hungry chicken

i'm hungry. it's almost lunch time. i was going to go for a run at lunch but i'm quickly convincing myself not to. i'm bad like that. maybe i'll convince j to run with me tonight.

friday

oh man, the weekend is starting to blend into one long day. i think we went over to a friends house for a going-away-cause-he-got-a-great-new-job party but it was cancelled. we ended up just hanging out with him for an hour or so before heading back to our end of town and forcing ourselves on kw. j played guitar hero for about three hours. three hours! we got donuts on the way home cause that's how we roll.

saturday

i slept in while j went off to a little town outside the city with a friend to pick up his truck. judd needs the truck this week because he's having his car painted. we needed the truck to pick up our tree. the city has a program in place hoping to plant 100,000 trees. all you do is sign up online and you get a free tree. we showed up at the city nursery not far from our house and got a list of about 10 trees that we could pick from. it was between an oak and a hackberry - we chose the hackberry. it was too windy saturday to plant it so it's still in it's pot beside the house for now.

sunday

we had an incredibly lazy day sunday. we slept in and hung around the house until after 3pm. we went to chapters and bought the lonely planet guide for cuba. it's making me want to not stay in a resort for a week but to travel around the country. that's trouble. back to sunday: we went and had some mcdonalds before heading to j's parent's house for j's birthday dinner. i swear his birthday just keeps going. he got a really nice running shirt and a board and quiver windsurfing bag.

also, a cake:



the only other news i have is that i got an email for another competition i'm in. the exam is in a month. and that's that.

september

september is the month for new tv shows and that makes me happy. i've been watching re-runs most of the summer so when a new episode comes on it's nice. very nice.

last night i watched the season premiers of prison break, criminal minds and america's next top model. all three were good. still looking forward to some other shows to start.

do you remember when episodes were stand alone? you could watch whatever show whenever and not be lost. the shows these days are most like soap operas in their continuity, which i like and i don't like. i like it because i have a pvr and never miss an episode (i might watch it the next day or the next week but i'll watch it sometime) but i don't like it because you have to invest a lot of time in every show you like. i think the good outweighs the bad in this case, especially with the pvr.

i also had hockey last night and managed to not get hurt again. we're not on the ice for the next two weeks until the season starts. this will give me a chance to rest my body and to run the 5K run-for-the-cure race on september 30th. besides, playing hockey when it's still hot out is just weird.

hump day and payday = heaven

apparently heaven happens every two weeks around here....

yesterday was a busy day. j didn't work so he had the car and picked me up from work. we went and walked around some stores. we found a plastic bag holder which will be useful in getting our pantry cleaned up and it goes on with double-sided tape - even i can install this sucker! we also got the ceiling mount for the projector. it needs something more than double-sided tape so it wasn't installed.

we only went to the stores because the 3 would be ready an hour after i got off work so there was no point in going home just to go right out again. we picked up the 3 at 4 and marvelled at the new bumper. they do good work at maaco. it was super nice to pick up the car and not have to pay for it... not that i'm recommending getting rear-ended or anything.

then we headed home in separate cars and got ready for my parents who came over to give j his birthday present. having just received back his staple gun, my dad decided j needed one of his own. it's a fancy thing that can take 6 different staple sizes. i don't know anything about staple guns, but that sounds pretty fancy to me. my parents didn't stay long but the cats sure put on a show for them - screaming and racing around.

j's parents called to tell us that we should go over to j's grandparents house because his uncle was in town and we had to drop off their car anyways. so we had dinner almost right after my parents left and then hopped in separate cars again and headed out. we dropped the smart car off at their house and then headed over to his grandparents house. we weren't even in the door when mg called and reminded us that we were going to see a movie.

after about 15 minutes, we raced off to see super bad. didn't realize that mg was on a date. the movie was funny, though it would have been much better about 5 years ago.

since this post has taken me forever and a day to post, i'll leave off here.

one fish two fish, old stick new stick

there's a dr. seuss book called one fish two fish, red fish blue fish that i really liked growing up. it's the inspiration for the title to the post today.

like i said last post, i broke my stick. and now i have the pictures to prove it:



i went out on sunday and bought two new sticks for $40, taxes in. thank you, back-to-school/hockey sales. i still need to make them shorter and tape them up and i have practice again tomorrow night so i need to do it soon.

backing up, i spent the weekend going solo since j was in montreal for vik's bachelor party. he was picked up around 7pm friday night and got back early sunday afternoon. he had a good weekend from the sounds of it. i spent a lot of my weekend sleeping. i bought some things for the house and went to see my parents. i gave my mom an atlas for her birthday. she seemed to like it.



