First two weeks of 2007

Well once again I haven’t written in a while (as Bobbi has pointed out).

New Years Eve I spent at my sisters with my nephews, Del and a few of their friends. We had a nice dinner and played some games. I wasn’t drinking as I told my parents that I would be their DD for the evening as they always go to a dance with their friends Betty and Walter. Pretty uneventful, but nice anyways.

The first weekend in January I went down to Ajax on Friday night with Jamie-Lee. We had planned to go wedding dress shopping with her sister Jen. When we got to Jen’s house in Ajax we discovered both kids and Jen really sick. Jamie and I went out to the slots in Ajax (didn’t win) and then stayed up late chatting about silly things. Jen was still too sick in the morning so we went to Mississauga where we had found a couple of bridal boutiques having sales and picked up their other sister Jane who is staying down there while she does her Co-op.

We went into the first place and Jamie immediately saw a dress she liked as well as a few others. But we couldn’t get a change room as it was too busy. So we decided to go next door to the other boutique. Jamie did try on a dress there but none of us liked it. So we just decided to go back to the first one and wait. We didn’t have to wait long for a change room. Jamie tried on the first dress she had seen and loved it. We had her try on two more. We all really liked dress 1 and 2, made her try on dress 1 again and all decided on number 1. It was just better suited for Jamie.

So that was our wedding dress adventure. It was MUCH easier than any of us had anticipated. So then with time to spare before dinner (her Aunt had invited us to stay for dinner) we headed to the mall. We ate a small lunch as we hadn’t had time before or during the dress shopping as a lot of the boutiques close early, and then did a little shopping. We left the mall and couldn’t find the car. Jamie was panicking because her dress was in there and Jane and I were laughing to hard to really concentrate on finding the car. Turns out we had come out the wrong exit. Then, Jane now living in the area with their Aunt, directs me back to the 401, the only choice you have once on the ramp is East and we need West, so I had to drive a bit before I could turn around, and then I missed the 403 exit, so we took Erin Mills, anyways long story short - we were back at their Aunts about 1 hour after leaving the mall. Then when we are JUST about back at their Aunts place we pass the same mall that we had just been at. Turns out we were only a few blocks from their home – worse thing Jane takes the bus home from the mall on some days. A well we had a good laugh.

Of course we helped Jamie try on the dress for her Aunt and Uncle. And on the way home that evening, we first went back to Ajax to show Jen the dress as well. It is very beautiful! And when we got back to Jamie’s parents’ house we tried it on for them as well.

So that brings us to Tuesday night. Jamie had a pair of boots that she wanted to return and I needed to find something to wear to the Chamber of Commerce Annual Business Dinner. So we decided to go to Barrie. Jamie was done work at 3:30pm so she met me at work at 5pm. We set out in my car as we usually do. The drive down to Barrie was slow…what usually should take 30 minutes took about 50 minutes as it was snowing fairly heavily. We returned the boots, looked at some wedding bands and I bought an outfit and we had some dinner. We drove back to Orillia, though still slow. Jamie needed to go to the bathroom before setting out for Gravenhurst, so I told her we could go use the office bathroom. She started her car to warm it up, locked it and we went inside. We come back out to find that Jamie’s doors won’t open as the remote doesn’t seem to be working. We called Del and Derek and finally her Road Side Assistance and they sent CAA to unlock the door. The CAA guy came in about 5 minutes, turns out he was on his way to the mall anyways. After a bit of trouble he did manage to unlock the doors.

Jamie and I set out on our way. Jamie left about a minute before I did as Del had called my cell to see if we had gotten into her car otherwise he would have come down. We are driving out 40km in our separate cars on Hwy 11 N and I see Jamie fishtail and lose control of her car. She does a 360 and smashes into the barrier. I could stop safely, there were no other cars around us, and pull off onto the shoulder directly across from Jamie’s car that is stopped right up against the barrier. Jamie runs out of her car and I make her sit in mine. I go over and turn her car off and put the hazard lights on. Jamie is really upset, understandably so, and I call 911. There are a lot of other things that happen before the actual police officer comes (two undercover cops from Bracebridge stop, ask to move Jamie’s car I tell them they don’t look like cops, they show us their badges, an off duty fire fighter stops and parks behind us with his lights going, I make some calls for Jamie). The police officer takes Jamie to his car and I have to complete a police report. I call Derek to tell him exactly where we are and I call her Mom to let her know that Jamie is ok. Derek comes, the tow truck comes, and by about 11:40pm we can go. Derek followed me home to make sure I was ok. I REALLY didn’t want to drive after that. I had even asked Del if he could come down and tow my car back. The drive wasn’t that bad as several hours had passed and the highway was basically just wet by then…I still only drove about 50 kms. I was going to go into work with my sister the next day, but decided that I really couldn’t avoid driving the rest of the winter.

Wednesday night I basically just came home, ate and went to bed as I was pretty tired from the night before.

Thursday night was the Chamber of Commerce Business Dinner. The dinner was at the Casino’s Ballroom. The dinner itself was ok, nothing impressive. The keynote speaker was David Foot, author of “Boom, Bust & Echo”. He was an amazing speaker, really interesting and a good sense of humour as well. I wore my new outfit, an A-line skirt that went just below the knees, a black and white blouse thing that I love, and the best part was the kind of wrap around black blazer that is a bit kimono-esque!

Yesterday, Saturday, I met up with Jamie-Lee and we had lunch and chatted. She’s a little sore still, bruised her knee and her neck and back are a bit stiff. Her car is being written off, they are still doing the damage appraisal, so far they are up to $10,000 worth of damage.

Asili was supposed to start Agility Training today, but the instructor is sick, so it’s been pushed back a week. It’s just a four week thing on Sundays at 11am. I’ll see how she likes it, but it gets her out doing something and I think she’ll really enjoy it.

This afternoon I’m meeting up with Bobbi, Fred and the boys in Bracebridge at Kelsey’s for dinner. Should be good.

I think that’s all I have to write about, again ignore the mistakes.

Finally time to slow down...

It’s nice to finally have some time to think about what I am doing again…to actually sit at my desk at work and finish one task without being interrupted by someone needing something right away, a phone call or suddenly remembering something else that needed to be done immediately. Though this shouldn’t be taken as me complaining, because I love being busy, I thrive in that type of environment, but it is certainly nice to have this break again, catch up on some work I’ve let fall behind and look forward to the next busy season – Easter and March Break! Christmas was successful though with Santa Photos being up 7% and Gift Certificate sales up almost 20%.

First my ear infection story – though this is the condensed version as the long version would probably bore you mad. Just at the start of December my ear was feeling stuffy (is the best way I can think to describe it)...I thought it was caused by the cold I was getting over and went and bought some sinus cold medication (convenient to work in a mall – you can go out and get anything you want/need at any point in the day). I got home and my ear was bothering me a bit more than it had been all day. I have a hot bath but after about 10 minutes have to get out because the pain is starting to get worse. By the time my Dad gets home from work I’m sitting on the couch barely holding back the tears. He asks what’s wrong and I just mumble something about my ear I know that if I were to say much more I would start crying. Though I came to that point pretty quickly after anyway. I went to bed because I didn’t know what else to do. My Mom came home shortly after and asked what was wrong, gave me something warm to put on my ear and some Tylenol. I fell asleep almost right away though it wasn’t a restful sleep and I woke up several times for more Tylenol. The next day I tried calling my doctor, couldn’t get an appointment so I went to the drop-in clinic that my doctor belongs to after work, the ear infection was confirmed and I was on antibiotics for 10 days. The real intense pain was only that one night (thank God! I’ve never been in so much pain before), but it was still really stuffy, I couldn’t hear out of that one ear and it was making popping/crackling sounds with the occasional sharp pain. So about 3 days after the prescription ends I go back to the drop in (still couldn’t get any appointment until the following week) and the doctor tells me that it is healing fine, the infection is gone but I still have fluid in the ear. Again the following week, while I can hear better, the crackling sound and sharp pain is still there so I decide to keep my doctor’s appointment and she tells me that of course it isn’t better yet as I have some sort of post ear infection condition (can’t remember the proper name) and my ears and sinus aren’t draining properly so these symptoms can stick around for up to another 3 months. Now had the doctor the second time I was at the drop in told me that I wouldn’t have been so worried. But at any rate, I decided not to take medication for it as the doctor said it will heal on it’s own in time. So that’s my not-so-short-after-all story of my ear infection. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t stick around too much longer.

I can’t even remember anything exciting or eventful that happened during the holidays at work. You’d think something would have happened while I was putting in 10 or more hour days working all but 2 days in December, but between the cold, ear infection and pure hectic ness of it all, nothing really stands out on its own.

One of the two Sundays I had off (the second being Christmas Eve), I went to Tottenham to ride on the Santa Express (old steam train) with my sister, Del, the boys, Del’s mother and step-father and sister. The train runs May to December (I believe) and in December they make special trips to the North Pole with Santa as the special passenger. He comes around and talks to everyone. While the scenery was lacking snow, it was still quite nice. Though the night before one of the girls who does the Santa photos called at 5pm and asked what to do because Santa wasn’t doing well (not in the best of health) and they were supposed to work until 7pm. I sent them home, but then spent part of the drive down to Tottenham trying to get a hold of my Boss to inform her and with the Gift Certificate Sales Associate who was also having some kind of problem…I was a little glad when the cell signal dropped and it didn’t come back until we were almost back in Barrie later that night. We got back to my sister’s at around 6pm and I had to run to the grocery store as we were all brining in treats to work the next day and I hadn’t yet had a chance to pick up the things I needed to bake that night (mind you I didn’t even pick out a recipe until the drive down to Tottenham). So it was another late night as I baked the squares (chocolate pecan things).

Anyways I’m just babbling because I don’t really remember what all has passed in the last 3 weeks. Somehow I was ready for Christmas come 5pm Christmas Eve when we went over to my sisters. The boys were so cute. I love having Christmas with them. Nate of course was still most impressed with the gift wrap, but Ty exclaimed after he ripped open each gift: “That’s JUST what I wanted!!” Christmas with kids is the absolute best.

