A Seriously Strenuous Sightseeing and Shopping Saturday

Well colour me exhausted. LOL. I am a born shopper but after today's adventure, I dunno. He almost did me in. The "he" in question is my buddy J.D. who just moved to Ottawa. I knew him in another life :)

Anyhow, being new to Ottawa, I took him around town today and man, did we get around. We started over near Hog's Back for Breakfast. There was an entire girls soccer team in the restaurant, out for a team breakfast to celebrate the birthday of one of the team members. They were all 13 and 14 year olds so it was a little on the rowdy side, but they were well behaved.

After breakfast, I showed J.D. why the area was called "Hog's Back". It's simple, we have the "Hog's Back Falls" there. The rock in the middle of the falls looks like the back of a pig apparently, and that's how it got the name. My grandmother once told me that she went swimming in those falls as a teenager. I'm not sure if I believe her or not. Next we moved onto my alma mater, Carleton University. Did a quick drive around campus and I pointed out the dorm I lived in and such. Then we took Colonel By all the way into downtown so that he could see more of the canal and I could show him Landsdown Park before the stadium is completely torn down. We then drove through Vanier and out into the east end where we passed the Notre Dame cemetery (where Laurier is burried) and Beechwood Cemetery (Where the Canadian National War Cemetery is) and then we headed for an errand run back this way out to Barrhaven. I should point out that there was a bathroom and coffee/hot chocolate stop in there.

Once in Barrhaven, I stopped to drop off something to a friend and got to witness several young ladies hopped up on sugar, running a muck. LOL. It was a "decorate your own cupcake" stage of her daughter's birthday party. Sadly, I couldn't visit for long as J.D. waiting in the car (and seemed rather glad to have done so) so after a quick catch up session, I headed out...but not before the entire house hold said goodbye to me. LOL. Those girls were so adorable! And I really would have loved to have stayed and chatted longer. This friend is a wonderful woman and you can't help but feel happy in her presence. It's like her super power power or something. Anyhow, after our mini tour of suburbia was done, we headed to Ikea.

Ahhh, Ikea. I love that place. It's my idea of fantasy land. All those pretty rooms, all neat and tidy. It makes you believe that you really can make a tiny space into something awesome. Then I come home and look at my disaster and reality comes crashing back down. On this trip, I finally bought myself a real desk chair! I also picked up a cool door mat and some more hand towels for the kitchen. J.D. seemed rather impressed by our HUGE Ikea (biggest in Canada don't ya know). We then stopped by my apartment to drop off the Ikea stuff and headed back out. We needed sustenance after Ikea so we headed to The Butchery in Bells Corners for milk shakes from Vera's Burger Shack. They were very good. Since we'd refuelled, we continued on our way. Giant Tiger was next (where I got reduced to clear socks!!) followed by Walmart.

I need to point something out here. I am a fairly frugal shopper. I compare prices, collect coupons and price match in order to get the best deal, but I'm not extreme about it. Certain items I'm willing to pay full price for and I usually know a good deal when I see. J.D takes frugal to a whole new level. This made shopping very, very, very painful. He is very indecisive as a result and will hum and haw about something for a good long time before deciding to for go it all together. I'm pretty sure I threatened him with physical violence no less than 3 times today. The last time was a threat of hitting him with a bag of frozen vegetable if he didn't hurry up and pick one!! I ended up picking one out for him.

We both get out of Walmart alive. For a better part of the day, he's been mulling over whether or not to buy a tv for his room. As we're walking out to the car, he decides that he's going to get one. Ok. I agree that I'm up for one last shopping adventure so we head to Future Shop. I got wise. I looked at tvs for a few minutes with him and then went and said in the amazingly comfortable chairs in front of the GIANT tv they have in their home theatre section and I just watched hockey and waited for J.D. and the sales guy to figure things out smartest move of my day. LOL. He got a very nice tv (I'm kind of jealous actually) and we headed home.

I ordered Swiss Chalet for dinner and then rented Hotel Transylvania. It was a very fun little movie. Very cute and amusing too. I really quite enjoyed it.

Talking with J.D was quite interesting today. I remember him being a very happy go lucky person. He was still cheerful today but he's very nervous and quite worried. Not just about starting the new job and being in a  new city but worried about life as a whole. I can't really fault him for it as that was me a few years ago. All I could really tell him was to focus on the positive, allow himself to be happy and enjoy the good times when they're around. None of us can know what's coming next and worrying about intangible things like that is counter productive to our own happiness. I only know that because I lived it and it's only been over the last 2 years that I've made a conscious effort to relax and not to worry so much. I hope he listened and I hope he can find his own path to happier and healthier life. I think he just needs to get through this first week and then he'll be feeling a little better.

All in all, I showed J.D: Hog's Back, Mooney's Bay, Carleton, Lansdown, Vanier, Beechwood, Barrhaven and Bell's Corners today. I think that covered a good chunk of places :)

I do believe it's time to go to bed now. I've had a long (but fun!) day and I really need to get laundry and house work done tomorrow. I tore the living room apart looking for something last night and it now looks 5 times worse than it did before tornado Sarah blew on by. Sigh.

Good Night!

Sarah

My high school grad photo!

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 :)

Up coming Saturday Shenanigans and Extreme Sport Shopping

Just an ordinary, typical Friday today. With maybe a hint of silliness thrown in since it is Friday. And for some of use, it's a long weekend too. I'm excited about the prospect of sleeping in tomorrow but I've even more excited about getting to have an afternoon/evening of Shenanigans with Steph. It's been far too long. I'm suffering from a serious case of cabin fever and friend-type interaction and venting.

Mother Nature might attempt to add some excitement to our outing in the form of freezing rain but I'm sure we can find a mall with covered parking to hide at for a few hours. Or Ikea :) I have a $25 dollar off coupon for one of my favourite stores and they have tops on sale for $25 tomorrow. A free top is very welcome in my world!

Someone new is moving into an apartment down the hall from me. They started moving in a little after 7pm and I do believe they're still at it. Which is highly annoying as my apartment building is less sound proof them my university residence was. Earlier, they brought some heavy piece of furniture up. It took them almost 10 minutes to go up the 2 flights of stairs and then about 5 to get it down the hall. After quite a bit of thumping, banging and grunting, I heard them talking to one of my other neighbours. Apparently whatever it was wouldn't fit through the door of the apartment. Oops. That can't be good. That's also why you should measure things before dragging them up 2 flights of stairs and down a hallway.

Back to shopping for a minute. Steph is going to think I'm crazy, but I think I might try to convince her to take me to Costco tomorrow. I know. It's a Saturday and it's a long weekend and it's only 7 weeks until Christmas...but that's why I want to go. I need Christmas cards. And baking supplies. Hmmm, I kind of hope Steph doesn't read this blog. She might get frightened away. LOL. Going to Costco most of the time is kind of like an adventure sport. On a Saturday, it becomes an Extreme adventure sport where you're not entirely sure if you'll come out alive or in one piece.

I need to get to bed so that I'm fully rested for tomorrow's adventure.

Good Night!

Sarah

Random photo of a squirrel in our back lot. He's a stumpy!