The best of having a kitchen...

Good evening! It's almost bedtime so I figured I had time for a quick post. Tonight I had Liz over for a couple french vanilla's w/irish cream.. mmmm.. its so nice to have my house in a somewhat organized fashion so I can have people over. Christmas morning it was Mom and Dad and Ty here for gift opening and a totally yummy breakfast of waffles w/ raspberries and whip cream and bacon (cant leave that staple out). It was great!
Tonight I whipped up a batch of "Peach Shortcake Muffins" (see the pic.. dont they look totally YUM?) They are still cooling and I am not exactly hungry so I will have to let you know if they are any good later. I found the recipe in "From the Breasts of Friends" that breast cancer cookbook Mom got me last year.

I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already! Next thing I know I will be writing 2006 out of habit and having to correct everything to 2007.

If I dont get on here again.. HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

later gators!

And with a Nod of his head up he went...

So Christmas has flown by.. here I am back at work pluggin away - next thing I know it will be 2007. I was spoiled as per normal.. my days full of wrapping, and then unwrapping and of course eating. This morning I even had a nasty tummy ache.. like a hangover from all the cookies and turkey or something. UGH.

More to come later...

Attempt 2.. with only 2 days to go!

As it's bedtime the eyes are just pinned on.. (white spots).. but now THAT looks funny! ARGH!

TO MAKE OR NOT TO MAKE...

So this is the attempt of a "moose toque".. not so sure I am a big fan. The antlers are totally cute - but I just dont know if it catchs the feeling I was going for....

Running out of time!

Well its wednesday! By this time next week I will be back at work again and all the Christmas celebrating and play time will be done with.. I have a feeling that it is going to pass me by rather quick! ICK.. I feel like a month and I am going to get 4 days..

And there is still so much to do:

-guys stocking stuffers.. you guys may just get socks at this rate
-dog gifts.. sorry JJ, Duke, Gordie, Rusty and Mikalah (sp?) I havent got your gifts yet!
-sewing.. sew much sewing.. hehe
-baking.. would like to bake more cookies!
-wrapping.. everything I have bought is done..but I seem to be getting a collection of mom and dad's presents for eachother in my house that still need wrapped. I think I should charge a storage and wrapping fee!
-grocery shopping - christmas morning breaky is at my house this year and I am not prepared
-cleaning! Mom will not have a stress free morning if she has to spend it in my mess.. she'll probably start cleaning or something instead of opening gifts!

oh the list goes on!
I'll let you know how it goes!

sledding pics!

The first few are of my daytrip to the Core Shacks out in Tumbler Ridge with Nathan and that crew.. then the others are from yesterday with Dad and Ty.






This is my new sled!!

stiff and sore today

Good Morning!

So it's pretty sad that I want to go have a nap and it is 9:30 am.. I have been up for all of 2 hours.. but I am tired!! Yesterday I was up early and off to Dawson to go sledding with Dad and Ty on my new sled! We went up and down a couple pipelines and played in all the powder. Well Ty and Dad played.. I worked my butt off to keep up with them! This new sled is completely different to ride than my old one and is going to take some serious practice on my part. Yesterday was good though I only got stuck every thirty seconds. HAHA.. just kidding.. but sometimes it did seem like that! Everytime I got in a scaryish spot I ended up oversteering cause apparently this sled takes less leaning than my old one.. anyways.. I keep promising pics so tonight I will post sledding pics from my trip to TR with Nathan and pics from yesterday with my new sled!

Oh and before and after pictures of the kitchen.. you guys have all seen the crappy after pics below but I will post a better one.

webcam kitchen pics

this is my first ever webcam photography.. sorry if they are scarier looking than normal!!

Midweek Lull

Good Morning everybody! I hear that my blog is getting boring. Sorry! I guess I could go home and scan some pics from my trip that I promised almost a month ago... oops. A couple turned out pretty good. BUT.. I have been busy snowmobiling! And decorating! And wine tasting!

On Saturday I went snowmobiling out to Quintette.. (aka Tumbler Ridge). That was fun - but it was sorta blizzarding so it was very difficult to see and we pretty much spent the day getting everyone unstuck. Talk about stiff on Sunday. Saturday night was Mom and Dad's Christmas party in Dawson. Then Sunday was Uncle Randy's Birthday and him and Roxanne and the girls came up to Dawson for supper. All the girls were in great moods and it made for a really good visit.

Monday night I spent cleaning my house, decorating etc. I have curtains and a kitchen table in my dining room and the Christmas tree went up in record speed. Everything looks very nice and now I need to have company...err.. maybe I should clean some of the OTHER rooms first. hehehe.

Last night Liz and I went to a wine tasting at Royal Spirits. That was fun.. but I wasn't a huge fan of their selections this time.

I left my digital camera in Dawson so I cant share snowmobiling pics (mostly of Nathan stuck) and/or pics of my pretty much finished kitchen. I still need baseboards and toekick.. Thanks Trevor for getting the dishwasher up and running. I will probably wait to do the baseboards until when I do the flooring in the living room - but that toekick could be done any time.. does anyone have a miter saw?

Well now I should get to what I am SUPPOSED to be doing at this time of day! Work!

The end is near!

Well the plumber has been to my kitchen. Guess what that means! It means that I have a sink! AND almost a dishwasher. So my kitchen can once again function as a kitchen. I can't wait! Tonight is all about cleaning up the place - maybe hauling some garbage away etc.. or just to the curb since tomorrow is garbage day. Please check back soon for NEW KITCHEN PICS! YIPPEE!!

This also means that I am allowed to decorate for christmas. I have been holding back on this as the plan was to tidy and decorate at the same time!

boys stink

haha.. ok now that the 5yr old is outta my system.. ya thats all for now.

ya ya ya

So it turns out I lied.. I guess I wont be putting up pictures to display "next week" as I last wrote.. apparently some of my readers are getting antsy and bored reading only the same ole blog for a week! HAHA.. well I havent put any pics on as I didnt take any pics on my digital camera while I was away. But the good news is that I finished the roll of film over the weekend and dropped the pics I did take off to get developed today. They will be ready in 15 min actually. So after work i will pick them up and maybe sometime this week they will end up on here!

