Hogmanay .... HAPPY NEW YEARS

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind ?Should auld acquaintance be forgot,And days o' auld lang syne

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup !And surely I’ll be mine !And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,for auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We twa hae run about the braes,and pou’d the gowans fine ;But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,sin’ auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,frae morning sun till dine ;But seas between us braid hae roar’dsin’ auld lang syne.

CHORUS
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !And gies a hand o’ thine !And we’ll tak a right gude-willie-waught,for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

4-1

We won!

GOLD!!!

YEAH YEAH!!! A Win at the Spengler Cup in Switzerland. Now all we need is a win at the Juniors today and we're good...

3-4 ????

So sadly I have to report that we lost yesterday - to Sweden..... I know, I know, why do we have to lose to Sweden? I happen to remember another loss to Sweden, Olympics style this time, and that was devastating. Hopefully this loss will serve as a wake-up call. Anyways, the next game goes tomorrow against Denmark at 10 am our time.

Not much else to report in my life these days. I worked Friday night and Saturday day. My feet are sore and I was tired. Other than that, I had a night in last night, with Amy, in preparation for the January from Hell - but really I can't complain, I did it to myself.... yuck!

Now, it is Sunday, after noon and I'm still in my Pjs... I should really get going.

Ciao!

Book of the Week

I think we all know how much I love reading a good Bill Bryson book, right? I mean, I actually laughed hysterically in public, by myself, whilst reading Neither Here nor There.... So, I think you'll understand why I've decided to use Bill Bryson's newest entry into the literary world as the Book of the Week.

I've not yet read this one, it is on my every growing list, but I can assure you that it will be good, very good in fact, and very funny.

From the Publishers:

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself.
Bryson documents the efforts of earlier scholars, from today’s most respected academics to eccentrics like Delia Bacon, an American who developed a firm but unsubstantiated conviction that her namesake, Francis Bacon, was the true author of Shakespeare’s plays. Emulating the style of his famous travelogues, Bryson records episodes in his research, including a visit to a basement room in Washington, D.C., where the world’s largest collection of First Folios is housed.
Bryson celebrates Shakespeare as a writer of unimaginable talent and enormous inventiveness. His Shakespeare is like no one else’s–the beneficiary of  Bryson’s genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivalled in our time.

I must leave you all know as it is my fat Friday at work and I am therefore in quite the heinous mood. I guess feeding your office full of fellow co-workers a feast will do that to you.... adieu!

George

Hours of Laughter...

World Juniors - Day 2!

Hot Damn!!! Another WIN!!!! 1-0 Slovakia.......

World Juniors et al, Day 1

Being Boxing day means that today was the first day of several hockey related endeavors. #1 Being the World Juniors, played this year in the Czech Republic and #2, The Macs AAA Hockey Tournament, and #3 the Spengler Cup in Switzerland.

I'm not sure if I am going to catch any local hockey, but I will be sure to cheer on our boys overseas. We started today with a win, of course, in the form of 3-0 against the host nation(Canada vs Czech Republic in World Juniors). Tomorrow we met Slovakia at 8am our time, I think, I should check that out actually. Spengler Cup action was another Canada win (of course), 4-3 against HC Pardubice. The next game in that series goes tomorrow at 12:15 pm against HC Davos

Today also, was the Wedding Shower for my good friends Colleen and Drew - and it was really fun. Rachel and I met up and headed out to wish them well and spent the afternoon laughing and catching up... I should really get out to Montreal again to visit them soon...

I'm not too talkative tonight - I'm still suffering from all that tryptophan - and of course the laughter that erupted from the ridiculous game of Scattergories, oh that Anthony and his switching letters!

K, so that's it for now, I'm going to relax in my new plaid pants and Stanford Hoodie. Night!

Happy Birthday Jesus

So here it is Christmas Eve, and no Jesus Cake to be found. I can't say that I'm not disappointed... Jesus Cake is mighty tasty.

Funny thing though google images has lots of Jesus Cake, so here you go, fresh from google - Ladies and Gentlemen I am pleased to provide for your viewing pleasure... JESUS CAKE!!!


Merry Christmas to one and to all... I wish you a wonderful day spent with your family and friends, and of course to all of you who do not celebrate Christmas I wish you a Happy Hanukkah, Crazy Kwanzaa, or even perhaps a Wonderful Eid Al-Adha (although they may be a few days late)!!

Weekend Update

Nothing too fun to tell for this weekend, mostly I worked... Friday night and Saturday - and wow, it was busy... people were a bit snarky, a bit impatient, that sucked, but whatever. Saturday night I saved lanster from being Bridgett Jones at a party, but in doing so I became Bridgett myself - we had a fun time though. Eleni and Crystal on the other hand had to stiff it out at the office Christmas party in kanaskis. From the stories I heard it was quite the evening, nudity, suggestive comments and the like... I'm not going to lie I am pretty happy I said no to the invite as I was really not into partying with the company that was going...

Sunday was Santa day as I made the rounds and chatted / dropped off presents to friends - which is always fun but I ate waaay too many Christmas goodies.

Now that brings me to my next point - eating too many Christmas goodies... I need to finish up my naval entrance stuff which means I need to do my fitness test, and of course get through basic training. In order to do this I need to be quite fit. I do go to to the gym and do as many sit ups and push ups as possible if I watch TV, but I need something more hardcore to be ready. So I've decided to join a co-worker in the UBC, ultimate body shaping course (aka kickboxing) for 10 weeks from Jan - March. The deal is every day you alternate between toning / resistance training and kickboxing, taking Sunday off. Hopefully all will go well and I'll be fit enough for basic. I am worried though that I won't be able to walk for the entire month of January...

So now I have to work in this new workout into my already packed schedule... I think I've got it figured though:

Mon - Toning
Tues (am) - Kickboxing
Wed (am) - Gym
Wed (pm) - Navy
Thursday (am) - Kickboxing
Thursday (pm) - Job #2
Friday - Toning
Saturday (early am ) - Kickboxing
Saturday (later am) - Job #2

having written it out I am thinking I forgot dancing... so maybe I shall slide that in on Monday nights, or maybe Thursday night and I'll work job #2 on Mondays... ahhh - i don;t know.... I just know that from now until July I will be ridiculously busy and I apologize in advance for being absent.. maybe we can do lunch sometime - call me.

Book of the Week

Yikes, it is almost noon and I am just now posting this - sorry guys...

This week's Book of the Week is "The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World" By A. J. Jacobs.

Now, I haven't read it yet, however it looks hilarious and quite honestly seems up my alley, although I am in no way even close to being the smartest in the land - granted if I read this book I may be a bit closer to achieving that fame.

The synopsis goes like this:

Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs''s hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.
To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it''s a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but unconvinced.
With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs''s life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs''s project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy!, and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and the paralyzing fear that attends his first real-life responsibility -- the impending birth of his first child.
The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man''s intellect, neuroses, and obsessions, and a struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom.

Bizarro

7 Things you might not know about me

It seems as though I've been tagged by K at Inspired by Dooce... so here we go...

