Days 12 and 13: Brighter days and Brownies

I accidentally stayed up way past my bedtime last night and opted to go to bed rather than blogging. I think it was a wise choice.

I took Friday off work. I was worried that it wouldn't seem like a day off but it actually did. Only issue was that I kept thinking it was Saturday instead of Friday. Oops.

Started my day by sleeping in, then had a late breakfast and did two load of laundry. Kristina came over and we went for a walk in the gloriously awesome sunghine, maintaining a good distance. After the walk, it was too nice out to go inside so we sat across the street from my building (a meter a part) and chatted for almost an hour. We talked to an elderly woman who lost her husband in January and she's been dealing with suddenly being alone and now the whole social distancing thing. She decided that going for a walk was a good idea and we told her it was. Yes, I'm alone but I've had years of practice at it. Being alone was very new to her. I think she appreciated having someone to talk to, even just for a few minutes. I'm glad we were able to make her smile and even laugh a bit. I hope we brought a bit of joy to her day.

After Kristina left, I read for a bit and then ordered pizza for dinner as a treat. I've got to say, my bank account is looking a whole lot better since this social disancing thing started. I'm resisted the urge to shop online and I'm only ordering in once or twice a week. And I have enough pizza now to feed me for three days!

A lot of perfomers have been doing live online video steaming performanaces. One of my favourite bands, the Barenaked Ladies, performed one of my favourite songs, Lovers in a Dangerous Time (their version) the other day. It was awesome. Made me smile and think back to a few summers ago when I saw them perform live. It's awesome how music works as a time travel device. You can see the performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DbChOUotfo

The weather wasn't as nice today. It was supposed to be sunny but that never happened. It stayed overcast but it was on the warm side and no rain so that was nice. I spent my morning doing more laundry and baking birthday brownies for Kristina (from scratch!). My apartment still smells like brownies, which is pretty awesome. Her birthday is tomorrow and I know it sucks that we can't all get together and go out to celebrate. Heck, I couldn't even get out to buy her a gift, but I could bake her brownies so that's what I did. I have a stash of birthday cards here so I was at least able to give her a nice card.

I've been going out only once a week, to stock up on groceries. Kristina asked if I wanted to go with her today, so that I could go to different stores that I've been hitting up. The trick was how to do that while keeping our social distance. Being that we both live alone and have both been following the government's call for social isolation, we figured that the risk to each other was minimal. But we still took precausions. Public Health says for those taking a Taxi or an Uber, you should ride in the back seat and keep the window down a bit to ensure fresh air is moving. So that's what we did. Kristina drove and I sat in the back passenger seat. It seemed a little silly at first but we got used to it pretty quickly. We both had hand sanitizer and used it as soon as we got back in the car after shopping. I had lysol wipes in my purse so I gave Kristina one when she stopped at the Costco gas bar to get gas for 59.9 cents a litre! As soon as I got home, I washed my hands and used a wipe to disinfect the tap, door handles, my cane, my keys and my phone. The ritual continues.

Today almost felt like a normal day. Except for the riding in the back seat, not being able to go out and eat and not being able to give my friend a birthday hug part. And now I'm re-stocked and will stay away from the stores for another week, possibly longer. All depends on how long my milk lasts.

I've got to give credit to all the people working in grocery stores. We stopped at two different stores for groceries. Both places had people spraying the carts and wiping them down for us. Both stores had tape on the floor near the cashes to help with social distancing. Both were wiping down the cash area after each person. Both places had plexiglass to protect the cashiers. I have to wonder if this will become a new norm gong forward. I can totally see the plexiglass being left up at the cashes. Kind of makes sense really. And I didn't feel like it took away anything from the interaction or made it less "personal". All the employees we encountered were quite cheerful (except one but I'm noing to dwell on the negative) and I thank them for that. We're all stuck in a tough situation and seeing that others are still being cheerful and helpful is heart warming.

Not sure what I'm going to get up to tomorrow, but I do think some folding and putting away of clean laundry is in my furture. We're in for a lot of rain and a possible thunder storm tomorrow. Sounds like a good day to curl up with my book and a nice cup of tea.

"Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted - folks who work hard for what they have, then reach back and help others after them." - Michelle Obama

Down 2 and Up 10,000

Guess what? At some point in the last week, my lowly little blog cracked 10,000 page views. That's kind of awesome. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I can't believe anyone actually reads my ramblings. I still can't get over how much writing this blog has helped me. It's funny how something so simple can be so effective. I'm truly looking forward to the next 10,000 page views milestone.

Anyhow....It's been a crazy week at the office and it's been a short week too since I had Monday off. For some odd reason, short weeks seem to feel long. I dunno. Maybe it's our desire to get back to the weekend again. I started my new position on Monday. It hasn't been a totally smooth transition as I'm still doing some of the old duties until the new person is fully equipped and up and running. I've been kept rather busy with my new tasks though, so that's good. Keeps me out of trouble that way. My boss reminded me to look into the available training sessions and let him know which ones I'd like to take and if there were any other tools that I feel that I need in order to become an expert with my new position. Sounds like a good idea.

I survived another week of Curves. I even got off my duff and went to the gym on my day odd. Braved the snow/sleet to do so too. I felt pretty great about it when I got home too. As a result of not being at my home club on Monday, we moved my weigh in day to Wednesday. The scale was kind. I lost 2lbs! So I'm down a total of 6.5 in my first 2 weeks. I'm quite happy with those numbers. I just have to keep an eye on the eating plan portion and try not to slide too much. I'm supposed to go out for lunch tomorrow so I'll have to work that into my day. I'm on a quest to find more healthy recipes to try out. Which just gives me a good excuse to kill entire evenings on Pinterest (like I need an excuse). That makes me happy.

