webcams and bubble baths

What do these two have in common? Not much accept for the fact that I enjoy them both. For Sinterklaas (dutch Christmas) Alan gave me a webcam so my family and I can see each other. At first it is a little bit weird and some people experience 'fear of the camera' but that quickly disappears and after that it is pretty nifty. It isn't anywhere close to the real thing, but still better than just the phone. Today I got to see my entire family as my brothers and sister in law were visiting my parents for a pre-New Years eve dinner party. I was a little sad Alan and I couldn't be there too, but at least I got to see them and say hello. It was really fun and chaotic just like my family get togethers are supposed to be :)
Alan took me out for a date night last night. We were trying to get together some of our friends, but everyone seemed to have made plans already, which is fare enough so close to new years. Alan surprised me and took me out for the fish and chips I had been talking about for so long and than took me to the movies where we say The pursuit of happiness. I thoroughly enjoy going on dates, they are so much fun and definitely necessary to contributing in keeping a relationship fun I think. The movie itself wasn't really what I thought it was. The acting was good the cinematography was done well and yet the movie couldn't really thrill either of us. We expected a drama, and it really was, but it just couldn't move me that much. I found the movie quite slow and boring. The story itself isn't and a lot can be said for the perseverance of the main character, but the whole time I was waiting for something that just didn't happen. To bad, but it didn't wreck the evening, I still had a nice time.
I am ready for bed, I just had a really nice bubble bath with white musk scent (Body Shop). I haven't had a bubble bath in years and it was very enjoyable. It was a good ending for a productive nice day. I manage to unpack 4 boxes and organize most of my important paperwork (i.e. taxes, government papers, insurance stuff..) which had been 'organized' in file folders (=thrown together in a mad jumble of papers in all different files with out any kind of system). I have it almost sorted out, and it is a nice feeling to be able to stroke some stuff of the to do list, which is still kms long but progress can be seen. I also made the hors d'ouvres we're bringing to our potluck New Years party tomorrow night, I hope they worked out it is a newer recepy that we have only used once before. It tasted really good than, but you never know. They are made with spinach and cottage cheese and they taste really good. I will let you know how they turned out.
Well that is all for now folks sleep well, I know I will! Tomorrow is New Years Eve.. Eek this year has gone by so fast...

Inspiration

I really missed writing in my blog, so I am starting it up again, and what better way to do that than a new look. A new old start, because I have used this template before. I like it though, so back to it I go.
My friend Batman started this really cool project she read about called project 365 during which you take 1 picture everyday of something are you doing so that at the end of the year you have this really cool overview of what your year has been like. It sounds like a lot of work, but the result would be really neat for sure! I dont know if I could do a picture everyday but I want to try for a picture each week. I think that would be a good start for me seen as though I have been postinbg on a monthly bases lately.
Belated Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you had a nice holiday. I know I did! Holidays just seem to mean so much more now we have our own spot to come home to. It truly is a wonderful feeling. We spent christmas eve and day at Alan's parents and got spoiled with lots of good food and great presents, we saw lots of friends and had lots of company and it is fun. Alan has 2 weeks off which is really nice! Before he was still home, but he was at works, which is different because he wasnt really available, now I get to bug m all day long! Lucky man ;) It is really nice to end my break with a few days of time off together.
We recently got out chimney swept so now we can have a fire in our fireplace. I am *so* excited, ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of having a house with a fire place, and now I do. I think I will roast marshmellows and drink hot chocolate with Baileys.. mmmm good!
We discovered that we have some unwanted pets aka mice. We had found some droppings in the basement but werent sure if they were recent or not. Than the other day we noticed that our pitas were partly eaten, they looked pretty cool actually, it looked like someone took a big bite out of them. You cant blame the poor little fellow for moving in, if I were him I would want to live in this house too, but I dont think the house or our pitas are big enough to share and so we will have to do something about the situation. Sorry Mickey.
Well it is dinner time so I am going to go downstairs to see what we could have.

Hello everyone,

Wow two posts in one week, what's going on here!
This past weekend Alan and I bought paint for the house. We now have new colours for the office, family room and kitchen.
We have finished painting the walls of the office, and hopefully we'll be finishing up the room this weekend so he can set up and organize everything again. It works a lot easier that way!
Other than that we have stripped down the nasty wallpaper on the little dividing wall in the kitchen, found a nasty plastering job and Alan has been sanding the living daylights out of it to get it ready for painting. Pictures will follow soon, I promise. I know I have been saying this for a while now, but this weekend I am making a point of getting them at least partly done.
On Tuesday my co-worker D and I went out to meet up with her mom, whom is a hairstylist. To celebrate my permanent residency I decided to give myself a little bit of a make-over. I now have lots of highlights and I am hoping to buy myself a hair straightner, because it looked really nice when her mom styled it that way. Her mom really does an amazing job and she is relatively inexpensive. Diana showed me some tricks on how to do easy and nice looking make-up, which is always handy. I felt very pampered, and happy with the result. All in all I'm having an amazing week.
I got my mark back for my molecular genetics. I was convinced I failed it knowing only 5 of 23 MP choice and none of 3 open questions, and so was happily surprised when I found out that due to the bell curve I didn't. D for degree right?!? Hopefully now all the stress is gone I'll be able to concentrate better on my schoolwork and get my marks back on track a little bit. The stomach pain I had has mostly gone away, and I am sleeping much better, now I just feel extremely tired, but sleep can fix that.
I am looking forward to finishing my knitting projects so I can start knitting for my little niece/nephew. I haven't quiet decided what I am making yet, but I know the main colour so that is a start. I am so excited to become and aunt I can not wait, but I really should get back to work.
Until next time!

