www.sillyspot.com

It’s Over!

Another Christmas has come and gone… and turkey was delicious as usual! We had my brother over for the weekend before Christmas and then headed to my parents for a few days. I think the highlight (which I missed because I was out of the room!), was my brother getting the Zoey 101 DVD that he has been asking for since July when he was here! He did a reenactment for me though… and luckily had the same reaction when he opened the 2nd DVD later on! I’m glad it was a white Christmas and all of the snow leading up helped get some atmosphere going! As always, I will be heading to Bronner’s in March to finish all of my Christmas spirit up for the year! Now for a week of relaxing before heading back to work!

Deck the Hall’s…

What a whirlwind of a weekend. We took off Saturday morning for 24 hours in Toronto. We headed to the Convention Centre to meet Rohan, Bryan, Amanda and Dave for the motorcycle show. I guess this is the best show of the three the group went to last year. You can get on any bike to see how they feel - Doug was only missing that you couldn’t start them and hear them purr. Pictures to come soon!! Although I don’t ride, I did find myself a nice low comfy Suzuki… We checked into our hotel and then headed to a local pub so Doug could get some unfiltered, unpasturized beer… After afternoon snacks, the gang left for Guelph and Doug and I headed to the Eaton’s centre so I could see the windows and the Christmas tree! We wandered around Nathan Phillip’s Square and checked out the lights before getting ready for Doug’s work party. Thanks to Kristen for my new outfit this year! I think my favourite thing about Doug’s work parties are that you get a dessert sampler plate - four mini desserts… yummy!!! We could see the CN Tower from our hotel room and it does a light show most of the night so I kept the curtains open so I could watch! We popped in on my parents on the way home - rested for a bit and then headed out to a Christmas concert in Kitchener. We’re a little tired - Doug probably more so as he headed out at 5:30 this morning! We’re off to Black Creek Pioneer Village next weekend to find some more Christmas cheer!

Saw Narnia this afternoon - and I loved it. It’s like Harry Potter, but the things I disliked about Harry, I loved with Narnia. Harry was too dark, too overt in the evil/good extremes, an adult’s movie marketed to kids, too Hollywood (all adrenaline, poor character development, no continuity in plot, etc.) - Narnia is so much superior. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that Harry is an overworked theme, and Narnia is fresh, creative, imaginative, rich in details, true to the root of the book, and full of cuteness that makes you smile (Harry just made me sad and scared).

I built the desk for my man-space (or rather, super-man-space) and it is HOT! I’ll upload some pictures when I get a chance, but it’s really more than what I hoped for. There’s room for expansion, too.

Gotta go to work for the next 3 days. It should be quiet and productive and fun and short and fast. Then next week I’m off for a week’s vacation! Woo hoo!

Oh, I’m almost finished reading the book “A Million Tiny Pieces” (or something like that)… and it’s so raw and real. It really builds an attachment to the main character without having to flower it up with a plot (who really wants a plot anyways??). It’s rampant with swearing, but only to the extent that it really happened - I think it is an autobiography (of sorts). Anyways, really good.

Christmas was good… as Jenn said, I’ll be in my kitchen alot.

And are Boxing Day sales just regular sales with 10x more hype? Best Buy and Future Shop are the worst for the hype.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope Santa was good to all of you! Doug and I both did very well - we must have been extra good this year or hid things well from his elves. Doug will be spending the rest of his holiday in the kitchen with all of his new toys! I will be smelling wonderful with all the Bath and Body Works stuff I got!!

Make-Believe

There has been some debate on a few webpages about Santa. Although I don’t agree with you, it has made me think - how far are people willing to go? If you take away Santa ‘because he is not real’, what else are you taking away? Do you take away imagination, make-believe, pretend tea parties, etc? Does no one escape to a make-believe world to get away from the real world? Isn’t there going to be enough pain and suffering in ones adult life that they can take time to live in the make-believe world. I love so many Christmas movies because they take me to a world of creativity and imagination. I don’t always want to watch the news and see who is being executed, who is still at war, and how some body lost their life at such a young age. There is so much trauma in the world already that I don’t see the problem with escape some times.

