Cool Brick Phone... literally...

My cell phone had been missing for a few days now. I remembered having it in the car on Monday evening after work, and after that nothing. I looked everywhere for it. In the house, in the car, in the garage and had started to think maybe our little fuz ball had decided to play with it and had hid it somewhere like she had done with my car keys a few weeks ago. Than, this morning, as I left the house to go to work, I noticed a funny shaped little snow draft on the side of the snow bank in our front yard, as I bent over to look more closely, I noticed a little apple green triangle showing… my heart sank a little bit… I had just found my cell phone. It must ahve fallen out ogf my pocket walking home from the car and it had been stuck in the snow bank for almost 3 days. The phone was almost completely encased in snow and ice. I ran back inside and upstairs to show Alan I had found my cell phone. It is currently sitting in the dish rack in the sink of the kitchen in hopes it will dry. I have removed the battery, and I have received some good suggestions from friends. I have not turned it on yet, so I do not know if it will work. Maybe I will have to ask Santa for a new phone….
Hmm, I just noticed this is the first year I have blogged at least once every month since I started doing this. Hurray for me!

Step 2 complete

Lots of excitement going on. I finally received a letter from the CIC saying they have received my application. According to the website it will take approximately 7 more months to complete the process. According to the letter it could take over a year. Who knows?!? Either way, they have received it and it made it through the first stage of screening. Hurray!
A and I had a really good time in Vancouver. Weather was as expected, fairly rainy, but it didn’t matter we had a good time. Some of the highlights include, going to a Canuck’s game, visiting with family, going to a craft fare where I got very inspired to do all sorts of crafts, visiting Granville Island, going to the aquarium which I really enjoyed, and eating all sorts of interesting and good food. We didn’t make it to the mountains as the weather wasn’t co-operating. I didn’t realise how many mountains were around until the very last day we were leaving. It was sunny and nice and the view was beautiful. It was great for our flight, as we got to see the Rockies from the plane. Hopefully next time we will be able to see more of them up close and personal.
We got snow tires put on the car while we were away, which came in handy as this week it started to snow. Tomorrow we might actually get 15cm, which I am really looking forward to. I am very pleased with the performance of the tires so far, and am looking forward to testing them out in really snowy conditions to see how much of a difference they will be making.
This weekend was busy with all sorts of baking. First, at mom and dads for the 2nd annual cookie bake and exchange. Mom, J and I each made three batches of 2 different kinds of cookies, which we then exchanged at the end of the night. I had a really good time baking. The next day I baked more cookies, this time for Ks 5th cookie exchange. I really enjoyed that. It was a smaller group of girls, which was really nice, and everyone did a good job on their cookies. The Boys and Babies spent time in the Basement, while we talked about a whole of things, while eating cookies.
A and I also picked up our Christmas tree, but we haven’t had time yet to decorate, hopefully we can do that tomorrow. That and start our shopping. I would like to get a lot of the shopping done around the weekend as I do not want to be shopping last minute again like I have been doing in previous years.
Work is pretty blah today, not for the usual reasons, I am hoping that will change soon.
Only two more French classes to go…

I finished my hat last night. I am happy with it, I think it turned out well, and it feels very warm despite of the open weave pattern. Very unlike me I picked a pinkish red sort of towards raspberry. I wanted a burst of colour since most of my clothes are dark. I am still in the obsessed stage of my project. I sort of go on binges where I cant get enough of something and then I am all of the sudden bored, I basically OD on my project and then I put it away for months until the next wave hits. Knitting seems to come back regularly though. I find it very relaxing to be creative. I wish I could knit tonight, instead I have French class. Not really looking forward to that but, I better practise in case I passed my interview and they would like me to do French testing. In fact I should probably do some studying on the weekend as well. I have anew teacher now. He seems much better than the other teacher even though he was nice. Last week they actually called around to get people to show up to class. I wonder if there will be more folks there tonight because of it...

Trip trip Trip!!

