today it took me 43 minutes to get to work. 43 minutes of my life spent sitting in a car staring at a never ending stream of slow moving break lights in front of me. it takes me 43 minutes to get to work because my current employer (for the next 2 work days) is on the other side of the city: 37 kilometers away from out house, to be exact.
this evening it took me 68 minutes to get home from work. 68 minutes. this was about 25 minutes longer than it normally takes me. all because of a little fender bender just past glenmore trail. i think that it took me a half hour to go the last 15 kilometers. it was more than painful. the only thing that kept me from unbuckling my seat belt, climbing out of the drivers seat, hoping the median and throwing myself into the oncoming traffic was the fact that in two work days i will only have to drive 15 kilometers to work. hardly any of that 15 kilometers will be on deerfoot trail. thank goodness.
i hypothesize that this 15 kilometers will take me, on average, 20 minutes to get to work. that is more than half as much time wasted sitting in traffic, more than half as many kilometer depreciating the value of my car and more than half as much money spent on gas every month.
and they say english majors aren't any good at math...
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
new goal
i am going to try and post an entry every day for the rest of december. actually, no - i am going to try and post an entry every day of december minus statutory holidays. i think that is much more realistic goal. yesterday's post showed me that blogging doesn't have to take a ton of time; even if it is short and sweet, as long as it is informative or entertaining, a post is a post. i think that this is manageable.
i cant believe it is december 6th. yesterday jesse and i bought our first batch of christmas decorations. normally, i am not christmas crazy. the majority of my girlfriends have had their christmas trees and lights up since november first - quiet honestly, it looks like father christmas drank too much eggnog and barfed christmas all over their homes. apparently, for them, there is not even a fine line between tacky and pretty, there is just no line at all. see, i am obviously not crazy about christmas decorating. but, for some reason, yesterday i got an itch so i decided to scratch. we got tree decorations, a tree stand and stockings.
of course, none of it is going up until december tenth. growing up, my mom refused to decorate the house until after december 9th, duncan's birthday; she just didn't think it was fair for him to have christmas everywhere during his birthday. this is something i think i am going to adopt. this way, i can actually enjoy my christmas decorations. it is not that i am a scrooge, i just like christmas where christmas is due and in my opinion, that is 12 - 15 days before christmas. i truly believe there is a reason there is a song called the 12 days of christmas.
i think jesse was really trying to put me in the christmas spirit because today he came home with a decoration for the tree that says "our first christmas together, 2011". it was in the shape of a heart. it was made by swarovski. it was in cursive writing. it was about as girly and non-jesse as you could get. obviously, i loved it!
sweet, right? he definitely made me a little bit merrier!
i cant believe it is december 6th. yesterday jesse and i bought our first batch of christmas decorations. normally, i am not christmas crazy. the majority of my girlfriends have had their christmas trees and lights up since november first - quiet honestly, it looks like father christmas drank too much eggnog and barfed christmas all over their homes. apparently, for them, there is not even a fine line between tacky and pretty, there is just no line at all. see, i am obviously not crazy about christmas decorating. but, for some reason, yesterday i got an itch so i decided to scratch. we got tree decorations, a tree stand and stockings.
of course, none of it is going up until december tenth. growing up, my mom refused to decorate the house until after december 9th, duncan's birthday; she just didn't think it was fair for him to have christmas everywhere during his birthday. this is something i think i am going to adopt. this way, i can actually enjoy my christmas decorations. it is not that i am a scrooge, i just like christmas where christmas is due and in my opinion, that is 12 - 15 days before christmas. i truly believe there is a reason there is a song called the 12 days of christmas.
i think jesse was really trying to put me in the christmas spirit because today he came home with a decoration for the tree that says "our first christmas together, 2011". it was in the shape of a heart. it was made by swarovski. it was in cursive writing. it was about as girly and non-jesse as you could get. obviously, i loved it!
sweet, right? he definitely made me a little bit merrier!
Monday, December 5, 2011
new job
i got a new job. starting december 12th i will be working at viking fire protection as the administrative coordinator. i know, you are picturing men wearing viking helmets running around with fire extinguishers but, in reality, it is a bunch of nerdy engineers hunched over drawing boards with protractors planning out industrial sprinkler systems for pretentious and important buildings (ie. the parliament buildings, swanky hotels, national art galleries, museums etc). although it is not the biggest, most impressive company in the world i think that i will learn some important business skills that will hopefully be a good stepping stone onto bigger and better things later. so, i am definitely looking forward to it. plus, shopping for the new "business casual" wardrobe won't exactly be a chore....