i showed her my brother's pictures on facebook and she asked me to sign her up. i made her an account and added my brother and myself. who knows if she'll ever use it.

this saturday was j's birthday and it was the first time since we met that we didn't see each other on his birthday. so i gave him two presents before he left and one when he got home. i didn't make cake though. maybe i will.

sunday night i went over to t's new condo for the first craft night of the year. it was a mash of activities but it was fun and t's place is very nice. i started knitting christmas dishcloths but i just found a really neat pattern called the swiss cheese scarf and i'm more inspired.

new knitting and new shows on tv.. what more could i ask for? maybe a trip to cuba. still working on that.

decisions decisions

i had until last night to decide to play city hockey or not. and i had until after the practice to decide. i took until the absolute last minute to make my decision. i decided to play.

i played about 7 games with the other city team last year and really didn't like it. the level of play was high, possibly a little faster that i should be playing even, but the girls were bad. and by bad i mean bitchy. there was one point where one of the really good players actually screamed at another player on the ice. during the play. honestly.

i almost walked off the bench along with the screamed-at player. i couldn't believe what i was seeing and hearing. that was the most vocal thing that happened with that team, that i saw at least, but there was always this tension. girls didn't get along with each other. that doesn't make for a good time.

so this year when i got asked to play for this other team, i was a little hesitant because they play at the same level and when you play at a high level you get the hot-headed players who will do things like yell at their own teammates on the ice during the game.

so i held off on making a decision and was able to practice first, which i really appreciate. the girls all seemed really nice. i've played with a bunch of them before (in my intramural league last winter and spring or growing up) and decided that i can handle games once a week from now until april. it's what i did all growing up. i'm looking forward to it.

i'm also looking forward to getting a new stick because i broke my stick last night. it was a $30 stick i got 8 years ago. it doesn't owe me anything. i'll miss the heavy hunk of wood, but the big back-to-hockey sales are on now so i should be able to find something half decent for cheap. and if not, i'll just scream and yell at the people at the store because that's what you do to get your way.

time flies slowly

it's thursday already. i missed posting yesterday because i was in meetings for about two thirds of my work day, which is about 100% more than usual. this week has been a weird one thanks to having to work all weekend at the wedding show. every day has felt like it should have been friday but then all of a sudden it's thursday. odd.

i've been dreaming about work. you know it's time for a vacation when....

last week i was really good about not napping and limiting the time i spent reading at night (and therefore getting to sleep earlier than usual). this week has been killer. monday, i went for a run at lunch time (to exercise and to get away from my desk for a while - though my 1.5K didn't take all that long) and was able to not nap after work. tuesday i was a complete zombie and convinced j to take his free afternoon off so we could go home and "rest". we slept from 2-6pm. obviously we were both tired.

the napping hasn't stopped. we got home from work yesterday and i konked out for over 3 hours. i was mega proud that i was able to fall asleep before 1am after that.

but the problem is still there: i dream about work. i should bill my employer for overtime. it's ridiculous and obviously work is getting to me and i should be able to deal with it better than i am. i spend enough time here to then go to sleep and be right back at my desk. my submissions are haunting me.

ergo i need a vacation. that is the first time i've used that word on this blog. welcome to a first of mine!

i talked to a travel agent at the show on sunday and asked about last minute deals to somewhere hot. she recommended cuba and so has everyone i've talked to since. i need to do more research on the country and resorts and do more convincing of j if i have any hope of going. i joked that i was going to book us a trip for his birthday (which is saturday by the way) and that way he couldn't say no. i'll keep you posted.

it's all about the timing

about 10 minutes after posting the last post, i heard about the car. the man who rear-ended us is setting up payment at one of the body shops who will order our new bumper. we should be able to take it in to be fixed late this week or next week. sweet!

as for the rx-7, the $900 guy is now saying $500. i'm not too sure what's going on there. i do know that j finally talked to the garage where the car is and found out that we owe almost $500 for towing! ridiculous. j has a call into the towing company to find out exactly what's going on. that's an insane amount and probably jacked up because insurance normally covers it. that's our take on it anyways.

lesson learned: always have collision insurance on your car, no matter what kind of car it is. learn from our mistakes.

this weekend was long. the wedding show went well and my feet aren't as sore as they normally are, but i'm exhausted. there's something about working through the time you're supposed to have off. we have weekends for a reason.

