Tulips and Playoff Hockey (How Canadian Eh!)

Ok, this is going to be a very quick one since it's past my bedtime and I've had a lot of fresh air and excitement today/tonight.

Work was, well, it's usual interesting self. A near miss of a cluster-fuck this morning but some quick thinking and good timing made everything ok and we carried on like we knew what the hell we were doing. Thankfully the afternoon ran much smoother and involved cake.

After work, a cluster-fuck did occur. There was a "suspicious" package found near the headquarters of National Defense so they closed one of the bridges...the one the buses run on. So....all the buses had to do a little detour which backed everything up. I was supposed to race home and get changed and meet Steph since we were going to go and see the tulips tonight. After 45 minutes of waiting, Steph told me to get on any bus heading to Tunny's (one of the major stops) and she'd rescue me. So that's what I did and that's what she did and I got a freezie for my efforts.

So we flew to my place, I changed and we headed back out to go to see the tulips. They were well worth the effort. The tulips were stunning (as usual) and I think the slowly setting sun made them even more beautiful than usual. Almost every bed was out in full bloom, which is amazing since a week ago they were all still in tight buds or weren't up yet. The weather was perfect and the park wasn't too crowded. We ran into a co-worker and his wife out for a stroll too. Everyone we saw was smiling and happy. It was just so pretty, peaceful and calming. Mother Nature really knocked one out of the park with this.

My good mood was slightly spoiled when Steph and I returned to the car, turned on the sports radio station and discovered the Montreal was winning 2-0 at the midway point of the 2nd period. Hmmm. Not good news but not the end of the world. I opted to watch a re-run of Big Bang while I had my dinner and then flipped to the hockey game to see the Ottawa had scored, making it 2-1. This is good. Ottawa kept fighting...and with 22.6 seconds left to play, they performed a hail mary and scored!!!!!!! Tie Game!!!! We're going to Overtime. Now that is playoff hockey. It would appear that Montreal's goalie hurt himself on his last save so it was their backup on the ice for the first OT period. And then, 2 minutes and 36 seconds into Overtime, Ottawa scored and we won the game!!!!!!!! Thank God/Goddess/Universe etc... I don't think my fingernails were going to last the night. Insane. But now I'm really happy and really sleepy.

Good Night!

Sarah

Montreal!! (part 1)

I'm back! As you may have noticed, I haven't blogged in a while. Almost a week in fact. I do believe that this is the longest period of time I've gone without blogging since I started. I actually missed it and I think I might have started having withdrawal symptoms. LOL.

Anyhow, the reason for the blog hiatus is that I was in Montreal, with my friend Michelle. We had a blast. It was great fun and I really enjoyed having some company this time around, even if she did try to get drunk on our first night there (no worries, I attempted revenge 2 nights later).

We went to the Botanical Gardens and saw the "Butterflies Go Free" exhibit, visited the BioDome where we saw the sloth this time (I didn't see him last time) but the Bobcat was hiding, took a tour of the Notre Dame Basilica (stunning and neither of us got struck by lightening), toured Old Montreal and the Old Port (and managed to not get blown into the St. Lawrence), ate the best poutine I've ever had (while sober), got upgraded to VIP status at the hotel which scored us a free breakfast, managed to not get lost in the subway, learnt that taking 4 lefts in a row will actually take you to some place different and not back to where you started from, got to swim outside (in the rain, in April) without freezing our asses off and generally just had a great time with a great friend.

Our train ride from Ottawa to Montreal was good. The train left 1 minute late and arrived 1 minute last so that's pretty good time. The guy on the train with the food/drinks cart was pretty funny. I spoke French to him and he was impressed by my attempt, so he tried to get Michelle to do the same. That didn't work. LOL. He then told us a funny story about offering "Swedish Balls" to a couple the week before instead of saying "Swedish Berries". It was pretty damn funny. Once in Montreal, we checked into the hotel and headed off to the Botanical Gardens. We'd lucked out and the hotel sold us discounted tickets to the Gardens and BioDome so we save some money. When we got to the Gardens, they were having electrical issues and all the lights/power was out. Since the green houses just use nature light, we were still allowed in. They said that the power should be fixed within a half hour or so and they were right. We were in the tropical  plants section when all of a sudden, we heard a funny noise and then what sounded like water gurgling. I looked over at the little waterfall they have and sure enough, the water came running down it again. The pump was back on. This meant that by the time we'd finished the tour and saw the butterflies, the gift shop had re-opened. That was very important. LOL.

