i have the attention span of a fly

I don't know how I survived and passed four years of university.
I'm sitting here in class (I have been on course for a week) and it's so hard to pay attention.
I find myself listening but then drifting off and I'm sure if the teacher looks at me he probably just sees a girl with her eyes staring unfocussed and blinking every other second as I try to fight off the sleep. Not to mention now I'm typing this blog and half listening (wonderful that you can now submit blogs via email.I fought the temptation until today..the last day of the course).

Although every now and then I'll look up and give what I think is my thoughtful look-where I give off the impression that I'm thinking deeply about the subject at hand (although configuration files is not that thought provoking). I don't think it's entirely my fault that I can't pay attention as there are several factors that come into play, namely:

a) the course is outdated as I am working on a much newer version of the product
b) listening to the teacher talk in his monotonous voice all day...although I've finally gotten used to his Texan drawl...and I keep thinking of things I'd much rather ask him-so who do you think it's gonna be: Bush or Kerry?!c)the ventilation in the classroom is messed so after lunch it hits around 26 degrees...so you can see why the sleep kicks in...

I guess it's also the passiveness that kills me. I prefer a more hands on approach to learning because there is only so much you can absorb without actually trying it....

alright, well back to my zombie state.

t-4 days until the "fat-ness" test.

So I signed up for a Fitness test at work the other day. You know the one-where they measure your skinfolds and tell you your %body fat, make you do all kinds of situps, pushups, stretches and cardio to determine your overall fitness level.

The dilemma:
One there were 2 choices: the complete exhaustive fitness test or the 15 minute one where you get a snapshot of your overall fitness. At first I was opting for the shorter one because I figured it would work more to my advantage because they are doing less tests and then extrapolating your results-which could only work in my favour ...riiight? Keyword: denial.
Anyways, that wasnt the major issue. Here's the one that I struggled with-at the end of the test they are able to assess your physiological age. Basically tell you how old your body is! I'm not sure if I'm ready to hear that. I mean I always get told that I look so young etc...do I really wanna be told that I look 25 but have the body of a 90 year old? Okay, fine I am exaggerating a wee bit but still is that something I really want to know? Or am I better off in my happy blissful state of denial? I guess it is better off knowing how bad/or good things are so I can always improve on them...But I'm thinking the chances of having a physiological age of 20 are slim to none.
Did I mention I've been hitting the gym more than regular lately? yes, i'm trying to skew my own results.
Truth be told.
I'll let you know what happens...(provided the results are good =)

Farewell Superman...

I just heard that Christopher Reeve passed away yesterday. I still remember watching my first Superman movie as a kid and from the get go I was hooked. From the 'Adventures of Lois and Clark' to the modern day 'Smallville'; I've always had a certain fondness for the man in tights. Even though the actors changed, it was Reeve who brought this comic book character to reality. Despite his paralysis, his courage and motivation made us believe that he would walk again someday. That's why when I heard the news I just couldn't believe it. I guess like for many other people he personified what Superman meant to all of us- a man of courage and strength.

Oprah.

Ever since Tuesday when I watched the season premiere of Oprah's 19th season, the beginning of a year of 'the wildest dreams', I've been trying to come up with creative ways of how to get myself on to the show. NO, not because I want a free car but ?? for some reason I feel like I'm entitled to something?
So far I've ruled out disease (don't have nor do I know anyone who does, thank God). I have my university degree, so an all expense paid university scholarship + Tyra Banks makeover + $10,000 warddrobe upgrade is out of the question. I don't have any super duper talents (they had a 3 year old on the show who could recite all the presidents) and again I don't have a house that is in need of a dire makeover. I can't sing so I'm doubtful of being Oprah's Next American Idol (and I'm not over 40-I have that going for me =) and I don't want to be the worst singer in (north) America......
Hmmm, the only possiblity is if I a) invent something or b) discover something. With the advent of the Internet, even that is impossible because just when you think you've thought of something (hasn't happend yet) you google it and lo and behold, it exists.
The only other thing I can think of is becoming a heroine and saving someone's life. (Un)Fortunately, in my profession there aren't very many life-threatening things that can go wrong (although I have seen some people who seem quite ragey and say some pretty scary things when there code doesn't compile) and I don't forsee any life saving events happening any time soon. Unless of course......heee hehe I 'plan it'.. Okay, that probably won't get me on Oprah but into jail and then I'll be on the episode featuring 'the things crazy fans do' for being some crazed fan who desperately wanted to be on the show (although that sounds more like Maury- great, I'm definitely 'Maury' material).