First, the rules:
Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to then report this on their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. They then need to tag others and list their names on their blog. They are also asked to leave a comment for each of the tagged, to let them know that they have been tagged and to read the blog.

7 things you may not know about me. Check the end to see if I've tagged you - haha!

1. I really cannot deal with people who have poor table manners...

2. I have serious doubts about the Navy, and I wonder what exactly this will do to my life.

3. I wish I could be much smarter than I pretend to be.

4. Sometimes I feel very very short even though I'm taller than most of my friends and family.

5. I really need to figure out the whole middle east conflict... (see #3)

6. I am ridiculously shy and thus am in no way as social as you might think... I can be rather like a hermit.

7. I detest cilantro

Now time for fun... Megan, Kate and Colleen - you're next!

Things to warm your, well my, heart

During the past week or so I've either seen things, or done things that make me quite happy, and I shall list them for you....

1. Little kids playing hockey on outdoor rinks... who couldn't be happy about that?
2. Ikea at Christmas
3. Tea and cookies with Grandama
4. Meals and visiting with friends and family
5. Fluffy snow
6. Buying Skates
7. Knowing that you have a job after christmas
8. Crossing off things on your to-do / to-buy list
9. Christmas specials on tv
10. Waiting for your SPICE GIRLS Greatest Hits CD / DVD
11. Christmas Concerts / Ballets, I guess we can just say Activities..

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE!

Alright, so here we go. First though I should apologize for the tardiness of this post, but it was such a great show and I'm not sure that I can really undertake to explain just how much fun we had, but I shall try...

So Friday night Lanster picked me up from work, and we arrived at my place about 11:15... Amy was already there, in bed trying to sleep. We of course woke her up, introduced her to Lanster and basically began laughing and that lasted until we left for the airport at 4 am, while a small 1/2 hour break to attempt to sleep (which really didn't happen..) Alright, now it's Saturday morning - Heather graciously woke up to drive us, what a sport she was - and she was even quite cheerful and listened to us blab on and on about whatever it was we were chatting about while we drove to catch the flight. Not to much to report from the airport... security was fine, amazingly, and voila we were on the flight. I slept most of the way, so did Amy, poor Lanster though didn't, but she was a real trooper and toughed it out - all day long Saturday as well...

K, so we arrive in Vegas, get off the flight, collect our baggage, catch a cab to the hotel, try to check in early , find out we can't so we call the other girls' room and make them come down and get us from the lobby... Turns out they just got home and were trying to sleep... they arrived the day previous and had spent a rather interesting night at the LAX nightclub in the Luxor whilst in the company of one Criss Angel, one Pamela Anderson and one Tito Ortiz... Pictures are on Eleni's facebook if you are lucky enough to have access....

Anyways Saturday during the day we basically toured around, had breakfast and then lunch / dinner and got ready for the concert.... now for the concert....

We arrived at 7:30, concert was to start at 8, but didn't until 9 - but in the meantime music was being played over the loudspeakers and a lot of people in the audience were up and dancing. As soon as Soulja Boy came on however, almost the entire audience screamed, jumped up and danced.. it was quite the sight... Then after a while the concert started... and for two whole hours they danced, sang and we danced and sang the whole time as well.. Sometimes we screamed so loudly that you couldn't here the girls.... But, wow, it was quite the show - the choreography, the set, the costumes, the individual performances, the songs, the confetti, the video screens... amazing! You all should youtube the spice girls concert... I've been doing it every day since I got back, just so I can re-live how awesome it was.... I cannot wait until the DVD comes out, to tide me over I've just ordered the Greatest hits CD and bonus DVD of all the music videos from Amazon.. it should arrive on Thursday. Well, that and the fact that I've been blasting the Spice World CD in my car all week and even watched all 10 parts of the Youtube video of Spiceworld posted by ThaRockGoddess.... AHHHH, I love it!!!!

After the concert we were all pretty exhausted not having slept for about 2 days so instead of partying it up, we in fact crashed into bed after saying goodnight and goodbye to our other half and then it was Sunday.

Sunday brought breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe, A good load of shopping at H &M (of course) and Bath and Body Works (mmm) and then more sightseeing... including the fountains at the Bellagio , Luxor, MGM, New York New York (mmmm , pretzels), Paris and Planet Hollywood. After dinner at the Luxor, who buffet seriously sucked this time - ps, do not get excited when you see the Creme Brulee cause it is absolute crap - I was seriously pissed off..... we were off to the Imax show of the journey down the Nile. It was really fun and I remembered how sad I was that we don't really have an Imax anymore. By the end it was 12:30 and we were not in the mood to put our dancing shoes on and party it up so we headed back to the hotel and chilled, chatted and fell asleep after a very long day of walking and shopping.

Monday morning we had breakfast downstairs at the Sherwood Forest Cafe, took a cab to the Wynn, walked through the Venetian, the Mirage, Caesars, the Bellagio, Monte Carlo, New York New York and back to Excalibur to pack and off to the airport we went.

So there we go, 55 hours in Vegas and we were on our way home. Sad to leave, sad to see the end of the concert, but elated that I was in the same room as Posh and the rest of the girls, and happy that I finally got to see them.

Nutcracker

Just thought I might remind everyone that my favourite ballet is on... by two different companies - the Alberta Ballet of course has it's production of the Nutcracker and then there is this one, it is much less expensive and has cute kids performing in it, and the venue is much smaller and more intimate (Vertigo Mystery Theatre)... plus the choreography is a bit different so it looks like fun....

Although the poster has the 2005 dates printed on it, they apply to 2007 as well. So if you want to go with me, let me know and we'll make a date of it..

Book of the Week

I know what you are all thinking... where the heck are the Vegas pics... and my answer to you is that they are coming.. I forgot to bring the camera to work so I could upload and post the pics.. I'll try for the weekend, I promise. But, in the meantime let's all chat about some good books - shall we?

So for this week I think I will go with "A Year in Provence" written by Peter Mayle. I picked it simply because I am remembering the Christmas I spent in France and the laughs that this book brought me while I was there, and even living in Provence to boot! Almost everything that happened to Peter Mayle happened to me - with the exception of purchasing a house / car cause I was a poor student.. but that is besides the point. It was hilarious both when it actually happened and when I read about it in his book. The French have a certain - je ne sais quoi - about them and their way of life that causes mass confusion for the English speaking people who live in their fine country. But to be quite honest, this is a funny funny book, and I have and will continue to recommend it to anyone who loves to read about travel.

PS - When you get to the part about the market and lurid Johnny Halliday T-Shirt.. call me, or read these two posts and I shall explain why that is the funniest thing that I have ever read... oh Johnny, I really do miss you and your crazy silver suits...

From the Publisher: In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January''s frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine. A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days.

Au revoir!

Happy Birthday

SNOOP!!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!

(I sure hope I spelled that correctly... )

Have a Fantastic Day my dear, say Hi to Amir for me!

Book of the Week

I just had to.....


