It's All Finished . . .

But the surprise hasn't yet happened so I still can't share much. Do know that I am really excited with how it all came together. And I hope that everyone shares the same opinion as myself.

On another note, though - I am starting my photography class tomorrow!! Woot woot!! Excited about all I am going to learn and I certainly hope that all of you will see noticeable results as well!

p.s. does anyone know where the spell check went to?? can i still trigger it within blogger or am i destined to no longer be able to veil my mistakes??

It even required me to put the top down on Zinny to load the car!!! Any guesses??

Stay Tuned

I just spent the day running around gathering a bunch of items I need for a very fun surprise!! Cannot wait to post the pictures and tell you all the details.

But in the interim, know that I am soooooo very excited about this one!

Olympic Pride

Yesterday the Olympic torch found its way to Calgary. I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival for the last week. And finally it was time.

The timing was perfect. Jimmy picked me up at work a smidge early. We found a parking spot right outside my apartment and bundled up a little for the anticipated wait. 1410 was a short stroll in the afternoon sun from my place and the olympic torch was promising to pass right along 17th Ave turning at 14th street.

We made it to the restaurant at 5 and as I had anticipated the place was still fairly open with a couple of tables right along the windows facing the street. Jimmy ordered us some snacks while I looked up the route on the iphone. Never hurts to double check, right??

As the web page open, I slightly panicked as it was only listing the 17th ave route up to 8th street. But the interactive map link confirmed that we were sitting on the route.You could feel the excitement in the air as others piled inside to wait it out and the streets started to fill with red jackets and touques, scarfs and flags. Yeah!! This was going to be perfect.

Our snacks arrived and we alternated between people watching or trying to determine where on the route the torch was at with the live olympic coverage on the tvs. The excitement continued to grow and I could no longer contain it. I think Jimmy was laughing at me as I kept checking my phone to see what time it was.

The timing was perfect, our snacks were done, the bill was paid, we bundled up and found a spot on the sidewalk right as Brenda was walking over to join us!!

Before we had a chance to pick up any swag, we could hear the music coming our way. The first of the caravan was the Coca Cola stage.

It even had a live band on it.

Next came the RBC stage. What a great job that would be - to follow the Olympic torch all over this beautiful country of ours!

After a moment's reprieve, the cheering started again and we could see the torch heading our way.

\

I was so excited with everything that i didn't hold the camera still for any of the pics . . oops!!! Just passed us, another runner got out of the van folloiwng the torch and we saw the flame pass between the two. The runner that went past us turned out to be someone with 1410 - kind of cool!

The tower had the flame lit for the olymjpic torch celebration downtown at Olympic plaza. When Jimmy and I got back to my place, we went out onto my balcony and were able to watch it.

What a fantastic evening it was. I couldn't have imagined it any better than it was.

Lina's

Lina's is one of my favorite places in Calgary. It is a little Italian market that is stuffed full of tasty meats, delicious olives, fresh pastas, yummy little desserts, fresh produce, a wide array of olive oils and balsamic vinegars. As I wander up and down the aisles I am drawn to a new kind of biscuit, a tasty chocolate sauce or the aroma from the warm focaccia breads.

The majority of my dinner parties involve a stop at Lina's as I know that I will find something different whether it be a cookie to serve with my chocolate mousse, chocolate sauces to drizzle over whipping cream for the latte's, little chocolates from Europe to put at each person's place or maybe a little hostess gift in the household section.

However, my absolute favorite part of Lina's is the cheese section. So many varieties and flavors across three big coolers stocked full of cheese. By shopping at Lina's all these years I have developed various traditions. And Jimmy can certainly vouch for the fact that these traditions are as special to me as Lina's is. As you will soon find out, the majority of the traditions are around that cheese cooler.

Today I was bringing a cheese plate to Lincoln's little baby shower and so of course I needed to swing by Lina's. It was extra busy on such a beautiful Saturday but I lucked into a close parking spot. As I walked through the entrance into the store, my eyes automatically glanced to the left . . . YES!! . . . the new City Palate was out and it is the January/February Cheap Eats edition. As I am still on the condo plan, it's the perfect edition.