Afterwards, we ventured back to our hotel and then out to a place called The Burger Bar for dinner. It was crazy trendy. I definitely felt under dressed. I needed to add a scarf or floppy hat (the girl beside us had one) or something. I did have a very yummy Orange Creamcicle martini though, which according to Michelle, I drank far too slowly (she had 2 double Sex on the Beach in the same time it took to drink my 1 drink). She made some comment about not getting out much. The food was amazing though. Very awesome, unique burgers. They had one that had won an award during "Burger" week. It was called "The Hangover". It had bacon, cheese, a fried egg, mini poutine and truffle oil on it. There might have been a few more things too. I skipped it and had the Wild Shroom burger instead. Very yummy. We walked around the area for a bit, hitting up Ben and Jerry's for ice cream on the way back and taking a detour to see the Bell Centre (since Montreal is Michelle's team) before finding our way back to the hotel for a much needed rest.

And the rest of this story is to be continued because I need to get my butt to bed since I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Good Night!

Sarah

An (almost) Perfect Day!

What a day! Finally, after months and month of ice, snow, cold and bleak weather, we were reminded today that humans are meant to be outdoors.

I started my day off by sleeping in. I then had a lovely shower, did my hair and make up and headed downtown to meet Gidgett for brunch. She was kind enough to retrieve my iPod for me which I'd left at work on Thursday, so I feel whole again. The brunch we were headed to wasn't just any brunch. It was a special, epic one, at my favourite restaurant: Courtyard Restaurant.

That place is amazing. It's in an old stone building and is beautifully decorated. The food is out of this world. This is what I had " 'Perfect' Scrambled Eggs, Crème Fraiche and Chives, Sourdough Toast, Bacon or Sausage, Oven-Roasted Tomato, Herbed Hash Brown". I have to admit, they really were perfect scrambled eggs. Before the main course, they served as a scone with jam (which was delicious), we had a mimosa to drink with our meal (champagne and orange juice) and then for dessert, we each ordered a different option and then split the two. We had: "Flourless Chocolate Cake, Cherry Purée, Cherry Crumble" and "Sticky Toffee Pudding, Caramel Sauce, Crème Anglaise" Both were outstanding. The Sticky Toffee Pudding was my favourite. I'm pretty sure this is where I want to go for my birthday dinner.

After all that food, we headed out into the sunshine and the market. We met up with Adele and went on a sight seeing/shopping tour of the market. I ended up coming home with fresh spinach and feta ravioli, roasted garlic tomato sauce, highly addictive rosemary and sea salt artisan bread crisps, drunken sausages (they have Mill St. beer in them) and some cupcakes from the Cupcake Lounge. It was a good outing. I had the pasta for dinner and 1 cupcake for dessert. A winning combination really. The sun was out the whole time we were venturing about. It was so great to feel its warmth on my skin again. It renewed my soul and spirit and gave me new hope that the warm spring weather will soon be here. It was also nice to spend some time with a couple of ladies who I rarely see outside of work. It's very therapeutic to be able to talk to people who can relate to some of the stuff I'm dealing with or for me to be able to offer advice because they're going through something I'd been through before. It nice seeing things from a different perspective too.

After dinner, I was ready to settle down for the night when Xtintor texted. He was home alone for the night as his ladies were at the in-laws so he asked if I'd like to go for coffee. Despite being rather sleepy and having already taken my bra off, I said yes. I got dressed and we headed out. I opted for herbal tea while he went for the Venti, full caffeine version. We headed to Britannia Park where we found a trail near the beach that was mostly clear of snow. We walked and talked and admired all the beautiful stars that are out tonight.

Just as I was being dropped off, my father phoned to rub in the fact that his hockey team beat my hockey team. I guess there had to be one flaw in my otherwise perfect day. LOL.

So now I'm quite sleepy and I'm pretty sure my feet stopped talking to me about a half hour ago. I think sleeping in tomorrow is definitely in the works. So's cooking a prime rib roast (never tackled one of those before).  I hope everyone has a very happy Easter.

Good Night!

Sarah

Outside of my favourite restaurant (in the summer)

Day Off - Attempt #2

As you may recall, I took a day off last month. And it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. As a result, my day out with NB and Baby D didn't turn out as well as planned (except for the wonderful catch up time at her place). So, we opted to try it again today.

