My Ouch is Colourful

At my hockey game January 15th I was pushed and fell onto a girl's stick. I knew my leg was going to bruise because of the pain. I could hardly put any weight on my leg at first. This happened my first shift.

I played the rest of the game and I'm glad I did. I didn't give the muscles a chance to tighten up. The 45 minutes drive home was another story.

The next day, this is what it looked like:



And then a week and a half later:



It's healing and I played hockey again last week. My leg felt fine while I was skating but not immediately after and definitely not that night or the next day. I had to take painkillers when I got home. I haven't played again since but have another game this Thursday. We'll see how it feels tomorrow and the next day.

Pretty impressive though, eh? I'm impressive!

Successful Birthday Season

Birthday season has sadly come to a close for another year. It was a lot of fun, thought I didn't have the big going out dancing night I wanted. Maybe soon.

I cleaned up with the presents. Did I ever! The big ticket item was definitely from J who got me Lola. Lola is a bright red Dell laptop computer. Fancy fancy.



We had a laptop back when J was still in school and miss having one. I guess I mentioned it often enough that J figured my birthday was a good time. He even hooked up the wireless router so I'm currently lounging on the couch in front of the fire writing this post. Ah luxury. I'm spoiled.

Lola is not spoiled however. She's only been in my possession for a few days and I've already sat on her. Did I mention that I'm clumsy? Thankfully nothing bad happened, her case protected her pretty well. It's great being able to check immediately on imdb some trivial matter that comes up when watching tv. Because that's what laptops are good for. Believe me.

27 has gotten off to a good start and there are already some big plans for the year. Stay tuned.

Thank You

Today is not the most depressing day of the year, no matter what they say. It's my birthday and it was a great day. First of all, J let us sleep in, which is always nice. Work wasn't horrifically busy and everyone was smiley and happy-birthday-ey. We saw more birds than ever on the drive home. We went out for a great dinner with S&L and A (Sylvia was sick) then went back to our place and ate chocolatey cake and played RockBand until our muscles were sore.

It's getting late and I have to work tomorrow (someone is going snowboarding instead of working) so I haven't had a chance to upload my pictures. I will spend some time this weekend with the computer getting caught up on my life, and maybe some time dancing, but we'll see.

Exclamations Mandatory!

I was just reading my last post so I know where I left off, something I always do. Anyways, the point is that I noticed my last three posts have all had an exclamation point in the title. That's not exactly my style, but obviously I have things to be excited about. I guess that's a good thing.

Yesterday, in one of the free daily papers, I read that January 24th is the most depressing day of the year. Something to do with the winter blues/blahs, the fact that you get your credit card bill in the mail with all your Christmas purchases on it, and other things. Poo! It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to, but I will disagree with anyone who says that it's the most depressing day of the year.

I'm also, for the most part, an optimist, so I would be able to look on the bright side of things. And yes, I do have credit card debt this time of year, and yes, I am getting mighty sick of all the gray I see outside BUT I have a good life so I'm happy. Plus, January 24th is the first day of the three quarters of the year that I am a year older than J. He loves that.

We watched neat show about hearing and music. There are people who do not hear music. Music to them sounds like pounding. I can't remember exactly how the person they interviewed described it but it sounded unpleasant. I read earlier that people can become addicted to music, even mega loud music, even if it physically hurts them to listen to it. I think I'm addicted to music, but not loud music. It's weird for our house to be silent - there is usually at least one radio on. We have music in the car and I always have my iPod with me.

The way my job is going these days, I don't use my iPod at work. People are constantly stopping by my cubicle so I never have five minutes to myself. You know what I do? I sing. Not loudly, but out loud usually. I work better when there's music playing. I fall asleep to music. It's everywhere.

But then there are people who never have music playing. Friends of mine, their house is absolutely silent, even though I know they are musical people. I notice when I'm over there and I wonder if they notice the sound when they come to my house.

I wonder if music-addicts are attracted to people like themselves or to silence-addicts. I wonder if that even factors into the whole courting thing. Is it an introvert/extrovert thing? That's something the show never once mentioned. I'm always curious about the introvert/extrovert thing because I don't know which I am. For me it really depends on the situation, but in a course I took recently I learned that it has to do with where you "get your energy" which I don't get, and your internal stimulus level (whether you have lots going on in your head or if you need your environment to be highly stimulating). Interesting stuff, but I can't apply it to myself. At least not now.

So whatever kind of 'vert I am, I'm one that needs music. Music and my depressing birthday I guess.

Euro-Trip!