As I walked into the store and grabbed a basket every aisle looked jammed. My heart sank as I knew I was on a tight timeline. I weaved my way over to the breads. Elbowed through a couple people to get a bag and managed to find a fresh focaccia. By the time I grabbed a second bag, a whole new group of people had stopped in front of the breads. Curses . . . don't they realize that I need some time in the cheese section.

I made my way to the olives cooler and already had my choices made before the lady was ready to help me - a large mixed olives and a small sundried olives.

Next up, cheeses!!!

I patiently waited while the remaining customers were being served. I had to look at all the cheeses anyways so I knew which ones I wanted to try first. A nice young gentleman kindly asked if I had been helped yet. I felt my heart lift just a little from the anxious pit and smiled sweetly while responding, "No."

Sarah is a maple and berry lover so I decided that the maple cheddar was the perfect start. And this is where the tradition starts. You can't just buy a cheese there; it may not be what you are looking for. Regardless of how many times I have bought a cheese, it still needs to be tasted. So of course I had to ask for a quick taste. He found the maple cheddar, cut off a small bite and handed it to me. Yummy, just the right maple flavor.

Next I wanted to try a stilton . . . this week Lina's had quite the variety of stilton’s: apricot, cranberry, ginger mango and so I thought the ginger mango could be either quite tasty or the wrong mix of flavors. One bite and I knew that it was totally the wrong mix of flavors.

Nicole has declared her love for chevre fromage so of course I couldn't leave her without a lovely cheese. By the time I told him I was looking for a goat cheese, the gentleman had caught onto my game. He suggested a couple and gave me samples of each. They were both delicious but I quickly chose one.

Now onto another hard cheese, three samples were passed my way and after some thoughtful deliberation I made my choice. The anxiety I had felt as I drove to Lina's had completely melted away.

I needed a soft cheese and a blue cheese. For the soft I had spotted St. Andre which I have had a few times with Jimmy's cousins so I thought that would be a nice balance of flavors and my new found cheese friend was quickly unwrapping the blues for me to try. It didn't take long to choose a nice creamy blue with a rich sharpness to it.

As I put the last cheese in my basket I could hear a father beside me speaking to his son who was about 4 or 5. . . "Now that we are in the cheese area, we try a few cheeses before we make our choice. Shopping at Lina's isn't done until you have bought a cheese!" As the lady passed over a sample, the dad split it in two and handed half of it to his son.

The corners of my mouth turned up as a huge smile crossed my face. As I walked away I was so excited that someone else was passing Lina shopping traditions onto others.

Blades of Glory

When I was little I used to dream about being a figure skater.

You see, my mom had this old LP that I used to love playing over and over again. The confidence in the name escapes me but I think it was 'Teenville' and it was a collection of singers from her high school years. I think it had Bobby Vee and a few others. One of the songs had the following lyrics:

Every day, it's a-getting closer, going faster than a roller coaster.

Love like yours will surely come my way.

Every day, it's a-getting faster, everyone says go ahead and ask her.

love like yours will surely come my way.

Every day seems a little longer, in every way my love's a little stronger.

Come what may, do you ever long for true love from me?

Every day, it's a-getting closer, going faster than a roller coaster.

Love like yours will surely come my way.

Every day, it's a-getting faster, everyone says go ahead and ask her.

love like yours will surely come my way.

Every day seems a little longer, in every way my love's a little stronger.

Come what may, do you ever long for true love from me?

Every day, it's a-getting closer, going faster than a roller coaster.

Love like yours will surely come my way.

Love like ours will surely be here to stay.

(For those of you dying to listen to this song, you will just have to ask me to sing it to you . . . there was also a point in time I dreamt of being a rock star . . . !!)
 
I listened to that record so many times I could sing almost every song off of it by memory and this one was certainly my favorite.
 
Since I lived on a farm, we had various bodies of water nearby that would freeze and the dugout in the yard was perfect for skating. Dad kept the ice pretty cleaned off and my brother would head out there after school and clean off the fresh snow. We would lace up our skates, make the walk across the yard with the skate guards making fresh tracks in the snow, slide down the hill to the dugout surface and skate for hours.
 