At the end of the month A and I are going to Vancouver! I am so excited; I have never been and have been curious to see it ever since I came to this country. I can not wait! A has a meeting for work, which is why he is going in the first place, and we decided it would be a perfect opportunity for me to tag along. We are leaving the last Thursday of the month and return in December. I am looking forward to sightseeing and family visiting as A has an aunt and uncle that live out there. I started browsing the Vancouver tourism website for some ideas of things I might like to see, and most of it sounds pretty interesting to me. I love that we can do this kind of stuff now. I love being a dink sometimes.

I found it difficult to prepare for my interview on Friday. Starting with the fact that I had to find two work references and brag about myself on two question sheets which the references than needed to be able to confirm. I found it difficult to decide who to choose for my references, and I found it difficult to answer the questions. I don’t think about my job, I just do it. Anyhow, eventually I felt somewhat prepared, I studied for the interview, references and other materials got finished and printed and fridayafternoon approached.
I met mom for Vietnamese food before hand as my interview was in the area. It was nice to see a familiar face right before the big event, but I may not have been very talkative as I was pretty nervous. The interview went well I think, it is difficult to tell as they don’t really tell you how you did either way, but I think there was a good atmosphere in the room and I think I answered most questions well. I am curious to see how long this stage will take to complete. Either way, it is out of my hands right now. Another experience under my belt. Hopefully things went as well as I am hoping and this will result into getting into the pool. Than the really tricky part of finding a job starts. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming… haha.

We celebrated by eating out again, chinese food this time, and making a big Banana Split, delicious! Food, how I love you.

The rest of the weekend was relaxing and spent mostly around the house. I did some shopping on Saturday, bought winter tires for our car, a new work top and some groceries. I made some food and apple crisp, and decided I wanted to do some crafts. I used to get together with the girls every week to do crafts, mostly knitting, and I have really been missing this. I therefore decided to start a new project, so I picked up some yarn and am making another set of a hat, mits and scarf for my work coats. Maybe I will try to get another group going, because I also miss the social aspect of our weekly get togethers.

Terrific Twos!!

I was supposed to go out with my friend K on Friday, but decided to stay home and take care of this cold that just seems to be sticking around. I think it was the right decision we continue going through our picture, which again was a lot of fun. Saturday was a productive day. It started very early with a call to our adorable niece V who was celebrating her second, yes that is right she is already 2 years old!!!! Birthday. I was a little bit heart broken that I couldn’t be at her birthday, I am not going to lie. I may have shed a tear or two when I had to decline her invitation, but don’t tell anyone about that. A and I bought our niece some duplo as we remembered she enjoyed shapes and building things. V told us it was her birthday and that she was going to eat cake and get presents. Too cute, we are such very proud uncle and aunt. What a character. My brother J told us afterwards that she was spoiled rotten and had a wonderful time. We can’t wait for the pictures J
The rest of the day was spent doing some laundry, some ironing, some cleaning, went shopping with A which was partially successful. We did not find everything we had gone out for, but we did end up with some hypo-allergenic sheets which are supposed to keep dust mites away from me while I sleep. I hope they will work. I put them around the pillows but haven’t had time to put them around the mattress. I figure I really need to start taking charge in this allergy thing, doing nothing wont improve my quality of life, so sheets is a start. The rest of the day was spent going through the rest of our photos. We finally finished the selection process in the early evening after which we started getting ready for the birthday party. Our friends K and R have a birthday around the same time and so we went out for their dinner to a small fusion restaurant down town. The food was pretty tasty, the service left something to be desired. It took forever to serve us our food, but I think the restaurant was just not able to handle 16 people at once, and would be much better if it had been a smaller group. Interesting food, but I don’t think I would really go there again.
Since we had finished dinner so late A and I didn’t really feel like going out late afterwards, so we went home, party poopers as we are.
Sunday I did some reading for a job interview I have coming up on Friday. It is for the job pool I wrote an exam for ages ago they have finally invited people so please keep your fingers crossed I make it into the pool, that would be huge for me and another step closer to actually getting a permanent job.
We had our friend B over for dinner, and I got my hair cut for said interview. B had brought Beatles Rockband. It was fun to play and see, but I don’t think it is worth getting it. I didn’t know a lot of the songs on there, and missed a lot of the big hits that I do know. I think my mom would like it, so maybe I will rent it when they visit.
Time to get back to work.

