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!

When Shopping Becomes An Adventure Sport

I was awake before anyone else this morning. Partly because I was cold and partly because I was sore. The new mattress that my parents bought a few years ago, for the bed in my old room, is a little on the hard side and my back really doesn't like it. So for the first 3-4 nights here, I wake up in a bit of pain. My mom was up shortly after me. She claims that the reason was that she didn't want me downstairs alone in case I snooped through the presents. Ha! She's the biggest snoop of us all.

When my dad and I got back from shopping yesterday afternoon, we hadn't been outside of the car for more than a minute and I looked over and someone had her head sticking out the front door, trying to see what bags we had. She did the same thing today but from the front hall window this time.

I went shopping with both parents this morning (and we only lost dad once) and then we had a nice lunch together, after which we dropped off my mom at home and dad and I ventured out into the wildest shopping place of the day: Walmart. The place was a zoo. My dad was even blown away by just how bad it was. He didn't think it would be that bad. He really has no grasp on Walmart shopping. The line up for the photo studio was down the Christmas cookie aisle, the seasonal and toy departments were like a giant ring of bumper cars, but with karts, the bakery was sold out of mincemeat pies and the 1 main thing that we went there to find, was no where to be found. Thankfully we were able to find the rest of the stuff we were looking for.

After Walmart, we hit up Shopper's Drug Mart so I could mail off my last present - headed to Calgary. The lineup there was actually pretty short and quick, so that was nice. Next we headed to Zhers so we could get the damn mincemeat pie (which my dad couldn't see, despite looking right at it!) and my dad got my mom some pretty holiday flowers too. Our final stop was Food Basic for a gift card and then we came home.

After dinner, dad started on a wrapping spree which seemed to be a success despite the occasional swearing I heard coming from the dinning room. For me, it was arts and crafts time. My friend Stephanee was making a Christmas tutu for her niece and I decided to make one too. For the record, I hate tulle. That stuff is terrible to work with/cut! Somehow I managed to get it all cut and believe it or not, I made a tutu. It actually looks pretty cute. I think it might be a bit on the big side for my niece though. We'll find out on Monday I guess.

All in all, it was a good day. I have finished all of my Christmas shopping and just have to worry about wrapping everything now. I can sit back and relax and not stress about any last minute things.

I think it's getting close to bed time. My mom got tired of me bitched about how cold it is and she shut my bedroom window this morning. My room is still cold, it's just not damn cold anymore :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Christmas 2008 - this is what I have to do to keep warm at home!

Cheap Chicken and A Man In A Skirt

It was a very successful day out shopping with Stephanee. To start off, I had awesome hair today. While killing time this morning, I decided to break out the hot curlers and go to town. It was very fun "Saturday Hair". We managed to avoid getting into any real trouble. Steph did get a rather nasty look in the Dollarama from some lady after Steph laughed just a little too loud. And I found the perfect santa hat for myself there too.

We also discovered and awesome deal for lunch/dinner. There's a place called Scores, which it a chicken place (Like Swiss Chalet or St. Huebert) and it's got an all you can eat soup/salad bar. Well, as we discovered, when you order the 1/4 chicken dinner, not only does it come with a side, but it comes with the free salad bar. So for a grand total of $13.28 (with tax), we got a 1/4 chicken breast, fries, dipping sauce, a roll and all the soup/salad/fruit we wanted. We got our money's worth and both left with a take out container of chicken. Super awesome! And the waitress was great too. So all in all, it was a good call.

Moving on to Walmart...it was a mostly routine visit until...we were just making out way to the cash when some fun t-shirts caught our eyes. While we were looking at them, I looked up and saw a man walking by. He had grey hair, a really long beard (think ZZ Top) and was wearing a women's padded white spaghetti strap tank top and short cut denim skirt. It was a total "People of Walmart" moment. Wow. Really don't know what to say about that.

I managed to get a new light weight winter coat at 50% off. I love surprise Saturday sales. They rock.

Tomorrow Steph and I are at it again but it will be a much more somber and dignified day. Or at least the morning will be. We're heading downtown for the National Remembrance Day ceremonies. Then we're hitting a craft sale and Costco. I trip across the river to hunt down jeans for Steph might be in that mix too.

I hope that everyone takes a moment tomorrow to reflect on what living a free country truly means and to think about all those people who came before us. All those who fought bravely and proudly and some of whom made the greatest sacrifice of all - so that we could have that freedom. And please don't forget the ones who continue to serve for our country. Lest We Forget.

Good Night!

Sarah

Hair - with the fun curlers in.

 

Finished product. Lots of curls!

 

The fun "Princess Santa Hat" that I found in the doller store.