I have an idea for Oprah. Why not have a show for us 'regular' Joe's and Jane's. We may not be the best singers/atheletes/discovers/life savers but we sure know how to be good viewers. 'Viewer' Appreciation day. I'm for it and throw some of your 'semi'-favorite things at us-we'll take'em!

it's time for my blog to experience a lil tlc make-over story.

seeing as how i've been in the 'real' world for over 2 years now, i guess it's time to accept it and 'move on'......So I decided to rename my blog and see where it takes me...of course I will still have my work-related blogs (seeing as how I spend most of my time there...) and more of my thoughts, feelings, experiences with the world and those around me.........

Enjoy!

so like where did time go? i guess that's what happens in the 'summer' begins, when festivals hit town and the last thing you want to do is sit in front of your pc longer than you have to. I guess it's especially harder now since I can't blog at work* like I used to back in the day (the days of surfing more, working less) but I do have lots of stories that I would like to share. Some that I probably shouldn't, for those implicated would forever disown me as a friend..... =) how about pseudnoyms and no 'real' names. I said 'summer' because the weather has been questionable of late..but I guess I'll take what I get. It kinda amused me when a coworker from Brazil remarked that their fall was warmer then the weather today (high of around 25), I then turned around her and asked her how many months she was gonna be here for. She responded with "five" and I said, "honey, you'll see what fall really is-hey maybe you'll even get to see snow' (I'm not worried about the snow part). And I think I might have said the 'honey' part in my head. How much of that last conversation actually happened I don't recall. So I went to OKA 'beach' today, for those of you that don't know, or for those of you that happened to randomly stumble across this page when what you were really searching for was I dunno let's just say-you came here by accident, I don't exactly live in the Caribbean...Anyways, what I want to say is, to me the definition of beach forever changed after taking a trip down down down south to Cancun, Mexico last year (find the blog..). Beach now implies blue water (duh isnt it always blue?!), what I mean is water where you can actually see the bottom for a long time and there's no slimey, greenish life forms that snag and wrap themselves around your ankles leaving you feeling all squeamish and paranoid...Beach implies soft sand that caresses your feet as you walk through it and not hard, packed and occasionally filled with shards of glass or branches that leave you tiptoeing your way into the seaweed filled water. To think all those years of visiting Plattsburgh beach, I was under the impression that I had lived and been to the 'beach'..."So what did you do this summer, Sandy?" my grade 5 teacher probably asked me. Grinning ear to ear, I must have remarked-"i went to Plattsburgh beach", being much wiser and probably more world-travelled than I, my teacher probably sympathized with me and shared my enthusisam but was probably thinking-"you poor, poor child, so much to learn!" Not to say my memories of the beach are bad but it's just funny how reality changes when you've seen better....So the trip to Oka today was a work thing (a team building activity), and it turned out to be fun despite the occasional bouts of rain and running to protect the food. I guess I've come to realize that if you're gonna live on this coast, you've got to accept the cold, the wet and the rainy. (And a stuffed nose in the middle of july).

Alright, enough ranting, must go check out the festivals (that is definitely something we have in abundance!)

=)

*did I mention that my 2 year working anniversary passed recently?! I have been working at this company for 10 months and have moved 3x! I had an office (with a room-mate), then got moved to a new group with a new office with the best view (and thought to myself, things are looking good-I'm moving up in the world) and 2 months later (I still had my boxes) I now find myself back where I started....good ol' cubes....It's a Dilbert world, I tell you.........

go habs, go!

So my brief one week stint as a hockey fan came to a crashing end when the Lightnening struck and eliminated the Habs from the series with a 4-0 win. I never thought the day would come when I would be cheering, yelling and sitting on the edge of the sofa or actually lining up at a sportsbar to get in and watch the game on a big screen.

Next bandwagon to jump on-baseball anyone?? =)

i got a gmail!