Happy Sneezoween

I have had a bit of a rough week. I caught this terrible terrible cold and was off work for four days again, and then it was Halloween. I felt much better on Saturday than I had been feeling the days before. A and I decorated the house, more than we usually do and had people over for a party in the basement. We had a lot of fun. We had more trick or treaters than any year before, with a grand total of 22! A and I dressed up in last years costume as the king and queen of hearts. I made a fake dead body in the front room which worked out really well. There was lots of food and candy a couple of really cute babies and some really great costumes. I think J’s beaker was my favourite. Halloween 2009 was a big success
I am still coughing up a storm. I feel so gross and leaky, yuck, especially while being at work.
Work is a bit rough as well. I find it more and more difficult to get motivated to do it. I don’t like writing about it though, because it feels like all I do is complain without taking much action. So I will not write about it until I have actually undertaken some steps to change things around.
I would like to congratulate C and S with the birth of their adorable little girl. She looks great in the pictures and we cant wait to meet her.
Tonight we are having supper at mom and dads. Looking forward to it already. Back to work.

Few more days before halloween.

I am looking forward to Halloween this weekend. I have never thrown a halloween party before, so I am really looking forward to it. Since Halloween is on a saturday it is going to be the perfect time for a party. I hope everyone has found their costumes, A and I will recycle the costumes we used last year, well A used his, I didnt get to use mine as I was sick during the party we were invited to. SO mine will make its debut this weekend. There is still a lot to do before then, I havent started planning much yet, which seems to be stressing out the people around me, so I guess I should get started on that. Maybe I will go buy some decorations tomorrow at lunchtime. The weekend after that we have a couple of parties coming up. It is starting to look like a busy and fun time ahead.
Saturday I will be writing a couple more government exams, this time for the post-secondary recruitment program. I hope the applications will lead to something, even if it is just getting into pool, that way it will make my applications a little bit easier. Keeping my fingers crossed.
I am going to use project planning software to plan the tidying, cleaning, decorating and renovation of our home. I find I say way to often, oh I wish we would do this or that, but never actually get to anything as there is always something else coming up. It will help us with saving money towards specific projects and reaching the goals that will get us the cozy nice home we want to have. Making lists seems to help me reach my goals in other parts of my life, so why not this?
I had a pretty nice weekend. It started before the weekend did with a call from mama en my cute niece V before work on friday. She has started talking and told me about the spider that lives in my parents backyard. Best of all, she sang me a little nursery rhyme I used to sing as a child. It was adorable and made my day! Work was nice. One of the girls had organized an international food lunch for the united way. People were asked to volunteer to make dishes commenly made in their cultural background and tickets were sold for people to attend. I made my signature apple pie, which turned out to be a big hit. The rest of the food was very good as well, some of it was unusual to say the least, but good.
Sunday mom and I attended a babyshower for A. There were lots of games, and lots of food, and everyone had a good time. I came in second in one of the games and won a prize. A got spoil nicely and looked so happy. She looked really good :) Yay A and N, cant wait to meet your little one.

ps..

I just followed up on my citizenship application, as I had expected to hear from them by now. Turns out they are still opening applications received on the 1st of may and expect to take about a 1.5 before they get to mine still! I know I shouldn't be too surprised, but really, that seems a little bit crazy to me... anyway..

Appearantly a whole month came and went...