It is hard to back track, especially after you've just had one of the best days of my life, but I will attempt to anyway.
The letter came and was a little bit of a disappointment. I was hoping (against reason if I may add, knowing how things work in the gov.) this letter would tell me everything I had been wanting to know but the only thing it said was that a decision had been made and they would contact me. I had no idea when this contact would take place and what would happen, so frustration got the better of me. Luckily only two days later I received another letter, this time stating that I was expected to show up for an interview on the 23 of October, and I was required to bring 2 passport pictures with me. This kinda told me that chances of me getting my PR were huge, but I still felt nervous because you never know for sure and the decision that is made by a random stranger behind a desk determines what is going to happen in your future. It really is a very bizarre sensation. The wait between letter two and the interview was about 2 weeks, and I was very affected by this wait. More than I even realized. During the second week I was having trouble sleeping, I constantly had a sore stomach, and even though I didn't think it was caused by my nervous, it clearly was. Because today is the day after my interview, and I feel fabulous and very tired.
My interview was supposed to start at 8:30. Of course there was an insane amount of traffic on the queensway and so Alan dropped me of at 8:28 while he went to park the car. Turns out everyone was supposed to be there for 8:30 and it was on a first come first serve bases. You knock on a door which has a big buff scary looking security guard lady behind it who will let you in on invitation only (woohh I am part of a special club!) Then you get to sit in a waitingroom which looks very similar to your regular joe doctor's office/city hall office anywhere, including magazines and kids toys. We waited for at least an hour while other people were being taken away for interviews or helped at the front desk. Then it finally was my turn. I was asked to check my personal information on a sheet of paper, put 2 initials down and 2 signatures, hand n my pictures and that was it..... No questions, no explanations no nothing, done stamp, official photocard will come int he mail... Bang, no more stress, no more waiting, I am done I get to stay with the man I love and thank god I can *finally* start thinking about actually getting my education finished! I can't tell you how great we felt when we finally heard. We went home, called my parents, called Alan's parents. We went for lunch with Mrs, after which I got to go back to school to get my tuition switched from international to domestic fees, and I was still within the deadline so I will even get my money back for this term. I am so excited!
Next I went back to work which was sort of an anti climax, but Alan came and picked me up after work, completely stunned and surprised me when he took me shopping and spoiled me rotten, and then took me out for an amazingly romantic dinner. Alan's parents dropped in at home last night before we went on our dinner to 'welcome me to the country' and they bought me a really comfy and cozy Canada hoody which I love and now it is now. I feel like I'm walking on sunshine, I feel so happy and so lucky that I am surround by people I love it takes my breath away...

Still breathing!

Ok I know I havent written in waaayyy to long. I have sooo many things to tell you.
First of all the house is phenomenal. I have not felt this happy and at home in a place in a long time, maybe even since the house I used to live in when I grew up! I have so many things to tell you about the house, but this has to be a short update. The move has made things sooo busy and I am very behind on schoolwork and so that has my first priority. I just needed to leave a few liner to let you all know I am still alive and doing extremely well. It really feels like my life is coming together and everything is falling in to place and I have been receiving mostly goood news.
On the weekend I found out that I am going to be Aunty Sylvia in May! I am *so* excited!!!! My brother and his wiffe are expecting their first child and I couldnt be happier for them. I am of course planning some major knitting action so hopefully S&B will start up again soon.
Work is going well I really like my new co-worker we get along wonderfully and so eventhought the job is the same and boring, the new location and new co-worker make it much better than it was!
I also just read online that a desicsion has been made on my PR and my letter is in the mail. Literally a couple of weeks late to let me go to school full-time but I am happy and nervous the wait is going to be over. I will let you know ASAP.
Anyway that is everything in a nutshell I will talk to you soon!

New Office!

Our get together with our friends was so much fun! We showed off pictures of our new house, and we saw ictures of Australia as well as B’s house being built. It is so much fun seeing the house slowly coming together, it must be even more exciting for them as it is our house. I am counting the days until we get the key. I’m probably taking the day off, depending on whether there is any indication of when we’ll be able to pick up the key. I really can’t wait. It is the same feeling you have as a child when you know christmas is coming. So I am counting the days, trying to picture different paint colours on walls and thinking about kittens and how happy Alan and I will be in our own place. I am really excited and it feels like my life is coming together quite nicely.
I am now officially moved in to the new office. Which you haven’t heard anything about yet so I will enlighten those of you interested. I am doing the same job I was doing last year during the school year, except this year they decided to centralize shipping in one room, have calls, questions complaints etc come into the same place as the place that is shipping out the stuff. To me this makes sense. I was supposed to be getting a full time job out of the deal, long story short, my boss managed to switch things around so he doesn’t have to pay me full0time wages. Always nice to start off the new year like that, but oh well, hopefully I wont be working here for much longer. That aside, another girl, whom I’ll call D, and myself have been moved into a lunchroom, which is now our office. I think she’ll be all right to work with, she seems nice enough. I think it will be nice to be working in a different environment, people don’t complain as much and don’t seem to be as negative as upstairs, although I will definitely miss the guys I have been working with for three years. I can still see them on my lunch break s and from going back and forth etc. We will see how things will go. My boss gave us permission to order office supplies last week, so D and I sat down with the Grand & Toy catalogue and went nuts, we figured this may be the last chance we get, so we better take advantage while we can J . The supplies came in yesterday and are all set up, so are D’s computer and my shipping computer, which at this point isn’t working yet but soon will be. D is sick today, with the flue so I have the office and the computer to myself. This may be one of the last days though, we’re supposed to share this computer, my ‘shipping’ computer can only run the purolator interface, and D will be needing her computer pretty much non-stop. So that might kinda suck…. Like I said I will have to keep you posted.
I feel really old today. I know 24 isn’t bad, but it just sank in that I am in my late early twenties. I don’t have aproblem with the getting older part itself, I am not afraid of that just yet, I just feel like I have been swimming under water holding my breath and came up for air and I cant believe I swam this far.. I just sort of passed by without being noticed. I don’t really know if I like that, I want to experience thing to the fullest. A start will be sleeping more. I know this sounds funny, but I find when you’re rested everything is more crisp, and I have been feeling tired a lot for quite a while. Therefore I am going to try to catch up on some sleep to see if this will help.
My athletics class starts next week. My friend from work and me signed up for a spinning class. I have heard a lot of good things about it, so I am excited to start the class and get back in some kind of shape. We also got an athletics pass and so I am supposed to start the cardioroom etc next week. So many changes in such a good time, crazy!
Two nights ago we went to Pirates of the Caribbean 2 with friends from soccer. I really enjoyed the movie even though it wasn’t as good as the first one. And some of the see monsters were really kind of creepy, but at the same time it was really neat how they did things.
I suppose I should be going back to work. I have been slacking long enough!
Have a nice day and talk to you later!

