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.

What to do...

What to do this weekend?

I want to do something with Asili this weekend as I haven't done too much with her lately other than usual walks and playing, but the last couple weekends I've left her behind while I've been away somewhere...

I am sure I'll think of something.

Three weeks left until my 2007 budget is due for work. It's so much work...head office wants to know EVERYTHING you plan on doing during the course of the year, and everything has to be planned right down to the last penny. Which in a way is kind of stupid because new things/opportunities come up that you can't plan for, and you also can't plan for tenants leaving or new ones coming in, so my funds change. However so far this year I've done well staying on budget but I've taken money from other things to spend in other places.

I plan on getting my tactics and objectives for 2007 done today.

I also have to get more work done on my Marketing Procedures Manual. It was one of my corporate goals for the year and the year is more than half done (mind you the goals aren't set until June, so you really only have half a year in which to accomplish them - but I think I have complained about that once before). I've got a fair chunk done...most of my event procedures are done, mind you that's just one small part of what I actually do.

Wow, you know it's been a pretty boring week when I talk about work.

:(

So Germany is out of the running for the FIFA World Cup!

That sucks...but not much we can do about that...still have a chance at third place at least. It's better than nothing.

There's always 2010...

I Heart Ottawa

OMG – Ottawa Rocks!!

I went over to Jamie-Lee’s house Friday evening and we hung out, tried to get to bed at a decent time because we wanted to be up early to make our way to Ottawa!

We woke up and left the house at about 730am. We made a quick stop at McDonald’s for egg mcmuffins and timmies of course for coffee. We then set out on hwy 118 and started our 4 hour trip.

The drive was INCREDIBLE!! SO beautiful! I wish I had of stopped to take some pictures along the way, but never even thought of it. The scenery was made up of lakes, rocks, hills and trees. On some parts the road curved around the tall rocks on one side and the lake on the other…I felt like I should be driving a Mazda and found myself humming “zoom zoom zoom”.

On the way there we started a list of animals we saw along the way (alive or dead – a little sick yes I realize), mainly because Derek (Jamie’s fiancé) told us to watch out for animals on the drive because the area is heavily populated by deer and moose.

So this is what we came across (over the course of the entire weekend):

1 bird (alive)
1 fox (dead)
2 porcupines (dead)
1 very juicy bug (was alive but died on impact with my windshield – strange part, no blood just clear liquid splatter)
2 raccoons (dead)
1 bunny (alive)
20+ RCMP horses (alive)
1 bird (alive but died on impact with the transport trailer in front of us)
7 black crows (alive)

About ¾ of the way there we stopped in Renfrew at the timmies to go to the bathroom and I got another coffee. From there it was about another hour, and we parked downtown Ottawa shortly before noon.

About to head downtown after arriving:



We shorted our stuff, and then walked the few blocks to Parliament Hill. I was so excited! From the time we pulled off the highway I just kept pointing at things and saying “Oh! Look! It’s SO beautiful!” And it all was! And I hadn’t even seen the really good stuff yet!

Downtown was PACKED obviously, but it was good. Have never seen so much red and white in my life! Some people were right into the whole Canada Day theme. There were even several dogs that we walked by that people had dressed up and/or dyed their fur. We walked through the streets and watched all the different street performers. The first guy we watched was a contortionist. He fit his whole body through a toilet seat…it was kind of gross as he had to dislocated numerous body parts in order to do it. He told some pretty funny jokes though, quite dirty but definitely worth a good laugh. Next we watched some small street bands, some guy doing some weird poses on the pavement, people doing skateboard and bike tricks and some trampolinists.





We then went and had some poutine and walked through the market (OMG I LOVE markets!!). We walked through the big park (Major Hill?? Can’t remember the name…), watched the high divers and walked along the canal for a bit and back through the streets.