From the Editors:
'I've always been a girls' girl. And I know from experience that making the very best of yourself is something any woman can do. I was never the six-foot-tall pin-up. I've always been the girl-next-door who got lucky. I've come a long way in the last ten years, but this book isn't my attempt to tell you what or what not to do. It's just to share some of what I've learned.'

In That Extra Half an Inch, a tongue-in-cheek reference to her love of high heels, Beckham shares her tips for finding your own style including:


Learning how to dress for special occasions
Shopping for everyday wear and where to look for it
Accessories: defining the looks that work best for you
Helpful hints for the holidays
Making the most of your wardrobe
How to feel confident and look great every time you leave the house

That Extra Half an Inch is a beautiful, nothing-but-the truth, easy-to-use book on fashion, beauty and style. Victoria shares her personal style secrets so whether you're getting ready for work, a night out on the town or even doing the school run, you too can feel confident and look great every time you step out of the front door.

We could all use a bit more style in our lives right?

20 Hours, 30 Minutes

So, my other half of the group has just landed.. and I am barely able to sit still waiting for my turn... Today should be rather long, especially since I have to work again tonight... but in less than 24 hours I shall be there and living it up...

We even asked our boss, a lawyer, if we can have a 6 for 1 deal on annulments... Hey - we're just preparing for the possibility, right?

Ok, I'll sign off for now - Vegas Pictures to follow on Monday....

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

1 Day, 19 Hours, 46 Minutes

Wow, I'm almost there... I need to start thinking what I will wear to this shindig... Maybe I should wear Geri's mini??? or perhaps Posh's LBD (little black dress).... I'll keep you posted.

And now for something to cheer us all up.. today has not been the best.....


Spice Girls - Never Give Up On The Good Times

Whoo!

She used to be a chancer, sparkle in the rain
Told me she needed a friend
If shes going crazy, baby's on the way
Seems like the day never ends

Everybody needs some affection [Ah ah ah]
Never shines [never shines] gotta try [gotta try]
Wherever your going

Chorus
Never give up on the good times, gotta believe in the love you find
[Never give it up, never give it up no oh oh]
Never give up on the good times, livin it up is a state of mind
[never give it up no, never give it up oh oh]

Bossanova baby, heart is never soul
Shouting but he's never heard
Eyes all wide and open, streets are paved with gold
Someone come back on their word

Everybody needs some affection [Ah ah ah]
Never shines [Never shines] gotta try [gotta try]
Wherever your going

Repeat Chorus

Down and dirty city, feeling outta place
Maybe you've ran outta time
Treats her like a lady, smile upon her face
Make up the last of the lines

Everybody needs some affection [Ah ah ah]
Never shines [Never shines] gotta try [gotta try]
Wherever your going

Repeat Chorus

Never give up on the good times, gotta believe in the love you find
[Never give it uuuuuuuuup]
Never give up on the good times, livin it up is a state of mind
[Believe in the love you find]
Hey now look around, pick yourself up off the ground
I said hey now look around pick yourself up off the ground [x3]
I said [Never give up] hey now look around pick yourself up off the ground
I said hey now look around, pick yourself up off the ground

I said [Never give up] hey now look around,
pick yourself up off the ground
I said hey now look around, pick yourself up off the ground
I said [Never give up] hey now look around,
pick yourself up off the ground

I said never give up [x3]

Never give up on the good times, gotta believe in the love you find
[Never give it up, never give it up no oh oh]
Never give up on the good times, livin it up is a state of mind
[never give it up no, never give it up oh oh]
Never give up on the good times, gotta believe in the love you find
[Never give it uuuuuuuuup]
Never give up on the good times livin it up is a state of mind
Never give up on the good times, gotta believe in the love you find
[Never give it up, never give it up no oh oh]
Never give up on the good times, livin it up is a state of mind
[Never give it up no, never give it up oh oh]

1955

Oh, to be a 1955 Housewife....

2 Days, 22 Hours, 2 Minutes

The performance last night was really great...loved the outfits... Posh even sang - and well! Yeah for her!!! Emma looked great, even after just having a baby... I can't wait!

3 Days, 17 Hours, 50 minutes

PS - They perform tonight on the Victoria Secret Fashion Show... Channel 12 for those in Calgary!

A quote

"You can hide things in vocabulary" Dick Liddil (a member of the Jesse James gang)

This may be my most favourite quote...

4 days, 21 Hours, 41 Minutes

Weekend Update

So I finally have my phone back... last night after work I zipped over to my Aunt's house for some chit chat and yummy dinner... I love when people make me dinner, because really - do I want to make a whole dinner for myself? Besides that - I love hanging out with my Aunt and Grandma...

So there we were chatting away... eating a fantastic dinner and suddenly it was 11:30.. yikes!!! Time for bed... so I drove home, got into bed and realised my phone was sitting on the kitchen counter. Not good...

No worries, though I still have email right... this morning I got up, planned my movie date with Megan... got ready and walked down to the theatre... it is very very cold out p.s.

We watched The Assassination of Jesse James. Not bad, a bit depressing, a bit somber, but the Alberta scenery was great and I'm a wee bit embarrassed to admit that I didn't know how he died.... turns out it was a bit crap...... It was great to see Megan again, her life is so much more glamorous than mine and thus I enjoy living vicariously through her. Back to the movie though - it was shot with somewhat of a cold light so I spent the entire movie with my jacket on.. but Brad is looking a bit haggard, and tired.. he needs some R&R or some plastic surgery or something...

Afterwards it was back to running errands, up to Crowfoot Chapters to grab some books for the kids in the Evenstart program and back out to the house for my phone. More dinner (thank you!!) and then back home for a night in...

Oh, I guess I should talk about Friday. It was quite the night - I worked during the day, worked at night, met up with Eleni and Katherine for the Reagle Beagle's monthly theme night / music trivia night. This month's theme - White Trash - and although I was not in costume they sure were. Eleni in a walmart get-up and Katherine as a trucker, it was a sight to behold and I am so glad that I popped by to see it! Bravo girls, you made my night!!!

K, I'm done for today.

Ciao!

Wedding Dance

Just saw this on Ellen... pretty funny!

St. Andrew's Day

One more thought... Today is St. Andrew's Day. For those of you not in the know, he is the Patron Saint of Scotland and Namesake of the St. Andrew's Caledonain Society...



Sadly I am not Kilted today, I have to go to Job #2 later on tonight. However, I shall leave you all with the Glorious National Flag of Scotland!

Book of the Week

Well, I'll admit, I am in no way prepared for this week's book. I am still reading about 4 books, nothing new however, and thus I do not have one ready. But, I think I can muster enough brain power to find one that interests the masses (I hope!)

Ok, ready... here it is.. The reason I know about this book is because the cutest older gentleman (a university professor in fact.. ) told me about it. It is called "How the Irish Saved Civilization" Written by Thomas Cahill. It chronicles the fate of ancient texts (think Plato, Homer etc...) in the hands of the Irish.


From the Editors:

The perfect St. Patrick''s Day gift, and a book in the best tradition of popular history -- the untold story of Ireland''s role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe.

Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick''s Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars" -- and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians.

In this entertaining and compelling narrative, Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization -- copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost -- they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task.

As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.

In the tradition of Barbara Tuchman''s A Distant Mirror, How The Irish Saved Civilization reconstructs an era that few know about but which is central to understanding our past and our cultural heritage. But it conveys its knowledge with a winking wit that aptly captures the sensibility of the unsung Irish who relaunched civilization.

That's all for now... I'm tapped out. Happy Reading, and happy weekend....

Ciao!

Have you ever noticed that once it snows, the moonlight, or any light for that matter seems to be different?

I say this having woken up very early the past few mornings and just enjoyed the sight of it. From my bedroom it almost has a purple-ish quality to it... it's a nice change from the pitch black we had before the snow. Another thought that just popped into my head... I can remember walking down the alley from Kari's house back to my place and the whole place was covered in snow - everywhere.. and the silence was deafening.. the snow was squeeking beneath my feet and there was no sound, not at all..

Interesting thoughts on a thursday morning....

The Medical

Woke up this morning with a somewhat familiar scared / nervous feeling. The reason I got out last time was because I was not happy. I was hurt, I was on crutches for 2 months, I couldn't walk, in short I was super unhappy with where I was and it was just not working with me.

Now, I am in the midst of rejoining, and this morning I had to go through another medical, something which I was certainly not looking forward to. Turns out (as it usually does) it was not bad at all. I got there, smiled and nodded, answered health questions and did the vision / height / weight thing - well I might add. Then it was off to the sound booth and my hearing test. It was kind of fun actually, I got to don wicked cool old school headphones and sit in a insulted booth with a Jeopardy style buzzer... my dream come true! Anyways, I passed the test with "excellent results" and was off to answer more questions. In fact I mostly chatted with the MWO, and he concluded that upon approval from my GP I am good to go. All that remains is waiting for HMCS Tecumseh to schedule my fitness test when they get the go ahead from Ottawa.

Things are doing well on that front, although quite honestly, as much as I feel that this is where I need to be joining is always a scary thing. I would have to go to Basic again, this time fortunately it's Reg Force equivalent which would help me a lot in the future if I do decide to go Reg Force. The sad thing is that it may be in the future as more and more layoffs happen. But I digress, the fact remains that basic is going to be tough, and it's a damn good thing that I have several months to prepare, otherwise I would be a lot more stressed than I am currently. In the meantime I'm off to the gym at 5:30am, plus after work sessions when I can fit them in and push-up / sit up sessions in front of the TV at night. My real hope is that I can work up to 300 push ups per day (like we had in Basic last time) and hour of jogging, something I have yet to do in my life.


Well, that should just about do it for now, The Unit is on and it is a good one - I clearly have my priorities.

Crank Dat Soulja Boy

Simply Fantastic!

The Weekend

Alrighty, I promised a weekend run down and here it is...

Friday - Worked, during the day, found out some unsettling news. Turns out that our law firm is being closed and even more people were laid off.... scary huh? Yeah, so we're all scared for our jobs - seems that the whole mortgage meltdown in the US is affecting us. Funny how if an American Title Insurance company owns your company then you are affected when their economy tanks - that's just super! Friday night I worked again, it was busy but the cleaner - funny thing, his name is Cam - decided that I needed a pick me up so at the end of the night so he fed me Starbucks leftovers...mmmm...

Saturday - got up went to work... it was very very busy... and I was happy to leave. Sad thing was that I had to rush home and fix up the house... I so do hate a messy kitchen... anyways, mad dash to clean, curl my hair and fix up the makeup, set up the booze, and start welcoming the guests. Oh, perhaps I should mention

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL"

Everyone that came was great, we all had a great time but as the night wore on the party became decidedly french. I think it could have been because the entire Centre Francais
was there and thus the language shifted to French - with some English of course for those who weren't from the Centre. More and more drinks were had, in fact I broke out the 1.14L bottle of Gin that I won at work and I think I might have been the only one drinking and it seems to be only half full now... oops! In any case we chatted, played french games and chatted some more... 4:00 came and we dedcided to call it a night. I was in bed by 4:30 and....

Sunday - Was up for Dim Sum with Ronnalie. For starters Dim Sum is just plain yummy, Ronnalie is just plain fun, together, however, they are just great! We met up at 10:30, stuffed our faces, talked about life, wondered over to the Golden Happiness Bakery (part of our Dim Sum ritual) ate some more and then finally finished with a trip to the Gift shop in the Chinese Culture Centre... great times for sure! We parted ways there and I came home, freshened up and drove down to visit with a dear friend who was spending a spell in the hospital. After that it was back home, and quite honestly I cannot remember what I did after that... must have been exciting though, I'll tell you that much!!

Today however wasn't really that exciting, not much to report...

I'll leave you with a pretty funny youtube video... it's classic! (it's the post right before this one...)

Countdown

Just now I was reminded of the fact that I leave in exactly... 11 days, 21 hours, 11 minutes and 56 seconds ....

Weekend update to follow...

Book of the Week

This week's entry is a current events sort-of read. In light of what is happening in Afghanistan these days, I think we all should bone up on our information. I mean, how many of us actually know what is happening there?

Do most of us believe in the mission?

Are we all in agreement that the Taliban should be dealt with?

What about our troops that are over there, fighting for these people and laying their lives on the line for what Canada believe in. Do you support the troops?

Be careful with that last response though, I asked if you supported the men and women who are over there trying to make a difference, not whether or not you supported the war... that is a different question all together (remember the whole yellow ribbon campaign?)

I'm sure you know my response to these questions, but this week I thought this book would be appropriate. It was written by a reporter and outlines the "Stories Of Bravery, Friendship, Life And Death From Inside The New Canadian Army". It looks to be a great read.


Here is the write-up from the publisher:

Long before she made her first trip to Afghanistan as an embedded reporter for The Globe and Mail, Christie Blatchford was already one of Canada’s most respected and eagerly read journalists. Her vivid prose, her unmistakable voice, her ability to connect emotionally with her subjects and readers, her hard-won and hard-nosed skills as a reporter–these had already established her as a household name. But with her many reports from Afghanistan, and in dozens of interviews with the returned members of the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and others back at home, she found the subject she was born to tackle. Her reporting of the conflict and her deeply empathetic observations of the men and women who wear the maple leaf are words for the ages, fit to stand alongside the nation’s best writing on war.

Happy Reading!

Dance-a-thon

There wasn't really a dance-a-thon but I couldn't come up with a better title so let's just go with it shall we?

Last night I dragged myself to dancing... and I did have quite a bit of fun. There were quite a few people there so it made the sets a lot more even. We did also chat about the upcoming ball season and apparently the RSCDS Calgary Branch is having a Robbie Burns Ball on Jan 12. Sounds fun, but I looked at the program and I only knew 3 of the dances... yikes!!! I guess I should buck up and learn the others.