Times are changing

Light is filtering through the leaves differently. You can always tell when fall is coming because everything has a different glow to it. Even though leaves are still green, they're just not the same.
The season isn't the only thing that is changing. Yesterday Alan signed the rest of the last last papers. Everything is said and done, we have a mortgage and a house, and in about 2.5 weeks we will get the key to this new house!
Yesterday was my last day working as and admin assistant for my summer job. I was really sad to leave, because the people I was working with were really nice. It was the best job I have had so far, and I am sad to see it go. Today back to my old position. It will be interesting to see what will happen there. Appearantly everything is going to change around, so I will try not to keep you posted to much on the office politics that is going on there...
Another change is that the person who got me interested in blogging decided after years fo faithful writing to call it a day. I really enjoyed reading her blog as it is a lot more open that mine. I just sort of go on and on about what I have been doing. Her's was a lot more personal and open than mine I found. I am sad to scratch her off my regular reads, but on the bright side of things I'll just have to see her more often to stay in the loop :)
Tonight we're getting together with a bunch of friends for a 'hello after your long trip' but 'Good Luck doing your masters going away again' party for our good friends. S&B will not be the same without M and (R) around. It should be fun times though! Yay for get togethers after a long summer, they're the best! Ok time to get ready for work!

Update 1

It has been a long time since I have written in my blog and to be honest I don’t even know where to start because so many cool things have happened since I last wrote.
I will start by saying thank you all for the birthday wishes, I really appreciated them! And thanks again Batman &Robin for the surprise visit, that was awesome! I used my mugs the next day for a nice big cup of tea!
My brother and sister in law have had an amazing visit with us but have since left to go back home and back to work. I miss them a lot, we had a really good time and I feel so lucky that they took the time and money to come and see us. They were great guests, kept themselves busy and even cleaned! I ended up taking an extra Monday of to spend with them. We went to the museum of civilization and ended up getting in for free by filling out a 1 minute survey, which was awesome.
Then I officially had the best birthday ever. First of all I got spoiled rotten, my mom called me at work and sang happy B-day to me over the phone, than another awesome thing happened!
Alan and I have been looking around for houses in the last few months and we went to a few open houses and booked a couple of appointments when my b&s were still here. We ended up finding a house we really liked and decided to go see it again and we still liked it.
We put a bid in and on my birthday the agreement was signed, so it looks like Alan and I will soon be home owners provided the house inspection would not announce something terrible!! We are so excited I can’t get over how excited I am about this house J
So Thursday morning we had the house inspection done, both of us went on the 2.5hr tour of the house, looked at it top to bottom got a thick binder of information and since nothing major was found he gave us his approval, and we also have an ok from the bank. So most papers have been signed and if everything stays on track we will get the keys on September the 18th. I will be posting pictures online and if you want to know more please feel free to email me!!
Tomorrow will be my last day working for my summer job, and Thursday my old job starts. It is a long story I will not repeat right now because I have too much other stuff to tell, but I am sure I will go on a rant sometime or another about this. I am a little sad I don’t get a break in between, but at the same time, more money to put in the bank for the house and school.
As you may have guessed no word yet on PR, so I am pretty much assuming I won’t get that until well into the school term. I am still hoping to hear from them before the 31st September which is the cut off date to drop courses. We will see what happens and I will keep you posted for sure.
Past Thursday night Alan and I picked my cousin Y up from the bus terminal. She is going to be studying in Montreal for the fall semester. This weekend we took her shopping for some household stuff, got her a cell phone (long story… ) and played miniput. She went back to montreal on Sunday afternoon to get settled in res and prepare for her orientation day. She made it safe and has everything pretty well set up now.
It feels very unreal that fall is setting in already. So many fun and exciting things have happened. I am hoping to see my friends R&M who came back from their trip to Australia but are soon heading out to go to school elsewhere. Ok well this is the first update I am sure things will pop in mind and as time goes buy, but I don’t want to write a complete novel. Besides it is time to go watch my man play soccer. Have a good one!

short little update!

My brother and sister made it here in one piece and are getting over they're jet-lag quiet nicely. They're staying for 2 weeks, and I think it will be lots of fun.
Yesterday was their first full day here. We did tons of stuff: eggs and bacon breakfast, explored supermarket, did groceries which is very exciting if you've never been before! We made a picknick lunch, went to the river and had a picknick, played frisbee, went back home, drove to Gatineau Park and did some hicking. It was a lovely day and we had a great time. Today will be another busy day and started of with a (blueberry) pancake breakfast. I will keep you all posted but I have to go now!
Bye bye :)

So Excited, So Excited, So Excited!!!!!

Ok I am going to have to save the best news for last. Good morning everyone, how are you doing today. I have tons of neat stuff to tell you so here goes:
First of all, I picked up my bathing suit last week I think it was, and I love it. It is really nice. It doesnt magically make me look skinny, but despite that I still think it is great! I will have to do a little bit more excersise maybe. It turned out nicer even then I had thought it would and I highly recommend goin to this place. It was a only $55, which I thought was an amazing deal! The place is called Forbie Active Wear.
I have the day off today because not enough first years signed up for the day. It's unpayed, but I will take it! I have lots of stuff to do around the house and you will soon find out why.
Next very exciting thing: Alan and I are slowly shopping around for a house. We've been driving around neighbourhoods trying to decide were we would like to live, what type of house we would like etc. So that is my new hobby. I browse the MLS site almost on a daily bases. We have a few viewings booked and we're exploring. We're not in a rush so we'll take our time until we find 'The house'. I will keep you posted on that as time progresses. We have seen two open houses on the weekend, one was a complete dump, so that's not going to be it. The other one was pretty nice, but I wasn't convinced just yet, so we'll keep looking.
Yesterday morning the phone rings at 7:00am... It's my brother Jeroen. He told me he was bored and wanted to do some traveling around. So I'm thinking, well that's nice... why do you call me to tell me that at this time in the morning.. Him and his wife are planning to come and visit us here in Canada. Which is totally awesome! Then the next part.. he is coming this saturday.. That's right in 2 days my little big brother and wifie will be here! That is just crazy talk, I am *so* excited! So my day off will be spent cleaning our apartment from head to toe, doing groceries etc. It doesnt feel very real at all because it is so sudden. But it is a great way to end the summer. An early B-day present to me :) ok well, I'd better let Alan do some work.
Talk to you later!