... and I am not too sure where it went. We did a lot of stuff this month, it was a good month. I dont remember a lot of what we did, I just know we were busy. It involved french classes, meeting more new babies and lots of other things.
The weekend before last was thanksgiving weekend. We had family dinner on friday night as this was the only night we could all make it to mom and dad's house. Mom's friend J was there as well. Dinner was tasty, conversations went well, it was a nice evening.
Saturday we went shopping with mom and dad for some stuff and sunday was our first anniversary. I can not believe we have been married for a year already, well over a year now.. It seems like yesterday we were getting things ready for the wedding, and now we are no longer officially newlyweds, even though I still feel newly wed most of the time. I feel so lucky to have found this man. Life is good :)
We celebrated our anniversary by spending the whole day together, doing things we like to do. We went for a nice walk at the arboretum, made a nice dinner, at a table beautifully set by A. While I was tidying up after dinner, A made a fire in the fireplace and lit some candles, then we sat down with a purring cat on our laps and went through pictures of our time together as we are getting a whole bunch of photos printed as a gift to each other. It was really nice to see all the fun we have already had together and to realise we are going to continue to share fun times and go on adventures together. It makes me happy just thinking about it.
Monday we spent another day with family this time in Hawkesbury with aunt E and her family. We spent a lot of it outside getting her garden ready for winter.
What else, this weekend we met up with our friends C and A and their little boy O who is getting so big! We had not seen them in over 6 months as C was in school for that time, so it was wonderful to see them again. They stayed at our house, much to Izzy's dismay as she really doesnt like babies. She is afraid of them, and it is actually really quite funny to see her. O who is now 10 months, was very interested in the kitty and wanted to go and visit with her, but Izzy kept her distance at all times. poor furrball.
Sunday we had S,L and R and J,K and J over for a belated thanksgiving dinner party. It was a lot of fun, it had been much to Long since we saw our friends, so it was good to catch up. Everyone brought something to add to the meal, including sushi, which I was so excited about as I love the stuff :) The turkey looked amazing, must have been the new roasting pan we used ;) It tasted pretty good as well.
I picked up a french book from the library and I started reading it before bed. I read it out loud and A is helping me with pronunciation and meaning of some of the words. I think it will really help me, especially in terms of vocabulary, although I am starting to understand a little more each day.
Work is work. I am not too impressed with some aspects of it, but I am glad I get to do more work on projects, makes it a little bit more interesting.

Another weekend came and went

Yesterday I went shopping for Cs baby shower that was later in the day. I found some nice
books and some onesies for the little girl and a really cute card. I came home, wrapped the gifts and then left again to pick up L as we were carpooling to the Frew where the shower was being held. It was a busy shower. They had 3 tables with chairs set up in the basement. I think there were about 20 people there and there were a lot of games, including a singing game. Not really my thing, the things you do for your friends. In total I think we played about 6 games... There was lots of food and C seemed happy.
Today A and I slept in. I did some excersise, which after having been sick for a week was difficult to do, but I did my best, and I can really feel my muscles tonight. We got the house ready for company as A was going to show M and J their wedding pics.
Another thing we got accomplished was getting rid of our old couch and chair. I posted them on kijiji and used ottawa, and we had people inquiring after them within 3 hours. By the sounds of things, they will be out of our garage around lunch time tomorrow, so we can finally park the car in the garage again, just in time before the cold hits. I love freecycling :) I have never actually posted anything before, and it is very exciting and encouraging that we got rid of the furniture this quickly. I am already thinking about other things I might be able to post on there...
In the end, M and J were not able to make it over, instead we had mom and dad and their friend J over for a nice sunday night dinner. We had a pork roast, roast potatoes, carrots and a caeser salad. Yum!! We had a nice time, chit chatted and looked at our trip pictures. J gave us some lovely handsoap as a hostess gift, very sweet and thoughtful of her, and now it is now, time to go to bed, night night.

Last weekend was amazing. A and I spent pretty much every minute together and it was wonderful.
Friday night we celebrated two birthdays, for L and J at K and Js house. It was fun, A had made pizza dough for a `make your own little pizza` party, he had made a cake and we blew up some balloons. It was a good time and it was fun to cuddle with the two little men that have enriched our friend circle.
Saturday A first took me out for breakfast than took me out shopping, I usually really dont enjoy shopping, but it was fun shopping with him. I know he will tell me honestly if something looks good or not. Plus he spoils me rotten ;) I got home with two pairs of shoes, a nice new fall winter coat, pants and a skirt, it was great. We also researched a new laptop for him.
Sunday we did some tidying and cleaning, I read like I was planning to do, and A took me for dinner and a movie. We went to see the Love Happens. It wasnt what i had expected, it was nice though.
The rest of this week I have mostly spent in bed with a stomach flu and now it is now. Feeling better than earlier this week I should be fine by the time the weekend comes around.