While in the grocery store earlier this week, I couldn't help but notice how odd and strange some of the so called "healthy" foods are. I swear to god that I thought they were selling a bag of bird seed in the cereal aisle. I had to actually pick it up and read the label to confirm that it wasn't actually bird seed. It was some sort of muesli or granola. I dunno. It still looked an awful lot like the wild bird seed mix that I get to put on my balcony. It also baffles me as to how expensive 'healthy' food is. For example, 355ml bottles of Pomegranate juice are on 2/$5. Meanwhile, 2L bottles of pop are on 4/$5. Apples are $1.89lb (so maybe 4 apples) where as big bags of photo chips are 2/$3. Sigh. I'm getting low on peanut butter too. I really need that to go on sale soon. The hard part for me is working more vegetables into my meals. I'm kind of a picky eater when it comes to veggies. I only really like a select few: broccoli, cauliflower, raw carrots, mushrooms (cooked), turnip(rutabaga) and brussel sprouts. The turnip that I like is counted as a starch on my meal plan so I can't go hog wild with it. I'm on the fence with cabbage and cucumbers. Some days I like them and some days I don't. I guess the same could be said for celery. I'm not a fan of it cooked though. I'm going to have to get creative.


Maybe while I'm looking for recipes on Pinterest, I'll find some good gift ideas for my parents. I'm struggling to find something to get them and my mother isn't being overly helpful. I ask for a list and my mom gave me 2 items. I told that that didn't count as a list. Sigh. Yes, I know that the spirit and meaning of Christmas isn't about presents and material items. It's just that they give me so much through out the year that I'd like to be able to give them a little something back. To show them how much I love them and appreciate all that they do for me. My Christmas holidays are a month and 6 days away (not that I'm counting).

I need to go and get ready for bed. I work up at 4:21 this morning, got up and went pee, came back to bed and then couldn't sleep. I think I drifted off for about 15 minutes between then and when the alarm went off at 6. It was brutal. I'm hoping that a repeat doesn't occur this evening.

Good Night!

Sarah

Smiling on a sunny day!

Everything From My Butt Down Has Stopped Speaking To Me

My legs aren't speaking to me. And they've convinced my knees to turn against me too. So far my arms are still playing nice but the backs of my shoulders seem a little sore/stiff.

If you haven't already figured it out, I went to Curves again tonight. That marks a back to back workout. Hence why my legs seem rather pissed at me at the moment. It was a fun work out and the time flew by again. After the work out we got to play Yahtzee to win a t-shirt or ballots into a monthly draw. Apparently this is something they do every Friday. That's kind of cool and it was fun.

Work was interesting. More changes were announced today and that didn't go over well with some people. My role change was announced to some of the staff as well. I've had a week to process it and mull it over so I was doing pretty good when it was announced today. I keep reminding myself that change is good and doing something different will be a welcome change. The more skill sets I have, the better chance I'll have of finding a higher level position. Or so the theory goes.

I relaxed tonight, ordered in and watched some scary tv. It was the season premiere of Grimm and the series premiere of Dracula. I quite liked the spin they've put on Dracula. He's cast as a vigilante of sorts and has a rather interesting relationship with Van Helsing too. And it doesn't hurt that the actor playing Dracula is hot, but he speaks without his sexy Irish accent in the show. Oh well. LOL.

I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend. I'm planning on tackling the pile of clothing in my bedroom and re-arranging my closet for Fall/Winter. I also have 2 missions: 1. Buy new running shoes and 2. Buy a decent sports bra.  Mission 2 is going to be much more difficult than mission 1.

But for now, I'm going to go and take some Motrin and head to bed and pray that I can still walk in the morning. If I'm hobbling tomorrow, I'm going to have some choice words for a certain someone....

Good Night!

Sarah

My sexy bowling shoes!

Hunter-Gathering and Moths.

It's a hot evening in Ottawa, so I decided to enjoy as much of it as I can and I sat out reading on the balcony tonight. Once it started to get dark, I got smart. I turned on the lamp just inside my balcony door and left the blinds open so the lamp lit the balcony and I was able to continue reading. I had a few mosquitoes come and bother me (and have a bite on my ankle to show for it) but that was about it. Finally I decided to come inside. I'd just got all my stuff inside and closed the balcony door when I turned and saw a giant moth flying through my living room. Crap. I followed it into my bedroom. I turned on my hall light hoping it would attract the moth, no such luck. So then I got my swiffer and decided to try to chase it back into the living room. Now I don't know if I actually hit it or just scared the bejesus out of it, but suddenly it took off, bounced off the bedroom wall then bounced off the ceiling in the hall, the then wall and then back into my bedroom, off my dresser and under my bed. And I haven't seen the fucker since. I just stood there and watched in disbelief. I tried putting out a few items from under the edge of my bed to see if it was there (2 pairs of running shoes and some dirty laundry) but no moth. I don't know where the hell it went. Maybe it's dead. Maybe it's hiding. Maybe it's made a new home in the underside of my mattress. I have no friggin' idea. Stupid moth. I've turned off the bedroom light and am hoping that it will come out on its own and head for the lights in the living room and kitchen. Funny thing is, had it been a spider, I would have tore the bed frame apart looking for it. A rouge moth, I'm kind of ok with.