Mental Health Break

My days at work are never slow. I am always trying to catch up on email or phone calls. This morning I came into the office to a full voicemail, 37 calls. That’s what you get for not listening to voicemail for 1 day. And I am in my office most of the day, so you would think I would be able to answer most of the phone calls. Oh well, I am not complaining it makes my days go nice and fast for sure! Although today I need a mental health break, so I decided to write a little bit in my Blog. I haven’t told you to much about Toronto. One of the highlights for me was to discover they have an H&M in Toronto. This is an awesome clothing store where you can by really cool looking clothes for not a lot of money. We ran to the shopping centre after our orientation session and before our last dinner as we really didn’t have that much time and I ended up getting 3 new tank tops and a skirt for just over $50,- including taxes. I was pretty impressed by it, and it really makes me want to go shopping! Good thing I am going to be picking up my bathing suit today. Unfortunately the weather isn’t really bathing suit weather, ‘cause I really want to try it out!
I should get back to work I suppose talk to you later!

Up, up and away.....?

Tomorrow Alan and I are supposed to go on our balloon flight.. Of course you say, they are expecting rain... :S I am thinking it may get cancelled again, but I am hoping against all hope that our flight will happen, this is only the 8th time we scheduled the flight, but who's counting, right?
So I am back from Taranna. I had a pretty good time. We had free accomodations in a nice hotel, free meals that were Tasty and we had a good party in a few of the hotel rooms. Some of the guys had brought their guitars and so they were playing and singing, while people were drinking and talking. It was really nice and it made me want to play my guitar again. I therefore searched the internet for free guitar lessons and as often happens when I search about.com helped me out. I often find neat knitting patterns on there, and now it is teaching me how to play the guitar. I have decided to for once in my life take it slow and I started at lesson 1. My fingers still get pretty sore if I play long, but that's ok I am really enjoying myself. I now know the 3 basic cords, G, C and D major. Not quiet ready for songs yet though, but I am going to keep practising.
My brothers wedding photos and their album *finally* made it to Holland. It took a month before it got there and I am not impressed, but it doesnt seem to matter anymore now that the album is there :) We bought the album on Corfu so it would have been a little bit difficult to replace but luckily we wont need to. I am really happy about it!
Tomorrow I am going to meet up with a friend of mine to see if we can sign up for some tennis lessons somewhere. Ultimate frisbee is done now, we played the tournament and won the league undefeated. I actually got hit in the nose by the frisbee during the last game, and it almost knocked me out. I now know what people mean when they say they saw stars! No permanent damage, just a sore nose for a couple of days. It didnt swell up to bad noar did it bleed all over the place, so I feel rather lucky. I also have not been able to play soccer since I have been working saturdays and so I feel slugish and would like to do some fun summer activities. She suggested tennis, and so I will keep you updated on how that goes.

T dot here we come

Good morning everyone. Here a short little update.
My three day weekend turned into a 5 day weekend when I decided to get sick. I was sick for a couple of days, upset stomach etc, but I am feeling much better today. Last night Alan and I went to Kanata to do some laundry have dinner and meet up with an aunt uncle and cousin whom were visiting his parents. It was really nice talking to them. Mrs and I had a late night swim in the pool. I love it when the water is warmer than the Temp. outside, you can here the crickits and it smells so nice outside. Almost like camping. My old bathing suit is falling apart thoguh, so I can't wait for my new one.. next tueday!
Today I am going to Toronto for work. We are going to do an information session in the Toronto Metro Congress Centre or something like that. At least, my summer orientation team is. I wont really have anything to do but check people in and stand around. yay getting payed for doing nothing. The hotel is free, food is payed for and my days are payed for, so it isn't so bad. I think it should be fun, I am sure I will tell you all about it after I get back, well maybe the next day as we probably ownt get to Ottawa until 12:00 saturday night.
Bye for now!

The Fan is a wonderful invention

Good day to all!

It is a hot one today, and it has been all weekend. It was over 30 C in our appartment, so today is a fan day. It is amazing what a huge difference a little bit of moving air makes.
I had another 3 day weekend this weekend. I really like these weekends because it makes me feel it is summer. Last year I felt I skipped the summer completely, but I dont think that will happen as much this year. I have monday off because in july we do orientation sessions on saturday. However, I wasnt working this saturday because we had a family reunion to go to for Alan's dad's mom's relatives. It was out in a little place called Sterling, ON towards Belleville The landscape out there is lovely! The reunion was at the house of one of Mr's cousin's. She has a lovely home in the middle of a golf course, with a very nice garden. Appearantly she designs gardens for other people as well. I am not surprised, her garden looks very professional, and it also looks like a lot of work. I like low metanace gardens myself, but this one looked very beautiful. About 45 people came to the reunion, including Alan's aunt from BC. It was very nice to catch up with and meet some of the relatives I hadn't met yet. Everyone had brought food, so there was an amazing selection of food. Lots of delicious salads, bread, fruit and deserts.
Alan and I ended up camping out in their backyard as we were to cheap to go into a hotel or B&B. It was nice to use our tent. I really love it! We did decide though that we should by another ThermaRest matras, because once you've slept on it there's no turning back.
Today was a semi productive day today. I went to a store that custome makes bathing suits. I really needed a new one piece, and so Alan decided to give me an early B-day present so I can use it still for the rest of the summer. I decided to go with a bright light blue bathing suit with flowers. I quiet liked the little piece of fabric I picked, so I am hoping I will love the suit when it is a lot more fabric just as much. The lady that works in the store is really nice and seems to be very good at her job. She measured me all up and so the suit should fit like a glove. I can go and try it on/pick it up next tuesday. I am excited!
Other than that, I did some tidying did groceries and made supper. I am contemplating going to the mall to buy some clothes and other stuff I really need. I have been postponing this trip for weeks but today is pretty much the hottest day of the summer so far aaannddd i really don't want to go aanndddd. I really don't have a very good reason not to go aside from I just dont feel like it. I just feel there are better ways I can spend my time... like lazying around on the couch or surfing the internet.
Alan and I are invited to go to an informal BBQ at the house of the president of our university. It's a thank you for working on the Summer Orientation project. We'll probably go as it is kind of cool. Appearantly you can swim and there will be lots of food. Should be interesting!
My cousin has now booked her flight to come to Canada, so she will arrive shortly after my B-day and she is going to stay with us for a few days. Should be fun!
I dont really have to much more to tell you at this point in time. Therefore it is time to sign off. Read you later!

