More pictures!

As you know, Foxy and I went to the Senators game on December 15th. To get an idea of how close we actually were, here are a few pictures:

The only thing between us was the penalty boxes and the glass! The seats were amazing and the game was fantastic! The Sens won the game 7-3! I would LOVE to go again and sit in the exact same spot - there was SO much to see! We had initally anticipated having to stay up in Ottawa overnight due to the storm that was supposed to start on Saturday afternoon, fortunately, it didn't start until very late that night and we got home before it got too bad out. The next morning, however, was a different story - we got just over 24" in less than 24 hours. Here is a picture of our street taken from the front porch at around 10:00AM on Sunday...

And here is a picture of the car when we went outside to shovel the driveway (for the second time) around 8:30 that night - it's blurry, but you can see that the drift is almost upto the middle of the wheel at the front of the car (and this is after already having shovelled once that day!) Needless to say, while shovelling, my main thought was..."Dear Santa...snowblower...enough said!"

Side note...

It was 2 years ago today that Foxy and I bought the house! Hard to believe it's been that long already...

BTW - I would have forgotten likely had it not been for Dad and his reminders - I swear he must have been an elephant in his past life! :)

What's for dinner - part 2

Yummy recipe that we stole out of Foxy's Men's Health magazine, but which we altered a bit to make it even healthier - all in all it didn't take long to cook and was quite tasty!

Chicken Spinach Parm

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp. parmesan cheese (grated)
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
6 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
1/2 c marinara sauce (we used a Ragu Garden sauce - diced tomato and herb)
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. While the oil is heating, pound the chicken to a 1/4" thickness, then sprinkle with cheese, salt and pepper (they also use bread crumbs which we opted out of - if you want to try it with, you'd need only 2 tbsps of crumbs, which you'd sprinkle and press onto the chicken). Place in the pan with the garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes per side. Meanwhile, heat the marinara and put it on top of the chicken in the pan - then add the spinach, turning frequently with tongs until it wilts, about 6 minutes.

I think to tweak it for next time, I'd add some sliced muchrooms and do a side caesar salad. We had it with some sweet green peas and a slice of garlic bread - and it was yummy, and even better? Foxy did the cooking! :-)

Welcome to winter...

Blech, I have to say that I'm not happy with it's arrival, but c'est la vie, I suppose! We are in the midst of a winter storm (snow this morning, then ice pellets and freezing rain and then back to snow again) - which, needless to say, makes driving a tad more entertaining.

My commute from the Kingston Centre to our house usually takes me no more than 7 minutes (and that's taking into consideration a red light or two) on Friday, when the storm started, it took me 49 minutes to get home from the Kingston Centre. Oh yes...49 minutes. The main roads weren't too bad, all in all, but all of the drivers needed to slow down to look at the police cars that were directing traffic away from the closed sections of the 401, which meant that not only were there tons of cars on the slightly slippery roads, but we also had a fleet of transports to contend with...FUN!

I'd much rather it be crazy cold and clear than warmer and snowy. At least in -25° weather you can just hop in your car (after it's warmed up, of course) and drive with no worries of snow or freezing rain! The only down side is the perpetual cold that my feet ultimately suffer. I don't know about you guys, but when it's really cold out, I usually wear socks to bed. That being said, however, I don't think our bodies like to have socks on at night...at least mine doesn't, because there have been numerous occasions when I have woken up with a sock on or under my pillow and another buried somewhere beneath the covers, and no, I'm not awake when I take them off. How they migrate to my pillow is still a mystery to me.

In any event, I'm hoping that the winter will fly by (at least until our trip) and be long gone by the middle of May - it's pretty sad that I'm already wishing for winter to be over, seeing as how it's just begun... On that note, I'm off to bed, socks on feet and ice pellets tapping at the windows. Sweet dreams everyone!

Only a few days...