Congratulations K and J with Baby J

I cant believe a full week came and went already. Something exciting did end up happening on 09-09-09, as it was the day we found out K and J had become parents of a beautiful little baby J. Congrats to both of you! Baby J had been born the day before and both mom, and son were healthy and happy to get home.
What else happened? Well the allergy test happened. I had to sit in a chair while the assistant dropped serum on my arms, then scratch my skin. I sat back to wait and see if anything would happen, (ie whether I would get bumps on my arm) and it did. Turns out I am allergic to a whole bunch of different things including pollen, moulds, and unfortunately our little kitty. So eventually I am going to have to sit down and decide what I am going to do with all if this information. At this point I am hovering on the denial page.
Thursday we got pedicures done in lieu of the wedding, they were extremely nice and relaxing, just what I needed after my stress of the afternoon.
Friday was fairly uneventful, I spent a lot of time in the car, there was a detour, but in the end we all made it to M and J’s house for the ‘rehearsal’ dinner.
The wedding was interesting. I wont say too too much about it, there where the usual M and J hick-ups that happen whenever there is an event with them, but overall they were extremely lucky with their day. They has great weather, it was sunny and nice, the ceremony was short, sweet and intimate, the reception was a success, and A got some nice pictures of everyone. They seemed happy.
This week I started my new job. It has been fine, the division I am with right now is pretty small, and so I will have lots more time for other work, including doing research and policy work for the group, which I am very excited about. So far I think things are going well. I am on a one month trial, so today is week 1 complete, I think I got a passing mark. I will keep you updated on that.
Also, A and I got to meet Baby J on Monday evening. My goodness, what a cutie! He looks a lot like K at first sight, but when you look closer, you do see a lot of J in him as well. Very fun to see close friends so happy, and interesting to see them as something more than the people you knew them as, parents.
Next week is a day retreat from work. I am not looking forward to playing stupid icebreaker games.. gaawddd. I will keep you posted on how that went.
I started reading the twilight series, and despite of my expected boredom, I am totally hooked. K lent me the books Monday night. I cracked open the book on Tuesday night after my French class, (9:30pm) and today I am sleepy and already well into the second book. I brought it to work today so I could read on my lunch break, but I ended up going for lunch with a friend from work. I am itching to get my hands on the book to find out what else is going to be happening. Needless to say I have not planned a whole lot of weekend activities, I for see myself reading books in the fresh air… weekend here I come!

Cool date

Today is a cool day. Oh and why you say, is it a cool day today, well the reason is, because I am a nerd and it is 09-09-09 today. That is why. It feels like something exciting should be happening, but so far it has been a pretty blah day. I feel tired and mostly grumpy due to lots of little things that added up to me being quite grumpy actually.
We had a nice long weekend, mine in fact was 6 days long, which is almost a holiday, as I was sick last wednesday, thursday, friday. Saturday we went to the dentist (no cavities, hurray!), decided on a and purchased the gift for M and J's wedding, I dropped A of at L and S's to do some drywalling, held cute little R for a while and then went shopping for an outfit for the wedding. Found said outfit in the last possible store, but am very happy with it. It is funky, and seen as though I am terrible at explaining clothes, I am not going to bother trying. Picked up A from S&L&R's house, went home, went for dinner at mom and dads, saw M and J and gave them their gift early. They liked it I think.
Sunday was La Ronde day with B and J. We had a wonderful time, and didnt get home until after 1:00pm. Monday was a cleaning day. lots of laundry and window washing was done and the house now looks much brighter. This week is going to be shrot and sweet.
Tomorrow I have the afternoon of as I am finally going for my allergy testing. I am a little nervous about it, not for the actual testing, more because I really want them to find out if something is wrong or not. Friday I get to pick up Poppa for the wedding spectacular on saturday. It should be interesting.