Can you say neglect!

As my good friend Batman pointed out to me it has been way to long since I wrote in my Blog. being at work behind the computer all the time really makes me not want to type so much. That and I was wodnering whether the content of my blog is what I want it to be. It really isnt a intelectually stimulating blog, and I dont want to waste peoples time, but on the other hand it is useful for people overseas to get an idea of what I am up too on this side of the pond. Maybe I will write more of my thoughts and feelings, but it just might be to personal.. I havent decided.
Sooooo what's been happening in the last month?
First of all, I heard back from the government and I got my first stage of approval! Very exciting news. I have no idea what happens next, I have to wait until they *actually* start working on my file and proces all the forms they made me sign in, which could take quiet a few months appearantly (especially when they're all on vacation).
Alan and I went camping with our ultimate frisbee team, which was very nice. We went to murphie's point and had a good time. This time we brought way to much food. Somehow we will have to find a happy medium between starving and tossing food. I am sure the racoons didn't mind that part. There were tons of them all over the place, appearantly they get pretty persistant, luckily for us they left us mostly alone as we had our food in the car, they only took down the garbage bag and through a coleman stove of the table because there was some cheese left over from the cheeseburgers, other than that, no big deal. Anyway, it was a very relaxing fun weekend, and I wish we could have stayed out there a little longer.
The weatehr has been insane over here, it has been beautiful weather, interchanged with crazy winds and thunderstorms, hopefully that will stop soon.
I have had some tendonitis in my right arm, probably from ultimate, which has pretty much passed now. My arm just feels kind of bruised.
Our weeks have been nuts, they have been so busy. The last few weeks I have pretty much worked overtime every day to get the summer orientation organised, I think today has been one of the first days I have managed to escape earlyu, as an added bonus I managed to miss the rain by a minute or so and made it home pretty much dry!
Past weekend was Canada day, which I spent ina pretty layed back fashion. I saw the changing of the guard and the ceremonial ride in the morning, with my friend J as she had never seen it before. We had some ice-cream, had some lunch, and spent a good chunk of the afternoon downtown. We also went to the Museum of Contemporary Photography which was pretty neat. It is a small museum, and half of the collection I wasnt sure what to think of, but it was still a pleasant and intruiging experience. After we came home I had a 2 hour nap and it was awesome! We then went to a friends place to hang out for the evening, went to Tunney's to look at the Fireworks and went to bed relatively early, which was very nice as well. The next day we visited grandpa, and went to visit Alan's parents where we did some laundry. we slept over that night and the next morning Mrs and I went to pick some strawberries. it was *so* much fun. It was perfect weather and the strawberries were damp from the rain yet warm from the sun, pretty much perfect for taste testing ;) I froze some of the berries and made a pie which is also in the freezer for later this summer. mmmmm Strawberries are awesome!
My cousin has been officially accepted to UQAM to study french, she is going to be there for the fall semester, so I am very excited to have family a little closer for a short little while. I am definetly going to visit her, and plans are being made for her to come stay at our place, which is also super exciting!
As a perk of the job my co-workers and I got asked to 'test' the registration system to make sure there weren't any major flaws. This means That I got to sign up 3 weeks earlier than most people in my program, pretty snazy. I have signed up for 5 courses in both fall and winter in the hope my PR will come through before school start. I am thinking about this permanent residence/full-time school thing way to often and I am getting my hopes up to much too. I would never have guessed that I could have looked forward to full-time education as much as I do.. weird, but kind of cool. I guess i have hit the 'I am interested in what I am learning stage' of my life or something.. Does that mean I am getting old?!?
On the school note, I am very excited because for the first timein my life I have earn a scholarship for my marks. I am really kind of proud of it, so I wanted to share with y'all.
I know there is way more information, but I can't think of it right now, so this will have to do for now. So hang in there folks, one of these days I will post again..

Wonderful Weekend

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I wrote and I must admit I completely forgot about my wine weeks.. So I better get to it again.
I had the best weekend I have had in ages. First of all, the week went by really quickly. My weekend started of with a game of soccer. It was pretty cold, and we played two men down because so many people were away. We totally got creamed, but we played a very fun team and we did the best we could. It was a really good fun game and I managed to save our team from yet another goal. Woohoo me! in the afternoon Alan and I did some shopping. We had some birthday/housewarming gifts to buy. I ended up buying a new pair of pants and a new shirt. very exciting! I also got a new coat but that's another story which I will tell you some other time. After the afternoon of running around I changed into my new clothes and Alan took me out for dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant. After dinner I went to a B-day party for one of my school friends, she turned 20 this weekend. I only went for a bit because friends from our ultimate frisbee team had a housewarming party. We didnt get home until 3:00am and we had a great time. The next morning we got up early because my team was playing in the world cup. Alan's little brother invited us to come and watch the game at his house and we did. We won 1-0! I was very excited, although the game was kinda boring and we could have won a lot better. But oh well, the first one is in the bag, on the the next one on friday! I will be working that day though so hopefully I can find a way to still watch the game.
The rest of sunday Alan and I drove around a lot in the van that Mr and Mrs lent us. I have registered for my G2 entry test for this friday (aarrggg) and so I needed to do a bit of practising before I actually do my test. We also bought a tent on sunday so we can finally go camping. I am so excited about it and can't wait to go. We drove the van back to Alans parents and pitched the tent in their basement. It looks really nice, is good quality and is really easy to set up. Camping here we come!
Another exciting fact is that I checked my PR status and it says that a letter has been sent to me. So I am now waiting for the mailman to bring us my letter. It's a matter of days now. Scary and exciting. I have no idea what it will say, so I just have to wait and see, but I am very bad at being patient. I think this is most of the important news. As soon as I hear more I will let you know!