I had to make sure to post before the end of the month or I wouldn't have posted anything in November at all! YIKES! It's funny how the thrill of updating people about what's going on in your life quickly wears off...
What is new...obviously seeing as how I have to think about it there can't be too much going on... Well, we had our staff Christmas party on the 24th. Let's just say it wasn't what everyone claimed it would be, but it did give me a chance to get dressed up with fancy hair and make-up. E was my date as Foxy had to work, so we went, had dinner, then left to come home and watch a movie - we must be losing our party animal instincts as neither of us wanted to stay and dance...maybe it was all the country music?

Here is my hair from the back:

And here I am:


This is an ambush shot by camera happy Susan at work, but it didn't turn out TOO bad, so I thought I'd post it. I have to say that I love my hairdresser. I've been going to her for 8 years and she's never once done anything to my hair that I haven't loved. She is fantastic! This hair style actually had my hair in little pretzel knots if you can imagine!

So it was fun to dress up!

E and I saw August Rush last week and it was AWESOME! The music was absolutely fantastic and despite what all of the idiotic critics say, I'd definitely recommend it, though more to girls than guys as it is a bit sappy. Definitely one I'm adding to my must-buy list.

I'm disappointed that Heroes ends on Monday, but am looking forward to seeing how they plan to tie up all of the aspects of the story that have seem to come out of nowhere this season - I'm still a devote fan but I hope that they can get back on track for the next season. I'm still not sure if it's ending now because it's that time or if they're stopping because of the writer's strike... Now I don't know what I'm going to do on Mondays.

I lost my annual Grey Cup bet with Dad - two years in a row...hopefully it's not a continuing trend, as I can't afford the dinners he wants - I offered to take him to McDonalds, but he just laughed...

For those of you who are wondering where we stand on the countdowns:

Hockey game: 16 days
Caribbean Cruise: 87 days
Wedding: 240 days (wow! 8 months to the day! - I'll be a married woman 8 months from now!)

Our basement renovations are coming along - we've got the walls up and the electrial in place, now we've got to hang the doors and then we can start drywalling! WOO! I love drywall!

Hard to believe it's almost December! It's going by so fast! Anyway, I think that's about all my news for now. The snow is on it's way tomorrow (supposedly) so it should be a fun drive home! Must go and take out the garbage - I love Wednesday nights...

Thanksgiving - my favourite holiday

Gone for another year, I have to say that I was quite happy with the way my Thanksgiving dinner turned out this year. I invited Foxy's parents, my grandparents, my great Aunt and my friend E and no one came down with food poisoning and everything got on the table hot and nothing was burnt! Yea! My turkey even looked better than this:

I'm sad to see it go for another year, but I will get to have more turkey again at Christmas, so I suppose I can wait that long...

Foxy and I purchased tickets to another Senators game! We're seeing them play the Atlanta Thrashers in Ottawa on December 15th. We're sitting in the front row, right behind the players benches at centre ice! I'm totally excited to see another game, especially with seats as good as those ones.

I'm also super happy that Heroes is back for a second season!

If you haven't been watching - there's never a better time to start! Go out and rent season one and then hop right in to watch season 2 - this show is AWESOME!

Ah, so that's where J-Lo's dress went...

I saw it last night on a girl who came into the pharmacy before heading out to go clubbing with her girlfriends.

I'm sure it's just because I'm getting a bit older, but the new students are REALLY young - not just first year young, but pre-teen looking young. And out they go in their wanna-be pre-nasty Britney Spears outfits and they wonder why the boys (and I say boys because they're definitely not men) don't show them any respect.

Plan B is selling like wildfire in our store (and I'm sure many others) and I can't help but wonder what happened to Plan A? For those of you who don't know, Plan B is the morning after pill - for those oops nights when either you don't plan ahead or your other means of protection fail. I can't tell you how many of the girls buying this product don't even have a Plan A - and WOW, for $40.00, you can avoid the responsibility of planning ahead (which, by the way, is the same price as 2 months of birth control, and a 3-pack of condoms...) I suppose it's a good thing we have it on the market though...lest we have a whole new generation of prostitots on our hands...

