Bridezillapalooza

This weekend was the wedding show. It went remarkably well and passed quickly. My feet aren't even sore today. Amazing! I have to tell you though, I was not looking forward to the weekend at all. I think I've done it one too many times and now it's just work. Work that takes up my whole weekend. At least I get paid.

I managed to squeeze in lots of fun so I don't feel like I was totally cheated out of a weekend. Friday night was relaxing after a long week of work (sometimes 4-day work weeks feel longer than regular 5-day ones) - we stayed in and watched tv. Saturday night we turned off all the lights and the radio we normally have on for Earth Hour and headed to Wellington Gastropub where we met S&L for dinner. The pub was a little tiny thing in a trendy part of town that we hardly ever visit, but it was really neat. It was expensive but totally worth it. I ordered fish for the first time ever at a restaurant and liked it. J sampled some odd beer and topped the night off with a cappucino (or something like that, a latte maybe). And guess who was sitting at a booth right near our table... Seann William Scott, the actor from the American Pie movies and Evolution and a million other things no doubt. I think that's the closest I've been to a celebrity, but I kept my cool and acted like I didn't see him.



So Seann, if you find this post by googling yourself, (all celebrities do that, don't they? Or do they pay someone to do it for them?) hiiieeee! I saw you at the restaurant Saturday night! What are you doing in this city anyways?

Fun!

Sunday night I got dropped off just in time to have dinner with J's family before we hopped in the car and went to home-town to see the movie, In Bruges. In Bruges was hardly marketed at all so chances are you haven't heard of it, but do yourself a favour and go see it. It was funny, but be prepared for a lot of swearing and a lot of blood. There were two older woman sitting behind us who, after the movie was over, asked if we liked that kind of movie. They prefaced it by saying that they were old. Poor broads heard there was a movie based in Belgium and wanted to see it because they're from Belgium. It was not a documentary with puppies and sunshine. It was gory and swear-y and darkly funny. Not the kind of movie two grandmothers should go see.

We went to O'Connors after the movie. It's a bar where a bunch of people I grew up with worked when we were still in highschool so being there was strange for me. The place looks a lot different now that I've been away for so long. The beer still tasted the same so that was good. S&L, I'm sorry if I asked questions that were too personal. Next time, just change the subject. I likely won't notice.



I was pleasantly surprised to wake up this morning without a hangover. Thankfully I had the day off - I needed it. I hardly slept in because I was worried I would miss my dentist appointment, so I got up and caught up on all the new things on the internet I missed over the weekend. I had my dentist appointment. Honestly, the people there are so nice. They asked if I had any vacation or trips coming up and I said I was going to Italy in a month. The hygienist gave me a little travel case with a toothbrush, toothbrush case, toothpaste and mouthwash for my trip. How sweet. They love giving stuff away.

I also had to drop off my passport application today. Did you know that any Joe can be a guarantor as long as they have a valid passport? Crazy. So J was my guarantor but signed in the wrong spot so I had to go and get the forms printed again and come home so he could sign in the correct spot, only to go out again, this time downtown, to drop it all off. Did I mention it was raining? Silver lining: since I filled out the application online, I was given priority status and my number was called before I found a seat in the waiting area. I was in and out in under 10 minutes. It took me longer to walk from my car to the building and back.

So I went shopping. I took the money I made this weekend and bought some new black work pants, a dress (possibly for the wedding in Italy) and work shoes. I came home, totally exhausted but happy.

Until Rolo spilled milk all over the kitchen. Honestly, there was milk everywhere so I threw the cats in the basement (J was down there watching tv) and, by mistake, I slammed the door when I closed it so he thought I was really mad and was scared to come upstairs to see what had happened. I finally got everything cleaned up. I had to rip some pages out of the phonebook lest they smell like sour milk in a couple of days, but who uses the phone book anymore anyways. Hello internet! I topped off my night by watching some tv shows I had recorded while eating chocolate.

Tomorrow is back to work, but at least it's a 4-day week.

Italy?

