Newfoundland is fantastic! Some highlights include, whale breeching, whale watching, puffins, moose, jigs dinner, cod tongue (not my highlight - Doug’s), live music, George Street Festival, cardboard box boat races, the regatta day sale, chilling with Dena and her family, the ocean, lighthouses, great views, fog, rain, sun (all in one day).
I’m still a little groggy as we didn’t get to bed until 5:30 a.m. and refused to sleep the WHOLE day… but we just got back from a great week in Cuba! It was a nice relaxing holiday - we each read about 5 books!! Hopefully we get our pics uploaded soon. Nothing too exciting to show but Doug loved snorkeling and we took pics with an underwater camera.
We spent the last week in Kingston visiting our old stomping grounds and some friends. We ate at some old favourites and I went to my Starbucks twice in one day. Yeah! We stayed at a hotel for two nights and played on the water slide and then spent two nights with some friends north of Kingston. It was like staying at a B&B but better. We slept by the woodstove, the boys cooked, we went cross country skiing, played Dutch Blitz (it had been far too long). It was nice to hang out with Jen and Jamie as I hadn’t seen them since they got back from their year in Ethiopia (great safari pictures). There are some new things in Kingston that I would have enjoyed and I miss being in walking distance to others - I still have to find where everything is here! It was a nice week away and a nice combo of busy and relaxation. It was great to see everyone again !
Well, I’m off to bed so I guess that means I won’t see any of you until next year. Have a happy new year!
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?
I spent the last 48 hours in Buffalo getting a new wardrobe for the fall! My Mom and I managed to hit all of the sales at the big stores which was great!
I got to eat at the Cracker Barrel three times. I love that place. I also discovered a teacher consignment store - it was a little overwhelming, small, and cramped but would be worth a return trip when I have a better idea of what I need. My classroom seems well supplied at the moment so I only bought a few little things.
Our house is coming along great! It has a roof now. We are just waiting for the stairs so we can peak at the second floor. From what I see, our master closet is huge! We redesigned it a little and I think we’ll be happy with the results. We also made our bathrooms bigger and they are looking good as well. We tried out the six foot tub in the new model and it is more slanted than my last tub so hopefully we get this tub in my new bathroom as well.
Oh! I wanted to say hi to Terry! I haven’t written in SOOOO long! I will be in touch. Hope you and the girls are doing great!
I just looked at the school year calendar - nice! We get the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend off as well as the Friday before March Break off! Woohoo! That means I might be able to sneak to Kingsto Thanksgiving weekend! I could come up Thursday night to Saturday - visit some friends and some of my students and then head home for turkey dinner! Woohoo!
* It is cold in the mountains at night
* New Hampshire is beautiful
* You don’t have to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle in New Hampshire or Maine
* Driving up a mountain is pretty scary - it is very cold on top of a mountain as well
* The rivers on mountains are quite cold
* Make sure you read the lows as well as highs when packing for a vacation (READ: not enough sweaters packed)
* Make sure you have the current map so you don’t end up on the wrong highway
* Cookie time at a hotel is always welcome
* Lobster comes in many forms - sandwiches, soup, salad, quesedillas - who knew?
* The ocean is quite salty
* Fuddrucker’s has GREAT hamburgers
* I still love Cracker Barrel
* It’s amazing to visit places that started in the 1600’s! Such neat history!
* New Hampshire and Maine is moose country! Signs everywhere - but we didn’t see one. Also, the plural of moose is moose - at least according to the guy at the gift shop….
* Mount Washington is beautiful but scary at the same time! People have been racing cars up it for years! There is even a bike race! Psychos!
Here are the places we stayed on our adventure:
The Northern Star Inn is where we spent our first night. It was a neat bed and breakfast - and just a town away from the WORLD’s longest candy counter - yummmyy. I resisted and only bought a piece of fudge.
Merrill Farm Resort was where we stayed in New Hampshire. We spent two nights there. They had free canoeing as well as cookie time in the afternoon! Yumm…
Maine Idyll is where we spent three nights in Freeport. We stayed in a cute little cottage and even had a fire in our fireplace one night.
We are home after a week away in New England. It wasn’t a very photogenic trip so we probably won’t be posting pics but it was fun! Highlights include LLBean, Mount Washington, a boat fire, and the clear out of OshKosh adult clothes. I will post more later!! We’re off for a paddle.
It looks like we might actually get a holiday in after all. Our original plan was to do something in May but that plan kind of went by the way side. Anyway, we want to go somewhere in the eastern US. I am going to hit an LL Bean store if it’s the only thing I do! Other than that, we are wide open. Any suggestions??
And so April 15 is Poop For Peace Day.Poop is the one experience all human beings have in common. We may have varying ideas of God and politics, but the power of an impending poop is a higher calling to which every human must answer. Side by side in a public bathroom, any two human beings are stripped of their differences and reduced to their most basic essence: a pair of feet sticking out below the stall, and a pair of butt trumpets performing a greasy symphony to lament humanity’s non-negotiable deference to the call of the vile.
