Trying to Keep up

Blend Option/ Tool

2011-08-25T21:44:00.002-05:00

Check out these great swirls! I was just playing around so this doesn't look great, but the swirls are super fun to make.

I happened to see this tutorial as I was about to shut down for the day. It took me only a few minutes to figure out how to make really nice abstract swirls. Excellent tutorial.

The Mesh Tool

2011-08-25T20:47:00.003-05:00

Today I created a couple of cherries using the mesh tool in Illustrator. I used the tutorial here and although in a lot of tutorials they trace the images I'm trying to keep to just drawing them myself. Tracing an image on the PC seems a bit silly to me.

Vines

2011-08-24T19:25:00.002-05:00

I've started playing around with Adobe's CS3. Above is the result of my first anything using both Illustrator and Photoshop.

I'm using whatever online tutorials I can find.

Click here for the tutorial I used for the above.

New Email Signature

2011-08-08T13:09:00.000-05:00

I created the above to be used as my email signature. Pretty :)

Sunshine!

2011-07-01T16:58:00.005-05:00

As mentioned in my post earlier today I was enjoying the wonderful weather on the deck at my mother's place. Jungle-like backyard aside, I really enjoyed the time I spent out there. From the photo above you can see that my dog; freshly sheared to cope with the summer heat, also enjoyed her time in the sun.

Welcome to the Jungle

2011-07-01T15:08:00.002-05:00

Video clip pending

Visited my mother today. My brother who recently moved back in with her was also there and since the weather was so nice I thought I'd sit out on the balcony. Little did I know that the backyard hasn't been maintained in 5 years. the result is the video clip above taken with my new Nexus S mobile.

You can see the fence on the left side....a bit that the grass hasn't yet eaten. Thankfully or frighteningly the neighbors on the right side also have greenery eating up their backyards. Scary.

Strawberries!

2011-06-29T14:31:00.003-05:00

Free strawberry stuffs at First Canadian Place today! I don't know why but there was a sign that said "Happy Canada Day Strawberry Festival".

The lines for fresh strawberries and tarts were a bit long but I managed to snag a berry pop and macaroons. I haven't tried the macaroons yet but I did have the berry pop.

It was quite reminiscent of Play Dough in both smell and texture but it wasn't bad inside. It was some sort of soaked cake. Unique enough and since it was so cute I'd actually like to try it out myself. So what if it kind of smells like play dough, it's a nostalgic smell for the adult and it can actually be eaten.

Song: Strawberry Fields by the Beatles (I know I've already used the song here, but the name fits so well)

Go, go, go!

2011-06-26T19:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was busy, busy. We...or I slept in so things got off to a late start but we went almost everywhere we had planned to.

Husband and I like the new clothing iron and yesterday we purchased our vacuum on sale as planned. Dog barked at it which is unusual for her. She never liked the old vacuum but she would just make herself scarce, this was the first time she barked at it, and it was a bit of a high pitched squeeky bark which startled me.

By chance Hubby was looking though the fliers dropped off at our house and he noticed that the iron was on sale for even less. We purchased it on sale from $99 to $59. It was now on sale for $39. We went to Canadian Tire and got the difference back, it felt so good! We purchased a $99 iron which we like for $39. Sweet! I'd also like to mention that it was pretty much across the street from the grocery store I wanted to visit so we didn't use up much extra in the way of commuting either.

This is how the day went.

1:30 - Canadian Tire- Got $$ back for the iron

1:40- Loblaws Superstore- groceries (I forgot my 50% off appetizer coupon :( )

2:00- Dollar Store - small paint brushes to touch up the walls

2:30- Local farmer's market

3:00- Back home to drop off groceries

3:10- Realised that ING is closed and Hubby can't frop off his cheque

3:50- Mobilicity for my new phone. bye, bye Telus!

4:20- Home for dinner

9:30- Out to see Bad Teacher. Used the new phone to guide us to a thater but we lef thome late so we saw Super 8 instead. It was a good movie.

Our father's day dinner was cancelled last week because my dad got stuck on the highway for 2 hours in the sweltering heat. I have no idea when it's supposed to be rescheduled. Should I call him?

Song: 7 O'Clock News from Child's Toy (anime)

Small Appliance Replacement Time

2011-06-23T12:02:00.010-05:00

Hubby and I are at that point in time where the small appliances passed down to us from parents and grandparents need replacing. I can't speak for hubby but I myself didn't have any idea what these things cost until I did some looking around.

Yesterday we purchased a new steam iron. It was on sale at Canadian Tire for $59.99. I've used it once so far, but it seems much better than the iron we had. I'll need to buy distilled water for it today since our tap water is causing mineral dust to shoot out with the steam and with time it will plug up the steam holes despite the scary sounding self cleaning mode.

Apparently if you find the steam isn't coming out as it should you can set this thing to self cleaning mode where it shoots boiling hot water out of the holes until the water resevoir is empty. It's suppoed to be held horizontaly (facing downward) over the sink with hands and anything else out of the way. I'm not looking forward to trying that out.

Hubby and I also went to Sears and looked at the Kenmore vacuums. The one we have now was passed down to hubby from his grammy. It's made it 20 years so far and it can probably go a bit further but the hose has cracked and duct tape won't stick to the ribbing. The hepa filter also seems to be going since you can smell the dust stirring up everty time the vacuum is turned on.

After some online research we've decided to purchase the Kenmore Elegance vacuum in dark teal. It's going to be on sale for $299 this Friday and the salesperson placed one on hold for us. The reviews on the Sears site aren't too good byt hubby checked it out on Consumer Reports and it did about 75% from all the vacuums in this price range. None of the vacuums in this price range did better than 75%.

We're also going to see if dishwashers are on sale. The older one that came with our house is making strange grinding noises and we suspect the motor. I think it will make it to the end of the year but scouting out some good deals doesn't hurt.

Lastly I saw a nice coffee table set and we're going to see if it's on sale when we pick up the vacuum on Friday. $700+ just for the coffe table alone is absolutely unacceptable to me. the thing is made in mass quantities by machines. Why such a crazy mark up?

We're still using two old end tables from hubby's other grammy I think and we don't have a coffee table at all. The new set will go upstairs in the living room and the old end tables can go down to the basement where we currently place drinks unsteadily on a leather padded storage chest doubling as a coffee table and kick them over often.

The cream carpet there will never be the same.

Still Home Alone

2011-03-12T13:08:00.003-06:00

So my brother and father have finished installing the new faucet control which was more work than any of us thought.

I thought the shower faucet control we had was installed backwards since hot was cold and cold was hot. After opening up the wall we discovered that the hot and cold pipes were backwards! My father and brother made a crazy figure eight with our pipes to correct the problem so that hot and cold are on the correct sides. I'm super impressed with the work my father did especially since it's been decades since he last work on a plumbing job like this. It looks like a mess in the wall, but once I patch it back up it'll be fine. I don't care what's behind the wall so long as it works.

I thanked them by feeding them some really super yummy roast beef. The veggies and mashed potatoes were also great, and I even made dessert. Yeah, my cooking rocks when I chose to do it. I can't wait for hubby to return, I miss him but at least I have dog to keep me company, better than nothing I guess.

Home Alone

2011-03-11T13:01:00.000-06:00

Hubby of mine has flown off to Boston for the weekend with some friends for PAX, leaving me home alone. He calls me each night to say 'hi' but unfortunately he keeps calling around 11pm or later and I'm already asleep at that point since I need to work the next day. All my responses to him were just mumbles and I don't even remember what he said. At least I know he's OK and having fun.

Since it's his birthday this weekend I'm going to have my father (who knows and can work with all sorts of plumbing stuff) and my brother install a new shower faucet in our upstairs bathroom. It'll be their gift to him. I know it doesn't seem like much of a gift but the faucet in question was actually one he gifted to me not knowing that it would cost upwards of $400 to install.

It's a central faucet that twists one way for hot and another for cold, but also pushes in and out for pressure. Because of this the base is larger than what's currently in the bathroom shower and we need to cut a hole in the master bedroom (shower backs into the bedroom) and install it from behind. What an adventure.

Hyperfiction Anyone?

2011-02-23T18:51:00.004-06:00

I was flipping though my hubby's Maximum PC mag and came across and article that listed 101 must see websites. The Dionaea House is one of them. I encourage anyone who has some time to take a look at his thing.

It's apparently called 'Hyperfiction'. When I was done reading it I was completely absorbed in the piece and did a Google search on it to make sure it really was fiction.

I highly recommend visiting it's a serious mind f***, two thumbs up.

Valentines Day Flowers

2011-02-14T12:43:00.001-06:00

Hubby sent me an absolutely gorgeous flower arrangement to the office. I wish he'd stop spending his money on getting me flowers but he says he does it because they make me happy. I have admit that the flowers always make me smile and they're always beautiful and wonderfully fragrant but I'm just as happy to see hubby at the end of a long day. Nothing beats that, ever.

Also note that there's no pink or red in sight. Yay! I have nothing against pink or red flowers, but it's nice to receive flowers in a different color sometimes. If they were pink and/or red every year I think I'd get bored of them. Unlike hubby whom I never tire of and am happy to see every single time. (Yes I'm shamelessly buttering him up, but with flowers so beautiful I can't help it. )

The Ritzy Ritz

2011-01-27T14:07:00.000-06:00

It's the 27th and our delayed honeymoon is nearing its end. Hubby and I are settled at the Ritz Carlton and waiting out our time here. I say we're waiting out our time because I don't think either of us understands why the rich flock to this place like some sort of mecca for the wealthy. I think this place is a bit hyped up; it's supposed to be a five star resort, but I'd give it a four myself.

- The immediate area around the hotel is pretty shabby. Gotta go out about 10k to be in a nicer area, even then we're surrounded by pawn and cash advance shops.

- Lobby is super impressive with fresh fruit scattered about in decorative vessels, expensive chandeliers on the ceiling and lots of super cozy seating. My dislike is that there's some sort of citrus perfume stuff pumped into the air. It's not a bad odor, but I'd rather not have to inhale it while indoors. The music is also quite a bit louder in the lobby and I don't want that either.

I actually asked what they do with all the fresh fruit decorating the lobby and I think they toss it when it spoils....they don't seem to cook with it or anything. Seems super wasteful.

- The grounds are nice, lots of fluffly couches and all to sit on outside (It's where I am now, although I'm wishing I wore my gloves), soft jazz pouring thourgh some external speakers...not bad. Tomorrow I'll check out an area to sit where I can see the sun rise, it's just to my right overlooking the ocean and I love to get a cenered view of it.

- Parking is valet only, and costs around $30 a day. Not impressed with the cost. Someone is always there to open car andhotel doors, but for $30 a day I'd bitch at them if they weren't.

- There are 3 restaurants, we've been to one(Orange blossom?) and the food was 5 stars all the way including the price. We plan to try out another restaurant if we have the funds for it before we leave. For all our other meals we go to IHop or whatever else we can find. We went to a McD yesterday for breakfast, but the staff and atmosphere was pretty hostile so I'm not sure if we'll be returning to that one.

- It's been too cool outside for us, but the 2 pools seem nice, no sight of a hot tub though.

- Workout facilities are the best I've seen in a hotel and most condos. There are fresh rolls of towels and iced or cold bottled water available to all, there are also clean headphones available to anyone who needs a pair. The studio can be used at anytime as long as there isn't a class in session. There's a Pilates machine on one side as well.

- Hallways are all marble and impressive looking throughout the hotel.

- Free paper in the mornings is nice and the rooms have free cable/satelite TV.

- No free wi-fi, they want $10 for 24hrs. WTF?!

- The elevators themselves aren't very impressive looking and need a makeover.
- Emergency stairwells have no emergency lights of windows. How are people supposed to get down in a fire?

- Rooms are nice and the bathroom has a water closet! Cool! My issue is that the doorknob inside the waterclosetmust be pretty damn germy if people are handling it immediatley after doing their thing. Also, why is there a phone in there with an ethernet port? I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that call!

The entire bathroom is also marble, which seems impressive but the floors are cold and unheated.

- Lastly the bed. What I (and hubby, but this is my blog not his) consider to be the most important thing in any hotel is lumpy and worn. The pillows are OK and there's no comforter, only some heavy sheets sandwiched betwen flat sheets. Not comfy in the least. We asked the hotel to fix the matress, but they just rotated the thing and added an extra feather top. What's up with the feather top, ever hear of memory foam?

Overall I think the Ritz is a overhyped and a bit of a death trap if there's a blackout for any reason. I miss the bed at Sheraton and even my own back home. Two nights to go, checking out on the 29th.

Disney- Animal Kingdom

2011-01-19T07:03:00.004-06:00

After all the walking we did yesterday we thought we'd try more of it today. We went through the Animal Kingdom park and although we had no plans to finish it in one day, we somehow managed.

We started at the Oasis where there were exotic birds, lizards and gazelles. We went in a large circle going through Discovery Island, Asia, Rafiki's Planet and Africa.

Each area had different types of animals, rides, restaurants and shops. My favorite was Rafiki's since they had the petting zoo called 'Affection Station'. I got to pet goats and sheep! So cute! There was a pig, a couple of donkeys, a bull (pet it too, but behind a fence) and a llama that didn't care to be around people (It was the one that was sketched for the Emperor's Groove movie).

There was a nice safari in Africa too where hubby and I saw all sorts of neat animals like cheetas, giraffes, lions, elephants and all sorts of animals we wouldn't otherwise see.

By day's end our feet were aching and it was too late to enjoy the pool since it was getting cool on the deck. We instead went to dinner at TGI Friday which was sub par (not going there again) followed by walking around our resort.

We played pingpong, table hockey, Time Crisis, DDR imitation and did lots more walking.

Tomorrow we're taking a break from Disney before heading out to conquer the Magic Kingdom. Friday is supposed to be rainy though so maybe we need to re-think that. We'll see.

Disney World Day 2- Epcot Finished

2011-01-18T06:54:00.001-06:00

Today, as scheduled we finished off Epcot. We hit attractions 1 and 2 followed by a looooong walk on the north half ofthe park where a bunch of different countries had little areas. Can you believe there was no Tim Hortons at Canada?

We saw a Japanese drumming show which was neat. I had Japanese beer which was way too bitter, I tossed it after a few sips. $8 literally down the drain there.

Mexico had a cute marketplace and a boat ride in their restaurant which went under their little Aztec pyramid. It was neat.

Norway had a cool boat ride, but it was closed due to 'technical difficulties'. Sucked.

all in all it was a long walk, long day. We felt great knowing we were able to get through Epcot though.

Upon returning to the hotel we finally had a chance to try out the swimming pool (one of them anyways, they have at least 3). It was fun and we're going to go swimming again for sure.

Disney World Day 1- Epcot

2011-01-16T19:44:00.009-06:00

Pasty and ready to take squinting to a new level, husband and I drove to Disney World today. He looks like such a kid in the picture above. *cute*

I don't have the guide map handy and I don't care enough to check online but if whoever is reading this has the time, feel free to look up the numbers I write about. I don't recall all the names of the attractions, but I have the map numbers instead.

Once we found Epcot (It was the first one we saw) we passed on attractions 1 and 2 since they were packed. We went through a weird build a house interactive thing first, I think it was number 5, wouldn't recommend it.

We did stuff, then had lunch. It was so, so and as expected; overpriced. Went on a boat ride type of thing then a cool attraction called Soarin'. It was a 90 minute wait so we were going to pass, but then a lady gave us her fast pass so we only waited 14 minutes. Lucky!

We managed to get through almost everything on the southern half half of Epcot, we'll be going back for the northern half tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

We would have finished the southern half today, but we went on a GM car testing ride followed by a NASA mission training ride (intense version) that made hubby a bit sick. My feet were tired anyways so we called it a day. I liked both of the rides by the way.