This morning I realized that my passport was expiring sometime soon. I got to work and filled out what I could on the online application form and forgot about it. I was smart enough to send myself an email at home to remind myself to look at the expiry date of my passport. Turns out it expired last week. Lucky I thought about it when I did. Wouldn't that have been bad? Getting the the airport before a big Europe trip only to find out I couldn't go because I didn't have a valid passport. Talk about ruining the party.



I finished filling out the application form and went and got my picture taken. I had to show the guy how to work the light. Come to think of it, I should have asked for half price on my pictures. My picture turned out awful, but it's only for 5 years. Right?

I'm not out of hot water yet. That will come when I have my new passport in my hands. Fingers crossed that I get it in the 2 weeks they promise.

Chop-a chop-a!

As always, I got sick of my long hair and couldn't chop it off fast enough. I've been to the same chick probably 5 times now, which is completely different from how I grew up (think little K goes to mom's sewing box and grabs the scissors, hands them to dad who cuts perpendicular to the floor - tada!) I trust her and like what she does.

What do you think?

Teeth Extraction

Big news around here this past weekend was two fewer teeth in J's head. He had two wisdom teeth removed Thursday and was flying high all day. He was so proud of his teeth, which he brought home. Not sure what he's going to do with them...



He was hardly swollen at all and was able to eat lunch that afternoon. Apparently having your wisdom teeth come in before having them removed, makes the whole thing less crappy. I finally learned that "impacted" means that they haven't come in yet. You'd think I would have learned that when I had mine removed years ago. I couldn't eat or even open my mouth for days. I couldn't talk or smile. I was miserable.

Not J. He's almost totally fine. But he has to go back and get the other two taken out when he's ready. Double the teeth, double the fun.

Finally!

I just finished reading the third and last book in the Bourne series. All three books were great but I'm not used to spending so much time with one character so I'm looking forward to meeting somebody new. I was the same way after reading all seven Harry Potter books in a row. That took me one month, almost exactly, but these three books took me 4. Scary.

Would I recommend them? Absolutely. If only to see the differences between them and the movies (I've heard there's a fourth movie in the works....)

Long Regular Weekend

This past weekend was a good one. It started off well with a big nap after work Friday. I woke up in time to get to my hockey game with work people. The game was fun and I didn't get hurt (a very real concern when playing with men). Six of us went out afterwards to a bar that wasn't all that busy (good because of the hockey smell that was radiating from us). Meanwhile, J was drinking at another bar with some friends after seeing "the best movie ever!" or something like that.

Saturday and Sunday mornings happened, but not to us since we slept in like champs. It was that kind of weekend. Got a lot done too: J shoveled out all the down spouts so that when all the snow melts, the water has somewhere to go other than into our basement; I got groceries. Important stuff.

Saturday night we played darts, ate pizza and watched episodes of Black Adder while much scotch was consumed. Sunday, however, was party night. Parties on either side of town. J headed West and I went East. He had a birthday sausage party and I had a crepe girl party. I hadn't had crepes in I don't know how long and they were great. It was a good night.

And thankfully this is a short week so that I can try and cram more into next weekend. Plans, anyone?

Proof

Retail Therapy

It's been a long and snowy winter so when the opportunity for shopping presents itself, who am I to say no? I have a big file at work that involves Canada, the US and Australia so organizing a conference call with these countries has its challenges. The best time of day is our 5pm (8am in Australia) so that's what I was doing late this afternoon, listening to crackly accented Aussies and drawly southerners talk about pesticides.

With all this snow, what could be better than hitting the slopes? That's what I would have been doing tonight if I didn't have this conference call. That's what J and some friends did tonight.

I left work, called J's sister, SJ, and went to the mall. We went to one store and did rather well. Fashion show! Fasion show! Fashion show at lunch. (The Office reference.) I got good clothes for work and had a good time. Good times.

And I don't have a bump on my head and a sore shoulder. Ahem.

Grass is Greener

You know when you can't do something, that's the exact thing you want to do? Well, since we're snowed in all I want to do is drive somewhere. Sure, I could walk to the Mac's down the street or the grocery store WAY down the street, but I want to hop in the car and drive. And it's because I can't.