As January is pretty much dedicated to Robbie Burns there is also a Robbie Burns dinner for the homeless that the St. Andrew's Society puts on at the Drop In Centre, this year (well 2008 actually) it is in fact a luncheon - but we are still bringing the haggis and the pipes - good times for all! Last year (and by last I mean Jan 2007, but you get the point) we served 880 people in about 35-45 minutes...... yep, we're that good!

There is also an Officer's Mess for the Highlanders that I went to last year with my good buddy Jen - from old job #2 - and her hubby... more haggis, more men in kilts, more pipes, more scotch, not so much dancing, but this time there were at least some officer's to hang out with... my kind of time I tell you! But in all seriousness I am really looking forward to this January.. it promises to be busy and fun.

February seems quite packed as well. There is a Ball in Edmonton for their branch of the RCSDS, and I got an email yesterday about another Ball at the Royal York in T.O. I love that hotel... I've stayed twice, once with Cam after a wedding down east and once with Megan on our shopping trip to H&M... that was really fun! Not sure if I can manage the airfare and such to go down, that plus the fact that I don't have a "date" to come with... we'll see I guess. Oh, and I think the Lethbridge people have a Ball in Feb too... I'll check it out in the meantime.

March brings some rest, I think, but in April we have a bit of fun... Apparently there exists a "Hawaiian Highland Festival" nothing to major, but our President wants to organize a group to go down as sort of a "Retreat" for us. Sounds interesting enough, I've never been to Hawaii and I am sure my mom would like to come... she can show me around. In addition to the fun in Hawaii I think the Monday night RSCDS people are putting on a Ball in late April... so really, I have quite the season ahead of me... wow, I'm going to be very busy (but what else is new?)

Back to present time - tonight KQ is coming for tea o'clock... I'm very excited - we haven't done this for a while....

Oh, one more thing - Saturday is Rachel's Birthday Party at my place... all are welcome to come - starts around 8ish... if you don't know where I live, then call me, or email me...

Ciao!

Most Likely.....

Most Likely today will not be a good day.



I'm not going to pretend that everything is well and I am happy, because I am really not, I am really sad and especially today I am feeling rather lonely.

I'm sad because I am reflecting back on all the memories, and the fact that I do not have my best friend - it is truly a melancholy sort of day.

It's in some of you to give

Yeah...it happened again... I got denied... stupid Canadian Blood Services...

The story goes that I've been taking Iron supplements, prescribed by my doctor because I am low in Iron - something CBS knew already... and the funny thing is always tell them that I am taking them and they let me donate... but tonight the nurse was not going to have any of that. She full on denied me because I take Iron.. boo-urns on that.

I shouldn't be mad at her or them... I'm just frustrated because I was all geared up to donate.. I mean it's in me to give right? Wrong.... I guess I'll have to find out a way to boost my Iron sans supplements..

At least I got apple juice and chicken noodle soup.... that was nice of them.

Ciao for now, I'll post again tomorrow.

The Weekend

Ready?.....Here we go...

Friday - not too much happened - went to work, went to work, came home, checked my email, got into bed and started to read my new book.

This is where the "normal / boring" part ends... as I am reading my book (ps, It is about 12:15 AM at this point) there is a sudden and loud rapping at my window - to this I sit up and peer out into the darkness pretty much both scared and annoyed... however being that it was after midnight, in calgary, in november, and my as light was on I could not see who was knocking, but I did hear laughter and I caught a flash of someone's face as a beam from the flashlight they were holding passed over. Needless to say I was not impressed, but as I waited there for something else to happen I recognized the laughter and heard something to the effect of "let's go to the door..." so I got up, opened my back door and there they were laughing so hard they had tears running down their faces and they could hardly stand from the laughter. It was of course Eleni and Katherine stopping by to say hello, but didn't realize that I couldn't see them until after they knocked on the window...... well that and the expression on my face was apparently quite funny.

The weird thing is that I have quite the history of my friends (particularly my co-worker friends) that appear at my house, but yet never seem to make it to the door - they instead watch me from the windows, knocking at them and scaring the bejeezes out of me... great times I tell you, great times!

OK, so onto Saturday. I woke up... had a shower, cleaned house, got dressed, got ready and off I went to drop my car at my mom's, get in Lanster's car with Eleni and off we went to the Military Museums..... Now, those who know me (I seem to say that a lot lately...) know that I LOVE ANYTHING MILITARY!!!!!!! True Story! But, yeah we went, were blown away because it is such a great place... finished inside, played on the tanks outside (yeah, that's right I played on the tanks... the plane was too high up... ) and then off we went to do more stuff - mainly pick up some milk and EGG NOG... mmmmmmmmmmm, in fact I'm drinking some right now!!! And then back to my place for hair and makeup. So there we were going like mad women getting me ready and then my date (aka my mom, yeah I know it sounds kinda lame - but she's the reason I am Scottish and she was great fun) arrived and off to the St. Andrew's Ball I went. I ate, sang, mingled with kilted gentlemen and gowned women.. danced the night away and fell into bed in the wee hours of Sunday morning... wow.... great times!!!

Sunday - Woke up quite late (I was tired from the Ball.. I danced a lot... ) got ready, went to work, we were VERY VERY busy.... and then after I worked I sat through a 3 hour staff meeting - not fun at all..... but at least I didn't have to deal with customers.. anyhoo, I got back home, checked the email again and basically went to bed, exhausted from the weekend and not ready to go to work tomorrow (which was in fact today... did you follow that?) Then it was to bed for me...

I should mention though that I did get a text from D... it seems that her beloved little puppy Momo (who we all love so much) passed away on Sunday... and if you know me (there it is again!) you know that I love puppies and that I am so sad to hear this news. But, if there is a brighter side it could be that Momo has gone to hang out with my puppy Micky.. and several other friends puppies... RIP Momo, you are a well loved puppy dog!

Today as a quick note - a pat on my back if you will... I went to the gym twice, once at 6 am and once at 5... hopefully I can keep this up for a few weeks... yikes!!!!

Alright, that's all for now - I hope you are all well.. and don't forget tomorrow (that's Tuesday) The Unit is on right after NCIS (Tuesday night TV rules!)

Buena Noche!

LISTS

Wow, why have I not heard of this before???? This is me - and for anyone who has seen me in action, they all know that I am a maniac about my lists...

I make them for (well, made actually)

• school
• for work
• for household stuff
• for my travels (this one dates back to High School when Jessica gave me the prettiest handmade journal full of pictures of fantastic places that I would travel to.. she's so creative... )
• for career options
• for errands

Not only do I make them on paper, but I have a constant Tasks lists in my outlook that is always up on my right hand screen (i'm even looking at it right now... it says: Interpol, Dr. Vo, NATO A, NATO H, call N. Ashley, and GTD - David Allen)

I think I may need to hop over to Indigo and pick up the book form of the blog... it looks quite fascinating...

I'll post about the weekend a bit later - it's going to be a long post cause I was quite busy... and I have to get to work, so TTFN (that one's for you Eleni!)

Hasta Luego (It's Spanish week at the office... )

Book of the Week

So we needed something fun for fridays.. and I thought I would share what I'm reading (among a few other books of course)... I think we all need to be a bit more literate.