When Trev was out there with me, I had to use my inside the head voice to sing and practice my spectacular moves. But when Trev was not out there with me . . . well that was the perfect time to fulfill my dream not only as a figure skater but also a singer. I would belt out with all that was within me . . .
 

Every day, it's a-getting closer, going faster than a roller coaster.

Love like yours will surely come my way.

Skate in circles warming up . . .

love like yours will surely come my way.

Testing out gliding on one skate . . .

Every day seems a little longer, in every way my love's a little stronger.

Come what may, do you ever long for true love from me?

More sweeps around the ice to build up speed

Every day, it's a-getting closer, going faster than a roller coaster.

Love like yours will surely come my way.

Every day, it's a-getting faster, everyone says go ahead and ask her.

love like yours will surely come my way.

A little sit spin (in my mind it was a beautiful work of art; to my brother hiding in the trees spying on me I am sure I looked more like I was perched akwardly on an invisible chair with my arms flying all over to keep my balance) . . .

Every day seems a little longer, in every way my love's a little stronger.

Come what may, do you ever long for true love from me?

Skating, smiling and beautiful hand and arm work to prep for the grand finale . . .

Every day, it's a-getting closer, going faster than a roller coaster.

Love like yours will surely come my way.

Love like ours will surely be here to stay.

Here it is . . . the grand finale . . . the open armed, one skate bent at the waist glide to stand up and finish in a spin (again to Trev I am sure it was circles with a five foot circumference as my arms were no longer quite as graceful as they were during the prep phase. To the untrained eye it could be easily confused with the chicken dance.).

In my mind it was as beautiful as Tracy Wilson or Elizabeth Manley.


Dad informed me at Christmas that the dugout is no longer appropriate to skate on. I was quite sad that my nephews would never experience it and I wouldn't be able to share it with Jimmy.

But . . . mom told me tonight that they are now able to skate on the gravel pit in the pasture just down the road. Dad and Trev cleared it off on the weekend and everyone was out playing a little shinny this past weekend. Even little Chasey at 2 1/2 was able to find his footing on skates for the first time.

It made my heart smile. I cannot wait to go home in February with Jimmy. Watch a little hockey in town, skate a little on the gravel pit. It won't be the same without my awesome moves but making memories with my nephews that they will remember for years to come is even better!

Love like ours will surely be here to stay.

Every day, it's a-getting faster, everyone says go ahead and ask her.

Today was the first day back to work after the Christmas season. I am sure many rolled over and hit the snooze an extra time. I don't doubt that some were a little later than usual. I am quite confident that some needed an extra cup of coffee. Maybe some were like me and did all three??

But there is always one thing that is exciting about the first day back. Something that helps to put a a spring in your step. That one item that makes the day seem a little bit brighter.

And what shall it be? The new wool scarf from your chic grandma? Maybe the lovely pair of angora socks from your twin daughters? A glittery bracelet that was tucked into your stocking from your handsome fiance? Or the new sweater you bought yourself with Christmas money? Was it the new underwear from your mom? The engraved cufflinks from your loving wife? Or were you one of the extra blessed who got to drive to work in their new shiny red car from your fabulous hubby?

As I made my way to the office, I spotted some carrying bags of items they need to return. I saw others carrying their lunch in the coveted Holt Renfrew bag. I saw one lady who was most certainly wearing  a new hat and another who was sporting new boots. More than a couple people were walking to the beat of the music on their new iphone. And I am sure there was more than one office full of sqealing girls admiring a new hair do or captively listening to a New Year's engagement story whilst gazing longingly at a sparkling diamond ring!

For me? I was proudly wearing the new little earing from my nephews - they truly do have fabulous taste (thanks Kim) and a new pair of socks. Tomorrow? I'm going to look extra saucy with my freshly straightened hair (love it Mom)!

I am so very blessed

This year, for whatever reason, has been an exceptionally overwhelming Christmas season. I am not too sure why - am I just getting to that age or has the year been that much harder. I can tell you one reason for sure has been facing the reality of sickness and death. Each year seems to bring about that much more of each!