Riding the bus...

Well, let's just say it sucks...a lot! Sure it's an affordable way to avoid paying crazy amounts of money to park downtown (when you can find a place to park) but there are some SKETCHY people on the bus.

Cases in point:

Today there was a guy who got on a couple of stops after me and he thought it'd be funny to shake up his bottle of Coke repeatedly and then open it to take a drink... I sure felt bad for the lady sitting next to him...

Two kids at the back of the bus thought that it'd be cool to say f*** every 8 seconds - funny how the definition of "cool" evolves over time.

I overheard a guy telling another guy that he LOVES to dance because it's a good way to pick up women - even though he's a terrible dancer, he's always got good looking women looking at him! Hmmm....

The bus driver wants to race in Nascar and isn't quite focused because he missed one person's stop altogether, despite the ding the bell makes when you request a stop. One girl literally ended up on another's lap as the driver screeched to a stop on more than one occasion.


It's my least favourite form of travel because I don't have control and because there are some CRAZY people on the bus, they talk to themselves or loudly to others (even when unsolicited) and there's always the joyful, funky bus smell. But, for the long term savings, I'll breathe through my mouth and listen to my MP3 player and hope that the pop shaker sits far away from me...

Long overdue update!

My apologies, as usual, for not keeping on top of this thing, but it's crazy busy for me with work and sometimes, it's just nice to come home at the end of the day and put my feet up!
Let's see, I'll post some pics from the last few months...

Foxy and I at the fancy dinner in Windsor
Our three team entries at the Ontario Tenpin Bowling Association Provincial Championships

Me pretending to lick the modern art that looks like a bum

Indoor roller coaster at West Edmonton Mall when we were there in April

Indoor waterpark at West Edmonton Mall

The Ice Palace at West Edmonton Mall

On Father's Day, I was working at the drugstore and was held up at knifepoint by a woman demanding narcotics. I was able to stall long enough to get the pharmacist's attention and then she was startled, grabbed a couple of bottles and took off running - the pharmacist and I chased her out of the store and I grabbed my cell phone and called 911 to relay her position to the police who caught her less than a block and a half away! People will do anything when they're desperate. Fortunately she didn't get far and no one was hurt.

Joanne and I went shopping in Syracuse for wedding dresses on Friday and I found one! WOO-HOO! One less thing to worry about now as far as wedding planning goes!

That's pretty much it for now! I'll try to be a little more frequent with the updates!

Well, it's official...

They're out, which means spring is here and the roadkill has increased!

It's a long overdue update

As per usual, I've been a terrible updater, but it's not just in my blogging life - my real life updates (to friends and family) have been equally poor.

So yeah, needless to say from my previous post, Foxy and I got engaged! :D WOOOOO-HOOOO! Yes, I'm doing a little dance! It was very unexpected and absolutely perfect the way he asked me and I did get a little weepy, but I didn't sob like I expected I would. For those of you who were asking, the ring is white gold and let me tell you, he did a PERFECT job of picking my ring, as he got exactly what I would have picked for myself. What can I say? My man has good taste!

I was/am on cloud nine and ended up having to bowl the next morning and ended up bowing the best series I had ever bowled...a 701 (for you non-bowlers, that means that I averaged 233.6 for 3 games) - needless to say that had me dancing too! Good times.

I've been super busy getting the end of the year awards wrapped up for the association, and Foxy and I went to Edmonton for a meeting I had to go to last week. It was a quick, cold, rainy/slushy trip.

As of right now, no definite plans have been made where the wedding is concerned but I will keep you posted.

As a side note, I'm completely excited that the grass is starting to get green and I can drive around with my moon-roof open without freezing! I LOVE SPRING!

Guess what this means?

This gave me goosebumps!