We got to this street performer who was doing some robot tricks, hard to describe but he was amazing! A kid or adult would throw a dollar or two in his basket and he would come to “life” and goof around with them for a bit. Jamie and I watched him for probably 20 mins. He then came out of his robot tricks and as Jamie described, got a little “weird”, I guess you could say he was doing some magic tricks. He sliced a knife through his arm amongst other things. He then made some gestures (he never spoke) to ask for a cigarette from someone in the crowd. This girl offered one and he joked around with her for a bit. He then eventually lit the cigarette and smoked about half of it. He then started walked towards me. He came over and stood right in front of me. He took both my arms and I thought he wanted the bottle of water I was holding. He shook his head ‘no’ and made me raise my arms higher. Then in one quick move he grabbed the sweater that was tied around my waist. I screamed. LOL. He moved back from me about 15 feet taking my sweater with him. He teased and joked around a bit, mocked me by suggesting he would give the sweater back. Jamie said “I think you have to give him money” so I went to put money in his basket but he chased me back to my spot. He put the sweater over his one hand, took a final drag of the cigarette and put it right into my sweater. Naturally I knew my sweater would be alright (after all it wouldn’t be very impressive if it wasn’t) but it did look really convincing! He showed the sweater and there were absolutely no marks. But he still wouldn’t give me the sweater back. I went to put the money in his basket again but he still wouldn’t let me. Instead he pointed to his cheek and made a kissy face. Stupid me, goes to do it (I like my sweater, wanted it back)…I’m just about to kiss him on the cheek and he turns and kisses me right smack on the lips. GROSS! A random kiss from some street performer! Jamie and I left shortly after that. Had a good laugh about it though!

We waked along the street vendors again and I got a henna armband done (though this henna isn’t nearly as good as the henna I got at the Mendi Party (I believe it was called if I remember correctly) at Jamie’s sister’s wedding in 2003.

We then started walking along the streets looking for a good place to eat. We were walking along a not so crowded street and I hear someone shout “HEY YOU!” I turn around and see a family sitting on the curb (a large family – parents, children and grandparents). They wave me over and ask if my sweater was ok…I take it off and show them that it was in perfect order. And the grandpa asks me if the man was a good kisser! LOL Jamie and I had a good laugh with them and then carried on.

We eventually ended up at Richtree (mmmm one of my all time favourite restaurants!) and had dinner. We then went and sat in the park to watch the main stage concerts. No real impressive bands, the biggest name was Colin James, the others we hadn’t ever heard of but they were good. They did the unveiling of the Six String Nation Guitar which was kind of neat. It started to rain but they could still eventually do the fireworks and it wasn’t until after that it REALLY started to pour!

Random pictures from around Ottawa:









The next day Jamie and I were up super early and drove around a bit, went down Sussex Drive, saw the Prime Minister’s place and that’s also when we saw the RCMP horses at the stables there. There was an amazing lookout and we saw the trails that run ALL over the city. Amazing! I definitely need to go rollerblading there sometime!

We did a little shopping (I bought two pairs of sandals – it couldn’t be helped, two for one at Aldo!). We tried to buy Jamie some rollerblades so that we could try out the trails (she was wanting to get some for a while now) but we had no luck getting them in her size. So we went back downtown and had a late lunch at the Hardrock Café.

We then made the trip back home with the intention of surprising Derek who was down at the Falls in Bracebridge getting ready to do the fireworks (he’s a Kinsmen and they are the ones who always organize the B’Bridge fireworks) since they were rained out the night before. We made it with time to spare and watched the fireworks with her sisters, nieces and nephews.

And that was pretty much my weekend. I LOVED Ottawa and can’t wait to go back. Planning a possible late August/September trip. Who’s coming??

Yesterday was Del’s (my brother-in-law) birthday. They were all over for a BBQ yesterday, but I missed it being away. No one told me we were celebrating on Sunday and I had already made plans to go away. But they were all over again today and since they didn’t work had come over in the afternoon to go swimming. When I got home from work I went swimming with Ty. He’s amazing, not even 3 yet and he can swim on his own (with his lifejacket though of course) and he even jumps off the diving board! We were playing in the pool and I guess Asili was a little too close to the edge as when she went to scratch herself she toppled over and fell into the water. Poor thing. We then BBQed and had some ice cream cake.

It was a fabulous Canada Day weekend!