Last night we booked our trip to Europe. I think I'm addicted to traveling because it felt like we hadn't booked anything or gone anywhere in a long time. That's not true at all. Two months ago we were in Cuba, and two month plus a couple of days we booked it.

This trip will be different. We've done the backpacking thing (Costa Rica), we've done the visit family thing (Victoria), and we've done the all-inclusive resort thing (Cuba). Europe will be with friends and for a purpose: our friend Chris is having a huge wedding reception there to make up for the shotgun wedding he had here in November. There will be four of us traveling together and 4 we'll meet in Turin.



We're flying in and out of Frankfurt, Germany because it's the cheapest. We have the wedding in Turin and that's it. We have to figure out everything we want to see, the places we want to visit between now and then.

You know what I'm most looking forward to? The anticipation. That's definitely what was missing from our last trip. We haven't had anything like this to look forward to since booking our Costa Rica trip. We have three months to think about it. Fun.

Yay EuroTrip!

Yay!

Awesome news: Alan and Sylvia are engaged!! I couldn't wait to break the news, but wanted the okay from the happy couple first. Sylvia doesn't update her blog hardly enough and I knew I couldn't wait forever so I finally broke down and asked. They have a really cute story too, but that I will let Sylvia tell you that one.

I went looking through my pictures and realized that I only have one picture of the two of them. Apparently I don't think much of taking pictures of couples. Who knew.

Anyways, congratulations to the two of you. I'm really happy for you guys and can't wait for the wedding. (I'm invited, right?)

It's Official - Birthday Season is Here!

It's 10 days until my birthday so that means that birthday season has officially begun! Birthday season is the time immediately before and after your birthday where you get to celebrate getting one year older. It's wonderful.

I still haven't figured out exactly what I want to do for my birthday yet, but stay tuned. I will come up with something. Something spectacular.

Wooo!

That Was a Long Week

Now that it's the weekend it seems like the week passed quickly, but during the week it felt excruciatingly long. Just like that word.

It could be because that was the first five-day week in a while. It's getting brighter out and with the warmer temperatures, a lot of the snow has melted so goodbye winter blahs. Until next snow fall I guess.

I'm not even sure what to tell you about the week. Work was typical and therefore boring. Hockey went well even though we lost our game. I have three new bruises. I have to get used to being banged around again.

Nothing else is new with the house. Our spring cleaning / rearranging has slowed. The house is still a disaster from half-finished organizing jobs. It'll get better.

We've been thinking a lot lately about our next trip. Hopefully it'll be Italy in May. I've never been off the continent so it should be interesting. I know a lot of people who have been to Italy so I might be picking your brains in the next 4 months. I hardly know anything about the country and where to go / what to do. I'm still waiting for the Lonely Planet book that I ordered to get here so I can start reading up on things.

Speaking of ordering things, J ordered GH 3 and it showed up last night. I spent a couple hours hammering away on the guitar and hurting my wrist in the process. But now I've finished the game on easy with the guitar. That makes me a two-time guitar Hero. Heroine perhaps.

I need to go make some plans for the night or my weekend won't be hardly as spectacular as last. Too bad all I want to do is put on my comfy clothes and watch tv. Hmph.

The Corpse Bride

On the way home today we checked the mail. I was excited to see an envelope from the province - either my new driver's license or my health card. My excitement was replaced with disgust upon opening the envelope and seeing my picture. I think J's comment describes the picture best: I look like a corpse bride.

Laugh away:



Wow. I'm stuck with this thing for the next five years. I'm just hoping my license picture turns out better.

Deja Vu

December 28, 2007



January 7, 2008



And, for good measure, September 28, 2007



Apparently I really like this tree.

Very Good Weekend

It feels so good to have full weekends where you get lots done and you see people and you forget for a couple of days that you have to go back to work on Monday. That was the kind of weekend I just had.

We slept in a little Friday so we could go to dinner right from work. We had dinner with J's parents and sister and his cousin, G, and his fiance, JW. They're a cute couple.



We hadn't made any plans for yesterday or today, but managed to throw together a nature hike with S&L and A Saturday afternoon. We remembered to bring birdseed and were able to feed the chickadees and took lots of really good pictures of them.



The funniest part was when S went off the trail and was hip-deep in snow. We were all laughing and taking pictures.. poor guy.



We went for pho afterwards and then decided that we'd have dinner together too. We went home and got ready (including napping and showering and cleaning - oh, the cleaning! Our house was so messy, but this forced us to tidy. Perfect!) We had fajitas and then played Guitar Hero for hours. A nice Saturday.



