Canada Day shindig

I guess I haven't made any real announcement on this yet, but I'm having a shindig on Canada Day. Some backyard BBQ and hopefully I can get the badminton net up in the backyard.

I will have the usual plates, cups, condiments, cupcakes, chips, and pop. Bring something to BBQ and WW-friendly snacks if chips & cupcakes aren't on your menu. Wear your Canada Day shirts if you have them.

I guess a start time depends on Shakespeare rehearsal. Late afternoon is good if we want to do any badminton, before it gets post-supper and cold.


As far as the rest of things going on with me, there really hasn't been much to talk about. I've been working a lot and watching Season 2 of original Star Trek. That's literally it. This week I'm preparing for John's arrival -- he arrives late Thursday night. Still need a few last minute groceries, including a new variety of 1/2 moon, with strawberry as well as vanilla filling. He should enjoy that. I'm really happy I was able to find some lactose-free ice cream at Superstore for him. 3 days to go. Been a long time since he was here, I will be glad to have him back in my own surroundings again.

Just like SoCal

I am in my car, inching toward the Harbour Bridge. I'm on my way to Bathurst, but it looks like it's going to take me a while to get out of the West Side. It started backing up beside Lancaster Mall. Supposedly a tractor trailer came unhinged around the Market Square exit. Crazy.

Going to be a long day if this keeps up. I have to drive to Bathurst, work there, then drive back to Moncton. I'll stay overnight tonight in Moncton and work there tomorrow.

Glad I have the XM for my road trip. :)

Go play in your own yard

In the last 3 days, I have had kids in my yard.

Two nights ago, I was walking into the bathroom when I heard a voice outside. The kid from the house behind mine was trying to corral his dog. They ended up walking all over my lawn. I hope I escaped dog crap. There's nothing worse than not owning a dog and still having to clean up its crap. At least this appearance in my yard wasn't intentional as it looks like the dog got away from the kid.

Last night I found kids in my driveway when I arrived home. I believe they were playing with my hose because the area beneath it was wet and had not been wet when I left the house to go get gas. They saw me coming and somewhat reluctantly and slowly moved out of my driveway and went 3 doors down to drive up someone else's driveway. Later last night, as I sat on the deck resting, a kid came to the back edge of my property, crossed the ditch, and walked his bike across my back lawn, onto my driveway, and up the street.

Tonight, I was home watching TV and heard voices near the house. I live alone, and hearing strange voices nearby on the outside of my house scares me. I looked outside and saw a second kid driving his bike over my lawn -- my $5000 lawn that I am trying desperately to keep in good shape in its tender growing stage. There are still areas, particularly in the front, where the grass is just beginning to take root. I ran to the door and firmly but not yelling told him to not drive on the grass, and told them to go play somewhere else.

Apparently my yard has become the neighborhood playground. It is also apparent that their parents haven't taught them to stay out of other people's yards. If I want kids driving over my lawn, I'll get some of my own. In the meantime, don't scare the crap out of me by going right up to my porch and going under it or whatever the heck they were doing.

This is my property. I pay for it, I maintain it, and I decide what happens on it. It doesn't include being an entertainment area/transportation path for uninvited children. You have your own yard and yards of friends. Go play on those and leave mine alone.

I can mow

I just mowed most of the front and side of my lawn. First time ever mowing. Wish it was my last too. I did ok, it's just really damn heavy because it's not self-propelled. Bag kept filling up really quickly because it was so long. Some of my land is swampy and I didn't mow it. I'm not convinced there should be lawn in places because it will always be swampy, even when it's not raining every day.

So tired. But I did it.

The short version

Been doing funeral stuff the last few days. I'm glad it's over. It was great to have my brother home for a couple of days, even if it was under sad circumstances. In our non-funeral time we watched some Star Trek. I got up at 5am this morning to drive him to the airport. Then I came home and went back to bed before getting up for work.

The good thing to come out of this funeral scenario is that my mother is speaking to us again. I am approaching things cautiously. I don't want to fall back into old patterns.

John has blogged a good summary of our move status, I won't repeat that here, but if you're interested, head over there to see where we're at.

Apparently the problem with my lawn mower was that it didn't have enough gas. With help from my brother, I bought a gas tank and a weed whacker last night, but now it's raining again and I haven't had a chance to tackle either of those things. But at least I don't have to water the lawn. It's been getting plenty of that.

Raccoons keep knocking over my compost bin.

I now have a crack in my windshield that I didn't notice until after it had spread. Now I'll have to get that replaced. Car is also making humming noise, conveniently just days after the warranty has run out. And of course the crack in front end that I've had for a couple of years, which I still haven't fixed.

I am thinking of going to see The Lake House on Sunday or next week sometime. I have a free pass that is good Sunday-Thursday. If anyone is interested in going, let me know.

I think John and I will plan on having people over on Canada Day. Backyard BBQ and maybe even some badminton if the grass is in good enough shape by then. Let me know if you'd be interested in that too.

Long Day

Let me start off by talking about my day yesterday. Got up at 6:30am Atlantic (4:30 Central) so we’d be able to get to the airport in time for the minimum 2h international departure. Learned that lesson after leaving Orange County last time. We made it through everything with plenty of time to wait. Got on the plane bound for Chicago, and made it there with no problems. We had just over an hour wait in Chicago before heading for Toronto. We get on the plane in Toronto, and then are informed that the plane was being taken out of service as they had found a problem with it. We deplaned, and they sent us across the hall with another plane having just landed and we’d be able to use. We waited for the cleaners to go through, and boarded the second plane. Sat and waited. And waited. The captain comes over the speaker and says we have to deplane again, now *this* plane was being taken out of service because of some dents. We got off that plane and lined up for meal vouchers.

Supposedly the meal vouchers were good at any airport vendor – that’s what it said on the paper. All I wanted was some popcorn and pop, but noooo, “we don’t take vouchers anymore.” GRRRRR. After deplaning twice I was losing my patience.

They somehow quickly found us a third plane, which had just finished repairs (gives you a warm & cozy feeling, doesn’t it?) We boarded that plane, then had to sit and wait and wait and wait for bags to be loaded. Then we waited while they unloaded someone’s bag who had changed flights. Eventually we did take off, about 4 hours behind schedule. This meant no chance of making my 5pm flight home. We got off the plane at 4:30pm in Toronto, but with Customs, baggage, and terminal change I knew it just wasn’t going to happen. Luckily the late flight was not full and we all managed to get a seat on that flight. It was a really long day and I just wanted to get home. I’m going to have a hard few days coming up, with the funeral parlour and funeral to attend.

Grampy

I wasn’t surprised by the news because he’d been diagnosed as terminal, but what is bothering me the most is going through all of the funeral-related stuff again, especially with my mother not speaking to me. I doubt this will make any difference to the mother situation. I hear that she asked my aunts, after he passed away, "Who will call my children?" Um, how about you call us yourself!!!! I am actually more upset about how to deal with my mother than I am about the death.

The funeral is Monday morning at 10am at the Cathedral. Grampy went there for most of the last 10 years or so as it was easier for Grammy to get into, before she was house-bound. The funeral parlour stuff begins on Saturday, but please do not worry about coming, I will have lots of family around and I know how weird it is to go while not knowing the deceased. My older brother is coming home Sunday around lunchtime and has to head back home again early Monday morning. He'll be staying with me since it's closer than staying at Dad's house. My sister-in-law won't be able to make it since she's still recovering from her neck surgery.

Thanks to everyone who left comments and/or sent emails. I appreciate your thoughts & well-wishes.

New Orleans

On to my trip itself. There are some comments I can’t make here about parts of my trip as they are work-related, but the meeting we went there for turned out to give me lots of info. Again I realize I have a lot of work to do.

