Dear $410 boots,

I love you too. But you have to understand that we can't be together right now. You are in Toronto, and I am in SJ. I just spent thousands of dollars on my lawn, my dishwasher & washer need repair, and I can't afford to bring you here to meet my feet.

Maybe someday...

Happy Dishwasher Day

to Jenn & Stew, who pick up their new dishwasher tonight. I get to pick up a truck from Dad and drive it for them so we can pick it up at Sears. Memories of George! Except this will likely be a 1/2 ton.

It's not such a happy dishwasher day for me, however. My dishwasher is still sitting, broken, in my kitchen. I called on Tuesday to schedule a service call, and they can't come until Friday. I've been on a dish rationing system since I heard that. I did do one batch of dishes by hand [shudder] and ended up with water all over me. I hate shallow sinks. When I build my own house, I am getting the deepest sink I can find.

The repair centre called me this morning to tell me they were having problems validating the extended warranty on my washer. Which I had bought with my ex and are in his name, but under my phone number. Oh please don't let me have to get in touch with him about this... he hasn't spoken to me since my birthday last year. So I call the warranty people, and they helped me out and authorized the work [phew]. Crisis averted there.

Work has been INSANE this week, what with my being away last week. I have 3 pages of things that have come up in the last few days that need my attention.

Good news is that I asked my boss for time off on Halloween, so I can spend the day with John while he is here. I also was approved for the week in February I wanted so I can go to California. Now all that's left is getting the ticket, which I should do soon.

My lawn is growing away. Thankfully it's been wet enough that I haven't done too much with the sprinker. I will prob have to put it on this weekend though, supposed to be sunny. I called the landscaper and they recommended we let it go for now. If there are any more heavy rains it will just wash out again. If we let it grow around the washout, at least there will be grass nearby to help hold things together. Sounds like a plan. I also signed up for fertilizer and lime application next month. I will gladly pay someone else to deal with that, it is not that expensive and means I don't have to buy materials/tools.

The continuing saga of the moldy basement

I borrowed the dehumidifier from Jenn & Stew, and my Dad also brought his down from the cottage. They are filling up about every 12h. That is one moist basement I have down there.

I headed to Costco yesterday after I finished work, with a work friend to help lift the dehumidifier I was going to buy. We get there, and all I can find is the demo unit with a price tag on it. It's missing a wheel, and the remote is nowhere to be found. I ask if there are any more, but none until the end of October, nor was there a discount on the floor model. Well, crap. I spent the rest of the evening running around Moncton looking for the same/similar model, thinking Moncton, hub of NB, would have more selection than SJ. No such luck. Every store I went into, when I asked for a dehumidifier, the clerk gave me a look and said I don't know if we have any left. Apparently they are a popular item right now. Home Depot didn't have anything big enough. Canadian Tire in Moncton was helpful, but didn't have the item.

I came home from Moncton and went back online to check how long it would take to get here if I bought it from costco.ca (7-10 business days - too long). I looked again at canadiantire.ca and saw you could check stock in-store. It turns out the exact model I needed was down the street at my friendly neighborhood Canadian Tire West. They got my business this morning by having what I needed in stock, when I needed it. Go West Side! So the nice man took the box out to my car, and it is currently sitting in my car as it is too heavy for me to lift out. Hopefully I can convince Stew & Chris to give me a hand later tonight after dishwasher duty is over.

I may dub this new dehumidifier I bought "R2". It's on wheels, and comes with a remote! I wonder if it will also fill the woodstove for me... hope there's a button on it for that.

Let's recap, shall we?

In the continuing saga of "things that have gone wrong since I got home":

• Due to the heavy rains while I was away, my new lawn has washed-out areas.
  
• Due to my inability to use a sprinkler, I think I made it worse
• Due to my inability to use a sprinkler, I had an extra 2 showers yesterday. I am considering skipping the bathroom shower in the morning and just taking it in the backyard when I turn the sprinkler on.
• Due to the excess moisture in my basement, I now have mold. Thankfully Jenn and Stew have lent me their dehumidifier until I am able to get to Costco on Wednesday to buy my own, for $80 less than Canadian Tire. I am trying to look at this in a positive light by appealing to my shopping side.
• Due to the fact that I am incredibly lazy at flossing, the dentist told me this morning that I have a cavity and have to go back next week for a filling.
• Due to the fact that I attract bad luck, my dishwasher is sitting with a pile of water in the bottom of it that won't drain. I can't find anything stuck and there is a seal that looks broken. Since I didn't buy the dishwasher, I am not sure if it is under an extended warranty, but I vaguely remember the previous owner telling me that it was. I dug out the documentation she left me, but it is just the user manual. The manual does have the repair company's phone number written on it though, which leads me to believe that they've called about it before. If so, great, should be on file. If not, crap, that means I have to call Leon's, and I am not a huge fan of Leon's.