I woke up today wanting to organize stuff. I had my eye on the computer / craft room so we got to it. We emptied the whole room, vacuumed and dusted, then put some things back in. The computer desk is all nicely set up along with the craft table. We need to get some drawer thingy for all the office-y-type stuff and hang something on the walls, but it made a big big difference and it feels good. There's still tons of stuff in the hallway and in the spare bedroom and our bedroom so the job's not done. Either we figure out a spot in the room or we throw it out.



In the middle of the big organizing day, J's parents and sister stopped by for a bit. We kicked them out after not to long because I had a hockey game and J wanted to shovel the snow off the roof. We won our hockey game and J didn't fall off the roof. Everyone wins!

After my game, while I was waiting for my dinner to cook, I went through our change pot and separated out all the pennies. We're going to take them to a bank. I also took all of our foreign money and put it in my Afghan-box, fitting I think.

The last thing is the duvet clips. We clipped the duvet cover to the duvet using these little clips so hopefully the duvet won't slide down inside the cover. Bonus points if you know what I'm talking about.

Now that was a FULL weekend. That's exactly what I needed to get through the whole 5 days of work coming up.

And I'll leave you with a picture of Sandy. It's one of my favourites.

my exciting life

i don't normally have more than one thing to say in a day. i mostly do the same things every day and that's not all that exciting: woke up, went to work, went home, ate food, watched tv / played guitar hero, went to bed. repeat. but it seems these days i have more to say. and it's only half because i'm going out more.

the going out more portion of my exciting life took me to the annual sharks christmas party last night. i know christmas has already come and gone but last night was the best night for most of the team. i wasn't sure i wanted to go because it's been really hard getting enough sleep with the erratic holiday / work non-schedule the past couple of weeks, but i'm so glad i did. the gift exchange was a highlight for me. on my way to the party, i stopped at the little mall near our old house and picked out a necklace and some earrings (i know, so NOT me but that made it more fun in a way). em ended up with them and i think she liked them. i got four fancy mango wood tray/bowl serving/decorative thingys.



they're soft to the touch and very light and just look at the colour - i'm gushing. i really like them. thanks tina!

and here's the group shot that jessp's dave so gracefully took for me (along with pictures on four other cameras):



when i got home from the festivities, j was so proud of himself - he had successfully set up our new universal super remote. it does everything and totally took over duties from five other remotes. now if it will only do the laundry. here it is after beating up on the other, lesser remotes. what a bully!



after work today (which i'm happy to say went well for my second day in charge) i found out that a picture of mine was used in a youtube video thingy. check it out for yourself: the flickr calendar 2007. compelling design put it together using pictures from the project365 group that i'm a part of. i don't particularly like the picture of mine they chose but it fits in with the overall theme (theme - listen to me!) of the video and they credited me properly so i'm happy. plus, i think it kinda fulfills one of my 101 things by getting a picture published. what do you think?

everything's coming up batman.

i have to end with a picture. i just have to.

nothing essploded and the beginning of a new year

nothing essploded

i'm all done my first day as the boss and nothing went wrong. i wasn't expecting anything to go wrong, but you never know. my big boss isn't around and neither are half of the people in the building, including the person i like least who i also happen to sit very close to. it's nice not having her around.

plus, i recently set up google reader so i can now check out all my normal sites inconspicuously. perfect.

i have a thing to go to tonight where i need to bring a $20-30 gift and some food for the potluck. i don't have either. and it's cold out and i'm tired. this isn't looking good. i'm trying to motivate myself so we'll see what happens.

the beginning of a new year

we went to a typical new years party: lots of people, lots of alcohol and noise makers and hijinks. i'll leave you with some pictures.

grape

i would like to introduce you to the newest member of our technology-family, grape:



she's a purple iPod shuffle that i received for christmas (thanks c&s!) i took her running for the first time last friday and was so impressed. i can't tell you how nice it is to have music but to not have to hold my iPod mini in my hand. you just clip grape onto your clothes and away you go! brilliant!

two pictures of grape with j's green oliver.





cute, eh?

not so resolute

i'm not big on new year's resolutions. i really believe that you should be what you want to be all the time and not need the coming of a new year, which really is just the next day in the continuum of time, to make change. new year's resolutions just aren't for me.

i am however a big fan of lists. back in january 2004, the 7th specifically, i made a big list. it's called 101 things to do in 1001 days. if you're a math whiz you might know that the 1001st day passed recently. not that i noticed on the day of. but still, it happened. 1000 and 1 days passed and i accomplished nowhere near the 101 things on my list. in fact, i accomplished 41.5 of them.

