Sunday, August 30, 2009

A great week-end!

This week-end was busy. I hung out with my parents on Friday night. Saturday mid-day, I went to my friend's parent's "cottage" party. (It was more of a gazebo party). Later in the afternoon, I went to my aunt & uncle's engagement party held in honour of my cousin. Finally, today I made the 3+ hour drive to Brampton for a baby shower for my friend Jane! (Plus 3 hours back.)

I didn't take any cameras, but I fully intend to poach pictures from other friends and will try to post them on here. :)

P.S. I also got an invitation to the wedding of one of my bridesmaids on Friday! :) Of course, I've already sent the reply card back.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Busy Week-end!

I've got a busy week-end coming up: a cottage gathering on Saturday late morning / early afternoon, an engagement party for my cousin Saturday afternoon, an evening barbecue Saturday evening, and a baby shower in Brampton (3.5 hours west) on Sunday.

I think on Sunday, I'll need home for a rest!

Monday, August 24, 2009

This is funny ...

By way of the B's nest from Misadventures of a Newlywed:

Random thoughts from people 25-35 years old

-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-That's enough, Nickelback.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
[I second that!]

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with? [Yep]

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
[Note: Wade figured this out.]

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
[I hear ya!]

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart". [Yep]

- How many times is it appropriate to say "pardon?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said? [I give it 3.]

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in .. (10 second lapse) .. ummm ... Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it ... thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories.

-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible. [I love both!]

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever. [Or I will wash it ... but will never be able to wear it again.]

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste! [I've been there!]

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 40 km/h? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social insurance number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

-The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

I think this post is hilarious, too!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

A good week-end!

I had a great week-end visiting my bridesmaid Crystal in Montreal. I didn't take my camera, so I have no pictures. We took the metro to Old Montreal, walked through Notre Dame, around Old Montreal and just looked around. We saw City Hall (Hotel de Ville), which was beautiful (which incidentally is where Brandy is getting married).

We walked all through Old Montreal, looking at painting, stone and bead jewellery, portrait artists, street performance artists, and all the busyness of Old Montreal!

There were about a half-dozen brides in Old Montreal getting their pictures taken. I wished a few felicitations (congratulations). The first bride we saw didn't even look my way ... and I was about 10 feet away from her and I yelled "Felicitations!" She didn't even blink. Snob.

The next bride I wished it to was in an old limo similar to what Wade and I had. She smiled and waved when I said that. She looked so happy! The next couple brides were English, so I said congratulations!

Then we returned to Crystal's beautiful neighbourhood. In a local park, we saw another half-dozen bridal parties posing for pictures! We sat and watched like bizarre stalkers in the air-conditioned car. It was very hot and humid downtown, then we had to talk the non-air conditioned metro back to Crystal's neighbourhood. When we got back to her car to drive to her place, we didn't want to leave the air conditioned car, so we parked beside the beautiful park (complete with several ponds, rock cuts, a waterfall, a gazebo and various other beautiful elements) and watched the weddings like crazy people. Okay, not true: we sat and watched like silly girls infatuated over weddings. :)

It was a great week-end!

Wade started packing. He was glad to be without me to get organized. And I've already started planning our housewarming party (in my head).

P.S. Marie-Eve, next time I go, I'll give you a head's up! Just a thought!

Friday, August 21, 2009

My idea for the basement:

What do you think of this:


(Remember, this is the current set up.)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Our rec room

I'm starting to think of how to decorate our new house. As I mentioned in my last post, we need to get a few new things. Including new furniture. Our plan is to put our existing couch / chairs downstairs and get new stuff for upstairs. (Okay, that's my plan.)

For downstairs, we have some unique furniture: a pale burgundy couch, matching chair and a navy futon. (I don't know how else to describe the colour - it's burgundy but it's not dark). They don't look bad together, but I suppose if we decide to "match", then slip covers can easily be acquired. We also have an L-shaped glass desk. We'll be getting a new t.v. for the basement / rec room. (Wade's request.)