Christmas day I spent in pajamas and played some Monopoly with my Mom. Boxing Day I went and did a little shopping with Heather then we took Daisy and Asili out for a walk which was cut short as Asili decided to jump in the river, so I didn't want her out in the cold too long thereafter. Today it was back to work. Someone has to be in the office and I don’t mind as I get to take time off some other time when I want it (not to mention all the lieu time I have now)

Heather leaves for Glasgow tomorrow. I’ll miss our Soup Factoring Luncheons, Timmies Coffeeing, Aisle Dancing and Doggie walking, but I know she’ll have a great time there and it’s a great opportunity, and I certainly can’t wait to visit!

I’m off to bed now, still trying to catch up on my sleep, and also want to read more of my book. I’m reading Chris Gardner’s memoir “The Pursuit of Happyness”. I went to the book store and picked it up the day after going to see the movie with Heather. The movie was only “inspired” by the book, it’s really like reading an entirely different story. It’s quite a good read.

(Too lazy to reread this, so I apologize about the errors!)

One of those Days...

Yesterday I had one of those days.

One of those days where I probably would have been better off staying in bed.

It had snowed (a lot) during the night and the roads were bad. I left about 20 minutes early knowing the drive would take me longer than normal. I got about half way when I fish tailed, did a half spin and ended up on the shoulder facing the wrong direction on the highway. My back tired where down in the ditch just enough that I couldn’t get myself out. I called my brother-in-law, he’s the go to guy. He called me a tow truck and told me to wait. Twenty minutes later while considering running into the bush to pee (in my hast to leave early I hadn’t visited the bathroom before leaving), a car pulled over. It was a cute guy! Unfortunately he couldn’t do anything for me as he was just in a small car himself. Del (brother-in-law) called back and said the tow truck wasn’t coming as they were busy so he decided to come down. Still waiting and really considering using the bush a van pulled over and three guys jumped out and asked if I wanted them to help me out. So they pushed me out. I called Del back he and told me to meet him at the Northland Motel. You see he knew I needed new back tires because I had told him that about 6 weeks ago and he told me he had a set for me. But things with my Dad and brother-in-law take some time sometimes. After some conversation, I really needed to get to work as I had things that had to be done, Del made me drive back to Gravenhurst to Wayne’s Tire to get the snow tires but on that he had arranged for me (I got an awesome deal – 4 snow tires for $180 that usually cost $145 each – it pays to know people – plus Wayne was on my Dad and sister’s racing team for a while).

Del followed me all the way to Gravenhurst going about 40 km to Wayne’s. Del works in the same Industrial Park. Originally it was going to take a couple of hours so my Dad came to pick me up there. When my Dad came he talked to Wayne and now they were taking my car in next. So half an hour later (or so) I was finally on my way. I stopped for gas and at Timmies to grab a coffee and a bagel for lunch. I made it to work shortly before noon. What a difference the tires make!

So they day goes by pretty quickly and at about 5:15pm I go to leave as they were calling for a ton more snow and freezing rain so I wasn’t going to work late. I start my car, put it in reverse, so to switch it into drive and it stalls. Ok, it’s cold out so maybe its having issues. But then it wouldn’t start again. I tried again, and again and again. No luck. So I am sitting half back out of a space in the middle of the driving lane and call my Dad. He tells me to call Del’s Dad who is a mechanic in Orillia. Johnny (Del’s Dad’s mechanic) comes to look at it. After standing in the cold for 20 minutes, and my ear is doing weird things (have an ear infection but that’s another story) Johnny tells me its my fuel pump fuse. Apparently if the fuse goes it’s because there’s a short or another problem so even if you replace the fuse it’ll probably just blow again. So my Dad calls Donny from Gravenhurst Towing and he comes and takes me to my Dad’s shop. So I’m home just before 8pm.

So it was a short but long day. At least that’s how I decided to describe yesterday.

I’ll save my ear infection story for another day as it’s almost quarter after 7am, and my sister is coming at 7:30am to pick me up and drop me off at work. It’s convenient because she works in Barrie (though she’s working from home today), but the kids go to daycare in Orillia.

I actually won something!

(This was actually written last night when I couldn’t connect to the Internet. So, things that say today were actually yesterday which was Tuesday.)

Aside from working a lot to stay on top of all the Christmas activities and preparations at work, I’ve also been quite busy otherwise.

Last Thursday I went and saw Jewel with Jamie-Lee. She’s an absolutely amazing live performer with an incredible voice. The next night I wanted to go into town to pick up a few things and to go to the Rotary Festival of Trees (the mall had a tree in it and I didn’t get a chance to see it beforehand) and we went to Webber’s Downtowner for dinner – had a fantastic veggie burger! Jamie had never been to the Festival of the Trees (for anyone else who doesn’t know what it is you can go to www.rotaryfestivaloftrees.com but basically companies sponsor trees and decorate them with products, certificates, etc). I bought a book of raffle tickets determined to win a tree this year – though I said that last year too! Put my name in for some really cool things and I actually won one!! I won the one that I actually put my name in for my parents – the tree from the Pool Sauna Showroom, I can’t remember everything that was on it, some pool toys, accessories and gift certificates. So that was pretty exciting to get the call tonight! I have to go and pick up the tree and ‘decorations’ tomorrow, the good thing is the store is directly behind the mall so I don’t have to go too far.

Saturday morning I headed down to Toronto to go see “Chicago” with Melissa. What a fantastic show! I loved it! Mind you I love anything on a live stage! I’m going to try to get tickets for Phantom of the Opera when it returns early next year and take my Mom and sister as none of us have seen it before. After the show we went back to Melissa’s for some wine with her Mom and Mom’s friend Sue who had also come to the show. We then went to The Ethiopian House. It was my second time there – it’s SO good! Basically it’s Ethiopian flat bread (kind of like a pancake) which you break apart to scoop up different curry-type selections from a giant plate in the middle. We then did a little shopping and headed back to Melissa’s.

Sunday morning we woke up early to get some more shopping in. I bought a Cuisinart Blender/Food Processor mix which I am really excited about! I bought a few Christmas presents as well. We then wanted to go to an Indian Restaurant that is claimed to be one of Toronto’s best, but when we got there we discovered it closed. So instead we ended up at Spring Rolls for some excellent Thai curry. I left the city around 2:30pm and headed to my sister’s for Nate’s first birthday party.

Poor Ty had to get three stitches on Sunday morning. He was at church with his grandparents and tripped and hit his head off one of the chairs. He’s a trooper though, hasn’t complained at all. I picked them up from the sitter’s today. Nate’s so cute, he’s at the age where he really recognizes people and runs over smiling to greet you with his little arms extended. I’m so happy to be here and sad all at the same time that I missed out with Ty when he was this age.

Asili is also celebrating her first birthday today. I got her some of her favourite treats, a plush bone (that she’s already ripped apart) and a dog basket filled with goodies from the SPCA. Last night I made her some home-made dog biscuits called “Peanut Butter Bones”. She absolutely loves them! The entire time I was making them she sat there waiting patiently so that by the time they were done I couldn’t make her wait until her birthday to have some. Simple to make too! 1 cup natural peanut butter, 1 cup skim milk, 2 cups whole wheat flour, you mix it, knead it, cut out the shapes and bake for 20 minutes. I took some in to work today for people I know who have dogs. Yes I am a geek, but I can live with that.

A bunch of other things happened as well, I’m just not doing real well at remembering them at the moment. I spent most of tonight sorting/cleaning my closet. It was about time, especially now that most of my clothes are too big; it was a lot easier to part with things. I got rid of 20 pairs of pants - I didn’t even know I had that many and that’s not including the 3 suits I also got rid of. I’d like to say my closet is a lot emptier now, but strangely it’s not. Strange since I’ve only replaced some of it and certainly not as much as I got rid of. I suppose it has to do with the reorganizing, I have smaller, neater piles on the shelves instead of massive shelf to shelf piles.

At any rate, I’m just babbling now because I’m supposed to be doing my Event Table and Schedules for December so I can give those to the appropriate people tomorrow. Though I really just want to crawl into bed and read. I’m currently reading “A Long Way Down” by Nick Hornby. It’s about these four people who meet when they each attempt to commit suicide. One book in the long line of great books I’ve read recently.

Tanja Huffman, CGA

Not sure how two weeks have passed by so quickly. Been busy catching up at work, but it’s just that time of year where it seems I can’t get ahead of it. Just about done my December advertising finally, so then I can concentrate on some of the events that are coming up.

Santa arrives on Saturday, so this week has been busy setting up the Chalet and getting things ready to go. Tomorrow I still have to set up the camera and photo printer and stock the photo counter with all the supplies.

Last weekend was pretty busy as well. Saturday was my sister’s CGA graduation. Dad, Del and myself joined her in Toronto for the New Member Ceremony. It was downtown at the Westin Harbour Hotel. We left home at 10:30am with a short stop at the mall so I could make sure the Remembrance Day announcement got played.

After checking my sister and Del into their hotel we went down to the ceremony. There are 775 new CGA in Ontario alone, luckily just over 500 showed up to the ceremony. My sister had to go in lineup about an hour before it was set to start, so we went and sat down in the call amongst 2000 others. For the entire hour before it started they had a CGA commercial that looped the entire time. The commercial was only 1 ½ minutes long…Del and I took turns reciting it. The ceremony was surprising short, it was just 2 ½ hours long. We then had a bit of time before the banquet, so we took my sister’s certificates up to their room and then went to the hotel bar for a drink (or two). Dinner was excellent; 1200 people attended this.

The menu:

Butternut Squash, Pear and Sage Cream Soup

Marinated Vine Tomatoes and Buffalo Mozzarella Salad with Basil Oil and Balsamic Syrup

Fire-grilled Alberta AAA Sirloin and Oven-roasted Chicken Breast Potato Gratin, Intense Red Wine Reduction

Molten Lemon and White Chocolate Cake, with a Citrus Marmalade Glaze, Stewed Berries and Honey Crisp

The soup was SO good!! As was the rest, but I just love soup!