Busy times

Work has been extremely busy in the last few weeks, so I havent taken a lot of time to write. I always find it difficult to back track in my blog, at which point I keep postponing to write in it, which brigns us to the last day of august already, with ahrdly any updates on what has been keeping me out of trouble the last little while.
Short summary:
excellent birthday, low-key and my birthday week lasted for a good week and a half, which is record breaking. Thanks to all my friends and family I felt very special.
I will be starting a new job within the same agency within a couple of weeks, which, if it works out will be alonger contract, but still through a temp. However, in this job I will get research and policy analyst experience as well as admin work, so it is a big step in the right direction. Things (ie money and signing of contracts) are currently being sorted out, so until that is set in stone I will not jump up and down too much.
I got a new hair cut and I have decided I Like it. It is called the 'broken inverted bob' I dont really care what it is called, it is easy to maintain which equals fab!
saturday we played the last soccer game of the season. It poored rain, only 6 people on each team showed up at first, so we played pick up soccer in the rain. I scored an awesome goal and played the best game of the season because we were all having so much fun and werent affraid to try things.
last but not least, I will be signing up for an french class this semester offered by the province of ontario to encourage new immigrants to become fluent in both official languages. Everyone can take the class including canadians, but people like myself will only pay $25 per season. I am interested to see how/if that pans out. I am supposed to sign up tomight. I will let you know how it goes.
Where did summer go? I blinked and all of the sudden it is the day before september :(

lots of wonderful things

This has been a very interesting summer. The weather in Ottawa has been terrible for the most part, but this week summer has finally arrived, and we are having a few sunny days. Amazing!
Where to start with my update. So much stuff has happened, it will be hard to capture it all in this blog unlewss you want to read a novel.
Camping part 2. The rest of our trip was wonderful. the men made a rain screen to keep us mostly dry, we visited the Lusk caves, which was really fun, ate good food, and didnt bike home. We had a really great rest of the weekend camping.
The next big ticket item was our honeymoon! Eeeeee.... my goodness what a trip, it was everything I was expeciting and more. It was a very emotional journey and it was amazing. I will never forget it. It really deserves its own post with pictures to illustrate what we have done.
After we came back from our trip we discovered our friends L and S had had their cute baby boy R. We got to meet him on the wednesday. it was fun to meet such a brand new little person. I got to hold hiim three times, and each time he cried. It was very funny, and he is really cute when he cries. I know I am terrible I pinch babies :)
The rest of the week off and on I spent some time preparing for K's baby shower which was sunday. I baked cookies and cupcakes which was fun. I love to bake. There were 7 girls in total and fun was had by all I think. It was very laid back, people chatted, played some games ate some food, there was some present unwrapping and And and I got to hang out with K afterwards and catch up. It was soo nice to see her, it had been much too long!
Tuesday after work I went shopping for some clothes. I was succesful and found capris, a skirt, shoes, earrings, necklace, a blouse, and two tops in an hour, and most of it was on sale, bonus!This is huge for me as I dont usually like to shop. I am getting much better at it and it clearly can be fun :)
We had L, S &R over for R's first photo shoot that evening. Little R had grown in the one week and moved around a lot more. it was really funny to see the shoot.
before we went on our trip there was a little bit of drama with regards to a government job. It was for a pool I applied to a few months ago. To be able to make it in there I have to write an exam, and the exam was taking place while we were gone. Eventhough I asked to write the exam another time, they would not let me do so, and I resigned to missing out on the oppertunity. However, my manager at work with a little help from the DG was able to change their minds, so when I came home I was informed I would be able to write it. I am really happy about it, even if nothing comes of it it is another experience. And if I do make it into the pool, I would have a descent shot and getting on full-time which would be wonderful!
Tonight J and K are coming over and I am looking forward to it. It is the weekend and it is beautiful weather, what more can a girl ask for. I am so happy!