So this apparent April fools hoax is actually true. Google is testing out a new email service that offers 1Gig of email storage...That pretty much blows the competition away (and they want us to pay :$29.99 a year for what?!)
So because I'm a blogger I get to test out this new email.......And the beauty of it is I get to actually use MY name and not some suggested one with _2004 or smthg (although the 2 in my email address was of my choosing =)

Did somebody say FREE?

Yup, it can only mean one thing-it's that time of year again, folks. Ben & Jerry's FREE Ice cream day!

ANd you know what that means-summer is (almost) here!

yipee ya ya yay!

"You want to have your cake AND eat it, too"

This has to be one of the most misused AND most annoying expressions in the English language.

I just find it drives me crazy when people use this expression without really understanding
what it means. I mean I've been told countless times that I want to have my cake and eat it, too-when it doesn't even apply.
For example, if I remark-I hope that someday I am really successful and have a big house (under pressure I could not think of a *real* example)...only to be responded with-'You want your cake....-" but what this person really means--is "you want it all" or "you are not content with your current situation".

BUT that's not what "YOu want to have your cake and eat it, too" really means. What it does mean-is you want to have it both ways. Ie, you want to go out and party the night before your exam and do well the next day when you write it. OR you want to buy that gorgeous top and you want to save your money. I mean being told that I want to have my cake would make sense had I said-I want to be successful and have a big house but not have to work a day in my life for it..........

Another thing is-people hear that expression and say-well, of course I want to have my cake and eat it-Assuming that the cake is some real tangible thing sitting in front of you and why can't you eat it...But that's not the case-it's just a matter of wanting it all without having to compromise.

Just thought I'd share...

Now gotta go......eat some cake =)

'Swedish' massage anyone?

Ironically, I had my first Swedish massage here in Montreal, despite spending 3 weeks in Stockholm.
I had asked my coworkers while I was there where I could get one of these infamous 'Swedish' massages and they
just looked at me in disbelief and said-' a what?'

I then explained to them how back home they are really popular and how we have a Scandinavian Spa
here etc... and how it's the biggest thing. They still didn't really understand and concluded that it was probably just the style that was associated with Sweden but was not necessarily labelled as such for them.

WHat they did tell me was that they were very into Japanese treatments and you could find plenty of those........

i'm baaaack!

Well, after a lil hiatus I'm back and ready to blog! And what a month it has been-spent 3 weeks in Stockholm, turned 25!!! (while I was in Stockholm, I might add, so the whole mid-mid life crisis thing somehow got downplayed-it's hard to complain when everyone you're working with is 35+ ) AND the hibernation period is almost behind us.......

So stick around for some updates/pics from my (business) trip and of course my insightful stories =)

Happy GroundHog Day!

I'm pleased to announce that the ground hog saw, (or was it didn't see?!) his shadow! In any case, we're supposed to get an early spring-only six more weeks of winter! yippeee!

Now someone please explain to me why we need meterologists when we have animals prediciting the weather for us?!

I mean we could follow the lead of birds and go down south for the winter, or like bears and get fat all fall and then hibernate and live off that fat for the winter months (hmm...sounds pretty doable :) ....or like this groundhog, live in a hole for like 6 months, crawl out-make a 50-50 prediction and then come back out when the weather is nice.......

we're doing it all wrong!

In any case, I hope this ground hog is right because you know what I'm getting ready for-yup, dare i say it-sandals and capris! off with the layers, i say!

alright, alright, I'll get a grip....after all, 6 weeks can turn into 2 months real fast........

Happy Hibernating :)

sarcastic road signs?!

So there I was making my usual journey to work, when I noticed that the usual message of "BLACK ICE" or "TRAFFIC CONGESTION ON THE ...." wasn't being displayed on the information sign as I crossed over the bridge.

Instead, today it read-"TRAFFIC MOVING WELL.......IN THE METRO".

I didn't know what to think! I kinda half-smiled and thought-ha, clever way to get people thinking about public transit...but I guess it would have been more effective had traffic been moving at a snail's pace but ironically enough, traffic (or lack there of) was moving quite smoothly.