But as I take a moment to sit and be I am again flooded with memories of what makes Christmas so very special:

• the reason for the season - that we have hope for an eternal life and a savior to mercifully redeem us
• the many hugs that are freely passed around without a care in the world - take that H1N1
• warm cookies straight from the oven
• pot after pot of delicious coffee
• flying wrapping paper as children experience the joy of getting
• watching the smiles of the childs faces as adults experience the joy of receiving
• wearing the brand new christmas sweater and thinking about the dear friend that gave it to you
• seeing gramps old nut bowls with dear family gathered round telling jokes and shelling peanuts
• a candy cane dipped in eggnog
• twinkling of the snow as you come home from another late night spent with friends and family
• the Grinch!! (both the cartoon and my pops)
• sitting around the tree with only the christmas lights on
• the plentitude that was given to me
• a photo album filled with such lovely memories of the past few years
• the whispered i love you's
• sticky fingers doing my hair with a multitude of elastics and clips
• little ones declaring their bowl of jello is 'baby' sized - my mercies!!
• chocolate mustaches
• family games
• quiet visits with dear aunts
• dreaming about the new year on the horizon

**************************************************************************************************************************

Auntie Jules Christmas Photo Album

Escalaphobia . . . A Fear of Escalators

For those of you who don't know this little fact - I am scared of escalators. You see, when my brother and I were little, shopping malls were a bit of an adventure for us. We grew up on a farm and as such a day into the city was a pretty big adventure. We would schedule all our appointments for that day and mom would try to get in as much shopping as she could. So escalators were quite a novelty.

One day when we were out shopping at Sears on a visit to Grandma's in Calgary, Trev and I were feeling exceptionally adventerous! We decided it would be quite fun to jump on the down escalator at the bottom, run up it and ride it down again only to do that all over again. We were quite young and I guess Trev wasn't quite as stable on his feet because after a particularly big jump, he fell down and got his little bum caught as the escalator stair folded into the teeth at the end. It tore right through his jeans and little underwear and was pretty sore for a while.

Ever since that day, I do not overly like escalators. It isn't a paralyzing fear as long as I have a clear vision of the stair I am stepping onto and have a free hand to grab the railing. I may slightly hesitate at the start as I choose the perfect stair but with all of my travelling, I have certainly learned to cope. Almost.

I was shopping at Zellers in Market Mall before Christmas to grab some of the basics I needed for baking and wrapping. To set the layout, the Zellers in Market Mall is two stories but it is the only thing on the second level at the mall. As such, there is no cashier upstairs, the escalators are arranged in a way that a shopping cart can not go up and down them, I couldn't find any other shopping basket and the upper level is where they have all the household goods. On the way from searching for a pastry bag to the escalator I passed the toy department. Since this was the weekend before Christmas and I still needed toys for all the boys and Rhyder's birthday toy I quickly checked it out. To my surprise, the toy selection was superior to even Walmart and after a few minutes in the Transformer aisle I was quite elated with my choices.

Keeping in mind that I had no shopping cart or basket, I was loaded down with boxes stacked upon boxes and my chin resting on the top to ensure nothing went flying. Then I remembered the escalator. What was I going to do?? Well I would just have to ride it down. There was no other choice and how bad can it be.

As I approached the escalator I tried desparately to get that clear sighting of the stair. I glanced around (turning my whole body in a full circle as my chin was keeping my toy tower in place) and realized I had all the time in the world as there was no one around. I stood there putting my feet out but I just couldn't take that step as I had no clue where on the stairs I would be. My only other alternative was to try and balance the tower on one hand, side step onto the escalator while my other hand has a death grip on the handle. As I am moving all the toys over and cautiously stepping towards the stairs, I feel my toy tower give way. I turn around to gather my items to discover there are now 5 or 6 people waiting for the escalator. Of course - now that pressure is added to this adventure.

Out of desperation I manage to sputter out in a long run on sentence without taking a breath: 'I'm sorry - it's just that i am scared of escalators and i can't see where i am going and there were no baskets but i needed to buy toys for my nephews and i'm sorry, let me gather all my things so you can get on; you see i'm scared of escalators and well i couldn't see where i was going and so when i tried to move the packages everything fell!'. By now my face is beet red, the packages are all gathered and I have slunk away from the escalator to allow others to pass. A couple of people offered to carry some packages but I quickly turned it down and said if they could just forward me to an elevator I will be just fine!