Eventfull weekend - Camping part 1

A and I went camping in Gatineau Park this weekend and let me tell you, it was quite the adventure getting there.
Our plan was to leave our house shortly after lunch on friday and bike to the campsite which was at Lac Phillipe. It was about a 60km bike ride, and it was the first time we were going to try out our full gear, our big rehearsal before our Cape Breton trip this coming week.
Unfortunately we had a bit of a later start than planned and didnt leave until about 3:30 in the afternoon. We left in good spirits, with our bags packed and feeling very excited to be camping. The first part into Quebec was very uneventful. We made it to the park, had a granola bar and got ready for the rest of our trip. We made it to pink lake, then took a wrong turn and went all the way back to where we could see the Parliament buildings, then realised we had to turn around and do it all over again. So that added about 15Km to our ride. The second obstacle occurred when we realized that the road google maps was sending us down wasnt actually there. As we turned onto the road that is supposed to connect meech lake to lac phillipe, we noticed a cul-de-sac sign... oh oh.. When we stopped at a map to look, it turned out that that road doesnt exist on the gatineau park map, it stops about halfway. After a lot of back and forth, phone calls with A's cousins and talking to some cyclists that are in the park all the time, we decided to take a different route, through the park before it got dark. It was too far to back track and go around, so our only options were wait for As cousin to come an get us, which would be 2 plus hours, or try to bike what seemed like a reasonable path, that might be a bit difficult at first, but would get better soon. The avid cyclists were wrong... 7k of difficult level mountain bike terrain on touring bikes loaded down with gear... not such a good idea. The path was all rocks and loose gravel and since the sun was starting to set it was hard to tell where the rocks and roots where in the twilight. I cant tell you how happy we were when we finally made it to the easy two thirds of the path. We named the first half the path of hell and vowed to never "cycle" it like that again. And by cycling I mean, pushing my bike up the hill, carefully walking my bike down the hill, cycling 50 m of flat stuff to once again get off the bike and do it all over again. The path just would not end and I was really scared at times that I was going to fall and hurt myself, but I didnt. The last two thirds were mostly sand, washed out roads from all the rain and some rocks, but it was nothing compared to the first bit. I am sure ti would have been fine if it hadnt already been dark by the time we got to the path. When we finally made it to lac phillipe we were so excited and so impressed with the beautiful view of the moonlit lake. It was only 2k more to the site. During that 2k I managed to loose the chain off of my bike when I came barreling down a sandy hill with washouts, I think that was the closest I came to truly falling, but thanks to my crazy cycling skillZ I managed to stay on my bike. A fixed it up and we went back on our way. Seeing the campfires in the distance made felt like a huge accomplishment. It was amazing to finally reach our destination at 10:30pm. B had food ready to go for us so that as soon as we had finished setting up our tent we were able to eat. I have never tasted food that good, stuffed peppers with rice and mushrooms, ribs and garlic bread... Yum! We spent the rest of the night rehydrating, catching up with J and B who were very relieved we finally made it there safely, and sitting in front of the fire making smores. As we were getting ready for bed a crazy rain storm hit, so we fell asleep listening to the rain ticking on our tent...

ADHD Day

I am having the worst time concentrating on things today. I am not getting much done, it is unbelievable. Anythign from pretty coliours to unusual sounds get me distracted, oh and of course I have been roaming the halls, surfing the web as well. Part of this is due to the fact that I didnt sleep well last night. first I had trouble getting to sleep, then I spent the night having nightmares, then I woke up utlra grumpy annndd now it is now.
One really good thing about today is that I got to take a cab to first drop some important CD-roms off, but more importantly for me, to go and sign off on my secret clearance. It came through!! I am really happy about it as this should open new doors for me:)
When I told my manager about it she was really excited and said they were now going to be able to find me a better spot and keep me on... I have mixed feelings about it. My first reaction was, excellent! my second was, wait what if it doesnt happen again, and my third was, wouldnt it be better to explore new avenues. I really think she will follow through though, out of all the people that said previously they would help me stay, she didnt talk she acted. Plus she is well known for the fact that if she likes staff she gets them hired on. Soooo, it is pretty tempting to sit back and see what life brings. I am sooo tired of surfing job adds. I will probably keep trying to find something, but I am worried about temp jobs through agencies. On the one hand it would be good to make new contacts, but on the other they know me here, they like me here, should I try to work something out with a team I have more faith in than my previous devision, or should I just struggle my way through the unknown. Anyone got a magic ball?!?
Time for a nap...