Well, I guess someone's getting their kicks....I'm just thinking of all the people who just didn't get it..........

lotto update.

no, they didn't win!
you could imagine my relief when i came into the office and lo and behold there were my co-workers scurrying about
as usual....

there was some mention of the upcoming $30 million draw though. but i guess most were disillusioned and figured it just wasn't worth the investment :)

I missed out on the office lotto pool today. When I got the email, the sceptic in me was like-'Ah, we're not gonna win! What are the chances? I'll just 'save' my dollar...' (Moments later I found myself at the vending machine, but I digress ) Everyone on my team contributed $1 in hopes of winning the big $25 million.
So now, I see people walking around, waving the sheet with the 'winning' numbers and their eyes glimmering with the hopes of winning big. That's what lotto Quebec does- for $1 you can buy a dream. Isn't amazing what a dollar can do? I mean, for the next week, you are dreaming the dream and hoping big and imagining how different and great your life will be when you win (you are definitely thinking positive and thinking-when and not if). When the numbers don't come through, you toss the sheet aside and continue along in your current reality, until next week's draw. There's always the burning question-
'what if?'
Normally, I wouldn't care and wouldn't have thought much about it but because the thought did cross my mind 'what if they do win?', I am starting to think it may be a possiblity and my sceptiscm might just come back and haunt me. No one likes a sceptic, right?
So basically, if in the off chance they do win, looks like I'll be the only one coming in on Monday, while the rest of my
team is off on some cruise or smthg!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I guess this is the anti-lotto dream. And I'm beginning to see how they get you sucked in....................

interesting....

What Famous Leader Are You?

I experienced the 4-stages of traffic induced lunacy today.

'In the U.S'...

you don't know how many conversations I have had in the past 5 months with my office-mate,
a newly arrived Montrealer from the US (that is such an American thing to say-I'm going to
CANADA!...he's from Dallas, Texas) that have begun with that statement and have ended with me saying-'Welcome to 'Canada'...Don't get me wrong, I love Canada (I hope you do realize I mean Montreal :) but I guess for someone coming from the U.S there are a few lifestyle adjustments that need to be made.

Namely: I've discovered that you can buy stamps from vending machines in the U.S!
Imagine that, all those times you've so desperately wanted to mail something and the post
office is closed and you have to wait until the next day to buy your 0.45$ stamp.
My shock was-people still send letters?!

k, i'll be serious.

I had to explain to my coworker that Canada is a much smaller country than the U.S and with only 35million people compared to their 200+, there just isn't as big a demand for all these services nor a market for everything under the sun.
He was shocked that we were only 35million peeps (how much research did he do when he moved here?! ...at least he was prepared for the weather ..but i'll get to that)

Anyways, so my coworker remarked how he had heard so many great things about 'Canada'; less
crime, medicare, $5/day daycare etc.
So you can imagine his dismay when he was refused by many doctors who were no longer accepting any more new patients. One day, he gets a call from his daughter's school because she was having major stomach pains and they needed to pick her up. My coworker and his wife decided to take her to the ER, and waited 5-6 hours before they got to see a doctor. My 'rents woulda just sat me on the toilet, if you know what I mean..

So the next day, he tells me-'In the US, it would have been in and out...'
and I go-'ya,but it would have also cost you $1000!'
He agreed. (points, points, points Canada!)

It gets better (or worse, depending on how you look at it). His younger son is of day care age. So my coworker decided to apply for the $5/day daycare. You could imagine his disappointment when he was put on a huge waiting list (until his kids are probably no longer of age) and instead has to pay $30/day (these kids are not napping on blankets, i'm sure!)
the catch:
At the end of last year, the government announced they were raising the price of $5/day to $7.
My coworker gets a call from his daycare informing him of a rate hike from $30 to $40!!
After rough calcuations, he discovered that that comes out to ~10K a year.
I then chimed in-'That's more than university!'

That is crazy! I think I was shocked to know that my university education cost less than daycare. He was then shocked to learn how little I had to pay for my university education considering 'in the U.S' almost everyone comes out with some kinda debt.
Forget that! He then laughed and said he's gonna be in debt before his kids are out of diapers!

Welcome to 'Canada'.

brrrrrrrrrrr................... it's cold


Just thought i'd come out of hibernation for a bit and say hello to my readers (you know who you are!)
hope everyone's enjoying the deep freeze.. I mean what better time than now to snuggle up in a warm blanket with a good book, by a cozy fire and drink some hot chocolate/apple cider....

see ya!

happy hibernating!