I had a rather nice day today. It was hot and sunny but not too humid. There was a nice breeze which helped things out too. I did one of my favourite things today. I went to the Byward Market and got lots of fresh, local produce and meats. There's something so very relaxing and wholesome about doing that. I don't know if it's due to the fact that as a kid and into my early teens I spent most Saturdays helping out in a HUGE garden so I'm used to being around fresh produce or maybe it's something even more primal than that. Maybe it's a throw back to the hunter/gatherer days and going out to get fresh food is one of those basic things engraved on our DNA. Either way, I love doing it and it makes me happy when I get to cook it all up too. Tonight I had a very tender NY strip steak with 2 cobs of corn (first of the season) which actually had a lot of flavour to them for being the first of the season. I was quite impressed. All the vitamin D I soaked up probably helped my happy state too. And the frozen yogurt. That made me pretty damn happy as well.

I'm not sure if it was all the fresh air I got today or the 3/4 of a can of Pear Cider I drank earlier, but I'm rather sleepy now. I think I'll go and take one last look around for the moth and the call it a night.

Oh! And my hand/wrist is feeling much better and it doesn't really hurt to type anymore :)

Good Night!

Sarah

My haul from this afternoon's trip.

More Craziness on Public Transit

As much as I can, I try to avoid grocery shopping on the weekends. The stores are always crowded and it takes twice as long to get everything because you have to dodge people. So it might seem rather crazy that I decided to venture out to the Superstore today. What makes it even crazier, is the fact that it was their "save the tax" day to boot. I haven't been to Superstore in a very long time and I needed to stock up on a few things so I decided to brave the place today.

The produce section was a zoo, but it always seems to be that way. The rest of the store wasn't too bad. There was a lady giving our cheese samples who really loved my necklace so I stopped and chatted with her for a bit. I got a cheese sample and 2 coupons so it was worth it. LOL. I found almost everything I was looking for so I was happy.

The checkouts baffled me a bit. They have a lot of cashes, plus some self serve ones. Now for reasons I can't explain, the cashes at the far end of the store all had line ups of 3-4 people at them. The ones closer to the exit, only had 1-2 people at them, and no they weren't express lanes. I guess some people just don't pay attention. So I checked out in record time.

Now, the most entertaining part of my trip occurred on the bus on my way home. It was one of our smaller buses that came. There was already someone at the front with an electric and a man in a wheelchair got on at  the stop I was getting on at. There were 5 of us waiting for the bus and we all let the man in the wheelchair go first. Well, he got on but didn't pull the chair all the way in so he was actually on a diagonal and was blocking the aisle. As a result, the 5 of us all had to do a little dance and get created to get past him and the other guy in the wheelchair in order to get back to the seats on the bus. At this point, the man in the electric chair, who was already on the bus, points out to man #2 that he's not pulled in right and it blocking the aisle. I will point out at this point that if you have a manual wheelchair on the bus (like man #2 did), you're supposed to out the seats up (which he did), pull completely into the area with your back to the driver (he kind of did) and secure yourself with the seat belt provided (which he didn't do). He opted to hold on to the age of the flipped up seat for dear life instead. So, as we leave the stop, man #1 is still telling man #2 to straighten his chair out, especially since man #1 is getting off in 2 stops and can't get his wheel chair off is man #2 doesn't straighten out his chair and stop blocking the exit. Man #2 claims that he can't straighten out. Man #1 is growing more and more agitated. Man #2 is still clinging to the seat for dear life. The bus driver is clearly ignoring all of it. Technically, the bus driver should have made man #2 properly get into position since blocking the aisle is a safety hazard.

Anyhow, we get to man #1's stop and by some miracle, man #2 manages to pull his chair further in, almost creating enough room for man #1 to get out. Almost. Man#1 first drives into the padded post next to him and then hits the wall by the driver before finally being able to manoeuvre enough to get to the ramp to get off the bus. But not before having some final not nice words to share with man #2. Man #2 did seem to have something wrong with him (mentally) but it might also have been alcohol related as he came flying out of the LCBO just before catching the bus (I'd previously seen him in the Superstore too). But it really annoyed me that the bus driver just ignored the whole thing and it was happening right behind him. The man sitting in the seat facing man# 2 ignored the whole thing as well.

I guess helping your fellow man really has gone out the window. Maybe everyone's just afraid involved. No good deed goes unpunished so they say. I can remember when the bus drivers used to help people with strollers, wheelchairs, crutches etc... or make sure that the elderly had found seats before taking off but not so much anymore. Just like the people who ride the bus and don't seem to understand the concept of giving up your seat at the front to someone who's older than you or who has a disability and can't stand on the bus or giving up your seat to a woman who's clearly pregnant. If you're not capable of behaving in a proper, respectful and courteous manner when in public, then perhaps those people shouldn't go out in public. Or maybe it's a matter of parents not teaching good manners and respect to their children anymore.

Good Night.

Sarah

Sunny Saturday and Sleep

Since I haven't blogged for the last couple of nights, I thought I should probably do so. Frankly, I've been too damn tired to Blog. After the no sleep Wednesday, Thursday night wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. Despite being crazy tired, it still took a long time to fall asleep. Thankfully, last night was a bit better. I'm still waking up a lot in the night but I got to sleep in this morning, so that was very nice. I also had a nice can of Pear Cider this evening so I'm hoping that helps with the sleep too.

It was a beautifully sunny day here today. Too bad it was breezy and that breeze was stupid cold. Stupid weather. We're in for flurries this evening and freezing rain early in the morning then it's going to warm up and the freezing rain will change to normal rain. Looking at the week's forecast, it appears that spring might just be here. Heck, it's supposed to be 20C with rain on Wednesday. Go figure. Weather people are predicting that we'll have a long, hot and humid summer. I'm ok with the long and hot part. The humid part I could do without.