Welcome home.

Just when you think you're caught up

So I've been cleaning up the house a bit since I've been back. Unpacking led me to clean out the floor of my bedroom closet. By clean out, I mean stick stuff in a box and carry it to the basement.

While I was in the basement, I walked over to my bookshelves to put a couple of books on them... what's that? Ah crap. Mold. F***. From the Great Flood of '05, the shelves of the bookcases came into contact with floodwater.

I bet there's also mold at the bottom of the stairs, from when the carpet got wet and I couldn't do anything about it... yup.

[huge sigh]

I figured this would happen at the bottom of the stairs. Wasn't planning on the bookshelves getting moldy though, so now I have to trash them. Dammit. That really blows, but at least they can be thrown out and that's that.

So what do I do about the bottom of the stairs? I guess the carpet and baseboard will have to be ripped up and replaced. At least I'm lucky in that this is the only area with carpet, and I believe the only area with mold.

I will have to go dehumidifier shopping this week. I guess the wood in the basement is what brought in even more moisture... Dad told me I should get a dehumidifier last year, but I made it through ok without one. Guess not anymore.

Parts of my lawn got washed out by the huge amount of rain we had while I was away. I have to call the landscaper tomorrow and let them know. I attempted to water the lawn today with my new hose & sprinkler. I think I got most of the sprinkling. Then it started drenching it too much... I am just a disaster when it comes to this outside stuff.

I am now off to research dehumidifiers... glad I kept that subscription to Consumer Reports.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yay, it's my birthday!!!!!!!

Hope everyone can make it over to my place tonight for some karaoke.

I made it home safe & sound last night, but man, what a long day. I got up at 8am (4 Pacific) and arrived in SJ at 11:30pm.

So karaoke at my place tonight, come on over after work. I think I will treat myself to some Chinese food at China Kitchen... bring on the BBQ spareribs :)


Because it's my birthday and I get to do whatever I want, here are some pics of birthdays past. My Photoshop skills are limited to cropping, so these don't look that great, but at least you can have a laugh :)




Here's me at my first birthday. Back when I was still in my "pose for the camera" stage.








This must be my 2nd birthday, because that's not my house. We moved between my 2nd & 3rd birthdays.












I have no idea why I have this expression on my face but it's funny! This is my 3rd birthday, the first of many in our new house.
















This is me on my 5th birthday, holding my 5 day old little brother. He was still little at the time, now he's a foot taller than me :)

Looks like some pen ink rubbed off onto this pic too. I am going to have to acquire some more Photoshop skills :)

Birthday Karaoke on Friday

I'm having some issues sending email from here to certain domains, so a blog entry is going to have to do.

In case you didn't notice it in my list of events, karaoke is going to be held at my place on Friday night as part of the birthday extravaganza weekend. I have the day off, so whenever people want to show up is cool with me (i.e., if you want to come over straight from work, that's cool). It's supposed to rain from what I see in the forecast, so that excludes BBQ, so I guess we'll have to come up with something else. Since I've had a long day at the conference, I can't work my brain enough to come up with any decent suggestions. Figure that out later.

Don't bring presents, just bring yourself. Hope to see you all on Friday :)

So the desert is hot

Before I forget, here is the view from my room. It is one of the holes of the golf course, where they hold a PGA tournament every year:
Not too shabby :)

Friday started out with my waking up around 2:30am, which is about on par with when I start to wake up at home for work, so that was expected. Checked my Blackberry for email, had a couple already. Made myself go back to sleep and woke up once again, but finally got up at 8:30. That's some good quality sleeping in, especially since I went to bed at 10.

After first stopping for some decent maps, John picked me up and we needed some breakfast. Now, bear in mind that though I had heard spectacular things about Krispy Kreme, I had never actually had any donuts from there, so this was my first experience. We had a nice server who after finding out I was from Canada gave me a Krispy Kreme mug to go along with my donut purchase. My first donut of choice was a chocolate dip... I have a new obsession. It melted in my mouth it was so good. I won't be able to eat crappy Tims donuts anymore after that, wow. This may become breakfast for the rest of the week!! We each had 2 donuts and then left the rest for later (amazingly they survived the heat in the car; very resilient, these donuts.)