normally i would take the monday off to sleep in and do laundry and maybe get groceries, but i couldn't this week because of commitments at work. i don't think i'll last all week - i'm going to need to sleep in soon - so i'm zombie-like. worse things have happened.

i have the house to myself this weekend and i'm trying to figure out how best to use this time. being a zombie makes me less creative so i haven't thought of anything yet. maybe ice cream and cookies in front of the tv dressed in my comfy clothes. mmmm ice cream and cookies.

car troubles

you all know that we got rear ended in the mazda 3 a few weeks ago and that j smashed the rx-7 into a light post. those are our car troubles. hopefully both will be resolved soon.

the 3

the brockville man who hit us asked that we not go through insurance so we got two estimates and mailed them to him (he doesn't have email and his fax machine is broken.) the estimates were both a little under $1000.

we called him after a reasonable-enough time for mail to get to brockville. his response: i'll give you $500 and we'll call it even.

ummm, NO! YOU hit US! we're not paying for YOU to be an idiot and rear ending US. does this make sense to anybody else? so j told him, politely, that he will pay for 100% of the repairs or we'll go through insurance. he said that $1000 was too much and that he was going to take the estimates to a mechanic in brockville. okay, but we aren't driving to brockville to get our car fixed.

it just never ends.

the rx-7

of the interest j got from posting the rx-7 for sale, none were sure things. a guy wanted to part the car out and leave us the shell. one wanted to car but had to find a towing company that would tow it to toronto. j was getting discouraged and called car heaven, a place that buys junk cars. he got even more discouraged when they offered him $100 for it.

but then last night, he got a serious offer for $900. i told him to jump on it. the body shop where the car is currently, has been calling about us paying for the cost of the tow and getting our sorry-ass car out of there. hopefully this $900-man is true to his word and takes the car soon.

single-car family

september 13th, i have to decide whether i'm playing hockey this winter for a city team. this team travels and i don't like the idea of leaving j without a car from 7:30-10:30 friday nights or 2:30-5:30 saturday afternoons, plus at least one night every week for a couple hours. so we've been looking at getting another car. casually looking for now because we told ourselves that we would wait until one of us got a raise. i got my yearly cost-of-living raise, but you hardly notice an extra $20 a month.

we tried to look at a yaris but the dealership only had a sedan. no thank you. we want something small but still useful (ie. not a smart car) and super good on gas. it's going to be our go-everywhere-within-the-city car and the 3 will be the family-we-need-groceries car. we're still in the baby stages of looking at this so it'll probably be a while before we really know what we want and who knows about the promotions....

soft spot

i have a soft spot for a good sunrise or sunset. there's something so beautiful about the sky and the light and the clouds. since i'm not much of a morning person, i don't get to see the sun rise very often, but starting work at 7am - and actually getting to work on time - helps with the sunrise-spotting.

tuesday morning the sunrise was spectacular. the sky was full of white and gray clouds and the light was beaming through in a circular way. the whole drive into work (which takes all of 15 minutes) i couldn't wait until we got to the parking lot so i could take some pictures.

finally we arrived. i took this one in the lot:



and this one from my coworker's cubicle:



it isn't very often we get a sunrise like that. beautiful.

update: RX-7

we found out how much it will cost to fix the rx-7. any guesses? no? okay, i'll tell you. $7500. that's 150% what we paid for the car in the first place. needless to say, we're not getting it fixed. it is living, temporarily, at the shop.

we got the call from the shop friday after work. i was relieved that it was such a big amount so that there was no maybes about getting it fixed. it was a flat-out NO.

now we have to figure out what to do with it. the engine is still in great shape and has very low mileage so i asked j if he could post on some of the forums he visits to see if anyone would be interested in a) the whole car, or b) parting out the car. he said that a) we needed pictures before we could post anything, and b) he didn't want to do it yet because didn't-i-think-for-one-second-that-he-might-be-a-little-upset-about-losing-the-car? oops.

i left him alone to sulk (aka play online computer games).

when we next talked, he had posted and already had some interest.

the light at the end of the tunnel is that while we won't have the car to drive anymore, we may get some money for it.

and j's okay.

oh man, what a weekend

i feel like i used my weekend. i got everything out of it that i had hoped. let me sum it up for you - awesome!

friday we went and met with some car guys and then downtown with a bunch of friends.

saturday night i went to see m. we ate cupcakes and talked and talked. it was nice.

sunday i tanned on the beach while j windsurfed. we had people over to watch a movie at night.

monday was a stay-at-home day since all the stores were closed. i did laundry and vacuumed and read. we also finally planted the bushes we bought back in july.