So I'm trying to decide what to do. Here's the current basement lay-out.
I'm thinking we're going to put the furniture closer to the small fireplace. Kinda shift the lay-out that way. I'm not sure what else to do. There are several open spaces in the lay-out that currently have several exercise equipment there. We don't have as much equipment: we have an elliptical, but we could also put that in the furnace room. I'm just not sure what to do with the lay-out!

What do you think? Where would you put the couch, chair and futon?

(Note: the image is NOT to scale! It's just my best guest! The pillars are support pillars made of brick. They actually kinda weird. And the door leads to the furnace room, which is actually fairly big.)

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Things we need to buy:

-Washer & Dryer
-Fridge (should be stainless steel or black to match)
-Oven (also should be stainless or black)
-New t.v. (we only have one t.v., but there's a living room and a rec room at our new house, so Wade thinks we need a second t.v. asap)
-New couch / chair
-Stools for the kitchen (it has a counter you can eat at)
-Snowblower (um, no way we can shovel THAT driveway!)
-New riding lawnmower (it'd take about a DAY to mow the new lawn without it!)
-New bathroom counter top (or possible whole new vanity; that was my condition for buying the house: that we replace the bathroom vanity or counter asap)

Obviously, some things are more pressing (fridge!) than others (riding lawn mower). And I'm sure I'll thnk of other things I need later. But that's my short list!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

... Well ...

We sold the house. It was on the market just 6 days. However, it's not finalized: they have conditions, namely financing and a house inspection. If everything lines up, the house will be officially sold next Friday.

We're still having our open house this Sunday because our house isn't technically sold for one week!

So now what do we do for decorating? For downstairs, I'm thinking of rich colours, with an Asian or Moroccan theme. I tried looking for decorating "theme" ideas, but I couldn't find much that conveyed what I'm thinking. Kinda like one of these themes, but without the gawdiness, if you can envision it. I'm being vague in my descriptions.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

We get a bid tomorrow!

We meet with our real estate agent tomorrow to get a big. So that's pretty exciting, eh? :) (Who knows if we'll accept it! ... Send us "high" thoughts!)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Here's our house:

This is what we have for sale:

Technically, it's Wade's house. He bought it before we even met. But as his wife, I'm now a co-owner because I had to co-sign all the documents.

I feel better

It turns out, our real estate agent turned off the a/c and opened the windows to take advantage of the great breeze last Sunday.

I feel much better.

Monday, August 10, 2009

House Woes

Since listing our house Thursday night (meaning it was actually listed Friday morning), we've had 6 showings and an open house. Which is fine. We took down our personal photos, de-leafified our "leaf room" (one of our spare rooms is decorated in honour of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team), de-glorified our Team Canada themed bathroom (by removing the posters and bobble heads) and generally replaced our personal art and posters with more universally appreciated art borrowed from my parents, such as a couple Keirstead paintings and a print of an old-fashioned train. We are fine with these temporary changes so perspective buyers can visualize themselves in our house.

Except two of the real estate agents have left the back patio door unlocked. Not a big deal in our neighbourood; I've even accidentally left the front door unlocked over night. But it just feels disrespectful.

And even worse - one turned OFF our air conditioning and opened a window. Then left it that way when they left!

So we're going to chat with our agent today about the other agents' behaviour. This is disrespectful and unprofessional. I was livid last night, but I'm just indignant today.

This behaviour will not be allowed to continue or I'll start facebooking the names of the guilty real estate agents for all to see. Let facebook know how unprofessional they are! Okay, that's not a huge threat. But I'll do it! (Maybe.)

Friday, August 7, 2009

Bid on a house

We put a bid on a house on Wednesday, then formalized the bid (in a contract) and put our house for sale yesterday. We've already had two showings today alone! Our house isn't listed on-line yet nor is a "for sale" sign out front, but it is obviously available for the realtors to learn about. We have an open house scheduled on Sunday, and we already have an appointment for a showing on Monday.