My dad and I stayed about 45 minutes after the dinner and then left. I had to let my sister’s dogs out and I was a bit worried about Asili being inside for almost 14 hours. But we got home just after midnight and all the dogs were fine and were well-behaved.

At the bar:


Before Dinner:


Sunday morning I was at work for 9am, after going to my sister’s house to let the dogs out again, to begin the main setup of the Santa Chalet. I was home sometime after 12, meant to have a one hour nap and then clean the house for my Mom’s return home the next day. But I ended up sleeping until almost 6pm, but my Dad had done some of the cleaning, all I had to do was the sweeping, vacuuming and mopping. Dad made pork roast in a wine sauce that was great! I love it when my Dad cooks, all those hours watching The Food Network have paid off, he comes up with some really good dishes!

My Mom made it home safely Monday night; we had dinner at my sister’s. Came home and I finished reading “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter”. Such a good book! Every book I’ve picked up in the last two months has been so good – I can’t stop reading!

I finally finished uploading some of my Germany photos; if you are so inclined you can look at the album here.

I wasn't completely motivated to name them all, but the basics are there.

Tomorrow I'm picking the boys up at the sitter's in Orillia and watching them for the evening as my sister and Del are going to the casino for a show.

Next Thursday I'm going to see Jewel at the Casino with Jamie-Lee and on Saturday I'm heading to Toronto to see Chicago with Melissa!

I'm off to catch some sleep.

Roadster Smart Car

Finally got this to work!



I'll put some Germany pictures on my online album soon!

Home Sweet Home

Wrote this last night while the power was out, up a little earlier this morning, so have time to post it.

Came home tonight to find the power very weak and after being home for about 10 minutes and trying to wrap the boys’ Halloween presents, the power went out completely.

So now I am writing this by candle light. Wanted to do some laundry and ironing, but seems that is going to have to wait.

Not precisely sure when the last time I properly updated in Germany was, so I’ll just jump into somewhere in the middle of the trip and that should be pretty close to right.

My Dad’s cousin Achim and his wife Margrit took us out for a 4 hour cruise on their boat. We rode along the canal and also saw some of the city landscape. Now that west and east are one it is much easier to travel along and it’s opened so many possibilities; the east really is more scenic. Margrit had made this lovely cake and we also had some smoked ham and potatoe salad.

The next day we went to Poland; lucky for us my cousin Bianca came along. Even luckier yet, I got to sit next to her and all I could smell is cat piss (This is one of the biggest Bianca stories – she has two male cats, not neutered so they spray everywhere in her apartment, a huge dog that she doesn’t take care of, 2 cats, 2 hamsters, fish, 2 rabbits and turtles. You can smell this throughout the apartment building as soon as you walk in. I’m shocked she hasn’t been kicked out of the apartment yet. One night we had the bedroom window open and hers one floor down was open and that’s all you could smell. How she can live in it is far beyond me. The other big story is that she’s still on sick leave for yet another 2 weeks for no reason what so ever – highly doubt she’ll go back to work again, but not going to get into that more). I bought some Kenzo and Chanel perfume in Poland along with a toy for Asili. The rest of the time I sat in the market restaurant having Cocoa with Vitamin as the waiter called it. Really was Cocoa with Amaretto in it! Yummy!! Two of those were followed by two vodka oranges and finished off with another Cocoa with Vitamin! Needless to say I was feeling pretty good, almost didn’t even mind the car ride home next to Bianca (other than the still present smell). My dad had the same idea, sitting in the restaurant was much better than listening to Bianca whine enough to get my Aunt to buy her what ever she wanted. I had fun in the restaurant with my Dad, Georgie, Ingrid and Mom.

Wednesday was then my Oma’s 80th Birthday. The night before my Oma’s niece and her two daughters arrived. They stayed two nights in the church across the road. They are really nice and it was good to see them all again. I had last seen the twins when I was in Germany in 1990 and they came and stayed with us for a week. One of them is now a cook and the other works in a shoe store!!!! They invited me to visit them in Leibzig the next time I am there, and Nadine would share her store discount with me! After breakfast they invited my Oma out for a walk (planned of course behind my Oma’s back) so that we (my Mom, Aunt and I) could decorate the apartment and get things ready. Shortly after they returned people started showing up for coffee and cake. At 5pm we went to the restaurant for dinner; we were about 27 in total. Dinner was very good!

Thursday I went shopping with my Aunt, Mom, and my Aunt’s friend and her boyfriend. Before we went to the mall we went and saw a Potanosta in an old building. It is basically a carousel elevator that isn’t made any more as they are too dangerous. Most of the government buildings used to have them but they have been taken out for safety reasons. The carousel doesn’t stop moving and there are no doors. I also saw the new smart car in the parking lot there! I’m not too partial to the original smart, but the new one, the roadster I think it is called is quite nice! It’s a sporty little thing.

I have a photo of it to post, but blogger isn't uploading it right now, I'll try again later!

After shopping my Mom and I were dropped off at my Dad’s cousin, Achim’s place for dinner. They made a traditional Berlin dinner for me because they knew it’s one of my favourite things to eat while in Germany; currywurst! Their son Lars came with his wife and their new baby. I haven’t seen Lars since I was about 4 or 5. Their son, Matty, I thought, looks a LITTLE bit like Nate, probably because of the white blond hair and blue eyes!

On Friday we took my Oma on a day trip (part of her birthday present) to Dresden. Dresden was bombed in the Second World War and they just finished rebuilding the famous church there after 10 years; the Queen was even there this year for the opening of it. The town is absolutely beautiful! So European and so old, I could spend days there happily wondering around.

Saturday in the morning my parents went to meet up with some of their costumers who live in Berlin but vacation here, and I went to Berlin’s largest mall to do some final shopping. I made out pretty good; bought Juli’s (one of Germany’s singers that I like) new CD, a pair of jeans, 3 pairs of pants for work, a long sleeve shirt, a blazer and a jacket, along with a few other small things that I still wanted to get. When I got back we had coffee at my Aunts and we all (my grandparents, Aunt and boyfriend, Aunt’s friend, boyfriend and parents) went to the Pizzeria around the corner. No cute waiter working this time around.

Sunday morning my parents met up with their friends and I packed my suitcases, vacuumed for my grandmother and spend the afternoon chatting over coffee and cake with the rest of the guests that were still there but leaving later that afternoon. After they left and my Aunt took me to a Turkish restaurant to get a donar; this lamb meat pita thing that is so good! I wanted to have one before I left Germany. Then when my parents got back we went over to my Aunt’s house. Marcel, my Aunt’s youngest, got a slap on the hand from my Dad. Marcel is quite bright but has some issues which are not his fault. He isn’t given the attention that he needs and he doesn’t have enough social interaction. I love my Aunt to bits, but she really isn’t a very good mother. She doesn’t have the backbone to say no as she never wants to disappoint. Here’s to hoping Marcel doesn’t turn out the same way as Bianca. Anyways, back to the hand slap…my dad was sitting on the armchair and he had about half a shot glass of weinbrant left. The one cat is sitting on the arm rest. Marcel comes along and dumps the contents of the shot glass on the cat. I think Marcel was a little surprised at the reaction he got for that! Then at dinner my Opa was sitting beside Bianca and he kept asking where he was supposed to eat because there wasn’t enough room at the table (yes he repeated this every few minutes, but that is understandable with his Alzheimer’s and everything else). So he goes to the bathroom and when he comes back to the table he asks again where he is supposed to sit and goes to sit at the table next to us, Bianca yells, yes actually yells, “If you don’t come back here right now and sit down…” she didn’t get to say much more because my Dad yelled at Bianca saying that if she wanted to talk like that to Opa that she could go home right now. Needless to say she was pretty quiet the rest of the night.

When we got home my Mom packed my Dad’s (ok, well mostly her stuff and some of my left over stuff that wouldn’t fit in mine anymore) suitcases. I played Mench Arger Dich Nicht with my grandparents; basically like the game Sorry. We went to bed at around 1am.

Achim was picking us up to take us to the airport at 7:30am. We woke at 6:15am. At 7am I crawled into my Oma’s bed and we chatted for 20minutes until we had to go downstairs to meet Achim. Not really sure you would call it chatting, more like crying. It’s always so hard to leave because I never know if I’ll get to see them again. My Opa was still sleeping when we left.

Flight to Amsterdam was pretty uneventful. Actually made the connection only to have to sit on the plan for an hour because someone wasn’t on board so they had to unload his luggage and then there was a person on the plane with a medical need who didn’t have enough oxygen so they had to wait for someone to bring more. They showed the movie Cars, but I didn’t really watch since I’d seen it before and I was really enjoying the book I was reading. Am reading “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and am just over half through. It’s quite good!

My brother-in-law picked us up and made a stop for me in King City so I could get some Timmies. We picked up subs on the way home and went to my sisters. I was really thinking that Asili would be happy to see me. Not the case which was quite disappointing actually. In fact, she wouldn’t let me or my Dad go near her and if we tried she would growl and bark. It wasn’t until we got back to our house that she got very excited and happy. Either she didn’t really recognize us, or, which is probably more the case, she was just REALLY pissed off that I went and left her for two weeks!

Anyways the trip was good, I did enjoy myself and am happy that I got to spend time with my family. But I do have to say, I appreciate my family here that much more. We are all so normal (ok normal perhaps not the best word) but we are all so down to earth and kind and life at home just isn’t stressful. In Germany there’s all the tension with Bianca and my Aunt and Marcel and no one likes Bianca and wants her to come along when we go somewhere, which I do feel bad about, but with 24 years of age one would also think that they could be better behaved. Sadly in a lot of ways Marcel at 9 is better behaved than she is. Then there is the whole way that they treat my Opa that I really don’t like. Yes his Alzheimer’s is really bad, and he goes to the bathroom every 5 minutes because he’s forgotten that he’s already gone and yes he asks the same thing 50 times…but most of the time he just sits there saying nothing. No one really tries to talk to him and they didn’t even know that he is still capable of playing cards or other games until I played with him. They talk to him like he’s an idiot though he still understands everything you say. Marcel is the worst at this. For example Opa will go to the bathroom once then when he gets up to go again five minutes later Marcel will say something like “What? Are you retarded? You just went to the bathroom, now you have to go again?” And my Aunt just sits there. Or Bianca will roll her eyes and sigh. It’s really quite terrible. What’s the big deal with answering his 50 questions or agreeing or at least acknowledging him when he does decide to talk?