On a similar note, after checking out today's front page Gazette, I realized how fortunate I really am. The homeless man that you see in the background, was a fixture on my daily walks to con u. Over my four years I saw him on St.Cat, sometimes with shoes, other times with nothing but garbage bags wrapped around his feet. Seeing him again on the front page is a reminder of how lucky we really are . I mean we complain about the cold, but when it comes down to it, at the end of the day we know we have warm houses waiting for us, and our cars to take us there. It's heartbreaking to think that there are so many people who have no where to go and no warmth at the end of their day and that in this day and age there are still people who have to suffer without their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter being met.

8 days into the New Year..

Resolutions Broken: 0

Pretty good, eh?

Resolutions Made: 0

Why?

This year I've decided to accept my imperfections and not try to live up to some unattainable goals made by society. I'm not gonna strive to be like some women on the cover of a magazine (not that i ever was) ...but you know what I mean..So what if there is a lil extra fat on my hips...it might actually help keep me warm in this weather!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe another year has flown by!

Resolutions?

I'll get back to you! I'm still working on last year's!

Wishing y'all the best...........

Season's Greetings y'all!

I decided to go with a pc greeting. Apparently, it's the latest thing, cause you don't wanna offend someone who just might not be partaking in the festivities of December 25th. That being said, what about January 1st? Because even the New Year is celebrated at different times of the year for many different cultures and religions.

Nonetheless, whatever you may be celebrating this holiday season, I hope it's merry!
And filled with good friends, good food and lots of fun.

Cheers!

By the way, I made it sound like I was signing off and going 'away' for awhile. Au contraire, I will be here in full force...
'working' during the holidays.

be seeing ya!

i am in a ranty-mood.

i wasn't sure what to call this blog, i was debating between a) Why I hate winter b) Why did my parents choose to leave a hot, warm country and settle for the extreme opposite, when there were such OBVIOUS choices that reflect the similarities of the fertile soils of Punjab....WEST COAST, anybody? (I ask my parents this question, I'd say at least once a year :) c) why the traffic man is always right.

I realized some of those titles were a little on the longish side, so I decided for 'Why I hate winter'.

So yesterday's storm aside (in case you were under a rock, or a snowbank-we got at least 35 cm snow), I can deal with..So this morning, I hear the traffic-man announce 'traffic is bad from the south shore, at least an hour, so if you're tempted to hit the snooze..go for it...'
It was almost 8:20, so I decided to enjoy my breakfast and read through the paper. By 8:45, I figured traffic must have let up and thought to myself-how do they really know it's an hour wait??..........I'll head on out...

So I get in my car, after scraping it clean and decide to back out of the driveway, only to get my two front tires stuck on what looked to be a relatively small pile of snow.

Lesson 1:

What goes in, doesn't always come out.

or Mother nature will not cooperate with my procrastinating efforts

The day before I had managed to get my car into the driveway without having to lift a shovel, though, I might add that I did have to sorta gun it to get all the way up. I guess I must have been delusional and thought that it would've melted by the morning. So, of course, I had to get out and shovel my car out of the mini-snow bank. But that was nothing compared to what happened after. SO there I am driving down my street, and all of a sudden from the corner of my eye I see a car coming full speed out of their driveway (not backing out, cause the car was parked forward-facing out) cause obviously this driver didnt look past their mountains of snow to see whether the coast was clear (or they had their own little pile of snow to drive over real fast)... This left me with no choice but to swerve in the direction of another snow bank on my right as she was headed towards my driver side.....In the end, no damage was done, but I was quite enraged by her lack of attention.

So I continued on my not-so merry way, only to find myself in a parking lot. No, I didn't decide to do some early morning shopping. I was on the 132 approach to the bridge and it was 9AM.

Let's just say I only got my turn to cross over at 9:45. That's 45 minutes of ??? (I forgot my weights :) and contemplating b (see possible subject heading).

Moral of the story? The traffic man is always right.

you know traffic is bad when...

you find yourself bobbing your head and singing along to that new song (if you can call it that) by BareNaked Ladies..
In case you are unaware (you don't know how lucky you are), the lyrics go something like this:

You can't imagine so many monkeys in the daily mail
All of them coming anonymously so they leave no trail
I never thought I'd have an admirer from overseas
But someone is sending me stationary filled with chimpanzees.

This has got to be THE most annoying song ever!
ANyone out there care to explain what they are even talking about?!