On a brighter note.. I have countertops!! I have even talked to the plumber again to get them to come and hook up the sink and dishwasher. Hopefully they can make it this week!

Well.. work is busy so I'd better get back! oh and Congrats to Jodi and Jeremy! I cant wait!

24 hours!

Just thought that I would note that in 24hours from now we will be in the air and headed to POTSDAM!! Oh look its snowing again too. When I come home I am definately diggin out a snowmobile and goin for a ride!

Mom and Dad get home in a couple hours too! Cant wait to see pictures and hear how their trip went. I guess they have taken lots of pics!

Oh.. and since I will probably not be on here again til next week - its my birthday friday! #23. Yup I am getting old. As a 15 year old I said I would be married and have a kid by now. What a joke that has become! HAHA..

Keep your eyes open next week for pics from my trip.

Back to calling IKEA names...

So today was the day of putting on doors. Looks GREAT!! They actually were really easy to put on. The hardest part was those two little false drawerfronts infront of the sink and making them look somewhat even. Ikea's a bunch of doughheads though.. I have many extra parts! Including a $85 DOOR! Bag of hinges $15.. Couple bags of legs $8 each.. starting to add up so I guess next time I am in edmonton I will be making another trip to that dreadful store! I cannot believe how many things they got wrong on that ONE order! If they do this to everyone I am surprised they still sell kitchens!

Countertops have been ordered - I am not sure if I mentioned that before. They are called "BUTTER RUM GRANITE".

Dad called from "kilkenney" no idea if that is how you spell that or not.. I guess that is where they are staying tonight. Last night they stayed in Cob and that is close to Cork. They are about 200km from Dublin and driving is SLOW - average 35km/hr according to their car! Apparently if you want to shop Cork is the place to go. Dad said there were tons of cool looking clothes stores! He also said that the roads are super skinny - good thing they have only seen 4 trucks since they got there!

Funny Forwards..

Losing Friends..

click the above link for a laugh!

TTYL

drawers and appliances in..

Pic 1 is the kitchen as is now.. little bit of progress since my last post. I have also had a guy come and measure for countertops.. which are going to cost more than I would like but I want them to turn out finished GREAT.. not "somewhat great" so splurge I will I guess! On a bright note..did you check out the big beautiful new fridge!
Pic 2 is what's left to do. That is a pile of tools, doors, and dishwasher.
Pic 3 is me claiming my living room BACK as LIVING SPACE! YAY. Almost normal again.

Oh. PS we have a TON of snow! Yup. TON. My back is killing me from shoveling! It just piled up over night the way it does sometimes in the mountains! I could go sleding right now! Cept for my sled is 45min of icy roads away.. anyways.. the story about the snow today is that i decided to be the nice neighbor to the CRAZY neighbor and I bundled up and went out and shovelled Stella's driveway and sidewalks. Which I thought was rather nice of me. I just figured that she's old and I am young and I am having trouble shovelling so it would probably be quite difficult for her. Ya I spent like an hour doing this and then she comes outside with a bottle of Drambuigh (sp?) liquer as a token of thanks I guess. THEN she starts sweeping off her car and THEN starts DIRECTING me as to what to do with the snow off the car! EXCUSE ME, but I did already shovel THERE! But thanks for the nasty alcohol.

Night Night!

pretty pretty

time for doors

Well thanks to my great dad I now have what appears to be a KITCHEN. Yes! G&M Plumbing came and fixed the leak.. and fixed the crazy drainpipe for my kitchen sink. Then dad came and we worked all afternoon on sunday, then he came down again and worked all evening on monday and then he worked all by himself on tuesday and they are all in place! So now I get to figure out the drawers and doors and etc. And order countertop! I better do that part ASAP now that I think about it. So a ginormous (dont think thats a word) thanks going out to dear ole DAD!!! THANKS!!

If anyone feels like being a tough guy - I have some appliances to move into place now.

Calling all plumbers!!!

Well weeks like this are when I miss "grandpa" McCurdy the most. Leaky pipe in the basement..pipe adjustments to do upstairs.. the list goes on. What a special man he was. I think he actually has heard me calling for his help the last couple days - all this rain we are getting has to be some sort of sign. Seems to rain when he is needed these days (jode's wedding..?)

Meanwhile my usless uncle promised to come and help with this last night and then repromised to come tonight.. which I totally didnt believe.. and sure enough.. no uncle dave. GRR.. and to think Dad thought that he would get help out of him this weekend. Ya right. Tina to the rescue. Turns out Shawn Clarkson is in town for a couple weeks so I am going to call him tomorrow and see what he thinks about coming to help.

Jodi and Jeremy are finally home! Yay.. I have missed them! But now its bedtime!
Ps. I just love that pic.. so even though it has no relevance to this post..its cute!

WINTER!!!

Just keep on snowin baby! If my quad has a flat and is "unaccessible" then maybe it could snow and I could use my sled. Need to get a new windsheild - but other than that it's rarin to go!

Friday night was great. I went out with Derek and Benji and met up with Brette, and Neal and Smurph and and and..above is a pic from that night! It's a gooder!

Last night I went and gave my totally successful pic's of team mcdonald to them. They were very happy with them. This weather may interfere greatly with my plan to take lots of pics for people this month! I hope I can still go out next weekend with Liz and do that shoot.

Well this about tops it!

Daily DogScope
October 13, 2006

You have been sticking close to home, in accordance with a new obedience project. There's still plenty to see and do. Appreciate the smaller things in life -- your rubber chewie or a new squeaky toy can take you over the rainbow.

omigod. Since WHEN does a dog need a horoscope?! hahahaha.. Well this is Abbie's for today! LOL

just under 3hrs..haha

7.5hrs

well I wouldnt be counting down already but it is slow this morning and I am in a wonderful mood yet again. I think I am going to have to start getting up earlier regularly. Maybe take the time to cuddle with Abbie and eat a decent breakfast. Ya! that can be my new thing once my kitchen is all finished. Its just so nice to not be in this huge overslept kinda rush.