Oma is stressed out because she doesn’t have any time away from him, and he follows her around when she’s trying to do something. No one bothers to come over and ask he they should stay with him so she can go out and do something on her on and get a break.

It was really hard to leave. But also really good to be there. It’s weird because I don’t have one clear mental image of my Oma, but I do for Opa. He has the best smile. When he smiles you can tell he really means it. He gets these dimples and his whole face just brightens. I can’t really explain it but that smile is just the best thing. Unfortunately when you say smile for pictures he doesn’t and he never has. Maybe that’s why I have this clear picture in my mind as there is no other way to capture it. I don’t know, I’m kind of blathering now, and crying but that’s not the point.

I wish I could be there more for them; especially now that they need it. But Oma knows that we can’t be there and she knows that Canada was the right move for us. She thinks that we have it much better off here, and I think we do, but I also don’t think you can place that on location, but rather the situation of our family. I don’t even know how I can accurately describe the situation over there, there are so many components and didn’t things, it would take forever. It just comes down to that I am very lucky to have the immediate family that I do.

Homeward Bound

Well tomorrow morning its back to Canada...wish the time here was longer, but the two weeks were nice.

Heading out for our farewell dinner in a little over an hour.

The last week has been hectic and full of visitors, but it was nice. I will write a full update when I get home on Monday evening or Tuesday after work if I am too tired on Monday night.

Suitcases are packed, though the one is about 2kg too heavy so after dinner I will have to repack a little bit. Perhaps I bought one too many pairs of shoes or other items, but thats usual, but somehow I always get it all home.

My brother in law is picking my Dad and I up and we are going back to their place for dinner and of course I need to pick Asili up.

Bobbi, sorry I dont have time to respond to your email right now but let me know what is up with Durango, hope she is better now.

A week almost gone

Well a week is already almost over; its sad how quickly the time passes.

So far we have been shopping several times and we made it to Sachsen Hausen, the concentration camp that my Mom and I wanted to visit while here. It was quite interesting though of course quite sad.

My Aunt absolutely LOVES shopping, so naturally in any free time that we have we end up going to a mall or Karl-Marx Straße or another big street. I have gotten loads of new stuff including; several sweaters, a pair of pants, 2 blouses, 2 shirts, a long sleeved shirt and 6 pairs of shoes. I LOVE the shoes here, the selection here is so much better! Oh and my Aunt bought me a purse that I absolutely LOVE! H&M here is still better than the ones in Canada and by C&A I bought a lot of things too...including a sweater my Dad may have accidently stole for me...I should probably explain what we think happened. So we were at C&A, Germanys largest department store, and my dad had bought a suit, a bought 2 shirts and my Mom a necklace...we paid for it all together and we (my Mom, Aunt and I) we still looking around and my dad said he would meet us outside. A few minutes later we go to head outside and we see my dad at the door talking to a security guard...seems they didnt take all of the security tags off and he set the alarm off...so the security guard unpacked the bags and took the items with the security tags to the cashier to have her take them off...so my dad packed all the things back into the bag, the security guard came back with the item and we left...we get home and Im unpacking and I find a sweater none of us bought...so what we think happened it that when the security guard unpacked the stuff and put them on the one display table, when my dad packed everything into the bags again that he accidently put the extra sweater into our bag.

That took quite a bit of time to write, the keyboard is different here and it takes me a little extra time to type...at any rate, its a little sad here and seeing how my grandparents are aging, Opa's alzheimers is pretty bad and my grandmother isnt doing all too great either. And of course things here arent always peaceful because of my cousin so that adds a lot of stress to their daily life. Oma keeps saying how we made the right decision to move to Canada because things are a lot calmer and relaxed for us. Naturally though thats more so our family and not the location. I have to say I am very happy I have the immediate family that I do...even though normal isnt quite the word I would use to describe us, we are wholesome...if thats the right word I dont know either.

My English is starting to sound funny to me, not sure if its actually MY English per say or just English in general since I hear, speak and think German all day.

Went to the Pizzeria tonight for dinner, imagine it only cost 31.50EURO for 6 people...and included in that were 3 beers and my 3 vodkas (my Aunt is a bad influence, 'hey your drink is gone, order another'. Thats only about $40CAD. I think the waiter thought I was a drunk as I kept ordering vodkas and everyone was still on their first small beer...ah well we was cute and polite or he thought I was stupid for also always saying thank you and please...I have noticed since Ive been here that German people really are quite rude...dont say hello to strangers on the street (other people besides me do that right?), dont hold doors open and the biggest piss off is them not saying excuse me when they want to get by you...they just push their way through kind of like in Japan...that could partly be a city thing mind you.

Yesterday, imagine, in the shopping mall they were giving out full size samples of Jagermeister and a mix...for example Jagermeister and cola or cocoa...it was so good!! I never would have thought to mix Jagermeister with something...if you dont know what Jagermeister is look it up, I cant think of the proper word.

Ok,thats all for now as Oma is upset that I didnt go straight back to their place after dinner, but my Aunt and I wanted to finish putting something together for my her birthday next week. So I had better finish that and then get back over there.

Still at my Aunts place!

New York

I have always wanted to go to New York...too bad my luggage has now made it there before I have.

So after, Amerstdam and Paris, we finally made it to Berlin! And we stood at the luggage carosel waiting for the luggage,and it never came. Which I had actually already said to my Mom when we were eating a baguette in Paris. So we had to go to the lost luggage station and they typed in our luggage claim numbers and told us they werent on their system...they were lost. Great. He took our information and gave us each a little travel bag with a tshirt, toothbrush and toothpaste and a few other things. Of course the only thing we had with us were our purses taht we had taken on the airplane.

Anyways we made it to Omas 9 hours later than expected. We had some dinner a few amarettos and we were in bed around shortly after 10pm. Have to say we were a little tired...we had been up over 36 hours.

Sunday we slept in until around 10am, woke up and had breakfast and then my aunt, boyfriend and cousins came over for coffee and cake. My Aunt and I had to "make coffee". That means we went to the kitchen started the coffee, had an amaretto,went back to the livingroom, went to check on the coffee, had an amaretto, etc. We got about 6 amarettos in before people started to catch on. When dinner came around I wasnt hungry so while everyone ate I went for a jog. I counted 9 smart cars on the route. I decided each time I will count something else. Keeps my mind off the jogging. Probably going to skip the jog today though.

This morning we (Tante Heidi, Mom, Me, Bianca) went shopping for some things for Omas birthday party next week. Well, Bianca went home half way through. Imagine, one bottle of amaretto cost 4 euros!!! Thats just over $5!! What a deal,we bought two amarettos, dooleys, vodka, and another type of liquer...I also got some soup,yogurt, some cheese and sausage for my Dad and a few other things and it all came to only 45 euros! Amazing! No wonder we drink so much more here!

At Tante Heidis right now,we just had cake and coffee and will have dinner later. Mz dad went to a cousins house today to help him with the kitchen that thez are building in. Building in I dont think is a right word in English.

Its already starting. I dont know why I was worried about the English, Im already thinking in German and often cant think of the right english words. Its amazing how quickly it comes back to you.

Yesterday at cake my Mom and I invited ourselves over to Biancas and of course she said no right away. So we asked her when a good time would be and see said Wednesday morning, so we are holding her to it. So Ill have to report on that afterwards!

Thats really all the news I have.

Oh, never did right the outcome of our luggage...it arrived the next day at 6pm. So it wasnt that bad. There were stickers on them from New York, which is how we know where they ended up.

Amsterdam - Paris - Berlin

Trip isn't going exactly as planned...

I was picked up from work as scheduled at about 1pm, we got down to Toronto in really good time, checked in without difficulty, had time to have a coffee with my sister and Del before they headed back home, and boarded. The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful...my mom and I played Kanasta and watched "The Devil wears Prada". The flight to Amsterdam was only 6 1/2 hours. We landed here at 7:30isham local time, around 1:30am Toronto time. Our connecting flight to Berlin was scheduled to leave at 8:05 am. We didn't make it in time.

So here we are in Amsterdam for several more hours. And as luck would have it, it's Fall Break for students here, so there were no other flights to Berlin available until 10pm!! We inquired about renting a car and driving to Berlin (about a 6 hour drive) but it would cost 850EUROS! But KLM got us on a fight to Paris at noon and then after switching planes again we will get to Berlin at 5:20pm. That's going to make for a long day!

It's 3:45am in Toronto now I think...I was feeling a little tired but am on my second wind now.

So now I'm at the Communication Zone, have spent 6EUROS to use the net for 30 minutes, and my parents are over in the restaurant having a cigarette. Earlier when we were having a coffee this elderly man came up to my dad and asked if he was Eddie Shack (ex-hockey player). My dad said no, but that he had met him before - turns out Eddie had been to the races at the Barrie Speedway one night.

That's the account of my trip thus far. I'm just anxious to get there and to see my family. Though I've been a little stressed out about my German. I had to call my Aunt and tell her we were delayed and not to go to the airport yet and I stumbled all over my words, and the more worked up about it the less I can properly speak. Never really had that before, guess it's just because I haven't used my German really in 3 years (other than the odd phone call and letters to my Oma). Well I'm sure it'll be fine once I'm there, I'll have no choice but to use it and I'll come back not being able to speak English properly as is always the case. I think Bobbi calls me right after I've returned from Germany just to laugh at my poor English.

So Bobbi, looks like you'll have to wait a little longer for some good Bianca stories. By the time we get to my Oma's it'll be about 6:30-7pm, so maybe Bianca will be home from work by then...oh, Bianca...work...I didn't just use those two words in once sentence, not possible...she's sick we were told last time we talked to my Oma, so of course Bianca can't go to work sick...yeah...my mom and I have bet that she's not working any longer by the time we get to Berlin.