As an aside, I also may get myself on a user group with our software provider that would see me going to quarterly meetings in the US, usually to fairly nice places. There is one next week in Orlando, but I won’t make it on the committee in time to attend that meeting. The next one may be tacked on to the beginning or end of the conference in Kentucky in the fall. I’m excited about this as it’s the best way to make myself heard with our software supplier, and I know it will provide me with a great learning opportunity; something I’ve been craving for a while now.

We landed in New Orleans on Tuesday and headed to Morgan City, LA. Along the way you could see lots of hurricane damage, leaning power poles, destroyed roofs/buildings, debris, etc. Overall things are either brand new because they’ve been rebuilt already, or they still look like they did right after the hurricane. There is a lot of damage and it’s going to take years to get back in shape.

We arrived in Morgan City and checked in to our hotel. To my delight, Tuesday night was karaoke night at the hotel bar. Other than bowling and karaoke, I don’t think anything else was happening in Morgan City that night. Pretty small place. That meant karaoke was pretty full of townsfolk, and the hosts weren’t very good at keeping the list in order, just doing whatever they wanted. Two of my co-workers joined me but did not sing. I did an average of about a song an hour, finishing up just after 11pm. Smoking in bars is legal there, so by the time I got up to do my third song, my voice was hoarse and I couldn’t sing it very well. I did get compliments from a couple of women in the bathroom, and the desk clerk the next morning when I checked out. I had the requisite drunk creepy guy tap me on the shoulder and tell me I needed to sing louder, and another come by and ask if I was going to sing Barbra Streisand. I made sure I was escorted to my room after that (our rooms had exterior doors).

I have to say, there were some great male karaoke performances that night. At least 3 really good male singers doing alt rock. Also a kick-ass female performer, I forget what song she did. Morgan City karaoke singers are tough to follow.

Wednesday was our meeting, and after grabbing a quick bite for lunch, we headed back to New Orleans. We checked in to a hotel near the airport, and then headed downtown to meet up with colleagues and see famed Bourbon St. Can’t say as that was my thing, seeing as how I don’t enjoy female strippers and I don’t drink, but at least I can say I’ve been there. We had dinner at the Red Fish Grill, but not being much of one for seafood, I ended up getting steak. I checked my Blackberry after finishing dinner and that was when I got word to call home and hear the news about Grampy.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to drop someone off, then two co-workers wanted to go shopping, so I joined them at the mall to keep my mind occupied. I picked up a few things at the semi-annual Bath & Body Works sale. Pretty picked over by the time we were shopping. Also went into a huge, 2 level Target, but it was close to closing time so my tour was pretty short. I came back to the hotel and finished up the evening chatting with John. Got to bed pretty late and then had an early rise.

I did take some pictures, but my camera is in my luggage, so I’ll have to post them later.

Grampy

My grandfather, Lorne McQuade (Mum's dad), passed away this evening at about 6:15pm. The pneumonia he caught after finishing his radiation is unfortunately what did him in. I am still in New Orleans, but am scheduled to come home on Thursday anyway. Since this only happened a few hours ago, no plans have been made just yet. One of my aunts is in Texas for work and is trying to get back home.

With terminal cancer, we knew it would only be a matter of time. We just didn't think it would be this soon. I'm glad I was able to see him at the hospital a couple of times over the past few weeks.

This now leaves me with only one grandparent. Thankfully after the low heart rate issues, Gug has been doing relatively well. I want to make sure I get back over to see him this weekend.

How convenient!

Where Does Your Inner Californian Belong?

Orange County

You're rich, pretty, and living a charmed life. (Or you seriously wish you were.) From Disneyland to Laguna Beach, you're all about living the California dream life. Just make sure to marry rich - so you don't have to work for it!

Where Does Your Inner Californian Belong?

Please won't you be my neighbor?

I came home tonight to see the house next door is up for sale. It's the single-storey house to the left of me. Click here to see the listing.

Funny, they forgot to add "free West Side Shuttle™" and "must mow next door neighbor's lawn" to the ad... I'll have to mention that to them. :)

Big mistake. Huge.

I've come to the realization that putting in a lawn was a very stupid idea - I don't want to care for it. It was looking pretty crappy this month, so I called the landscaper who did the hydroseeding for me last fall. I said apart from the areas that were washed out, it wasn't looking so good and may need to be re-sprayed. They said ok, we'll come over and take a look at it.

Saturday morning I slept in and was woken up by the doorbell. Still being in my PJs and bedhead, I didn't want to go to the door unless it was family. I took a peek out the blinds but didn't recognize who it was, so I didn't get the door. I got up to go to the bathroom and saw my lawn was a strange shade of green... hey, they re-sprayed this morning, that must have been who was at the door. And oh, they re-sprayed right over the mini-ditch of washout in my front yard. Great. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to fix it. I appreciate the fact that they addressed it so quickly, but really, does it make any sense to re-spray right over an area of washout? They actually could have easily sold me a fix on that. I would have paid them to dump some top soil in there and fill it in. They didn't bother to ask, and lost a sales opportunity.

Every day since then I have been spending an hour a day watering my "lawn" on top of working overtime at work. I go to work, come home, eat something, water the lawn, and go back to work. Last night I had the idea that hey, a sprinkler has a wider and farther reach that the spray nozzle, maybe that can cut down my watering time if I hold it and and spray the lawn. Yeah. Forgot to take into account the leaking part where the hose meets the sprinkler. I got sopping wet, took me just as long, and didn't do as good a job. Tonight it will be back to the spray nozzle for an hour before coming back in to work.

On Sunday I attempted to mow the part of the lawn that is actually the city's right-of-way. It's not like the city is going to come along and mow it, and it blends right in with my property, so I'm stuck with it. I have never mowed a lawn in my life. As of today, I still haven't. I took the lawn mower out of the garage, did what Dad told me to get it started, and nothing happened. It didn't even sputter... dead as a doornail. Later that day Dad called, and I mentioned I couldn't get the mower started. He asked about a couple of things, one of which was gas. I said yeah, you filled it up last fall and then I didn't use it after that. He said, "wait, didn't you winterize it?" Winterize?! How in hell am I supposed to know that?!?! Apparently there is some kind of additive I was supposed to put in the gas tank over the winter. Dad said it's likely toast, he'd come over and look at it but wouldn't promise me he could get it going. I told him I wasn't in any hurry. I can barely push the damn thing (not self-propelled), I have no idea how I'm going to mow my whole yard when the time comes.

So I may need to buy a new lawn mower. The first one was free, my stepmother didn't need it anymore, but I still didn't intend on screwing it up. I also need a weed whacker because the City sodded the ditch that runs through my yard, and that's about the only way to keep things under control there. Probably around $800 by the time I'm done, and then I still have to figure out how to find the time to do all of this mowing and weed whacking. And no, I don't want a neighborhood kid to come over and mow my lawn.

This really isn't what I wanted out of my yard. They hydroseeded in areas I specifically told them not to - beside the garage, right up against the rocks in the front yard - and that is making maintenance more difficult. When I bought the property, I also didn't know I'd have to contend with a ditch running through all of my property... I had dreams of making it user-friendly when it came to maintenance. Now it seems like it's one big giant pain in the ass.

I'm not sure what to do. John won't be here permanently this summer, not at the rate things are going, so I have to handle this myself. If my lawn mower is indeed toast, do I spend the money to get a new one, or do I consider paying a local company for lawn maintenance? If I buy a new lawn mower now, it will be here for a few years, and in the long run will cost less money. If I pay someone to come and mow, that money is gone after this summer with nothing to show for it, but I don't have to deal with any of this crap. The idea is certainly appealing.

Deciding to put in a lawn has been a big mistake. I should have stuck with the weeds and the dirt until I was ready to care for it (maybe never!) or I had someone living with me who wanted to do it. I just don't have the knowledge on my own about this stuff, and I'm tired of relying on help from other people... it's not their problem, it's mine. I have to admit, I am envious of those of you with husbands/significant others living with you to take care of this stuff. It's not John's fault that he's not here, we're doing as much as we can in trying to get him here. It's just really frustrating to me to have to deal with all of this in addition to laundry, meals, the floors I haven't mopped yet, the dirty carpet, the windows that need washing... I can't do everything. This is how I end up eating popcorn or chips for supper some nights.