but now, saturday day. saturday was the big day this weekend. we went to the abandoned mine near buckingham, quebec with s&l. it's actually called the wallingford-back mine and was in operation from 1924-1972 mining primarily feldspar and quartz. i found out about it through a group on flickr. once i saw the pictures, i knew i had to go.

we navigated the country roads and only went past the turnoff once. we walked up to the entrance and were a little sad to see that you couldn't just walk in because it was all water:



so we started walking up an atv road in hopes of finding another way in. we did:



you could feel the air temperature drop and you knew there had to be an opening nearby. there was a hole in the chainlink fence that you just walked through. it was cold and dark, but incredible. it wasn't the typical closed-space cave, it was enormous! you could see light coming in from various openings and the water below.



we were able to get right down to the water. it was a little slippy, but definitely doable. we sat for a long time, taking pictures at different angles and exploring the area slowly. here you can see j off to the left after he explored that side of the cave:



it gives you an idea of how big this place really was. after leaving through the entrance we came in, we decided to see if there were other areas around the top. in fact, you could walk all around the huge opening on a bridge-like rock formation:



you can see me and l if you look closely. we made our way along this bridge and back out through another opening in the fence. back at the entrance, we decide to walk into the water to get some pictures from the far side. the water was only up to knee-deep but was FREEZING! i couldn't handle the pain and only made it about 10 feet in. and this is my favourite picture of the day, me and l chilling on the edge of the ice-water:



no day would be complete though without a horatio (from csi miami) shot from j:



the whole set is on my flickr page. we took tons of pictures, but need to really learn how to take shots of dark things when it's bright outside. it was challenging.

and now to find more day-trips good for fun and for taking pictures. i've already read about another mine just outside perth....

too long, too busy

i'm sorry for the lack of posting. it's the end of the summer and certain things are slowing down before, no doubt, picking up again with the beginning of the cooler weather.

things like sports. i'm leaning towards playing both hockey and volleyball again this winter. keeping myself busy with sports will help slow down the passage of time. honestly, without anything going on this summer (ignoring the occasional basebal game i played in) the days melted together and passed very quickly. i very much miss having things to do, even though sometimes i wish i had nothing.

the lesson learned is this: if i don't want to go one night, i won't go. taking a game off here and there is not a crime so signing up for these sports can only be a good thing for me.

my mind is not entirely made up but you can tell which way i'm leaning. i have hardly any time left to decide on volleyball but another 2 weeks to decide on hockey. i plan on using the whole time to think about it.

but now i really must get back to work. too bad work didn't take a break this summer.

harry potter

i finally finished reading all 7 harry potter books. the 7th was published july 21st so it took me just over a month to read all 7 and just over a day to read the 7th. not bad.

i am happy with the way the series ended. everything was wrapped up nicely. the whole series was obviously so well thought-out it was amazing. i wouldn't mind if some other author came in and wrote a book to pick up where the 7th ended, just to know what happened right after.

it was a whirlwind of a month though and i'm definitely starting my harry withdrawl. i might have to peruse the internets for some more reading.

this series will probably be THE series of our generaion, and by "our" generation i mean anyone alive right now who can read. so if you haven't read it, go out and buy yourself the books or borrow them and get on the harry train!

the call

saturday morning i slept in. j set the alarm and woke early to go watch some cars racing. i stayed in bed until 11 or so. finally got up and made myself pancakes. i had just finished when i got the call.

i hurried to put everything away - can't leave anything out with our cats - and rushed out the door. the short distance felt immeasurably long, especially when caught behind people driving the speed limit. i'm close, i come over a little uphill to see flashing lights from a cop car and an ambulance. i can't get there quickly enough.

i wait while a painfully slow van passes through the intersection so i can turn left into the gas station where i know i can park. i throw the car in park and don't even remember turning the engine off. i raced across the gas station and crossed half the road to j, who was being led by a paramedic and a cop to the ambulance. we hugged hard. he was okay.

thankfully i was allowed into the ambulance where the paramedic took j's pressure and asked him some questions. after declining a trip to the hospital, we left the ambulance.

then i saw our car. it was straddling the median with a light standard on the median beside it.



he's still not entirely sure what happened. he was turning right onto the street and the back end kicked out. he tried to correct it but the throttle stuck and he ended up careening up onto the curb and finally into the light standard. in slow motion, he looked over at the light standard. it started teetering and finally fell away from him, across three of the oncoming lanes.



he turned off the car, got out and called 911. a couple of cop cars and an ambulance showed up. a cop moved the light standard onto the median. i showed up soon after.