My day was pretty good. I went downtown and cashed in my coupon for a free bottle of perfume that I got for Christmas. The lady said I could have the small bottle for free, or pay $11 and get the big bottle. So, 35ml for free or 60ml for $11. Big bottle it was. I ventured into the market and went to my favourite butcher shop. They had some lamb souvlaki skewers, so I decided to have a Greek night. I bought them and I made some Greek rice and made a Greek Vinaigrette for the Greek salad I made. It was all very good. I also picked up a bottle of my new favourite wine and a couple cans of the Pear Cider I discovered last month. I ran a couple more errands and hit up the grocery store before returning home to bask in the sun coming in my windows.

I started to watch Madagascar 3 this evening. It made me laugh so that's good. I'll watch the other half in the morning.

Since tomorrow is looking like it's going to be a dreary day, I'm going to use it to clean my kitchen. I'm going to make a pasta dish for dinner. It's on the cover of the April issue of Food Network magazine. Looks easy enough. They have a truly kick-ass cake in this issue. It looks just like a flower pot with flowers in it! So cool.

My friend Michelle and I head to Montreal in 13 short days. I'm excited and not excited all at the same time. I have a lot of house work to do before she gets here and work is crazy busy right now so I have to make sure everything's all organized before I leave. That being said, I'm only actually missing 3 days of work and the break will be really good for me and I really am looking forward to seeing Michelle again. It's been a very, very, very long time since I've spent this much time with her, so I'm slightly apprehensive about it too. I'm sure everything will be great. I just hope that Mother Nature co-operates too and gives us some nice weather while we're there. The long range forecast isn't looking very good. But it's still a good ways out.

WTF?? It's 11:30pm and it sounds like someone is walking around upstairs with a peg leg. I swear, I have some of the most disrespectful and inconsiderate neighbours ever. Earlier, I got to listen to the couple down the hall yelling at one and other, again. It's pretty much a weekly event. It's one of the things I miss about my apartment in Calgary. Other than the dude that used to watch porn with the volume up and the naked people who lived in the building beside me, the neighbours were pretty awesome and very quiet.

Anyhow, I can hear my bed calling, so I think it's time to hit the hay and see if I can not only fall asleep quickly, but stay asleep until morning.

Good Night!

Sarah

More Growth and Another Empty Bin

Continuing on yesterday's fun, I decided to tackle the 2nd mystery box.

This one contained a lot more mundane things like tax returns and supporting documents for doing my taxes. Some were more than 7 years old so I can toss those but a lot of the paper work I opted to keep for a little longer. I also have about 7 years worth of old bills. I think I'm going to need to buy myself a personal shredder and go on a spree.

I also found another diary. This one is not nearly as negative as the last one I found. This one is far more entertaining. I started writing it when I was 13 and the last entry in it was when I was 20. Talk about a lot changing. I wrote about my family, school, my high school friends, my high school crushes and love lost. I wrote about silly, trivial things that, at the time, didn't seem to be so, but they sure are now. 34 year old Sarah is kind of having fun laughing at 13 year old Sarah. If I'd known then what I know now...LOL. I also wrote about some serious stuff. Like how incredibly scared I was when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. How hopeful I was on my first night away at University. 34 year old Sarah wishes she could tell 19 year old Sarah not to worry so much that everything would be ok. I also wrote about some funny things like kidnapping a stuffed bear named "Hairy Bum",doing Chinese Fire Drills at 1am with a car full of boys - one of whom apparently crawled back into the car via the rear window, attending Prom and throwing a few surprise birthday parties. These memories made 34 year old Sarah smile. And while most of the people involved in those memories are no longer part of my life, I'm quite good with that. I only actually miss having one or two of them around. I guess that's another sign of growth and being able to move on.

Other than cleaning out the bin and my morning shopping trip for cheap chocolate and yogurt, I really didn't do much today. I did watch several episodes of Charmed on Netflix. It's been a very long time since I had a "do nothing" day and the best part is that I didn't even feel guilty about it. I think we all need a day like that form time to time.

The break it over. It's back to reality tomorrow, which means it's back to work. Thankfully, it's just a short week, which is nice. I refuse to get stressed about it. I treated myself to some new songs from iTunes, so I'll have them to listen to en route to and from work. That will make the day just a little bit better.

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)

4 Day Weekend!!

It's finally here. I didn't think it would come, but it's finally here. The coveted 4 day weekend. Now for those of you who are about to start bitching that you don't get 4 days off...Family Day back in February wasn't a day off for me so this makes us even.

The morning was pretty calm. The Easter egg hunt went well and I'm pretty sure all the eggs were found. I also ended up with a good deal of chocolate - gifts from my co-workers. That's kind of nice since the Easter Bunny usually doesn't come to my place anymore. I don't think he can hop up all those stairs.

5 of us went out for a nice lunch for Xtina's birthday (which is tomorrow). The food was good and so was the company. We pretty much just venting about work all lunch. It was very cathartic. Best part? We had lots of time to eat and we didn't have to rush to get out of there. B and I were on time for French class. In fact, we were in the lobby waiting for the elevator when our teacher came strolling in. Once again, there were only 3 of us in class. Which kind of makes for a fun class. We get more practice this way and more individual attention, which is really great. Class flew by. We all got tripped up on the last 2 exercises of the day. We had a map and the directions were read out (in French of course) and we had to say which location they instructions took you too. LOL. What a gong show that was. I kept getting my droit and gauche mixed up (right and left). It was fun though.

I got home at a decent hour and was able to drop all my stuff off at home and then head out to Walmart and the grocery store. I stocked up on a few things for the weekend and then came home and made my Tofu Udon Noodle Soup for dinner. It was really good and I have a lot left over for lunch tomorrow.

Apparently B and I missed some fun while we were in class. Somewhere between 3:15 and 3:45, the computer systems went down.  Our evening peeps were doing a bunch of manual things with the mail and such until it came back online. That really had to suck. I bet everyone was hoping to be sent home early. I can't say I blame them. An early start to a long weekend would be great.