Thankfully, Mother Nature co-operated and we didn't get the all day flurries that Environment Canada had been calling for. Yay! Making things even better, NB's hubby took the day off and came with us so that he could help out with Baby F, which meant we got time to go and shop. And shop we did. I only came out of the day with 3 new tops but NB cleaned up. Baby D seemed to enjoy his day out too and even had a rather nice nap while we hit up one last store after finishing at the mall.

It was a very lovely day and I'm glad I got to see all of them. We didn't get to chat quite as much as I would have liked, but we did have fun trying on clothes. The pink "Jessica Simpson" pants I tried on at The Bay made for a good laugh. I also discovered that Mrs. Tiggy Winkles has more awesome stuff in it than I ever remember it having. Baby D got 2 new, very cool toys there. He sure seemed to like them. I almost broke down and bought some toys too. I found some awesome stuff to get for my nieces and nephews later on and  even found stuff I want (like the Big Bang Theory trivia games). Baby D really is friggin' adorable. At one point he did something that made me laugh and then he laughed at me laughing at him. So cute! Watching him interact with other kids and babies is just incredible. I'm really happy that NB and I got to spend some "girl time" together and got some pretty decent shopping done in the process. I'm sure everyone is going to sleep well tonight. I think we all managed to tire ourselves out.  But it was worth it to get nice new clothes for spring. Now we just need Mother Nature to co-operate and bring us Spring!

And I'm pretty sure we saw a coyote while we were stopped at a red light too. That's not quite something you see every day. It goes along with the two deer I saw last night en route to the Sens game.

The Sens game. It was Ottawa vs. Boston. I've never seen Boston play so it was a new adventure for me. I was originally going with Gidget from work but alas, March struck again and she had to go home for a funeral. So my back up plan was put in place and that saw Xtinktor and I heading out. Only problem? X is a damn Montreal fan. It's not as bad as a Leaf's fan but still. It turned out to be a good game. We had decent seats and the teams were well matched. Sadly, Ottawa lost with only 1:04 left to play in the 3rd. Shots on goal were 28 for Ottawa and 29 for Boston so, like I said, it was evenly matched. There wasn't a single penalty called in the first period. Sadly, the refs made some questionable calls in the 2nd and 3rd (for both teams) and made a couple really questionable off side calls too (again, for both teams). Other than that, it was a great game. There was a woman there who's 95 and was attending her very first Sens game. I thought that was really cool.

So it's been a pretty cool last day and a half. I got to go out and about, spend time with some awesome people and be able to get away from work and stop stressing for a bit, which feels AWESOME!!! And the best part? It's the weekend so I have 2 more days to relax and do whatever tickles my fancy.

Oh, and congrats to my baby brother for passing his practical exam, despite being in pain/having ringing in his ear. Seriously, he's the most accident prone person I've ever met. But he's now got his certification (pipe fitter?? Not 100% sure on that...) and that's awesome.

Ok, I think it's time to pay one last visit to Facebook and the head to bed. I'll leave everyone with some photos from the game last night.

Good Night!

Sarah

Game On!

Have I mentioned how happy I am to have hockey back? Well I am. I missed it. I really did. I am a true Canadian woman, so I love me my hockey. LOL.

There was no blog last night because I was out, cheering on my team and it was on the late side by the time I got home.

For her birthday, I gave my friend Steph a ticket to the Ottawa vs. Montreal game. It turned out to be almost a better present for me than her. We managed to escape work at a pretty decent time and got to the arena before 6pm, which was awesome. Not only did that mean that we got a pretty sweet parking spot, but we were also able to wander the building without fighting the crowds.

We opted to eat dinner at the rink and we had massive poutines for dinner. We lucked out and one of the ushers was handing out coupons for the place that sold the poutine. The suckers were huge and neither one of us finished ours.

Being at the rink early gave us a chance to watch warm up too. Steph was pissed because Montreal's #1 goalie wasn't playing and neither was the new guy they'd just signed. I was happy with my line up, even if Spezza was out with an injury.  The game was a good one. It was pretty fast paced (when the referees weren't blowing the whistle every 5 seconds) and there were 2 fights in the first 5 minutes. Things settled down after that.

