparent's neighbour and good friend) and then it's the weekend. i have some friends coming to town for race weekend so i'm hoping to see them and catch up. it's been too long, like always.

but only because time passes too quickly.

so tired

okay well, there's more to say. i still can't quite remember everything we did this past weekend even though i was sober the whole time. j sealed the garage floor so all of our stuff was on the front step and in the hallway inside. stuff everywhere. thankfully, we were able to put everything (except the car) back in the garage tuesday after work with the help of some new shelves.



we ended the long weekend with a bbq at our neighbour and j's coworker, jp's house. we sat and talked and ate and talked more. it was nice to finally spend some time with jp's girlfriend.

we got home that night and started the week off with very little sleep because sleeping properly after a weekend of staying up late and sleeping in late is impossible.

tuesday was a regular work day, but i yawned more than any other day i'm sure. i had hockey late tuesday night so the bad, no-sleeping continued. yesterday we slept in and got to work 2 hours late (note to us: maybe we should start work later so we can actually work a whole day) but only stayed one hour later than usual. -1 hour. i had baseball last night, late, and guess what? i'm tired today. but the plan for tonight is to go for a run and then go to bed early.

i have no updates on running because i haven't been for the past two weeks. i wish i could say that my leg is feeling much better, but after my warm-up run last night at baseball, it was killing me. even the 10K is looking a little long. i'm going today or tomorrow to switch my race so we'll see what i do about that.

3 weeks tomorrow we fly out to bc. i'm looking forward to the trip and, hopefully, the sleep.

stayin alive stayin alive

i'm still alive - i just took a break from blogging. it was a long weekend afterall. and a busy long weekend at that.

friday night we had some friends over. it was really nice to see m&r after so long. and i really thought the 8 of us got along well. definitely some of my favourite people, all in one room. it was nice.

j left a little early to go see permanent daylight's last show. he called at 1:45am asking if i wanted a junior chicken. he was drunk. i said no. then, around 2:30, when i had just gone to bed, i hear the key in the door. and then the hugest, not-stealthy-at-all hiccup ever! and then about 10 more of them. j was convinced the mcdonalds gave him the hiccups. i think the rum and cokes might have had something to do with it.

saturday was the going-away party / family sees my house for the first time party. not everyone could come, but we had a good time with the people there. my family is a good bunch of people. but really, i can't believe that this guy:



is actually smart enough to have figured out how to leave the province and the country (and the continent!) and actually survive. he has (almost) everything sorted out. he leaves on sunday. i'm guessing mine and his relationship will be much like it is now. i don't call him and he doesn't call me and we see each other the odd time. sad but true. he's a bad communicator and i'm stubborn. don't get me wrong though, we do get along, we just don't see each other much.

anyways, that little get together was early saturday afternoon and then j and i went next door for a bbq with the neighbours. their house is the mirror image of ours so it was fun to see it and for j to try and pee in the garage (the bathroom and garage are across from each other and obviously opposite in either house) and to get to know our neighbours.

i can't remember if we did anything else saturday night. in fact, i'm going to sleep on it and update this post later. sorry!

can't go the distance

this post has nothing to do with my relationship and everything to do with running. i simply cannot run 21.1 km - the length of a half marathon - the way my leg is feeling. the drugs are working, but that doesn't mean that i won't hurt my leg if i attempt to run that far, i might just not FEEL it. and that scares me.

so i'm running the 10 km instead. 10 km is so much more attainable and possible and likely and safe. i like safe when it comes to my body. i don't want to make myself run the half marathon because it's something i think i should do when i haven't trained hardly enough and i have this leg thing going on. plus, i can always run it later.

i really like the saying "i run because i can" but right now, for me, 10 km is all i can run.

*huge sigh of relief*

pink!

every now and then, i get a little bored with the appearance of my blog. and so the pink. i kinda like it.

long weekend - not soon enough

this week has been a long one and i can't wait for our day off on monday. we've been really bad this week at making lunches and at getting up on time. so bad that yesterday we didn't get to work until almost lunch. we were four and a half hours late. incredible. and then today we were 2 hours late. but we have an excuse for today. last night, i woke up at 3:45 to rolo puking. i followed him around the house and cleaned up his puke more than 10 times. and when he was done and we could finally go back to bed, i couldn't fall asleep because i wasn't sure if he was okay. yuck yuck yuck. at least he seemed like his normal self this morning.