Let the travels continue....

Leaving on a jet plane...

Woo hoo!

It's 7:30am on Friday the 13th! I've got a morning left to work and then it's off to the airport!

I'm ready to go, suitcase is locked, I've just got to get dressed and then I'm off to work.

The past two days have gone by really quickly. Wednesday I spent 11 hours at work, came home and did more work, got to work at 8am on Thursday and left at 6pm, stopped by at my sisters quickly and then went to the gym for an hour. Jamie-Lee has the flu so I had to go alone. Wanted to see Georg, the man who works there, as I had asked him if he wanted me to get him anything on my trip (as a young child he used to live in Germany and spent several years there in the military), but he was off as he had fallen and hurt his back. He wanted a special kind of snapps, but I can't remember the name. I'll have to get Jamie to check and email me.

My sister and Del are taking us to the airport, they'll be at the Mall between 12:30 and 1pm to pick me up. I should get going, still have a few things to finish up here and need to stop by the bank before going to work.

I'll post from Berlin!

3 Days to Go!!

On the Sunday I woke up at 8am, I read in bed until 9am (finished the new Margaret Atwood book) and then got ready and was at the gym just after 10am. Left the gym at 11:30am and as I was driving on hwy. 11 between Bracebridge and Gravenhurst there was a pickup truck a little ways ahead of me and I saw the armchair that he had in the back lift and fly off, luckily it landed in the middle of the highway so I could drive around it. It's really quite clever to drive over 100km an hour with furniture in the back of your truck that’s not tied down. Luckily though it didn’t cause any accidents. Then I stopped for a coffee at the Timmies just outside of G’hurst and just as I was getting my coffee from the window some guy parks at the end of the exit lane for the drive-thru, that caused quite the stir. I was happy when I made it home! I then cleaned my car (inside and out) and then gathered up some things that I am planning on taking to Germany with me.

My sister, Del and the boys arrived for Thanksgiving dinner around 5pm and we ate at 6. My Dad’s turkey was, as always, excellent. And my sister had brought a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie that she had made, both were very good!

Monday was spent packing, cleaning and doing laundry. Yes, I think this is a first for me; I am COMPLETELY packed and ready to go several days before I leave! The only thing I have left to add to the suitcase are my running shoes, but I still need those for the gym tomorrow and Thursday. And of course toiletries and the batteries I bought today for my camera and mp3 player, but you can’t really count those.

Work today was mad! I had to finish the Maintenance Manuals (we’ve ended up with 3 versions depending on the position) and we had a staff meeting at 3pm at which the manuals were being presented, and the HR person was there. Hardly had time to pull stuff together for the promotional part of the meeting that was obviously all the stuff that relates to my position. Somehow I did manage to sneak out for a full hour at lunch with Heather to our favourite Timmies. The next few days are going to be equally busy as I try to get numerous things done before I leave. Right after I am done this (yeah, probably rambling a little to procrastinate actually doing the work!) I’m going to work on my Marketing Manual as I want to have it completed before I leave on Friday. It’s one of my 2006 corporate goals, and I know I won’t have time to work on it once I return as we’ll be into the Christmas season by then.

After work I quickly went shopping for dog and cat food and a few remaining things I wanted to get for the trip and then headed to my sister’s to watch the boys for the evening so my sister and Del could go out for dinner and a movie. When I got to their house I found out that they had decided only to go to dinner as there wasn’t anything playing that they both particularly wanted to see. So Ty, Nate and I had dinner, played and danced. Ty insisted on putting the Caribbean music on again (as we did last time I was there) and we moved the coffee table off to the side and all three of us danced away. Well Nate’s version of dancing is spinning around on his butt while putting his hands up in the air….it’s SO cute!! I wish I had taken my camera over, but it’s packed already! Then I put them to bed. Nate has been walking for a week now!

Ok, done procrastinating, off to work on the Marketing Manual so I can get to bed at some point and I plan on getting to work EARLY tomorrow so I can get some work done before the office opens.

This Time Next Week...

...I'll be sitting in my Oma and Opa's livingroom drinking amaretto and/or zambuka laughing and chatting with my family. I can't wait!

I'm starting to get excited now. I've even started packing, or well getting things together that I'm taking, and I've wrapped up all the gifts too. Very unlike me; usually I'm still packing about 10 minutes before leaving for the airport. This time though I'll be at work in the morning so won't really have that option.

I think it'll be strange to be on a plane with both my parents, I haven't flown with both of them together since 1982 when we moved to Canada, and I haven't flown with my mom since 1986 when my mom, sister and I went to Germany in the summer. After that I went to Germany twice with my sister and then 4 or 5 times on my own.

I haven't been to Germany since 2002 when I was at uni in Glasgow and I went over in April for my grandparents' 50th anniversary. My parents and sister met me there. That was one of the best things about the year in Glasgow. I was so close to Germany and it was so cheap to travel there...I flew over and surprised my oma for her birthday in October, spent a month there at Christmas and then went over again for several weeks for the anniversary.

The last time I saw my grandparents and aunt was when they were here in 2003 when Ty was born. So just over three years ago. It's amazing how time flies. I couldn't imagine living that far away from my family. It must have been hard on my Mom, and I certainly know it was hard for my Oma. I love spending time with my family over there, but the goodbyes are always so hard. I hate seeing my Oma cry and as the years move on it only gets harder. But I'm not thinking of the goodbyes yet, I'm going to have a great two weeks! My aunts a riot too, I'm sure we'll be enjoying a few fanta vodka's and going shopping once or twice...I wonder if Die Linie is still there...that's the bar my aunt and I frequented when I flew over the three times while I was living in Glasgow.

I'm rambling now.

Thanksgiving Weekend - today I went rollerblading at Couchiching Park with Heather and then we had lunch at The Soup Factory. I came home and convinced my Mom that we should rent some movies; we got "The Perfect Man", "11:14" and "BTK Killer".

Tomorrow my sister, Del and boys are coming over for Thanksgiving Dinner; my dad makes the best turkey ever!! I also need to get some things done (actually packing amongst other things) and I still have a lot of work to do that I brought home with me. I'm making sure all my advertising through to the end of November is completed before I go, all my reports for head office and I'm hoping my bank statement comes in so I can do the Gift Certificate reconciliation before I go. Also have to get the Christmas staff contracts and schedules done and other Christmas event stuff sorted. So my last 3 1/2 days of work are going to be BUSY! But that's alright, I enjoy busy.

Monday will be more work and getting things ready to leave on Friday.

I'm off. I'm going to read a bit, want to get my new Margaret Atwood book completed before the trip so I can take my other new book with me.

Memoirs

I watched Memoirs of a Geisha tonight.

I had read the book last year before the movie came out and then went to see it at the cinema with my sister.

It was on one of the movie channels tonight so I decided to watch it again.

It is, at least for me, such a moving and tragic movie. It's beautifully crafted and it had me wishing I was back in film class in university so that I could write an analysis on it. The movie made me miss Japan - especially the beauty of it. The movie is inspiring yet incredibly sad.

It left me feeling a bit somber.

This has been a pretty pointless blog - no real news to share.

I'm getting my hair cut on Friday finally, way past needing a haircut. And sadly, that is about all the news I have.

The Third...

Well the third thing happened, or at least I'm going to say that it is the third unlucky/bad thing to happen to me.

To reiterate:

1) pendant lost
2) Car broken down

and now

3) I burnt three knuckles on my left hand while ironing last night. The iron was going to fall off the ironing board, so what do I do, try to catch it and instead end up with three huge burns. Yes it was stupid, but what can you do. I put ice on it and fell asleep. Woke up once because of the pain, got more ice and went back to bed.

Ah well, it certainly could have been FAR worse! Though now that I'm typing they are starting to hurt a little again, meh, in a day or so they'll be much better.

Now, I think it's only fair to expect three GOOD things to happen!

Dragon Boat Competition - Part II

Woke up Saturday morning shortly after 6am and left the house just after 7am. Got to Couchiching Park right around 7:30am when we had planned to meet. Found some of the others on Team Dunlop and after some opening ceremony confusion (first time they held the event in Orillia so it wasn’t the most organized), the races got under way shortly after 9 am.

There were 27 teams total, so 9 heats of 3. We were in the second or the third heat. Our steerer, Dave, took us out a little early and gave us another quick practice run. We placed second in our heat. We headed back to our tent and chatted a while, 3 of us went to Mariposa Market for some soup, and after we returned the results from the first set of heats was announced, we placed in the top of the silver division. We were quite pleased with that. There was an hour break, though they really should have skipped the break since it had been on the verge of raining all morning, so it was damp and chilly, but the rain did hold off until late afternoon.

We placed 3rd in our second heat and by our third we were all so tired, and starting to get sore that our third race was pretty pitiful, we never really got into a proper rhythm and our paddling was way off.

Let me tell it is hard work; it is completely different to canoeing. In race paddling you use short strokes and have to lean over as far as you can at the waist. By the time I was driving home at 4pm I was feeling pretty sore in the arms, back, waist and butt. I’m also sporting a bruise on my one thumb where I kept hitting it off the side of the boat. It only proved to feel worse this morning when I got out of bed – I was pretty stiff. But it was a great day, had a lot of fun, met some great people and can’t wait to do it again next year!

When I got home from the races my sister, Del, nephews and Gladys were here. We had dinner and then they (sister, Del, boys and Dad) left to head down to the race track for the final races that were cancelled last weekend. My Dad was planning on coming to the casino with my Mom, Gladys and myself, but Ty asked him to go to the races. So my Mom, Gladys and I headed there on our own but after about an hour of being there my cell phone rang and my sister and Del were going to drop my Dad off at the casino because the races got rained out. My Dad ended up winning $80, Gladys won $150 and my mom and I each lost $55. We got home just before 11pm; my Dad watched the news and the three of us played Kanasta. By the time we stopped playing at 3am I had won $1.50 so my total loss of the evening was just $53.50.