I've missed seeing hockey live. It's so different when you're sitting in the stands, surrounded by fellow fans, cheering on your team. The sights, the sounds, the smells - they're all awesome. And it all adds to the experience and enjoyment of the game. It's the sort of thing that I think everyone should get to experience. Even if you're not a huge sports fan, there's enough stuff there to keep you occupied. Just watching the people is entertaining enough. Like the girls who were drinking their beer through a straw. Or the puck bunnies in the row behind us or the poor guy down in the 100s who got hit in the head with a stray puck. I guess he missed the warning about flying objects coming over the glass.

We hung out at the rink for a bit after the game, waiting for the parking lot to thin out. That worked well and we didn't spend too much time in traffic. The city is building a new highway access ramp for the arena so traffic will be much better once that's done.

Even though it was almost midnight by the time I got into bed, it was a great night. I had great company, great entertainment and my team cleaned house winning 5-1, which was the icing on the cake. I can't wait to go back and see my team play again.

Now it's time to crawl back into bed and try to catch up on some of the sleep I missed last night.

Good Night!

Sarah

Hockey and Tofu

Man, I've missed hockey. I've been watching the Ottawa-Florida game on commercial breaks during my other shows. LOL. Ottawa is winning with 10 minutes left to go. Let's go Ottawa!!

Work was good today. Steady but not crazy, which was nice. It was nice to just keep moving from one task to the other and actually be able to finish something. I have a seminar tomorrow morning which sounds interesting. It's about mental health and stress in the workplace. I love that my employer holds seminars like this. I think it's very important.

I made a kick ass soup for dinner. It had tofu in it :) I marinaded some extra firm tofu in some toasted sesame oil, soya sauce and minced garlic and then I fried it up until it was a little crispy and tossed it on top of my soup. It was sooo good! I could have eaten to tofu as is. The soup was just mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, chicken broth, onion power, garlic and Udon noodles. Oh and and come chili pepper flakes. I've got some left for lunch tomorrow. I'm quite happy as to how my first attempt at using tofu turned out.

My lower back is quite sore tonight. Not sure what I did to it. Maybe I slid on some ice this morning and twisted and didn't notice. I dunno. I'll try walking around a bit more tomorrow and see if that helps. An ibuprofen gel cap before bed is a good plan too.

It's friggin' cold here. And we're in for it all week. It's weeks like this that makes me think that global warming just might be a myth. But then when I realize that 100 years ago, they had several weeks a winter that was this cold, I think that maybe it isn't such a myth.

6 minutes left in the hockey game (and I've been writing this blog for more than 4 minutes, got to love "sports time".) and I think it's time to head to bed. Maybe I'll leave the game on while I wash up and brush my teeth. Then I can just listen to the game.

Good Night!

Sarah

Ottawa scoring on NJ a couple years ago :)

Pancakes, Psychics and Ikea

My day started with a text message waking me up at 8:45am. In all fairness, I wasn't 100% asleep, more like in that in between stage. It was Steph telling me that her husband's shift got changed and he was going in for the morning not that afternoon. Our plan had been to meet at 1pm and then go and see what kind of trouble we could get into. So this was a change in a plans. But then she asked the magic question "Do you want to do breakfast?". That got me out of bed and into the shower. LOL. I love breakfast foods and I knew that she meant we'd be going to Broadways for breakfast. They have the most amazing pancakes there and since I hadn't had them in a very long time, I was on board. The pancakes are Caramel Apple Cinnamon. So good. I couldn't even finish them so I have one and a bit in my fridge to have with breakfast tomorrow. Yay!

Our next adventure was to find the Psychic Fair. I've never been to one so this was a new adventure for me. Problem is that the coupon we had (2 for 1 admission) had 2 addresses on it: one in the east end and one in the west. We opted for the one in the west end since that's where we were. We quickly discovered that the address didn't actually exist. So we hopped the Queensway and headed East. Slowly. We got some snow overnight and into today. About 7cms of it. So traffic was backed up because everyone seemed to have forgotten how to drive in it. Fine by us. Slow and steady is the safe choice and we got to our destination in one piece.

Once inside the fair, we circulated and picked up pamphlets from all of the booths. For the most part, the exhibitors seemed quite normal. But there's always one who's a little "out there" and she latched onto us. I should point out that this happens to Steph and I a lot. For some reason, we seem to attract the crazies. I dunno. Anyhow, the next thing we know, she's showing us photos of her favourite cats in her scrap book and telling us about all the different things she's done etc.. We finally escape and take all of our pamphlets out into the hall and find a nice couch to sit on and review everything. While we're in the middle of it, the lady we'd just been cornered by comes out and heads to the elevator. She pushes the button and even though it opened almost right away, she saw us and decided to come and chat a bit more. After telling us something about having had new cards and a new sign made for her booth, but having misplaced the cards....she left us alone. Steph and I decided it was time to head back inside and get a reading done before the nut case came back.