Speaking of early starts, I think I might opt to get an early start on sleeping. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and could not get back to sleep. It was so friggin' annoying! I think I feel asleep about 15 minutes before my alarm went off. I was not a happy camper. But I get to sleep in tomorrow so that's great. I probably should spend tomorrow cleaning, since my friend Michelle arrives in 20 days :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Signs of spring!!

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

Sightings and the March of Death Continues

As the weekend is winding down, I'm thinking about my week and the fact that the weekend is far too short. Seriously. We should have 4 day work-weeks and 3 day weekends. I like that idea much better. We've got a full house this week at work so that should be fun.

This weekend has been a "run into people" kind of weekend. Not literally of course. I go months and months without seeing random people I know while I'm out and then this weekend it happens to me 3 times in one day.

Yesterday, I went to Costco with JD. Before that, we went to Cora's for breakfast. It was good, or at least mine was. JD wasn't overly impressed with his but I quite enjoyed mine and it really did come with a mountain of fruit, just like advertised. Just as we were finishing up and about to get the bills, I looked up and my friend KayD's sister and her boyfriend had just sat down. I waved and she got up so I met up with her and chatted and she introduced me to her man and we teased her about being a Montreal fan and not an Ottawa fan. You know, usual, stereotypical Canadian conversation. LOL.

Next up, JD and I had just cashed out at Costco (and I was under budget!) when I looked up and noticed that one of the cashiers looked really familiar. Took me about 5 seconds and then I placed him. His name is Justin and I went to College with him. Talk about random. I don't think I've seen him once since I graduated and that was almost 11 years ago.

After JD dropped me off, I headed to the mall as one of my favourite stores had bras and sleep ware on sale. I stuck out with the bras this time but got two new nighties (buy one, get one free) and got 5 new pairs of panties, one of which matches one of my new nighties. How's that for co-ordination? I also got 2 pairs of tights and a 3 pack of trouser socks on the reduced to clear rack. I love saving money :)  While waiting to the bus back home, I heard someone say "Hi Sarah" and I turned around and there was a woman who used to work in my office. She was with her family so I chatted politely for a few minutes before they headed out.

So that was 3 random people in one day.Oh and I saw one of the local news reporters in the mall.

Today I stayed at home and cleaned and hand washed more of my bras. I did the dark coloured ones yesterday and then the light coloured ones today. My bathroom looks like a lingerie ad.

March continues to be a notorious month as well. One friend's step son was stabbed (he's in stable condition and is eating ok etc...) and another lost her father - exactly one week after losing her mother. There's a very real phenomenon where people who are really old or have been together a very long time die within a short time of one and other. Mr.B was 100 so I guess you could say that he'd live a good and long life. He was a very sweet man and I feel blessed just having known him. Now that he and his wife have been re-united with my grandparents and all their old friends, I'm guessing that there's going to be one heck of a bonspiel going on up there in Heaven. I do feel really bad for his daughter and grand daughters. They haven't got over the death of their mother/grandmother from last week and now they have to do it all over again this week. I hope that's the end of the bad things for them for a good, long while.

And March wasn't good to my brother either. He ended up at the hospital Friday morning because he blow his nose and ended up blowing out his eardrum. I told him "I guess that's proof that you really do blow". I don't think he thought my joke was funny. Clearly he wasn't taking enough pain meds. I thought it was a damn funny joke. Poor guy though. I hope he's all better soon and that it's nothing serious/no permanent damage done.

I really hope that March is done with all of its misfortunes. One good thing did come of today. Being St. Patrick's Day, I decided to try to Irish Pear Cider I'd bought last month and forgot was in my fridge. It was really, really good! I've found a new alcohol to enjoy!! YAY!!! And it doesn't taste anything like beer so I'm thrilled about that.

Good Night!

Sarah

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Another Week Down

So I successfully made it through another week. This one definitely was one of the more bizarre ones. I'm looking forward to things being a little more sane in the office next week. And we get to play with large quantities of chocolate next week too! We're making candy grams to sell as an office fundraiser.

I made some baby steps towards being a little more organized this week too, at both home and in the office. I was able to get some of my desk organized today and at home, I've been keeping on top of the dishes and recycling. I hate doing the dishes. It's one of those chores that I simply dislike. I miss having a dishwasher. My apartment in Calgary had one. It was awesome. Anyhow, I managed to keep on top of them this week and rather than let them pile up for the week (my usual M.O), I actually did them up almost every night. Yay me.

Tomorrow I'm attempting another adventure with my buddy JD. We're going to tackle Costco...on a Saturday. LOL. We are going to try to be there for when the place opens, which may cut back on some of the crowds but who knows. It will be a fun adventure none the less. I think I might do a little more shopping in the afternoon (sans JD) as one of my favourite stores has their lingerie and sleepware on sale. I'm thinking that I might want a new piece of sleep ware for Spring. And I might have a slight bra addiction too so picking up on sale would rock.

I'm disliking it being dark in the mornings when I get up, but I'm quite liking the sun being up past dinner time. It's making me feel a lot better. I didn't even really get overly depressed about the snow we had today. Stupid weather. I'm really not impressed with those ground hogs that predicted an early spring.

Now it's time to go and wash up and relax for a bit before bed. Before shopping, I get to do one of my favourite things tomorrow: sleep in. Ahhhh, the simple pleasures in life.

Good Night!

Sarah

I couldn't find my photo of a ground hog, so here's a photo of my grandparent's cat playing with plastic.