Jodi and Jeremy are STILL on their Honeymoon. I got one email from them - sounded like they were having fun but it was only their second day. They will be gone until like next thursday.

Today is friday the 13th! Is anyone supersticious? How do you spell that!

ready for hometime

hey! its just me checkin in as per usual. last night mom and dad came down for a bit and we put up a couple cabinets! COOL eh! We are now at the point where the sink plumbing is going to probably interfere with the lazy susun being able to be installed. This would surely stink.

Pic's of McDonalds went well. We caught the evening light and sunsets and all that. I dropped off the film for developing at London Drugs today at lunch but apparently their machine is down until tomorrow so no pics to look at today! awww. I also dropped off some pics for reprints (5x7's) of the Gulick Girls.. and as big as they can make here in town of that fall trail pic I took. This is for Liz at work - she LOVES it and has a specific spot in her house for it. She also has another spot that I am going to take a pic for! AND she wants me to take pics of her family next weekend. Hopefully there will still be fall colors out!

ok.. well I should get back to work! but ps. remember that guy from dukes @ jodi's stagette? well FYI.. things are goin good with that! Which totally excites me. Anyways... ;)

Foggy Day

This morning I woke up to the delightful peacefulness of a total fog all over GP. Not thick nasty I cant see through it to drive fog, but mist on your window cant see things far away kinda fog. It is now 10 am and it still hasnt lifted at all. Abbie got up for her morning pee and really had no idea what was going on outside.. I think she thought it was weird - she paused on the doorstep for a second to decide if it was safe before running down onto the lawn.

I have decided I want a digital camera. Sorry.. I have a digital camera - now I want a DSLR. Canon seems to have the most available but I am not a big fan of dad's canon which from what I can tell is a entry level not gonna break the bank sort of model. I have been really happy with my pentax SLR but they dont seem to have the megapixels available. It would be nice to be able to swap around my lenses from camera to camera though. Anyways this is a sort of far away purchase dream cause right now all my extra $$ is going towards my kitchen. I have been thinking that I could make the camera pay for itself by doing photo sessions for people and charging for them. But how much do you charge and how do you get people to pay for your hobby! Tonight I am going out to Shelley's to take a family picture of them - that is if the weather snaps out of its sad fog and into some happier weather (not necessarily SUN.. just not blah!) Although..now that i think about it this may be the way to go.. hmmmm. But ya.. I cant exactly charge shelley for the pics.. cept for maybe supper!

Well if anyone is wondering I have been thinking that a starting session could be $100 and that would include 48 exp, 4x7's of each, the negatives, and an 11x14 of your favorite print.

...

In case you havent heard... I still have no kitchen. It is getting kinda depressing. But my weekend was great! Would have liked to sleep in until 11am this morning like I did for the last three days - that just doesnt get old.

Last night mom and dad and grandma and ump and I went to the Keg for supper. That was good and we actually had good service and were in and out of there in the "allowed" time. So our server got a nice tip. On sunday I went for what mom decided to call "sterkey turkey" Ya I know.. kinda lame (not the turkey.. the comment from mom). Dinner was really good. Brette and I went to "The black dahlia" last night - pretty good movie.. slight twist at the end. I didnt know there were lesbian bars in 1947 but apparently there were? (there was in THAT movie anyways!).

hmm.. wonder what I shall do tonight!

FULL.

Ok.. I think I was whining about not getting ANY turkey this weekend. Well not anymore. I just had turkey dinner - well two hours ago and I am still in that omigod full stage. Yikes. But it was good! Great really! The buns I brought were not so good. Kinda dry. Farmers market buns or not.. they were dry. I am just listening to the end of Ty's second game. Supposedly we should be able to WATCH it. AND I did watch the intermission and beginning of the game - but I sure didnt get to watch the game. Nope. Whole thing shut down. Not even the live game tracker is working. It is stuck in a moment of the game 10 or so hockey minutes ago. So here I listen. There is about 2 min left. I just got super excited cause Ty was shooting on net. No luck.. But then the other team pulled their goalie and the knights just scored an empty net powerplay goal with just seconds left. YAY. Thats two wins! GO KNIGHTS!

7ish hours till a long weekend! yippee!

I should get up early every morning! Or go to bed early everynight.. one of the two. or both. Two days in a row I have been in a great mood in the morning. Although it was difficult to get out of the warm snuggliness of bed this morning. I watched grey's anatomy last night and had bbq'd ribeye and ceaser salad for supper out in Beaverlodge. Totally yum. I had to laugh.. we had supper out there cause I dont have a kitchen, but when I went to the grocery store I ended up buying stuff that doesnt really REQUIRE a kitchen to cook! The salad was out of a bag, and safeway preseasoned the steaks, which we cooked on the BBQ. But it was definately nice to sit down at the kitchen table and eat like a normal person rather than hunched over a stool (my version of tv trays) at my couch.. with a dog hoping you will drop some for her to nibble on.

As for this weekend I am so excited about.. not sure why. I have zero plans. Mom and dad are gone to NY to visit Ty.. asked gramma what she was doin and she said she didnt know either. I hope someone decides to invite me for Turkey. Last time people were cooking turkey was easter and I was sick and couldnt actually TASTE what I was eating. Hard to believe we sat there at Jodi's discussing her wedding plans and NOW poof her wedding has come and gone!! Crazy!

Well I better get back to another exciting day at work! Happy Thanksgiving all!

GOOD MORNING ALL!

hhaha! I am in the greatest mood today! i think its cause I went to sleep last night at like 10:30 and got like a full 9 hours in. That doesnt happen very often but it was sure nice. Abbie was being all cudly this morning too so I still didnt want to get up. But work is work and one always has to go! Oh and I am having a good hair day! So here I am. I didnt get the hinges on last night as planned.. nor did I pick up my dishwasher ..a) cause i had noone to unload it with me and b) cause sears wasnt open when I left work.