Here's the write up from the publisher:

On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson''s now historic op-ed, "What I Didn''t Find in Africa," appeared in The New York Times. A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilson''s wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a CIA operative. The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney''s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and the Wilsons'' civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration. Much has been written about the "Valerie Plame" story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now. Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private. And some has been completely false -- distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity.

Valerie Wilson retired from the CIA in January 2006, and now, not only as a citizen but as a wife and mother, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and the sister of a U.S. marine, she sets the record straight, providing an extraordinary account of her training and experiences, and answers many questions that have been asked about her covert status, her responsibilities, and her life. As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valerie''s story to be classified. As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valerie''s own story.


Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power.


So far I love it - it's about being a spy - what's not to like...

Reflections

Last night I spent the evening at home, which is really quite a rarity these days. In my evening home I did end up being rather productive and was able to catch up on some emails and clean my living room - the re-organising of the previous re-organising shall be performed this weekend I think. But I digress, that is not the point of today's post.

The point is that while I was re-reading my blog posts from the beginning (March 2006) I noticed a very scary happening.. it seems that my writing style has slowly evolved into crap. I started out differently than I have ended up, and although I do understand that in fact I have evolved as a person over the last year and a half, my writing style has gotten worse, and not better. I think it may be due to the fact that I am not in school anymore and thus not surrounded by / listening to highly educated people speak about academic topics and consequently my vocabulary and writing style has therefore suffered.

Now, hearing myself say this I am sounded really snarky about my current situation. The fact remains though, that the majority of the people that I have to deal with are not university professors and the conversations do not revolve around academic topics. In a way it is a relief not to have to constantly vamp up my trains of thought in order to impress my profs, but I think that my brain is slowly changing for the worse without the constant barrage of assignments and studying. Perhaps I shall embark on a self study mission, or even take a class long distance or what the heck go back to university... not full time mind you, I don't think I could financially support that. Maybe I can convince job #3 to pay for my continued education - I've started to look into a Masters in Military and Strategic Studies, and hey U of C has a fantastic program and world renowned centre.... it would be applicable right?

In any case, I have forgotten the original reason for this post... I had one more point to make and clearly my memory / ability to retain information has clearly suffered from my lack of learning. If I can remember I shall post it, if not, I think I've written enough for the time being.

Happy Friday!

A Breath of Fresh Air

So this post is going to be somewhat of a pat on the back - I'll just warn you all now in case your not up for that kind of blogging experience...


Let me explain - I had my interview this morning (a very scary interview)- it was suppose to be 2 hours long, it only took about 1 hour and 20 minutes as we went through everything so quickly - yeah! But, what I wanted to tell you all is that after it was finished - he actually told me that:

a) I impressed him - especially when I could quote my old service number after 8 years
b) I answered his questions very well
c) That he is going to recommend me to the higher ups
d) That he had interviewed several (in his words mind you) "mediocre candidates" and that I would be a welcome "Breath of Fresh Air"

and

e) That although I had written my aptitude tests 8 years ago that my scores were well above acceptable and that he was surprised I had scored so high when I was only 17...

And all this on a day I was seriously doubting my abilities, it feels quite nice to be wanted.. not bad Spencer, not bad....

Thanks to all who sent me happy thoughts - it clearly worked!

Graduation Day

Happy Graduation KQ!!!!

It's been quite a ride at the good ol' U of C, but as of today you are finished!

Take it all in, the air, the clouds, the feeling of accomplishment.. this is your day my dear and we are all so proud!!!

Findings

Today was a nice day - I really had a nice day.

I woke up early (for a day off) and popped down to the south to pick up my mom, we ran some errands - to the bank, to get her flu shot, to get a tea, and then went up to the Queen Elizabeth Cemetery to find my Grandpa (see previous post).

My mom hadn't been up to see him for a long long time so she wasn't quite sure where e was exactly, but we knew that the Juno Academy kids had placed Canada flags on all the graves of the soldiers buried there - so we had a place to start. We searched up and down the hills, along the rows and everywhere - to no avail, Grandpa was nowhere to be found.... so after examining each grave stone we turned to the administration office. They thankfully have a listing and we were given his coordinates - he was not near the other soldiers - he was very very far away from where we were looking... go figure! Anyways, we drove to his plot, found his marker, said Hi, cleaned him up, and sat for a bit with him (it was my first time meeting him). It was nice, I do regret not being able to share my life with him - my mom said that he would have liked me - I think that is where I get my affinity for Scotch in fact.....

Afterwards we got some lunch, stopped by the Legion (#264) where I inquired about a membership (yep, I'm gonna join up!) picked up my laundry, did my laundry, went grocery shopping and then I came home, tired but happy. Since I got home however, I've been quite bust re-arranging my living room (Heather is going to kill me....) but I need to make room for my Christmas tree and as we did not have as many seating apparatuses as we have now I am at a loss as to how to configure my living room... I've tried something, but I'm not sure it will work out well... I guess I'll try again on Thursday - with some help from Heather of course.

On a side note, I should mention though something about Saturday night. It was Lanster's Birthday Party which she chose to hold at Limericks. I was driving home so I didn't drink very much, but I did have quite a bit of fun... I got to hang with her non FNF friends - who are hilarious, and I should also mention that of course the FNF crew was there too... good times were had by all and I really did have a great time.. good party Lanster!

Now, in the spirit of cleaning up, and finding things, I've just some across a little piece of paper my Mom gave me a long time ago and it seems to fit the mood... the quote reads..

"Have Faith Even in Despair" Pope Jean Paul II

And so I shall.

Remembrance Day

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.


In memory of my grandfather George Harford Gould.
You fought valiantly through all 6 years of WW II from France, to Italy and North Africa, and although I never did have the chance to meet you, your courage, dedication and patriotism will always be an inspiration to me in whatever I do, military related or otherwise.


RIP Grandpa, I love you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

LANSTER!!!! It's your BIRTHDAY!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And being that we are one in the same person, maybe it's my birthday too!!! Well, technically it is -2 months...

Nevertheless, today is your day and I hope you have a wonderful fabulous BRILLIANT DAY!!!!!

PS - I love Coupling!

Photo of the Day

Just because I am feeling rather nostalgic today I give you a photo of me, in the old Colosseum in El Jem, in Tunisia... where it was warmer than it is in Calgary right now.