During my trips to SoCal, John and I looked at the houses and neighborhoods as we drove by. We talked about the scarcity of houses that have their own yard - most neighborhoods have a shared common area, but the houses themselves are crammed together with no real yard of their own. I said at the time that I wouldn't like that, you'd have no private area to entertain, you couldn't have your own patio furniture and leave it outside, etc. What's the point of having a house in SoCal if you can't have your own space outside to enjoy it? The past couple of weeks have taught me that maybe that kind of living isn't as bad as I thought. No yard means little to no maintenance. The common area would be taken care of through a neighborhood association. Now I see.


In other areas of my life, things have been really busy. Work has picked up again and I have been working overtime this week to get things done. It's a safe bet that I will have to work one of the days this weekend as I am running out of time to replace expiring software. My to-do list is currently 30 items long, and I pray the phone doesn't ring to add to that.

Both of my grandfathers are dealing with the hospital. Grampy (Mum's dad) has been in since the end of March. They discovered a tumor in his throat and he had radiation treatments for it. He has a traech (sp?) still in his neck despite having finished the treatments as the doctors can't decide whether to take it out or not. With that still in his neck, he can't talk and make himself understood, and that is very frustrating to him - you can clearly see it on his face. His cancer is terminal, but he wanted the treatments to buy him more time. In addition to the cancer, though, he has heart problems, kidney problems, diabetes, other things I'm probably not remembering... when/if he gets out of the hospital, he won't be going home without full-time care.

My other grandfather (Dad's dad) had to go to the hospital on Thursday with blurred vision. His heart rate went down too low, so they brought him in for observation and talked about putting in a pacemaker. The decrease in heart rate was caused by a bad reaction to dye from a test last week, as well as a change in medication that he had last week. He caught a staph infection last year when he had his leg operated on, so anytime he's in the hospital you have to dress up in a gown, gloves & mask just to be able to visit, and it also means he can't exercise by walking the halls - he's confined to the room. He likes to keep the circulation going and walk around a bit, but being confined didn't help matters much. Yesterday the doctors finally came by to see him and let him go home. They decided his heartbeat was strong enough that he didn't need the pacemaker, have given him instructions for his family doctor regarding medication, and he got home last night. He's outside today tending to his garden and doing well. I'm glad that turned out ok.

My sister-in-law had surgery done on her neck on Monday. She came through it fine, my brother says she's not as mobile as they'd hoped, but they hope she'll go home from the hospital today. Unfortunately the hospital told her she would only get 2 days' notice before having the surgery, so they've been waiting for the call and finally got it on Saturday. At least now it's done, she can start recovering and move forward. Don't ask me exactly what the surgery had to do with on her neck as I can't seem to recall right now, I am having brain freeze.

Last but certainly not least, John has booked his flights for his next visit. He'll be arriving late on June 29th, and leaving again on July 11th. My brother might come home around the weekend of the 8th, but he's not sure. It depends on how my sister-in-law is doing and whether she feels like traveling. I still haven't introduced them to John, so I hope they are able to make it down for a visit. My nephew will also be with them at that time, he starts 3 weeks with his Dad on the Canada Day weekend.

It seems like I know a lot of people with health problems at the moment. My thoughts & prayers are with you, you know who you are. I'm very fortunate to be in good health myself. Gotta stay in shape to deal with this &^%*@! lawn.

Celebrating Hondouran Independence

While I was away, I picked up a $5 t-shirt at Target to wear on July 4th. An effort to fit in with my American fiancé. :) Just a simple navy t-shirt with an American flag made up of dots.

I unpacked it from the suitcase tonight, and much to my chagrin, the label said "Made in Hondouras". Somehow that just seems wrong. Lots of clothing is made outside of the US... but a 4th of July shirt made in Hondouras just doesn't exude Independence Day to me.

Home again

I made it home and am sifting through the pile of stuff waiting for me at work.

In a lovely "welcome home" gesture, the gate on the b-pass lane of the Harbour Bridge decided to smash down on the roof of my car this morning on my drive to work. Left scratches. And no, I was paid up and didn't run the gate. It just decided it wanted to hurt me. GRRRRR!

A funny thing happened on the way to the airport

Or more accurately, at the airport. We arrived there to insanely long lines -- the line for security was running the length of the terminal. After realizing I couldn't do kiosk check-in because I was checking a bag, we got in line for regular check-in, which was backed up and moving at a snail's pace. We overheard someone talking about the airport having just come back online from a 1.5h power failure, which explained why we waited in the check-in line for 35 minutes before getting to the front. By the time I tried to check in, the console told me I was too late, so I had to get assistance from the clerk. With Dixie's help, I got rebooked for tomorrow with the same flights. Dixie was also very kind enough to have already checked me in and issued my boarding passes for tomorrow. With the time zone difference and scarce number of flights to SJ, I knew I'd be better off to stay here than try to get to Toronto or Montreal today and then have to stay overnight. John is, of course, ecstatic to have me for one more night, even though he had to go in to work today.

On the last 2 trips I have flown in and out of LAX. Air Canada allows you to do web check-in from select US cities, LA being one of those. Since I am flying out of Orange County this time, I am flying United for part of the journey, and I wasn't able to do web check-in and had to stand in the giant line with a lot of other people. LAX does have that advantage, I can check in before leaving the apartment, and since Air Canada only flies to a few cities from LAX, the lines are not too long. Food for thought for next time. LAX is definitely cheaper, but is so much farther away from here compared to John Wayne Airport.

So, I find myself still here in SoCal this morning, with lots of time on my hands. I called Stew to let him know I wouldn't need to be picked up at the airport tonight. I also called and left a message for my boss. "Power failure at airport" sounds an awful lot like "dog ate my homework", but here's the brief story on the problem.

Not sure what I will do with the rest of my day now. I may go for a walk, as long as the rain stays away. There are dark clouds and it will shower on & off, but it looks bright at the same time, and is about 17C out.

As to the weekend that was, I arrived on the earlier-scheduled flight and John picked me up just after 4pm. John Wayne Airport is only about 2 miles from his office, and not far from his apartment either. We then headed straight for See's Candies, since we were very close to it, and I got a couple more boxes of Awesome Peanut Brittle Bar to bring back home with me. We made a stop at Vons grocery store to get some Grape Crush (in glass bottles) and a few other essentials. We headed back home and spent the evening in.

Saturday we ventured out on some errands. John found a place where he could drop off electronics for recycling and has been meaning to get there for ages, so he loaded the truck and we finally made it there and got that done. Next we headed over to Fashion Island where I wanted to turn in a coupon for a free pair of underwear. We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, and took our cheesecakes to go. We each got a slice of the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, and if you think the picture looks good, it tastes even better. Delicious! But not as good as Suzy's.

We also went across the street to Bed, Bath & Beyond to look for the shower curtain I was going to pick up for Jenn. They didn't have any at that store, but did have some at Yorba Linda, about 20min away. We got them to put it on hold and we'd pick it up on Sunday.

John somehow threw his back out on Saturday so I left him home to rest and went to church by myself. Masses here are frustrating. This weekend's mass was more like people reading the bible over kids acting out in a plain room that looks nothing like a church. I really didn't get anything out of that mass and ended up leaving after communion. Definitely miss that about home. I take our beautiful old church for granted and the fact that the mass I usually attend is mostly full of adults.

Saturday night we attempted to go see MI:III but strangely enough it was sold out. We ended up going to Target instead since we hadn't made it there earlier. We came back and stayed in for the night, watched Alias from the other night and had cheesecake for supper :)

Sunday we got up and decided it was likely more comfortable to sit together in a movie theatre than hang out on his uncomfortable couch, so we decided to hit 2 movies in one day. We went to the 11:30am showing of Da Vinci Code. Good movie, but they followed the book so closely that I basically sat through it saying, yeah, I know what's going to happen next. After that movie we headed over to Yorba Linda for the shower curtain, and also stopped at Petsmart and picked up a fountain-type water dish for Caly. So far she's confused by it, but hopefully she'll give it a try soon. We stopped for a burger and then headed to see MI:III. Fun movie, a bit cheesy in spots, but a good summer blockbuster movie. Don't know that I would bother watching it again, though.

We stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few more things, and John cooked us some steak for supper. I packed up what few things I had taken out since arriving and a few things I had bought. Didn't buy much on this trip, especially after having spent extra on the ticket change. Glad I did, though. Any extra time is worth it. Guess I have to thank the power failure for even more time :)

Seattle pics

Started out at the Pike Place Market, one of the best spots to go.

It happened to be the weekend of the Seattle Cheese Festival

The famous Seattle fish

Just a small section of the market. Reminiscent of home, but on a much larger scale.

It was also Mother's Day the day I was there, and everyone seemed to be walking by with fresh flowers.

Very busy day at the market.

Space Needle. I didn't go up, it seemed small compared to previous trips up the CN Tower and Sears Tower :P

Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. They wouldn't let me take any pics inside.

Not just any old French bakery. This one is very French. I should have went inside to see what that meant... or maybe I didn't need to know.

A view of the water and the Olympic Mountains. Seattle has been getting a lot more cruise ship traffic after having taken some away from Vancouver.

Totem pole

A funky parking garage

Took this one for Anthony. Hacky sacks and chile pepper lights, together at last.

The white arch is Qwest Stadium, home of the Seattle Seahawks.

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, down on the waterfront

Just a few of the huge trees. Had I been able to take pictures at the house I visited mid-week, that would have been even more stunning.

I'm behind

Yes, I know, I am incredibly behind in updating my blog. It's been a very hectic and busy trip. Even now I am typing this entry on my Blackberry as that seems to be the only time I have. They have wisely restricted my internet access in a training environment, although I would never be so rude as to play solitaire the whole day. It's just cramping my style when I need to check in with work.

I did make it downtown on Sunday with surprisingly little trouble. I only had directions from a couple of people and a small map. Having the Space Needle as a landmark and reference point really does help a lot, I must say. I got to the SciFi Museum, but they wouldn't allow pictures inside. So I saw Capt Kirk's chair, you'll just have to take my word for it. I never noticed the arms of his chair had wood on them. As to the rest of my downtown excursion, I will try to post some pics soon. I hate posting pics in Blogger... takes forever.

After I got back on Sunday night, I drove down to the offices where I'm having training so I knew where I'd be going in Monday morning traffic. Good thing I did as it wasn't the easiest to find. Managed to stay up until 11pm that night. The time change adjustment has been easier this time, I guess it comes with practice.

When I got up Sunday morning, I discovered my Blackberry wasn't working, and continued to not work during the rest of the day. Still wasn't working Monday morning when I got up, so I put a call in to my account manager at Aliant. She hooked me up with support, and late Monday night it started working again. Talk about feeling like you've lost your right arm, though. 2 days without it while also being away from home, and only having internet access at the hotel was a giant pain.

The biggest thing about Monday was finding out that the other class participants had decided class will end early tomorrow... Like 10am early. My flight out of here to SoCal was 7pm. I was pretty mad when I found this out, as I had specifically asked when class would end so that I could book the appropriate flight. Because I booked the flight with a travel agent, I had to go through her for any changes, which was a pain and no doubt added to my cost. The time difference of trying to get a hold of her just componded the problem. After a lot of thought and not wanting to hang around here all day when I could be with John, I decided to change my ticket. The bad news is that it ended up costing $360 *just to changeit* on top of the $185 originally for the ticket. OUCH. Love is expensive! But with how little I get to see him, any extra time is worth it. So I am now leaving tomorrow at 1:05pm, arriving at the airport 2 miles from John's office at 4pm, then we can have the whole evening together instead of arriving at 9:30pm. Feels a bit like buying time - I get 5.5h more if I pay $360. Luckily I also got an email this week that said my bonus cheque is waiting for me when I get home, so that most definitely helps.

Tuesday things became a little more normal. My Blackberry was back in action, but I was really feeling the suckiness of having to eat every meal alone in a restaurant. My classmates weren't very social and didn't invite me along with them (not to mention I was a little angry with them about the class change). Eating home alone is different than eating in a restaurant by yourself.

I have to say, the service out here is excellent. I've been to Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, even KFC, Subway and especially Wendy's, and all have had great or outstanding service. The guy working at Wendy's the other night could be in a commercial for them, I swear. Such a refreshing change from the crap we take at home. It's made me start thinking about not taking crap from wait staff anymore... I'm going to start thinking about speaking to the manager and complaining. It's so nice to go to a restaurant and have the server smile at you for a change. I've been leaving good tips because they've deserved it. I've never had the experience of waiting tables, so no, I don't know what it's like. What I do know is that, in general, you shouldn't be rude to others if you're having a bad day or hate your job. In my job I do deal with a lot of people, some I like and some I don't, but I still have to help them. There seem to be an awful lot of wait staff out there who like to take their problems out on their customers.

Wednesday after class we were all invited out to the head programmer's house for dinner. She lives with one of the account managers (for a brief time he was my acct mgr) at the same company. I have known them for a couple of years of going to the conferences but I had no idea they were a couple until now. They had two people staying with them for the weekend, clients but also friends. I had actually met them before at conferences as well.

The hostess has owned the house for approx 30 years and it is out in the country, so to speak. Not that far, really, just seems more country in comparison. The house was amazing. Not huge, but design-wise it was very different. Basically two round buildings put together. Patios and decks everywhere. The tallest trees I have ever seen, just amazing. Beautiful gardens too - they've done a lot of work to their land/yard.

Everything is so incredibly green here, so many trees and vegetation. Very environmentally conscious as well, lots of compost bins and I don't think I have seen a single piece of litter.

Back to the house. The outside walls on one side, including the master bedroom, were glass. There is so much greenery around, plus more land between houses so there is still privacy. A neat idea. Sort of sleeping under the stars.

We had a Southern cuisine menu, as the host was originally a Southerner. The hostess was originally from Oregon. We had pork tenderloin with bbq sauce, "corn stuff" (grits, corn and cheese), cornbread, steamed veggies, and salad. Yummy. We ate pretty late as they didn't have much time to begin preparing before we arrived. We left around 9pm after an enjoyable evening.

Now it is Thursday and I'm finishing this entry during class. They're covering a module that is not applocable to Canadian companies.

It's been a spectacular week for weather, abnormally hot. Today is slightly cooler at 24-25C. The past few days have been close to 30C. It's supposed to rain on the weekend but I will be gone by then.

Tonight I'll have to get packed up and ready to leave. We'll prob end class tomorrow around 10am so the others can catch their flight. Should leave me with lots of time to get to SeaTac, return the rental car, and go catch my flight. One more sleep, I can't wait!!

I'll try to get my pics from downtown up later tonight. I also want to get some pics of the trees. Maybe on my walk tonight after class. There is a cemetery I drove by the other day that looked more like a nice park, so I may go explore that tonight.

Safe & Sound

Made it to Seattle after a long day of travel - essentially 12h worth of travel. I am currently in Kirkland but amd heading out in a few minutes to explore Seattle Center, once I figure out how to get there. Perhaps the overzealous car rental agent was right, I could have used a GPS in the car. Somehow I don't think my boss would agree.

I hate renting cars. They always play on your guilt regarding insurance and you wind up spending the rest of the trip worried you're going to smash the car up and have someone tell you "I told you so." I checked with my boss before I left and I am covered under the company's insurance, so I didn't take any. This of course made the agent say at least three times that I'd be held liable... thanks, I think I understand what declining insurance means. They did get me on the refueling option though. I took it so I wouldn't have to worry about gassing up near the airport. The day I leave will be tight time-wise. I get the feeling I shouldn't have chosen that option, but coming from Canada, where gas is priced per Litre, gallons don't mean anything to me. The price per gallon that they're charging on this option is not unreasonable, I knew enough to understand that, at least. I just don't know what the posted price at gas stations are right now in this area. I hate renting cars.