As per jodi's comment on my last entry I think that my birthday is a GOOD goal! I think next weekend would be a good time to install if not sooner! but I dont know if I can get the countertops in soon enough for my birthday if i wait to order them until I have everything installed as was the plan.

Grey's Anatomy is on tonight in case everyone doesnt know! Cant wait!

wow productivity

So.. kitchen STILL isnt done.. I guess my silent thanksgiving goal of having a kitchen is going to go unacheived. Maybe christmas! Dishwasher is in though! I should go and pick that up today. Despite the inactivity in my kitchen though.. I have done tons of laundry in the past week and have found that there wasnt enough room in my closet for all my clothes. So.. taking brette's lead I went and bought a rubbermaid closet organizer. TOO COOL. So yesterday I ripped out the old closet rod (I am really good at this demolitian stuff) and then painted the closet this really pretty blue that i whipped up myself out of two different colors of paint I had stored away. Then I reinstalled the closet organizer. Looks great! Tonight maybe I will put hinges on kitchen cupboards. Hmmm..

"bear naked"

Well mom picked up these super cute jammies for Nevada and Savy down in lake louise. How sweet!!

blahhhh

good morning! Ever had one of those days when you just wake up and cant function? Today was one of those days. I successfully made it to the shower but rather than simply running on instinct like most days I couldnt figure out what to do next. Washed my face.. just about conditioned prior to shampooing.. ugh. so I eventually made it in to work in better mood, had some breaky in my tummy so that helped a bunch. Then I get here.. do a deal for a sales manager that was on my (sorry not MY desk.. DEE's desk) and then went and asked the only sales manager here if that was his. No I dont get a good morning.. or a thanks but that is so and so's. No I get a NOD. Yes a NOD. A nod in the direction of another sales managers desk. Great! Thanks for the help. GRRR.

On a brighter note.. jodi and becky came over and helped finish up the flooring in my kitchen as well as put together a couple cabinets. Then they left and I put together a couple more and then Derek came and took me for supper. Thanks! And then helped put together a third bigger one. (or pretended to ;)).

Tonight mom is coming down for a visit with Roxanne and the gals so I will probably go out there and join them! Maybe I'll have some nice fall pic's of the girls to post tomorrow!

Been awhile!

Wow you know it has been a long time since I have said hello when I cant even remember the password to log onto here! How embarrassing!

I have been quite busy, what with my house still being a disaster zone and jodi's wedding and work and... The weekend was good! I had ripped out the flooring that the awful carpenter had done poorly installing and added a leveling compound underneath the back corner to ensure a better surface. Then on saturday Jodi came over and "taught" me how to install it better. Thanks for the help Budde! (hehe thats YOU now!)You are an excellent helper chick. Jodi and I even used the skil saw. I personally have no skill with THAT - i instead got to be the heavy weight on the end of the board to hold it still. Shall we test your powers again tonight and finish up the kitchen??

I also had to repaint the whole kitchen cause buddy missed a whole bunch of spots. GRRR. On Sunday I hauled a whole pile of garbage to the dump. Thanks Derek! I appreciate the help! It felt SO nice to come home and only have an old fridge sitting there making it look like I live on the reserve. Would anyone like to buy a fridge?? Its almost free. Heck if you haul it away it COULD be free!

Poppa Jack went out to spirit yesterday and picked me up another 300sq ft of flooring, so last night Abbie and I made a quick trek out there to join him for supper. Then I came home and did the dishes in the bathtub. REALLY gotta get the place back together cause sitting on my knees at the side of the bathtub washing dishes really really stinks!

ok.. time to actually work!

Home Sweet Home.. or home sweet mess!

I'm home! Funny how just a couple of days away can make you appreciate your own space that much more! Cramped airplanes with seats that dont tilt back definately dont help matters. But really.. what am I whining about! Las Vegas was AMAZING.. right down to the muscles on all those greasy men. LOL. what a funny night. The really amazing part was all that heat! It just never cooled off! Or.. maybe it was the limo ride to the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert.. or maybe it was Tim McGraw and his hot singin self.. I cant decide what was the best part!

Viva Las Vegas

Well one more day of work and then we are off! I am so excited! I have never been to vegas and I cant wait to see all the big hotels and gambling and rides and shopping and and and.. TIM MCGRAW & FAITH HILL! how cool is that!
Tonight I called Derek (wonder if I am spelling that right) back! Well! That was an hour and a half I should have been using my house phone for! Worth every penny. Thanks ladies for handing out my phone number to random boys at the bar! Good thing I know him.. but YOU guys didnt know that.. I could have a scary stalker now! hahaha


Bedtime! Have a good week everyone.. lol.. Jodi is probably the only one who actually reads this and she will be with me!

Ikea SUCKS

SO.. turns out that Ikea isnt quite as great as they think. They sent me ALL the way home with 7/12 WRONG cabinets. YUP. So now I have to go all the way back. But on a brighter note.. the flooring is done!I am a little worried though cause part of it seems like the seam isnt attached properly. BUT mom cleaned my room. LOVE YOU MOM. OH .. AND.. HE CALLED. But wait. I locked myself outta the house so I didnt know until it was too late to call back! I will have to call tomorrow! But I am excited. He seems like a nice boy.

Long Day

Well I have just arrived home. Apparently I am still just as frustrated as last night about this whole NO FLOORING issue. As I am wide awake right now I was going to get a jump on things and throw a coat of paint on the walls tonight but he TOOK the paint tray WITH him! and I dont have a roller handle here. I might see about sanding and priming where he repatched over paint though.. that way we can paint tomorrow. I would wonder if he was even coming back.. but his drill is still here. I kinda wish he would just take his $700 and jet. I'd have to beg help from family and friends.. and right now everyone is super busy. I am lucky enough to have Roxanne and Mom and Dad coming over tomorrow. Rox figures that with dad here Mike the turtle might Rabbit up. Oh! looks like he left a message to call him and let him know what time to show up on Sunday. Yay.