Cat fight!

Good morning everyone,

Since the last three days we have a neighbourhood cat playing in our herb garden. At least we think it is a cat, we haven't actually seen the animal, but all signs point to one. I love cats, and I love our herbs, so I am trying to discourage this animal in any way I can to attempt another dig in our garden. I started off with tea leaves, as I had read on the internet that cats dont enjoy the smell of them. The cat didnt show up that night, but then it rained a lot. The next day it came back and dug again (always the same corner) So, either the tea got washed away or it never worked in the first place. Now I covered the dirt with margarine tub lids, perhaps if there isnt any dirt right there and available it will look for a different spot. I also have been told peppercorns, and orange peels are not very tempting to cats, so we will see. Hopefully once the herbs grow a little bit bigger the cat will stay away...
Work is still good. I am pretty tired at the end of the day though, running back and forth between training and my office and learning stuff and talking all day is pretty exhausting. That and I'm physically more active than I have been in a while. I attempted to run my training schedule again last night, but I wasnt in the right mind set so it didnt go to well.. that and I started at week 2 instead of 1. I think I will have to start at the beginning for a change with this one. I went along the river and it is *so* beautiful out there. Every time I go there i think to my self, why don't I go here more often, it's great out there! So that's my plan, I am going to go there lots more this summer and actually use the bike paths and stuff like that!
Oh back to work, yesterday one of the girls was celebrating her birthday and so a dairy queen cake was present! Mmmm, very tasty! Other than that I went to the library and got three books. I am not sure if they are any good as I am still exploring english writers. I will let you know.
Well it is 8:30, time to start work I suppose. Hope you all will have a nice day, and write you later.

Mystery Plants!

Last night Alan and I came home from soccer, and low and behold, what is on our step aside from the plants we already have? To pots with more herbs, some dropped off oregano, peppermint(?) and a different type of basil. How cool is that? We know it's not his parents, and we have a couple more suspects, but at this point we have no idea for sure who it was. If it is one of you guys, Thank You!!

Summer is here!

Past week has gone by very fast and lots of stuff has happened.
Of course I have my new job, which is turning out pretty good. Everyone is very nice and crazy. They're still really enthousiastic about everything but that's ok, it make's work a happy environment. I have learned more useful stuff during this week than I did during the entire semester at my old job, and I am liking it. Everything is set up and ready to go as of yesterday. I had to record a voicemail message which, if you know me is something that is very difficult for me to do. it took me a few tries... hahah... Yesterday the 18 tour guides started, so that means training is starting too. I will have to be there for some of it, but I also have to keep up with my regular job. I have been pretty busy, days fly by.
I have started biking to work, and to my surprise it is a much shorter bike ride than I thought. If I get my bking legs back it should take me less time to bike than it would to take the train which is handy! That and I amreally emjoying the fresh air. It is wonderful.
Last week we were envited by my neighbours for a little toss around with the frisbee on wednesday, turns out she meant playing an actual game, so as of last week Alan and I are part of an ultimate frisbee team which consist of 95% Newfies. It is a lot of fun! Saturday was our first soccer game of the season and we have an awesome team going. Not that we're spectacularly good, a lot of our soccer friends + girlfriends are playing in it. It is going to be a great summer!
I love gardening, so this year we decided I should make my little pot garden on the front step again. I bought a big planter and a bag of soil at the local little Hardware store, carried it home and made a little 'herb garden'. We have rosemary, mint, basil and cilantro growing. I went back to the market bought some flowers and put them on our step and I think it looks very nice. This is a picture of what it looked like on the first day. I will keep you updated, the basil has already almost doubled in size! better start making spaghetti sauce eh?!

Hello first day

I am sitting at my desk right now, with only 15 minutes left of my day. It was a very strange day. We started off playing games. That's right, some sort of dance memory game, and pictionary so I could get to know the group. Oh well, if I get payed to play games, so be it.... other than that I have been setting up my accounts, emailing few students and mostly reading carleton's website.. or at least that's what I'm supposed to do.. but it is sooo boring. Maybe it's my jet-lag talking I dont know. But I can't concentrate and am not really interested. I will be once people start calling me and I have to provide the answers. Most of that stuff I'll have learn during training in between the *other* games we'll be doign then. These people seem pretty tightly knit, they even have lunch together and... You guessed it.. play games!
Everyone seems friendly and helpful enough, especialy my supervisor seems nice. Anyway Iam heading home. talk to you later

Yay for long weekends!

It was such a nice discovery last night that we still didnt have to go to work today. yay for long weekends. Both Alan and I have a hard time this time getting over our jetlags. I get tired at 7:00pm, where as he just doesnt sleep properly and is always hungry etc.
They say a day for each hour, but I barely feel any better than I did when I first got here. I guess the net couple of days I should make a lot of progress... We will see.
Saturday night we went over to K&J's for a make your own pizza potluck as a good bye for our friend M whom is going on a trip to Australia to see her sister get married. yay siblings who decide to get married in warm foreign places! She and R will be gone for a little bit longer than we were so I am hoping for lots of cool travelling stories. We had a really nice evening, however I'm affraid I didnt contribute to much that night as I was constantly nodding off, silly jet-lag. It was nice to listen to everyone, and we looked at pictures of our trip as well as of K and J's new very nice looking model house and freshly purchased dirt pile soon to be house. Very cool stuff.
Sunday we went to see grampa's new digs. It is a relatively new building, with lots of light. He has a nice room at the back of the building and the staff seem very nice. He was better than when we left him. He moved his left leg much better than before plus I think I saw a little movement in his hand. So that was really nice to see. keep up the good work.
Alan's mom and dad gave us this really cool book on greek culinairy culture. It has lots of recipies and interesting info in it and I cant wait to read it.