On second thought, you know what? It doesn't matter. I'd hate to be the one to get that song stuck in your head (it might be too late..hehehe...)

another postcard with chimpanzeeeeees

There I am singing, again! ahhhh! It's gonna be a looong ride home!

Strange things observed while driving:no.1 in a series.

It's been about 2 months since I've been driving to work and so far it's been going good.
Despite the often long waits in traffic, the close calls with death-courtesy of the many truck drivers who think signalling means when you've already changed lanes and are practically on top of the car..
I haven't experienced any (serious) bouts of road rage or fits of anger. Is it possible that I've turned into a seasoned
Quebec driver? That I have joined the likes of the many who randomly swerve in and out
of lanes, indecisive of which one is faster (ultimately none)?

I think I've maintained some sense of road-etiquette, knowing how it feels not to be 'let in', I am the type of driver who will actually let the poor car in-like a normal driver should (before their lane turns into a wall).....and in exchange am acknowleged with the hand (no, not the finger). I've realized, I'm a receiver of the hand, but not a giver...and sometimes when I don't get it, I feel unappreciated and don't let the next car in.....(traffic can get to you..)

Anyways, apart from the usual head bobbing to the music, I don't think I've observed anything as amusing as today.

So there I am on the approach to the Champlain Bridge, this can take anywhere from between 5-20 minutes depending on the hour, day, week, alignment of the stars.... :)

I just happen to look over because something in the car next to mine caught my attention..
I had to do a double take....The woman in the car next to me was PLUCKING her eyebrows.
I've seen this on the bus, which I still don't understand-now why take the risk of losing an eye (montreal potholes??)
all for the perfect arch...

but while you're DRIVING?! I understand that traffic was almost at a standstill...but still!

Applying makeup, drinking coffee, singing, even eating-I've seen (and maybe even done a few)
but I don't think I've ever considered anything as painstaking as doing my eyebrows while driving..

It's a sign of the times....or lack thereof. I guess when this lady woke up she figured she could squeeze in 5 more minutes of zzzs if she did her 'brows in the car. Now that's what you call multi-tasking, good planning and let's not forget patience...a well-defined arch is not easy to come by (especially with the pressures of traffic..)

To think everyday I've been wasting at least 40 minutes of my day in traffic (one-way), when there's so many other things I could be doing at the same time...

Maybe I'll throw a set of weights into my passenger seat..and do a few bicep curls on my way in......

:)

MOUSE HUNT

Well, it has been awhile since I've blogged. I guess it's cause I've been caught up in the work/domestic life.

what? you say..well, more details on that later, but first i must address the issue of my subject.

THERE'S A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE!!

or rather the mouse is still in the house...(for those of you that already know..)

A few weeks ago, Ange was over and we were enjoying yet another great episode of Smallville, when I heard a rustling noise coming from the kitchen. Prior to this, I had kinda brought up the idea of there being a mouse, describing to her the little black dot like things we had discovered near the garbage....This description and the noise was confirmation enough, there was definitely a mouse in the house..

So the next day, I found myself at Walmart in the cleaning products section (one that I've become all too familiar with), looking at the array of mouse traps. Although I had a variety of products to choose from, I decided to go for the standard cheese-trap. You know the one, where the mouse nibbles on the cheese and WHACk! off goes his head. Okay, maybe not so drastic but definitely the end of our mouse troubles...

So we decided to bait the trap with none other than your favorite Kraft Singles..We set the trap and expected to catch Mickey in no time...

Let's just say the mouse was smarter than we thought. The next day I made my brother check the situation (hey man..im scared of anything that crawls..except cute babies)....I was braced for the worst, and the sight of a be-headed mouse gave me the chills.

So my bro opened the closet where the mouse had made it's residence and lo and behold-the cheese was gone and trap hadn't even worked! The trap was still ready and waiting to be triggereD!

That night I went to bed early and I guess around midnight my brother decided to go downstairs for a snack. I woke up as I heard the cupboards slamming, and all kinds of ruckus coming from the kitchen and started to feel enraged..'how inconsiderate!' I tossed and turned and fitfully fell back to sleep.

The next morning I came downstairs, the kitchen was a mess, there were 2 eggos popped out of the toaster..it looked like a war-zone. All i could think was-'ugh, boys!' I hastily threw my lunch together and was off to work.