now that i've done this once, i know how to make a better list. i need to be more specific in my tasks. so i've made a new 101 things to do in 1001 days. the first day was december 26 and i'm not even done making my list yet. it's not easy coming up with 101 things, believe me.

my first list didn't have some pretty big things i DID accomplish on it, like buying a house. i obviously wasn't thinking about a house all that much back then. it's about thinking long-ish term, 1001 days in the future specifically. that's not an easy thing to do, though i think it gets a little easier the more stable your life becomes. back in january 2004, i was still in school, engaged, and had a temp house. now i'm married, have a permanent job and my own house. my life is obviously different and so too are my "things to do".

my challenge to you is this: make a new year's resolution to NOT make any resolutions. make small changes that better your life that you can live with and sustain. small things really make a difference. and try something more long term, like the 101 things to do in 1001 days and report back at the end of it. you might find out something about yourself. i would rather learn what i really want to do instead of learning to make resolutions and then break them. look at any gym in january and look at the same gym a couple of months from now. the gyms are laughing.

be the change you want to see in the world.

project365

just over a year ago, i read about a fun little project where you take one picture a day for a year. project365 sounded intriguing so i jumped in. most people wait until the beginning of the new year - not me, i started on december 28th.

i started taking the camera with me everywhere. it became an extension of me. i learned to always have it ready because a random shot of something out in the world was often more fun that a last-minute shot of something in my house. i learned that taking a picture every day made the days go by slow but that after a while the effect was amazing.

the project wasn't always easy and i sure didn't take 365 masterpieces, but looking over the set as a slideshow puts a smile on my face. i get to see just how much i did over the past year. you get to see our house go from an empty shell to what it is now. you get to see the places we visited and the people we saw. you get to see random tidbits of our lives.

now the 365 days is done and i can't imagine myself without my camera near-by, especially now that i have a new one. i don't think i will stop taking a picture a day - or as close to it as i can - for a while. taking pictures has become part of my life.

so here you have my project365, from december 28, 2006 to december 27, 2007. what a year!

december 26 - cativersary

boxing day three years ago is the day we brought our cats home. poor sandy didn't handle the move well and promptly lost all of her fur.



they were troopers but especially liked spending time with each other.



it didn't take them long to warm up to us though.



sandy eventually got her fur back and we were surprised to see how orange she was!



j and i are very happy to have cats, these two especially. they're fun to have around. they are very talkative and playful. they love water and seeing us when we come home. our house would be much different without them around.

more pictures and story telling

i got a chance to see sylvia before she left for home. i went out with a&s and s&l and had pho near where they live. because of the snow and the crazy traffic it took my well over an hour to get there from work. j didn't come with me because he had to work late. later on, alan showed us how to rock out using a fake version of guitar hero and his computer keyboard.



(alan: you must have known your picture would make it onto my blog!)

i finally got my christmas cards done and sent out. i know i missed some of you this year - some i don't have your new address, others, it was too late to catch you at home. sorry about that.



i played hockey last friday night with a bunch of guys from work. this is the fourth game but only the second that i've played. the first time i played i got knocked around. this time was much better. after the game all i wanted was a quarter pounder with cheese. i stopped at the first mcd's on the way home and, after waiting in the drivethru line for a while, got to the window to learn that the only accept cash. i had no cash. of course. and, of course, this was the kind of drivethru with a concrete wall stopping you from leaving. i had to wait in the damn line for 10 minutes. i know that's not a long time in the grand scheme of things but i really wanted that sandwich. i finally did get my sandwich but i went to another mcdonalds.



the sign should say "drive thru open 24 hours but only if you pay with cash".

that was friday night. saturday night we went to the annual christmas party at richard's house. it was fun but i have no pictures because my camera battery was dead. i'm still not used to only having one battery.

sunday night was my family's christmas party. we ate lots of food, had a $5 gift exchange where both me and j came out with awesome loot. i got a huge mug with a plush reindeer guy and j got the babeh spiderman that he bought.



guitar hero was a big hit with almost everyone taking a turn.

we had to work christmas eve, but not a lot of work got done. everyone was so cheery and chatty. we left before 12 noon and did some family stuff, including some last minute shopping.

this was our first christmas in our new house so we opened our stockings and our presents for each other by ourselves. it was nice. i guess i complained enough about my point-and-shoot camera so j got me the newest model and i love it!



the cats also loved their feathered toy.



we went and did the christmas thing with j's family next. he got a ladder from his parents.



and we both got iPod shuffles - good for running. mine is purple and j's is green.