Upon leaving there, I snapped a pic this "car", which appears to be missing a vital part


We left Krispy Kreme and headed further out of the city towards Saguaro National Park. We first made a stop at the International Wildlife Museum, or as we later found out its "true" name, the Dead Animal Museum. Lots of taxidermy and Supercroc!

We left the museum and headed towards the actual National Park, but the normal road to access the park was closed so we were left to take an alternate route. We stopped at the Vistors' Centre and went to pay the park entrance fee. We stopped to talk to one of the staff to get a trail map because we intended on walking a trail or two. He asked if we lived closer to any other national parks because it would be cheaper to get an annual park pass, but we said no, since John doesn't live close and I certainly don't because I'm from Canada. He asked me what part, and I said the East Coast (not figuring anyone here has any idea.) He said try me, so I told him New Brunswick, and then he said something about Fredericton, and I asked where he was from: get this.... he said Bangor!!! Of all places, I ran into someone from Bangor, can you believe that?!?! So we had a nice chat about NS, PEI, NB and Bar Harbor/Yarmouth. Unreal.

We headed out to the first trail, armed with lots of water, sunscreen, hats and a crazy idea that we could walk in 38 degree heat. By the end of it I thought I might die, and at one point in my heat-induced delirium I actually uttered the words: "I wish I had snow right now." Scary. I think I went insane there for a minute.

We did manage to do the whole trail and saw great scenery such as this:



Standing there looking at miles of cacti, and no tall trees like I am used to, is quite a sight to behold. I wasn't expecting to see the huge dichotomy of flat desert with tall mountains in the immediate horizon. The saguaro cacti are everywhere here, they really are the tallest vegetation around. It just seemed so weird to me, especially thinking of the tall evergreen and deciduous trees right in my backyard.

On our way back from the park, we saw this sign on the road. After almost croaking from the heat, and being out in the desert, this has to be one of the weirdest sights to behold:

"Ice forms on bridge first" Who knew?

Friday evening was spent tracking down some much needed Halloween decorations. Ok, well, maybe not "needed" but definitely desired :) Target was a disappointment for Halloween, unlike last year. I did happen to stop by Wal-Mart to look for karaoke CDs (nothing we didn't already see in Portland) and picked up some stuff for Halloween. I nabbed 2 sets of outdoor blacklights (like outdoor xmas lights), some candles for jack o'lanterns, 2 more carving kits, the new power saw for carving (can't wait to try that one!!!) So a decent haul this time around thanks to Wal-Mart.

I also hit Costco, where I picked up a book (Shopaholic & Sister) and drooled over some really nice xmas ornaments that I couldn't take back with me. I then stumbled on a really nice pillow, agonized over whether to buy it b/c it was $35 US. Walked back & forth down the aisle a couple of times, then gave in.

After that we weren't feeling up to the task of karaoke, I had overeaten at supper and wasn't feeling so great. We stayed in and watched some TV. I also got to open my birthday present - a beautiful crucifix necklace in white gold with a sapphire in the middle. I absolutely love it.

Saturday was a pretty slow day really. Did a little more shopping around, and after sleeping on the new pillow, I decided it wasn't worth $35 and took it back. Both of us were recovering from either not enough sleep or time zone issues, so we ended up napping and missing church. Thankfully I did manage to wake up in time for the meet & greet, so I headed there and saw lots of familiar faces and met some new people to mark the start of the conference.

Sunday morning was tough as we had to part... it was hard. I had the conference to distract me and it was full of info. I met another customer from Ohio and I think I made his day by discussing parts of how I do my job, and even gave him a demo of some reporting I do after bringing my laptop down to the conference. Also had a nice dinner with my main support guy, it was nice to sit and chat with him one on one. After that, I came back to my room to finally start to write some emails back to people, when my co-workers came along and coaxed me down to the pool/jacuzzi, so I gave in for a bit.

So all in all a great time so far. I am really looking forward to making plans for future visits with John and spending more time together. :)

Monday ends up with my having a good chunk of the day to myself, so I hope to get some more shopping in. And now that it is the equivalent of 4am at home, I think it's time to go to bed!