Wine Weeks

Like I said before, the next comming weeks I am teaching myself about wine. So far I havent done much research. I landed on a website that was to basic for my purposes. I did learn a few interesting facts I did not know before:
- White wine can be made from red grapes! If only the inside of the grape is used for the juice some red grapes can produce white wine. When the skin is used as well, tannin is released, which colours the wine red and also gives it 'its strong woody flavour'. This substance is also found in tea and makes it bitter when it has steeped to long.
- Determination of the quality of the wine by looking at its 'legs' is an old wives tale. Legs are formed by alcohol evaporating out of the wine more quickly than water, causing the water to bead together on the rim of your glas and bead down once it gets to heavy. Therefore under different conditions a wine may or may not have legs.

Greek Night

Last night I decided I wanted to make a greek dish we enjoyed during our trip to Corfu. I was inspired to this by the oil and vinegar set we got from my parents, which in turn was inspired by the oil and vinegar sets on the table of each restaurant we went too on the island. In Greece or I should say Corfu, when people order salad (which is not called greek salad but Horiatiki), they flavour their salad by adding their own salt/pepper oil and/or vinegar. The restaurant will have added herbs and spices of their own of course to add flavour. I thouroughly enjoyed the salads and so we ended up with a wonderful oil and vinegar set before we went back to Canada. At home we were almost out of olive oil and we didnt have the right type of vinegar, so since I had to go to the grocery store anyway I decided I might as well do some more groceries. I found a nice recipe for Stifado, a beef stew in a very nice red wine sauce. So of I went to bulk barn to get some spices, to loblaws to get the other groceries and some fresh rosemary (which to my disappointment they did not have) and back home. Then I went to the LCBO to get some red wine. I know nothing of wine. At all.. So I randomly picked a red Italian wine, which was on sale and had a nice looking label like every pro wine buyer does. On the way home I walked past the market which to my excitement has re-opened again! They were selling little herb plants, 3 for $5 and I could not resist, I am now the proud owner of fresh Italian Large Leaf Basil, Cilantro and Rosemary. I have not planted them yet, as my pots are in the scary shed underneath a whole bunch of stuff on a shelf, so I will have to get them later at some point. I hope I wont kill these plants with to much attention. I sound way to much like a suzy home maker, cooking dinner buying herbs.. geezz.. oh well. Speaking of dinner. I made horiatiki, which turned out really nice, I had bought new good quality olive oil, red wine vinegar, to which I added a sprig of fresh rosemary.. sorry rosy.. and got some ok feta cheese. I also got black olives which I totally forgot to add to the salad.. waahwaaahhmm. The stifado had great potential to be an amazing dish but the red wine in it wasnt quiet what it should be. It was to strong/overpowering or there was to much in it, so that was to bad, it still tasted good but it could have been so much better. Next time it will be super! Alan made risotto which was rather tasty, so all in all we had a wonderful meal. Than we watched the finally of the amazing race, which was downloaded from the internet. I was pleased to see the frat boys got beaten in the end by the hippies. My evening was complete!
I am thinking maybe my first two week theme should be wine.. although I would like to learn more about blogging, changing stuff, adding headers etc etc... but that will perhaps just show up as we go along.. ok it is official. I am going to teach myself more about wine!
oh, when I get a chance I will post a picture of last nights dinner.

Starting on a new page. Happy May everyone!

Hello folks,

I'm baaaacckkk. I figured a white page would be rather symbolic, you know fresh start kind of thing. It also indicates that I am not sure where I would like to take this blog, what I want to do with it and so on. I am thinking themes right now, every two weeks/month will have a theme of something I would like to learn more about, or randomly drew my interest. That way I can spill some little details, you can learn something new as well as I plus it might keep my writing more.. I dont know.. just a thought...
Life changes so quickly in only a few months, it is absolutely incredible. Anyone who says life is boring really should open his eyes and look around, because it really is not.
I am thinking of how I can make a short summary of things that have happened in the last little while.. I'll make an attempt but I am affraid the las couple of weeks of my life made a big impression on me so I might have forgotten most of what happened before. Here goes:
- school ended, which means no more crazy psycho prof for genetics!
- past both my courses which means I am only .5 credits away from 3rd year!
- I am still waiting for my permanent residency, according to the website they're on sep 26th, only a few more weeks of waiting until the firs notice
- my cousin Y is going to live in Montrealduring the fall semester as she wants to learn french
-Alan's contract got extended for a few more months
- my friend M got accepted to 2! masters programs which means a) she is moving :( b) Roadtrips and S&B on location! Great job and good luck M we'll miss you, but we'll keep in touch for sure!
- my friends K&J bought their first house, which is super awesome and exciting!
- I got a summer job NOT in groundskeeping! I will be administrative ass. for a project which tries to convince first years to come to our university. Everyone is ultra excited cheerleader style, which can mean one of two things: a) I will be very hyper and positive by the end of the summer b) "... shoot me now" by the end of the summer. Maybe there is a c).. I will let you know
- Poppa broke his hip, had surgery and was walking again within two/three weeks
- Grampa is still working on his recovery and has now been moved from the hospital to a place they can give him more appropriate care
- my friend P had a wonderful little girl named Stella
- Alan and I went home to visit my family
- during that visit we went on a family vacation to Corfu, Greece because:
- My Brother got married to a wonderful girl whom I love as a sister
- and I got to be the bridesmaid!
- I ate amazing food which I will want to try reproduce because it was so incredibly tasty!
- Irene found three abandoned ducklings that were *so* cute, and my brother therefore is now razing three little ducks until they can go to a shelter or back to nature.

I could tell you hours and hours worth of stories about greece and home, but they will have to wait. I am eating a fruit salad this morning for breakfast. Due to the time change I woke up at an ungodly early hour and made myself a wonderful salad from the fruits Alan's mom and dad left for us in our appartement for our return home, which was a great surprise! It contains apple, banana, a mandarine orange and multiple strawberries. Point of this rambling, my apple and banana are getting brown because I have been typing to much so I would like to eat my salad. My feet are also cold so I am going to put socks on. The End.