after that we went to see my parents. they seemed to like the little camera we got for them. they're off to cuba in a couple of weeks and only had an old camera that they didn't know really how to work. we found them the simplest camera out there.

boxing day they stopped by and demonstrated that they were both able to take pictures and show pictures. they hadn't tried putting the pictures on the computer yet though.

we did some more family stuff yesterday and even braved the stores. it was nice to finally be home, just the two of us again and then we remembered that it was exactly three years to the day that we've had our cats. our crazy little cats.

pictoral follow-a-long - things i've done lately

went to see beowulf. wore the goofy glasses. left about 20 minutes in. went shopping instead.



found out unsuccessful at work competition for own job. drank rum and used little ladies from cuba.



went a different way home from work. saw a spectacular sunset.



was granted permission to sign off on certain forms at work. last competency at higher level. same level of unsuccessful competition. what gives?



annual work christmas luncheon. danced like no one was watching when everyone was watching.



crazy party with j's coworkers. learned about the mystery basement toilet.



watched as huge amounts of snow turn two-car-wide driveway into narrow lane. shoveled.




shoveled again.



shoveled some more.



pigged out at work potluck lunch.



now we're here.

remarkably unremarkable week

a week has passed and i have very little to say about it. unfortunately.

- i played hockey and didn't get a penalty or get injured. this is good.
- it has already been a long month at work. though i did take a couple hours off wednesday and spent all of thursday on the couch playing guitar hero.
- i managed to get a 490 note streak by myself and over 1000 notes with j.
- j stayed home too and thought for a while that he had shingles again, but now he thinks he was just sick.
- i went to a lesbian party... i mean a hockey party. let's just say that i was in the minority.
- where do babies come from?
- i'm feeling like it's time to get organized. can you believe that we still have stuff in boxes almost a year after moving? is this normal?
- i have hockey tonight and next sunday night. but then i think we're done until the new year.
- christmas parties will pick up where hockey leaves off.
- thankfully i am almost done my christmas shopping.

random random.

me, not the boss

when did life get so busy that i can't find time to update this blog?

let's go in chronological order, because i am me.

tuesday - the broken picture frame, c/o rolo:



wednesday - i had training (day 3 of 4) at work and a hockey game at night. training was fine. i partially avoided the annoying guy and still managed to get some work done on my breaks. hockey was good. it had been 3 weeks since i'd been on my skates. it felt nice to zoom around the ice. but i should tell you that 15 seconds into the game i had scored... myself a penalty. oops. i went out with the team afterwards. the new heart and crown is nice but they should really serve some cheap bar food instead of overprices hoity-toity food.

thursday - training, day 4 of 4 at work. and then i was supposed to see my parents but the snow, oh the snow. the driving was horrific and after an hour in the car for the 12km drive from work to home, i said that i would see them later and spent the night with my cats instead. i had been neglecting them so they were appreciative of the warm lap.

friday - friday was meet the big boss and tell her my decision about whether i wanted to be the little boss for the month of december or january. i chose january and she agreed. january it is, with the possiblity of spill-over into february. i left work late, knowing that i was probably headed straight to the airport to pick up j, and that's exactly what i did. i read the paper and watched the people. then i talked j's ear off on the drive home about all the boss and coworker crap that's been going on this week. poor guy. at least the cats were excited to see him.

saturday - and then he was called into work from 1-6am saturday morning. i slept. he slept for a bit and then was called in again so we went, he worked while i read in the car. that night was chris and silvia's wedding reception party thing at their apartment downtown. it was the strangest thing. their apartment is half the third floor of an old house. it reminded me of kingston houses. and seeing lots of drunk people dancing to hey ya brought me right back to university. it was fun though. congratulations to chris and silvia.

sunday - most of the afternoon i spent baking cookies for the cookie exchange. we took a break to greet j's sister at the airport, back from a 6-month rotation in afghanistan, civilian-style. it was obvious she was super tired after 24 hours of travel. too bad that we couldn't go to dinner, but we had to get back before people came over. there were 9 or us for the cookie party. the cookies were tasty and the night was fun. i have about 6 million cookies if anyone wants any.

today - there is tons of snow. we woke up early and shoveled and we'll have to shovel again when we get home. welcome to winter in canada. at least the drive in wasn't bad. i think a lot of people stayed home. i was looking forward to coming to work today to see how my coworker who is the boss this month would be, but it didn't go down the way i thought it would. i thought the big boss would pull my coworker into her office but instead my coworker was told she was expected at a meeting NOW and was told after the fact. then she came to me asking why i didn't warn her. she's all smug, which is better than the sarcastic b*tch she was before, but still no fun. it's going to be a long december.