Sunday, December 4, 2011
by request
yesterday i got a text message from a friend and avid reader (hi sarah, thanks for reading!) begging me to update my blog because she missed reading it. i was surprised and flattered. lucky for her, i do have a few things i need to update everyone on...
first and foremost, our house is finally starting to feel like a home. it could have something to do with the fact that we have way more furniture than before, we have taken the time to hang pictures and arrange more decorations - honestly, it is about time considering we have almost lived here for a year. so, i suggest you click here for before pictures in order to enhance how impressed you are with our place (can you believe it once looked like that??)!!
until yesterday, we have never had furniture in our "formal" living room on the main floor. so, obviously, the first room i am going to tell you about is the one that is most exciting to me (although it is not done yet): our upstairs living room. on thursday our friend tyson let us know that his sister was looking to pawn off some old living room furniture on anyone that was willing to pick it up. obviously, we were willing to pick it up. i had fairly low expectations for the pieces and assumed that i would have to slip cover all of it since it was free. jesse and i agreed that if it was comfy, we would take it. well, it was definitely comfy so we loaded up the truck and took it home. immediately i called my mom and asked her to come help me find some slip covers so i could have a partially finished living room by dinner time (yes, i am that impatient). luckily, we found some really amazing slip covers and some even more amazing throw pillows!
the extra coffee table we brought up from the basement and the knitted throw really brought it all together in a short time span. sometime this week i am going to run over to my parents place and pick up an extra ottoman that my mom has laying around, recover it in a funky fabric and place it in front of the love seat. i also want jesse to build me some floating shelves to go on the wall over the three seater. i think that it will look amazing in a few weeks but i am pretty pleased with the room at the moment - it is a 1000% improvement from yesterday morning.
from the new living room you can see the kitchen. about 3 months ago my kitchen renovation could not have come soon enough but now, i am really happy with my kitchy and colourful kitchen.
we are planning on painting the back door blue to match the curtains and getting a clock to go the wall in the kitchen but for the most part, the kitchen is at the point where i want it to be much like our downstairs living room! a few months ago i found this really cool vintage couch on kijiji and i love it! it totally makes the room in my opinion.
now all we have left to finish (apart from a few finishing touches here and there) are the guest bedroom and the office. there is always more that can be done but i am so happy with our progress at the moment. i still cant get over the fact that we actually have furniture in all of our rooms.
so, we didn't just decorate our house this weekend, we also decorated ginger bread houses. i am going to go ahead and put up a disclaimer for the photos you are about to see - jesse took his half of his ginger bread house to a new level... we are huge fans of the walking dead but for some reason the zombie apocalypse and christmas just don't mix well...
all and all we had a good, productive weekend. next weekend we are decorating for christmas and putting up our tree so i am sure that i will be writing another entry again next weekend! have a wonderful week xoxo
first and foremost, our house is finally starting to feel like a home. it could have something to do with the fact that we have way more furniture than before, we have taken the time to hang pictures and arrange more decorations - honestly, it is about time considering we have almost lived here for a year. so, i suggest you click here for before pictures in order to enhance how impressed you are with our place (can you believe it once looked like that??)!!
until yesterday, we have never had furniture in our "formal" living room on the main floor. so, obviously, the first room i am going to tell you about is the one that is most exciting to me (although it is not done yet): our upstairs living room. on thursday our friend tyson let us know that his sister was looking to pawn off some old living room furniture on anyone that was willing to pick it up. obviously, we were willing to pick it up. i had fairly low expectations for the pieces and assumed that i would have to slip cover all of it since it was free. jesse and i agreed that if it was comfy, we would take it. well, it was definitely comfy so we loaded up the truck and took it home. immediately i called my mom and asked her to come help me find some slip covers so i could have a partially finished living room by dinner time (yes, i am that impatient). luckily, we found some really amazing slip covers and some even more amazing throw pillows!
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| although we took over her room, emi definitely likes the new furniture. |
from the new living room you can see the kitchen. about 3 months ago my kitchen renovation could not have come soon enough but now, i am really happy with my kitchy and colourful kitchen.