Finally this lady insisted so I passed a couple of boxes to her and followed her onto the escalator with a firm grip on the handle and a clear vision of my first step explaining to her the whole way down why I was scared of escalators and how I have 3 fabulous nephews to buy for and the Zellers toy department is surprisingly better than Walmart and they have no shopping baskets and and and! I am sure that was the longest escalator ride of her life - heavens to betsy!!

Maybe it is time to face this fear head on: Simple Steps to Overcoming your Fear of Escalators and seek out medical attention :S.

The end of the celebrations

I certainly do think this was one of the most fabulous birthdays I have had!!
After the day trip out to Banff, the actual birth day was spent having a lazy morning, meeting one of my birthday twin friends for lunch at a yummy little restaurant in Kensington, meeting another delightful friend for a facial (with the complimentary make-up touch up which left me looking like I was celebrating Halloween rather than about to head out for a yummy dinner) and then quickly freshening up and changing before heading to a yummy restaurant Alloy for dinner with Jimmy. The only thing missing was seeing all of my friends and family scattered elsewhere around this beautiful world of ours.

Wednesday was a mini bday celebration with my beautiful dinner club girls at another yummy restaurant, Sugo, in Inglewood. It was the first time we had seen Kari since she had little Zander and she is looking absolutely amazing. And it was likely the last dinner club before Sarah gives birth (girl girl girl girl - really hoping if I wish and pray and hope and think it will come true) and she is also looking absolutely amazing. It as always, was a night full of laughter and many crazy stories!!

Thursday, I headed to the hockey game with C. Ann. She is one of the fantastic girls I used to work with and Entero annndddd she also just happens to be Jimmy's cousin thereby being the reason he was working at Entero to begin with and thus kind of a little bit the reason as to how I met him. She is a crazy cat who is incredibly entertaining and a delight to be around so it made the ugly loss a little easier to swallow. And as always, what is a night on the town without a moment of craziness. So . . .

C picked me up at my apartment and we headed downtown for a bite to eat before the game. This also put us in a perfect position to take the c-train down rather than try to navigate parking on site. After our meal we quickly dashed to the train platform and almost forgot to purchase our tickets. We quickly scanned for the ticket dispenser when we heard someone directing us around a shelter structure. As I was about to put my money into the machine, a guy offered us a ticket.

To help put some context to this story I do want to tell you that this isn't an unusual habit on the platforms. Many people tend to beg for money for train fare and often people (myself included) will give them train tickets instead. They then sell these tickets for the price you would pay for a single. I don't tend to take the tickets from these guys but I was in a hurry, he had his hand out for the change which impeded me from putting the cash into the slot and he was already shoving his ticket into the validation slot.

As C was handing her money to the guy, I took a closer look at my ticket to ensure everything looked kosher. It was then that I noticed that we had been scammed . . . this individual had found a packet of used tickets in the garbage can, he then used some of spare change to purchase whiteout to cover up the previous validation stamp. Curses!! By this time, a gentleman behind C also fell subject to the same fate.

Friday saw us tapping our toes to a local Nova Scotia band, the Trews. And I must admit that their concert was too much fun. They are touring with their new acoustic album and they certainly have some great songs on it. And for anyone curious - a yam and a sweet potato are two very different products!

Saturday I invaded Jimmy and Clairise' place with my Christmas decorations and managed to put up the majority of the Christmas tree (of course I was short lights for the top of the tree because two of my light strings burnt out! Argh!!!) . Sunday I watched the Riders run the ball to victory, snuggle little Zander, and hang out with the girls at Sarah's house stocking her freezer with all sorts of delicious meals!

And don't you worry, there will be pics of dinner club and the Christmas festivities to post sometime soon!

Birthday Weekend Festivities

It's hard to believe the birthday week is almost drawing to an end but don't you worry your pretty little head as I have secured a couple of festivities that I just had to push out to next week . . . hee hee!! And I must also say that this birthday has ranked right up there with one of the most fabulous!!