Sunny Saturday, Spring Cleaning and Strength

I haven't been in much of a blogging mood lately and frankly, I've been too damn tired. So I decided I'd better log in tonight and get some words on the screen. Thanks to Daylight Savings Time, I'm going to bed an hour later than planned. To off set this, I shall attempt to sleep in an extra hour tomorrow morning. Not sure if it will work but it's worth a try. My mother tried to tell me that clocks go back an hour tonight instead of going an hour forward. I think she was just trying to find a way to sleep in an extra hour tomorrow.

I had a pretty darn good day today. One of the best I've had in a while. The sun was out and that seemed to be the key. I stood on my balcony in the sun for a bit this morning and it felt glorious. I'm in spring cleaning mode too. I had originally planned to stay home and just clean all day but this afternoon I decided that it was too nice to stay home all day so I escaped for a bit.

Before I left, I managed to get the dishes done, a load of laundry done and some dusting done. I then went downtown, had a Beavertail, walked around the market, taking in the wonderful sunshine, stopped at the butcher and bought a beautiful New York Strip for dinner and then came back home. I did some more cleaning once I was home. I tackled the greasy vent cover that's in the hood over my stove. Thanks to Pinterest, I got it clean without any effort. Just some boiling water and baking soda. Amazing. I also got the burner inserts clean that way. My stove is spotless (for now). I got the toilet cleaned and my bookshelf dusted too. I was on quite the roll. I really do love Pinterest. I was standing in the kitchen, holding the filter and trying to figure out how to clean the damn thing when suddenly, magic words popped into my head. They were "go check on Pinterest". I'm so smart! The answer was there and it worked and now I have a clean filter. Yay!

Tonight I watched the movie "The Other Guys". It was horrible. So I watched the first half of Mall Rats to make up for it. I'll finish watching it sometime tomorrow. I'm hoping to continue my cleaning spree tomorrow.

Adding to my good mood today was that I booked 2 trips this morning. Nothing overly exciting but I'm happy about them. The first is in April. I'm going to Montreal with my old friend Michelle. We're taking the train from my house, which is awesome since I love taking the train and it's a great trip from Ottawa to Montreal (and faster than driving). The best part is that I used some networking skills to get us a LUXURY hotel room for a very budget friendly price. I'm very excited. I can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans we get up to when left to our own devices in Montreal. This is going to be great.
The other trip I booked was just a train ticket home for the May long weekend. My bday (a kind of big one) is one the Thursday before the long weekend and my Great Aunt's 80th bday is the Friday of the long weekend, so I'm heading home to go to her party. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family. I haven't seen them since Christmas so this will be great. I hope the weather is nice.

Since it's actually 12:34am instead of the 11:34pm that my clock says, I really should get to bed. I have a lot more cleaning ahead of me tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be warm but cloudy and maybe some rain in the late afternoon. Perfect cleaning or book reading weather. I have a couple of books that need to be read so we'll see what happens. I found a very yummy sounding scone recipe on Pinterest too that I might attempt. LOL. This truly was a good day. I'm starting to feel like myself again and I really don't have the words to explain how amazing that feels. It's more relief than anymore. The days are getting longer, the shadows are weaken. Step by step, I'm walking back out of the darkness and into the light again.The birds chirping this morning is the kind of sound that makes my soul smile. We're not totally out of winter's grasp yet but we're close and I'm experiencing a strong sense of relief and accomplishment. I've made it through another winter in one piece, coming out into spring, just a little bit stronger than I was when I went in late last fall.

Good Night!

Sarah

My favourite sign of spring: Lily of the Valley

The Blackberry Conundrum

I'll admit it right now. I am not the most tech savvy person on the planet. I do shy away from it, but I'm usually slow to embrace it. My computer is a simple laptop with no web cam. I don't have high speed internet. My digital camera is nothing fancy (but I'd love to upgrade it to a more professional style), my iPod is a first generation one and my cell phone is not a smart phone. With all of that being said, I was rather apprehensive when my boss told me that I had to get a Blackberry for work (work supplies it and pays for the service). This also means that they can find me ALL THE TIME. A scary thought. I'm exaggerating of course. I can turn it off when I'm at home.

Anyhow, the device arrived today and I was lost. I've never used one before. Thanks to my iPod, I have some idea how to work an iPhone but a Blackberry is a whole other beast for me. I think I'm going to have to break down and read the user manual. I can't even figure how to turn the damn thing off. I swear it's not simple. I'm sure it has some really cool features, but since it's a work phone, I'm not really too keen on investigating them. However, it will give me a chance to see if I'd like to own one myself as my personal phone.

I'm a little excited that Target opened in Canada today. I am looking forward to them opening here. I think we should have more options in our retail market. I think it will result in some price wars and we'll benefit from lower prices. I love shopping and I love a good deal. We'll have to wait and see how this goes over as the rest of the stores slowly open across the country.

I need to get up and moving in the morning. I'm heading to the movies after work tomorrow with some friends/co-workers so I'd like to be able to escape the office on the early side.

Good Night!

Sarah

Wishing for Spring!

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!

Super Woman and Snow

I don't even know where to start with today. It's been all over the map and despite a rocky ending, I'm kind of laughing about it. But that might just be because I'm really sleepy right now.

So, I took the day off. I had 2 holiday days left at work and they're "use them or lose them" ones so I decided to use one. I arranged a shopping date with one of my very best friends(NB) and her adorable child (Baby F).  I got to sleep in this morning, which was awesome. Sadly, sleep did not come so easily to NB and Baby F, but he went down for a nap early so things were looking up. Mother Nature was cooperating at the time but soon decided that throwing ice pellets at us would be fun. I took the bus out to Kanata to meet up with them, which was quick and painless. Walking through the mall parking lot while being pelted with little ice chunks was the hard part. Once inside, we got our shop on. Baby F got to pick out a new toy and seemed very happy with all the new things to look out. He even helped me pick out a bottle of hair dye (he had some help from his mom). We then ventured onto Chapters which involved a caffeine stop at Starbucks for NB and I. I got a new book and we headed out to find lunch.