I have to admit that I'm suffering from cabin-fever after being stuck inside since we got home from work Friday. It's ridiculous how much snow we've gotten. There are currently three cars stuck at the end of my street. This past week, and only because of all the snow, I've actually thought about how nice an SUV would be. Normally I think they are much bigger than people actually need and wouldn't dream of ever having one. But if it could clear the snow on the street and get me to a mall I would get one.

Maybe I'll go out with my camera now that the snow has stopped and take wintery pictures of cars getting stuck in the snow. That might improve my mood. I hope your time getting through "Winter Storm 2008" is going well and that you can leave your house is you so please.

Yesterday

Yesterday was a long, bad day. It started out with us getting the car stuck in the snow in the driveway on our way to work. I mean, on our way out of the garage. There was enough snow that our little car could not make it. After much spinning of tires, we got the car back in the garage and started shoveling.

Shoveling was hard work and shoveling makes me sweaty. In my work clothes. Good thing I keep deoderant at work. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're still in the driveway shoveling and sweating. It's awesome. I don't know how long it took us, but finally we were able to leave and thankfully we didn't get stuck on the street.

I guess a lot of people listened to the dumb girls on the radio (J hates all the female readio personalities in this area. Ask him about it sometime) and stayed home because the drive in to work was uneventful.

Work was a long day. I don't have specifics, but the overall feeling of the hours passing like years and the day never ending, even though we got the stand-down order at 3pm. From what I can remember the drive home was also uneventful.

We followed the plow onto our street. It was one of those big big plows and he was careening side to side pushing the snow sometimes off the street and sometimes not. He left us a nice 3-foot pile of snow. Fine. We parked the car on the road and went to get the shovels. Did I mention that I had a well-developed blister from the morning's shoveling?

Our neighbour has been really good to us since he got his snowblower so we shoveled the bottom of our driveway and of his, but we cheated. Our four-car-wide driveways are only a car-and-a-half-wide at the bottom. Oh well. Over an hour later, the driveway was done, a little path to our neighbour's garage was shovelled and our walkway and front step were shovelled. Do I ever want to see snow again? No.

Not even an hour after getting inside and massaging my frost-bitten legs, I had to leave for hockey. I piled my gear and myself in the car drove out of the garage without incident and onto the street again without incident. Until I come to three cars parked so conveniently all in the same spot on the street so that no car could pass between them. Genuises live on my street. I backed up and turned around in my driveway. Our street goes out two ways so I went the other way. I should have listened to the signs and stayed home, but I powered on.

The driving was slow and I was going to be late for my game. I get to the arena with justjust enough time to get dressed and on the ice for the puck to drop. And then the car gets stucks in the snow in the parking lot. I went in to tell my team that I was there but that I would be in the parking lot trying to get my car unstuck. I finally did and parked on the road and ran back. I got on the ice with two minutes left in the first period. My whole team had showed up so there were 5 off us on defense. I played hardly at all and didn't sweat. So not worth it.

It was my job to pick up dinner on my way home. I turn into the usual Quiznos parking lot and struggle to get through. Quiznos was closed and since the parking lot hadn't been plowed I was using my speed to get out of it. I almost launched the car into a truck going from the unplowed parking lot to the plowed main road. Awesome.

I decided to go to the Subway close to home and manage to get there without getting the car stuck or getting in an accident, but I was fighting back tears. I really should have stayed home. The Subway was open and a good looking 20-something guy was working. I finally made it home and plopped on the couch to eat my sub and drink my Coke (we haven't had Coke in the house for a while and I find myself craving caffeine) and eat my gooey cookies.

All the snow and the shoveling and the blisters and sore muscles and slipping and sliding was quite enough for one day. And the worst part? We have more snow coming Saturday. If the weather forecasters are to be trusted, we can expect another 50cm. Add that to the 350 or so we've already had this year. Incredible. I can feel my personal day off coming up. For my sanity and my aching muscles.

