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

DIE HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was an interesting day at work. I spent most of the morning running around, almost quite literally. I had to venture over to two of our other buildings for things, which was thrilling. I did get to the see the new office of our former office mates and it was pretty cool. They have an amazing view which I'm completely jealous of. The colour scheme leaves a little something to be desired though.

My afternoon was busy with travel stuff (not my own sadly) and other paperwork that needed to get done. All went well so I'm happy about that.

This evening was fan-freakin-tastic!!!!!!!!!! I went out for dinner and a movie with 3 guys. LOL. Mandy, JD and I headed out from work and stopped at the mall food court, where wet met up with my buddy Xtinktor. We all had dinner (Mandy was very excited about Kojaks, I don't get it) and then we headed out to Kanata to my favourite movie theatre in the city where we saw "A Good Day to Die Hard" - the newest Die Hard movie. Number 5 in the series if you're counting.

It. Was. Awesome.  Lots and lots of shit got blown up and the movie starts with a pretty cool car chase. I'm pretty sure they totalled more cars in the first 15 minutes of  the movie than they have in all 4 previous Die Hard films combined. And there was a great 1-liner which was a throw back to the very first Die Hard film so that was cool. The movie was awesome simply because it was lots of fun to watch. Lots of action and lots of stuff going boom. The plot was ok, the dialogue wasn't anything special but that is not why you got and see a Die Hard film. You go to see great explosions and to see whether or not Bruce Willis' character can still walk by the end of the movie. It's a fun escape. There's no thinking involved. No sappy love stories, no crying, no deep contemplation on the universe. Just out and out pyrotechnical awesomeness.

The one thing it did make me realize is that I need to get out more! I'm going to work on that.

I need to sleep now. I have French class tomorrow afternoon and I kind of need to be alert for that, especially since I'm taking notes for 2 people now (my co-worker is still off on a course).

Good Night!

Sarah

BOOM!!!

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!

First Days and Kale

Today was a long day. And a very busy one. Every time I sat down at my desk to do something, a new thing popped up and a half an hour later, I'd be back at my desk trying to remember what it was I was going to do before I got interrupted. I was able to escape for 10 minutes in the afternoon and went for a nice, but chilly walk around the block. The sun was out so that was nice to see, especially since it clouded over and started to snow again about an hour later.

It would appear that my friend JD survived his first day at work and got to work with LOTS of time to spare. The first day at work can be a nerve racking one. I hope my friend K has a good first day tomorrow. It's great to see so many people finding jobs. Having been unemployed a couple of times in my life, I know how much it sucks and how hard it can be to make ends meet, especially if you don't have a 2nd income provider to rely on. I hope the jobs work out for everyone and I'll keep my fingers crossed for them all.

So, for dinner tonight, I decided to try something new. I had bought a big bunch of Kale on the weekend and I decided to make Kale Chips (thank you Pinterest!). I was skeptical. How would cooking a leafy green vegetable in the oven make it taste good? I still have no flipping idea but my god, it was FANTASTIC! I tore up the leaves and tossed them with a little olive oil. Once on the cookie sheet, I sprinkled them with sea salt, pepper and garlic powder and then baked them at 300F for 20 minutes. They crisped up and were so good. They almost tasted like they were bad for you. LOL. They crumble very easily though so I did have some Kale crumbs on my and the table while eating them. But they were yummy so I really didn't care. I'm definitely going to add this to my list of fun and delicious side dishes to make.

I'm getting used to my dark hair too. In the sunlight and florescent lights at work it doesn't look quite as dark as it does at home.

I must log off and finish getting tomorrow's lunch ready and then get into bed. I need to be alert at work or I'll never be productive!

Good Night!

Sarah

Not my first day at work, but my first day at school :)

Well That's Certainly Darker Than Planned...

Over the years, my hair has been many different colours. I have been a blond (once by accident and once on purpose), had my hair fire engine red (again, once by accident and once on purpose) and I've had it jet back (totally on purpose). I'm fortune in the fact that my skin tone lets me look good with lots of different hair colours. I used to dye it myself but over the last 5 years or so, I've been paying professionals to do it. Mainly because I had blond highlights for a long time and after the one and only time I let my mom give me highlights, I vowed never to let anyone other than a professional highlight me.