Enquiring minds want to know

So yes, I am in Tucson, AZ. It's 9:40pm (1:40am Atlantic) and my eyes are glazing over from being so tired, but I know you people will be sending me a zillion emails if I don't talk about my first day here.

Got up at 3:30am to go to the airport. Stupid AC ticket agent said I needed to get Tucson boarding pass in Denver, whereas my co-worker got her pass from another agent 2 seats away. Apparently not all ticketing agents are the same.

In Toronto I got searched, love having them go through all of my delicates. Great.

Managed to sleep on most of the flights, except the Denver-Tucson flight because I wanted to see the Grand Canyon, which I did. It doesn't look quite as grand from that far up but I am sure that it is in person.

Checked in at the hotel, pretty swanky. Will take some pics tomorrow. My room overlooks either one of the greens of the golf course or a practice green, I didn't look at it long enough to see.

[when are you going to get to the part about the date, already????] Ok, ok!

We met up around 4:30, he picked me up at the hotel and we headed to Olive Garden for dinner. Both a little too nervous to eat all of our meals, but we had a great time talking and laughing. I think I made the table next to us glance over at my sometimes-loud laughter. Oh well :)

We then decided to get me back to the hotel because it was late and even with naps I'd had a pretty long day. We then proceeded to take every street in North Tucson known to man in order to get back to my resort... if I'd received those maps like I'd ordered, we wouldn't have had that problem... stupid maps!!! Anyway, we had a lot of laughs trying to get out of going around in circles. I had a great time tonight and am looking forward to the rest of the weekend :)

Tomorrow we're heading to Saguaro National Park, where I'll be sure to make numerous Wile E. Coyote references at all the cacti. Karaoke may be in the works for tomorrow night as well... after we get an official map of the city :)

Today in the NFL...

Now I really look different compared to the neighbors...

Possible new home for the New Orleans Saints? No, wait, it's my backyard...


Just look at the badminton court potential!




Holy crap, do I ever have a lot of lawn to mow. Thankfully I should only have to do it once or twice before it gets too cold.

Highlight of my day, thus far

I scored a free labelmaker! Used, but looks new to me. Nice one too, takes 6-18mm tape. Woo-hoo!

You asked for it

Monday morning again and I get to look back upon the weekend that was.

Last post saw me having a relatively calm Thursday morning, hoping the afternoon would be just as calm... and through that tempting of fate my afternoon exploded. Enough said.

Thursday night I met up with Cyn for some supper at Swiss Chalet, and then some Suzy-made eclairs at Opera. Very yummy all around, especially the eclair - delicious. It was great to hang out with Cyn and have some laughs, pondering over the craziness of Roomie.

Friday was another day of work and then on to pick up Cyn and go to karaoke. Yes, we do have a problem. We pretty much owned the bar again and the list was pretty short, so a lot of songs were sung. I had been out of practice, so I found myself off until about my 4th song. I stuck to songs I'd done before for the most part, in order to get some practice in for a night of karaoke in Tucson. The short list did allow me to stick in a couple of new songs, so I picked a Heart tune to try out, and was then challenged by Suzy to do a 70s Heart tune (Crazy On You). Not like I didn't know every nuance of the song, so why not? Much fun!

We've decided that 2nd karaoke has too much country and a bad sound system, so we went in search of another place to sing. No luck on that front for a Friday night. We ended up going to Sobeys so Jenn could get some groceries, and then I dropped Cyn and Jenn off and came home.

I got a call Friday night from my co-worker, who said she'd be able to go over the border for me and check the mailbox for the maps of Tucson I had ordered. Excellent, don't have to drive down myself. With the Portland shopping trip not so long ago, I didn't really have a reason to go down there. She called later on Saturday and said they weren't there... argh! Glad I didn't drive down there for nothing, but I had to call this morning and request a credit. So much for planning ahead.

Saturday morning now being free, I was able to sleep in and then do some IMing. Headed off to my hair appointment, realizing I had forgotten my collection envelope for church. What I should have done after leaving the salon was go home to get the envelope, but instead I headed to Wal-Mart to get something. Realized by the time I pulled into Wal-Mart that I was going to be late for church because I still had to go home and get the envelope. Ran into T-L and Van, who saw me looking a little frazzled after knowing I was running late, but I stopped to talk to them anyway. Grabbed the thing I needed, then proceeded to the checkout. She rang up the item and I didn't notice it was overpriced until after I saw the receipt - came up as 12.97 instead of 9.97. Then had to go through the whole calling down to dept, going over to service desk for adjustment... the cashier was great about it, it was just that I was already running late and I am too cheap to let something like that go. Drove home, grabbed the envelope, and snuck into church during the Glory to God.