Abandoned Mine - Winter Edition

Back in September we went to the Wallingford-Back mine near Buckingham, QC. Here's the post from that trip. I had seen pictures of the mine in the winter and knew I had to see it. About a month ago, we planned for 6 of us to go but by the time Saturday came, only 3 could make it. Myself, J and Alan jumped in A's parent's van and hit the road. It was snowy, not the best driving conditions, so it took a while to get there.

Now, I want you to picture a camel. A three-humped camel. Got it? Good.

We finally reached Chemin de la mine and knew we were close. We're going along this cottage-like road and are climbing a pretty steep hill (like we're driving up the camel's neck) when we come to a stop. Alan says he thinks the road is pure ice. Sure enough we start rolling backwards. Then we start picking up speed. I'm in the middle seats and can see Alan hitting the breaks - nothing - we keep picking up speed and are careening down the camel's neck backwards. Alan is swearing up a storm and yelling at J to clear the back windshield. The brakes aren't working and we're all thinking we're going to hit something, crash and die. Not to be melodramatic or anything.

After what feels like 20 minutes, the van starts to slow. We're heading up the camel's first hump and are slowing down. Relief washes over me until Alan says that he thinks we're going over. We hit the top of the hill, still no brakes, and go over, again picking up speed. Thankfully there's a second hump. We slow down just to hear from Alan that we're going over again. We pick up even more speed. No idea how Alan has kept the van on the road this whole time. We start to slow again. The third hump was our savior. We come to a stop on it.

Then we realize that the van stalled when it started rolling backwards while in drive at the camel's head way back when. Alan starts up the van and tests the brakes. They work. We go up and over the camel's second and first hump and park at the bottom of the neck, after slip-sliding around for a while. We get out and you can feel the relief in the air. We were all gushing about how scary our little backwards trip was and how we easily could have hit something and crashed the van. Alan did a great job keeping that thing on the road and not panicking too much when the brakes didn't work.

We weren't sure how far the mine was but decided that even if it turned out to be too far to walk there, that we had had an awesome adventure and that the day was not wasted.

This picture was taken from the camel's head. You can see the tracks where the van started rolling backwards.



Turns out the mine was a 15 minute walk away and by the time we made it our hearts had stopped racing and the fact that we almost died was pushed back in our minds. It was incredible seeing the mine and being able to walk on the ice.



But it had its scary parts. We each had our own camera and so we separated almost immediately. J was almost at the back entrance and Alan was still near the main entrance, I was in the middle, standing on the ice, when it popped. The sound was really loud and freaked me out. I jumped straight up in the air and ran across the mine to where I could stand on rocks. It sounded like the back of a dump truck slamming shut, it resonated. It was freaky.

I did get a really nice picture from there before the ice popped.



The big chunk of ice is actually a piece of a huge icicle that had fallen. The icicles hung from the ceiling and were huge. You could tell where they were from the bumps they left on the ice from when the dripped. We avoided the bumps and therefore avoided the icicles. I'm sure you wouldn't survive having one of those falling on your head.



Thankfully the ice was at least a foot deep - we could tell because where it had cracked it was white. Everywhere else it was clear.




Right near the top were some really neat ice formations.



And a close-up:





The clear ice was creepy, especially in the little back part (the dark part in the top left of the picture above), a part we couldn't get near in September, because it was too steep. This is J peering down and getting creeped out:



It was really hard to take a picture that showed the ice and the rocks beneath the water. We have some video that shows it really well. This shot shows some tree branches and some neat bubbles:



And just in case you couldn't tell that this mine is enormous, check out the little Js in these pictures:





This last one is dark, but I promise there's a J hiding in there, somewhere.



The whole trip was an adventure. I learned that Alan swears under high stress situations and that he can drive really well backwards, downhill, without brakes. I learned that I can pee outside when I really have to. I learned that drinking a whole lot of alcohol after such a crazy day feels good. I learned that trips like these make memories.



(For the full set of pictures, check out my Flickr page.)

Classy Cat

My Dad recently celebrated a birthday and, one week later, we celebrated with him. My parents made an awesome lasagna and we brought a cake. I ate too much lasagna and didn't have any cake, but I'm told it was good.

We got my dad an electric frying pan and he was really happy with it. Just look at his face.