Today was long.. Out to edmonton and back.. spent all my $$ on brand new cupboards. I can't WAIT til they are in! Hope its not too hard! LOL. night.

A turtle could work faster.

So TURTLE MIKE.. STILL doesnt have the flooring in. I am going to call him in the morning and tell him that it NEEDS to get done. I am beginning to think that he shows up at noon and does nothing. Jodi thinks he has ADD. Possible. Today he did about an hour and a half MAYBE two hours worth of painting and unwrapped the laminate and put down the underlay. I think I PERSONALLY could have done that in like the morning. Let alone the whole afternoon and evening. WHAT THE HELL. I asked him to paint because I wanted him to get the flooring done. I will now have to call him tomorrow so that he can install the laminate before we bring the cupboards back. If I thought he was such a slow painter I would NEVER have mentioned it. I am a WAY faster painter. Thank GOD I am not paying him by the hour. I would already owe him the entire amount and all he really has done is the prep. SO SLOW.

On a much better note I just got home from jodi's Bachelorette Party. I think it was a success and that she enjoyed it. I had quite a bit to drink so I should probably go to sleep. Roxanne is coming tomorrow at 7:30 to drive me to Edmonton. We wont quite get out of town when she has hoped cause I have a couple things like picking up my truck to do still! Remind me to ask her that boys name. I feel awful for not knowing what it is. LOL.. yikes. but (as I blab cause I am all drunk) he has this cute smile.. AND I mighta had a crush on him a couple years ago. How funny is that. Night!

Does anyone else have a stove and a fridge in their living room?

Yep that's me! Contractor Mike came. And he gabbed for an HOUR and a HALF so I missed my blood donar appointment which I am kinda sad about.. but oh well! Sometimes selfish me who wants my house back will put herself first. Mike gave me a quote at what seems to be a reasonable price to do the work necessary. He is starting tomorrow morning. Dad asked if I got any references. Which I fully intended to do. BUT Allana likes to let people screw her over sometimes soooo just like when I get tenants.. I sorta went by my gut feeling. Now that I write this I am beginning to wonder about my lack of judgement! Since when have my choice of tenants worked out. Uh OH. Now I wont sleep. Great. No references. Holmes on Homes would be laughing at me. Maybe its good that that guys name is mike too? I do believe that people with the same name usually have similar behaviours. I hope so. At least he doesnt have any money yet. Nope. I will not budge on that factor. $$ are very important to me! haha.

So since he is coming tomorrow, today I had to remove anything that happened to be left in the kitchen. So the fridge and stove had to go.As I have SOO much storage guess where they are. Ya the living room. Its kind of cozy. I had joked before about plunking the fridge in front of the tv so that other stuff would get done. Well! Since fridges dont slide on carpet AT ALL it is hardly out of the kitchen. Oh and did anyone know that laundry baskets FIT inside refrigerators? Yup. This is handy so that I dont have to load and unload the darn thing each time it moves. Not that its ever going back into my kitchen. I have this feeling that my NEW fridge arrives on thursday. THEN I will have two couches, an old lazy boy, a tv, coffee table, end table, stereo cabinet/bookshelf, microwave,stove, and TWO fridges in my living room. And most of you know that this room IS NOT very big! lol. Well its bedtime! big day tomorrow!

My house is a MESS!

Well! I just realized JUST how BIG of a SLOB I have become in the past month. There are clothes, flyers, cups, bills - mostly unpaid, pillows, blankets, golfclubs, other garbage, half dead plants, dirty socks etc all just LAYING around! Ick! I swear - when I get this kitchen mess cleaned up I am gonna become the biggest neat freak. This is getting embarrassing. Everything is dusty. The carpet smells like dog pee. My kitchen is MISSING. I walk on clothes to get to my bed. I walk on clothes to get to my desk. My mom would freak if she found that out! She NEVER let me leave clothes on the floor as a kid. Once I am at the desk I realize there is never gonna be anyway I will find what I am looking for in that big PILE! I have no kitchen sink.. so there are dirty dishes - even though I JUST washed a whole pile of them on Saturday morning in a "camping sink". I have to put on flip flops to get to my fridge cause the floor is so icky where the tiles used to be! And mom thought "Hurricane Hannah" had hit my bedroom as a kid. Well whatever storm hit my house was MUCH BIGGER! lol

BUT! On a much better note! Contractor Mike is coming in half an hour to give me a quote on what it will cost me to get this all fixed. I cant WAIT. I've waited so long for this!

Then later tonight I have an appointment to donate blood. I like doing that cause my blood pumps out like twice as fast as the rest of the people there.. and its about the only way I actually help civilization out! Apparently I have saved at least 12 lives now. What a nice feeling.

Golf + No Team = Disaster!

So on Thursday night Jodi and I went golfing without our team. They were busy out at One Island Lake on "vacation" and we couldnt find anyone else to golf with us. SO we went out alone and decided that since our score wouldnt count we would play as individuals instead of best ball. Bad idea! By the end of the second hole my score was up to 15! This is because I hit 5 or 6 balls right into the bush. It got to the point that Jodi just stood in the bush and waited for the balls to come to her. THEN on hole 3 Jodi's #3 driver BROKE! So then (as the pic shows) we spent like half an hour creeping around in the bush looking for it! Lets just say we just went home after all this!

Procrastination! FINALLY downloaded pics from the long weekend!

Here are the pics from our trip to Kinuso Falls on the long weekend. 100km on the quads.. Gordie rode in that backpack on the quad the whole day! Fun times! Until the trip home...

These are just 9.. click on the "photobucket" logo and you'll get to scroll through all of mine & jodi's pics from the weekend.

Crazy Stella!