Under the influence of Taco Bell, there is no Christian or Muslim or Jew. There are only human bodies, reacting to the complications of digestion in the same predictable and malodorous ways. Poop wields supreme power over our bodies — when poop calls, you answer, or you face the consequences. Poop is our cruel tyrant, our fickle deity, our omnipotent oppressor — it is a force to which every human being has no choice but to submit.
And recognizing this is the first step toward world peace.
This reminds me of a T-shirt we saw this past weekend, simply “Everybody Poops” with a logo of a man on a toilet.
Ah, long weekends… gotta love them! I should have spent my weekend planning what I will be teaching for the next three weeks… I am teaching full time the last two weeks of placement and starting a science unit this week… ah well, that’s what staying up late is for!
We had a good weekend so far… we went to see “The Passion Play” at the local Pentecostal church. It wasn’t as good as their plays have been in the past and it was quite long. They also used the Roman Guards to collect the offering… interesting tactic! Just kidding.. they did specify that it was NO PRESSURE. We also went for a walk around the neighbourhood then stopped off at Shoeess Joe’s for dinner. I guess we got there at the right time. They had just had 100 hockey players in… there is a huge kids tournament in Kingston and it was one of the few places open so they all went there!
On Saturday I had coffee with my friend Emily. I tried the new Caramel Mocha at Starbuck’s. Yumm… less coffee like than the machiatto… Went to the sale at Michael’s and they had some new stuff in… I watched the new Briget Jone’s movie… Doug cleaned out the garages, vacuumed the cars, built new plant stands for outside and watched Ocean’s 12.
Today… we went to church this morning… had KD for lunch…. went for an eventful hike. The hike was eventful for me. There was SOO much ice in the woods that I kept slipping and sliding. We had taken a detour through some vines and I ended up slipping anyway and wiping out. Doug says, “We’re over the worst of it” and 30 seconds later I wipe out in a mud puddle flat on my butt! This is early in the walk so I wasn’t amused. There were some challenging icy and muddy bits but overall it was a nice day for a hike. We washed both of our cars today … my Dad will be proud.
Anyway, nothing too exciting. Just enjoying the great weather and relaxing.
I wrote down some funny, cute, etc. sayings while I was gone. They are downstairs but I will write the few that I remember:
On another note, I used to collect “Just the Right Shoe” miniature shoes. I waited and waited for them to create a Birkenstock but it never came… until last week! I found it in Michigan so now my shoe collection is complete!
I have been waiting for my free all you can eat birthday dinner coupon for my trip to Frankenmuth but it just hasn’t arrived. So I e-mailed the birthday club and told them that I haven’t received it… and that I drive eight hours to get there every year… and I really wanted my dinner. So I am happy to report that my card will be waiting for me at customer service! Yeah!!
Well, 8 sleeps until my birthday! I just read yesterday that this new scrapbook store in town gives you a discount on your birthday! You get your age in percent off up to 50% ! So, 30% is a pretty good deal. I haven’t been to this store yet so will scope it out this week to see if there are any cools toys I want. Does anyone know of other places you get birthday deals - particularly restaurants. There is one in town that gives you 10 dollars off… I’m looking to find a new place to go. Casey’s also has a deal but we don’t have one here in town.
My one request this year is that March Break is warm and that there are no snowstorms during March Break! It has been cold the last few years over March Break which makes shopping not as enjoyable…. and I would love to stroll outside more when I go away. We are going to Frankenmuth again and I would love to walk downtown at night in warmer air and not have to drive between stores at the outlet mall because it’s too cold to walk! Please?? I think it was the first year we went where it was warmer and there were flowers coming out of the ground already… I want that again! Pretty please?? You have a month to warm up…. and you can even snow after that if you have to… just not on my break!
What are people giving up for Lent this year? I think I’m going to give up exercise….
Vacation 2005 - Option 1:
A VIA train tour to the west coast in May
The Canrailpass gives you unlimited travel in Canada. It’s the perfect choice for people who want to go a long way on a limited budget.You get 12 days of unlimited travel in Comfort class (Economy) during a 30-day period. Just show your Canrailpass each time you obtain a ticket for a trip during this 30-day period. You can travel on the Bras d’Or or upgrade to first class on other trains (in VIA 1 or Sleeper class, for example) by paying a surcharge when you obtain your ticket with your Canrailpass. The card can be used anywhere VIA goes, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and up to Hudson Bay. You can make as many stops as you like during your journey. You can add up to three extra days’ travel (at $41/day for adults), which you can buy in advance or at any time during the 30-day validity period. This gives you 13, 14 or 15 days’ unlimited travel! Off-peak season: Jan 01 to May 31: Adults: $475
I think I’d need a laptop and wireless internet access, too. And when we get back, we could take a weekend trip up to Montreal or Quebec City later in the month!
Well, we officially have snow. It has been on the ground for 24 hours but not sure how much longer it will last as we are supposed to get rain this afternoon. The snow arrived with perfect timing yesterday. It was the annual Jingle Bell Walk. There is a walk downtown followed by the tree lighting ceremony. BUT, the schools also do a walk during the day with their jingle bells and while we were on our walk, it was snowing! It was wonderful!