Crappy weekend

I didnt really enjoy my weekend unfortunately. It was an overall grumpy experience.
Friday was the cousins barbeque As parents had planned weeks ago. The barbeque went pretty well, there was lots of food and almost all the family showed up and seemed to be having a good time. Unfortunately it didnt end until after 10:00pm, so it was too late to go to K and Js anniversary celebration , so I was pretty bummed out as I really wanted to go to that.
Saturday we had planned to go on a cycling trip to H-town, sleep over and than bike back. That didnt happen for several reasons, one being our timing not working out, getting organized took longer than planned, as well as the terrible weather, thunder and crazy rain. We were planning to park the car at cousins S and Cs house to shave off some distance, we had trouble getting our bikes in and out of the car and A and I ended up fighting later that night (read moodswings and lack of patience on both sides)
Sunday I had a terrible head ache and felt nauseated and ended up missing dinner with J and J whom we hadnt seen in a long time, so again bummed out. More moodswings on sunday as well, resulting in me feeling pretty sad for myself and my crappy weekend.
Today at least my mood seems to be more stable, and not much of a headache. Luckily my nausea has gone down some too, but I still needed to stay home. Today seems like a much better day so far!
Tomorrow is my french class. So far I am really enjoying it, and it is helping me come out of my shell a little bit. I doubt I will be fluent by the time I am done, but it is definetly helpful and I am considering taking another class in august. We will see.

Honeymoon excitement

I am having a lot of fun preparing for our honeymoon, it is wonderful shopping around for all the things we need. So far I haev purchased nice sunglasses for A and I from MEC. You can take the lenses out of the glasses and change them depending on the weather conditions. On saturday we also purchased some kick ass cycling bags made by Arkel, they are huge and will hold a whole lot of stuff. We got some really fun light weight sleeping bags and we got cycling shoes and shorts, so we are slowly getting there. We are also lining up some fun activities and are getting close to being decided on the route we will be taking. We have decided to take two days to drive back and we will be staying somewhere in Quebec City. So I spent some of my time the last couple of days researching hotels. I called a friend in the hotel business and she was able to hook us up with a pretty great deal, so now we get to stay at Le Chateau Frontenac. I think the contrast is going to be hilarious, going from roughing it, camping and wearing the same cycling shorts all week, to spending our last honeymoon night in a place like that. I am really excited, yay Quebec City here we come!!

Sunday A, his parents and I went for a bike ride to Carleton Place and back. We brought a picnic which we ate in a park right on the river . It was a nice day, but I was having some problems with my 'allergies'. My eyes were burning and my head hurt. When we got home, I had a swim in the pool and we stayed for supper at A's parents and decided to watch the movie Bridget Jones' Diary. I hadnt seen that movie in ages, and someone had lent mom the dvd as she had never seen it. I really enjoy simple girly movies that you dont require a lot of brain power lately, so I was up for watching it. The thing that struck me most about that movie though, was my completely different perception of Bridget. I remembered last time I wachted the moving thinking that Bridget was pretty chunky, and I could totally understand her desire to loose a bunch of weight... now I am her weight, but I dont really perceive myself as all that much bigger then when I first came here, even though I must be seen as though the scale tells me so. It was really weird, and I have to say I felt pretty fat after watching the movie. I am over it now, but it was a really weird experience of my european and canadian self image colliding. And I am pretty motivated to get back on the health train track.
On a different topic, I signed up for a french course and I had my first class last night. It is three nights a week and I am pretty excited about it. I felt like i understood much of what was going on in class, but I found it extremely challenging to do the speaking excersises. I also find it hard because french is stored in the dutch compartment of my brain, so sometimes I have to think of a word in dutch before I can translate it into french. I really feel this course will improve my oral skills, so I am very excited about it and I hope I can find enough time to study and get the most out of the course.
Last night when I came home there was a surprise for me. I and J had sent me a package with little Ns birth anouncement and a tranditional dutch treat that you eat to celebrate the birth of a child. It was such a great surprise, I teared up and felt so happy that they did that, just what I needed.
Other than that, work has been frustrating as our systems have been down, I have no access to email or to any of my drives, which makes it very hard to do work. they say it may not be back up and running until next week, grrr... I am not looking forward to that, so I hope they will surprise us.
I think that is mostly it for now.