The real festivities kicked off on Friday night when a bunch of us went out to celebrate some of the other birthday week birthdays as well. It was quite a delight (especially after a bit of a stressful work week) to be able to laugh the hours away.


And in all honesty how could I not laugh when Brenda bust out her excercise ball dance move at the table. I think she is trying to turn it into the next craze by showing it whenever and wherever she can. It even has some fantastic sound effects . . . just in case the music is all in your head. I wish I had a demo to post but picture the start of a squat position where you swivel your butt and hips back and right and then back and left calling out boooooop boooooop with each swivel. I think you might have the picture now ... silly girl!!


Saturday was a delightfully lazy morning and then I headed out to become beautified . . . eyebrow wax, stop at starbucks for the delightful eggnog latte and then I got my hair done!!! A lovely mahogony chocolate brown on the bottom with a rich copper on the top. And of course I could never stop there so we did add a beautiful mahogony chocolate brown panel on the top left!! But the best of Saturday was yet to come!


Mel and I were finally able to connect for a full evening of food, chatter, giggles, more food and a lot more giggles! We set out with the intent to celebrate with one of our progressive dinners. You know the ones where you have appies, entree, dessert and coffee at various locations. However this night, as always, did not turn our as intended.


The first step is to pick either the area we want to dine in or the location of our entree for the night. Once you have that decided, everything else tends to fall into place.


For this special occasion, we decided on San Reno. Apparently there are 3 lovely city locations: marda loop, 90th ave and mckenzie town. Since Mel lives in Marda Loop that was struck from the list. I wasn't entirely sure of Mckenzie Town Options so we decided to try 90th Ave.


In order to not totally bore you I will follow up with one big long run on sentence to say 90th was closed up tighter than a drum and the chinese restaurant option was not so appealing so we headed to McKenzie town only to take a detour onto 130th to find our appetizer spot where we discovered a royal bank were complete gong shows in the drive through service missed our turn ended up in some industrial area which took us a little bit to fight our way out of where we finally made it to the keg to discover it's the hot spot on a saturday night so we skulked around the lounge until a free table finally came our way and by that time we had a spot to watch the football game, a cozy fire and a delightful waitress so we abandoned our progressive dinner in favor of a lovely 3 course dinner in one spot. We still shared one entree though!


Sunday was the day we planned to head out to Banff. And it is finally the day I got my butt in gear and actually take some pics. So I will let the pics tell the story (not to mention the fact I am sure you are quite tired of reading).

a little stroll up Johnston's Canyon to start the day

We went out with our friends Brad, Laurel and Sam

Sam with his best scary cave pose

And a yummy dinner at Grizzly House to end the wonderful day

It's officially my birthday!!!

And that means it is the one day every year that gets to be all about me and I don't have to feel guilty for a second (which is why I am typing this as I lounge in bed at 8 in the morning on a Monday)!!! I love every minute of it.

Now, what shall I do next? Starbucks? Breakfast? Open my present from my mom and dad? Or maybe hunker down for another few minutes of coziness in my bed?

It's My Birthday . . .

Not today. Annnddddd not tomorrow. Nor the day after tomorrow. But soon. In 4 sleeps soon. In a way my birthday has already arrived. I mean technically, this is my birthday week. As is the week after my birthday in case anyone is wondering. And yes that does mean that I get two weeks out of the deal!! But the day I get to be a complete diva is still on its way!

And so I just wanted to share that it's my birthday. Not today. Nor tomorrow. But soon. 4 sleeps soon.

Monday's

Monday's can be my nemesis but this morning started off so delightfully. Delightfully that was until I got outside in the big bad world.

As I was on my way to work I spotted a parking ticket man who was getting great delight in ensuring that others hatred of Monday's would grow. He was busy ticketing all the cars who were parked just a little too close to the entrances to alleys and driveways as well as stop signs! Thankfully, I had the coherence to remember that Zinny was parked outside from the day before. I also realized that I had parked her quite close to a driveway in my haste to get out of the car after yesterday's disaster.