What a great video - it was sent to me by my friend Amanda who I went to junior high school with.

Would you take him up on the offer?

Something to look forward to!

Well, I'm officially ecstatic... Foxy and I booked our vacation for next year and I CAN'T WAIT!!! We're going to be taking another cruise, this time to the southern Caribbean and it's a 12 day long one instead of a 7 day.

Here is the map of the ports of call!

We go to St. Maarten, Antigua, Dominica, Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico! I can't wait to set sail, but I'm going to have to wait a bit as we don't leave until February, 2008 - but if there ever was incentive to actually get in better shape, I'd say this is it! :-)

Wow

Forget working crazy hours and days - I want to be like my little brother when I grow up - he made $220 for calling a square dance this past weekend! I think that was only like 2 hours of work, max. Isn't that crazy? Who would have thought that it'd pay that well? Way to go little dude!

A letter to myself...

Dear Me,

I just wanted to remind you of your better days - you know what I'm talking about - those better, thinner, healthier days. What have you been thinking, letting yourself go? Go to your closet and pull out that dress you wore to your high school graduation if you want a reminder - yep, that dress was a size 6. A 6!!! What happened to those cute, short skirts you used to wear? Ah yes, I know - it's called cellulite and there isn't anyone who wants to see it.

So what are you going to do for yourself? You do notice that I'm writing this for all the world to see - maybe it will instill some accountability on your part. I'm not saying you should become a shut in, but for heaven's sakes woman, take better care of yourself! Drink more water and less coffee. Sleep more! Learn how to say no! Get off your butt and do some exercise, even when you absolutely hate the thought of it... Eat better too - it's more expensive, but in the long run, it'll end up costing you less!

You've only got one body and I have to say I'm getting mighty depressed looking at it in the mirror in the condition you've allowed it to degenerate to. It's going to take time and hard work, I'm not going to lie to you, you're going to want to quit and say it's not worth it, but you'll do it because you know I'm right and it'd be nice to fit into single digit clothing again. I'm not trying to be harsh with you - I'm just trying to open your eyes!

Love,
Me

Yes, I dare say bitten...

Well, it seems that my earlier good-natured gloating about the great weather we had here in Ontario at the beginning of the winter has, predictably, come back to bite me squarely in the ass. We had a lovely combination of snow, sleet, ice pellets and freezing rain last night that amounted to an interesting morning commute. I've attached a couple of pictures for your enjoyment, particularly if you don't live in Ontario...





Even I have to admit that freezing rain really does make the trees look pretty...

Go Sens Go

Here are a couple of pictures to show you how good our seats were at the game - we've got more pictures than these, but they are really clear and easy to tell where we're sitting.

Melee

Anyone who watches NHL hockey or even just highlights on TSN, saw the oh-so-exciting bench clearing brawl between the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres - even the goalies got in on the action!

Normally I'd be the last person to post a clip of hockey or even encourage the viewing of the hockey, but watch this clip.



Guess where Foxy and I are going to be tonight? Yep - we're going to the Ottawa/Buffalo game at Scotiabank Place and we're only 4 rows from the glass!! :) Sports announcers are predicting a second round of blood shed and we're going to be there!!! Woo hoo! The energy in the arena is going to be insane. Foxy's bringing his camera so hopefully I'll have some good pics to upload on Sunday! Stay tuned...

Too good not to share

I'm a dance fanatic - E can vouch for me, we go and see every single dance movie that comes out... we even rented "Save the Last Dance Part 2"! So when someone sent me this video, I had to share it - I want to be as good as this guy!

Belated winter wonderland...

So, I’m a sucker for the weather channel – who wouldn’t be? It’s great with all those maps and their squiggly lines and big arrows and clouds – it’s oh so exciting. Imagine my excitement Sunday morning when I had the channel on and good old Kingston was noted as having set a record Saturday! We got the most snow anywhere in Canada – a whopping 19 cm! (7.6 inches for you imperial people out there). And on Sunday morning, bright and early, we were actually colder than Yellowknife, NT, with a wind chill of -34°C, yes you read that right. Needless to say it was COLD out there, not just cold, but COLD. They were calling for -40°C Sunday night with the wind chill.