Man, I am not ready for winter

22 Minutes Apology to America

An Apology

Canada apologises to the US:

A truly Canadian Apology to the USA, courtesy of Rick Mercer from This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC Television: Hello. I'm Anthony St. George on location here in Washington. On behalf of Canadians everywhere I'd like to offer an apology to the United States of America. We haven't been getting along very well recently and for that, I am truly sorry. I'm sorry we called George Bush a moron. He is a moron, but it wasn't nice of us to point it out. If it's any consolation, the fact that he's a moron shouldn't reflect poorly on the people of America. After all, it's not like you actually elected him. I'm sorry about our softwood lumber. Just because we have more trees than you, doesn't give us the right to sell you lumber that's cheaper and better than your own. It would be like if, well, say you had ten times the television audeince we did and you flood our market with great shows, cheaper than we could produce. I know you'd never do that. I'm sorry we beat you in Olympic hockey. In our defence I guess our excuse would be that our team was much, much, much, much better than yours. As word of apology, please accept all of our NHL teams which, one by one, are going out of business and moving to your fine country. I'm sorry about our waffling on Iraq. I mean, when you're going up against a crazed dictator, you want to have your friends by your side. I realize it took more than two years before you guys pitched in against Hitler, but that was different. Everyone knew he had weapons. I'm sorry we burnt down your White House during the War of 1812. I see you've rebuilt it! It's very nice. I'm sorry for Alan Thicke, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Loverboy, that song from Seriff that ends with a really high-pitched long note. Your beer. I know we had nothing to do with your beer, but we feel your pain. And finally on behalf of all Canadians, I'm sorry that we're constantly apologizing for things in a passive-aggressive way which is really a thinly veiled criticism. I sincerely hope that you're not upset over this. Because we've seen what you do to countries you get upset with. For 22 minutes, I'm Anthony St. George, and I'm sorry.

Shocker

Last night was my "tv" night.. first NCIS comes on at 9, then The Unit at 10... followed by Colin & Justin's Home Heist (if I'm not too tired to watch that is). So as it turns out I raced home from dancing to watch, and being that it is sweeps week I was not dissapointed. NCIS was a good one, Gibbs almost dies - but didn't of course... then came The Unit.

This one was for the record books. Grey was injured pretty badly quite early on in the episode and being that they were stuck in Lebanon (their helicopter was destroyed) and being hunted down by a militia group, the situation soon became very scary. As the espisode ran on Grey got worse, then better and then just as they were loading him into the ambulance with the help of some marines, Williams was shot in the neck and died.... The only freakin' Canadian on the whole show and the friggin' killed him!!

I was super shocked, and I think Matt and Heather were as well. But, wow, quite the night....

Sadly, that was the extent of the excitement for my evening. Dancing was rather lackluster - I was just not understanding... hence why I left early... but I'm still sad about Williams. That really sucks.

Ok, that's all for now - gotta get back to work.

Whata day / weekend

Friday- normally a good day in anyone's book, and at my office it is a bit sweeter with the advent of Fat Friday - a legendary event. This week certainly did not disappoint as Jane made delicious garlic zucchini soup, brought cheese buns from Glamorgan Bakery and even made her famous ginger snaps - quite delicous....

Going backwards a bit, I'll explain how the day was extra special. I picked my mom up in the morning so she could have my car all day - she jumped in and handed my "my breakfast".... love moms they are always so concerned about you... the breakfast turned out to be a brownie - yum! Later on it was Fat Friday and we were all quite satisfied with the aforementioned fare. Then about an hour later I received the yummiest delivery to my desk - Crave cupcakes!!! 6 delicious little gems for me to admire all day (Merci Merci Merci Kristen!!!!) My day has already become 100% better than fabulous... then it was lunch...

We walked over to the mall, went to Indigo, poured over the books for a while and then decided to move on - the way out of the food court area I ran into some guys that I knew worked at Sears so I said my obligatory "Hi!" and tried to leave asap . I wasn't fast enough though - they asked the question I knew they were going to -
"Have you talked to Bowman lately?" an innocent enough question to them, not really what I needed to hear but I responded
"Nope, never" they of course looked quite confused thinking the didn't hear me correctly - so I repeated myself and then it dawned on them and wow did they look unhappy... they even gave me the "OMG I'm so sorry face" - I smiled and walked away... trying to forget the encounter... yikes!

Back at work I was working on clearing my desk for the weekend and then our Law firm decided to have a reverse draw to raffle off some "mysterious" prizes... turns out there were 6 prizes, I won one of them - a 1.14 L bottle of Tanqueray Gin - which is currently sitting on my coffee table in all it's glory - I'm very pleased which I am sure we all knew I would be. I think I'll save it for Rachel's 25th birthday party chez moi on the 24th... Ps - come on over if ya like, we are getting started around 8, call me or drop an email if you don't know the address.

So that was my day in a nut shell:
- a brownie for breakfast
- yummy Fat Friday
- Crave Cupcakes
- meeting Cam's old work buddies at the mall, trying not to be upset in a public place
- winning a large bottle of Gin for my troubles

Friday night wasn't really anything special, but I did make it home for bed before midnight which was probably a good thing seeing how I had 3 large government exams to write the next day at 8 am...


Saturday

• woke up very early,
  
• picked up KQ,
  
• went to the University,
• waited for an eternity for the ridiculous government reps to hand out and proctor a very stupid exam (x3),
  
• grimaced whilst said government rep embarrassed the crap out of herself by using words like "you's all" whilst speaking to a large lecture theatre of university graduates and barely being able to read directions outloud (also x3).
  
• Ate lunch at the Den (a nice reminder of my uni days),
  
• showered
• changed
  
• raced down south to catch the Flames game w/ Eleni and Denise,
  
• laughed all night with E$ and Mace
  
• drove home
• chatted with Heather and Matt
• collapsed into bed smiling that we got to change our clocks back an hour

Sunday (thus far)

• woke up late
• ate a cupcake (mmmmmm)
• ate different pancake things that Heather made (thanks!!)
• hung out and played on my computer, chatted with Heather and Matt
• went to the Christmas Bazaar at the Scandinavian Centre - cute things
• went to the Farmers Market (loads of yummy things)
• went to Safeway (for the things that I couldn't get at the market)
• chatted with funny Australian in line when he pointed out the health difference that he was buying Franks Red Hot and 4 pizzas whereas I had chickpeas, beets, skim milk, and sauerkraut, I however pointed out that in fact his dinner was bound to be far more delicious than mine
• came home, realized my apartment is very messy and promptly turned on my computer to blog instead of cleaning.

K, that's all for now, I've procrastinated enough, time to clean

Ciao!



-

My mother?

Yesterday at work as I bundled up to stave off the cold front that was engulfing my office (it was seriously freezing in here) I decided that I felt somewhat like the Staypuff marshmellow man as I had a long sleeved shirt, a polar fleece vest, a jacket and a scarf on. But the funny thing was when I examined my pockets... they were full of stuff it made me even puffier.... much to my dismay - these objects made up the contents of my pockets: kleenex (I have a raging cold), tic tacs and clinique lipstick... Upon seeing what I indeed had in my pocket the thought that I've become my mother suddenly dawned on me... wow, I am my mother... how's that for a shocker?

In other news....It's the 2nd of November and I've already cracked open the christmas music. Last night on my way over to KQ's for a very productive study session I popped in the latest and greatest in Christmas music... Chrsitmas Around the World - a 3 CD collaboration including Christmas favourites from Ireland/Scotland, Italy, the US and England/ Germany. So far I've just listened to the Irish / Scottish one (of course I did this one first) and I've been quite pleased. Tonight maybe I'll switch over to Italian for fun - who knows?