in happy news, with the new drugs, my leg has been feeling much better. though it could be that i just can't feel the pain anymore. and that's why i'm scared to run the half marathon and have asked the race organizers if i can run the 10km instead. i haven't run for almost a week so i'm going to try tonight and see how it feels.

but we also have stuff to do around the house. we're having people over friday night. at first it was only going to be s&l but then it made sense to open it up to a&s and m&r as well. good thing we have chairs or else there wouldn't be room for everyone to sit. i'm definitely looking forward to seeing everyone, especially m&r who have been gone for the past 6 months (maybe more?).

and then saturday afternoon is the going-away party for my brother, who is leaving june 1st for his year in prague. we have most of the family coming over. again, we're thankfull for the extra chairs.

but then sunday and monday are open and hopefully will be relaxing. i need to relax.

if only

if i could access my flickr page at work i would post the picture of the huge bruise on my calf but you'll have to settle for a link - it's my picture of the day from may 10th. i can't believe i haven't mentioned it on here. last sunday (may 6) i ran 16 km. my left calf was bothering my after the run and for days. well, actually, it still is, but monday night i noticed a huge bruise on my calf right where it was hurting most. i was a little relieved to know that i wasn't making up the pain, but a little worried because the middle of the bruise was a large bump. so i went to see my doctor yesterday who said that i had a major muscle pull and prescribed some anti-inflammatories and then confirmed that the bruise was a bug bite, most likely a spider bite.

i almost swore at him i was so mad! what are the chances of me getting a bug bite right on my calf where it hurts right after running longer than i've ever run? slim to none, except that it happened. gross.

so that's the running/calf/soreness/bug bite story.

but another, more exciting, story is that yesterday after work, j went with his work friend, steve, to pick up a little puppy. it's a cross between a pug and a beagle and is teeny tiny. j wants him to call her puglie but i doubt that'll happen. (puglie link until i can access my pictures). the little dog was a little scared and was having some tummy trouble and apparently stunk up the whole car! such a little dog, such an awful smell.

now, the beef of the post: my ex boyfriend got married this past saturday. and, thanks to the geniuses at facebook, there are already pictures up. and yes, i looked at them. i had some things hit me real hard. 1. i'm very glad he's happy. and it's so obvious that he's happy and i'm happy for him. lalala. 2. i'm very glad it wasn't me. we dated for over two years and i know things could have turned out differently if this and if that, but they didn't and i went off and found j and seeing the ex on his wedding day makes me so very happy about all the choices i've made and with j and my little family and with how far i've come since then.

there is no doubt that x and i had a good time together and got along well. but there is also the fact that we weren't meant for each other and i'm so glad i figured that out. there's nothing like a starter marriage these days, but it just isn't for me. and neither was he.

catching up

this weekend i spent a lot of time catching up. lately i've been finding that my days are dragging on but the weeks are flying by and all of a sudden it's may. it's already a third of the way through the year and i could have sworn it isn't even my birthday yet. time to slow down and smell the roses.

and i wish that was a seguay (or however you spell it) to a grand story of me going to see all the tulips, but it isn't. i didn't see the tulips, but i do plan on it. just haven't figured out when.

friday at work, i made a little sticky note for myself with the things we had to do on our way home. on it were catfood, drugs and stools. sounds bad, but it isn't. the catfood that our little cats can stomach was recalled so we had to switch to another sensitive diet food, which is a big hit, but we needed more. so we got that, and then we picked up some "drugs" for j, which is really protein shake stuff. and then we picked up our two lovely stools.



we are very happy with them and have already eaten two meals at the kitchen counter. on the way from the stool place, we had to go by the place we got our dining room light fixture and we knew they were having a sale so we stopped and got the matching wall sconce for the hallway going down to the basement. perfect!



and then on saturday we went to ikea and bought the dining room chairs but not the table. the table, in the colour we want, isn't in stock yet. but the chairs are on sale and likely being discontinued so we got 6 of those. then we had a race to see who could put together chairs faster. i lost. big time. and, just so you know, i signed the bottom of the chair i put together so that when it breaks and someone falls and hurts themselves, once we're sure they're okay, we can laugh at me. i'm a good sport.

chairs but no table:



we also got an extra mat for the front. it took two trips to ikea for me to convince j and now he's talking like he thought of it. he does that. finds something he likes and then claims to have invented it. it can be annoying, but he's cute so it's okay.