Today we played a little more Kanasta, my sister, Del and the boys came over in the afternoon, we had cake and coffee at 3pm and Gladys headed home shortly before 5pm.

It was a good weekend. Gladys is such a nice lady; I’m so glad that we still keep in touch with her. She wanted to come up before we headed to Germany. While my grandfather was still well, him and Gladys went to Germany for several weeks. She still talks about all of our relatives over there and the things that she saw on the trip. It is hard to believe that she is 80, she seems so much younger. We’ll be seeing her again for Nate’s first birthday (I’ll actually be away for it, but my sister is having the party once my Dad and I return at the end of the month).

Ok, I’m off to do some laundry, ironing and I have to give Asili a bath as she got into some smelly swamp water a couple of hours ago. I also brought a bunch of work home on Friday as I want to get a lot done before going on vacation, so I should get at it!

Oh and yippee! I have visitors for lunch tomorrow. My sister is bringing Ty into town to go Halloween Costume shopping and they will be meeting me for lunch. I'm so happy to be back around my nephews; that, without a doubt, was the hardest thing about being overseas - I missed out on seeing Ty grow up and change over those 18 months.

Dragon Boat Competition - Part I

We had our Dragon Boating practice this evening down at Lake Couchiching. It was actually a beautiful day out despite being a bit chilly. At least it didn’t rain.

The practice went well. There are 20 paddlers, a drummer and a person who steers on each boat. We had a paddling lesson on land for about the first 20 minutes. Paddling in races is apparently quite different than regular paddling; higher arches and less pulling through the water and naturally a lot quicker. We spent about 40 minutes on the water.

By the time we made our arrangements to meet in the morning it was about quarter after 7. I was debating whether to go to the gym or to go for a rollerblade since I was already down on the waterfront trail. I decided to go rollerblading. I did 5km and half way through it was starting to get quite dark; the trees form a canopy over the trail so what little light was left wasn’t helping much. Of course then I began thinking about the dead girl that was found on the trail about 6-8 weeks ago and my mind started wandering. I started thinking I was hearing someone behind me when really it was just the leaves being blown around as I flew past them. I tried putting my focus into what I had just learned at the Dragon Boat practice and the timing of the strokes; one, two, three…one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, night, ten, one, two, three four, five, six…etc. Not that it really worked too well; even though I was counting the thought of the dead body on the trail was still lurking in the back of my mind.

Well at any rate made it back to my car just about the time it was completely dark.

I should be packing some things to take down to the park with me tomorrow morning (we were told to bring 3-4 changes of clothing). I’m going to do that and some cleaning once I’m done writing this.

Our first race is at 8am! I’m going to have to leave about 1 ½ hours earlier than I do for work. I’m not actually complaining though because I think it’s going to be a lot of fun!

I bought two new books today, both that I’m quite excited about. The first one that I got, and which I’ve already started, is Margaret Atwood’s “Moral Disorder”. The other is Mark Haddon’s “A Spot of Brother”. Mark Haddon also wrote “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” which was my favourite of 37 books that I read in 2004. I remember the year because I read it in two nights on the train up to and back from Hokkaido while Lisa was visiting me in Japan, she is the one who recommended the book. So I’ve started Margaret Atwood’s already tonight because I figure it is shorter than the other so I can finish it before leaving for Germany and the other one I can take with me.

Keep your fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow...at least until the afternoon!

Time

Time Folds

Time folds, he said, meaning that as time goes on and on it buckles, in the extreme heat, in the extreme cold, and what is long past becomes closer. You can demonstrate this by pleating a ribbon and sticking a pin through: Point Two, once yards away from Point One, now lies just beside it. Is time/space like an accordion, but without the music? Was he making a statement about hard physics?

Or was he saying: Time folds its wings, at long last. Time fold its tents and silently steals way. Time folds you in its folds, as if you were a lamb and the lack of time a wolf. Time folds you in the blanket of itself, it folds you tenderly and wraps you round, for where would you be without it? Time folds you in its arms and gives you one last kiss, and then if flattens you out and folds you up and tucks you away until it’s time for you to become someone else’s past time, and then time folds again.

Margaret Atwood
The Tent

All things come in 3's

Again, quite a bit of time has passed and I’m not really sure what I did during that time.

I’m ready for work early this morning, and I’m writing this as I wait for my sister to get here as she’s driving me to work since my car is still at my dad’s shop. So I probably won’t finish writing this until later this evening.

Jamie-Lee and I joined the gym on September 13th, and over the last week we’ve gone almost every day. We’re doing quite well and particularly enjoy the pool, hot tub and sauna! It’ll be especially nice in the winter to be in the pool, looking outside (one wall is entirely covered by windows overlooking the river) and seeing everything covered in snow.

A few weeks ago I went down to Brantford; hung out with some of Jamie’s friends on Friday and went to a Jay’s game with Jamie and his 3 cousins on Saturday. Sunday I went to a Bridal Show with Jamie-Lee and it was also our first day at the gym. It was a good weekend!

Wow that really might be just about everything I’ve done in the last few weeks. Aside from work stuff and the gym that is.

Last Tuesday I attended a Funders’ Forum and series of Workshops at the Casino put on by the Casino Rama Community Wellness Program. It was quite interesting. Work is generally very busy right now. The second half of October is pretty busy with 3 major shows happening while I am on holiday. So I have a lot of work to do before I go to make sure that everything is taken care of. I’m also booking and getting all my advertising done for the rest of the year because by the time I get back the Christmas Shopping rush pretty much begins.

I’m quite excited about Germany! I can’t wait to see my family again; I haven’t been to Germany since 2002 when I was over in Scotland and my whole family met in Berlin for my grandparents’ 50th Anniversary. And the last time they came to Canada was when Ty was born in 2003.

It’s evening now; I just got out of a hot shower. Jamie-Lee was sick this evening and couldn’t make it to the gym. I debated about whether or not I should go alone, and in the end I did, I have no idea what I did but I didn’t get home until 8 o’clock, which means I spent nearly 2 hours at the gym – and I didn’t use the pool, sauna or hot tub. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be feeling it tomorrow.

My boss and I have entered the dragon boat competition in Orillia this coming weekend. I think it’ll be SO much fun! I’ve wanted to do it since I heard it was coming to Orillia. We joined our MPP, Garfield Dunlop’s team. We have practice on Friday night from 6-7pm and the actual races are held Saturday with opening ceremonies starting at 7am. Hopefully it won’t rain!

I’m waiting for one more bad thing to happen since they say all things come in three’s (well I believe the saying is that all GOOD things actually come in three’s – but it seems most things happen in sets of three).

1)I lost my heart pendant that my grandmother had given me a LONG time ago (at least 10 years ago), quite sad about it, not that it was worth much but there are two pieces of jewellery I always wear – my ring from Oma Ziebell (my dad’s mother) and the heart pendant from Oma Schley (my mom’s mother)
2)Car troubles – not that concerned seeing as my dad can fix it (he got the part this afternoon but didn’t have time to fix it yet) but it screwed up the plans I had for the weekend
3)???

I’ll keep you posted. Maybe I’ll be lucky and no third event will occur.

Ali and Nino

Just finished reading “Ali and Nino” tonight.

Melissa had bought the book for me on one of her last business trips to Azerbeidshan.

Summary:

“It is the eve of World War I in Baku, Azerbeidshan, a city poised precariously between east and west. Ali Kan Shirvanshir, a Muslim schoolboy from a proud, aristocratic family, has fallen in love with the beautiful and enigmatic Nino Kipiani, a Christian girl with distinctly European sensibilities. To be together they must overcome blood feuds and scandal, traveling from the bustling streets of oil-boom Baku through starkly beautiful deserts and remote mountain villages to the opulent palace of Ali’s uncle in neighboring Persia. Ultimately the lovers are drawn back to Baku, but when war threatens their future, Ali is forced to choose between his loyalty to the beliefs of his Asian ancestors and his profound devotion to Nino.”

It was first publish in 1937 in German in Vienna and was written by Kurban Said. Which is interesting in itself as no one is really clear who Kurban Said is. They believe that to the pseudonym for two different people; Baroness Elfriede Ehrenfels and Lev Nussimbaum. No one really knows who wrote what part and how the book came about.

Actually was just reading more about this on the net, and read that they determined it was Lev Nussimbaum who wrote the book but that he courted the Baroness while he lived in Berlin for some time.

At any rate the book was quite an interesting read. I enjoyed the mix of cultures and knowledge gained about the era, the people and the country. This is probably the reason why I enjoyed it so much. I thought it hard to determine whether it was a love story between Ali and Nino or that of Ali and his country. If I had to choose one it would probably be the latter. Anyways, a beautiful story which I recommend.

August Update

Well it'’s been so long again that I'’m not really sure what all I have done in the past half month.

The boys and my sister and Del have been home half a month now; I've been spending a fair amount of time with them. So cute! I can'’t believe all the things that Ty can do now and he talks NON STOP. My mom says that he remembers her of me when I was that little. HeÂ'll talk to anyone and make up random absurd stories. Back in 1986 when we flew over to Germany for a visit I told the guy sitting next to me all about my purple husky. Ty makes up some pretty good stories too!

Went down to Brantford again in the meanwhile too. Had lunch at the Mongolian Grill, which does indeed use a real bus to create their inside bus seating (Jamie had to write to head office to verify this), bathed his cats and watched some football.

Went up to Sturgeon Falls with Bobbi as well. Nice drive up there, very beautiful and I can imagine it only gets more beautiful in the fall months. Stayed at a cabin on Lake Talon (I believe that'’s the name) that was very nice. Though a tree fell across the picnic table late in the evening. That was a little scary, but certainly could have been a lot worse.

Del's stepfather had a heart attack at the end of last week. He seems to be alright now, they performed an operation right away (can't remember the procedure'’s name) but now they are doing a bone marrow test as they think he might have some sort of disease as they can'’t figure out why his blood is so thick. Jim's a great guy and I know heÂ'll pull through fine.