Later that day, I received an email from my brother-here's an excerpt-

'YO! the mouse is prancing around like it owns the place! I was at war with yesterday!
Go to Walmart and buy more traps, better yet-go buy a gun!'

Although, I don't think Walmart sells guns anymore, ammo yes-but alot good that's gonna do me!

This explained everything from the night before. I guess even a grown 6footsmthg 'man' can be afraid of a (cute? lil?) mouse.....

So now we had to move on to plan b.

I found myself at Walmart again, only this time going for something a little more lethal, a trap that required the mouse to enter it to get the food and get stuck because the entrance would get blocked by its weight. ONly this time the bait wouldn't be cheesy, something else..a lil more deadly.

Did I mention the looks I would get when I would ask for the section 'that has mouse traps'..Let's just say a few eyebrows were raised.

Oh and my brother came up with what he thought would be a great idea-he wanted to borrow our neighbours cat. I was over at their house and the subject came up (word travels fast) and guess what I found out-the CAT brings mice INTO the house. ALIVE!

Scratch that off the list.

SO the hunt for Mickey continues...........

I'll keep you posted.

Fall Back....

I looked at my calendar today and for some reason 'DayLight Savings Time Ends' just doesn't invoke the same feelings as 'Victoria Day' or 'Canada Day' and 'ThanksGiving Day' .

I guess a small part of the reason is there is no day off to reflect/or celebrate the occasion but more so because it really marks the beginning of winter. Say what you want, but we really only have two distinct seasons;
either you're layered up..or layered down.

The other two are just kinda get you warmed up or cooled down for what's coming up next.....but once the sandals come off it's pretty much winter from here till about May :)

The calendar might also say that September 21st is the beginning of Fall and December 21st is the beginning of Winter. Well, for me 'Daylight SavingsTime Ends' Day is the true marker.

Maybe it's the darkness that settles in at 4PM, or something so final about the 'ends' part in the name. They could have called it 'Get over it. Summer's (really) over day' because up until this day don't we have this little glimmer of hope that maybe summer isn't really over and that maybe warmer weather is still on it's way? I mean isn't that what 'Indian Summer' is all about in mid-October? Giving us that one last fix of summer warmth before we don our parkas and begin our long period of hibernation.........Because once we turn the clocks back, we know it's a long way till May....

Happy Hibernating!

Another potential name.....See doesn't that invoke a lil more happiness? warmth, cozy blankets, a fire......That's what they should have called it...I think I'm on to something....Think of the ways this could be marketed! One more holiday to add to the list...Hallmark could have a field-day with this one..

" I just crawled out from under my blankets to wish you a warm day filled with lots of hot chocolate that is as sweet as you!"*

or more to the point

" I hope your car starts today.."

or "From my igloo to yours.....with love" and you could include your favorite pair of mittens.......

The possiblities are endless.

A 'happy hibernation' to one and all !!

*Note: Just to illustrate an example. I wouldn't actually use that line on anyone :)

the F-word.

It has got to be the greatest four letter word in the english dictionary.
I mean I can't think of any other word that has heads turning, people scrambling and scurrying about....

all to get there hands on something or other that they may or may not even need.

FREE.

What were you thinking?

I had my first free massage the other day at work.

Free. Massage. Work.

I mean what better combination is there? Getting fixed right at the source. I mean it is work that is causing me all kinds of neck, shoulder/arm problems...right?

Enough said.

All I know is I will be scurrying to the caf to sign me up for another one this week :)))

Cuz this is one free thing that I sure need!

spa weekend getaway

Ange summed up nicely our spa weekend getaway to Mt.Tremblant, a few weekends ago. However, there are a few things I would like to add to her account in breaking the silence in our defense.

We were not the ONLY ones screaming like little school girls after immersing ourselves in the cold water treatment. In one of our later 10 minute rest periods, I found myself with my eyes closed, entering that daydream phase, when I came crashing back to reality after hearing the intermittent shrieks of some other victim of the cold water treatment. I glanced around the room at the girls and we all shared a collective smile/sigh of relief-glad that we weren't the only ones. However, they were not reprimanded by the 'bald, stern-looking man'. Oh, well.

Check out the pics of our weekend for some great fall colours and of course us taking every chance at making everything a photo shoot.....You gotta love digital :)