Seriously, she turned me into a blond. And took far too much joy in poking me in the head with that little stick. It was a kit where you wear a plastic cap with little holes cut out into it and you take this plastic hook like thing and poke it though the holes and pull a small strand of hair through (so the highlight look natural). I'm sitting in a chair, in my Gram's kitchen, with my mom stabbing me in the head. And then the grand son of one of my Gram's friends was over so mom let him take a stab at it. Literally. I should have known it was going to be a disaster by how much hair mom pulled through. I only wanted a few highlights. She did my entire head. The next issue arose when rinsing out the dye - mom freaked out a bit because my hair looked a bit orange, not remembering that hair darker when wet, so she decided that it wasn't done yet and made me sit longer. The result? Almost white blond hair. For a solid week I freaked myself out every morning when I first looked in the mirror.

Anyhow, December of 2011, I got tired of being a blond and went back to my roots as a brunette. I haven't actually coloured my hair in the last year. My stylist left the province and I have a hard time parting with the kind of money that salons charge, so I decided to try the "at home" approach again. Since I was going with a solid colour, I knew I couldn't screw up too badly. Last week, Baby F and NB helped me pick out a colour.  I was having a hard time deciding between 2 shades and silly me, I opted for the darker of the two. One of the cardinal rules of hair colour is always pick the lighter one when trying to decide between 2 colours. I knew this and still choose the darker one.

So....I dyed my hair tonight. And it's darker than it was. But a lot. Not quite 50 shades darker (ha-ha) but several shades darker than the photos on the box. It kind of looks like I'm attempting to channel my inner goth or something. It's not black but it's damn close. We'll go with dark chocolate. I will admit that I did want my hair to be darker and I wanted the little silver hairs that keep appear to be covered (and they totally are) but this is quite a fair bit darker than I'd hoped for. Oh well! I'm sure it will lighten up after the first wash or two. I'm also wearing a white top right now which probably makes it look darker than it is. I'll just have to remember to wear something dark to work tomorrow to compensate. LOL. And definitely remember to wear blush. And like my mom said, don't wear red lip stick...well, I could but people might not get that I'm just trying out my Elvira impression.

My hair feels soft and it's really shiny now though, so that's good. And my scalp doesn't feel like its on fire which is really good! It will be fun to see how many people at work tomorrow notice the colour change. Maybe I'll try for hot pink next time.

Good Night!

Sarah

At least it looks natural!

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!

Tour Guide Time!

I've finally torn myself away from Pinterest so that I can blog before bed. I've said it before. That site is addictive. Makes you think that you can be the best cook, a fashionista and be the craftiest person ever all in one shot. The pineapple cake that I made was a huge hit at work today and I got that recipe from Pinterest :)

Work was very busy today. I spent very little time actually at my desk. I don't think I spent more than 10 minutes at a time sitting at my desk. We got our T4s today and sorting them was a blast....I treated myself to some kick-ass sushi for dinner tonight. It was so good.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be an interesting day. Someone who I went to high school with has moved to Ottawa and will be working in my office. Since he's new in town and doesn't know anyone, I'm heading out with him tomorrow to show him the sites. I love my city so that's not a problem. However, it's winter and Winterlude is over so there really isn't all the much to do that doesn't result in frost bite right now. And what sucks even more is the fact that it's STILL FUCKING SNOWING!!!!!! By the looks of things, it's going to snow clear through to Tuesday. Dammit.

So I'm trying to think of the best (and cheapest) indoor things to do/see tomorrow. I think a tour of Ikea might be on that list. I can't wait for the nice weather to arrive to show him the market and Gatineau Park. I'm slightly anxious too since I haven't spent any time with this person since high school really. I know I'm a much different person now and I'm assuming he is too. I guess it will be fun getting to know each other again. And we chat about the "good old days" too. All I know is that the day is going to start with a trip to my favourite breakfast spot and then we'll wing it from there.

I need to pry myself away from the computer and get ready for bed. I have a busy day of being a tour guide ahead of me :)

Good Night!

Sarah