Christmas Atmosphere

Doug and I headed to Niagara for the day! We went to Niagara-on-the-Lake first for a walk (bought some yummy fudge) to get some Christmas spirit. Lots of great decorations! We then drove to Niagara Falls - very pretty with ice all around. For dinner we went to the Rainforest Cafe. It is a place we went to a few times on our honeymoon so we like to go back now that it is in Canada. We hadn’t been in a few years so it was nice to go again. After dinner we strolled through the casino, through a few stores, and then stopped at Starbuck’s to warm up a little. We walked by all of the lights and attempted to drive by some others but the line was TOO long. It was quite pretty though and a perfect day. A little chilly in some parts but Doug lent me his thicker mittens! What a good boy. I gave him the rest of my caramel mocha…

Party on till the break of dawn…

Jenn’s luck is amazing - gift baskets, t-shirts, shop vac, and last night - a cappuccino/expresso maker. It was my work party - $40/person seats with $15/person food, no winnings from the door prizes, but I encouraged Jenn to buy raffle tickets and she selected which prizes to try for. There were DVD players, CD/clock radios, about a dozen gift certificates and movie passes, basketball tickets, lacrosse tickets, and a cappuccino maker. She put most of the stubs in for that, and came out the winner. I was jumping up and down, like a fool in front of my colleagues (but heck, all the IT people (5 of us and our spouses) were fun, but most everyone else seemed so sedate - they needed something to inspire enthusiasm), and then we (I moreso, being the fool that I am) kept on jumping and grooving on the dance floor till midnight. Then my carriage turned into a pumpkin but my cappuccino maker was not just a memory. Neither will the incriminating pictures on Monday result in just a memory - sigh, what have I done?

Christmas Open House

Keep December 17th open. We may be having a Christmas Open House that day - probably during the afternoon and/or evening. Lots of food and wine and music. Confirmation of date/time will be forthcoming. It would be great if y’all could come. Let me know ASAP if you can’t make it. Requests for food items will be considered.

Did you miss me??

I am back from my week away and am feeling more relaxed than when I left which is great! I start my next placement on Monday and have six weeks of hard work ahead of me (4 weeks of placement followed by my last two weeks of school!). So rest was definitely in order.

Here are some holiday highlights:

Terrifying Ski Masks

This has to be the funniest thing I’ve seen in years: McCall’s Needlework & Crafts from 1965. This is SO on my Christmas list for 2005!

How Many Sleeps??

There are only 358 sleeps until Christmas! WOOHOOO!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was wonderful this year. We went to my parents the day of the big storm. We left here against advice of others and managed to have clear roads and sunny skies all the way to Toronto. We did hit icy roads once in Toronto but it was worth it as Doug got to pick up his new mixer. I’m sure he will go into lots of detail about it, but that was the main reason we ventured out during rain, sleet, and snow. Once we left the kitchen outlet, we were slow and steady on snow covered roads and actually ended up making a u-turn on a hill on Yonge Street as no one was getting up the hill on either side… we managed to find our way to familiar territory and safely make it to my parents. Phew!

Let’s see… some highlights of our holidays. We rented Elf and Doug is convinced now that I am an elf. There are some similar characteristics between Elf and I. Hmm… I definitely agree that one of the four food groups is candy. Oh, we also saw Meet the Fockers. It was funny but not quite what I expected. The humour was different in this movie than the first but funny in it’s own right. We had another family outing and went bowling. My brother has always been champion bowler and proved himself to be so again by beating Doug and I pretty badly. Luckily my Dad saved us from shame and beat my brother in the second game. I won’t tell you my score but I will tell you it was only two digits… both games. Very sad… but it was fun.

Doug and I ate at Lick’s… TWICE! Yummmmm! It is so sad that they never replaced the one here in Kingston. I guess it does make eating there that more special though. I tried the turkey burger and didn’t like it as much. It had a different taste… At least I tried something new though!

On our way home, we stopped at the new Vaughan Milsl mall. It was awesome! I guess the best part was Bass Pro Sports. It is an outdoor store from the States and it is HUGE. It has such great atmosphere as well with a big lodge type entrance and outdoorsy interior as well. They had a little trout stream, a large aquarium, and a shooting range game that reminded me of something you would find at Disney. There was so much outdoor stuff… it is hard to believe that Torontonians would want a store like that but it was packed. They have fishing, boating, boats, motors, hunting (rifles, camo, bows), clothing (Columbia), camping gear, and the list goes on! We spend most of our time in there. The mall has a lot of upper end stores but the atmosphere changes in each section of the mall. Some of it is carpeted, some has hardwood, etc. It was just nice to go somewhere different to poke around. There is supposed to be some Nascar track or something opening soon as well.