I know we're going to have rain this week, but I hope not tomorrow. I don't feel like staying in.

Ducks!

2011-01-16T06:58:00.000-06:00

I've decided to forgo the morning jog in favor of hanging out in a hammock by the water. There are quacking ducks here! I'm sitting in the hammock, typing, and there are cute and soft looking waddling, quacking ducks here! I love the grounds here!

There are also a number of people jgging around the gardens, I think I'll join them tomorrow.

The Sunshine State

2011-01-16T06:01:00.002-06:00

Hubby and I are having a late honeymoon is sunny Orlando, Florida

I had a full blown cold when I lefty work on Friday, I'm using cold & flu Tylenol for the time being. My ears are still popping from the plane ride since my sinuses are all messed up. I actually only got my hearing back hours after we landed here. We arrived safely yesterday around 3 pm. We were an hour late since the plane had to be de-iced.

Westjet was great, with free satellite TV time flew (I watched Living with Zombies on Space), it was like a quick car ride. When we landed it was 20 degrees and sunny, by night it was more like 4 degrees.

Once we got a car we hit the grocery store for some basic items. Groceries cost a lot here, not at all like LA where everything was super cheap.

After finding our hotel and checking in we found that our fist room sucked, there was a closet door that was just propped up with no tracks or hinges; It almost fell on me. After getting a new room in a different building (from #1 to #23) we learned that we were originally in one of the older buildings. That's something to remember if we come and stay here again.

I'll try to post some pics (I should take some) as I go.

Sorry for the Inconvenience B*tch

2010-12-17T14:09:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine passed away December 15th at 9:30am. He was diagnosed with an advanced case of liver cancer a little over a year ago. Chemo stopped working and the risks were too much for another round so.....yeah.

I'll miss him and I feel lucky to have met him and be considered a friend.

His funeral is this Sunday and one of my co-workers who didn't speak with him at all while he tried to battle the cancer (called him once to rant about her day without inquiring about how he was doing) and only visited him in the hospital during his last days so she could call herself compassionate (she emailed a bunch of people to let them know how nice she was being first) is now moaning about how she had to reshuffle her weekend to accommodate his funeral.

Well f*** me! I'm sorry the death of a friend is such an inconvenience for you. To top it off she's going around telling everyone how her soul can't take anymore death because a client also passed away and along with the death of my friend it's too much for her.

Bitch.

Candy, candy, candy!

2010-11-01T13:02:00.000-05:00

It was COLD, really, really, really cold this year for Halloween.

Hubby and I bought 4 boxes of choco and candies but we have one and half boxes left after the fact. It seems the cold kept most people away this year. Some parents were driving their children door to door in the hopes that they could stave off the cold a bit and keep their little ones happy.

Oh well, more for us :)

Picture by *Sidxartxa on Deviantart.com

Surreal

2010-10-17T17:19:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine has been battling colon cancer for a while now, and last week-end he told me he's got only 2-4 months left.

I've never know anyone close to me who's died in any way except from old age. It doesn't seem real, and I feel kind of numb about the whole thing.

My grandmother from my father's side passed away about six years ago and I still miss her. I miss my grandfather too, but at least I know they had a full life and got to see their children grow up and have their own children. I feel very fortunate to have had both sets of grandparents around while I was growing up. When my friend passes away I don't know how I'll feel. I know he's had a pretty good life, but it doesn't seem like it's finished.

Life isn't fair, but death isn't either. I'm not the praying type, but I think I'll give it a go for my friend. I can't pray for a miraculous recovery, but I can pray for a peaceful death surrounded by his loved ones. I can pray that whatever he meets or wherever he goes after he's left us in this life he's happy and watching over those he cares about.

I'm a Wife! I have a Husband! Woah!

2010-09-29T13:14:00.012-05:00

I got Married yesterday! Yay!

On the weekend my then fiancee dropped me off at a total stranger's house and it ended up being a wedding shower. His mother had gathered up all the ladies who saw hubby grow up and they gave some really greats gifts. My mother and brother's girlfriend were also there, I wish my aunt and cousins were as well but I guess it slipped hubby's mind. It was still really very sweet though, and everyone was so generous and wonderful.

It was raining buckets all day and prior to the wedding I had to go out and pick up my cake. Hubby couldn't find his tie, and we were actually 10 minutes late for our own wedding. Doh! We're lucky the justice of the peace didn't cancel. geez.

We had a very small wedding at the local city hall, it was me, hubby, witnesses and their significant others or whoever gave them a ride. The room we were married in was a crap hole, but the person who performed the ceremony was great and in the end I didn't care where I got married, I was so happy!

After posing for photos around the city hall grounds we headed to a little Italian ristorante for lunch with our family (both sets of parents, hubby's sister, my brother and his girlfriend, my father's wife, my aunt, uncle, cousins and one of my cousins' boyfriend.). The food and company was great and afterward we went to our place for cake and other sweets.

Between all the photos and being crazy happy the time flew and it was nearly dinner by the time people left.

We're still going to have another event which will include a slightly wider array of people like friends and co-workers. It's been booked and people have been invited. The food at the restaurant is really good, so if it all goes south at least people will be well fed.

I'm a Wife! I have a Husband! Woah!

Netfilx For All!

2010-09-22T18:02:00.002-05:00

Netflix is now available in Canada! Fiancee and I signed up and can now watch movies and tv episodes on our PS3 or PC. It will also be available for the X-Box360 soon.

Like all USA things made Canadian Netfilx.ca isn't nearly as good as what's available on Netfilx.com. It has a much smaller library consisting of older movies with new releases consisting of movies and TV shows from about 2 years ago and unlike the States where it's already working on X-Box it isn't working here.

Ohb well, it's still only $7.99 for unlimited access and there's lots to choose from. So what if it's older, a good movie or TV show is still good regardless of when it was released. This is also a good chance to watch some TV shows and movies we wouldn't normally pay for.

Overall I'm pretty happy about Netflix, I think fiancee is on the wall about it, but the low price is what holds his vote.

Happy Birthday- Fiancee's Sister

2010-08-21T21:10:00.008-05:00

We went to visit and celebrate her birthday at her house.

Nothing says "Happy Birthday!" like clean the house and get ready to entertain, then clean up after everyone when they leave.

I hadn't seen her place in a while but I knew it was painted since fiancee went over at one point to help.

I was gobsmacked when I saw the place. The paint on the walls pulled everything together and made the large space cozy and inviting. The colors worked perfectly with the natural light present both during the day and with the electrical lighting used at night.

For the longest time everyone would keep talking about how the dining room (pictured above) was a dark chocolate brown but, as you can see in the photo the color is actually more like 'hot chocolate' which is what Benjamin Moore has oddly enough called the color.

I really think she missed her calling by going the way of the techie. She has an excellent eye for color and design. She also had some wonderful plants on the little balcony and even they went well with the decor! pft. (They can easily be seen from the great room. Yeah..it's not a nice room, it's a great room. LOL)

The food and company were also excellent as always.

Stupid Biological Clock

2010-08-20T13:45:00.011-05:00

Swift mercy spare my soul!
This, sadness is not (now) my theme-
I shall now swiftly close this hole.

Of life I ask to give me strength,
Unyielding pain to keep at length.

I have no care to suffer and scream:
I'll wait and hope- the wait, the wait!
It is but agony as of late.