Well tonight as Abbie was outside for a poop and a play I couldnt help but notice that Stella (super crazy neighbor lady) was driving up and down her driveway back and forth in her car with the trunk open while spraying windsheild washer. Interesting. Then I thought "maybe she hasnt noticed the trunk is open and something is binging and shes trying to figure out why" so I decide to be the nice neighbor and take a trek across the lawn to inform her. Well! Oops I think that was the first time I initiated contact with the crazy lady! haha.. apparently her car has a rattle when its in reverse. Turns out her 98 mercury car has 82000 km on it and has never been in a serious accident (did she not tell me that her husband died in a car accident in this very same car??)and all the fluid levels are up. I then got to explain what many of the things under her hood were. I am NOT a car person.. I dont ACTUALLY know this stuff..however I know a LOT more than her!! Oh and apparently it is just crazy that my living room and kitchen are open to each other "now your company can see all those kitchen smells" (what does that mean! its a dinky house your gonna smell all the food! And the lady across the road is siding her house.. and the other family across the road is doing renos and needs to paint their shed.. oh and "do you know how much that house over there is listed for" to which I answered probably 250 or 260.. "oh I dont think they could get more than 200 for that house its smaller than ours" well stella mls SAYS 259,900!! Then she almost ran me over as I was looking under her car to identify the crazy rattle she had going on so I let abbie chase her cat! hehehe.. now we are home again and that was about all the excitement I had today! Catch ya'll later!

New Pics!

AHH.. some new pictures!! I am a big fan of this whole picture thing.. so much better than me and my big boring stories!!

quiet evening at home

so these pics are rather old... from my trip down to ottawa with mom and dad and cleo last november (on the trip home from a visit to see ty).... anyways.. I was just fiddling around with a picture thingy online.. thought I was being all creative and then it turns out I just used the same website as Jodi did on her blog yesterday! hahaha.. nice.. ohwell mine is a tad different... now I will just have to download some newer pics!

New Job!

Well here I am.. just off for my lunch hour at the new job! Yay. Its so far been great. The atmosphere around here is very friendly and everyone seems quite welcoming. So far we have had two meetings.. well two that I have had to attend.. and both have been good and I hope that they turn out to have been productive. The one today was the sort of meeting that Univar SHOULD have had MONTHS ago.. it always seemed like everyone was out of the loop over there and the negativity due to that grew and grew until I finally had to get out! I feel sorry for the poor chaps that are still stuck there! As for the new job.. finance assistant at GP Chrysler.. its going good. It will definately keep me challenged and I basically report to the sales managers which is cool cause they all seem to be good at what they do.

Well! I should get going..

Don't "shop" at Bubbles!!

Who knew that I would be writing another post SOO soon!! However, I couldnt help it with the very interesting and lively lunch hour I just had. At about 11:30 today Ed (one of the sales guys at Univar) invites us all out for lunch. We all decide to go and agree to meet him at Egans at noon. Kelly and Scott hop into my truck with me and we drive over there. Since we came in from the back by the trumpeter I just pull into one of the many free parking spaces that are kind of in front of bubbles. None of these spaces say they are only for Bubbles customers so I think this is a nice spot to park. It is a spot I park in often when I go to eat at Egans. Not that I go their often.. Anyways.. we are halfway to the doors to the restaurant when this grungy little man asks if we are going in to eat. I say yes and head towards the restaurant. He says "well this is private property and you cant park there". I am thinking "i can understand if I was just leaving my truck there for the day.. but for lunch? when there are all these spaces".. well it turns out he means he only wants BUBBLES customers to park there.. infact that is where it is convenient to park their clean vehicles. However.. NONE of this is posted. NOR is the fact that vehicles will be towed if they arent clean bubbles customer vehicles posted. So whatev.. we go inside and eat. Once inside I ask the server if she knows if that is only parking for bubbles or not. She says "the WHOLE parking lot is owned by the same person so you can park anywhere to eat here". Perfect. Nothing to worry about. 5 min later she comes back and says "there is a blue vehicle getting towed" well even though my truck is black I go peek out the door to double check. Nope just an explorer. (sucks to be that guy). Then I have my bowl of soup and am feeling slightly nervous now that there is a tow truck there and since that guy was really grumpy at scott after I went inside for us staying parked there I go out and double check. SHIT.. The tow truck is now PICKING UP MY TRUCK! SO I ask the tow truck driver what is going on and he says "you'll have to talk to these guys" and motions inside bubbles. So I tell the tow truck that he may as well put my truck down and I go inside and demand to speak to their manager cause my truck is getting towed. The manager guy "richard" comes down and is like "ya we called the tow truck".. I'm like "ok wheres the sign!?" "oh this is private property" "i asked upstairs if there was anywhere I shouldnt park while eating at Egans and they said that I could park anywhere.. so this shouldnt be a problem" "ya well we rent this building and part of that rental is the parking lot and we dont want you parked there" (my truck has MAYBE been parked there 20 min now). I was like "ok well I am going to have to call pomeroy and see what they have to think about this issue cause this is NOT ok" you can just IMAGINE my steamyness now.. and then BING idea! "actually while I was upstairs I just noticed that Raph was having lunch.. I guess i will go talk to him now" "ya you get raph to come talk to me..hahaha" the guy says.. you could totally tell he didnt think i would. So I jaunt back upstairs and scott sees me come in pissed and he's ready to go beat that guy up for being so rude to him in the first place.. but I just walked right by our table and over to raph's little lunch meeting. I walk up to his table just like a server would and wait until he looks at me to start talking:
"Hi Raph.. I am really sorry to interupt your lunch but I need to ask you a question about the parking lot here and where and we can or cannot park while we eat" "well you can park anywhere except for infront of any bay doors""but if I am in the yellow parking lot lines I can park there?" "yep no problem" "ok great. can you come and ask the bubbles guys to take my truck off the tow truck" "WHAT! Where are you parked?" he gets up and I take him outside and show him.. so ya.. he talked to the guy.. he's like "richard we CANNOT be towing vehicles for this if its not posted.. please get this young lady's vehicle OFF the tow truck so that she can be on her way. if there is any argument to be had about this then its between me and you and she doesnt need to be any part of it. if there is a tow truck bill for this please send it to me c/o the corral" .. so they got it off and I went back and gobbled my lunch down.