j was badly shaken but otherwise unhurt. no cars were hit by the light standard and no charges were laid. we were able to go home just as the tow truck was taking our car away. i drove nice and slow and didn't say much. you never know with boys how they're feeling and what will set them off.

the whole time i was thinking to myself that it could have been so much worse. he could have died. he could have killed someone else. he could have been charged with reckless driving. he could have wrecked our new car. the possibilities are endless.

once we were talking again and being somewhat normal, we laughed about just having to deal with the insurance company a couple days ago, at least that's how it feels. we got rear ended only two weeks ago and still haven't sorted that all out. and now this.

we should find out today or tomorrow about the car. our insurance will pay the city to replace the light standard but not to fix our car. that will be up to us and will depend on a bunch of things. but if j sticks to what he's thinking now, he won't ever drive that car again.

we shall see. we shall see.

what happens in vegas...

my interview went well. i got mega nervous beforehand and was super hot during, but it's over and i only lied once. (i lied in my last important interview (for my current job actually) and panicked about it for a couple weeks after. this time i know they aren't going to be asking my references about it.) so it's over. you'll know when i hear back, if i hear back.

in other news, i was asked to play on a city hockey team. i'm seriously considering it but don't need to decide until september 13th, which happens to be the first practice night. good hockey is tempting!

but it's really hard to think about playing hockey or doing anything else when all i want to do is sleep. i am not sleeping enough (or well enough) and have no energy. i'm partially blaming it on the weather too. isn't august in ontario supposed to be hot and sunny and "summer-y"? well it isn't anymore. yuck, weather, just yuck.

(the title of the post has nothing to do with anything. just so you know.)

i feel creative

i'm an awesome procrastinator. maybe i'll use that as one of my weaknesses in my interview today. don't you just hate that question? well, i'm terrible at this and that... but you should still hire me. please?

okay well, my point was that i left making onesies for mm until last night even though i knew i would be seeing her today for probably the last time before her new baby is born. but i think they turned out okay.

blue hippo:



red pig:



i think the hippo is the cutest little guy.

anyways, my weekend is starting to come together, filling up with things to do and people to see. that's the way i like it but i also like sleep and after this week i'll be sleeping lots.

back to work. interview afterthoughts next post.

not too busy

i'm home now and i'm not too busy to get rid of the pink settings. back to blue. i likey.

talk about busy

work is incredibly busy. but where i work is a nice place to work - they provide us with things like the free corn roast happening tomorrow at lunch. it's a good deal. you get your "ticket" and you go outside for lunch time, play dodgeball and talk to everyone and get two free cobs of corn and a drink. i don't know how they do it, but it's nice. (there's also the annual bbq, but i was in bc for it.)

i was begged to play dodgeball with my team from last year. it's a bunch of people that work on my floor. you have to have at least 3 girls on the court and that's always tough, finding enough girls. i said yes, but didn't really want to. especially since it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

and then an excuse came and plopped in my lap: i have an interview tomorrow afternoon. it's for the bi-03 i wrote mid-july. i'm currently a bi-01 so it's a little up there for me so i'm not nervous (or serious, really) about it. i'll dress all fancy and answer as smartly as i can, but won't be too worried if that's the end of the road for me in this competition. apparently, it isn't the only interview - whooo, we're in the big leagues now.

last night i read and read and read and finally finished the 5th harry potter book. i even cracked open the 6th and am very much looking forward to it. but really, it's the 7th that i'm all excited for. it will be brand new. i've read all the others before so every now and then i remember what's going to happen and it kinda sucks. but the 7th.. brand sparkly new. and no one has ruined the ending for me yet, thankfully.

sore loser

thursday night was my baseball year-end party at my place. two birds with one stone since none of them had seen the new place. it was a pretty low-key night.

i couldn't get out of bed friday morning. i had a feeling j would want to take the day off and i was right. he stayed in bed for most of the day. i dragged myself to work for 10am (3 hours late) only to leave an hour later for our team lunch in my hometown. lunch was good. it was nice seeing some of our coworkers who have left on mat leave.

i didn't go back to work though. i went to see my parents. i wasn't convinced that my mom was "okay" like she said she was. so we talked in their backyard for almost 3 hours. i finally got back in the car and drove home.

i was exhausted. i slept from 6-9pm. j went out but i stayed in. he was out with some guys getting our friend, dL, drunk. dL just broke up with his girlfriend and was in need of some beer and some dirty jokes (that's what guys do when they get together, right? drink beer and fart?)