We have a house with 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms and an unfinished basement. It's about 20 years old, and we don't have many upgrades - there are some new windows, it was repainted recently (4 years), we have preventive maintenance on our furnace every year, we have an air conditioner, and we look after the house. Still, there are lots of new developments near us; which means an older house isn't as enticing as a brand new house (even if the new house is slightly smaller). We're hopeful, though!

Anyway, here's the house we bid on:

It's bigger than our house and was designed better (making it look much bigger): 3 bedrooms, 1 + 2x1/2 bathrooms (so confusing, but I assure you both "1/2" bathrooms have a sink and a toilet), a finished basement and an open concept kitchen / living / dining room. We don't need all that (I mean, really, 3 toilets?) but ... it has a very nice saltwater pool. I've always wanted a pool: I looooove to swim. Now, we may not get the house until the fall, which means we won't get to use the pool until the spring. And it's an environmentally friendly pool: it uses filtered saltwater instead of chlorine or bromine!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

... Play ball!

Yeah, that's lame but that's the best way I could thiing of to start this blog. I mean "And they're off" doesn't fit: I've never really watched horses races. "And here we go!" reminds me of Heath Ledger's Joker. I started playing baseball when I was about 9 and it was through baseball that I met my new husband. So I figured it was the best fit: "play ball" is what an umpire traditionally yells at the start of any new baseball game.

I'm not sure what this blog's going to be about. I want to be more honest in this blog than in my wedding planning blog. That being said, I don't want to hurt or offend anyone, so this won't be like a personal diary, but it may be more emotionally expressive.

As I blog, I'll find out what themes I discuss and focus on in order to determine the direction of this blog. As a newlywed (small gasp of excitement!) being married exactly two months, married life will inevitably come up. But while my marriage (another small gasp!) is very important to me, it is not the only thing in my life. I am currently searching (another) new job as my current one-year contract is coming to an end. Unfortunately, this contract will not be renewed (which I assure you is not reflective of performance, but rather other factors; it was initially likely to be renewed, but will not due to other factors). This is my third one-year contract in a row: pharmaceutical (laboratory and manufacturing), followed by government healthcare / community services, and now a public utility. The common thread has been my job is in health & safety, which is reflective of my masters degree in occupational health. Other things I may discuss will be reflective of my interests: the Olympics (in Canada in 2010!), being Canadian (eh!), being a woman, being a quasi-liberal feminist (basically I'm telling you all people are equal and deserve to be treated as such) and arts & crafts (particularly scrapbooking). I'll talk about what matters to me: my family, friends, family-friends and friends' kids. I may also tell you about my petition for oral chemotherapy in Ontario (in my country of free healthcare, sometimes things get overlooked as technologies improve but legislation is slow to catch up). But those stories and more information will be told another day!

This blog will initially be a little bit of "nesting": getting house ready for marriage life. I don't think we would have done hardly any nesting (maybe a bit of cleaning) except that we've put an offer on a house. It may not pan out but we're hopeful it does. The home is a bit bigger - not much, but enough that we'll need more furniture and more decorations to turn it from a house to a home.

What else can I tell you? ... I guess I have to leave (a little) bit to tell you later!

So let me tell leave you with an off-colour joke (not a habit of mine, but this joke was a family-tradition):

A young man was picking up a beautiful girl to go on a date. Before he went, he had to fart but thought he would hold it until later. But he was surprised when the girl invites him in to meet her father.

When he meets the father, the girl goes to finish getting ready. He is in agony trying to hold in this fart! Finally, he can’t hold it anymore, so he moves across the room to sit by the dog, hoping the dog would get blamed. He pets the dog, and lets out a bit of the fart.


The young man felt much better, and is relieved when the girl's father barked ''Duke!''

''Great!'' the young man thought to himself. ''He is blaming the dog!'' So, he lets out a little more. He felt so much better!

Once again, the girl's father shouts “Duke!''

The young man feels so much better, but he isn’t "relieved" yet. The young man just needs to get out a little more. The boy thought he was homefree so he let everything out at once in a really loud and smelly fart.

The girl's father stands up again. ''Duke, get the (h-e-double hockey sticks) out from under the a****** before he s***s all over you!!''