On Saturday night I got home from working a shift at Shoppers (as a relief person for them), I had the joy of shoveling the driveway – something I don’t really mind, but I tell you, Foxy must have made a pact with God because it seems that every time it snows, he’s at work, so I end up shoveling the driveway – he tells me to wait for him, but I’m not going to make him shovel after working a 12-hour shift. In any event, the snow drifts were insane and it probably took me almost an hour and a half to shovel it all out – and it was so windy that nearly every shovelful I threw, I got back a third of it. Grrr… Normally I love the double-wide driveway, but when it’s snowy and windy, I could care less. We now have something of a snow fort on either side of our driveway because the snow banks are getting so high! I do love the snow for making everything look cleaner and brighter though – it’s so…wintery. There is a certain camaraderie in the neighbourhood when everyone is out shoveling, as you can yell across the road about how much snow we got and how it sucks to have to shovel and we all can commiserate with each other.

Oh the joys of living in Canada I suppose...

Woo-hoo!

I just booked our tickets to Edmonton!

Holy crap...

Now, I know I'm busy and all that, but I like to watch the morning news and I saw two commericals and one news story today that I felt it important to comment on.

1) (The commerical I liked) Three adults walk into an office building carrying balloons and a cake and are asked by the receptionist if she can help them, they reply no and continue to walk into an office area where there are several cubicles scattered about with people working somewhat lack-lustrely (new word, my own invention). These three people walk up to an older gentleman and they say "Happy retirement, Dad!" He looks at them in shock and says, "But I'm not retiring..." They reply with, "We won the Lotto 649 draw!" beaming down at him as the news sinks in. He begins to grin and jumps up to hug them all. That's how it ends after a blurb about 649 and all that. I liked this one because it's cute and it's something that'd be great to be able to do - enable your parents to retire early (because I know my Dad is counting the days (and he's still got more than 5 years to go (you do the math))

2) (The commerical that made me shudder) Pat Quinn, former coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, argueably one of the most annoying men to listen to in interviews and always the one to make excuses for why the Leafs SUCK, is on screen talking about being a coach and clips of some of his career highlights are shown, then he says, "One of the things you may not know about me is that I'm a stripper." Pause... *crickets chirping in the background* Then he proceeds to talk about Breathe Right nasal strips - ha ha ha, very funny Pat. I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that you're joking about being a stripper (not a mental picture any of us wanted to imagine) or that you're so hard up for money that you'd actually consider saying the words, "I'm a stripper," on national television. See for yourself! It all started to go downhill after he sunk Canada at the Olympics. Bad man...

3) The news story that got me shaking my head was that the American Food and Drug Administration has just approved an anti-obesity medication for dogs. Yes, you read that right, dogs. Not only have we all gotten fat and lazy, but now our poor pets are suffering. That's not what made me want to comment though. I immediately thought, I wonder how many brilliant Americans (and I say this because it's not available in Canada, so you know it'd be Americans doing it) are going to pick up the meds, look at the dog and then look at the meds again and think, "Hmmm... if it works for Benji, why wouldn't it work for me?" Watch the news for stories of people overdosing on fat dog medication...

That's all for today folks! :)

Upgrades for the new year!

Just a few quick changes to the blog to freshen it up a bit. Still crazy busy with work - when am I not? I've got award applications up to the ceiling in the office and I finally made some soup (which I've been meaning to do for at least a week)

How goes everything?

Finally saw "The Notebook" - cried like a little girl...I recommend it for anyone who is looking for a sappy romance, just don't watch it with your boyfriend, or he may have to deal with you sobbing...(Foxy was at work)

Ever wonder why us girls insist on watching movies we know will make us cry?