Tonight went on a customer appreciation dinner cruise hosted by 105.9 Jack FM and KICX radio stations. It was on the Island Princess on Lake Couchiching. Very nice. A little chilly towards the end, but it was ok. It was a steak dinner with very good salads. Neither my boss nor I really knew anyone, but we still enjoyed ourselves. And I won a prize! I won a $20 gift certificate to Mountainview Mall in Midland. LOL, everyone thought it funny that I would win a gift certificate to another mall (The announcer couldn'’t pronounce my last name but the sales manager substituted the name for Orillia Square Mall). What most of them probably don'’t know is that Mountainview is also a RioCan property. Ah it'll be good for a drive and it'’s beautiful out that way, I'’ll make a day of it.

Am I missing any other news? Not that I'm aware of. Oh, though I did sign my one year contract at the start of the week, and the plus side is that my new rate of pay started on August 13th, and I thought it wouldn’t start until the end of my old contract at the end of September.

And if you are bored, you can check these links. Melissa sent them to me as a reminder of our Thailand Adventure Tour we took back in 2004. Best trip I'’ve ever been on yet! Need to plan another soon!
Riverside Restaraunt! Mmmm
Jungle Tree Houses! (And boat houses)

Welcome Home Huffmans

Tanja, Del and my nephews arrived back safely and without difficulty (other than the usual airport hassles) this afternoon.

Once I got home from work my Mom and I went over to their house to get dinner ready. We bet a dollar on when they would be home. I lost the bet as they got home just before 7:30pm which is what my Mom had guessed.

I have to say I'm a little relieved (relieved isn't really the right word, but I am happier and feel more complete now that they are back). I missed not having them around. I know it's not completely fair to say, seeing as they were only gone two weeks and in the past I have been the one to leaves for longer periods of time (i.e. Scotland and Japan), but I am happy that they enjoyed themselves, that the boys got to spend some time with their Great-Grandparents and had an overall good trip (though my sister said it is quite sad because my Grandfather's Alzheimer's has gotten so bad and my Grandma isn't doing so great either).

Dinner was good, my Mom had made Del's favourite dinner (a type of German potatoe casserole) and the cake was a hit! Ty especially loved the money in it, which I knew he would.

My sister is great. And she's so fortunate - she's got two amazingly beautiful, sweet boys and a great husband as well, she deserves it all and anything else that she should ever desire. The sap in me is so happy for them that is sometimes brings me to joyous tears when I see them together as a healthy, normal and very loving family. I hope that one day I'll experience the same joys. It is just so pure and innocent and just so right, I'm so happy for them.

After getting home at about 9:30pm I took Asili for a drive and went to get a coffee at Timmies. By the time I drove around back past my sister's to go to the Timmies in Gravenhurst five to ten minutes after we had left theirs, all the lights were already out. They were beat as they'd had an exceptionally long day of traveling.

I'm going to go enjoy the rest of my coffee and read the book I currently can't put down.

Welcome Home Cake

Well here is the cake I made for my sister, brother-in-law and nephews' Welcome Home dinner tomorrow night.

I'm excited to hear about their trip and to visit with them!

Good and Bad News

My boss gave me some good and bad news yesterday.

The bad news...RioCan's lawyers don't feel comfortable offering me the full-time, permanent position yet because they are worried about being sued if they give the position away. So they are offering me a one year contract and then after two years they would feel comfortable with proceeding with things.

The good news...in the new contract (which will start at the end of September) I will get a $2/hour raise and they are also going to give me some sort of benefits package (my boss didn't have the exact details yet).

So it's not exactly what I had hoped for, was hoping they would figure out what they were doing one way or another, but it's not all bad either. Besides, then after two full years of experience I think there will be a whole lot more opportunities available to me.

I am definitely not going to stay here at my parents' for the year. With a year contract I think I feel secure enough to get my own place. Before, on my three and six month contracts, I didn't want to get my own place and then have RioCan turn around and tell me that the lady was returning to her position and then be without a job. Plus I know that if I didn't have this job I wouldn't be staying in this area (there really are limited jobs up here - well jobs that do justice to someone with any sort of education).

So haven't really worked out any sort of plan yet. With the trip coming up in October (which I finally did mention to my boss) I don't want to get my own place right now and then leave for 2+ weeks, so I will probably wait until November or December, January at the absolute latest.

Overall then, I think it's a pretty good thing! An alright way to end the work week.

On other news my sister, Del and boys return on Tuesday! I can't wait. Am making Ty's welcome home race car cake on Monday night, I hope it turns out alright. This will be my first character cake, but I have a fall back plan anyways....even if the cake doesn't look so good, Ty will be excited about the money as it's not only going to be a race car, but also a money cake!

I'm off to call my sister now as when my Mom talked to her a few days ago she hadn't heard anything about the latest terrorist attempts, and my Mom didn't want to tell her. But it's important that she does know so she doesn't have to repack their stuff at the airport. Not looking forward to telling her, but someone has to! Maybe by now they've heard however...I mean they must of, even though they don't watch TV there my Opa gets the paper everyday. But I'll still tell her about how things are on this end. I hope they aren't too nervous flying. Can't wait to see the boys again, I know it's only been 2 weeks, but after being away from them for so long while I was in Japan, I like to see them as much as I can. Plus I finally have got Ty doing the "SUPERSTAR" pose, so can't wait to see him do it again!

Miscellaneous Past Events

Well to start the Medieval Times was great! We had so much fun! It ended up being Jamie-Lee, Derek, Jamie’s sister and brother. I can’t wait to go again! Our red knight was cute, though in the end he fought to his death.

Saturday I went to the Leacock Sidewalk Sale in downtown Orillia with Heather as Margaret Atwood was in town for a book signing. I was pretty excited! I got her newest book of poetry, “The Tent”, signed, as well as “The Journals of Susanna Moodie” which she wrote and was illustrated by Charles Pachter who was also at the book signing so that one I got signed by both.


It poured so we didn’t do much shopping at the sidewalk sale, just went for soup at “The Soup Factory” (I love the place!) and then headed home. That evening I went over to Jamie-Lee’s and helped her make Derek’s birthday cake.

Monday night I went over to my sister’s after work to help her finish getting ready for their trip (they went to Germany for two weeks). The come home at the start of next week, and I can’t wait. I miss the boys! I’m making Ty a special race car cake for dinner on the day they come back. I called him on my lunch hour today, he’s so cute! He was telling me all about the boat they went on today and asking me what the surprise was when I told him I was making something special for dinner on Tuesday for him.

Friday night I went to see “Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby” with Heather and Al and then we went back to her place and had a bonfire, enjoyed some drinks, some Scotland chat and stayed up until 6am. I stayed up a few hours longer talking with her Mom who got up as we were going to bed, then I went in and slept for a few hours. Saturday we took Al to Gravenhurst to show him all that he’s not missing and went to Boston Pizza for lunch. I picked up Asili and we took the dogs to Couchiching Park. Sunday I slept and rested.

Yesterday I went to Rotary Mega Bingo with Jamie-Lee in Bracebridge. We had a lot of fun though we didn’t win anything. And I met Jamie at a plaza in town and when I pulled in she was talking to someone. It was our friend Ann-Marie from high school. Don’t think I’ve seen her since high school. She’s married and has an 18month old named Jacob who is so adorable! Huge smile! So we planned to all meet up soon.

There was so much more that happened between my last entry and this one, but I can’t remember. Meh, not really in a writing mood either, so I’ll leave it at that for tonight.

This Past Week...

Started my weekend on Friday night by going out for dinner with my parents for their 33rd Anniversary. My dad picked and we went to Boston Pizza in Gravenhurst. Eww, Gravenhurst…I know I said I was getting over my dislike of the town, but I wasn’t looking forward to going to the restaurant where I was told many people from high school are now working.

We got there and were told that it was going to be a 45 minute wait. We got our remote control coaster thing (the thing they use to page you when your table is ready). We headed for a walk down the wharf and had a decision about how it’s turned out, the pros and cons…my Dad doesn’t like it at all, it’s too commercial, while my Mom and I agreed we also think it looks quite nice and will probably achieve its goal of better catering to the tourists. We’d only walked maybe 10 minutes down the boardwalk when we were paged back.

Now we had heard bad things about this Boston Pizza and the wait times, but we were off to a good start. We walk in and half the tables are empty, no idea why they told us it would be a 45 minute wait. We sit down and that is when the waiting started. We waited for our drinks, we waited a LONG time for our meal (which was at least good – I had salmon steak, my dad had steak and my mom had veal parmesan). The kitchen was chaotic. I’m sure they are completely unorganized. The wait came back every 5 minutes to apologize for the wait. We ordered dessert, to go and even that took 15 minutes. The waiter told us good choice on getting take out but that it was still going to be at least another 5 minutes. Ah well we didn’t have anything else to do, but still rather annoying.

Good thing is I didn’t see anyone from high school.

Saturday morning I headed down to Toronto to meet up with Melissa. It was raining and I bought this really cool purple umbrella with this plastic casing so that when it’s wet it doesn’t drip all over everything. As mentioned in the previous post, the first thing we had was a hotdog from a street vendor followed by soft serve. We then walked back to her place. I hadn’t seen her new place yet and it’s quite nice, I really like it! She’s done a great job of painting and decorating. Also met her new cat Keetus. She showed me some photos and souvenirs from her last work trip over to Jordon and Dubai. She gave me a FABULOUS pair of shoes that she picked up at a market in Jordon. She had wanted to bring me a pair but didn’t know which size would fit, turns out the ones she had brought back for herself fit perfectly and since she’s going back next month she gave me them.

We then did a bit of shopping downtown. I was thrilled about finding a “Love Is…” book. I LOVE this cartoon. I was first introduced to it in Berlin during the summers I would spend with my grandparents it was always the first thing I looked for in the BZ (Berliner Zeitung). I like the sounds of them better in German, but I was just excited to find the book here as I don’t see many things about this cartoon over here.