I'm not 100% convinced that psychics and mediums etc... are real. But I've seen and heard enough to be open to the possibility that they are. So I picked one man to go and get a reading from. His name is Keith. He told me right up front what to expect and said that if within the first few minutes, if what he said about my past and present weren't accurate within reason, to stop him and he'd refocus and if that still didn't work, there'd be no charge. Sounds like a good deal to me. Thank god I was sitting down, before the first 10 words out of his mouth nearly knocked me on my ass. Within the first 30 seconds he had me nailed. Spot on. And this man knew nothing about me, not even my name. And I'm not talking about vague references that could be applied to me (and about half the population). I'm talking much more specific details. He was able to tell me things about myself that I've never shared with anyone, not even my closest friends. I was pretty open to hear what he said after that.

It was a 30+ minute reading that also utilized tarot cards (which are kind of cool on their own). I'm not going to go into much detail here about the reading, as I'm still trying to take it all in myself. He made a CD of the reading for me (most of the people there did) so I can listen to it again. He did give some general and very specific dates and timelines for things, so it will be interesting to see if the events happen as he suggested they  will. The reading did give me the 2 things I'd hoped they would: reassurance that I'm on the right path and am currently doing the right thing(s) for me and the second thing is some peace of mind.
What was slightly uncanny about the reading is that I had an astrology reading done back in the late summer. Several things that that guy said would occur in the next 18-24 months were the same things that Keith came up with today. That sure made me pay attention. Steph was able to get some answers too. They might not have all been what she wanted to hear, but one of them really made her happy and in my opinion, it was the most important one that she had, so that's a very good thing.

After that adventure, we headed for Ikea. I was looking for spice jars. I love the Ottawa Ikea. If you follow the arrows on the floor and walk to whole place (both floors), it's 1km in length. So we got some exercise today too. We also ran into one of our co-workers and her boyfriend. That was a fun surprise. I kept finding some very phallic looking vases and planters though. In fact, after handling one of them, I felt so dirty that I suggest to Steph that I should buy the vase dinner. LOL. We shouldn't be left alone in Ikea. I did get my spice jars as well as a new measuring cup and a beautiful new pillow for my living room. I also got some frozen meatballs and sauce mix. I'm going to cook them up tomorrow for dinner, using my slow cooker. That  should make for a nice and easy Sunday dinner.

It was a very nice Saturday and I've been left with some things to think about, but I'm very happy. And I got home in time to watch the last 9 minutes of the Ottawa - Winnipeg game, including getting to see Ottawa score their 4th goal. They won the game 4-1. Unfortunately Toronto won tonight too. I was really hoping Montreal would get the upper hand. Oh well.

I'm going to head off to bed now. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow AND getting to have another awesome pancake. LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah

The photo has nothing to do with today other than the fact that the chair and stool are from Ikea :)

Birthday Hockey

It was back to my normal job for me today and the transition was pretty good. Not too much craziness, which was very nice indeed.

The weather was pretty good and I got to escape for a bit and enjoy a little bit of the sunshine. I had some pretty decent sushi for lunch too :)

And I got to give Stephanee her birthday present. I think I'm just as excited about it as she is. We're both hockey fans. I'm a Sens fan and she's a Canadians fan (which is far better than liking Toronto so we're good). Thanks to Ottawa for dropping their ticket prices,  I was able to afford 2 tickets to the Ottawa vs. Montreal game at the end of the month, so I gave Steph one of the tickets for her birthday. It will be girl's night out at Scotiabank Place. WOOHOO! I can't wait.

I really  have missed hockey. Yes, I'm pissed at the owners and the players for being such dicks and being locked out for so long, but I'm very happy to have hockey back. The Sens are making an effort to win fans back, which shows that they respect us. When they were locked out, our team captain stayed in Ottawa and helped to coach his son's team (yes, he had to take the mandatory coaching course!). I give him props for that. Several of our players stuck around and helped out in the community, which was great. So now hockey is back and I'm going to go out and support my team and show them that I appreciate the fact that they're back. Now let's drop the puck and get on with it!

I think I'll wear my new jersey to work on Friday...

Good Night!

Sarah

It goes so well with my PJ pants. LOL.