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| i got the curtains online from urban outfitters website, i love them |
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| i couldn't help but snap a picture of our cute breakfast - lattes (in our matching monogrammed mugs) and quiches |
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| emi looking guilty after getting caught attempting to snatch some quiche while i wasn't looking |
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| kijiji couch and the first piece of art we purchased together! |
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| jesse playing his games |
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| emi snoozing in her favourite chair. can you believe jesse wants to throw this gem out?! |
now all we have left to finish (apart from a few finishing touches here and there) are the guest bedroom and the office. there is always more that can be done but i am so happy with our progress at the moment. i still cant get over the fact that we actually have furniture in all of our rooms.
so, we didn't just decorate our house this weekend, we also decorated ginger bread houses. i am going to go ahead and put up a disclaimer for the photos you are about to see - jesse took his half of his ginger bread house to a new level... we are huge fans of the walking dead but for some reason the zombie apocalypse and christmas just don't mix well...
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| the little black man candies are supposed to be zombies. the teddy grams are supposed to be humans that the zombies are eating and the red candy is blood. |
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| this is about as unchristmasy as you can get. i must admit, he was fairly creative but i was still unimpressed haha |
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| my half of our gingerbread house, on the other hand, was more traditional. pretty delicious looking if you ask me! |
Saturday, November 5, 2011
our little "it"
i had my first ever semi "mother" moment - my fur baby underwent her first surgery and i was worried sick.
on the morning of the third, poor little emzilla went under the knife to get all hollowed out - literally. i thought they just snipped a couple things here and there and called it a day but no, it turns out they remove entire organs. apparently, this was a major surgery for a pup because they kept her all day, 8:30-4:30, to monitor her recovery. i know, this probably sounds a little overly dramatic since she is only a dog, but she is our dog. i almost cried when i picked her up at the vet - she was all doped up, had a bare, stitched up belly and a cute, little pink bandaid on her front leg covering the spot where her IV was inserted.
at first she wasn't so bad. yes, she cried the entire way home from the vet but once we got home she was so doped up that she just curled up into a ball on the foyer floor and didn't move for a few hours. jesse had to carry her upstairs (a fairly funny site since we just found out she is now 87 lbs) and she slept there until about 10 pm when she decided she had to pee and was a bit hungry. after that, jess carried her back upstairs where we figured she would quietly sleep the night away considering her dozy state earlier that day. well, we were wrong. at about 12:30 she decided she had to pee, then again at 2, then again at 3, then once more at 5:15. when the vet said that the sedatives they gave her could make her have to urinate frequently i thought it would be right away, not 12 hours after surgery in the middle of the night. for some reason i was the only person in our room that was able to hear her whine (something that shouldn't shock me since jesse is notorious for his heavy sleeping). when i complained to jesse the next day about my one sided parenting the night before he was completely oblivious to the fact that i even left the bed, let alone had mini conversations with him and turned on all the lights and simply said that this was good practice for motherhood and as much as i hate to admit it, he is probably right.
PS - the post underneath is our thank you card for the wedding! jesse and i just made it using www.shutterfly.com. if we consented, it automatically posted the link into my blog for us and gave us $10 off our next purchase, so, since i love a deal, i obviously consented and you all get a sneak preview! shutterfly was super easy and turned out really great - all we did was upload the wedding pictures we wanted to use onto the site and manipulated them into a premade template then customized the wording! they are shipping 50 to us in the next 7-10 business days and i will update you when they arrive on whether or not we are happy with the quality!
on the morning of the third, poor little emzilla went under the knife to get all hollowed out - literally. i thought they just snipped a couple things here and there and called it a day but no, it turns out they remove entire organs. apparently, this was a major surgery for a pup because they kept her all day, 8:30-4:30, to monitor her recovery. i know, this probably sounds a little overly dramatic since she is only a dog, but she is our dog. i almost cried when i picked her up at the vet - she was all doped up, had a bare, stitched up belly and a cute, little pink bandaid on her front leg covering the spot where her IV was inserted.