Written by: Me. Loosely modeled from the 1st verse of Edgar Allan Poe's Tamerlane

``````````````````````

A co-worker at the office is having a baby soon and all of us chipped in to buy her some baby stuff. We'll be presenting it to her in a surprise office baby shower. I'm happy for her and her family who have decided to wait until baby born to see if it's a boy or girl (I hope it's a girl).

In the meantime my biological clock is kicking in reminding me I'm not getting any younger and that my time for having a kid is pretty much here. People always ask if we're going to have a child and I want to say yes but I don't know for certain. I've had and still have some problems with conceiving a child naturally but there's more to it than that.

Do I want a baby? Yes. Do I want to carry it around for 9 months? No. Do I want to give birth to it? No, it seems damn scary. Do women who want babies feel any different than me? Do they say to everyone 'Sure I'll carry the baby around and then just pop it out when it 's time. No biggie.'?

I feel like my logical side (such as it is) and my biological clock are at war. A part of me yearns to make and have a baby to love and hold; I'm incomplete without one. Another part of me wonders where these foreign thoughts and feelings are coming from. It warns me that once the process starts there's no turning back. It also wants to remind me that it's a damn scary thing to pop out a baby and then be responsible for the little life until it grows old enough to be independent.

Fiancee and I are OK with the idea of having a child, but we've decided not to push it. It happens if it happens and we'll take it from there. We aren't 'working' on making a baby, but we aren't preventing it from happening either.

Picture is paper heart. by ~naduss

Eat, Pray, Love (Bali)

2010-08-11T05:30:00.007-05:00

After finding her way out of depression in Italy and learning to love herself and her world Elizabeth Gilbert goes to Bali for the second time in her life. It's the only place out of the three she's been to both before her adventure and after. When she arrives she's lost and isn't even recognized by the medicine man who said she would come back, but once she settles in things come together.

At this point in the book so much has happened and Elizabeth is such a different person that the last section of the book is completely different from the other two. In this chapter there is nothing I can relate to. She has grown, accepted and moved on while I'm still where I was when I started this book.

When she gets hit by a bus (a small one according her her) and needs medical attention she pretty much waves it away like it's no big deal. As I was reading about that and everything else that happened I kept thinking to myself 'There's no way I could be so accepting' but, that's exactly how it goes in the book. From the wound up bundle of depressed and fanatical nerves Elizabeth has transformed into a completely different person.

From the whole book I would say this section of the book was my least favorite. I enjoyed reading more about the transformation than the transformed and developed Elizabeth. It wasn't poorly written by any stretch, but I liked reading about the time in Italy and India better.

I was a bit disappointed with the ending since I wanted a bit more closure, I wanted to read about what her family and friends thought about the new her but the next book 'Commited' is apparently a bit of a spin-off of the book so I'm going to try to read that next. I'm not expecting much from it since once again it'll be with an Elizabeth who is enlightened, but who knows I may be surprised.

Picture is Hope by ~Wings-of-dust

Being Nice?

2010-08-07T21:52:00.016-05:00

Growing up I didn't receive gifts unless it was my birthday or Christmas. If I received a gift otherwise it was because there was an expectation attached to it.

The other day a courier gave me a couple of artisan truffles which was odd yes, but my co-workers thought it was pretty nice.

I suppose I have only myself to blame, but when I receive a gift or just some every day item like cup of tea from someone I immediately feel guilty. I feel like the person who got me whatever it is shouldn't have done so because they're wasting their money or effort on me. I don't know why I have such difficulty accepting things from others, I always have.

I get this feeling like I need to do something in return for the person so that I make up for whatever they gave me. I almost feel like I'm ripping the person off just by accepting whatever it is they're giving me. Why would someone give me tea, coffee, chocolates or anything for that matter? What did I do to earn or deserve the treat? What can I do after the fact to make up for what was given to me? My feelings eventually lead to major awkwardness for me until I forget it ever happened. As for the opposite....giving....well I've got no problems there.

I don't earn a lot, but I'm comfortable with what I have at the time. My World Vision kid gets his money, other charities get monetary help from me and I enjoy buying coffee or other items for other people. I only have a slight idea of how this started but I often feel like any effort anyone makes on me is wasted because I'll eventually disappoint so no need to bother. If anything I should give, give, give to try to ease the burden of my existence on others.

I usually accept gifts from fiancee, they make me so happy! I still always pay him back either by monetary means or by buying gifts in return. I now he loves me, and I know I love him but, like any other women I do make my man kinda crazy sometimes and I feel badly about the fact that he has to put up with that.

Others seem to take buying and receiving little tokens from each other so well, why do I have so much trouble with it?

Eat, Pray (India), Love

2010-08-05T11:50:00.000-05:00

So now that everything is happier and more relaxed the book moves from yummy, happy Italy to a hidden Ashram in India.

Kudos to the author for doing all this and taking a personal pilgrimage to find herself and her own spirituality. It's a novel concept that seems wonderful and not many people would go to such great lengths for themselves.

One thing I'm a little so, so about though is how her inner voice speaks to her. In the book it's described as a voice actually speaking to her in her own voice. Prior to meditating for this voice she would hold a pen and notepad and her hand would write in herown handwriting a response to the question posed. Wouldn't some people call that some sort of split personality? Well, besides that though it's wonderful how the author learns to love herself and all the aspects of who she.

Not only does she learn to accept her good qualities but she also learns to accept her divorced husband, her shame at not fitting the mold of society and her depression. She describes the love she feels for herself and for her loved ones as being boundless and infinite. When she was about to leave the ashram at one point to see the rest of India she was asked to stay with the promise that if she kept up her spiritual quest she would see things that are so beautiful it will make her want to throw rocks at the Taj Mahal. I think she achieved that and more.

Picture is Pray by ~mahasesen

Eat (Italy), Pray, Love

2010-08-02T05:30:00.000-05:00

I'm reading the book even though it has the crappy movie cover now. Although it isn't a long book it's taking longer to read than most of the other books I've read that are two or three times the length. For the first time in a long time this is a book that I'm really reading word for word and actually learning from and thinking about quite deeply.

It seems that the title relates to where the character goes. Eat (Italy), Pray (India), Love (Bali).

The main character first visited Italy. I'd never thought about visiting before but, after reading about all the freedom one has there it seems like a really great place to visit.

It would be great to go to a restaurant and eat for 4 or 5 hours without being bothered. To eat ice gelato for breakfast, to watch the people in the city. Did you know that in Italy they have a tap up in the mountains that releases fresh spring water and carbonated water? All you need to do is provide your own bottles. I saw that on David Rocco's Dolce Vita. So cool!

Although I feel no need or desire for any spiritual self discovery myself I'm really impressed and awed by the adventures in this book. I also find a lot of what is written about day to day working life rings true about myself.

"Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma..."

It makes me wonder if I'm going to end up burned out in the next decade if I don't somehow learn to properly relax myself.

"Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one."

The two quotes above really hit home for me and although I don't plan to grow spiritually anytime soon I think I really would like to do something to relax more. I find exercising (cardio) really helps me but finding the time for it is difficult. I'll need to work harder to make the time for it and not to wear myself down to the point where I can barely lift my head off the couch after a hard day.

Picture is Pasta by ~Coolgraphic

More Job Responsibilities

2010-07-25T04:42:00.010-05:00

Some people would call more responsibilities and a slight rise in pay a promotion. I think I'll just call it more responsibilities since my title is still the same, the office is small so it isn't like I physically moved to a better space and my boss is still my boss whom in addition to I now have another one of those as well.

Thus far I was supporting my boss who pretty much does everything in the company. He always knows what's in the works since he is the works in every department and he's also the CEO's right had man. My main job is to maintain our information system in the back office. Due to the size of our company I essentially am the back office along with my boss.

Over time other duties were added to my pot. I assist with commissions, updating our website and adding content, ordering coffee and coffee supplies, maintaining our phone system (which is old and needs help).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~* Bitch Break*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
What service provider doesn't give software updates? Our Nortel phone system can't be updated because in their infinite wisdom Nortel decided that if customers want updates they should purchase the new system for 15k! Are you kidding me?! The best part is that if the new system doesn't work with the current phones you need to buy new ones of those too at $125 a pop! WTF?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* Bitch Break*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

In the past I would also help with filling in for some people who were on vacation, I send off our daily trades, create forms and sometimes advertisements and as needed will help compliance with regulators or with new advisor registrations.

Now I'm also assiting our CEO (to give my original boss a bit of a break so he can branch out and do some other things in the company) and taking care of contracts and all sorts of things.

The original plan was to change my title, but I don't want to be labeled as an Executive Assistant (notice the 'Ass' in Assistant? hmmm...) since then it's the role I'll be stuck with whenever I look for another job. I prefer to stick to the operations side of life. More problem solving and gratification for me.

I'm trying to live for the moment so that time will stop moving so quickly, but I am very much looking forward to my raise which comes at the end of this month. Yay!

Image is On the phone by ~LModesto
Image is I Heart Money by ~basalt

To be a Child

2010-07-05T05:58:00.001-05:00

It's almost been a year since fiance and I moved in to our new place. The neighborhood is full of new families which means there are always children running around. Every time I see children running around happy and care free I can't help but think about my own childhood, then I wince mentally when it doesn't ring up any particularly happy memories.

As a child I remember being miserable more than happy and it always bums me out. I think my mother's cooking is the only thing I truly loved about my childhood, it's where my love for all things food comes from. When I get down I think about where I am now in life to perk up again.

Looking at myself and who I've become I think things turned out OK. I'm not terribly close to my family; my father in particular but there's no outright hate anywhere.

When I see children playing in the park I'm always reminded of how innocent they are and that their innocence is what makes them so precious. When I think about my own childhood I always wish I had been a bit more street wise maybe even jaded. When I think about how implicitly I trusted my parents I feel stupid and betrayed.

The most vivid memory in my mind is when my father walked by as I was playing on my keyboard which was a poor substitute for a piano and told me he didn't think I had any talent. I haven't been able to touch a piano with any real passion since.

I was about 13 or 14 years old at that point, and I feel stupid even now because for some reason I believed him then and I still continue to believe it now over a decade later. I've never told anyone besides my fiance how deeply his words had affected me. It feels almost good to get this out in writing.

The first time I ever saw anyone play the piano in person I fell in love with how beautiful the notes were, and how fingers moving over black and white keys could produce such beautiful sounds.

I attended a very small private school up until grade 6 and was part of the choir. Sure I'd always seen an adult, a teacher play the piano but all I saw was their back while some song droned on.

One day when I was about 10 or 11 one of my peers saw the unattended piano, she sat down and started playing while I stood beside her. It was the first time I realized that playing an instrument (the piano in particular) wasn't just something for adults to do, maybe I could play it too. While she played she told me she had a piano in her house. The idea was staggering to me. I stood beside her transfixed on what she was doing. We were always told in school to stay away from the piano because it was for grown ups, that we children would damage it in some way. I had no idea that with lessons and practice even us children could play the instrument and make beautiful songs come out.

That evening I told my parents about my new revolution. I wanted to play the piano as well and I wanted to know how to get started. I was told almost immediately that I wouldn't enjoy it, I would touch the piano and they stop quickly as I started. That was the end of the conversation in my house. I actually believed them. So stupid, so naive. I don't know why they said what they did, they never explained when I asked over the next few days but eventually I stopped asking.

I escaped to the world of my books and TV. My father hated how much I would read. He would always tell me to read something non-fictional or instructional. I read some of his books on basic car maintenance since it was around, then when I would ask for some help with a part of the book or ask him to show me where it was on our family car he would tell me to go help my mother around the house, to stop asking about things that didn't matter to girls. I could never win with him, never make him happy.

In grade 6 around 11 I asked for piano lessons again. I couldn't let go of this. Of course I was told I wouldn't like it, it would be a waste of money. I decided that if my parents wouldn't help then I would do this myself. That year I saved up my Christmas and birthday money. In grade 7 in a new school I was once again exposed to a person who could play the piano. Once more I was in awe. He played part of "Killing me Softly" by the Fugees. Dorky now I know, but then it was all I could think about.

By the time summer rolled around that year I had $100 saved up. Now I had to find a place to get lessons. I frequented the local library a lot. In fact I was there almost everyday. I didn't have friends to speak of nor was I involved in any sort of extra curricular activities, not knowing at the time what such a thing was. (I went to Brownies and then Girl Guides at one point, but hated it.) As luck would have it I saw an ad for 8 piano lessons for $80, and it was in one of the rooms below the community center that housed the library. I was excited and told my parents what I was going to do with my money. I don't recall the response exactly, but I do know it involved an argument which ended up with me crying in my bedroom. Well, I've always been stubborn and this time I wasn't backing out, not when I was so close. I went to the community center and signed up for the lessons. My mother helped with that.

On my second lesson the instructor asked if I had practiced my scales. I told her I didn't have a piano at home. I was crushed. That evening my father came home with a crappy keyboard which only allowed me to press one note at a time and had only 3 octaves but I loved it. After my eight and final lesson, my father bought me a better keyboard which played much better and contained 7 octaves. I was ecstatic, but he still wouldn't pay for any more lessons. My mother encouraged me to keep playing at this point, but my father remained silent. Not knowing where to find more lessons I tried my best to learn on my own. In grade 10 I took a grade 11 self guided class. I learned Pachabell's (sp?) Cannon in D. I loved that song. When I played at home my father said there was no way I was doing that. When I showed him I was he said I should learn other songs. I was so happy he liked what I was playing. I went online and printed out more sheet music.

It was while I practiced and tried to learn the new song a week later that my father told me he didn't think I had any talent at playing. He said if I had talent I would have been able to play it better a lot sooner. I was trying to play Fur Elise, perhaps a bit too overzealous, but it was the last song I tried to play. After that I was embarrassed to play while anyone could hear me. My father told me he was right and that like he said I would I got bored of it and gave up.

That moment where I was told I had no talent in something I loved so much is burned into me, my father to this day still thinks I just lost interest but I hope to one day purchase a piano and try again. One day.

Picture by yuumei

Voyeur?

2010-06-30T11:18:00.002-05:00

I found out today that a marriage ceremony of some sort is necessary in order to get married. You can't just sign a paper and be done with it. What's up with that?

In my opinion a divorce and a marriage are equally big and important, so why can a divorce be done by signing papers, but a marriage has to have a ceremony?

If I'm going to go through a ceremony I want a nice setting and I want all the people I know and care about to be there. I want a BIG wedding, something I can call a ceremony. With no wedding party except the bride and groom I think it's creepy to pour out my feelings to fiance in front of a stranger who just stands there in a crappy low budget room masquerading as a chapel in city hall.

To me, my vows and the feelings I want to convey with them are intimate, private and meant only for fiance. I don't want some stranger to stand there and hear me pour my heart out to fiance like some sort of voyeur. Even if I'm only following the standard script, everything I say will be said with all my love for fiancee. I'm a private person and I think it's terrible that I have to allow some stranger to hear something so intimate.

BP Oil Spill

2010-06-22T15:22:00.005-05:00

How's that for a solution?

I also read this article which states that the people working on cleaning the wildlife are using Dawn dish soap to do so. Apparently the active grease fighting ingredient is petroleum. Ironic huh?

I Do?

2010-06-17T11:28:00.006-05:00

So I now want to move on from my status of fiancee to wife. Actually, I don't really like having the title of wife applied to me; makes me feel old, but I do want my fiancee to be husband. *sigh* I guess everyone's got to grow up sometime.

So if I want to move on from the fiancee stage I need to get married.

I don't see the point in having a big shin-dig since fiancee and I already live together, have a car, a dog, heck all that's missing is a baby! Personally I would love to just go to city hall, sign on the dotted line and go party. Unfortunately things are never that simple.

It seems I'm going to go through the process of getting an actual wedding together, venue, food, guests, the works. Thankfully I'm only going to have a very small wedding of about 30 guests. The last thing I want is a hundred+ eyes on me as I walk down some overdecorated isle, wearing an overpriced dress that will probably be highly uncomfortable with equally uncomfortable shoes.

The guests will consist of those we consider close to us (family only). Just because your family doesn't mean you'll be invited! I wanted to have some friends there, but then budget becomes an issue. The only thing I'm looking forward to is the food. Screw the dress, hair, makeup, tux and shoes, just feed me! I think I'm watching too much of Food's "I Do, Let's Eat", but the food is all I can think of (this is why I have to work out). I hope I can get what I want, too bad La Roca doesn't make tier cakes :(