saturday was a very lazy day. we had sylvia's party to go to that night so we took it easy all day. i can't even remember what we did. but there was the party. j decided he was going to go out with other friends and left with the rx-7. i got myself to my hometown a little late but it was okay. i got to see some people i hadn't seen since highschool and some others that i only see at these parties.

and then j showed up. apparently my friends are better than his. we spent most of the night talking to s&l. it was good. then we drove home separately.

sunday i promised to meet tania at the dog park. i didn't think 1pm was too early, but then i slept in late and was kinda rushed. we walked and talked and i saw some of the biggest dogs i've ever seen. it was nice being outside. i found out that a blog i had been reading a lot last year is actually a girl i went to high school with but who was a year behind me. i still can't believe it's her.

we had another couple over for dinner sunday night. it was a nice, relaxing end to the weekend.

but then i took yesterday off so my weekend just kept going. i stayed in bed with the cats until mid-morning and then lounged around. i finally got myself put together and went out to get some estimates for the damage to our car from being rear-ended. everything was going well until i got to the last place. the guy obviously though i was a dumb girl, said he wouldn't give me an estimate, that i was wasting my time, that i couldn't get the car fixed without going through insurance, to have my insurance company call him. what an ass! he isn't getting our business.

i spent the rest of the day reading the 5th harry potter book. i'm in the read-until-it's-done zone so i should be finished pretty quickly. i'm really excited to get to book 7, but obviously book 6 still stands in my way. i'm glad i started back at the beginning. i don't remember 99% of the books.

and that's my story until now. i heard today that people have been called for interviews for the bi-03 competition that i'm in. i haven't got a call yet but i'm hoping that isn't because i'm not getting an interview. we'll see. i'll keep you posted.

on death and dying

it's impossible, when faced with death, to avoid thinking about your own mortality. absolutely impossible.

the good thing is that i feel very alive. did i need a death to feel this way? surely not, but it helps.

my grandmother passed away yesterday. my mom's mom. they weren't close and so we weren't close. no matter how much the death doesn't effect me in a day-to-day sense, i still find myself thinking about death and about dying.

i don't know yet if there will be a funeral. my mom didn't seem to think there would be. but then i'm not even sure i would go if there was one. if it was in town then i definitely would, but if it's across the country then maybe not.

i owe you one (or a ton)

i haven't posted pictures in a while. let's break it down.

first, our little accident:



you can't even see the damage in this shot. what you see is how much higher the jeep is compared to our car and hopefully that makes it easy to understand that when he hit us, he went right up on our bumper.

this is the pot plant that was outside the police station where we went to make a statement about the accident:



i think somebody played a trick on the cops.

then there's the new couches and new projector:



this is not a good picture and i apologize for that.

and the cottage weekend. i learned how to windsurf:



we saw ducks:



we saw turtles:



and we went boating:



good times.

j had to work last night. i'm talking we got into work at 7 and he's still there 25 hours later. apparently he took a break from 4 - 7am and sleep at his desk. what a trooper. i brought him some clean clothes and some food this morning when i came in. i spent the night by myself - i went shopping and did some errands and then cleaned the house. i was very productive. now it's time for hot chocolate.

i wasn't talking about marshmallows

the cottage was good. really good. we got up there around 8pm friday night i think and set ourselves up. most of the night was spent in the cottage sitting around talking. saturday was full of boating and windsurfing and reading and lying on the beach. a guy from bell was supposed to come to look at the phone so everyone but me went out in the boats. they came back all excited because they saw turtles. i was mad! so later on, j and i went back to that place and i saw 5 turtles!! we also saw a bunch of baby ducks right at the beach. (pictures soon!)

after dinner saturday night we decided to go into the big town of killaloe. we parked across the street from a building with a bunch of old people out front. they were wearing name tags but the building had the word "funeral" on top so we weren't quite sure what they was going on. we walked around the town seeing no one else and when we were almost back at the cars, an old man on a scooter had stopped up ahead to ask a random guy what was going on in town that night. the man said that there was a dance at the legion and a wake at the funeral home and some people walking around (the people were us). there were three things going on in the city and we were one of them. how sad.

and i'm sure the dance and wake were in the same building. odd.

needless to say, we didn't stay long in killaloe. we went back to the cottage and had a bonfire, roasted marshmallows and watched the meteor shower. i have to say, I WAS RIGHT!! the meteor shower peaked sunday night, aka. monday at 1am, not saturday night. we didn't miss the big show by going to bed earlier than 1am. we did get to see lots of little meteors and one huge one. i wonder what the peak part of the shower looked like.