After church I saw my aunt, uncle and cousins and they stopped to chat, which was nice. Hadn't seen them since June. They've been spending most every weekend at their cottage in Charlotte Co. Got home from church and had some BBQ for supper, then spent the rest of the night on IM and plotzing over a music project that saw me downloading songs for a cd I was making for someone, that has now turned into more of a 2 cd set and is more for me now than anyone else... guess I got a little too excited about it and have now claimed it partially for myself. I'll make 2 copies :)

Sunday was a busy day, I had to get laundry done and start digging out the suitcases to begin packing. Also wasn't physically feeling all that well, it had been a stressful week, I'd been slack in walking and my body was not liking the fact that I wasn't getting enough exercise. The sight of suitcases also did not do much for my state. While I have done plenty of traveling in my life, I dislike it a lot. I like being in new places, and going home, but I hate the "getting there" portion of a trip. Whether it be by plane or by car, the getting there always seems to take forever and is very tiring despite the fact that you're just sitting around. My body also apparently knows when I'm about to leave town, and decides to do a bit of churning. I don't have any fears of flying or driving, it's just this weird psychosomatic thing I have. Now that I am sitting here thinking about it again, stomach is already churning. [sigh]

Packing is always difficult, but I am finding this trip more of a challenge than normal. In last year's hot locale of San Antonio, I realized quickly that I hadn't brought enough clothes. Sure, you can pack light and only bring a couple of each item. Problem is, unless you want to spend the money, you can't do laundry while you're away, and in a hot place you're only going to get one wear out of any given outfit. That means this year I have to pack more clothes, which means larger suitcases and more heavy lifting. 2 suitcases, a carry-on and a laptop. I just can't pack light this time. Not if I want to bring anything back!

I gave Lisa & Anthony a call and dropped by their place to pick up Lisa's karaoke gear for the big birthday karaoke weekend (email coming soon). Have a great trip to Vienna you two! Can't wait to see the pictures.

Spent the rest of Sunday night IMing with a couple of people and watching the Colts vs Ravens. I joined a NFL pool again this year, no money involved this time. I am currently in a tie for 3rd, one point behind the 2 leaders, which is pretty cool. May not stay there during the season, but if I can have some good weeks I'll be happy. Having been out of the football loop last year, basically only watching the Superbowl and that's it, I feel a little rusty.

This week will be tough, trying to pack and get organized, making sure everything pressing is done before I go. That includes bridesmaid dress shopping. I had an email from the bride on Friday night, and she has bought her dress and the maid of honor has ordered hers, all in one afternoon. Now the panic is on for me to get to the shop, try some things on and get it ordered. Pretty much the only time I can do this before I go is Wednesday night, because that's when the bridal salon is open in the evening. At least I know the designer and color, I just need to pick a style, and make sure it can get here in time so I can still have time for alterations if I need them.

Gettng more and more nervous as the days get closer and closer... more on that later.

A better day today

Feeling a lot fewer urges to kill today, which is good.

I was supposed to go to a movie with Jenn last night, but she had to cancel and I also had a staff meeting to attend that had the potential to run overtime. By the end of the staff meeting, I was so exhausted that I decided I wouldn't stay late and get a bit more work done. I went home, did a few things around the house, and was in bed shortly after 8pm. Slept on & off, but for the most part got about 10h of solid sleep, and boy did I ever need it.

So far today has been relatively calm. I feel better, and there are also fewer crazy problems popping up. [knock on wood]

Tonight I am headed to supper with Cyn, who is in town this week. She still hasn't seen my house, so I am looking forward to giving her the 50 cent tour.

From yesterday's rantings and ravings about my neighbor, you should have been able to guess that they have begun the installation of the lawn. The landscaper showed up yesterday morning and began dumping the topsoil and preparing for the hydroseeding. Dad called in the afternoon with some news about how the original builder of my house apparently buried stumps and other crap underground, and that was preventing water from draining properly, so he called to suggest I let them fix it now rather than get into trouble later, and I most certainly agreed to that. By the time I left this morning, they were already in my yard working away again. So things are moving right along on my lawn, and while I really won't see any of the positives until next spring, at least I will have a full spring/summer next year to enjoy it. With the weather a little cooler (and hopefully more wet) this month, that should also help prevent my lawn from burning out until the snow/cold hits.