People ask me what it is I want for my wedding and I tell them "someone to take care of it all, stuff me into a dress with shoes and accessories and tell me when and where to show up." If only!

I've set the date for Septembe r2011 but I want to be married in 2010. I figure by the time I can get myself to look at venues and plan all this It'll be 2011. I keep procrastinating and can't help but get this feeling like I'm missing something. On TV and IRL there are women and heck, even some men who seem to know what they want when it comes to their wedding. They even know how to plan for it. Me? I don't know what I want (but I now what I don't) and I don't know how I want to look, or how to plan any of this.

Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to this?!

Going Ons

2010-06-16T04:53:00.006-05:00

I haven't had time to post as of late because although I have no social life to speak of I still find myself very busy just trying to keep up with life on a day to day basis.

If I'm not grocery shopping, I'm working out. If I'm not cleaning the house, I'm walking the dog. If I'm not walking the dog, I'm cooking. If I'm not cooking, I'm spending time with fiancee. If I'm not doing any of these things it's because I'm at work and that's a whole whack of "If I'm not statements on it's own.

Until I started living in a house with fiance, I never realized how much work it is to keep the house up and running. If I don't cook, then it's cereal for dinner, lunch, breakfast, you name it. Lots of cereal is consumed here.

For a super easy meal we'll have BBQ, but the burners in our BBQ are crap and they don't heat the grill properly at all. Each of the three burners will only heat up about a 3 inch diameter stripe . A steak can be very well done all around with careful rotating, but still be raw in he middle. With enough rotating all of it can be cooked, but that only leaves us with the well done or rare options. No even grilling to be found here. Mmm...food.

In addition I had my raise from work...Yay! It's nothing major, but it really helps me out. Not only can I not wince every time I spend money on groceries, but I've been able to update my work wardrobe a bit by buying a few higher quality items here and there. A great place to look is a high end clothing store's sale section in the back. Yes it's still a bit pricey, but one item I found was marked down to $39.85 from a whopping $285.00. There was only one left, and it was my size. Score!

I haven't purchased anything for my work wardrobe since I started a bit over 4 years ago! The most I did was replace worn pieces with other low quality pieces that looked similar. It was nice to be able to buy some new items :)

Next up is my casual wardrobe, which still consists mostly of pieces like capris, jeans, and workout gear from my high school days. Seems I stopped growing around grade 10...so much for growing to 5'6. Oh well...being petite can have it's ups too :)

What Is Love?

2010-02-14T21:28:00.002-06:00

There are many different kinds of love such as the love between family members, the love one gives a pet, the love between lovers and the love between two people who want to live the rest of their lives together.

I'm in love with my fiance, but I still can't say what love is. After years of being together and only a few months away from getting married I've come to know what my idea of love is.

Every time I see my fiancee I get this happy feeling inside, like it's spilling out my middle and spreading out all over. I look art him and know that I don't want to experience my future unless he's a part of it. I don't want to think about or be in the future without him. I love all the little touches we share, the way I feel beautiful when I'm with him and how safe I feel when he holds me.

Different people may experience love differently, but above is how I feel it.

No I didn't freeze to Death

2009-12-23T12:45:00.004-06:00

So....anyone know anyone that'll come in for this small drywall job?

To anyone who thought I had frozen to death in my electrically heated house I'd like to assure you that is not case.

After calling, following up and threatening to find someone else for the job, our contractor finally came in a gave us ducts and vents :)

We failed inspection by the city because there was one thing we didn't do. (taking down 3 bulk heads in our living room, making them larger then putting them back up, replacing the crown moulding and the pot lights). In the spring when our contractor comes back to set up the A/C unit and make sure it works we'll be attempting to do the last piece of work in our place to get it up to code prior to May which is when our permit expires :(

In the meantime we have a toasty house which is still a mess from the contractor, and needs to be painted, but not until the rest of the work is completed in spring. Hate the mess, love the warmth. With -10 to -18 weather I'll take the heat :)

In other news, somewhere along the way I stopped hating work and now it's just a part of my life. I'm not sure when the change happened, but I no longer find myself angry or frustrated about work. I've even started accepting that the TTC sucks and no longer get pissed about it. Huh.

Brrrr... It's Cold

2009-12-10T12:41:00.003-06:00

Our new house is cold. Why is it cold, insulation, hole in the wall, broken doors or windows. Nope....it's cold because our contractor won't show up to do the work.

Our house has baseboard heaters (not all of them work, and there's none in the basement). Otherwise there's some duct work, but it isn't to code.

Prior to purchasing the home we asked a contractor to look at the work, give us a quote and tell us if the house can be properly converted to central heating and cooling by code and with a permit. He said yes. He also said he'd do the work.

Well...it took him 2 months to finally get someone out to do the drawings. He kept ignoring fiancee's calls since he recognized the number (we suspect). I called from a diff. number and got a hold of him, the following day he sent out someone to do the drawings. Once the drawings were done he took his time getting them to us so we could apply for the permit. We had to call and pester him to send the damn things.

Now we have our permit, a new quote from him and after a month he's decided to do the work. Fiancee and I think our real estate agent had a talk with him since she's the one who recommended him and provided us with some references for him.

He said he would be in on Wednesday but it snowed pretty badly. We weren't surprised when he cancelled, but we expected he would start Thursday. Well.....

He called at 11 freakin' pm and fiancee got the phone. Fiancee is too nice for his own good sometimes. I was louding saying "no" "not acceptable" etc, etc, but my fiancee ignored me and just kept saying yes. When he hung up the phone he spoke with me and confirmed my suspitions. The fucking contractor call to say he'd be in on Friday and he would magically get the 2-3 day job done in 1 with more people. Fucking get out of here!

If he brings in too many people everyone is just going to be stepping over everyone and the work isn't going to get done any faster. Because fiancee of mine who I love very much can't say "no" or look out for himself and his own I plan to confront contractor myself tomorrow (he'd better show up) once I get home from work and tell him that I expect him to be around when the city inspector comes to check out the work. I plan to make clear to him that he won't be seeing any money from us until the work he promised is done to the standard he promised.

The guy has been jerking us around and not outright saying "No". We have a quote from another contractor as well, but he can't start until January 2010. Crappy! I hate contractors, lousy, self absorbed, procrastinating, uncaring, overpriced, assholes that they are.

Photo is not mine. It's from http://rs--design.deviantart.com/art/Cold-111899985

Neurotic November

2009-12-10T06:03:00.007-06:00

by Ryumia

Usually I blog while in the moment to capture my moods and not miss any details. I unfortunately haven't had any time for blogging.

November was crazy.

My father re-married on the eighth of the month. My brother and cousins couldn't make it, they all had valid excuses. I wish I could have said the same.

My father was so happy, and I didn't want to be the wet blanket, but that was the worst moment in my life. I sat in the back with fiancee who was very supportive, Aunt who didn't seem any happier than myself and uncle who had mixed feelings about the whole thing.

Why was I in the back you ask? Well....since meeting his now wife, my father has been going to church a LOT. He gives them money, attends courses and classes and recently he became friendly with some coo coo evangelists who introduced him to the Alpha course. His now wife already finished her 'training' so he went to the classes solo. The course ended at some ranch retreat and both him and now wife decided they would marry on the last day since their cult...oops "Alpha Family" was there to witness the momentous and happy occasion.

So as family we stayed near the back away from the blank eyed smiling people we encountered. I saw my father kiss a person who to me was pretty much a stranger since I'd only met with her two or three times. There was one part in the ceremony where they each lit one of three candles and someone lit one in between them to signify the joining of the two families. I later learned that the person who lit the middle candle was her son. Way to join those families you two. We've all never even been introduced.

Once everything was over my father wanted to have me in some pictures which of course I refused, and I skipped over the cake. I wanted to do nothing else afterward but hit a bar and drink them dry.

It was a terrible experience and I really feel sorry for anyone else who's had to go through it. I'll always be grateful to fiancee for being there for me.

The 18th was my birthday and the 28th was my brother's. We both had LOTS of cake as we celebrated separate times with work (in my case anyways) and all our loved ones and extended family. The 11th was also a friends birthday and my friends and I got together for dinner, then dessert at my place after. LOTS of cake. I almost never want cake again. ALMOST.

Picture from http://ryumia.deviantart.com/art/Cake-73228198

Counting, counting.

2009-10-26T11:06:00.003-05:00

A lot has happened since my last post and I don't truly know where to begin.

My father phoned to chat. Of course the subject of his coming wedding came up and I told him I wouldn't be attending. He asked if I knew about my brother and if he was coming. He isn't, but I didn't feel it was place to say anything so I told him to speak with my brother himself.

It was a difficult conversation to have. Even worse was I had this conversation after I accidentally clipped my dog's nail too short and the quick was bleeding.

Major multitasking and double panic. Thankfully styptic powder stopped it and after cleaning and bandaging it was fine. it's been 4 days now and no infection. phew. That was the first and last time I tried to clip her nails myself. She went to a pro. the following Saturday and was properly cared for. According to the groomer she behaved perfectly.

Bruce and I haven't spent much personal time together since we moved into our house. We had maybe 1 Sunday together where we had nowhere to be any no one to help. It was lovely.

Currently both of us are being worked to death by our employers, and to top things off our respective parents are always calling asking for help with this and help with that. Of course we wouldn't say no, and we both enjoy being able to help them in any way we can, but sometimes to me, it feels as if the world is trying to beat me down. I feel like everyone is just pushing and pushing waiting for me to break.

Why can't anyone see how tired I am, how I seldom smile, or how at the office I only leave my desk to use the toilet? I feel like if it wasn't for fiancee and dog I'd have broken ages ago.

Every weekday I wake up trying my best to move forward through all the tasks set ahead of me. I'm tired of the world beating me up, but I don't know what to do about it.

A vacation sounds good, but I only get 2 weeks a year. 1 day was used in February 2009 for a much needed day off. 4 days got used up for various doctor's appointments. 1 more day was used for a day off. The remaining 4 days were used for moving.

Vacation's gone and I got 2 days instead of weeks. the amount of stress is so bad that moving my neck hurts. Sometimes the pain goes down my spine and makes my whole body sore. I'd like to visit an RMT (covered by insurance) at a spa, but I haven't yet found one, they all seem to work in rehab clinics. Yeah...that's relaxing.

I'm counting the days to the new year so I can take a week off. Of course fiance will also hopefully take the time off as well and we can have a happy staycation exploring and just goofing around. I have no idea how he remains so him....I don't feel like myself these days, but he's still lovable him.

Counting, counting. Waiting for some time away.

I'm in love!

2009-09-24T14:05:00.002-05:00

OK fiance, no need to panic it isn't another person. I just found this company website and I fell in love with it.

http://www.terracycle.net/
re-uses non recyclable waste! Wait, it doesn't stop there.

Once you join a waste brigade they send you shipping supplies and pre-paid labels so you can ship them your waste at no charge to you! *whew* is it getting hot in here?

What's the benefit of joining a brigade with this site?
Not only will you be helping the environment, but for each approved piece of waste you send $0.02 will be donated to a charity of your choice.

Who can resist falling in love with a company that makes being green so convenient?

My Designer Dog the Chef? (Part 2)

2009-09-23T11:20:00.007-05:00

Continuing from where I left off; night school.

While I was on class my phone buzzed. Looking at the caller ID I hit 'ignore' since I was in the middle of class. It was my brother who was calling. Not even five minutes later the phone buzzed again. Thinking it might be important I checked the called ID ready to walk out of the class to take the call, but upon looking at the screen I see that it was my father calling. I decided to hit 'ignore' again thinking I would call back at break.

Break comes and I call my brother. He was apparently calling me to tell me that my father first called him and asked him to be the best man at his wedding.

~.~.~.~.~B**ch Break~.~.~.~.~

Yes, you read it right. My father is going to marry the person he has apparently fallen for now that his divorce is official. Her divorce has yet to go through, but they're planning the wedding for the day of the divorce. The two of them announced this at MY new HOUSE when I was throwing a BBQ. How tasteless.

~.~.~.~.~B**ch Break~.~.~.~.~

Well, now I really didn't want to call my father back, but with much reluctance I did it anyways. He asked me to be a bridesmaid. Tsk, tsk, neither my brother nor I want to participate in the wedding. We'll support my father to a point, but c'mon these aren't the best circumstances and we don't want to do anything that could hurt my mother's feelings.

The rest of night school was uneventful as the professor droned on about his life experiences and tried to prompt conversations from the class. It was so quiet you could easily hear a pin drop.

Once fiance picked me up and got me home I started pulling together the ingredients for slow cooker chili. It was my first time using the slow cooker in the new place so I wanted to try it overnight to make sure everything would be OK. By 11:30 everything was set and I went to bed.

3:00am
The dog is whinning

3:15am
The dog is climbing up legs on top of the bedsheets. I gently kick her off.

3:20am
The dog is climbing up my body. I hear sniffing noises and open my eyes to see a slimy wet nose up close and personal. I pick up the dog, place her at the foot of the bed and try to go back to sleep.

3:25am
The dog has given up on me and is now at the top of the stairs leading down making warning barking noises. Not wanting fiance to be woken in case this turns into all out barking I roll out of bed and go to the dog.

Seeing me up and about the dog looks down and whines. she goes down the stairs and I clumsily follow. Once I hit the landing she darts for the kitchen then back to me. She licks my ankles as I got to the kitchen, how gross.

I get to the kitchen expecting to see a problem with the slow cooker, but all looks fine. I'm getting ready to go back to bed and the dog turns to the slow cooker and lets out a bark. wtf?

I open the lid stir the contents. The dog barks again, more gently and turns to go eat kibble. Did she wake me just to stir the chili? Weirdo.

My Designer Dog the Chef?

2009-09-16T09:17:00.004-05:00

A lot has happened these last few days. I may end up writing 2 separate entries there's so much to say. Hmmm...maybe more....I should have blogged more often. Oh well, I'll start and see what happens.

Last Thursday my fiancee and I purchased a TV. It was delivered on that Saturday. I was upstairs with the dog so she wouldn't get at the delivery people, and fiance watched the delivery guys.

Once the delivery was complete I went down to see everything. First thing I noticed is that the off white burber stairs leading to the basement were all blackened. I asked fiancee about this and he said that the delivery people didn't lift the TV claiming it would be damaged, and they instead slid it down. Yay, newsprint stains! Spot remover won't get rid of it so I called the store we got the TV from. I'll write a post for how that turns out.

The TV itself was gorgeous, but unfortunatley the HDMI ports won't work even with the 1.3 HDMI cables. Fiance and I think the board in the TV is faulty. We'll also be calling the store to replace it. Once again I'll keep the posts going for that too.

Exit Saturday. Enter Sunday.

While walking the dog around someone in the neighborhood mentioned that every Sunday around the same time a group of people with small dogs got together for 'puppy playdate'. My dog isn't the most social little creature so I was afraid of the chaos that might ensue, but facing my fear of being forever excluded from this social group I took a chance. The end result was fantastic. My dog also got the nickname of designer dog, because the natural highlights in her fur match the colors of all the rooms in our new house.

Not only did dog get along with the others, but I also got along with their owners. I now have invites to some of their houses, and I've been asked to go back this coming Sunday as well. Yay! next Sunday I'll have treats in hand and will attempt to leave dog off leash. Hopefully I won't have to chase her too far if she goes off on her own. I'll make a post about it, for sure.

Moving onto the work week.

A co-worker is on vacation so I'm taking care of her daily work. It's been rough but I think I'll make it through. Monday and Tuesday were super busy and I didn't even have time for lunch. I slept like the dead when I got home Monday. I didn't have that option on Tuesday because I had night school.

a lot happened in night school. I'm out of time for now, but I'll blog about why my designer dog could be a chef in my next entry "My Designer Dog the Chef? p2"

Kitchen Complete

2009-09-05T19:48:00.010-05:00

Our new fridge and range were delivered this week along with our new washer and dryer. The house is coming together really well, the only thing that hasn't happened yet is the install of the furnace and AC unit.

Shortly after taking possession of our house we found out that there were no permits for our duct work. We found an HVAC guy to install our HVAC system, but he doesn't seem too keen with the idea of getting a permit. No one seems to want to deal with getting drawings done, bummer.

It's easy enough just to install the units, but fiancee and I would like to have a permit, have the house marked as an HVAC house on the title, and we want the condo board to OK the project. If we get the units installed without a permit or the OK of the board they can order us to stop the work or even worse revert it back . They probably won't do the latter (they aren't heartless) but why not get the permit? It will makes things better in the long run.

Anyways, today was day one of using the new range. I woke up around 9am, took the dog for a walk and made brunch since I slept through breakfast. Without work to get me up in the mornings I'll just let myself wake up whenever. It's great :)

Fiance went to work for a project the IT dept. was working on and didn't get back till early afternoon so the brunch was eaten by just myself. What your seeing on the left is orange juice, strawberry non-fat yogurt with bananas (strawberry banana anything is always so good) fried tomato slices (pan fried), whole grain toast, 1 egg and 1 egg white scrambled with cheese melted on top and hash browns on the side.

Yes it sounds like a lot, and in fact it was. The yogurt and hash browns weren't finished until 3pm as a late lunch. Everything was very yummy though :)