I managed to stay up until 10pm last night, and yet still woke up at 4:30am. I forced myself back asleep and got up around 6:45am to make it to 7:30am mass. I was a couple of minutes late and sat in a reserved pew, oops. At least mass was more normal than SoCal - a cantor & pianist. The cantor was very into her music, tapping her toes and smiling the whole time. They got me again with the Nicene Creed, which I muttered my way through... I'm going to have to bite the bullet and memorize that so I know it when I attend mass away from home.

Anyway, it is 9am and I want to begin exploring while I am still somewhat awake & conscious. Going to get some advice from the front desk, get myself a map, and head downtown. Picking through the tourist brochures, I noticed that the Science Fiction Museum is the home of Captain Kirk's command chair... I have a mission! But not a 5-year mission :) I also must hit the Pike Place Market. Anything else is gravy.

It's weird, but I am having the same reaction to here as John had the first time he arrived in SJ - it's so green! Way more green that I'd see at home, it's beautiful. The freeway drive from the airport to the hotel last night was beautiful.

I guess I'd better be off. Hope to have some pics to post here later.

INXS rocked

Just got back from the INXS show at the Moncton Coliseum. Since I had earned a free night's stay at the Rodd, I decided to stay up overnight after the show. There is always something work-wise to do in Moncton, so I might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

The show was really great. Our seats -- if we had actually sat in them -- were in the front row of the second section on the floor. Not bad. However, social butterfly that the Jaybird is, at the Frederiction show he had met some ladies from Fortune 448 who had empty seats around them in the second row. He staked the seats out and we planned to make a break for it. Under careful instruction to not make eye contact with security, we owned our stolen seats and spent the whole show in the second row!!! Close enough to see the sweat!

Since there were 4 of us going to the show, and there are 4 letters in INXS, we all got together last weekend and made shirts to wear to the concert. Dan was "I", Jaybird was "N", Dre was "X", and I formed the head, er, I mean, I was "S". The shirts were a big hit with people walking by. A girl in the lineup for the bathroom turned to me and said "cool shirts". But even better than that, at least 2 of the band members saw us. Kirk in particular got a chuckle out of it, so that was pretty cool for us INXS-ophiles.

My only negative comments on the evening had to do with a couple of strange things JD did onstage. He did a graphic humping of the microphone & stand which I didn't think was all that necessary. Not something I needed to see. The other thing he did was annihilate some roses a fan had thrown onstage. Smashing them to bits is entertainment? Just those two things I thought were a bit unnecessary.

JD did seem really overwhelmed by the "hometown" crowd. He kept saying how great it was to be home, how he loved the support from Canada. During the latter part of the concert he even wore a shirt that said "Bluenoser". :)

The setlist was great, they played new as well as lots of old stuff. I thought JD did a great job with the old stuff. Certainly there is no replacing Hutch, but it was a nice balance between making it his own and not sounding completely different. Ending with Don't Change, as they are wont to do, was really awesome. We danced, we bounced, we sang, and man am I tired! But we had a great, great time.

A big shout out to the Jaybird, who got us the tickets in the first place through his fanclub membership, and then managed to get us in the second row. Wouldn't have been there without your help -- thanks!!!


As to the rest of my life during the past week, it's consisted mainly of being insanely busy at work. Thankfully today was a bit more sane, and I will be working hard the rest of the week in preparation for another week out of the office. I leave on Saturday for my training course in Kirkland, WA. The course itself doesn't begin until Monday, so I will have Sunday to explore Seattle on my own. I'm not a huge fan of doing a tour by myself, but I may relent and do a walking tour of the city for 1/2 day so I can see some of the major sights. The course runs Monday - Friday, then after class on Friday I hop a plane for SoCal. It can't come soon enough.

Email problems

Since yesterday morning I've been having problems with my fundy email account. If you've sent me something that I haven't replied to, it's because I can't get any mail on that account right now. And I've been insanely busy.

Hope to have a blog update soon.

About damn time, George Lucas

Get ready to get rid of those VHS copies you've been hanging on to:

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2006-05-04/#3

Glad I bought that luggage

Had a busy week work-wise last week. I got approved for a training course being held just outside Seattle which starts 2 weeks from today. Since it ends on Victoria Day weekend, and I'm already on the west coast, I'm going to sneak in a quick trip to SoCal. I can get a direct flight between Seattle and SoCal for a decent price. "Decent price" takes on a new definition when it means you'd get to see your fiancé this month compared to July. Seriously though, flying between those two spots will be pretty reasonable. The convenience of the class ending on the long weekend is extremely helpful. I'll fly home on Victoria Day, and John will have to work that day anyway. I am still working out the flight details and class registration. Hopefully those will get firmed up in the next day or two.

I'm also being scheduled to go to Louisiana for a couple of days, perhaps Arkansas on the end of that trip. I've also got my annual conference in September. Last year was Tucson, this year is Lexington, Kentucky. I can't say as that's a place I've always wanted to go, but it looks pretty. So with these 3 trips appearing on the schedule, I'm glad I decided on that luggage!

The Flip Side

The Jaybird has offered me the co-host chair at The Flip Side this weekend, so if you're interested, tune in this Sunday from 2-4pm Atlantic. In SJ, it's on CFHM 92.5FM, UNBSJ radio. For anyone else, tune in here on shoutcast.com. You will need iTunes or Winamp, from what the site recommends.


In other news...

I have been going flat out at work this week. This morning I sat at my desk for a grand total of about 3 minutes. Yesterday I spent the day in Moncton for work. I've had meetings, phone calls, questions... just really damn busy this week.

Happy Birthday John!

A big



to John! Today he is old enough to join the ranks of these guys but as I keep telling him, you can't be president of the US while living in Canada. They frown on that sort of thing.

Caly also wishes you a happy birthday and is sorry for puking on the floor 3 times last night, and the incessant peeing "ever since SHE's been gone."

Good luck at sweeps tonight

Win lots of
and be as happy as this guy seems to be

p.s. I love you

Jennifer Garner's regret about Alias

"I regret now that we're almost done that we never made Victor [Garber] and Ron [Rifkin] sing in an episode."

-- Entertainment Weekly

Wedding comments

For the record:

• We have not set a date nor do we even have a vague idea of when it will be
  
• We don't know where it will be held, be it here, SoCal, or other location
• We don't know what venue it will be held in, be it a church, city hall, etc
  
• We're in no rush to plan anything about the wedding, as we've got our hands full with moving, immigration, etc.
• Yes, I know what I'm doing. No, it's not happening too fast. We're engaged, not running off to Vegas.
• That is a picture of my actual ring on the proposal post, it just looks a little lighter due to the camera. I will GLADLY show you in person, just ask :)
  

There are only a couple of things I can say about it with any assurance. I do want a wedding dress, and the color brown will never be involved in my wedding. :)

Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank everyone for their well-wishes. I've been a bit swamped upon returning home, but I really appreciate the comments from those who are happy to hear the news.

The rest of my trip

Friday afternoon I went to Good Friday mass. It was... interesting. They had 9 singers, a piano, a guitar, a bass guitar, and drums. It was the most dramatic performance music I've heard to accompany what is supposed to be the solemn Good Friday mass. Mass itself was not very crowded, it being the afternoon and not a stat holiday. Next time I go out there, I'll have to try some other churches and see if I can't stumble on a more traditional mass.

Saturday was the wedding of John's best friend. It started off a pretty crappy day, actually. I seemed to be running behind, having not done my manicure yet, noticing wrinkles in my dress, getting my dress dirty as I put it on... I was losing my temper. We finally managed to make it out the door, stopped at Target for some umbrellas for the wedding guests in case the weather turned, and then headed on to Laguna Beach.