I really do appreciate the offers of help from 2 blog entries ago, and I may be taking you guys up on some help painting the porch. It does need to be done before winter, perhaps once I get back from Tucson. Speaking of which, I leave a week from today. Time flies when you're having fun (and even when you're not.)

On tap for this weekend will be my return to karaoke, since I had to miss last week. Need to brush up if I have any hope of checking out the Margarita Bay club (which has karaoke EVERY night, btw - Jenn, can you imagine? Even that would be too much for us though!!) So no 80s bar for me this year, but I will substitute with karaoke.

Lunchtime for me, so I will eat, go for a walk, and hope the rest of the day brings a comparable level of calmness as this morning.

Look, jerk

I swear, when I finally do get a "hubby", I am going to send him over to your yard every f***ing time you're out in it, complaining ad nauseum about the City.

I don't care if you got flooded last year - so did I. I'm paying these people to install my lawn, not sit and listen to your stupid sob story. The City is NOT coming back to fix the ditch, they're DONE. Stop running over to my yard every time you see heavy equipment in it. This is my property and it's none of your f***ing business what I do on it.

I am thisclose to putting up a fence to keep your sorry ass out of my face. You drive a truck for a local dry cleaner, why in hell are you home at 2pm anyway? Go to work, jackass!!!!!!!!!

In a state

I am in a state today, just having another one of those days. Started the morning off at work with an unexpected problem, the person who was helping me was also having a rotten day, but we did get the issue figured out. Then another huge problem that was a service provider’s fault. Then mysterious PC problems of a co-worker that suddenly fixed themselves… argh. I didn’t start my regular work until later than I had intended because of firefighting.

At lunch, I came home to see Dad and how the retaining wall was coming along. He had gone out to get more caps, and I thought he was going to get patio stones for the ground by the door as well, from the same place as he got the bricks for the wall, but apparently he didn’t have that same thought. That left me to take a brick down to Home Hardware and try to find something that would complement it. I think I found a decent one, a red, but a bland red as opposed to a bright red. The brick has flecks of red in it, so I think it will work. At this point I don’t care anymore, which is sad to say, but I don’t.

I am tired of making decisions for this house by myself, carrying heavy bricks, trying to decide on landscaping… it’s got me overwhelmed. I love my house, I really do. But the little blonde girl just can’t do it on her own. The deck needs waterseal, the porch should be painted before winter, the lawn is going in on Friday or Monday... the maintenance side of homeownership is not much fun for a short, weak woman. Yeah, I can drive a truck with the best of them. I could even plow my driveway if I needed to. But when it comes to heavy lifting, or tall things, or fixing things, I have problems. I think I am going to have to start calling in favours from my younger brother, who comes over periodically to do his laundry. That will at least take care of the tall things issue.

The fact that I can’t make decisions to save my life only compounds things. Trying to decide on a simple patio stone not only left me frustrated, but I somehow also managed to scrape myself. [sigh]

Had to go back over to my grandfather’s house to work on his PC again tonight. Still didn’t get everything accomplished, nor could I find any problems with it like what my aunt was describing. ARGH! It looks fine to me, and it works when I’m there… as does every PC, apparently.

Had a few errands to do down at the mall, so spent time running around there and finally got home. T-L called and said she had gotten some pics back, and I had a cd for her, so she would drop by after work. Ok, cool. In the meantime, I had gotten some fresh pork chops, and I dug potatoes from the garden while I was at my grandfather’s house, so there’s supper. Started the BBQ, put on the potatoes. Went back to check on it, about to put on pork chop… cold. Great. Out of gas. ARGH. I hate filling the tank, because it is so heavy when it’s full that I can barely carry it. In the end I said screw it, guess I’ll have chips for supper and my pork chop will just be very well marinated for tomorrow night… oh, wait, I have a staff meeting tomorrow for 2h after work... ARGH.

T-L and Van came over, tried to show them the pics off the laptop I had home… wouldn’t load. Come on!

Great, I just ran something for work, and VPN kicked me out. Dammit!!! Have no idea how much it copied, but don’t really feel like copying it again… going to have to wait until tomorrow.

So this has just not been my day. Things are turning against me today, including my stupid tendency of getting cold sores when stressed, so now I both look and feel like a mess. Thankfully tomorrow is another day.