sunday was a whole lot of the same as saturday: lying on the beach reading, j windsurfing, eating and finally heading back to town. we went straight to j's parent's place for dinner and only got home around 9pm. the cats were happy to see us and i was happy to shower. we didn't stay up late because we were both exhausted from the weekend.

and now it's monday and it's back to work. i have a feeling this is going to be a long week. i got news from my mom this morning that my grandmother is very close to the end. i'm not close with my grandparents so i'm not feeling much of anything, sadly enough. my poor mom has to travel to bc though to tag-team the situation with her brother and sister. i just hope it's quick.

cops and couches

we went to the police station yesterday after work to report our collision. apparently that's what you're supposed to do. the cop was nice and made the report for us and told us what to do about the guy from brockville. thankfully they can take care of everything by phone and fax. i was wondering how that was going to work. so next week we'll take the car in to get some estimates on fixing the bumper.

but the big excitement from yesterday was that we got our new couches delivered and they made it into the basement! they look less red down there and look really good. we have the whole set up now, minus a decent coffee table. we're using an old bedside table that's not big enough. it works but so will a new one from ikea. yay ikea.

we're heading off to the cottage tonight with 2 other couples (hi a&s and s&l!). i'm really looking forward to relaxing, even though part of me wants to stay home and clean. i feel like we've been neglecting the house and we have, but being away for three weekends in a row will do that. especially when it was too hot to do anything but lie around for a couple of weeks there.

i don't think the cats are going to be very happy with us when we leave them again. when we get back after being away for a weekend they die with happiness, which is nice, but makes me feel bad for leaving them in the first place. but thankfully they are cats and can be left alone for a couple of days at a time.

now i'm just rambling. okay, back to work!

crunchy crunchy

we left work a little later than usual yesterday. we both had some things to finish off around 3pm. our drive home isn't farg and doesn't normally take very long, about 15-20 minutes. it's only three main streets and some side streets. we do it every day without incident. until yesterday.

we were stopped at the second set of lights we come to when we get hit from behind. i wasn't driving, but j said that the guy behind us who hit us was stopped so he was very surprised when we were hit. he thinks the guy must have just taken his foot off the brake. needless to say we weren't hit hard.

we both got out of the car. the damage isn't bad but it's there. the other guy was driving an suv so his bumper basically just went on top of ours. our poor little car. j and the man exchanged information while i took pictures. we didn't know what else to do so we left.

we drove the rest of the way home in disbelief, still not sure why he hit us. j spent a while on the phone last night with the insurance company and has to call them back today. i really don't know a lot about car accidents and the aftermath so we'll see how this all works out. pictures as soon as i've taken them off the camera.

ketchup catch up

j went away for 3 whole days to a new and exciting place and came back with two presents for me. what could they be, you ask. well, they are these:



and he didn't even have to buy them. the guy staying in the room across the hall from them ordered room service and didn't use his ketchup or mustard. i'm not joking.

back story: we stayed in the chateau laurier on our wedding night and ordered room service late that night (who really eats the food at a wedding?) our chicken burgers came with a little ketchup bottle that j thinks is adorable and so calls it the k ketchup bottle, using my real name of course.

so when he saw these he thought they would be perfect. you know, nothing says "atlanta" like two mini condiment bottles. but really, they are perfect.

sharks take the silver

turns out there were some injuries this weekend:

one girl hit the ball right up into her face. luckily she just got a goose egg on her forehead. she stayed in the game.

another girl slid into home and dislocated her shoulder. she came out of the game.

the third girl did the same as the first and hit the ball up into her face. she wasn't as lucky and got hit in the eye. thankfully her eye is okay, but her face is looking a little messy. here she is trying to open her eye:



all this to say that i got to play. we had three games on saturday and three on sunday. i only played in one and a half but the way my body is feeling would tell you that i played in about 12. i can't believe how sore i am.

but it was a good weekend. we won the silver medal and almost got the gold. the last game really could have gone either way.

and i was able to get myself to the toronto airport okay. i only had one crazy guy come up to me while i was waiting for j. i can still remember how he smelled... yuck.

anyways, the whole weekend was good, but what was better was that yesterday was a stat holiday. i was able to sleep in and sleep some more and do what i want. we ended up finally leaving the house late afternoon to see what stores were open. we went and bought some couches (to replace the ones that didn't fit down the stairs to the basement) and a projector with the couch money. the projector is already set up, not in the exact place we want it but it's working. and the couches will be delivered thursday. thursday! no nine months of waiting for these puppies... thursday!