Fiance and I then went to Lowes where he had Subway and I had a small bag of chips. By 6pm he wasn't hungry, but I was. We had purchased some frozen burgers from Costco yesterday and I wanted a burger so we went to Loblaws on the way home so I can spend some PC points. (All the spending on the new place is really bringing in the points). I purchased some 60% whole grain burger buns among other things and we went home. I had condiments, frozen fries and some salad from earlier in the week at home. I whipped it all together and voila, dinner is served. I was waaaaay too full to eat dessert after all the food, instead I walked the dog.

In the mornings when I go for a walk before dawn I love running with the dog instead of walking. Something in the air just makes me happy to be outside and running feels great. Once the sun rises something seems to change and I only walk. Also if my form sucks I guess I don't want people to see me running. My face is probably all red, splotchy and sweaty too when I run. The dark is good.

Dog Your So Funny!

2009-08-27T20:05:00.005-05:00

Above is my dog Skyla. This was her yesterday morning when we returned from our 5:30am jog/run/walk. She didn't seem to mind while we were out, but once we got in she kept looking for her towel to dry herself. I laid down the towel, got the hair dryer and off we went. She was really great about not getting on the floor anywhere except her towel. Very cute. I had my fiance hold the dryer while I got the camera. Obviously since there's no way that's my hand holding the dryer there ^_-

My fiance's parents were keeping her for us until such a time that we could keep her. Now that we're in a pet friendly town house we've got her :)

I think my fiance's mother is sad that she couldn't keep her since she's such a cutie, but when we offered to let her keep the dog she said no. Well we'll make sure to bring the dog when we see her.

Mac Tac Madness!

2009-08-27T19:21:00.003-05:00

After making a commitment to blog more this year I feel bad that I haven't posted anything new in over a week. I do have a good excuse though. My fiance and I moved into our new town house on August 17th but had no internet service until yesterday.

I really wanted the internet up and running and when it finally worked I drew the picture for this post instead of going online. Go figure.

Anyways...the move went well, we had help from friends and family and there were no delays. It's been about 2 weeks now and the house is starting to feel like home. Boxes are emptied and disposed of, things are put away and a LOT of cabinets, cupboards and drawers are mac tacked while more are still waiting to be done.

Our appliances are in a sorry state so for now we purchased a Kenmore convection ceramic top oven for $1060 no tax and a Kenmore fridge for about $600. We love Sears weekend sales and the Sears Outlets. If we wait long enough the right price for the right appliance will always come up.

So overall everything went well, there's still lots of stuff to put away and lots more to Mac Tac.

Do You Wash Your Rice?

2009-08-12T20:57:00.005-05:00

I went out for a walk at lunch today with a co-worker. It was my intent to buy Subway on the way back to the office, but we found an indian food cart amongst the hot dog carts. My co-worker recalled that it's a new concept to have carts which serve things other than hot dogs. Well that's neat I thought at the time, why not try it?

Well...it was SPICY. I also think there was some sediment in the rice because it wasn't rinsed prior to cooking. I told my co-worker what I thought and she said she doesn't think people here wash their rice. Say what?

I asked around the office and found a 50/50 divide. I also developed a theory.

People who are born and raised here for a generation or two may not wash their rice because they probably figure there are control standards on the food that will protect them. Some people I spoke with also mentioned that germs aren't a concern because they're boiled out, none seemed to think sediment was a problem.

People who have parents that came from elsewhere probably washed their rice because the food standards were probably much lower where they came from. To them washing rice is a regular part of cooking it.

Which category do you fall into?

What a Day

2009-08-11T16:07:00.007-05:00

Well the title sums it up quite nicely for the day.

8:30am
I got in this morning to discover that part of my morning routine is finally automated. This has been a work in progress for a while now and it's great that it finally happened. The downside? The software that automates the process may have lost the settings, so all of the automated things being done may be done wrong. This would mean lots of extra work in the coming month.

After some panic and some help from the office techie I've gone through the setup, and everything seems OK. Good, I'm in the clear. Thank you techie! You know who you are :)

9:30am
CEO goes home looking crazy unwell.

11:00am
I receive complaints from my peers that clients are unable to send us faxes. Hmmm..that's weird. I go check the machine (I have no idea why it's me people come to, but when they do I'll try to help. Maybe that's why?)

Anyways, apparently there's been a fax which has been 'connecting' since 9:11am. OK that's obviously not working, so I try to clear the job out so that it can free up the machine. The machine says "One Moment Please" and gets stuck that way. Hmmm...OK it's still fine...I try to power off the machine. Great! The message telling me One Moment is gone, hold up...what's this? The fax is still there!

I go to the back of the machine and hit the fax kill switch....the job stays. I pull the cable....the job stays. I used various combinations of pulling the cable, hitting the power switch and the fax switch, but nothing works. I call the machine manufacturer for help.

Using some techie lingo I ask about a memory clearing code #/P*C*. With some quick number codes I'm on my way to clear the image memory. I'm told it'll take a while. The person who initially told me about the codes said they were foolproof and if they didn't work there were issues. Well...a new screen came up stating the the image memory was being cleared. Good right?

Wrong. It's been over 4 hours and it's now stuck this way. I placed a service call for the machine after 1 hour. They should have serviced it by now, but they didn't, I'm given an empty promise for tomorrow morning. Sometime in the AM I'm told.

At least one person is holding me responsible for the state of the machine. Hey, If I didn't do it we'd still be in the same boat so screw off. You don't want my help quit asking for it every time! I'm not the one who sent the stupid fax.

1:00pm
Ah lunch. Peanut sauce pasta. Yummy.

1:30pm
No, lunch isn't done. The same person who asked for help with the fax needs help with an online system. Lost his password. Well, now this is my domain. I get him set up. Minutes later he gives me some drivel about how it didn't work. After looking for myself I find the problem. I set it up again and offer to go through the steps together. Now he doesn't have the time. OK, tomorrow, whenever.

The rest of my day was filled with the hope that the service tech. for the fax machine would show up before the day ended. I completed a couple of reports and some paperwork. I answered some emails and did some digging around for other people. I'm burned out. Never thought I'd say it, but I wish the boss was in to share the workload.

So...what did I accomplish during my day?

Didn't fix the fax machine
Didn't get my peer's issued with the online system resolved
Barely finished lunch
Didn't get anyone in to fix the fax machine
Didn't finish my paperwork
Didn't follow up on yesterday's paperwork

Well, doesn't seem like I did much, but I'm still dead tired. Wonderful.

Taste of the Danforth

2009-08-08T16:30:00.005-05:00

Fiance and I took the 25 Don Mills to Pape station where Taste of the Danforth was happening. We had originally been invited to go down with some of Fiance's friends, but we were visiting our future house one last time before moving in next week so we couldn't make it for the time his friends wanted. I invited my brother and his girlfriend to come with us at a later time in the day, but they backed out for fear of poor weather conditions.

Everyone should know by now that the news is pretty much always wrong about the weather. One on TV the news was saying that it was sunny outside in the area I was at, but it was absolutely stormy and miserable. I had difficulty accepting that the news could be THAT wrong, but there it was... so Fiance and I went anyways. We didn't get rained on. It was hot, humid, full of people and fun with lots of different things happening all around.

Regardless to say we missed meeting up with Fiance's friends and we just had a good time on our own. Or at least I did...I get the feeling that Fiance just goes for me. He's such a sweet guy :)

Now we're back at home. We haven't heard from Fiance's buddies but one of them just called. Hmmm...I wonder what he wants? I hope they aren't still down there, we figured we missed them. Well we aren't heading back that's for sure. It was super crowded there. Fun but very crowded.

Desperate Times...

2009-07-31T14:50:00.003-05:00

Got a call from a cold caller at the office today. That in itself is nothing unusual I know but the kicker is that this one caller was acting very suspiciously.

Upon hearing my hello on the phone he launched straight into questions about the company I work at. No intro about where he's calling from or why until I inquired about it. After a minute or two of listening to his drivel I kindly told him that we're not interested in the service he's offering but if he'd like to leave his number with me I'd keep it in case. Well, this wasn't good enough for him.

He proceeded to ask about our CEO and Chairman to which I replied I was their assistant (no I'm not really, but he didn't need to know that. In fact they don't really have an assistant.) I told him he can email the company's general inbox and that someone would look the information over. Once again he didn't think this was good enough.

After about 5 more minutes I got annoyed with him and...well those who know me well enough know that I have quite a sharp tongue when I'm annoyed or angry. No one wants to be on the receiving end of that. Once I was done with him I'm sure he was glad to hang up the phone. I never did receive an email from him. huh.

And Then There Were Two

2009-07-30T15:12:00.006-05:00

I don't have much to write about today, it's been a pretty dull day. So dull in fact that an hour into the day I was already wondering what I would have for lunch. It's pretty sad when the highlight of my day is lunch. What a lonely lunch it was too.

The entire office went off to some boring meeting about a 20 minute walk away. They left three people to 'man' the office, one of them being me. Leave the best and take the rest :)

Anyways....one of us three left early and then there were two.

I get to leave in 15 min and can't wait. I did my best to keep working no matter how empty the office was and how boring the work was, but I can't go any further. The last 15 min will have to be a write off.

Pic is from here and it was done by *Ewig. Click the link and check out the work.

Failed to Keep up

2009-07-29T14:55:00.004-05:00

Well, it's been a long while since I last blogged here. A lot has happened, but ever since I got a FB account I feel less inclined to post here. I think I'll try to start up again, especially since I think my typing and grammar skills are really degrading with lack of use.

So, where to start....

Summer was uneventful, thus my lack of submissions both here on Blogger and on my FB page.

The autumn season was equally uneventful until we discovered that our ceiling in the kitchen was developing a leak. We had planned to move into a townhouse, but there's no way we can sell the place with a leak. Now into November we have my birthday. It was lots of fun and I got lots of gifts and hey, even the obligatory hug from my brother which I get 3 times a year. Once on my birthday, once on his, and once on Christmas.

Anyways...my then boyfriend decided he would catch me off guard and propose to me! Yay! So now I'm engaged. My boyfriend's status has also been upgraded to fiance. After all our time together I didn't really know why he was nervous about popping the question, but in retrospect I suppose I should also ask myself why I was so happy. If he was nervous as I was happy I'm glad I was on the receiving end of the news :)

Exit Autumn, enter winter. Nothing noteworthy that I can recall.

Hello spring!
The condo corp began repairs on the roof. We sold our condo and purchased a town home! We love it and can't wait to move in on August the 17th. There was lots of paperwork to sign and I'll now be in debt for the next decade or two thanks to a mortgage, but it's supposed to be a good debt right?

So that brings me up to today where I didn't really have any major revelations or epiphanies. One thing I did learn though is that in some sections of the downtown core the TTC streetcar drivers actually get out of the streetcars and manually switch the tracks over. Can you believe it? In this day and age, the switches are still not controlled remotely. Wow.

Spring Showers

2008-06-16T20:13:00.002-05:00

Rainbow in the sky after a late afternoon shower.

Cocktail Party?

2008-04-28T12:00:00.003-05:00

There was a cocktail party held at a French Restaurant on Friday. A party to which I was invited. Well I had never been to a cocktail party so I thought to myself that it would be an experience.

I believe that any experience good or bad is still an experience. If it's a good experience then that's that and I had a good time, and if it's bad then I can bitch about it knowingly because I've been there done that. Granted I don't usually bitch about something until I've experienced it about 3 times and the experience has been continuously good or bad.
To date I believe I can bitch about the following things

TTC (Toronto Transit Commission)
YRT (York Region Transit excluding VIVA)
Prosciutto (salty sweet and slimy when chewed too much)
Rogers (wireless, cable, phone)
Spicy sausage

OK, not everyone shares my opinion but I can't really say I care.

Anyways back to the cocktail party.

I thought the little nibble sized foods were sub-par and didn't know what to do with the ones I didn't like and couldn't swallow. I tried prosciutto and melon...it's supposed to be yummy.....the people around me liked it....me? I nabbed a co-workers napkin and spat it out. It was yuck! I left it on a table since I didn't see any trays and eventually someone cleaned it up.

Then there was socializing...LOTS of it. With nothing to distract me I was ready to run in less than an hour. Everyone was standing around talking and laughing in booming voices. Compared to them I felt like a mouse. I was also the only person there that was an assistant....everyone else was talking about their office or this and that....man I felt small. Hopefully someday I will grow out of my role as an assistant/executive gofer/office slave. I can't wait for the day. In the meantime no more cocktail parties unless some friends who are equally insecure are also there. We can all keep each other company.

Should I Stay or Should I go?

2008-04-01T18:50:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I drove to Unionville for a job interview. It wasn't so much a job interview as it was a tour of the facility and a "when can you start?". They gave me a lot to think about and there are pros and cons to working there, but no more or less than staying where I am now.

I have a lot of reflecting to do and I need to be careful about the choice I make. I don't know if it's true or not, but I feel as though I'm currently at one of the major forks in my life. Should I stay or should I go?

I'm very comfortable where I work right now, but taking the TTC to work every morning and taking it to get back home is just brutal. I can easily drive to this other place and parking is free, I can also dress in jeans or choose to dress up. That would save a lot of money.

My boss asked me off handedly if I would rather work at our uptown office and I said yes. I don't know if he was serious or not, but I think I'm going to ask him when I get back to he office. Working from the uptown office would cut my commute in half and greatly reduce my stress levels. It would definitely make staying with my current job easier to bare for the time being.

Professionally if I choose to work at this new place in Unionville my career would take a drastic turn away from the back office and into the client services and trading. It isn't not a direction I want to go in professionally and I very much enjoy working in the back office and knowing how things work out behind the scenes but it could be worth exploring. I can't run away from things that scare or intimidate me for all I know this could be a great stepping stone for me.

Well, like I said...I have a lot of thinking and reflecting to do. Once I leave my current job there's no turning back, but I don't want to just give up on this opportunity without properly thinking about it. I don't want to regret whatever choice I make. I don't plan on being where I am forever but I don't want to be too hasty to leave. I've only been working for them 2 years now. I feel like I have a lot of experience, but there's still a lot I don't know.

Choices, choices. Should I stay or should I go?

A Week Away

2008-03-31T07:38:00.005-05:00

I was starting to feel like the world was sideways. The stress of using the TTC twice everyday during rush hour was terrible. Still is. You can find a great reference to what I think of the TTC here in an earlier post.

I find I need breaks from work more often now that I'm downtown, and my stress levels are much higher than even I'm used to. It's gotten to a point where I've started looking for work elsewhere away from downtown T.O. I love my job, the people are great and the atmosphere is nice but I'm not going to kill myself from stress just to work there.

So I have a week of time away from the office. Yay!

My Saturday started with a trip to the ROM Museum. It was a lot of fun but I didn't get any pictures of myself and Bruce. Oh well.

I saw this when I was looking at an exhibit. It's from early Greece. What's up with the swastika? I know a lot of cultures used the swastika for different things which predate Hitler but I wasn't aware of the Greeks using it. The placement of the swastika also seems off. It doesn't look like it was part of the original design. Odd.

We also checked out the new dinosaur exhibit. Check out the teeth on that monster fish!

It was a fun day, and I even purchased a pestol and mortar from the gift shop! I wasn't able to take a good picture of it, but you can still see the great colors that make it. I've been looking for one a while now, but I found that they were all too heavy and bulky with not enough colors. This one is perfect for me!

Yesterday, I made rice pudding. I borrowed a rice cooker to simplify things but I still need to take a look and taste to find out if it came out well. My fingers are crossed, but I'm doubtful. It seemed to be a bit dry when I tucked it into the fridge for cooling yesterday. Well, I'll see what happened.

Facebook

2008-03-27T06:04:00.005-05:00

Two days ago my curiosity got the best of me and I became a part of the hundreds of thousands of people on facebook. I have to say, I'm not that impressed.

I tried to search for my friends and got too many results. When I narrowed the search down I got none even though they're on the same network as myself. Pretty crappy search features.
The page is also really slow. Not just during peak hours, but throughout the day. Yes I realize that Facebook is world wide and that people all over the world are accessing the site, but isn't that why networks are set up? You join your network therefore other timezone peak hours shouldn't interfere with your network.
Applications such as quizzes, virtual pets, and sim apps don't work quite right with the page, and if you want someone to participate in a quiz or you want to send something to another user, they need to add the app to their own profile first and vice versa.
Let's say you add the app and take the quiz. In most cases you don't get your test results unless you send the quiz app off to 5-15 other people. I think it's a great way to annoy people with crap they may not want. Could be a great way to get people to block you.
The profile page of a person is highly non-customizable
The layout is pretty hectic, giving the site a very cluttered feel.
There are no qualifications to be met when creating a group. Because of that there are many groups dedicated to the same thing. The one I find most often is a group which is created for all those people in the world who hate it when someone can't tell the difference between your and you're. (I found at least 4)

Well that's my opinion of Facebook. As you can tell I'm highly unimpressed.

Back to School

2008-03-18T12:10:00.005-05:00

That's right, you read the title. It's true; I'm starting to take classes again.

I never really had any direction in life. I didn't know what I wanted to do, and no one ever helped to guide me in any direction. Sure it's easy to say go to school, but go for what?