The Big Secret

...I've been keeping is that T-L's wedding shower was really a wedding reception. She and Van were married at 4pm on Saturday, with a very few number of people being let in on the secret.

So I've known about this wedding for months now and couldn't talk about it with anyone. Was driving me crazy!! But I did promise to keep the secret and I did so successfully. I actually threatened to bring my laptop and blog about it immediately after the wedding, but I also served as a bit of a photographer since they did not hire one. 160 pictures later, I think there are some pretty nice ones in there, the only drawback being that I don't have the greatest of digital cameras. But that's what Photoshop is for!

With the maid of honor being in Alberta and then unable to make the wedding due to health issues, I stepped up where I could to help out, especially since there weren't many people "in the know." I really wanted to help wherever I could... I've been in so many weddings that I don't know what it's like to just be a spectator :)

I had gone to one dress fitting with T-L, and at the time saw that she was wearing open-toed shoes, and asked if she was getting a pedicure, but she apparently hadn't thought that much about it. I thought, hey, why don't I treat her to a pedicure as part of her wedding present? So I took Friday afternoon off, having booked us in, and her sister joined us as well. What a great time we had!! T-L's sister was enjoying it so much she almost fell asleep. T-L loved the chairs, which leaned back while they worked on your feet... if anyone is still looking for a wedding present for her, might I suggest one of those chairs, LOL!!! I apparently have the softest feet the aestheticians have seen, as I was the talk of the pedicure room for my baby-soft feet. I owe it all to socks!!! I am notorious for my love of socks, and rarely wear bare feet. To which T-L's sister asked why was I getting a pedicure? Good question. But I do occasionally wear sandals and with the desert locale of Tucson coming up, I doubt I'll be wearing that many socks.

After the pedicure I headed home for a bit, then off to visit my grandfather at the hospital. Last time he was in the hospital, he caught an infection, so this time when I was in, I had to wear gown, mask and gloves. Kind of weird. Especially since I'll be going to visit him tomorrow and won't have to do all of that. He made out ok with his operation, to remove possible stroke-causing blockages in his neck. He's home now and resting, and I will have to go over tomorrow and fix his PC, which my aunt called and said isn't working very well.

Armed with the "I have to do family things" cover story (which was true, I just didn't need to be occupied all night), I left the hospital and went to T-L's parents house for a rehearsal get-together with pizza and finger foods, and watched as they opened presents from people "in the know." The other half of my present was money, as I knew that was what they needed. They also got a BBQ, tank, tools and a vacuum cleaner, among other smaller gifts. After that was done, T-L and her sister came back to my place where I gave them both manicures. While I worked on her sister, I set T-L up to chat online with that new person in my life (tell me that wasn't brave!!!!) With her sister finished and exhausted from the day, she left and I got to work on T-L's nails. We chatted for a while about many things, I kept messing up because I was trying to have a serious conversation with her while doing nails and sometimes I lost track of what I was doing, LOL! But they turned out ok in the end.

The plan was for her to stay at my place the night before the wedding, so I had done up the spare bedroom. After finishing nails, we sat and watched 2 episodes of the Muppet Show (ma nah, ma nah!) and had a great laugh, then off to bed.

The next morning, T-L got up and pretty much asked for Advil right away, LOL!! She'd called Van and he told her (teasingly) that he'd stayed up all night, and that got her all riled up! But we got up, dressed, and headed to her parents house for decorations and preparations. We put up streamers, buttered rolls, and put together the wedding "cake", which was rice krispie squares from Java Moose, arranged on tiers, drizzled with chocolate and decorated with strawberries. Between the tiers were green flute glasses holding strawberries. On the top was 2 beanie wedding bears. T-L had the idea to make them the cake topper, asking me what I thought. Me. Well of course I was going to like it!! The "cake" looked great, and was really different. Van was impressed when he saw the finished product.

After that was through, I headed home to shower, change, have some chat time online. Then I was off to the wedding at 4pm. The chapel was used at St. Mark's, small and cozy and a favorite of T-L. As soon as she walked in the room, she lost it. Started crying right then & there, and cried for a lot of the ceremony. But you could tell just how happy she was, and Van just looked at her with love. It was really special.

It was then off to the reception, where other guests arrived to see her in her wedding dress and the looks of shock were abundant. Lots of food and love, friends and family, and they had a perfect day for weather. It was a wedding to remember :)

I do want to apologize to Joanne for having to miss your birthday karaoke, but I think you will understand this statement perfectly: I had to be T-L's bubble.