at first she wasn't so bad. yes, she cried the entire way home from the vet but once we got home she was so doped up that she just curled up into a ball on the foyer floor and didn't move for a few hours. jesse had to carry her upstairs (a fairly funny site since we just found out she is now 87 lbs) and she slept there until about 10 pm when she decided she had to pee and was a bit hungry. after that, jess carried her back upstairs where we figured she would quietly sleep the night away considering her dozy state earlier that day. well, we were wrong. at about 12:30 she decided she had to pee, then again at 2, then again at 3, then once more at 5:15. when the vet said that the sedatives they gave her could make her have to urinate frequently i thought it would be right away, not 12 hours after surgery in the middle of the night. for some reason i was the only person in our room that was able to hear her whine (something that shouldn't shock me since jesse is notorious for his heavy sleeping). when i complained to jesse the next day about my one sided parenting the night before he was completely oblivious to the fact that i even left the bed, let alone had mini conversations with him and turned on all the lights and simply said that this was good practice for motherhood and as much as i hate to admit it, he is probably right.
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| sad face for my puppy |
PS - the post underneath is our thank you card for the wedding! jesse and i just made it using www.shutterfly.com. if we consented, it automatically posted the link into my blog for us and gave us $10 off our next purchase, so, since i love a deal, i obviously consented and you all get a sneak preview! shutterfly was super easy and turned out really great - all we did was upload the wedding pictures we wanted to use onto the site and manipulated them into a premade template then customized the wording! they are shipping 50 to us in the next 7-10 business days and i will update you when they arrive on whether or not we are happy with the quality!
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Monday, October 31, 2011
happy hallow's eve!
halloween is one of my favorite holidays and this year we went all out since it was our turn to have the party at our place. on saturday jesse and i spent all day decorating, making our main floor into a dexter style "kill room". dexter is a serial killer that kills other serial killers for being serial killers (ridiculous, right?) and every time he murders someone he polys the room completely, knocks them out, ties them to a table and puts pictures of their previous murder victims on the wall so they understand why he is killing them. those of you who are unfamiliar with dexter probably wont get as big of a kick out of our "kill room" pictures as we do but oh well!
we had such a great time on saturday that we didn't have the energy to carve our pumpkins until tonight! even though jesse thought i was crazy, i got emi a pumpkin of her own! so, jesse made a triforce pumpkin (yes, that seems to be his halloween theme this year), i made myself a friendly frankenstein and emi a halloween cat simply for the irony of it!
we probably only got twenty kids; a SWAT team member, two iron mans, a green lantern, a graveyard fairy (basically a zombie with pink fairy wings), a spiderman, a "red and white angel" (i guess kids just make up their costumes sometimes), five zombies, an army man, a grim, a "nameless/ faceless ghoul" (again, either i am behind the times or these kids are incredibly creative for their age) and my favorite, a white fuzzy unicorn with a fabulous purple and pink mane - she bravely said "i like your puppy" while jesse held emi back since she was completely loosing her mind.
i am not sure how much emi liked halloween. i think she liked the little kids although she definitely was weary of their costumes and i know she more than disliked the constantly ringing doorbell. she definitely liked the pumpkins - all she wanted to do was lick the slime off the outside while we carved them. hopefully next year she is a little more laid back and doesn't aggressively / awkwardly lunge at the door almost scaring the little kids off the stoop every time the bell rings...
PS: UPDATE ON THOSE GREAT DANE PUPS - THEY GOT ADOPTED! read about it HERE <3!!!
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| our friend linsey (who went as a dead, zombie amy whinehouse) with our friends who couldnt be at the party aka our victims. |
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| mary, sarah, cecile and ellen went as a deck of cards! |
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| tinkerbell, tiger lily and louis lane |
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| the ugliest hooters girls with the smallest hooters |
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| tri force of triangles |
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| buzz lightyear, batman, superman and his alter ego clark kent |
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| occupy calgary! |
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| obviously, buzz got a bit too buzzed. |
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| emi kissing her pumpkin - i knew she'd enjoy it! |
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| halloween kitten |
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| friendly frank |
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| rasta pup |
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| stealing snickers |
i am not sure how much emi liked halloween. i think she liked the little kids although she definitely was weary of their costumes and i know she more than disliked the constantly ringing doorbell. she definitely liked the pumpkins - all she wanted to do was lick the slime off the outside while we carved them. hopefully next year she is a little more laid back and doesn't aggressively / awkwardly lunge at the door almost scaring the little kids off the stoop every time the bell rings...
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| all tuckered out after a long night of barking at trick-or-treaters |
PS: UPDATE ON THOSE GREAT DANE PUPS - THEY GOT ADOPTED! read about it HERE <3!!!
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