And then Hyper, my parent's black and orange cat, brought home a little mouse. She's classy that way.



She was very confused after my dad grabbed the little guy and threw him outside. She's not very bright but she is cuddly.

Broken Boss

Do you know how hard I work? I'll tell you: I work SO hard that I broke my computer. I give you the Blue Screen of Death:



I should have known the clicking from yesterday was the hard drive dying and should have maybe saved some things on the common drive. Hindsight is always 20/20, I know.

In other work news, the coworker that I don't like so much is leaving. I found out last Wednesday and am so happy. Every time I think about her leaving I smile. My workload will increase significantly but I don't care. My work life will be better. SO much better.

And then yesterday I got an email saying that I got into the "developmental program" meaning I get a raise. It's a neat internal program to promote development, learning, career opportunities and all that jazz. Neat in theory, but they've been saying since I started that the program would open. In practice, the program takes forever so we'll see when I actually get any extra money out of the deal. Either way, I get bumped up a level and am happy.

Also, I should find out this week whether I will be the acting boss again for March. Leaving coworker was next in line, but she won't be here to do the job so it should fall to me. My boss is very fair so unless we get a permanent mini-boss, it should be me. That's even more money.

Other than the increased workload and the sometimes eye-twitch, work life is good. Especially with a brand new computer.

Tremblant 2008

We spent last weekend in Tremblant. It was beautiful there and a lot of fun on the hill. First, let me tell you about last week. I spent all week feeling like I was getting sick so I stayed home Tuesday and Thursday. Monday was a regular day at work and Wednesday was a full day of training. So there wasn't much working but there was a lot of lying on the couch. And then came the skiing.

Like I said, Tremblant was beautiful.



My purple snowpants were hella warm.



We started out, me skiing and J snowboarding, on the "bunny hill". I was able to remember how to ski pretty quickly and after a couple runs we were on the chairlift and heading up the mountain. The chairlift went half the way up, and the green run took about 20 minutes to get down. Then we took the gondola. The gondola went right up to the top of the mountain, almost a kilometer up. That run took longer.

It was a rush, but it was freezing. I could hardly have my eyes open, especially once I got going fast. I think I got windburn on my face.

After skiing Friday afternoon, we went back to the chalet. It was a 10 minute walk from the bottom of the mountain. Our friends showed up not too long after that. There were 8 of us all together. Here's a picture of the view from our room:



We spent Friday night walking around the village and finally eating and drinking lots of beer at one of the bars.

Saturday was the big day. We spent all day on the mountain. LS took the opportunity to propose to his girlfriend, SM, and thankfully she said yes.



Saturday night you might imagine that we were all super tired, so after a huge dinner and some hot tub-ing, we crashed pretty hard. Sunday was hometime and recover time. My shins and calves are killing me so shuffling is the most comfortable way of walking.

All in all, an awesome weekend. And here's a group shot of Tremblant 2008:

Picture Ketchup

It's been a while since I've posted any pictures and I intend to rectify that.

We got Rock Band a while ago and I've learned that I'm actually decent as a singer. If you know me you probably know that I am terrible with lyrics and don't have a great voice. Rock Band doesn't care! In fact, I rock at rocking!



I call my alter ego Pixie. Pixie sings good.

J and his friends tackled the endless set list. On Rock Band, you sit and play all 58-ish songs in one sitting. This takes longer than 6 hours. But they did it and they survived. This picture was taken before the end of the first hour, when I left them.



I left because I had a party to attend. It was a girl I went to high school with, A, who invited everyone and their dog to her house. I went and saw people I hadn't seen in a long time, including JH. I used to play hockey and trumpet with JH back in the day. It was nice seeing her and everyone else.



I have to admit, I was feeling blah. Very blah, but my friends really helped. I received lots of emails and got out of the house lots over the past two weeks. There are also things coming up, like a skiing/snowboarding trip to Tremblant this weekend and a trip to the Abandoned Mine (my post from the last time we went) the weekend after.