I’m so proud of Belarus

CBC Sports: Belarus shocks U.S. at world juniors

Belarus stunned the hockey world on Wednesday by upsetting the defending champion United States 5-3 at the world junior championship in Grand Forks, N.D.

The victory ranks as one of the most amazing upsets in the history of the world junior championship, as Belarus had previously never won a round-robin game at this tournament.

Belarus’ amazing upset victory, sparked by Andrei Kastsitsyn’s goal and two assists, also broke the Americans’ eight-game winning streak. The U.S. went 6-0 en route to winning the gold at the 2004 championship and won its first two games at this year’s tournament.

We’re Back!

We are back from our holidays safe and sound. Just wanted to let people know we are still alive. I will write more soon!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We did.

Holiday Intentions

Well, this year I haven’t been as organized but I think I am ready for Christmas… now I just need to relax so I can enjoy it! I am going for a massage in a hour… so that will be a good start.

I have a lot of assignments due in January and I had good intentions of starting on those during the holidays but I think I just need to do nothing this holiday. I will let the stress hit in two weeks and start the process all over again! Luckily nothing is due the first week back. Phew!

I was up bright and early this morning and hit all of the stores that are open around 8. My Mom called at 8:30 and assumed I wasn’t out of bed yet (that was yesterday). It was nice to get out while there weren’t any crowds and leave the mall just as the mobs were arriving. I did pop into Wal-Mart mid day and YIKES!

Nothing much to report on but just wanted to let people know I’m still alive! Hopefully everyone is ready for Christmas. It has just started snowing here so hopefully it will be a white Christmas!

Hockey Gods Wished Me Happy Birthday

Last night the hockey gods wished me happy birthday. It was a great night of hockey - I had had a nap, so I was full of energy. Just before midnight, I stole the puck from a friend and colleague on a breakaway to the net shooting over the goalie’s glove into the top left corner. Then just after midnight I was in front of the goal, turned my back on the goalie to coral the puck, and this time backhanded the puck, again into the top left corner just over his glove. Two pretty goals to make me feel young and vivacious.

Knowing that the hunt is 1/2 the fun of a purchase, Jenn and her parents are allowing me to pick the KitchenAid mixer I want for my birthday, and I think this will be it. It’s more powerful, and cheaper - which means that I can get the accessories sooner.

I also got a great vegetarian cook book (The Moosewood Cookbook) that I’ve been known to lust over, an Asterix and Obelix book, some Ferrero Roche’s and Lindt Lindors, and 2 bottles of wine all from Jenn.

From my parents I got a $5 Tim Horton’s gift certificate.

Tonight for supper we went to Bistro Stefan and had a delicious dinner - steak, chicken, shrimp and a crepe appetizer with wine for me, and a Ceasar salad and French onion soup for Jenn. And in a few minutes we’ll have our brownie cheesecake.

Then it’s off to bed.

Just Hear Those Sleigh Bells Ringing…

Ah, Christmas is in the air! Can’t wait for holidays and a chance to go into a crowded mall and hear Christmas music non-stop. I’m going out for a Christmas party tonight with my old work buddies and then tomorrow night with the school that I’m on placement at.

Speaking of which, my Monday lesson went okay with my prof. He is the greatest. Very encouraging… sends personal e-mails to everyone … bakes goodies for class,etc. So only 6.5 more days and then it’s holidays! I can’t believe how fast time is zooming by. I think the next term will go pretty fast as well since I’m used to being in school right until June!

Magical

Yesterday Doug and I went for a walk at Lemoine Point. It is a nice wooded area along Lake Ontario. Anyway, when we turned around one bend on the path, low and behold was a Christmas tree! Someone had decorated a pine tree on a path in the park. It was fantastic! Reminded me of the Rudolph movie with the pine trees with ornaments… I loved it!

One Month

One Month until Christmas Eve! WOOHOO!! 17 days left of placement!

I’m teaching basketball today…should be um… interesting. It’s the orange ball right?

Jenn’s Birthday List

Well, it’s that time of year again (rather late actually) that I start posting myBirthday list.