What else to tell you... Big test tomorrowm, well 3 tests actually..... and we need to ace this sucker... KQ and I should in fact do well though, I mean we changed a tire all by ourselves so it seems just as plausible that we should be able to write a freakin' government test just as easily - right?

On Sunday I found a Christmas Bazaar at the Scandnavian Centre. I don't think I can remember the last time that I went to a Chrsitmas Bazaar, let alone one at a Scandanavian Centre - so I think I shall go. Maybe I'll join the Centre and revisit my Norweigan roots... and just maybe I'll get some christmas shopping done... or wait - I'll leave that for VEGAS!!!!

PS - I leave in 35 days, 23 hours, 6 minutes and 18 seconds

Booyah!!!

KQ and I are friggin' geniuses... we changed her tire all by ourselves and with style, in full work clothes get up and complete with jewelry I might add.

I do believe that we are wicked awesome and deserve a medal of some kind.

Bravo KQ - you are one classy and mighty impressive broad... and that's classy with a "C"........

21 December 2012

I came across a book today that reminded me of something that I learned about somewhere in my Spanish stuff. It seems as though 21 December 2012 is some sort of Apocalypse according to the Mayans - or at the very least the day the stars change drastically.
Does anyone else remember hearing about this?
Can anyone else shed any light on this topic?
Am I losing my mind?

Weekend Update

Ah monday - whata day... can we all tell that I am uber pleased to be back at work??? But, I shall change my mood around and reflect on the weekend events. Friday was a write off, I was out of the house and working all day thus nothing fun happened. And, really after the excitement of seeing Diana Gabaldon - well nothing can compare!

Right, back to the weekend... Saturday was busy again - working during the day and then off to Denise's for a night of girl movies (aka 10 hour long BBC mini series) and junk food. Always a great time, always a long night - but I always go home happy and talked out. Denise and I seem to have this thing where we can talk for hours on end - it's just fantastic! I remember when I flew home from France for the week to surprise people and then returned to Paris with Denise for a week long trip - we took in Paris, Brussels, Ghent, Brugge and Antwerp - and really we had the best time ever. I think I need to go back ... yikes, I'm off topic again...

Saturday night, ate vietnamese, watched the end of Berkely Square, got home around 2 am and fell into bed. Sunday I woke up late of course - and cleaned up a bit, made myself some yummy french toast - I friggin' love french toast - and sort of hung around cleaning, organizing - watching Good Eats - and a new show - In Search of Perfection with Heston Blumenthal.. a cool scientific sort of cooking show... basically the theme tune is addictive and I like Science so ther ya go.

Ok - that's about it for now... Ciao!

Diana in all her glory

I just got home, and yes I am already in my PJs - you know me so well - and of course I know that we all had this day marked on our calendars for ages... but Diana Gabaldon was speaking tonight at the Vertigo theatre. I went because I am engrossed in her novels - all of them - and of course mildly obsessed with her incredibly complex characters - namely Jamie and Claire.....

On a side note - for those of you who have no clue what I am talking about - shame on you - but really, I am referring to the Outlander series of books that Diana has written. At present there are 6 books of Jamie and Claire, with a confirmed 2 more (I found that out tonight for certain) and 2 books of Lord John Grey with 3 more "short stories" due out in 5 weeks also about Lord John.

Back on the main topic though - tonight she spoke to a very large crowd, and she was wonderful. So witty and funny - a very impressive public speaker but in a past life she was a university professor and would speak to large lecture theatres of students about human physiology. Yep, her background is in no way connected to the books .. in fact she has a BSc in Zoology, a MSc in Marine Biology, and a PhD in Ecology - but the fact remains, she can really work a crowd and work it well. She had us laughing hysterically about the origins of writing Outlander and how she came about the beloved characters of Jamie, Claire, Jenny, Murtagh etc etc... ahh the memories....

Seriously.. I am so ADD tonight, what is wrong with me???

Sorry - She continued her story about Outlander, about how busy her life was when she started it at the age of 35, while all 3 children were under the age of 6, while she was an assistant professor at a university, while she wrote and published a quarterly scientific journal about using computers (remember this was the late 80's) for scientific research and while she also wrote freelance for a number of other computer magazines - that's right she did all of this at the same time... AND her husband was setting up his own business.... how's that for multitasking???

After the story of Outlander she read an excerpt from her 7th book - much to our delight... and I won't even be embarrassed to admit - I was enthralled... page after page she held our complete attention... and she even did a scottish accent... wicked!

After that we did a question and answer period - really good questions - my favourite was of course the one in reference to the movie deal she is working on - I think it needs to be a years long series myself but I digress... the movie deal is upcoming and then of course there is another Outlander book on the way - she says she will be finished writing it by the end of the next year (that's 2008) and then of course its out for publishing so it might take another year...ughhhhh....... I certainly cannot wait that long, but I suppose I must.

When it was finished we were all heading out to the lobby and guess who I ran into???

DIANA - I got to hold open the door for her, in fact I think I touched her writing hand (yikes I sound like a stalker), and she looked right at me, said "Wow, quite a crowd tonight" to which I thoughtfully replied "Yes, there certainly is" and then I let her pass with a smile - that was my brush with fame - and I loved it... she is so great, and with everything she has accomplished in her life, I am inspired... really I am - but from this mess of a post I am sure you cannot see it...

Oh, another funny question that came up was about Gerard Butler and if he would be suitable to play Jamie in the film version ... Diana said her was close - and that in itself says quite a bit! (Lanster, Leni, and Rachel - that was for you... and Denise, well I know you don't know Jamie yet but I know you love Gerard so that was for you too!)

More about that terrifying video

In the last few hours since I watched that video I have an opportunity to really think about what I do and what I can do to lessen the impact I have on the earth... yeah I know I sound all hippie like but really, I think this is warranted....I think I'll formulate my thoughts in point form - as it is a bit easier

• I am the lights nazi at home, meaning I usually only have one light on at one time... ask Heather - she'll attest that the first thing I do is walk around turning off the lights in the house... my mom drilled this into my head when I was young - much like she did with the whole table manners thing....

• My house is always chilly, if not cold - I like (and I say this from a environmental and financial point of vue and not from a comfort one) my house to be about a balmy 15 degrees... max maybe 20... my point being is that this way I can use less natural gas and thus help to not contribute to global warming

• My car is tiny.. the smallest of all my friends... and since I drive across town to work (I know, that sucks) I need something that is quite fuel efficient and since my tank of gas usually costs $35 I think I've accomplished that goal - apart from owning a hybrid of course

• I recycle everything I can... again ask Heather - our recycling bins are always overflowing thus making the storage room messy as anything.....

Well I guess that is it for now.. I can't think of anything else I do, but I do think I need to step it up a notch... any suggestions?

Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

How lucky do you feel?

YIKES!!!

JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE

Ma chère KQ, I hope your day is extra special because you certainly are extra special... Joyeux Anniversaire et Feliz Cumpleaños Chica...

Love you heaps and heaps,

Lady S