GRRRR.. needless to say I was just vibrating and cranky!! I sure hope the rest of the day goes better!

Summer Fun

Hey! Wow 2 months. haha.. and to think the main reason I am writing is to keep up with Jodi's blog! Well new news for me! New Job starting Tuesday.. finished at my LOVED job @ univar on Friday! YES. YES. YES. (read those so they sound like a herbal essences commercial) hehe. I hope I have made the right decision and am goin to a job that I will actually like. But on the bright side no more univar - which I am TOTALLY looking forward to - so either way its a good thing!

Kitchen reno's are going SLOW..as in I tore out a cupboard above my fridge but nothing else. Part of the reason for that is cause there are no people in GP available to install new ones.. so guess what! I bought a home depot 1-2-3 book and I am gonna take a wack at er. It has taken me two evenings of packing up the cupboards into rubbermaids so that I can rip out the rest. (and there is still some junk in them.. I need to make up a sally anne box) Isnt it funny how 6 years ago next month I moved out of home into the same 4 rubbermaid containers that I just packed my non-perishables in? Talk about accumulating a bunch of stuff! Anyways.. so far the plan for this weekend and whenever else in the future i have time I am working on the ole kitchen. I think my fridge is supposed to get delivered on tuesday night! Where the heck am I gonna put that!! I should get the dishwasher ordered and delivered at the same time though...hmm.. maybe I'll postpone the fridge for another couple weeks.. I would like to wait until the kitchen is ready for it! Poor fridge stuck in storage! Oh and along with ripping out the old cupboards and putting in new ones I have to try flooring too! This should all be great fun!

So as for the real fun of summer.. last week was SOOO hot.. it was crazy. However what it was really good for was swimmin in Jodi's pool. Ya that was wonderful - minus the sunburn on my legs! Ya that part was ow. So anyways - Thank you Jeremy for buyin a house with a pool! We LOVE it. However.. I have got to start going to the gym! ick. lol. Tonight's fun is golf. We missed last week so I will have to learn how all over again. Hopefully this time I am not sick - cause that really stank. Seeya golfin later ladies!

Well even though I have quit my job I should leave on a good note and actually do some work. I'll try to post again soon!

BLUE HAIR??

Your Hair Should Be Blue

Wild, brilliant, and out of control. You're a risk taker with an eye to the future.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

YIKES! Can this possibly be true!? LOL

Crazy Neighbors

Hello all! Been awhile since I was this bored at work.. but here I am again! This time with a story about my crazy old widow neighbor who has nothing better to do than piss me off. I believe most of you have met her or have at least heard about her past antics.

Today's story started yesterday evening when mom and dad were dropping me off after a great weekend on the river. I asked dad to show me how to start the whipper snipper they gracefully donated to my "yardwork project 2006". So he starts it up and start roaring around the yard chopping down all the grass in his sight. Mom says to me while we are watching him do this "do you think SHE is spying on us?" and I say "well her curtain in that window there looks slightly kiltered.. maybe!" THEN.. not5 min later she obviously couldnt contain herself and she comes out.. pink slippers and all to complain about kids mowing the lawn. As a bit of back up for all of you I hired a ~12 yr old kid to mow my 2 ft lawn on saturday as it was finally dry enough, my lawn mower was broken.. and I was going to be gone for the weekend. Apparently I need to get anyone who steps foot on my property APPROVED by the crazy lady prior to them doing any work. Since when was SHE my landlord! I beleive that is why I BOUGHT the house.. so I didnt have to follow anyones rules! So she wanders over in her slippers and yaks at me about how some "kid" shot a bb gun at her front window and how she doesnt appreciate it "or maybe they just threw a rock".. so she wants to know the name of the kid I got to mow my lawn cause since he was there working hard for an hour he MUST have been the one to try and break her window. I think her reasoning was because he didnt do a good job on the lawn he must be a bad kid. Then she whined about how I didnt stay home and supervise the ordeal. Why the heck would I? If I had that kind of time I would definately be mowing my OWN lawn not paying some kid to do it.

Mom and Dad escaped home right in the middle of me and the crazy's conversation.. how unfair! Then dad was nice and called me so that i would have an excuse to go inside and quit talking to the lady. If I hadnt I am sure she would have said something about my lilacs making her truck rust. Not that that truck has RAN sinc I moved in! Good Golly!

Sheesh.. thats all I can say. Jodi mentioned something about "no wonder her husband drove off the road and widowed her" ~ are the cops REALLY sure that wasnt more than just an accident?

Go Oilers!!

WOW! My first real like playoff hockey game. Game 3 Round 2 Oilers VS San Jose. Way to win team. For those of you who dont know.. this hockey game went to three overtimes and the Oilers FINALLY won 3-2. This was a very LOUD and EXCITING experience. Rexall Place was packed! Fans were screaming! After losing games 1 and 2 in this round, the oil desparately needed this win. When I got to the rink and saw all the crazy outfits, all the super excited fans I had a feeling this game wouldnt be quite like the two before. Sure enough, running on the adrenaline of their fans the oilers went out and had double the shots of the sharks.. and played twice the game. To bad it took so long to get it in the net. Definately worth my money for the Ticket though! Thanks Skyler!

So here's the crazy part. Jodi and Jeremy and I leave GP yesterday at about 1 to head to Edmonton for the game. The drive took us a little longer than normal due to a friendly visit by a ghost car and a little tint ripping and this little yellow slip Jeremy is now in possession of. Anyways.. we drive the 4.5 hours out to edmonton.. head over to the LRT station and ride up to the doors of the rink. WAIT.. here is where we realize I have pulled an "Allana".. for those of you who dont know this is what we call it when I pack around a 100% useless purse. Yes.. I went to Edmonton with a pile of pennies in my change pocket of my wallet and a bunch of receipts. No cash. No Debit. No Visa. Ok so I can probably bum most of this from Jodi for the day.. oh oh..NO ID either. Yayaya I know just the other day I said it was out of date.. but that would not have stopped me from going into the beer gardens before the game! Can anyone say DUMBASS? Cause that is what I felt like! Luckily I had a trusty gas card in my pocket so I was able to not feel quite so terrible about the whole thing. Anyways.. to make a long story short.. Oilers won! And I got home at 5:30 AM. Yes I was at work at 8 this morning. Yes I am tired. Actually feel like puking in fact! LOL..