Being all confused and even more clueless I took Business Administration at Seneca College. It seems that everyone who ends up taking the course is there because they don't know what they really want to do with their lives career wise.

So the years passed and I finished the course, not much left in the way of funds for more schooling (not that I knew what I would have taken). I wanted money and I wanted to move out. I got a job, I moved out from home no. 1 and moved in to home no.2 with my boyfriend. My job eventually led me to my Assistant Operations Manager position which I enjoy greatly, but am quickly getting bored of.

The CCO here suggested that I try to move into the field of compliance, there's a potential job waiting for me so I thought to myself 'why not?'.

So I signed up for a basic Mutual Funds course with IFIC and I'll see how it goes from there. I always enjoyed my business law classes in both high school and college. Compliance is along the same lines. I think I'll enjoy it.

Oh yes, I'm also going to start learning French in night school. Bilingualism will probably eventually be an asset to me somewhere.

Plus I have some money now so why not try to expand my knowledge base?

Veggies...the better way?

2008-03-17T05:47:00.005-05:00

"When in doubt go veggie."

That is the way I used to think when I went out to eat and wasn't too certain about the quality of food.

My last experience with my 'food philosophy'? Friday March the 14th.

Where? A hot dog cart near my office.

So...there's this hot dog cart, thought I'd pick up some street meat on my way back to the office after going to a job interview during my lunch. (I'll get back to this later) I wasn't in the mood for meat so I thought 'Why not go veggie?'. I know a couple people who do eat veggie dogs and they seem to like 'em so why not give it a go?

Well....let me say. I think the veggie dog I ate was tainted. I spent my whole weekend feeling like I had the stomach flu and even now I am just starting to feel better but I'm still terribly fatigued and my stomach is still a bit sore. Granted I do have some trouble digesting some overly processed foods, but this was brutal. I think that in order to know for sure if it was the 'dog' that did it or if it was just my stomach being picky I would need to give it another try, but after this weekend I think I'll hold off on that. Until then I need to re-think my 'food philosophy'.

Now back to why I was returning to work from a job interview.

I thought I could make a bit more cash working elsewhere. I know people who seem to do less work than me a get more money for it. I went to the job agency that got me this job and thought I'd look around the job market. What I found wasn't that exciting.

What I'm getting paid for my experience level is pretty much the going pay on the market these days. Apparently assistant operations management isn't really a very high paying field. When your no longer the assistant...that's when the pay goes up. Well I know I'm not ready for that yet, so I decided to stay where I am.

My other option if I want more dough is to leave the operations field and just be an assistant or executive assistant. I can do the work, but I don't think there would be enough of a challenge in it for me. I really enjoy what I'm doing, and I can live on it fairly comfortably for the time being. I think that for now I'll stay where I am and see what happens. After all it's only been 2 years so far. I think I need to slow down and be patient. Not to mention I'm quite comfy where I am.

Saturday Night

2008-02-16T19:12:00.004-06:00

Ok I don't have much of a social life, and I don't have much time for one these days but today was one of the odd times where I was able to go out. Bruce unfortunately couldn't make it since he had a prior engagement but it was still fun.

My father, his brother (my uncle) and I all went to Jerusalem the restaurant. The atmosphere was great and there was a massive tree planted right in the center of the place, the food was plentiful and just as great and the live entertainment which tonight was belly dancing was also a lot of fun. Some patrons males and females both even got up and danced with the belly dancer as she came around to their tables. There were a couple of birthdays so they had the DJ play Happy Birthday in both English and Arabic, and the belly dancer also graced the birthday people with a dance in which they also joined in.

I miss the middle eastern culture more with each passing day and although I'm Armenian and not Arabic it's still nice to be around that sort of atmosphere.

btw...this sucks

2008-02-12T09:39:00.001-06:00

Ok..so I read that some new languages were added to Blogger but this sucks. My links are now on the left side instead of the right and my bat widget was removed. I don't have the time to read through the coding on the template to change this back to how I want it, nor do I have the time to look for or create a new template. Bad enough Blogger is so slow to load and sometimes won't load t all, but this really sucks.

Of course I'm complaining but won't move my blog elsewhere. I'm just too lazy, but that doesn't keep me from being really annoyed. Grrr..

Snow, snow and more snow

2008-02-12T09:08:00.001-06:00

So I still suck at updating my blog. A whole month has passed in the new year and I'm only just making the first entry of the year.

This year is promising to be the same as the last. Bruce and I are still living together very happily in the same space. We are still holding the same jobs jobs we had last year and we're moving forward with our lives a day at a time.

We bought a new power supply for our TV and game consoles since the power in our building is pretty flaky. Now that the warranty on the TV is gone we need to be sure the lamp won't burn out again (the only drawback to the DLP TV). The 20 year old power supply we have hooked up to our computer is making strange noises and both Bruce and I are sure that if we power it down to clean out the insides it most likely won't turn back on again. I think we've come to the conclusion that we should just let it be until it burns out and then buy a replacement. I think it's probably had a pretty good run. It's time we let it go.

This winter has been pretty rough since I don't have a window where I work. Sometimes I look out the window through my boss's office; Pathetic I know but I hate not seeing the outside world all day. Granted I suppose I can just take a short walk sometime during the day but I'm usually so involved in my work that I loose track of the time pretty quickly.

I leave for work and it's dark outside; I come home after a long day and it's dark outside. It was really nice to finally see a hint of light on the way home yesterday. A sure sign that the days are getting longer and spring is that much closer despite the massive amounts of snow falling from the sky the last few weeks.

As my two year mark with the company approaches I find myself more anxious to leave and find work elsewhere. I'm severely underpaid here for what I do but I keep gaining so much experience in so many things, I know I'll never have an opportunity to gain so much knowledge like this again. I'm thinking I'll probably make this my last year here. Other than the fact that I'm so severely underpaid and they won't give me a raise for the amount I want there are a lot of other little things that really bother me and as they keep piling up I find myself wanting to bang my head on my desk at all times of the day.

I know that if I stick around I'm going to become the cranky old resentful bitch of the office I'll just sit and be resentful until the day I retire. Well I don't want that to happen. I'll be looking for a new place of employment roughly this time next year. I want more pay, more sick days and more vacation days. An office would be nice too, but I'm flexible on that.

Right now I'm kind of in the midst of all the big wig offices and since no one closes their doors and I have no walls between myself and them I hear them chattering and typing all day long. The headaches I get sometimes are brutal, other times I listen to my mp3 player pretty much all day so that I can drown out their noise.

Sure I have my own business cards which is kinda very cool to me but all the cons of the job really do outweigh the pros no matter how I look at it. As much as I love what I do, all the little things that piss me off are eventually going to make me resent being here and I don't want that. This place gets 3 years and I'm gone unless some drastic changes are made.

Office Party!

2007-12-21T13:54:00.001-06:00

December the 19th everyone at the office went to the David Duncan House. It was a lot of fun with great food, great drinks and awsome company.

This is our IT guy Farokh, he's a riot. He doesn't drink, can you belive it?

There was a gift exchange.

There was singing...yeah don't I look thrilled about that?

Overall it was a lot of fun, and it was good just to sit eat and drink.

More office pictures to come. Let's not forget about family. They'll be in the next post.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

2007-12-16T18:22:00.000-06:00

Snow...

But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Like it says in the song. It's crappy outside so why not stay inside?

Ever since I put Christmas lights up on the bed it looks so warm and inviting. Add some candles and I never wanna get out of bed in the morning.

I made Sheppard's Pie for dinner. I was a bit weary about it because I bought the meat from WalMart, but it was actually OK.

I visited a WalMart's grocery section for the first time on Friday. The selection and quantity was staggering, and I even found a decaf vanilla coffee bean there! The meat was well packaged too because unlike the grocery stores where you have the blood oozing on the bottom WalMart sealed their meat shut. No oozing blood there.

I know WalMart is bad....but still...so cheap...

The best part of cooking is that Bruce will almost always do the dishes!

My latest Desktop Creation

2007-12-07T15:18:00.001-06:00

So...that's my latest desktop for the office on my little freedom computer. I've become a pretty big fan of widgets and you can see a few of them on my desktop.

There's the butterfly which flutters around almost realistically. I can change it to a variety of different butterflies.

The bouncy ball on the bottom of the screen provides a welcome distraction when I need it.

my calendar is there so I can tell when the week is finally over

word of the day makes sure my language skills don't turn into complete mush in a world where google is a word in the dictionary which defines to look for.

mini forecaster lets me know what the weather is like outside so I can prep accordingly.

and the little cat on the forecaster is just plain cute.

The clock isn't a widget, it's just a program I found on the web prior to discovering widgets, but it works well and is indefinitely customizable so I keep it around. It makes sure I know what time it is so I don't stick around the office too late.

Lastly the beautiful wallpaper is from deviantart.com by reszegi .

Email. Instant communication= Instant headache

2007-12-03T14:47:00.000-06:00

I think I'm gonna cry if this keeps up.

Bouncing Along

2007-11-30T15:06:00.001-06:00

Bruce and I visited the relocated Moxie's Restaurant in Fairview Mall yesterday. It was pretty disastrous.

Things started off well enough, the managers were all friendly and greeted every customer personally, the place looks really nice, and a lot of the female wait staff a scantily clad enough to provide some nice views for men and in some cases women but that's where it all ends.

Our waitress must have been new or something because she brought me my water with a lemon instead of a lime, and it had seeds in it. I'm not trying to sound snobby or anything, the water wasn't a hug deal, just a minor annoyance really.

What annoyed me the most was the fact that our waitress kept popping by every 1 or 2 minutes constantly asking us if we were ready to order yet even though we kept asking for a few MINUTES not one. So you would think our food would arrive just as quickly? Think again. It took about 25 mins for our food to arrive, and it wasn't even hot just warm and taste wise it was mediocre at best. We ordered at 6:16 received out food at 6:40 and not once did the waitress talk to us to mention the food would be delayed or that it was coming. For the most part all of the wait staff avoided our table except to re-fill Bruce's drink once. My personal favorite touch to the meal was the fact that my steak had a little plastic cow on the top of it.

I'm a little weird always over thinking things so while I'm eating beef it only takes a small reminder of where the food came from to get the gears in my head moving. The little plastic cow on the steak may just be a plastic embellishment to some, but to me it pretty much reminded me of how cattle are processed in the slaughter house. Being electrocuted to death or a bolt to the head, then the get gutted all the innards falling through the grating while the blood continues to drip and somewhere along the way the skin is ripped off the carcass I can almost imagine the nasty tearing sounds of flesh ripping up...eeeew. Sure makes me hungry thinking about all that

Post Birthday

2007-11-23T15:15:00.000-06:00

Well....it's November 23rd. My birthday was last Sunday but I have no profound words that follow it. I'm a year older, not really any wiser, but I do have a second white hair on my head. My mother once told me it was a sign of wisdom, but if you ask me its a sign that I'm that much closer to being a little old lady someday.

The Friday which preceeded my actual date of birth was enjoyable. It was a good get together with friends, it was nice to see everyone and catch up on what's been happening. All the gifts I received were also very awsome. It was a good birthday overall.

Well my time is up, so that's all for today.

Until next time. Chiao ^_^

Yay Turkey!

2007-10-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I finally got to have some Thanksgiving turkey. Sure Thanksgiving was last week, but Bruce's parent's were out of town so it was delayed until yesterday.

Although my own family has never been close my mother would roast a turkey, invite friends and family over and we would all eat together. I could pretend that we were a happy family and that tomorrow we would all still be together. This is the first year where all of us have moved out to different locations, and if we were distant form each other before...well it's a lot worse now.

The realization that we would never have another family get together again was pretty depressing and I spent most of the real Thanksgiving weekend sulking and grumpy. Oh well...my own family dinner parties are over, but I've gained a family from Bruce. I always have a good time with them, and don't need to worry about people throwing snide remarks at each other in the middle of the party. They're so happy with each other that sometimes I'm envious and wish my own family could have been like that. Oh well.

In other news...
My great uncle in L.A passed away this week. He had a severe stroke the week earlier and the doctors said he would never wake up. We were all hoping that like my grandfather he would prove the doctors wrong and wake up, but it didn't happen. I won't be able to go down for the funeral on such such notice so I'm sending my condolences with sappy Hallmark cards for my great aunt and cousins. He will be missed greatly by everyone who knew him.

In less depressing news...
I just found out that Danone's Activia yogurt (not the low fat kind) either vanilla or strawberry makes an awesome fruit dip. The stuff is high in calories and fat (it's made mostly with cream) so I wouldn't recommend consuming it for yogurt, but it makes a great fruit dip.

Work

2007-10-12T12:14:00.000-05:00

"...I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;..." -Dante's Inferno

I think the above quote describes the downtown core and life in it really well. It's easy to get lost (but it won't be long before you see a subway and can find your way back), and there are so many nasty things.

It's sad to see homeless people sleeping on a sidewalk grate to keep warm in the middle of a busy day in autumn or winter. Sometimes I look at these people and wonder to myself if maybe they'll be dead tomorrow. Sometimes I wonder if the person is dying from a fatal illness or even a treatable illness that isn't being treated.

I find that in downtown T.O when you walk on the sidewalk or take a ride on the TTC you need to weave in and out of all the people and occasionally push and shove your way through or else everyone will just step all over you. The entire T.O experience is a struggle with no fresh air to breath and plenty of noise pollution from vehicles and people.

Sometimes I think that people in general (myself included) are all just so jaded and used to the suicides, homicides, rapes, abuse cases, thefts and arsons that take place everywhere, everyday they've become bitter. So bitter that death doesn't even hold as much meaning as it should until it gets to a loved one.

Sweaty People

2007-10-04T12:25:00.001-05:00

As of late I've been more stressed out than usual. I had trouble figuring out why.
Sure my workload has increased exponentially without an increase in pay, I don't have time for a full lunch hour and I spend all day fixing peoples mistakes, but that wasn't it. It's the TTC.

Every morning I wait for a bus to pick me up, there's almost never an opportunity to sit, and this crowded bus will eventually deposit me the the station where I will get onto an equally if not more crowded subway car.

I leave the car, weave in and out of people while throwing out the occasional elbow to protect myself so that I can transfer to another subway car. I can't catch all of it though, and on occasion will get stepped on or rolled over by a rolling case or baby carriage. The next subway car comes packed, and I try hard to cram myself into the car before the doors close. If I don't make it I'll be late for work.

Once I'm in there's no pole to hold on to, and I'm too short to reach the ceiling bars. After a few stops no one gets off, but more people come on.

Some cars have no A/C so the car gets nasty and sweaty. I may not be tall enough to use the ceiling bar in a car, but I'm unfortunately tall enough to smell the sweat coming off the person next to me while they use the ceiling bar.

Not all people on the subway are smelly, but there's always one too many on every ride I take. If it isn't BO it's the garlic, onion or fish breath. Now if only it stopped there.

There are people with pus filled sores and pimples that are oozing on their skin. I wouldn't notice it unless it was right in my face. It's nasty and I can't go anywhere so all I can do is close my eyes and hope the ride will soon be over. Can't close the eyes too long though because sooner or later someone will push to get into the car and I need to make sure I'm not going to crash into a pus filled sore or a sweaty armpit. Let's not forget the people with the health problems.

Neglected medical conditions such as pink eyes oozing gunk (oh look at the person rub their eye and then hold the pole with the same hand) and wheezing phlem filled coughs right on the hand that's going to hold onto the pole.

The hour is the slowest in my day, and everyday I dread going to work because I don't want these peoples bodies pressed up against mine, their smells sticking to my clothes and their infections getting on my skin. I get to work and I'm already so wound up I can't wait for the day to end.

I can't wait for winter. People will be sneezing, coughing and spitting all over the place while trying not to slip on the slushy wet floor.

Look at the Pretty Lights

2007-08-20T05:28:00.000-05:00

Awww...aren't they cute in an oddly wire mesh kind of way?

We hit the Rogers Lantern Festival yesterday; By we I mean Bruce (boyfriend of mine), my mother, aunt, cousin Sonia, her boyfriend Felix, my brother David, and his girlfriend Shelly.

A good time was had as we saw all the trippy looking lights in the dark, and ooooohed and ahhhhed at some of the displays.

The trip also served to remind me that I have yet to go to the Ex this year. It's always fun to go onto the biggest baddest ride I can find and pray that a bolt doesn't come loose somewhere and fling me to a messy death on the pavement. What's more fun than that?

Oh, and according to my cousin they're going to have butter sculptures there this year. Pretty cool if you can walk by with a slice of toast or corn on the cob and get all buttered up. Mmmmmm...butter, but I really don't think they'll let you do that. Oh well. I hope there will be many, many free samples. Once they were giving out full sized National Delight coffee cream substitutes. I love that stuff so much better than Coffee Mate.

Well, it's early in the day, I'm getting ready to go to work, but I just remembered that my chair was moved to the new office. I wonder where I'll be sitting today? I can't wait till I can just go work on Bay St. where all my stuff is actually. Oh well....it's just a couple of weeks, I'll probably borrow a chair from somewhere.

Poor Kid

2007-08-08T11:40:00.000-05:00

I was just reading this article that I found from Fark.com, and I have come to the conclusion that some people just shouldn't be having kids.