We then went to the outlet mall in Mississauga…I bought a new shirt which I love but sadly despite going into all the shoes stores I didn’t pick up any. And I do actually need some new shoes, and really I’m not just saying that. I still can’t believe how many pairs of shoes I had and how many I got rid of when I came back from Japan. I used to have over 60 pairs. Hahaha, yes that ridiculous but I really did need them all. Ok not NEED, but I really did wear them all at one time. I cut that down to about 20 which is reasonable. Anyways, not going to go on about shoes…

We then headed to Pacific Mall as we had been planning to do for a long time. I’m sad as we didn’t find any palikula booths, but the place itself was pretty cool, almost like an Asian market. Found a great store there that sells dishes, will definitely be going back once I have my own place!

Shopping was followed by dinner at an Indian style Chinese restaurant. I then took Melissa to her boyfriend’s house in Pickering, played with his dog Mika for a bit and chatted and then headed home and was back at shortly after 11pm.

I thought that I would be home well in time to play some Kanasta with my Mom and Gladys (my grandfather’s girlfriend who still remains a good family friend). Only they weren’t home, I figured they would be at the casino and on their way home by then. I went online to check email and got a call on my cell. It was my Mom, she had accidentally left the lights on in her car and needed my Dad to come boost her, luckily he had just got home from the races. I tried waiting up for them but fell asleep reading. So no Kanasta for me. Whenever Gladys is here we usually play well into the night.

Woke up on Sunday morning at 10am, made the layered brushetta dip for Ty’s party and headed to my sister’s for 1pm. The party was good. Ty got so many things, Nate was incredibly well behaved. Asili came along as did Molly (Asili’s sister who Del’s sister owns). They played and had a good time also.

After the party I went into to Gravenhurst to get coffee for my sister and myself. Bad idea, I should have known not to attempt this on a Sunday night. I was parked on the road waiting for the drive-thru, but I don’t think going in would have been any better as the line-up was out the door. Ah well, we got our coffee and were happy.

Monday I met up with Heather and Daisy for a walk, and afterwards the dogs played in Heather’s backyard and went swimming and ate Dingo bones. We were planning on going rollerblading today, but it’s looking like it might rain all day.

Well considering I wrote all that on Monday night and it’s now Thursday night, I’m finally going to post this. I’ve been out every night this week (Tuesday I went shopping with my sister – she wanted to pick up some gifts to take to Germany, I bought a raincoat for when I take Asili for walks in the rain and a beige spring/fall coat for work and two shirts for Del for Christmas, Wednesday I went shopping with Jamie-Lee who wanted to pick up Derek’s birthday gift, I got my sister and Del a gift certificate for dinner and the movies for their Anniversary today, and today I went shopping with my Mom who wanted to look at shoes – I bought a purse (it’s AWESOME) and a sweater for me and a sweater for my Mom) and my Mom bought me a knee length jacket in blue that I also love.

Then after we went to my sister’s with a bottle of champagne and a Timmie’s coffee which I had the Timmie’s girl write CGA instead of C for cream on the lid because my sister called me at work today to tell me that she found out she passed her CGA exit exam! So after 8 years of taking courses part time she’s finally received her CGA designation! I’m so proud. I’m a flake, when I was thinking about that on the drive home to pick my Mom up to go shopping I nearly started crying. She’s worked so hard, I’m so proud! And to find out on your 10th wedding anniversary. What a great day for her!

So I meant to post this when I had time to add some pictures of Ty’s birthday, but that isn’t going to happen for a few days so thought I would just post it and add the pictures later when I have time.

Tomorrow evening I’m going to Toronto to go to the Medieval Times with Jamie-Lee, Derek, Jamie’s sister and brother-in-law and her brother. And Saturday Margaret Atwood is in town for a book signing.

So before this gets any longer, I’m going to end it now! Too lazy to reread and correct any mistakes, so if something doesn’t make sense just ignore it.

Big Weekend

Off to Toronto in a few to meet up with Melissa, been ages since I met up with her. Not sure what we will end up doing, but street hotdogs and truck soft serve ice cream is a given...might head to Pacific Mall for some palikula! (Woohoo so much fun, I'll post some of the pics if we do go!)

Dad's been working on putting a new motor in my sister's race car all week and just in time as tonight is a double feature for their division.

Tomorrow is Ty's birthday party.

I'll be sure to update Sunday evening.

Happy Anniversary and Birthday!

A BIG Happy Anniversary to my parents who have been married 33 years today!!!

Wow can you imagine, 33 years!! That's amazing! I hope one day I'm lucky enough to celebrate a 33 year anniversary!

And a very special Happy 3rd Birthday to my nephew Tyler! Three years already!

And as Bobbi said in a comment yesterday what a special gift to my parents to have their first grandson born on their anniversary!

I'm off to call Ty and sing Happy Birthday! :)

Random Stuff, As Usual...

Well since my last blog, I've also read the sequel to "A Million Little Pieces". "My Friend Leonard" was also really good; I quite enjoyed it, though I think I still prefer the first part.

I'm now 3/4 of the way through "Tuesdays With Morrie: An old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson" by Mitch Albom. I read his "The 5 People You Meet in Heaven" last year (SUCH A GOOD BOOK) and it was made into a made-for-tv movie this year. "Tuesdays" is a memoir based on the life of one of Albom's professors. It's such a good read in that Morrie, the professor, is able to simplify and clarify a lot of things about life and has such a positive outlook even though he is dying of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - a disease which kills the neurological system). I’ve wanted to read this since I read “The 5 People”, but have just gotten around to it now.

This past weekend was quite good. Friday night I met up with Jamie-Lee and her puppy Sydney and we took the dogs for a walk and then went and talked for hours as we usually do. I made it home around 1am.

Saturday morning I headed to Bracebridge to Jamie and Derek’s place as we were having a bridal party get-together so we could all meet and talk about everything that needed to be done before June 9th, 2007. I helped her sister Jenn get all the food ready and then everyone started showing up. It was a good time; we enjoyed good conversations, cute kids running around and good food. Everyone was gone by around 4pm. Jamie, Derek and I headed to Barrie to the races as they have a couple of friends who also race. It was a good evening. My dad did quite well and won one of his races. It was just a heat race, but good none-the-less. He earned enough points that night to get his 4th position overall back and he’s not that far behind the 3rd position driver. Woohoo GO DAD! My sister’s car is still lagging, and my dad has finally decided to put a new motor in her race for this coming Saturday’s race. There was this middle-aged couple sitting behind us and I could hear them talking. After the heat my dad won, my sister’s heat came out and the guy said “Oh, I think that purple car is another woman driver”. So I turned around and started a conversation with them about her and my dad and about their cars, etc. I think it’s neat that my dad and sister are known at the track. I guess they’ve been racing enough years to build up a reputation for themselves.



Sunday…I went over to my sister’s in the morning to help her with the house. She’s been painting the house entirely on her own, which I am sure can’t be easy. So I was there, and it was hot, and I got home around 5pm, went for a swim with Ty and Nate who were here and then read the rest of the evening.

It’s Ty’s 3rd Birthday on Thursday. Three already, the time just flies by. We are having his birthday party on Sunday. Just family and close friends. He wanted a Buzz Lightyear theme this year…so Andrea, his other Aunt, is making him a Buzz cake (last year she made his Blues Clues cake and it turned out SO well). I wanted to make him a Buzz piñata but a friend of my sister’s is now making one, and I guess my sister didn’t have the heart to tell her that I was making one, so that sucks, I’m disappointed I won’t be making it for him. Meh, so I’ll be taking my layered bruschetta dip on request of Del’s family. It is really good, but not nearly as exciting as a piñata! I’m sure it’ll be a good day, his 2nd Birthday was.

One of my angel fish died, which was kind of sad, they were getting quite big. Ah well, the other fish are still doing well.

Well I think I might go and start some of my ironing. Half of my clothes all need to be ironed again. Arg I hate ironing!

Random

Got home at my usual time of 5:40ish and decided to take Asili for a walk despite it looking like it would start to rain again. Just parked the car at the fairgrounds, got Asili into her Halti and leash, walked three steps and it started to rain. Rain doesn't bother me, in fact I enjoy it, and it doesn't bother Asili either so we continued on our usual walk that takes about 30 mins. You get a lot of strange looks from people when you are out walking in the rain. I'm sure there are a lot weirder things you can do, in fact I know there are, then walk in a nice, soft summer rainfall.

I had such a weird dream last night when I finally got to sleep, and I don't remember dreams very often, but I was brought out of this one by my alarm going off (I use my cell phone and every morning I wake up to Ed the Sock yelling "Hey! Come on! Answer the phone. Aren't you the idiot who thought this would be better than a ringtone?" - really need to change that as it's getting annoying). At any rate I lived in this little wooden hut as part of a village in the middle of nowhere. My whole family lived in this village and is was dusty and dry. In my dream I was sleeping and was woken up by the sound of a loud ringing bell, the kind they use in bomb raids (probably because I had read "Night" a Memoir about a man who survived the holocaust on Saturday) and I ran out of my hut carrying Asili (she was still a little puppy). Dozens of planes were flying by overhead and they were dropping bombs everywhere. The bombs looked like GIANT red capsules (probably because I've been having such bad headaches and taking so many liquid gels because other than the colour and size difference they looked exactly like them, though it could also have something to do with the book I'm currently reading). The 'bombs' would land and didn't explode on impact, it took several minutes until they did. So in this way the entire village (really my family) could outrun the bombs. That was really pretty much my entire dream. Woke up quite disturbed though it doesn't sound as upsetting as it felt in the moment.

After reading "Night" I started "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. It's his memoir about his six weeks in rehab recovering from his severe alcohol and crack addiction. Between sleeping on the swing outside and swimming, all I did on Sunday was read. I can't put the book down. Took it to work in case I had a moment to read. Got to work with 5 mins to spare, so read a few pages before going in. Took it with me to lunch at Timmies and read for the few minutes before Heather showed up. Is it wrong to be addicted to a book about another person's addictions? I've heard other people say too that they just couldn't put it down. Naturally that's a mark of a good book, but I feel a bit weird about it. I'm over half way done now. I'm off to read a few hours before bed.