and finally, we got some curtains for the upstairs bedrooms. the house gets super duper hot when it's hot and sunny out and then the upstairs stays hot when you're trying to sleep. dark curtains are the answer. no pictures of those yet because they aren't all up and pretty yet.

i also caught up on being social. friday night we went to a bbq with some of j's work friends. i had the best pasta salad ever and then sucked hard at guitar hero (am i good at anything?) but blamed it on my left-right-handedness. i maintain that being ambidextrous is a good thing, but sometimes it's a curse. come to think of it, my terrible guitar hero skills could be blamed on the mojito i had. hmm... saturday, we did our shopping-for-house-things and then went for pho with pike and watched the hockey game with him and his little dog. crazy little dog. and, because i can't run, i had a beer. one extreme to another for me.

sunday was family day, well mother's day, so we saw a lot of family. we went to kanata to see my parents and then picked j's mom up at the airport and had dinner and the coffee with her and j's sister.

it was a good, long, relaxing weekend lacking in stress and not-fun things and full of friends and family and fun. absolutely perfect. oh, and by the way, i caught up on uploading my pictures so head on over to my flickr site.

anorexia understood, kinda

i use this blog as a launching page. i open it up and visit most of the links on the right every day. i told you i blogged for myself. anyways, i have to scroll down if i want to go to all my friend's blogs and i keep seeing the pictures of me with the kitten. i also see them when i log into my flickr page. and i'm skinny. it hits me every time.

i've never been a big girl. i was bigGER in first year university when the frosh-15 hit me, plus 5, but even then i wasn't big big. but i still don't consider myself all that skinny. i see all sorts of other girls and think they're smaller than me. seeing these pictures of me makes me think that maybe about half of those smaller girls are actually smaller, but that half of them must be bigger.

and then i get it. i can kinda understand the aspect of anorexia where the person thinks they're fat. we really have a skewed perspective of ourselves and i believe that it's because we are mostly looking out from ourselves and never really see our bodies the way other people do. to me, my feet always look super big but it's because i see them from the top. most people don't even notice my feet, let alone how long they are.

it also has to do with what we hear from other people. people tell me all the time that i'm skinny but i never really HEARD it until i was at my doctor's office and the admin, who is a very petite woman, said i was a "teeny thing". i'm shrek-sized compared to her. and then i realized that we both look at each other and think the other is smaller. why do we do that? how do i change how i see myself? is the media to blame or is it ingrained deep within me to see and exaggerate my flaws?

and really, i'm comfortable with my body and never get on a scale. i don't know where my perception of myself comes from but now that i understand it better, i'm going to do what i can to change it and to remind myself that it really doesn't matter. really.

take a seat

friday recap: i spent most of my work day friday bumbling through, doing my normal whatevers, but then i felt really sick so i went home around 1 and left j to find his own way home. i'm nice that way. i managed to sleep from about 1:30pm until almost 7 and then woke up for a bit, ate, ran and internetted, and then back to sleep for almost 12 hours. apparently, i wasn't feeling well AND i was exhausted.

saturday recap: the 12 hours of sleep took me until 1:30pm so i had a pretty lazy day. j had left early that morning for a car thing where we had our car detailed for free. it is so sparkly and shiny and clean now (thanks jamie!) so i was left to do whatever almost all day. i can't say i did much - some laundry, some tv watching, some showering (well, just one shower), some eating - and then j got home and we went to ikea and found a dining room table we like (didn't buy it though) and headed to kanata for a bbq and hockey game watching at j&s's house. s's parents had just moved out so it was celebratory in that way. and there was bbq'd food.

we left after the first period and headed downtown to catch our friend landon's second last show. his band, permanent daylight (remember them?) were playing at cafe dekcuf. he was given two beer tickets and gave us one. so i drank most of a beer. incredible. it was a good show and we were home pretty early so that was good. plus, j kept telling me i looked nice. apparently brushing my hair makes me look nice. (a little history: once, a bunch of years ago, i got my hair cut and when j saw me he asked me if i brushed my hair! a little brushing goes a long way!)

recap sunday: i woke up early sunday (early for me) and started making pancakes. it's the batter in a box kind of pancakes and i was a little weary about this box because my saturday pancake was disgusting. so i actually looked at the box only to find out that it wasn't "add water" like the last box, it was "add milk and an egg"! oops! so i put the batter and the milk and the egg in the bowl and was stirring the incredibly dry mixture when i realized i put twice as much batter as i was supposed to. i read 300ml of batter and put in 3 cups. i don't understand me either. so i made a double batch of pancakes, but at least they tasted good this time.