The wedding ceremony was held in the Heisler Park Gazebo, which overlooks the Pacific. Here's a pic of it and the scenery to the left & right of it.

This last pic shows a spot off in the distance close to where John used to do Tai Chi.

The wedding was non-traditional in a few senses. Wedding photos were taken before the ceremony. The reception was held at the restaurant next to the gazebo, Las Brisas. There was no head table (I was able to sit with John), no toasts by the best man, and no wedding cake (which is why I don't have a picture for Suzy). Just people having lunch together with the new couple and having a good time. We sat with two of John's friends and were often joined by the bride & groom for a chat. With the guest list being small, they were able to spend more time with us. It was a very classy, different, relaxed wedding and we had a great time.

After the wedding, we came home and while still dressed up, John proposed. The rest of the day is personal. :P

Sunday morning we got up and started to cook breakfast while deciding what Easter mass we'd attend. We started receiving notes and calls from people by then with congratulations. We headed off for a noon mass, where we were lucky to get a seat. Churches are certainly more well-attended than here, I'll give them that. After church we came home and I began to let my family know of the news. I called my Dad first, he seemed genuinely shocked but congratulated me. He called me last night to ask me a software question and said "so do you have a ring?" "Yes Dad, I actually picked it out myself." I think it's still sinking in for him. My brothers were both surprised but seemed happy to hear the news. My older brother still hasn't met John yet, so I need to find a way to get the two of them in the same spot and introduce them. My grandfather had the best response, he just let out this huge whoop! and seemed very happy to hear my news.

Next was an email to aunts, uncles and cousins and I also added my mother to that list, despite the fact she's still not talking to me. A couple of relatives seemed to give what I'd call more formal replies, I think they're worried I don't know what I'm doing. My mother hasn't said a word, which is both good and bad at the same time.

A work colleague sent me an ecard when I would normally have gotten a phone call from him regarding the news. Maybe he's just out of town and can't call, but it seemed a bit odd to me.

Most people at work were happy for me, but there were a couple of people who seemed insulted by the fact that I didn't specifically seek them out to tell them my news. Well, if you heard the cheers from the other side of the office, why didn't you come by and see what the fuss was about, instead of sitting in your office being indignant? Whatever. Thanks for trying to make it about you instead of me.

Between the mixed responses and the barrage of questions I really didn't have that great of a first day back. The reactions have been interesting, to say the least.

Anyway, back to my trip.

Sunday afternoon we had lupper at Olive Garden. Late afternoon is a good time to go, the only exception being the obnoxious kid who deserved some old-fashioned corporal punishment for yelling everything he said (he was heard through the whole dining room) and being rude to the waiter.

Monday morning John worked and I headed across the street to do a bit of shopping. Didn't buy much for myself this trip, mostly books and soap and a measuring cup. In the afternoon he came home and we headed out for lunch at Cathay Newport (Asian food). We went to the beach and spent some time there. Also hit See's Candy so I could get some more Peanut Brittle Bars. Have eaten 2 already since being home. Finally we hit Krispy Kreme so I could get another donut. mmmm, Krispy Kreme.

Tuesday morning I went to Costco, the grocery store, and Target. In the afternoon John came home and grilled me another delicious steak (totally spoiled now) and I had to pack. We watched Capote that night.

I can't recall specifically which nights we watched movies on, but we watched 4 DVDs at home. Not much of interest at the theater right now. We saw Austin Powers in Goldmember (John had never seen it and it made an easily available rental from Netflix); Proof (I preferred the stage play to the screen version); Derailed (ugh, bad movie); and Capote (good performances, movie felt like 3h instead of 2).

The cat and I were getting along great... until Saturday. I think she's protesting the proposal. All of a sudden she stopping letting me pet/scratch her, she would move her head away from me. She stuck around long enough to have some pink brush treatment, but didn't want anything else to do with me. She knows she's been permanently bumped down to #2 in John's life, and she's not happy about it.

Wednesday morning we had set the alarm for 5:30am. Considering the fact that that was 9:30am Atlantic, it wasn't so bad for me. I was busy packing the few remaining items which luckily distracted me from being upset. The shuttle came and away I went. The look on John's face as I drove away was pretty heartbreaking -- I hate that look. At least I wasn't bawling all over him this time.

The flights home were a bit shorter due to tail winds instead of head winds. About the only thing exciting to happen was the lady across the aisle on my LAX-YUL flight who puked up orange juice all over those seats before we even took off. She'd apparently had food poisining.

My luggage made out impressively well, especially considering the fact that it weighed 58lbs on the return trip. The limit is 50lbs and they're supposed to charge you over that, but they let me off the hook. Next time I want to buy books while I'm away, I'd better take 2 suitcases. :)

Home

I am home, just wading through the stuff waiting for me at the office. People here were pretty excited to get my news, one lady was almost in tears she was so happy for me.

I had a large post written on my Blackberry which I then accidentally deleted, otherwise you'd be reading about the rest of my trip. I'll re-write things tonight.

Not feeling too bad this morning, but I usually have a much easier time adjusting to coming east.

News

I had an exciting day yesterday. I'll let this do the explaining. :)

More pics from Disneyland

Here's me with the statue of Walt and Mickey. Yes, I am the whitest person in SoCal.

Pirates of the Caribbean was closed because they are re-doing it. It's supposed to reopen in June.

50th anniversary parade

You have to ride the teacups when you go to Disneyland, so I did.

Mickey's Toontown

Chicken crossing

This sombrero actually has Mickey ears on it, but they didn't come through in the picture. I almost bought this for Cinco de Mayo but it wouldn't have been very easy to take back in my luggage.

John's mom wanted to get me 50th anniversary ears, and they stitch your name in the back.

John & me at the end of the day. By this time I am so exhausted that I didn't notice my ears were askew, hehehe.

Land of the Stroller

A happy Good Friday to you all, though to most of you it's just a free day off. For me, I am off to church this afternoon. A work friend of John's is coming by to pick me up and go with me.

Here it's just another Friday. Not wanting to cater to one religious group over another, no one has the day off, but if you have to go to a church service, they let you have the time off work so they aren't sued. It's the American way. I'm glad that I still have the day off at home. It helps with the solemnity of the day for it not to be like any other day.

I am just hanging out at home this morning, doing laundry. I was going to head across the street to Target & the grocery store, but it started to pour rain. I have my umbrella with me, but my enthusiasm for walking in the rain is lacking right now, so I just decided to stay in until it's time to go to church.


Yesterday was the visit to Disneyland, or as I have re-named it, the Land of the Stroller. The single largest gathering of strollers I have ever seen. By the end of the day, if I saw one more stroller in my way or bumping into me... *shakes fist. What Walt didn't keep in mind when he declared Disneyland the "happiest place in the world" was that there would eventually be a day when there are too many people in one spot. Spring Break (not allowed to call it Easter break) is this week in SoCal and Disneyland was PACKED. Some rides had 2-3h waits. Others weren't so bad, but was still 30-45 minutes in a line for a 5 min ride. It made for a long day of walking. I didn't bring my pedometer with me, but I'm damn sure I walked more than 10,000 steps yesterday.

It's funny, but I found Disneyland a bit more disorganized than DisneyWorld. I don't remember DisneyWorld being as hard to get around in as Disneyland was. Granted, World is newer than Land and thus they would have had more experience to plan it. What I really don't understand is how my older brother is able to go to Universal in Florida and spend multiple days there. One day, sure, it's fun. If he could, he'd spend a week there. I just don't get it.

Anyway, despite the long lines and long day on my feet I had a good time. John's sister, her husband and son arrived at the apartment first, with his mom following a bit later to pick me up. I wasn't expecting presents but they each came bearing gifts. His sister (editor of Teddy Bear and Friends Magazine) brought me the 25th anniversary Snuffles -- I was speechless. John had sent her the picture of my Wall of Snuffles, and she got this one for me. I was really touched. Since I bought my house I've had to curb the Snuffles collecting. His mom arrived and gave me a cream-colored shawl that she had crocheted and it's really beautiful.