(Yesterday's disaster happened in the parking lot of the Co-op downtown. After having two parking spots stolen from me, I rounded the corner to watch two others battling it out for a parking spot. Unfortunately the little yaris might have won the parking spot but lost the battle for his rear bumper. Oh yes, that is right, they played a game of chicken over a parking spot and neither car came out of it shining!)

So I decided that I better quickly check to see if I could pull Zinny up a touch. And I was in luck. Not only did I not have a parking ticket yet but the car in front had moved so I had a good 2 feet of room to pull forward into. When I jumped into the car there wasn't another vehicle in sight on the road. I was so excited that I had beat the Monday morning ticket blues and went to jump out of the car when I hear a bang, feel the car door close and spot a white van zooming by.

Seriously, how can a person be so competent with one side of their life and yet so incompetent in so many other areas.

Luckily enough, the man looked at the side of the van, determined that the paint would buff right up, told me it was no big deal and sent me on my way. Zinny was no worse for the wear and sealed up nice and tight. I was flustered for most of the morning but after a large timmy's and a meeting with a client who found their own $14 million dollar outage before I had to start tick and bopping the day was certainly looking up. A yummy date at Fiore's for their $8.99 pasta special ensured that this day turned out to be a fantastic day after all.

My prayer . . .

Do you ever feel helpless? You are watching something unfold before your eyes and there is nothing you can do about it. Or someone you care very dearly for is enduring more trauma in a short period of time than anyone should over a lifetime.

My life seems to be filled with these moments lately. Moments where my heart just aches for others around me. Fathers who are gravely ill far too soon in life. Couples who would be the most loving parents ever and yet they have been continuously denied. Surgeries and cancer. Matters of the heart.

There is nothing I can physically do to help. I wish I had a medical background. I daydream about how much I could do if I was a philanthropist. I research on the Internet and try to think of every possible solution. I lie awake at night praying that all the pain would disappear. And yet I remain so helpless. I catch myself being short with others and exasperated that I can't do more. It is times like this where you need to cling to your faith and the promise that prayer truly is the one thing that can make a difference!

And as such, I pray.

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.

The History of Love
Nicole Krauss

Catching Up . . .

So I know I have been a little distant lately but it certainly hasn't been by choice. But rather my computer decided to have a melt down and wouldn't boot up.

And the crazy thing is I have been trying to back up my photos and music for the last few months. However the Cd's I had didn't have enough memory available and I hadn't gotten around to buying an external hard drive and and and. . .

As a result, here I am trying to catch up on a couple weeks of news, reloading all my music into itunes, setting up my photo albums again and all the other exciting things that come with a computer crash. But alas I will not complain because I would much rather be doing all of this than losing the last 3 years of my life.

As for some of the excitement in my life that you might have missed out on:

• U2 is coming to Edmonton next summer and my fabulous Jimmy and his equally fab sis Clairise worked out the logistics to ensure that we have 4 tickets to the big event!!!
• I have eaten more pizza this week than a normal person would over the course of a month . . . mmmmm . . . I do love pizza . . . but this was a bit of a crazy week.
• My birthday weekend is next weekend and there shall be some fabulous events taking place!
• The Riders just won first in the western conference . . . love it!!!
• I have spent some quality time with some quality people and have so many fabulous memories!
• I bought two new pair of boots and they are beautiful!!!
• Halloween came and went - I made the mistake of running to the mall to pick up a few things and then helped a friend hand out some candy. I absolutely adore all the little spidermen and pink tutu's flitting about even though they make shopping a touch difficult. It's another one of those days where I wish terribly I was a little closer to the nephews so I could pack up a special treat bag for them and have them come bouncing into my house in their little outfits telling me the excitement of the day.
• Brenda and I went shopping to one of my favorite stores - Army and Navy!! I bought some serving dishes for Jimmy's place. They are quite fun! And so crazily cheap!
• And did I mention that I got U2 tickets for my birthday??!!

It's snowing. It's snowing. It's snowing.

Might just have to take Zinny for a spin in her new bling . . .

The wonder of it all

Our body is an amazing creation. It often causes me to stop in wonder. Looking at a new born baby. The reslience of children's bodies. The ability for the body to adapt and compensate for its weaknesses. And most of all it's ability to heal itself.