The article is about a couple who wanted to name their son 4real. When the law got in the way of that name they decided to legally call him superman.

OK people, wake up! Your kid is going to grow up being called this name for their entire childhood. Children are NOT kind. You kid is going to be teased and picked on.

A child isn't there so you can pull something stupid like this. As much as I hate to think about it, a child is an actual person, and they deserve a real name.

If you just using your kid for stupid stuff like this, and don't realise that its a tiny person you don't deserve a child.

Shut it up!

2007-08-07T10:53:00.000-05:00

I'm relatively new to the company, and I realise I'm pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole here (possibly at the same level as the receptionist, how crappy is that). Any lower and I'll be underground, but come on what's up with the crappy music everyone listens to?!

Everyone in this place listens of CHFI or CHUM. One plays the top 40 over and over again for a month before making a slight change to the line-up. The other station plays the 'soft' music that makes you want to fall asleep. It's the stuff from the 50's-80s, but none of the cool 80s rock, just all the soft crap.

How is anyone expected to concentrate to this?! Some days I fantasize about tossing the f*ing stereo out the window and watching it smash to bits so that it can never play music again. Other days are spent with my mp3 player going full blast into my ear.

I'm not saying anyone has to listen to my music, but I'd really rather have a compromise where we can listen to mine on some days so I don't have to hear the Backstreet Boys or Celine Dion every damn day, oh and let's not forget Shania Twain. The stations just love her. I would really prefer not having the radio play at all if I have to listen to this stuff every day.

I share the office space with 2 other people, one of them has major seniority and won't compromise at all when it comes to the music.

I'd rather just have a quiet day without music rather than listen to the mush that flows out of the radio day in and out.

Just Fill the Damn Thing

2007-08-03T12:02:00.000-05:00

Like every other office out there...well, like most offices out there the one I work at has a photocopier.

It has 4 trays for various sizes of paper two if which we use for 8.5 x 11 paper. When the paper in a tray runs out, the screen on the copier shows which tray is out of paper.

As it so happens there is almost always someone around when the paper runs out.

Yesterday the paper ran out while a co-worker of mine made copies. The machine stopped and he looked at the display screen. He voiced that the machine was out of paper...way to voice the obvious genius. He then proceeded to open each tray one by freaking loudly one to see which one had run out of paper, like the display screen was wrong. After finally seeing which tray it was he stared at it a few moments as if he was seeing the impossible. After a few moments he loudly asked no one in general where the paper is kept. C'mon and wake up! Its in the same place we've always kept it, and staring at the empty tray isn't going to make it do anything. Quit being a baby and fill up the damn tray you idiot!

More happy office ravings to come :)

Going ons

2007-08-02T11:18:00.000-05:00

As usual it's been a while since I've posted, but here's what's happening. My office is moving downtown August 13th. I have a laptop and so I'm a bit more mobile. I'm going to be floating b/w Bay St. office and Yonge St. office, and my home sweet home when I can.

Only the Mutual funds people are moving, and I'm going with them because almost all the stuff I do realates to it. Plus my boss is going to Bay St. so...yeah.

I now have a title which is CRM Systems Manager. Spiffy new title but not a spiffy new paycheque. Oh well....I'll be asking for a raise end of the year anyways. I'll be getting myself some business cards when I can, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I need to get other people cards first. I don't really need them.

Oh yes, super high stress environment here. Yesterday a co-worker and I were at each other's throats. It's settled now, but wow that sure was something.

More to come, stay tuned.

The Big Move

2007-05-07T11:17:00.000-05:00

So...the company I work at was supposed to move to our downtown office sometime late April early May..of course that didn't work out.

Apparently the office is being renovated so now the new move date is June or July sometime. Crummy.

I was looking forward to being downtown where I can meet up with some friends and maybe even give some really, really late B-day gifts. I know a quick visit to drop off the gifs would have been a good idea, but since I moved away I haven't really been in Thornhill much.

Actually I haven't been anywhere much...I work, come home and sleep. My weekends are spent getting more sleep. If I'm not sleeping I'm getting groceries with Bruce (sometimes he goes solo for us), or running some other errand that can't be put off.

That's right...I have no life. It sucks, but I'm too tired to work and have a life. I never realised how difficult it all was.

Hiya!

2007-03-16T08:29:00.000-05:00

I don't know what the heck is going on today, but boy did my day start off badly.

6:05am my alarm goes off. I hit the snooze button once I realiaze what's going on. Of course because of this I get up late. I say my goodbye to Bruce and rush out the door.

I hit the button to the elevator and wait......wait......wait....wait! I forgot to use deoderant! I don't want to be all stinky so I go and knock on the door and go use my deoderant. Now I hit the elevator button againand I wait.....wait......wait again...oh no! I forgot my Sudoku book! The ride to and from work will be terribly long if I don't have anything to occupy my time! The elevator arrives just as I head out the door. I've missed it again...crap!

Ok...I've made it to the first floor, I'm in luck as I round the corner outside on the sidewalk the bus arrives! finally a break!

I get on the bus and the ride to the station goes smoothly. As I'm going to the subway platform I hear the subway pulling up. I'm kinda late to work so I'm speed walking. The subway arrived on the right platform so I decided to speedily make my way to the car I want to enter on the left where it isn't so crowded.

I'm just rushing along with one person ahead of me when I notice a woman a few feet ahead in her late 50s early 60s just hanging out on that side, walking slowly with a bag in her hands like she has all the time in the world. Well what do I care I have a subway to catch. I ignore her and keep going. Just as I'm about to pass her she faces me and Hiya!

This woman looked at me in the eyes and just lifted her leg at an angle which is pretty difficult to achieve and she held her foot inches away from my face causing me to stop and almost fall on my ass! WTF! And the guy just ahead of me smirks!

I'm in a bit of shock and don't have the time to deal with this since I'm really late for work now and just rush into the subway car.

As I'm standing there I think to myself...What the fu*k is wrong with that bit*h?! Fu*k!

Then I wonder if she's senile...in which case I should feel sorry for her. All sorts of thought come to my head....like what if I had said something to her. Would she have picked a fight with me and kicked my ass? Would I have kicked her's and then be in trouble?

What the heck was going on today? The day is just so surreal I don't know if I'm awake or going through some crazy nightmare. I almost even forgot my sweater today and would have shown up in the office wearing a tank top....what a day it's been and all before 9am.

Now as I sit here typing on my freedom computer I can't even get my other computer to boot up properly. When I finally get in I can't access the u drive therefore can't access my email or any of my other shared drives.

I just want to go home and crawl into bed; stay under the covers until this crazy day is over.

Update

2007-03-06T17:37:00.000-06:00

Ok, so it's been a while since I've updated this blog. This entry will be a recap of all that's happened in my life from Valentine's day to today.

Valentine's Day

Bruce sent me some really lovely flowers, and once again I was embarrassed and really touched at the same time. It took me 4 phone calls to finally thank him properly for them since he left me speechless. If you look at where my hand is on the desk you'll see a giant rock. lol!
Everyone in the office kept asking me if there was a ring buried somewhere in the flowers.
Of course there wasn't. Someday, but not now.

A Friday a week or two ago

I went out to Milestone's for drinks and food with a couple of co-workers. I had a couple of Bellini's. They were quite good, and the plastic animals that came on top of the drinks were entertaining as well.

A good time was had.

Now

My driver's liscence came in with my new address. Bruce and I now live together in the eyes of the law. My credit card invoice was also sent to the new address! Woo!
Soon I will also be under his health benefits plan...there's so much I need it for...It's going to be nice not to pay out of my pocket anymore.

Friday Flowers

2007-01-20T06:13:00.000-06:00

Bruce and I have now been dating for 2 years! Yay!

Our 2 year anniversary was yesterday on the 19th of Jan. He made it a really sweet day for me. He dropped in for lunch and even tolerated being dragged around the office to meet my co-workers. (I don't think they would have let me live it down if we didn't make the rounds.)

About 1/2 an hour after he left the receptionist came down the hall with flowers for me. Of course the ladies in the office just had to gush, ooh and ahh at the flowers to embarrass me. They were still at it rather loudly when I called Bruce to thank him. Ahhh...the flowers were really nice, the pictures don't do it justice, and they came in a really nice vase that I can keep to remember the day long after the flowers are gone. Monika insisted on taking a picture of me and the flowers so we can show Bruce how happy I was. lol.

After all the wonderful things he did for me I felt a little badly because I was unable to buy Bruce the gift I wanted to give him. But his birthday is around the corner so I can make it up to him then.

I wanted to buy him this new Old Spice cologne call OS Signature. It's supposed to be in North America, but it never made it across the USA border because only CVS and Wallgreens sell it. Boo to that.

Above the law

2007-01-10T14:42:00.000-06:00

So...I went to the banks today to deposit the cheques for our GIC dept. here at the office and while I was there I saw one of those minivan looking ambulances parked outside the bank, still runing with it's 4 ways lit.

I walked into the bank expecting to see some sort of a little emergency, but all was quiet. As I continued on towards the teller line-up I saw the EMS driver seated in a chair waiting to speak with a financial advisor.

I was in line about 7 minutes

The EMS driver went into the financial advisor's office after I was in line for 4 minutes

The teller took 1.5 minutes to process my work

The ambulance was still running with the 4 ways on when I was leaving.

Q: How long was the EMS driver in the bank while his vehicle was running?

A: At least 8.5 minutes.

Q: How long does the "law" say a person is allowed to keep a vehicle running idle?

A: 3 min max or you get a ticket

I guess provincially run companies in their own way are above the law in the way that they can't ticket TTC drivers for poor driving, or EMS drivers for parking idle over 3mins because the money comes from the government and goes back to it.

No one deserves to be above the law. It doesn't matter who does it or how important they think they are, the exaust will still damage our atmosphere.

The government is stupid in many ways, but in this way particularity are they being really dim. How can they expect to controll the population through laws, rules, and regulations when even they don't obey themselves?

The info on the ambulance by the way.... plate number 156 7LB

Freebie link of the day? How to get a USA only mag in Canada

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280910

Endless

2007-01-04T14:36:00.000-06:00

Day in and out I've been coming in to the office in the hopes that maybe today I'll be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I am now coming o the conclusion that perhaps the tunnel just doesn't end.

Like a fool in some ways I work hard to finish my stack of work, sometimes even staying late, and most times working through lunch. Just when I think the end is near, more paper finds it's way to my desk.

This freebie will give you 10 days free with game access.
http://www.gameaccess.ca/index.jsp?pa_id=25

Credit for the picture in this post goes to sniffah

No coal for me

2006-12-29T05:44:00.000-06:00

This year was my first Christmas since I moved in with Bruce. There was lots of gift giving and receiving, plenty of wrapping paper torn and tossed and more food than a whole weeks dinner in just one week-end. (What a time to freeze my membership at the gym.)

Christmas eve was spent with Bruce's family at his sister's house in Guelph. There I met his great aunt Nelly. She was great, and the only word I can think of to describe her would be firecracker. I can only hope to have an attitude like that when I become older as opposed to being old and crotchety.

Of all the gifting done I think I will remember my gift to Skyla the best even though she wouldn't stand still for a good picture she still looked really cute in her tiny doggy sweater. It's a good thing it fit too since she was recently shaved when she went in to get groomed. Poor Sky was all cold and shivering even indoors without her fur there to help her keep warm. (We all know better than to deprive a dog of it's fur in the winter, but apparently the groomer didn't.)

Well that's that. We'll see how the new year celebrations go this year.

Free stuff link

Today's free link will get you the game Railroad Tycoon

http://www.2kgames.com/railroads/railroads.html

Protecting people from themselves?

2006-12-01T10:54:00.000-06:00

So...been a while since I've made an entry on here, but here goes nothing.

I saw on the news the other day that the Canadian government is cracking down on unpasteurized milk. I also noticed how much the government is spending trying to close down all the grow ops.

Here's my problem.
Sure unpasteurized milk is gross...to me anyways. I mean the stuff literally just came out of the cow, you might as well suck the cows tits, but that's not the point.
What I'd like to say is what does it matter if people want to drink unpasteurized milk?

It contains a larger quantity of vitamins in a more potent form than anything you can get in the supermarket. Sure it also carries germs that can kill a person who's immune system is not strong enough to fight it, but if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger. Your immune system will get one heck of a boost.

If there are people out there who want the stuff right out of the cow let them have it, the world is already overpopulated anyways. (I know I didnt' touch on the subject of how much this will cost the health care system, but come on. Like smoking and drinking don't do anything.)

As free people don't we have the right to choose what we want? You can't treat unpasteurized milk any differently than let's say raw meat.

Raw meat can also have damaging effects if not cooked properly but it's still not made illegal. There are people out there who eat raw meat; there are hundreds of people; children and adults who become sick from all kinds of foods every day. Just because a food can make you sick doesn't mean you can't have it. It's freedom of choice.

Then we have weed/marijuana. It's not damaging to liver like alcohol and it's not going to mess up your body like a cigarette. If a person consumes enough alcohol it can have the same effects as being high, what's the difference? Just because it can't be detected in a breatalizer? Those things aren't very accurate anyways.

Now totaly unrelated...as of late I'm really big on getting free things online so when I remember to I'll post a link to a site that will give you something free.

Today's link is at http://www.oldspice.ca/os/en/index.html?src=pg.com
You can get a free sample of OS signature

Where did the week-end go?

2006-10-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

So the week-end has now ended.
It started with Friday. I skipped my workout at the gym so Bruce and I went out to eat at the Moxies on the 1st floor of my office where our waiter left us waiting for 20 mins and I didn't leave him any tip. Then we went out to see Man of the Year. It was a pretty good movie, not all comendy like I thought it would be. Then we got how around 12:30 and I spent 1/2 an hour trying to find a full copy of Diner Dash 2. I stayed up till 2am playing, really lost track of time and wasn't even tired. (Yeah..I'll never be one of those girlfriends that tell their guys that they should hurry up and get off the game 'cause I'm bored. )

I attempted to sleep in on Saturday, but I can seldom pull that off these days. I got up and started playing my saved game of Kingdom Hearts...I finished the game Sunday night and started up on Kingdom Hearts 2.

Saturday Evening I met up with friends and we went out to see the Student Shorts Film Festival which had some really great entries. Brendon also gave us T-shirts ^_^

After the films we went out to Swiss Chalet with a group of people I didn't really know, but I didn't care, everyone seemed pretty nice.

There was food and drinks...soft drinks on our side of the table..and we seemed to play a game of word limbo as the things we said and did just got lower and lower to the floor. (There were figurines of a rooster and a male sheep on the wall behind us...use your imagination.) It was fun and I'm glad I had a chance to express some low brow comments freely without being judged. I can be pretty ruthless and perverse when given the opportunity.

Sunday morning was breakfast at 9 in a new retaurant called Cora's. The food wasn't spectacular, but the morning started off well enough otherwise, and I got to see more friends I hadn't really kept in touch with.

Lena gave me a ride to my mother's house where I spent the better part of my day playing Sims 2. The father in the family passed away, and now the family is all depressed. Great....the mom is next....I hope I can get their moods up before that happens...even as little inch high Sims on my monitor they still have jobs to do and people to socialize with in their little virtual world.

I got a ride back home with my father and played my KH game until I beat it.

I slept in this morning and had about 45 mins to get out the door. Eeeew it was hard, but overall the week-end was a good one and i had fun.

Back to Work

2006-10-15T15:40:00.000-05:00

So...my vacation to LA is now over. Bruce and I got back yesterday night, and as much as we wanted the vacation to last we were both glad to be back home to familiar surroundings.

We had stayed at the Chamberlain Hotel and had ourselves a great time despite some minor problems.

We visited my family, downtown LA (with family), The Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theater, The Long Beach Aquarium (where we pet stingrays), Venice and Santa Monica Beach.

We also went to Universal Studios

Where we came accross Shrek

We had a GPS in the car we rented and it made a huge difference. I don't know if we could even get 10 minutes away without the thing. The streets there are just insane, and we still got a little lost even with the help.

While I was there I also started playing Sudoku instead of reading my airplane book "The Life of Pi", it was an incredible book and I think I might even read it again since I finished it on the return trip. (Although the story doesn't pick up right away it was still incredible and very unique.)

All too soon the week was over and we parted ways with my family members who showed us a great time, IHOP (international house of Pancakes) where they make really good breakfast and it doesn't cost a lot, and our grand suite hotel room. (Our studio room had ants in the bathroom so they upgraded us up to a grand. Yay, thank you ants!) We;ll also miss the great weather and the sun which was shining on us almost all week.

It was fun and we can't wait till our next trip.

Interesting email

2006-09-22T13:13:00.000-05:00

In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs.Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs wereborn pre-maturely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth. The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline inhealth, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.

After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only "orphans" that could be found quickly, were a litter of wiener pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. The pictures show what happened next.

I actually tried to look this up on google and came up with these. http://www.animalliberationfront.com/News/AnimalPhotos/Animals_1-10/Tiger_piglets.htm

http://itrocks.biteus.org/amazing-female-tiger-plays-with-baby-pigs/

The real life story behind te pics is not as heartwarming but I still thought it was neat.

Nice goes a long way

2006-09-14T10:31:00.000-05:00