We arrived at the park and met up with John's aunt, uncle & 5 kids. This made us a group of 12... we really could have used matching shirts :) I passed the quiz by remembering everyone's name, only needing one reminder. His cousins range in age from 16-3, and I have to say, they put my cousins to shame. They're really great kids, not whiny and spoiled. Everyone I met yesterday was really nice. John has a great family.

John left work and met us for supper at Downtown Disney, where there are shops & restaurants and you don't have to pay the park fee to come in. We ate at ESPNZone as it had a shorter wait time than the jungle restaurant. We were such a large group that they ended up putting us in a separate room, and we had a nice meal. After that, the crew headed back into the park, and John, his mom and I all headed for home.

Here are some pics I took throughout the day, and some that John's mom took for me with my camera.

The castle, which after seeing the castle at DisneyWorld, looks a lot smaller :)






The Matterhorn, which I thought was a fun ride, after I regained my hearing due to the people behind us who insisted on screaming as loud as possible, complaining at it to speed up, and then at the end saying it was lame and sucked.



More pics in a bit, I just realized it's almost time for church and I have to get ready.

Reunited

My flight between Montreal and LA was fairly uneventful. I slept or rested my eyes most of the way.

Got off the plane and headed for the Super Shuttle. Between the traffic and the accent of my driver, it made it difficult for me to understand him when he asked if I was going to Irvine, but we got that sorted out and managed to get myself on the right bus. Despite having a reservation, they couldn't seem to find my file, so when we arrived at John's apartment and he came down to meet me, he had to go back up and dig around for the confirmation number on the reservation. Finally found that, and then we were able to head up to the apartment.

He waited to take lunch until I arrived, so we sat curled up for a while just talking and glad to finally be back together.

John had to resume working, so I got up to unpack a few things. After a few minutes of that I started to feel pretty wonky, so I laid down for a nap. John grilled us some chicken with some KD on the side for supper so I got up to eat. Managed to not pass out at the dinner table but still wasn't feeling so great, so I stayed home while he went to bowling. He just got back and is sitting behind me blogging about his spectacular night. He's pretty excited as tonight determined their position.

I woke up a bit ago when Caly came in to join me on the bed. Caly is not one to want to miss out on any kind of activity involving sleep. She curled up with me for quite a while. She hasn't been giving me that Look of Fear like last time, and came around me within the first hour of me being here, so she must remember me in some fashion. While we were hanging out on the bed, Caly decided she missed John, and meandered over to curl up with his pants. It was even funnier when she was rubbing her head all over, but I couldn't quite get that on camera - every time I moved the camera she became fascinated with that.

So that's it from here, I am up again for a while in an attempt to be able to sleep through the night. Tomorrow is Disneyland and hopefully I'll be a bit more adjusted than I was last time I saw his mom :) I'll be seeing her again, and meeting his sister Mindy, nephew Jack, brother in-law Scott, Uncle Fred, Aunt Wendy, and their 4 kids, all while John is at work. He'll meet us after work for dinner at a yet-to-be-determined location. Originally it was going to be Medieval Times, but than plan has changed.

Caly is posing again. As you can see, she hasn't lost any weight :)

YUL

Well, I'm glad I wasn't in a hurry to clear customs in Montreal. We landed in plenty of time, flight was only an hour and a half really. The holdup was waiting for connecting bags.

This is the first time in a while that I've come through Montreal on my way to the US. Usually I end up going through Toronto. The connecting baggage conveyor belt is about the same size as the one at home (read: damn small). I lost count of the number of times the damn thing stopped and started to load luggage. For a major airport, that size belt just doesn't cut it. Especially when the tour group of Quebec teenagers showed up and swarmed the belt.

Anyway, after somewhere between 20-30 minutes of standing there waiting for my bag, it finally appeared. So far so good on the dirt factor. They also had men loading bags back on the belt so that saved me from wrangling it. I also got a "how you doin'" from the baggage guys. :) I smiled and thanked them for the baggage help. Other than that, mind too busy with thoughts of boyfriend. :)

After that I had to go through security again. I finished up there and walked past a room labelled "Reconciliation Room." Just in time for Holy Week, the airports are offering confessions! How nice is that? :P

Also walked past the gate for Reagan National. Whole other separate set of security. I knew about it, of course, had just never seen the extra setup myself.

Didn't manage to get much sleep on my first flight, despite having the seat beside me empty, because it was too noisy. Propeller planes will do that. My teeth were chattering and my earplugs made the vibration noises of the plane even worse. I did doze off a couple of times, but I'm looking forward to getting some more sleep on this flight. This one is 6h long.

Boarding soon, more from LA. Since it would take 2h each direction for John to come and pick me up, we decided I would take a shuttle rather than him take a half-day off work. So the Super Shuttle will be delivering me from LAX to John's door. Frankly, if I was him, I don't know how I'd get any work done today, I'd be looking out the window seeing if the van was there yet. Hope you get something done before I get there. :)

YSJ

Here I am, at the airport once again. I woke up at 4:30am and Dad picked me up just after 5. I'm pretty tired this morning. Got about 5h of sleep last night. Hope to be able to get as much sleep as I can on the plane.

I did web check-in last night, and while SJ airport isn't that busy, it really comes in handy when you're headed for a large airport. Last time I was away, I did web check-in before we left John's apartment. I avoided a long line and had the security of knowing that I already had my boarding pass. Very handy.

I can't believe it's here already, that it's time to go away again. You think it will never get here, and then there is the rush of packing and preparing, and all of a sudden it's time to go. I'm excited to be able to see John again. We never have enough time together.

Dad told me that Air Canada is no longer flying jets from here to Montreal. All of the flights are now Dash-8s. Doubles the flight time from 1h to 2h. *sigh. I guess I should be thankful that there are any flights out of here, since it's not exactly a money-making run.

Both my carry-on and luggage are new for this trip. My new luggage hasn't gotten much of a test run just yet - the true test for that will be in Montreal when I clear customs. I recently got a new laptop for work, and with it I got a backpack for it instead of a traditional laptop bag. So far I am really enjoying it. There are a lot more pockets, nooks and crannies in which to put things. The laptop itself is 6 lbs, so if I'm going to lug that around, no sense in wrecking my shoulder.

Couldn't avoid taking the laptop with me this time, as my co-worker who is filling in for me is on her own with no one else in the office who could help until Tuesday. This means I have to be a little more accessible to work on this trip, unfortunately. Oh well, I am not in as desperate a need for a break as I was last time :)

They just called pre-boarding, so I guess I'd better pack up. More later from Montreal.

And now the packing

I solved my luggage dilemma by dropping by Winners and discovering that they hadn't yet sold the 2 pieces Jenn and I had seen a couple of weeks ago. I bought the two pieces, though I will try to only take one, so as to have less to wrangle with at the airport. Winners had the large and small pieces, but not the medium, so I have two of the three.

It's quite a neat set, actually. The front that you see here is nylon and expandable, but the rest is hard-shell polypropylene, so it's hybrid luggage. Protection and expandability, and still lighter than my old luggage. The handles are molded plastic and fold down, as opposed to faux-leather stitched handles that hurt your hands after virtually any carrying.

It is pretty girly looking, but since I'm a girl, that works out pretty well. I also looked at a set of luggage in Walsh Luggage that was purple, which is what I wanted, but internet research told me that it weighed more than what I bought. The nylon in the purple set wasn't as tight a weave. It was slightly larger though, and my fave color. In the end I think I made the right choice, based on the fact that it's lighter than what I have, it's definitely distinctive, I really like the hybrid, and the two pieces together were cheaper than a single piece at Walsh. I don't mind paying more for good quality, I just happened to luck out in finding it at Winners. I'm leery of the light color, but with 3/4 of it being polypropylene, perhaps it will still pick up less dirt than all nylon. It's going to get dirty, there's no stopping it, so I'll just have to live with it.