Between this wedding and my older brother's upcoming wedding, I have now contracted Wedding Fever. [shakes head] Nothing worse than a woman who has caught wedding fever... or nothing better, depending on who you are and how you look at it ;)

The week of the ex, and other stories

MST Night

Thanks to everyone who attended MST Night last night, brought snacks, and Suzy for the attempt at getting me drunk with boozed-up cheesecake :). Unfortunately the first movie was less exciting than birthday cheesecake so we ended up cutting it short and put The Movie on after the birthday portion of the evening was done, after which people started getting tired and leaving. We just can’t handle that partying on a weeknight like we used to :) Mare and Scott stayed to the end, and we happily quoted along with The Amazing Rando.

It was great to see Shawn, Kristen and baby Jenna, who sat with me for a while. Yes, believe it or not, I do like babies. Just don’t want one of my own right now. She’s a cutie! Looking forward to a couple of people sending me those pics that we snapped of me & the baby.

September

September is now here and I can hardly believe it. It seems like the year just started, and now all of a sudden we’re starting the 9^th month of the year. Even though I am not in school, there is still that sense of “new year” that comes with the fall season. It’s in the air. I have to remember to stay away from Staples the next week or two… I’ve already gotten caught in some nasty lineups of soccer moms with carts full of pencils and paper.

The week of the ex

My interesting week seemed to deal with my exes. I have been in contact recently with one of them, as we are still friends and talk from time to time. That is nothing out of the ordinary. What is out of the ordinary is that two more exes came out of the woodwork this week. I had an email from a friend who has decided to move to the Caribbean for work. One of my exes wrote back to said friend saying he was now engaged and hoped to be married by next year. Interesting that he's finally settling down.

The other close encounter of the ex kind happened on Tuesday. I worked through lunch and decided to leave early and go looking for shoes and dresses for the wedding. I called Jenn, and she joined me uptown. When we were done, she had a bit of time to kill so we sat in Market Square and chatted. I looked up and noticed someone I wanted to avoid (he is a little wacky in the head and doesn't know when to end a conversation) so I said to Jenn let's walk somewhere so we don't get stuck talking to him. So we walked over to Brunswick Square Tims, which is right across from my most recent ex's office building. I wasn't really thinking about that at the time as I was trying to avoid the wacky guy. Jenn and I were chatting away while I was eating coconut donuts, and we were trying to figure out who in our group doesn't like coconut. I was perplexed, and couldn't remember, but said "well, my ex doesn't like coconut". Jenn said "no, it wasn't him I was thinking of" and she just barely got that out of her mouth when guess who walks through the door and makes eye contact with her. Thankfully I decided to sit with my back to the office building entrance, so my record of not seeing my ex in a year remains intact.

Last but not least, after managing to not see that ex on Tuesday, last night I was rummaging around in my office looking for some felt pads for the chair legs, when what pops out at me but a picture of that ex. I thought I had cleaned the place out of pictures of him, either given back to him or shoved in the ex-boyfriend box. Guess I missed one, and it decided to pop out at me last night in revenge for having missed seeing him in person.

I had just finished commenting to a friend of mine that I felt no need to blog about my ex anymore, that it was a waste of time because I had nothing to say. Guess I asked for it!!

I find it very funny, the timing of these ex encounters. I spent my summer professing my "just friends" creed, but now that September is here, I find myself close to a possible new relationship - closer than I wanted to allow myself to get, but my heart often decides to run away faster than my brain can catch up with it. Funny how the exes have popped up now, almost like a test... "Are you sure you've dealt with everything? Are you sure you're ready to move on?" Sure, I felt a little out of sorts after almost running into the most recent ex, as it would have been the first time seeing him since we split, but by the end of Tuesday night after a great conversation with the new person in my life, I forgot it had even happened. I am so much better off now, even if this relationship doesn't work out... but I really hope it does.

Grandfather

I feel like a huge heel today, as it slipped my mind that my grandfather was having surgery. The way it was described to me, it was day surgery and he would be sent home after it was finished. He made it through fine today, but will remain in the hospital until Sunday. This unfortunately means I will have to miss karaoke tomorrow night as I'll be busy with a hospital visit and my aunt is also in from out of town. Sorry Lisa, and Jenn, I won't be able to drive you :( I should be back next week though and ready for some rock chick singing :)