Iwent to the dentist yesterday. Ahh yessss, one of the reasons why I am still dreaming about buying a condo! And was told that rather than the original work they had booked me in for that day that they were switching it up a little and doing a root canal. Argh!

I wasn't exactly prepared for this. I was still recovering from my cold/flu that took me out of the game last week. This root canal wasn't supposed to happen until January when my dental coverage would be rereshed again with the new year's limit. But here I was 2 hours in the chair while my dentist performed his magic.

As the freezing came out, the throbbing started. By the time I was ready to leave for the day the pain was certainly more than a throb. All I could bear for dinner was ice cream. And this is where I want to highlight how amazing our bodies are.

I don't know if it's because God knew we would need nourishment to regain health or if He had another reason but it constantly amazes me how quickly wounds heal in the mouth. When I had my wisdom teeth taken out and now the root canal. Logic would reason that a warm damp environment for open wounds would result in them taking twice as long to heal. After all the best thing for blisters and cuts are to allow them to air out. And I don't have a habit of wandering around panting as I try to air out my root canal.

But here I am, barely 2.5 days after my mouth was so sore I couldn't even eat the saskatoon pie that went with the ice cream, now I could gnaw on ribs. Not that I want to gnaw on ribs. But the point is I could if I wanted to.

Waiting

Okay I must admit that I cannot believe I am actually wishing for snow but I kinda am. It all started when I watched an old Gilmore Girls on the weekend.

I love the Gilmore girls!!! I really do. For so many more reasons that I won't bore you with today but I will tell you a few of them. First of all, Lorlei has fantastic fashion sense. I would buy her wardrobe in a heartbeat. Lorlei and Rory have the most random conversations with each other. I kind of feel a little bit like I can sometimes initiate random conversations. Okay so maybe quite often I initiate random conversations and so it makes me feel less weird! And thirdly, the excitement they get over simple things. This is something else that I can totally relate to. A little too much at times but I love it!

So, I was watching an old episode of Gilmore girls. It is the one where Lorlei is soooo excited over the first snowfall. And she loves it. It is something that her and Rory wait for and when it finally arrives, they talk about how much snow is their friend, it protects them and brings them joy. Luke however, is kind of cranky pants in a cute way and he hates the snow - it's cold and he has to shovel it blah blah blah. Unfortunately Lorlei has a really bad experience with snow in this episode. It clogs her driveway at the inn so her customers can't get in or out. It causes the coffee delivery truck to not be able to deliver coffee. She has to walk down to Luke's to get coffee but on the way there steps in an icey puddle, they cannot find the inn guests who they sent out on a snow shoeing expedition and she goes to get into her jeep which is parked under the tree only to find that all the snow has slid off the branches and buried her jeep. But alas all is not lost for the romance of snow.

Luke realizes that it's okay if he hates snow but it isn't so much okay to see Lorlei hating snow. After all, this is one of the endearing qualities he loves about her - the fact that she finds such a delight in simple things. Sooooo....... he builds her a little rink on her front lawn and brings out her skates so that when she comes home after her horrible snow day there he is to greet her. She shakily skates around the rink and falls in love with snow all over again!

At the end of the show I found myself thinking about the things I do enjoy about winter. Buying new mittens, prepping for Christmas, going for a walk through the crunchy snow when the trees have been kissed by jack frost, heading out to Banff springs for a christmas brunch with all their decorations up, strapping on the skates and gliding along the frozen water with Jimmy, cider and Christmas songs! And now that Zinny is all prepped for her new snow filled adventures I cannot wait!

Now I find myself wistfully looking out the window every morning. Maybe today we will have some snow. Maybe. But not yet . . .

Instead Jimmy and I went for a walk and crunched some leaves. There aren't a lot of leaves to crunch. I did find a couple though!

And joy of all joys, Rory's old boyfriend Logan Huntzberger just showed his cute little face on the new TV show, 'A Good Wife!!' It's that show that has Juliana Marguelise and Mr. Big! First time watching. Jury is still out on it. But I saw Logan. It is worth a second watch on that merit alone.