I've been pretty busy as of late so I haven't really had much time to write here. I thought I'd pick up on it again today since I've ot some time.

On the bus today going to Don Mills Station it was pretty packed, but I somehow ended up near the end of the bus after a few stops. Once I got there I noticed a strange sound and turned around. There was a guy behind me who had Downs Syndrome making odd noises and saying things no one was really listening to.

It was obvious that there were people bothered by it, but everyone was trying to ignore him including myself. Like me they probably didn't know how to react. To me people with mental disabilities are a lot like children. Always innocent and curious about everything, but like children they also don't have much in the way of manners all the time and don't realise that not everything they do in public is accepted as ok etiquette. I don't know what to do around people with mental disabilities anymore than I know what to do around children.

Anyways, getting to the point....there were a couple of teens a bit closer to him than I was. Two guys. They looked pretty good, like the type that would be popular amongst the girls in their school. They had the grungy punk rocker look to them, with the shaggy hair to boot.

They obviously didn't know the guy with downs anymore than me but as the guy spoke, whether it was gibberish or a valid question about something in the current surroundings the guys would talk to him and answer his questions. They were the only ones on the bus not trying to ignore him.

I was amazed at their ability to communicate with the guy so easily even with his disability. I wish I could do something like that but I think it takes courage to talk to a stranger mental disability or not, and the two teens were making this guy laugh and giggle. It was great to watch the three of them interact, and all too soon we arrived at the station and we all went our separate ways.

No time

2006-08-24T12:18:00.000-05:00

So...super busy at work. Didn't go the LA yet the trip's been moved to Oct 7-14/06. I'm runing on broke. Can't wait to see everyone at Natasha's BBQ. That's all I have time for today.

Growing Apart

2006-08-11T09:55:00.000-05:00

Once high school was over and my friends and I graduated; went off to college I suppose it was inevitable that we would eventually start to grow apart. I knew I would be the first to lose touch with my friends since I'm not too good at approaching people I don't see on a regular basis. At first things didn't change much and we all kept in touch and went out together. I would receive calls on a regular basis to hang out.

After the first year we pretty much only got together on birthdays.

I won't bother with excuses, I'm just writing out my thoughts.

I met Bruce roughly 2 years ago, and eventually we started going out. After that I especially noticed that the gap between my friends and myself grew larger. I spent more time with Bruce and less time on MSN, which was the main source of communication between my friends and me.

Going out to bars and clubs never interested me in the first place, and after I met Bruce I really lost interest in all that stuff. For a while I only wanted to be with Bruce and didn't really notice how large the gap between me and my friends had become. It's nice that we still hang out once in a while, but I find myself growing farther apart from them while they grow apart from me.

Everything has been changing around me non-stop since the first year of college and I'm just along for the ride. Sometimes things feel out of control and I'm just trying to keep up.

Credit for the picture in this post goes to karincoma

Major changes

2006-07-25T11:15:00.000-05:00

I did it.

I moved out of my house and into Bruce's apartment.

Sort of.

Let me explain.
Last week was the final straw in a series of stupid things going on in my house. I was starting to feel like I over stayed my welcome and was just getting in the way at home.
The events which led to my moving out?

1. Since my father moved out of the house (and we all knew he wouldn't be coming back) we all made our own grocery purchases and stored them on our assigned shelves in the refrigerator; no space was assigned in the freezer half. So what's the problem?
The fridge is broken and the stuff in the fridge half freezes in certain places. My assigned place in fact. My salads and even condiments froze up time and time again and became crap. I offered to buy a new unit if everyone would pitch in with me, but alas no one cared. My mother and brother said to me "What's the point because we're going to move into a condo and it will come with a new one".

Well guess what...my mother won't buy a used place and she wants very specific locations. The price of the condo is the same price as the cost of the house after it’s sold, and there's no way she would be able to afford the condo fees. Therefore she decides she wants to keep the house.

The rest of the problem lies in the fact that freezer space was not assigned and my mother has packed the freezer so full it's a wall of frozen things. There's no room for my ice cream or bread when I have too much of it. She gave me a smidge of space on the freezer door, but guess what? That spot apparently doesn't freeze and my bread went mouldy. More than 1/2 a loaf. My mother didn't care to make more space so I need to store my everyday stuff like ice cream and bread in the basement freezer where is cold dank and smelly from all the dog poo my mom leaves lying around tied up in little dog poo bags.

2. The washing machine wars
I can't find the time to take care of Skyla, make lunch, do my laundry (most needs to be ironed 'cause it can't go in the dryer), eat breakfast and get ready for work in the mornings. I wake up at 5am everyday and can't fit it all in.

I try to do 1 load of laundry in the mornings and let it stay in the machine, and then take it out when I get home at 5:30pm. I was doing this for a while, then one day David (brother) decides he wants to use the machine that very day and it can't wait. He takes my wet cleaned clothing out and dumps it on the floor, where I find it upon my return home. I wasn't impressed.

Another time he tossed everything into the dryer just a couple hours before I got home and shrunk a couple of my work tops. He couldn't call me and ask what to do, or if I was on my way home to do it. No...That would take to long.

I arrived at my house and discovered that David's laundry was finished and there was no need to rush because he was watching a movie with his girlfriend that took another couple hours to end. So why did my clothes have to be out of the washer at that moment? Why couldn't he wait for me to come home?

I asked him to pay for the top, and of course the answer was no.

3. Music for the deaf
David is always on his computer playing music on his surround sound system full blast until about 9pm. When he isn't home his computer with its 6 fans is left running so he can remote access it from his girlfriends place. Selfish bastard doesn't even care that people are trying to sleep. My mother and I have the constant sound of a freakin' 747 jet down the hall to keep us up at night. Yeah I can turn off the machine, but its password protected with 2 different programs. I can try to pull the plug, but I can't be too sure what the damage to the machine would be, and the next thing I know my own computer will probably be stolen by him as a replacement. I went 2 weeks with 3 hours of sleep a night before I snapped and left.

After a few months of this and other little things I got fed up with all of it and left. No sleep, can't do laundry, can't keep food...fuck. Now I have a quiet place to sleep, and all the food I want and all the space for it. A washer and dryer to that no one will touch if my stuff is in it unless they ask first. Well no they..just Bruce. On top of all that I get to see Bruce all the time and we spend more time together. I love it.

I only moved a few things for now and I'm making trips home to collect the rest. My mother said I can leave stuff behind if I want, so long as it's not a mess. I'm paying rent (voluntary), and tonight Bruce and I are going to nab Skyla and give her to his parents for keeps. During the time that I've been away from home (since Friday) no one has really cared for Skyla. Sure she has food and water, but no one plays with her or walks her. Ahem...David.

I wouldn't expect it of my mom since she works all day and looks after Mango, but David is an unemployed college drop out. What does he do all day that he's too busy to care for Skyla. (Formerly his girlfriend's dog)

Sure I'll miss people and pets, my new tub too. (I paid for it since my old one was crusty and the walls were puffed out since water got in between some fallen out grout that was never replaced. A tarp was taped into place to prevent further damage. It was that was for about 5 years with a promise of repair from my father with no results. Yeah he was annoyed when I got the new set...well tough shit.)

Well such is life...I need to move on before I go nuts.

When it Rains, it Pours

2006-07-13T10:55:00.000-05:00

So...I was starting to miss hanging out with friends so yesterday I had an MSN chat with Marina from my freedom computer (my second computer at the office which is not on the main network so I have full access to do what I want with it; within reason).

Today I saw Lily waiting at the bus stop and called her. I didn't get through but she did call me back around 11:30am and we had a brief chat where we discussed going out Saturday night. I would love to. Although our chat was brief I'm glad we talked and in regards to our little chat here's the link for the red paperclip guy. It's an awesome read and I would recommend it to all.

http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

Now, I thought I would ask Marina about Saturday night on MSN while I'm on break, but in the time that it took for me to write this entry her MSN status has gone from online to on the phone. I can only assume its Lily asking her about Saturday, but I'll ask her anyways.

It's nice to see people again, and I'm glad that once I talk with one person it always leads to talking to another and concludes with us going out. Its difficult to keep in touch in days with work and classes getting in the way, but I think it's worth it to try.

Neither Satisfied Nor Dissatisfied

2006-07-11T11:09:00.000-05:00

So...I was wiped yesterday and after Bruce went home for the night I collapsed on my bed ready for a nice long sleep since it was only 10pm.

Only after 1 hour of rest I received a phone call. Well since my phone is on silent my mother actually received the call and woke me up since it woke her up. That's my mom...never refusing a call...not even to solicitors. This was worse though. It was freaki'n Seneca College.

I have no idea what time zone they were calling from but the fellow I spoke with...no...The fellow who spoke to me had a thick Indian-like accent I couldn't quite place in my sleep muddled mind. He must have thought I was high or something since I was grumbling and asking him to repeat everything twice, sometimes more since I couldn't figure out what he said most of the time. I was still half asleep.

Eventually I learned that he was calling about some Seneca College phone survey for students that graduated 6-8 months ago about what we thought of the college experience. He went though 3-4 minutes of disclaimers and privacy policies before going on with the survey. I being all confused and sleepy must have agreed to participate in the survey at some point; I can't recall.

I don't remember most of the survey, and all of it was set on a scale of 6 options that I didn't remember. For the second half of the survey I remember only 3 options.

1. Very Satisfied
2. Satisfied
3. Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied

Of course since it was all I could remember all of the questions were answered with one of the above options. After it was over they asked if I was working and if they could contact my current place of employment to ask how the Seneca 'graduate' is doing. Are they nuts? As if people aren't busy enough in the office. I said no and then called Bruce to tell him about the stupidity of the thing. I don't think I woke him up, but I never even thought to ask. Oops.

Money's Worth

2006-07-10T10:45:00.000-05:00

On Saturday Bruce and I went to The Toronto Street Festival. I hadn't planned to go with Bruce because I thought he would want to stay home and continue with renovations. I had made a feable attempt to contact some people, but had no luck. I was happy when Bruce said he could go. We purchased a TTC Day Pass and used the subway to visit all three loactions. The streets were all closed off but I found that a lot of people were still walking on the sidewalks even if there wasn't shade. Habit I guess.

I got a free mango ice cream sample which was more than just a spoonfull. The portion was actually quite large for one person I thought. I almost couldn't finish it. I also got a yo-yo and balloon from Rogers, and a free mini deoderant from BAN. Bruce and I ate a very late lunch at a restaurant called Yummi.

It was good food, but the service was terrible. Despite the great location I don't think the restaurant was used to being so busy and the service was lousy. We were sitting a while before we got a menu, then even longer after we ordered. I considered walking out. They even had trouble finding our bill at the end and I was tempted to tell the server off. Oh well....All in all it was a good day and the time flew. It was 6pm before we knew it, and Bruce dropped me off at home after we visited Quiznos so I could get a salad. I had no food at home.

This morning I saw Ashley from highschool on the bus with her mom. I wasn't sure if she remebered me so I didn't approach her and just kept reading my Asimov book. When I looked up I saw her smiling at me and thought it was a bit freaky but brushed it off.

Once the bus pulled into Finch station she called my name and we chatted briefly before we parted.

Bussing Along

2006-06-26T11:59:00.000-05:00

YRT is always surprising me with how bad their buses can get. The #5 Clark Ave bus is the line you want to ride if you ever want to experience one of the worst bus rides of your life. There are a few nicer buses running the route but most of them are really crappy.

1. The bus with no a/c and no windows that can be opened
Ok it's a blamy 30 degrees celcius outside and I was stuck sitting in this bus with old cracking plastic blue seats. Inside this bus its at least 48 degrees celcius and there are no windows that can be opened other than the emergency hatch on the top and we all know how much airflow that thing provides. the emergeny exit windows on the side can probably be opened in an emergency, but good luck with that. The handles on the exits are a little funny and the directions are in spanish. Real nice.

2. The bus with no a/c but year round heat
That's right. the heat in most of these buses in done by te mantainence worker because there's no automatic switch inside the bus, but yes normally it can be turned off. Problem with this bus? The heat is set to run automatically with no off switch anywhere. It's gross, smelly and sticky. The driver gets a couple of fans up front, but the rest of us are stuck trying to fit our heads out the window, if the window isn't rusted shut. Where the heck did this bus come from, the Arctic?

3. The not so little bus that could
There's a bus stop at the top of a fairly large hill once around the corner of Yonge and Clark. There's one bus that chugs it's way up by lurching and screetching with grinding sounds to boot to make it to the top. Once there, if there's a person waiting to be picked up, don't expect the bus to stop. I've seen this particular bus stop once, and then it couldn't start again. Guess the driver was new, thankfully I was going in the opposite direction on another bus.

4. The bus with no bolts
Back of the bus behind the doors, left side. The bolts on the bottom holding together the side of the bus to the floor...missing. I made the mistake of sitting on those chairs once and every turn the bus made the floor would move beneath my feet as the side of the bus (the chairs are attached to the wall, not the floor) separated a bit from the actual bus. Scary. Since that time I never sit on that side anymore and sometimes I'm treated to someone freaking out while sitting there. The gap between the floor and wall opens up only about 2cm, but I don't think it's supposed to do that.

5. Today's bus
Sounded like a bagpipe band everytime the brakes were hit. that's right..a band...not one bagpipe, not 2, but a whole bunch of 'em. Do you know what bagpipes sound like?! I couldn't drown out the sound even with my mp3 player on full blast. Agh...doesn't anyone inspect these busses?

Dolphins in the Office

2006-06-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

I'm having a great laugh in the office today. Our one and only sad little Xerox machine seems to be on it's last legs. After making aterrible squeeking sound for the last couple of months that no Xerox maintenence person could get rid of, the thing has started making crazy dolphin noises.

After hearing the machine make this crazy sound a couple of times I started laughing. Shirley whom I share the office space with was probably starting to think I was on crack or something so I told her why I was laughing. After that she joined in on the laughter, and soon enough other people in the ofice were sharing the joke. It's pretty funny and it helped cheer people up. It's been a bit of a rough day and the dolphin thing is just perfect.

On a side note, while I was eating out at a middle eastern place for Father's Day with my dad, cousins and Uncle I learned that my cousin Lucy reads my blog. Ooooh...

Hi Lucy ^_^

Running Scared...From a Movie

2006-06-12T10:24:00.000-05:00

Drugs, murder, mobs, gangs, poverty, crooked cops, bribery, child abuse, child porn, kidnapping, gun fights, blood, suicide and violence. All things you'll hear about when you watch the news a few days in a row. If the news doesn't have enough negativity for you you'll love the movie 'Running Scared'.

Bruce and I watched it last night and wow was it something else. Every director is trying to out-do the other with the amount of violence that will fit the length of a movie. All of them are pushing the border to see how much they can get away with. 'Running Scared' was the most disturbing movie I've watched in a long time. the only movie that comes close to the same mood and amount of disturbing scenes would be 'Requiem for a Dream'.

There was not one happy or non-disturbing scene in the whole movie, and even the things that seemed nice had an underlying 'evil' tinge to it. The only niceness in the whole movie was a prostitue who took care of a kid for a while, and even she got busted. This was the most attention grabbing and disturbing thing I've ever watched. If you want to be disturbed I suggest you watch it. Avoid it otherwise. I'm still a bit undecided about whether I'm glad I saw it or not. It was really intense.

No More Skyla?

2006-06-09T09:37:00.000-05:00

Skyla, the sweetest dog I've come accross may no longer be at my house. My brother and his girlfriend are going to be taking Skyla to visit with some potential new owners for her.

Shelly my brother's girlfriend decided that she can't really afford to keep the little cutie so she's being given away for good. My brother said that if no one wants her she's going to end up at a shelter. I can't let theat happen.

I can't bear to give Skyla away myself, if none of the potential owners want her I'll try to keep her long as I can. Sure money is stretched a little thin with me trying to save up so I can move out...but still...She's such a sweetheart...I can't let her go to a shelter where she'll be all alone with no one to cuddle her, and no certain future. She's too sweet for that. It makes me sad just to think about Skyla in a cold and lonely shelter, crying her little heart out for a person to cudle her. Everything she does is just so cute.

This morning I took her out to the backyard for a few minutes and she got her paws wet. I dried them as well as I could but after a couple of minutes she started making little sneezy noises. She made one last big sneeze and shook her head so hard she bumped the floor with her furry little head! Awwww...I hope she doesn't catch a doggie cold or anything.

Skyla- la

2006-06-07T10:54:00.001-05:00

For the last week or so a cute dog called Skyla by her owner (I'm not too big on the name) has been residing in my house. I refer to her breed as a shitty because she's part SHITsu and part Yorki.

Her and Mango (my Shiba) don't get along at all. If we let 'em at it there will be blood, but I really like Skyla and don't want to get rid of her. I asked Boyfriend to take her in and he said yes. Yay!

She's super cute; the way she greets you when you get home by wagging her tail and yipping in happiness. She's so much fun to walk; everything is always so new and exciting for her. she loves to be picked up and cuddled, and sits wherever you place her. A total lap dog.

My brother (I think he's biased because the dog belongs to his girlfriend) and I love this dog, but my mom still prefers her Mango.

Skyla has an awsome personality and I'm glad she's going to be sticking around. She's just too cute to let go of.