By now the ice had stopped but the snow was picking up and the roads were getting messy. We opted for a drive through and eating lunch at home. Apparently shopping tired out Baby F and he passed out about 5 minutes from home. As a result, NB and I had a peaceful lunch. Once the baby was up, it was time for a changing and a feeding. Both were a little rocky as someone was cranky after their nap. NB got through it all in fine form and with minimal swearing. I doubt she'll ever know just how impressed by her I am. After lunch Baby F seemed quite happy and crawled all over the room playing with all the toys, leaving time for the grown ups to chat and catch up - which was my favourite part of the day.

After a couple of hours, I went out to shovel snow out of the way so the garage door would close properly and so that the car would get out and then it was time to go and pick up Mr. NB. The four of us then headed out for dinner. By now, the roads were a mess, traffic was a mess. the buses were all fucked up, broken down, delayed or jack knifed so we figured that waiting until after rush our would see a smoother trek home.

Dinner was nice. Baby F inhaled it. It was incredible to see. LOL. And our server just kept screwing up. The irony was that he was training someone new!! Towards the end though, Baby F started to get cranky and it was time to jet. I got dropped off at the park and ride and they headed home. When I got into the bus shelter, there was a good number of people there so I was taking that as a good sign - I hadn't missed the bus. Turns out I didn't have to worry about missing the bus simply because there hadn't been one yet......and one wouldn't appear for another hour and 26 minutes!!! We kept seeing "out of service buses" coming into the west end and letting people off but nothing was heading back east. I saw 5 local routes too. It was very frustrating. I could have stayed the night out there but I figured I could last a little while longer and it paid off. The ride home was relatively quick and only slightly nerve racking. It did end was my less than graceful exit off the bus and through a snowbank rather than over it, but nothing was bruised other than my ego so I"m fine. I managed to successfully make it over the next 2 snowbanks I had to traverse on my trek home.

Once home, I got out of my wet clothes and checked my email and then went and had a nice, long soak in a hot bath with some Lavender Epsom Salts. I finished reading my book while I was in there and had a chance to reflect on  the day.

With the weather aside, it was a great day. I didn't have to work and I got to spend several hours just relaxing and hanging out with a very dear and awesome friend who I don't see nearly enough. She's such a wonderful and amazing person, even more so now that she's a mom.Just getting to hang out and chat made the day a great one. Despite being very tired thanks to yet another sleepless night, she just kept going, making sure Baby F was taken care of. I couldn't do it. Watching Baby F play and crawl around was great. He's adorable and highly entertaining but I don't know how she does it. She's Wonder Woman. I honestly don't think I'd have the patience and capability to be so selfless that's required when you're a mom. And she certainly has it in spades. I'm in complete awe of her (and her husband). They're amazing people and kick-ass parents :) And I can't wait to see them all again. But next time, the weather had better be much, much better!

Good Night!

Sarah

This is the only place I like seeing snow!

Sick :(

Call my mom, I'm sick :( That doesn't usually work as she's usually the one who's sick, I look after her, go home and then come down with whatever she had. At Christmas, we both got sick at the same time and then we had to look after my dad when he got sick. Amy Farrah Fowler even had Sheldon to look after her and rub vapo rub on her chest. It's not fair I tell ya.

This really sucks as it's the 2nd time I've been since in the last 6 weeks. Same issue too: Sinus cold. Or at least a cold that starts in my sinuses. I went for well over a year without getting sick and now it's happened twice in 6 weeks. That's not good.

I did manage to make it out shopping with Steph today. I was ok in the morning but by early afternoon, I was a zombie. On several occasions Steph has to ask if I was still with her. After she dropped me off, I promptly put all my grocery type items in the fridge/freezer, changed into some jammies and crawled into bed where I had a lovely 3 hour nap. Napping is a tell tale sign that I'm not feeling well. I do not nap. I'm not capable of napping. If I lay down and fall asleep, I'm out for hours. None of this 20-30 minute nonsense.

I used my nasal rinse, I've had a nice hot soak in the tub with some lavender epsom salts and I'm about to make myself a cup of Sleepy Time tea with some honey in it. Then I'll pop a couple of the night-time cold meds and head to bed. Hopefully that will knock me out for a full 8 hours or more. I really don't foresee myself doing much of anything tomorrow, which sucks. I have a large pile of laundry and a nice collection of dishes that require my attention. I supposed getting better is more important than house work.

Here's hoping that this is short lived and doesn't move to my chest and I'm all better soon. Next week at work is going to be a busy one, so I have 1 week to be back to 100%.

Time to sleep!

Good Night!

Sarah

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 :)

Ooopsie!

It would appear that I'm getting a little forgetful as of late. As in I've forgotten to blog for two nights in a row now. I think I might have been tired.

I remember there I didn't blog Friday sometime Saturday while I was walking to the grocery store. I realized that I didn't blog last night while brushing my theeth before bed. At that point I'd already shut down my computer and turned the lights off and really didn't have the energy to fire everything up again so I said screw it. And here I am now.

My first day back at work on Friday was actually a really good day. People were genuinely happy to see me and Xtina, the new HR Casual had managed to get almost everything sorted out and organized so I was able to focus on the things that I had to do. So all in all, it was a pretty stress free day. Next week shouldn't be too bad either. I'm filling in for one of the finance ladies for the week, so one of our staff is filling in for me. I'll be on the same floor as everyone, just a different section. I might be able to hide from the chaos, which is fine by me!