only 3.8 more work days left until the weekend.

bruce willis has nothing on this guy

after a lovely dinner in airconditioning (thank you, j&m!) i stopped to get groceries. i needed some things for my big road trip and this weekend. i stopped at the grocery store in our neighbourhood and was going around when i spotted a guy who looked a lot like bruce willis.

i was going up and down the aisles when i see him up ahead, coming towards me. and he says this:

what did you eat to make you so good looking?

i couldn't have heard him right, but i did because he said the exact same thing when i asked him to repeat himself. and then he told me that was called "flirting in the aisles".

okay buddy, i know exactly what flirting is, but that was the WORST pick-up line, ever!

but who knows, maybe bruce said it in one of his movies.

------

off to toronto after work today for the baseball provincials. i'm going to help out my team. back in may, i put my name on the roster in case they had some injuries or something. and of course, they did have one player injured and one isn't able to play tomorrow. they still have enough without me but i'll be on the bench in case someone else gets injured. i'm nice that way.

i called j last night to get him to show me how to update kevin (my ipod) with the harry potter book i'm reading. i figured that listening to the book will be good for the drive. i don't drive often anymore but will be finefinefine.

i'm a little worried about navigating the toronto airport by myself (that's where i'm picking j up) but it'll be finefinefine too.

okay, back to work for the last day this week. it's been a long one.

captain of the alone

status update, food: i ate only 2 cookies yesterday and no ice cream. i went to kelsey's for pasta (it's too hot to cook inside these days and pasta doesn't work on the bbq) and was treated well by the server who, i think, felt sorry for the single girl with the magazine.

status update, sleep: i didn't nap but i didn't go to bed early either.

status update, work: my meeting with the director had another coworker too so i couldn't talk about money. but i was given more responsibilities.

status update, kitties: the cats are my alarm clock. they woke me up on time this morning. i set my alarm and everything (j normally does the waking up) but didn't think to check the AM/PM business and would have been mega late for work without my purring heat balls. why do they insist on sleeping on me or touching me in some way when their little bodies are so hot?

status update, weather: it's freaking hot! it's finally summer. and we have a long weekend. we'll be spending most of it in toronto, but monday will be a nice, relaxing day at home. i can't wait.

exhausterated

when i'm really tired, i say that i'm exhausterated. that's like exhausted ++, you know, mega exhausted. this week, and i know it's only wednesday, is turning out to be a bad sleep week. i've been getting to bed late and napping after work. needless to say i'm exhausterated.

and then work is just running me down. good news is that i'm meeting with the director this afternoon (an hour after i'm supposed to leave for the day, but what can you do) so maybe i'll ask about the added responsibilities turning into added money. it's always such a tough topic so my bet is that i won't be able to bring it up. but you never know.

i got a flickrmail (email on flickr) about my pictures from the fire last saturday. i've been asked to submit them to an online magazine. once i've sent in the pictures and story, i'll post the link. it's an incredible feeling, especially since i was only using the little point and shoot that was running low on batteries. i'm very excited!

but i'm feeling a little lost: j left for atlanta this morning. he has training for work tomorrow and friday and asked to take the camera. MY camera. at first, i said no then i thought about it a little more and realized that him taking the big camera didn't make sense so i sent him off with my little camera. i'm feeling a little naked without it. i've spent the past 200+ days carrying it everywhere with me so maybe you can understand what i'm feeling. but at least i have the big camera.

and don't you worry, i'm not feeling lost because i'm by myself. it's kinda nice. i can stay late at work and not have to feel bad about making j stay late too. and i can eat ice cream and cookies for dinner and just tell him i made a three course meal, which he would never believe anyways. ice cream and cookies it is! single k goes crazy when left to her own devices.

when there is too much to say

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

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



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

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



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



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



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



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

bad, bad blogger

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

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

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

pay me more money? please?

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

turning the world red

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

my world:




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

and for kicks, canada:




more kicks, the us:




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

weekend meltdown

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

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



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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

the couch saga, part two

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the new do

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

i'll keep you updated on our couch situation.

blood a boiling

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

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

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

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

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

let me tell you, my blood was boiling!

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

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

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

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

long weekend

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



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

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



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



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



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

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

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

and that's all for now.

trying times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

so. very. tired.

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



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

happy anniversary! happy anniversary!

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

we made it from here:


to here:



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

busy, but relaxing

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



point: we put up the curtains in our bedroom.



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



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



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



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