Happy March everyone :)

No work to do and no boss around. Seems like it would be ok to take a couple of minutes and write some stuff in my awefully neglected little blog.
How is everyone doing? I hope well.
I had reading week and it went by pretty quickly. Not to much of anything got done, but I guess that's what happens. I did go skating a bunch of times which was really quiet nice. I also met up with a friend of mine whom I hadnt seen in weeks, pretty much finished my parents blanket, and finished up some charity knitting.
My co-worker who had her baby just stopped by at the office to for a surprise visit to show her off. She is stil pretty cute. She grew a bit since I saw her last, but she is stil pretty small being only 3 weeks old I suppose that's normal. :p
I am still on my quest to find something bridesmaid like to wear. So far the 'wearing the same thing' isnt working out to well due to a lack of overlapping stores/ugly fashion thing.. by ugly I suppose I mean not suitable for a wedding. I think we might have to just dress differently and be ok with that, allthough Alan thought we might be able to have our dresses made somewhere. you know, find a pattern and both use the same pattern to get the dress made. Which might work. It's worth looking into anyway.
Ok I am going to do something that might jinx my whole plan, but oh well. See I am really in the mood to get back into shape, so I am trying to go to the gym fairly regularly. That and probably seeing amazing athletes at the olympics make me want to be a little more athletic. So I am trying. I am a little bit impatient though and I usually want to see result yesterday, so I dont know how long I'll be able to keep this up. Hopefully better than this blog, as we *all* know how well I have been doing with it. I really do enjoy writing in it though. It is a nice way to get somethoughts organized. I also want to spend more time with and on me. Maybe find a new and exciting hobby, learn cool stuff. Go shopping for stuff a little more, go out a little more. Big plans. Fun plans. I cant wait to get started :) I find I already feel a little more relaxed about stuff. This could work! ;) Anyway, I suppose I should get back to work. Oh.. I had my genetics midterm yesterday. Could have gone worse, wasnt great though. A bunch of random questions, but I am pretty sure I passed. I will have lots of time before the final to study, so I will probably be able to bring up my mark then anyway. That and tomorrow I have my organic chem. I also have bunch(read as LOTS) of stuff to do for this weekend. We will see. I might go and watch girlymovies on friday with my friends..
speaking of random... It is time for me to leave.
Adieu

Cold

It's getting colder finally.Don't get me wrong I am not waiting for it to get cold, I quiet like he mild weather, but it just didnt really feel right. Yesterday was not a good driving day. Tons and tons of accidents which is not good, lots of wind, combined with snow and ice= bad.
I didnt notice it to much as I was home... *again* this time because I have a cold. I dont know what the matter is, but this year is not starting of great in the health departement. I think that means I won't get sick the rest of the year, and the whole of next year right?!? Grrr... No fun. So Iam back on the couch again.. drinking lots and sneezing lots. Well, I am much better today than I was yesterday.
I really want to go skating. I haven't been all year. Some time this weekend we're going to get our skates sharpened at least, so if we want to go we can.. And we are thinking of going shopping. we still have a few gift certificates we would like to redeem from christmas. So it looks like today might be the day we'll do that.
My job interview for the children's science and tech summer camp last week didnt go so well. I didnt end up making it through to the next round, it is kind of a long story, which I wont bore you with. Looking back I am happy I didnt get that job. I still like the principal behind the camp, but the people that run it didnt make a great impression on me and the group interview really wasnt my thing. So, on to the next job application!
This week is reading week so I am hoping to catch up on alot of sleep, homework and working out and eating healthy and gettingtogether with friends and doing fun things like skating and and and and... to much to do so little time. But I started of with pretty much finishing my blanket/bedspread. Wooohhooo Finally! it only took me approx 1.5-2.0 years ;) But aside from weaving in the ends I am finshed. That means picture taking time.. and new big project needed time as well ;)
ttyl

You know it's bad when...

You know it's bad when you forget the password to get into your blog in the first place...
On special request of many... and just because I want to I felt it was time to start writing in my blog again. I missed it.. but I suppose not enough to write in it.. I dont know, I blame my background, and I am planning on changing it, because I'm just not really feeling it..
So an enormous amount of things have happened since I last wrote. And I cant really catch up to it all.
Highlights of this period:
- My big brother visiting us for christmas; It was absolutley amasing having him over here and I can not wait to hae him back. We had a great time, shared with wonderful friends and family
- Passing my courses
- A very nice celebration of new years at M's cottage
- getting my wisdom teeth removed! and other minor medical things that are all fixed now

So now we're sort of back up to speed. I am taking two courses this semester. One I am disapointed in, Genetics, because my professor is not very well suited for her job at all. In pretty much every possible way. Which is really to bad because I was very much looking forward to it. My other class is the 2nd part of organic chemistry. The labs are pretty fun, in fact I just came back from one today, however the classes more or less boring, allthough I must say that the nerd in me gets intriguide from time to time by the reactions that take place. I have gotten used to the sarcastic prof we have for that class and come to love him. I guess I kinda sort of like that class after all.. geez I must be pretty crazy..
On a much brighter note, my friend P finally had her little baby. It is a girl, 7lbs 3oz and she was born this past monday. I went to see her on tuesday and I got to hold her. She was very very cute. Everyone was so happy.
On that note, time for a Sylvia story, because I just attracked things like this. Ok, so I am trying to make my way up to P's room I am waiting for the elevator along with a few other people, amongst which 2 patience, one with a broken leg, the other an older gentleman with breathing problems. The elevator finally shows up and a group of people comes dashing out, to make room for the older patient I slip in behind the group coming out and while I am turning around to face the people outside, the doors of the elevator start to close. I am looking for the open doors button, but it wasnt in it's usual spot, and so this guy gives me the evil eye and as the elevator starts taking off I hear the ladies say something like: OMG Can you believe that...
Anyway, I hid in P's room for a while to make sure the pose wouldnt find me :D I had never seen such a brand new baby before, which was pretty cool!
Sunday I have a job interview for a science and tech summer camp. I am pretty excited for the job, but training weeks are in the first weeks of may, which is when I am not in the country as I am going to my brothers wedding in Greece. Oh, I get to be a bridesmaid. I am *very* excited and hope to start looking for a dress soon.
Anyway, sunday will be a group interview, I have no idea what to expect, but I suppose I might as well go for the experience and maybe have a good time. There havent been to many summerjob postings as of yet. but I am not yet worried..
Well, that's it for now
over and out