Luggage is a tough purchase because you really don't know what it will truly be like until you've used it and it's too late to return it, after multiple uses to get a full opinion. I have a subscription to Consumer Reports' website, but even they didn't have a whole lot to say specifically about lightweight luggage. They had sections on inexpensive luggage and how to choose luggage, but no real recommendations or comments on lightweight luggage. In any event, I did the best I could with the info I had, so here's hoping I made a good investment.

Now that I have new luggage, I have to get packing! That's tonight's project, along with getting my pedicure out of the way, if I have time.


Friday

Friday afternoon I had a conference call with John and an immigration lawyer to get some answers on his ability to move. The bottom line came down to it being a lot easier if we were married, but neither of us wants to jump the gun there, so we have to get some other things organized in order to prove we are indeed "together" before I could sponsor him as "family". I personally find it a bit insulting to have to prove to anyone that I have a real relationship, but thanks to those who try to abuse the system, my word isn't enough. We have to start getting some things jointly in our names, so we'll work towards that. We're also investigating the work option for sponsorship, we'll see how that pans out. The good news is that health care doesn't appear to be an issue, and Caly the cat will have the easiest move of all - just a rabies shot and she can come on over. So the cat can basically move in with me anytime, but John can't. Figures. :P

Friday night I was on call for work. They finally called around 11pm and said they wouldn't be ready for me until sometime on Saturday, but they didn't know when. Joy.

After speaking on the phone with the lawyer earlier in the day, John and I abandoned the typing that night in favor of the telephone. It's funny how typing so much makes you start to forget what the other person sounds like. I will be glad not to have that problem anymore.


Saturday

Saturday was damn busy. I had postponed my hair appointment last weekend due to my brother's visit, so I headed there in the morning. She worked me in between other customers, so it took a bit longer than usual, but I had planned enough time in between. After hair was done, I zipped down to Winners and bought the luggage. Also ran into Wal-Mart, against my better judgement, for a couple of things I could only get there. Then I headed uptown for a salon appointment. Saw my Dad, who offered to drive me to the airport on Wednesday morning. Dropped in to Walsh Luggage to make sure there wasn't something better than what I bought.

Palm Sunday was this weekend, so church ran longer than usual due to the reading of the Passion.

After church I headed to Suwanna with Jenn and Stew for dinner, in recompense for having to miss it last weekend with everyone else. Very yummy Suwanna chicken, as usual.

Saturday night was going to see Moonchildren, which was a great show and the cast all did a wonderful job. Very entertaining. Post-show we headed over to the Ale House for drinks & dessert, then off to the cast party. I had a good time, though I hadn't intended on staying out as late as I did. By the time I dropped off Jenn & Stew and crawled into bed, it was 4am. Good practice for the time zone change I'll be going through, but having to work today & tomorrow means I won't really be able to take advantage of that.


Sunday

Slept in to recover from the very late night. Did some cleaning in prep for having people over for JCS. Started some laundry so I'd have everything ready to choose from for packing. Ordered John's birthday presents online so they'll be there when I arrive. I have to leave a week before his birthday, so we'll celebrate while I'm there.

The JCS viewing was pretty quiet, just me, Jenn, Stew and Brian. With the cast party recovery and the Crucible read-through, most people weren't able to make it, but that was expected. I wish I would have been able to choose another night with fewer conflicts. Hopefully next year I can move it back to Good Friday. In any event, the 4 of us watched the show and had a good time. Jenn and I sang along, but no kickline :)


Time to get packing. Only 2 more sleeps!

Luggage dilemma

6 days to go and I am headed back to SoCal. I haven't started packing yet. I have extra stuff to take this time, considering I'm attending a wedding.

I'm having a dilemma with my luggage. I have luggage, it's in good shape, there's nothing really wrong with it other than the fact that it's too damn heavy. When I travel, it's usually by myself. A lot of the time I travel to the US, to see John or for work, which means I always have to handle my own luggage through customs. I am not known for packing light, I'll admit that adds to the problem. But when your luggage weighs 13lbs (≈6kg) before even putting anything in it, that just makes it suck even worse. So, my dilemma is, do I invest in luggage I can actually carry and manoeuver more easily on my own, or do I just deal with what I have? The problem is that I really don't do that much traveling. But when I do, it's a killer to have to carry my own luggage. I've thought about spiltting it up between 2 bags, but that's even more annoying when you have to carry/wheel it down a hall in an airport. I'd rather deal with one bag.

My luggage right now is red. Distinctive enough, but red is becoming the new black. What I really want is purple luggage -- this is me, after all. But really, it's a darker color, so it won't show the dirt as much, and not many people have purple luggage.

I'm not sure what to do. As of right now, I know I will [likely] be traveling 3 times, all to the US, over the next 6 months; next week plus two times for work. Do I spend the money, or just put up with what I have?

Not much, really

Haven't been up to that much. Pretty much just going to work and then coming home, reading job-related non-fiction, falling asleep, then waking up in time to chat with John. The time change seems to be making me tired, that or the stuff I'm reading is boring. Likely both.

My brother's visit on Saturday was quick but good. I had a hair appointment for that day but cancelled it in case they were going to drop by in the afternoon. Plans changed a few times, but eventually I headed off to church, and then met up with my family at The Falls for dinner. After dinner everyone came back to my place, where we chatted and I got to see the wedding pictures. My SIL said I was very photogenic and looked great in all the pics. I could still see my creepy red eye, but I was specifically looking for it, so I guess in the end it wasn't that bad. Hopefully my brother will get some time to scan some of them in. Need another pic to add to the bridesmaid pile ;) I also recently found out that I've finally made the leap and on my 10th wedding appearance, next summer, I will achieve maid of honor status. My career is advancing! From flower girl to junior bridesmaid to bridesmaid to maid of honor. For all your wedding attendant needs, call Liz! 25 years of experience! Book now!

As of right now, unless plans change, next year's dress will be blue. I've worn seafoam green, pink, mauve, forest green, red... I think this will be my first blue bridesmaid's dress. I wore that blue dress when I was the guest book minder, but that wasn't a bridesmaid's dress.

After my family left it was only 10:30, so I called over to Jenn & Stew's to see if people were still hanging out. I headed over there in time to see people, which was nice. With my brother being in town I had to miss out on part of the evening, but thankfully I got to see people later on.

John and I have been in contact with a lawyer about immigration. We decided there were too many variables and complications to our situation to handle on our own. We want to be sure that when he moves here, we don't have too many surprises. So if we have to spend some money getting that assurance, I'm ok with it. We hope to be able to talk to the lawyer tomorrow and maybe get some answers to some outstanding questions.

Haiku Wannabe

I see you looking at me
I think it's pretty funny
You must not know whose leftovers I am

Pumpkin Patch

As I drove home tonight, I saw the word is out: the Pumpkin Patch is re-opening on April 19th. Yay!!!

They're digging up a bunch of grass there also. Likely building a bigger parking lot.

Spring is here!

Nothing says Easter like

a hollow chocolate Grave Digger monster truck. Seriously. This was in this week's Zellers flyer.

My nephew would love this. Coincidentally, Grave Digger is doing a show tonight in London, ON. Somehow I don't think his mother will be taking him to a monster truck show :P

I guess bunnies no more signify Easter than a monster truck. Seeing as how I can't eat food shaped like animals, I guess that makes the monster truck more edible to me.

On reflection, I do find the thought of eating a monster truck disturbing as well. I like to think of Grave Digger as "indestructible" - sort of like George, my old truck. Eating the chocolate Grave Digger would destroy it. I don't think I can handle that responsibility.

Anyone looking to buy me Easter chocolate, you'd best stick with eggs. Or See's Peanut Brittle Bars. John's mom gave me a box of these and I'm hooked. And no, this is not a hint. I still haven't finished the chocolate I brought back from my last trip!!