after my breakfast settled, i geared up for my long run. since the race is fast-approaching, i need to start putting in the distance so i tried for 16K and i'm proud to say that i made it 15.8 and was only gone for about an hour and 40 minutes. it was hot and my face got sunburnt and my body was killing me (and still is!) but i did it! that is 5.8K longer than i have ever run. this sunday: 18K. the sunday after that: not as far. and the sunday after that: race day! 21.1K!

i also had baseball practice sunday night. yes, i quit this year, but i also told my team that i would come out if they ever needed players. well, they need players this week and thought that maybe a practice before stepping into a game would be a good idea. so not only are my legs and feet killing me, my arms are in pain now too. c'mere, advil!

monday recap: i went to a workshop on the 7 habits to a healthy life at work and learned some neat things. because of my bad memory, i can't tell you what those 7 habits are, but i was given a website to go look at. the thing i do remember though, is that we are conditioned to think negatively. you ask someone who has back pain, for example, how they want to feel and they'll tell you that they "don't want to feel pain." exactly, that's what you DON'T WANT to feel. now, how do you WANT TO FEEL? get it? they want to feel "great" but they can't say that. it was interesting to have that pointed out. i've caught myself a bunch of times saying things like that. weird.

we stopped by staples on our way home from work and bought a new desk chair. the one we had was mine from university. a $40 walmart chair that lasted since second year but was finally falling apart. actually, falling apart. so now we have a brand new and very comfy desk chair and rolo has a new box to play in.

i went to baseball last night. we won and i played okay. i went 1 for 3 and had a good catch in the outfield. plus, i almost threw out a girl at first from center! that would have been great. and if j had a blog, he would tell you about his friend, pike, and pike's dog. this dog apparently smells like nachos but sat with j while he played games / watched tv and j was a happy camper about that. too bad we have cats, j, but at least they smell like nachos... is that a good trade off?

kitten!

we went over to see the new kitten again last night. poor a&s are having people coming over all the time now. the little cat ran around the whole time we were there and passed out right before we were leaving. she passed out on the couch so sylvia put her in my lap. she was happy to stay asleep.

pictures!

day off

i took yesterday off from blogging. mostly because i had nothing to say. will today be any different... not sure.

because of my back, i didn't play hockey tuesday night. i have no idea how my team did, but am guessing that they won since that's what we seem to do. my back is feeling better though. i'm still not sure what exactly i did to it, but i was able to run last night. i think it might just be that i'm getting older and don't recover as well as i used to. but i'm okay now and that's all that matters.

oh, and about running, i'm raising funds for the ottawa hospitals this year. i have a page all set up if you would like to donate online (i also accept cash or cheques) but don't want to link to it here because it has my name (i need to feel like not just anybody can find this blog) but please please please let me know if you would like the link. i will be sending out an email soon. (and asking for the link doesn't mean you HAVE to donate. you can always just look at the page.) i'm hoping to raise $150 and will see how the next couple of weeks go, if i have to up that amount.

in other news, my brother leaves june 1st for prague. he is spending a year-ish there for work. i'm very proud of him. we are not well-travelled and for him to be able to pick up and move across the world is amazing to me. we are hoping to have a little going-away party for him.

and at the same time, a little going-away party for j's sister who is leaving june 2nd for afghanistan. she is going on a 6 month rotation (look at me picking up the lingo! it's actually just a "roto" in deployment-speak) as a civilian. again, super impressive.

i would be huddled in a corner, wimpering. probably. but that's just me.

so may is proving to be a busy month full of stuff to do. at least we get a long weekend because i don't think i can handle this month without getting more sleep.

finally

i finally know what it feels like to throw ones back out. i don't know if it was my run or the stretching afterwards, but my back, the lower left part specifically, is in agony! i had a hard time sleeping last night because no matter how i lay, my back was bothering me. thankfully, once i was asleep, the pain didn't wake me up. but now that i'm at work, i'm not a happy camper. i can only sit up straight straight which isn't as comfortable as slouchy slouchy. whine whine whine.

i got to see a&s's new kitten yesterday. i had a doctor appointment just down the street from their place and it went quickly so i decided i had time to stop by. what a cute little cat!! it's very fluffy and bouncy and clumsy in the little-kitten kind of way. very cute. she makes my little cats seem huge.

that's about all i have to say today. well, right now. have a happy first day of may, only 3 weeks left until the long weekend!