Yesterday was an awesome day. The sun was out and it made everything look so crisp and beautiful. I opted to walk to Farm Boy (a local grocery store chain that prides itself on carrying fresh, local supplies) which is several blocks away instead of going across the street to Metro. It turned out to be a very nice walk in the sun and I got some very yummy things. After lunch, I ventured downtown to the Market. I hit up the Italian store and got some amazing sauce (wood oven roasted garlic tomato sauce) and a Canoli. I've never had one before. They're incredible. I don't know how I've never had one. So good. I then went to the butcher shop and got nitrate free sausages which went into the pasta I made last night, some double smoked bacon which I'm going to try this morning and a piece of marinated pork tenderloin which I'm having for dinner. After that, I went to LUSH and got some more of my favourite lip balm, one of their sugar scrubs and a bath melt (it smells so yummy and makes your bath water a pretty shade of pink). I couldn't get over how many people were at the BeaverTail stand when I walked by. As popular as ever, which is a good sign.

My last bit of shopping was buying a new pair of slippers on my way to back through the mall, en route to the bus.

After shopping, I met up with my buddy Xtinktor for coffee. Starbucks was too crowded so we got our drinks and headed to the mall to sit. We had a nice chat and visit, talking about our holidays and families and of course, talking about music. That's probably the one thing that we talk about most. It was nice to visit and the caffeine kick was very welcome.

Finally I made it home and started dinner. It was very, very good. I love the sauce I bought. I'm going to have to go back and get more. LOL. I think it's one of those things that everyone should have several jars of on hand, just in case.

I should get moving and get some tea or coffee into me. I bought a bunch of loose K-Cups when I was at home so I could try some new flavours. It's fun testing them out. I need to make breakfast and get on with my day too. I do love quiet Sundays. I'm going to attempt to clean and re-organize the kitchen today. Wish me luck!

Have a good day!

Sarah

We got lots of snow!

Time To Go Back To Reality

Sadly, today was my last full day at home. Tomorrow is my last day of holidays and I'm spending pretty much all of it on a train. My train leaves here at 9:15am and I get into Ottawa somewhere around 4:30pm. This is always the worst part of visiting. Knowing that I once again have to say goodbye to those I love, not entirely sure when I'm going to be home again. Before my dad headed to bed tonight, I gave him an extra long hug since he'll be up and off to work before I get up tomorrow. Mom's driving me to the train station so I get to say my good bye to her there. I guess they aren't really good byes as much as they're "See you later".

Despite the fact that both Mom and I sounded like we were trying to cough up lungs today, we got up and headed out for a bit. The cute little gift shop she wanted me to see was closed, so that was a bit of a bummer but we managed to keep occupied none the less and picked up some things for our colds and to make for dinner.

This afternoon we made banana bread. Last week my dad came home with a large bunch of ripe bananas from Giant Tiger. He was all excited because he only paid 97 cents or something crazy like that for them. Not per pound, just in total. I asked him if he planned on making banana bread and he said no. Then the stomach virus hit. The bananas did not get eaten. So last evening he looked at me and said "Are you going to make banana bread tomorrow?". LOL. I laughed and said sure. Mom and I pulled out some cook books and I hopped on Pinterest and we came up with 2 recipes to try. A Banana Cinnamon Swirl and a Banana Sour Cream one that we added raisins too and topped with chopped walnuts. Both turned out really well and the house smelt amazing all day. Dad gave them both his seal of approval. Which is awesome, considering I forgot the eggs in the 2nd one. Oops. Meh. It all worked out. The last time I was home I made a cobbler and my dad called me up and asked me to come back home so that I could make him some more cobbler. I'm leaving him some banana bread so that should hold him for a bit.

I got all packed this afternoon so I don't have to run around like a crazy woman tomorrow morning. Getting to the train station is an ordeal on its own. My mom doesn't like taking highways or major roads, so we go the back way to the train station. It takes longer but it works. The new problem is that they installed a round-a-bout earlier this year, which my mom now has to navigate. She hates them. She really, really hates them. I just close my eyes and pray when we go through them and once I'm on the train, I keep checking my email on my phone until Mom emails me and I know that she's made it back through and is home safe and sound. Then I relax.

This visit home has been a pretty subdued and quiet one, mostly due to the damn stomach flu knocking us all out for a week. But it's also been very stress free and relaxing, which is what I need. I know I'm going back to a crazy place, but I refuse to get stressed out about it. I may just switch my phone off tomorrow and forget all about work for the day. I should have done that today.

As much as I'm looking forward to getting back to Ottawa and my own bed, I'm going to miss home and my parents very much. I really miss just being around them. Both my mom and dad have said that they feel bad that we didn't get to go and do things but that doesn't matter to me. I don't really mind. I love just being in their company. Just being around them. Talking to them. Laughing with them (or at them as the situation may be). Just knowing that someone else is there, even if we're not in the same room or on the same floor. I enjoy  helping my mom out with the dishes and hiding utensils on her (my Gram used to do that to her too!) or making lunch/cooking dinner for my parents. It seems like mundane, silly things but I don't get to do those things very often, so I appreciate it and enjoy it when I get to do it. Even if they laugh at fart jokes and even though I'm somewhat convinced they're both going senile or they're insane, they're my family and I love them.   My parents are two of the best people you'll ever meet, and they're mine. I'm so lucky and so blessed to have them in my life and I will treasure every second I get to spend with them.

It's time to log off and get to bed. It's going to be an early start to the day tomorrow. We like to give ourselves lots of time to get to the train station, especially if it's snowing in the morning.

Good Night!

Sarah

Mom and Dad back in August