And I should mention that, in honour of our upcoming skiing/snowboarding trip, and because of the fact that J lost my old pair, I got a new pair of snow pants. Two pairs, actually. The first are gray and really nice and expensive. But I felt better, more prepared, once we had purchased them. But when we went to another store yesterday, I found a nice pair for less than one third of the price of the other ones. And get this - they're purple! J says I'm going to be the envy of all the girls at Tremblant. I don't know about that but I do know that I smile just thinking about them. Who has purple snow pants?

Longer Days

It makes me happy that I can sleep in, not get into work until 9, and it's still sunny when I leave work at 5. I get to sleep in and see the sun for almost an hour after work. Perfect!

I had training Monday and Tuesday so today I was back to my regular day-to-day and I got lots done. That always feels good. Now I just have to get back to the gym.

J went snowboarding last night so I went and saw 27 Dresses with his sister. It was better than I was expecting, which is nice. Tonight he's working late so I'm home with the cats. I don't know what to do with myself, especially not what to make for dinner. It's hopeless!

And that's that. Pretty exciting stuff.

February - The Most Depressing Month

My apologies if your birthday is in February. I took exception to January 24th being called the most depressing day of the year but that's because it's my birthday and so I have something to brighten it up. For me, February is the hard time. It's gray and cold outside and there are no holidays in sight.

I had a particularly rough day at work yesterday for reasons I don't want to discuss. People took one look at me and knew something was bothering me. I didn't realize I was so transparent. My reasons weren't for their ears either so I made up some story about it being a long week - it being Friday, people accepted that. And it was a long week.

But January was a long month and now that January's done I was able to take a day off. Thank goodness for paid sick days. Tuesday I took off as a mental health day and I slept in. For me, sleeping in is incredible. I also had some retail therapy and hardly spent any money so it was perfect. Highs from shopping last only so long though and yesterday was a low day.

I was sitting at my desk, feeling sorry for myself, and I decided that I needed to get out. Get some exercise I mean. I kept true to myself and went for a run after work. I ran outside in the cold and the gray and the snow, but it felt great. I didn't go far or for a long time, but it was exactly what I needed.

Now if only I could take all of my frustrations out on my body (in an exercise way, not in a cutting myself way) I would be set. I think I can do that, but I think I need a little motivation. I'm thinking of signing up for the race in May again to give myself that extra push. I wonder if I could do the half marathon and not hurt myself like last year. Time will tell.

For now, I will get through every day the way I always do and hope that my SAD-like days don't last long. At least February is a short month and who knows what March will bring.

Playing Hooky

If you read about the eye-twitch then you won't be surprised that I took the day off today. It was a mental-health day that was much needed. I feel better already.

And I took care of some business - I went shopping. I had a gift card that was burning a hole in my wallet so I bought some work pants. Then I swapped a Christmas sweater for a light green button-up shirt, again good for work.

Did I mention that last Monday I was called into a meeting with the public and I was wearing jeans? It wasn't awkward but it made me realize that I should be taking my work (or myself at work) more seriously if I want to move up. So no more jeans except on Fridays for this girl. That means I have to build up my work-appropriate wardrobe, hence the purchases today.

So other than that I've been watching a lot of tv and knitting. J will eventually have a new scarf and my brain will turn to mush. Happy mush.

Bosses, Friends and Alcohol

Thanks to my good friends, I had a good time Saturday night.



It was Alan and Sylvia's engagement party and it was a lot of fun.

But the best feeling ever was leaving work on Friday. It has been an extremely long month of acting as the boss while keeping up with my own workload. I had to deal with a lot of work issues and people issues. I realized it was all getting to me when my left eye has been twitching for the past three weeks. I'm more stressed than I thought possible.

Even so, January was a good month. I'm just happy it's over. So when I finally got to leave work after an extremely busy day, I walked to the parking lot slowly, in the incredibly thick snow, with a huge smile on my face. I felt relieved.

The alcohol on Saturday night didn't hurt either.

Riverside South Esthetics

Our neighbour, Amy, has started her own business - Riverside South Esthetics - out of her home and I wanted to post the link to her site and tell you that she is very nice and you should check her out.

Her grand opening was this afternoon so she's open and ready for business.

Riverside South Esthetics