Why the rush?

Have you ever noticed how everyone is always rushing around? I am the worst. I allow myself to sleep in everymorning so that I am always in this huge rush to get to work on time. How many people do you know that could tell you that it will be 8:01 when they get to work if they dont have their socks on by 7:47? Yep thats me. Usually the socks go on at 7:48.. and I run across the parking lot at work. Once in awhile someone mentions something like "good afternoon".. but really.. what is one min? Its never more than 2. Its not like I take four 15 min smoke breaks throughout the day! Anyways.. for some reason I cannot seem to get myself to bump up that schedule 15 min so that I am always on time with 10 min to spare.. let alone slow down and drive the speed limit of a meager 50km/hr to work. Speaking of speeding.. it is way more fun to drive over the speed limit.. 100km/hr on the highway feels like I am crawling along like a turtle. I knew that would be a problem the day I test drove my truck. Even said to the ford sales guy in edmonton "this truck is going to get me in trouble".. luckily i have been driving it for 9 months and so far nothing. Knock on wood. Today I got pulled over. Yep.. somewhere between Hythe and Beaverlodge Allana is cruising along (and by cruising along I mean I conciously set the cruise) at 130km/hr.. I set it at this cause it is better than the 145 I would probably be doing if I didnt set the cruise! I have determined that this speed gives me the adrenaline and feeling I require AND really isnt that much faster than the 120 many other people are driving at. Regardless apparently the RCMP doesnt agree. So he flashes his lights at me on the way by.. "Maybe that was a flash warning" I think.. NOPE.. he turned around. Great. So I safely pull over to the side of the road.. turn on my signal light and try and make my dog stop barking. Buddy cop takes his sweet time walking up to my door. Did I mention I was late for a tupperware party? lol. Abbie is still barking. "Do you have your license and insurance and registration?" "Yep" I say confidently. I hand him my license out of my purse and dig in the glovebox and pull out the registration and insurance.. Apparently not only was I speeding but my insurance card is not up to date.. mr.cop mentions something about me getting towed. (UHOH) - then he starts comparing my license and registration (thanks to kristy THIS is up to date) - or at least I think it is. Nope I guess its not either. I guess they dont like my lister hall address from 4 years ago! Funny. I am totally thinking this is not going to be a nice ticket. And then! Mr. Cop says "so can you tell me why you were going 130?" - I didnt really think he would like the story about the adrenaline and feeling OR the being late for the tupperware party so I mumble a "I dunno" with a nice big smile. Well my smile worked.. "ok well slow down, I know its easy to speed on these nice summer days" and he hands me back all my stuff. NO TICKET? Not even a warning? Nope.. YAHOO.. he made my day! But the adrenaline was long gone.. especially as I heed his advice and set the cruise at 105 - I just couldnt bring myself to go the limit! Did I learn my lesson? Probably not. I will go get my license and insurance fixed though. As I am driving along after that I think "well its been almost exactly a year since they pulled me over".. yep last time was on the way to cancun last may... may 9 or 10 I believe - cant hardly get closer to a year than that!

Sweeten Up

Everyone adds sugar to their coffee, their cereal, etc - why not to the people in their life as well? Sweeten up - add a little charm.. a few compliments.. maybe hold a door. Today started like crap. I slept through my alarm, completely missed going to the gym and "prepping" for another frustrating day at work.. got to work JUST on time, only to encounter a scrap of paper on my desk from who knows where with just enough info for me to know that I actually needed to deal with it ASAP. Next thing I know S is rushing around mumbling about some order that needs entered because the truck is here to load it- which turns out to be the same order as the scrap of paper. But no time to celebrate the mystery of that being solved cause right away a new one appears, and to top it off three people (out of a total of 5 other coworkers) have basically bitten off my head all in the first 20 min of what was already a crazy day. People! Where is your sugar? Did everyone get up on the wrong side of the bed? Luckily there is always a forklift out back for me to ROAR around on and vent some frustration so that I dont accidently stoop as low as the other three and chew on one of them.

Later.. I was sitting here thinking about how nice it would be to get a "sugar" comment sometime when things are happening successfully and all is normal - no one seems to take the time THEN to say anything. And then I remembered that I would actually rather no comments at all as I really dont feel good after the negative ones and I never really know what to do or say when a positive one comes about. Just last night I was "window shopping" (you'll have to ask me) and someone was doing the whole compliment sugar coating thing and it just made me friggin uncomfortable! Then over lunch I was clicking on random peoples blogs (still so new to this I gotta check out what people are writing about).. and I found one about this very same topic. Crazy! Click on that link to read it.. be sure to read the comments.

Well tonight is the first golf game..wish us luck! And by the way.. our team needs a fourth so any ladies out there interested - give me a shout!

DF syndrome today...

Well! Welcome to my all so new blog. I have not had a blog in the past so this is VERY new thing for me. It may even take me awhile to get in the habit of coming on here and "blogging". But as we all know Allana lives a rather boring life so this shouldnt be tough to keep up to date. Might even be fun. Everyone else seems to have all sorts of neat things to say - maybe I will inspire someone else to start a blog! lol.

DF syndrome - better known as me sitting at work and not actually accomplishing anything all afternoon.. with the exception of creating a blog. Yesterday was quite productive though so hopefully noone notices my low productivity.

So now for something about me... hmm.. officially changed my first tire on saturday. Yup.. driving back to GP from Dawson and right at the border I feel this whole "bump ba bump ba bump" thing going on.. so I pull over and walk towards the big HISSSSS noise only to find a completely FLAT tire.. not just a little flat but we are seriously talking about a flat and sitting on the rim sorta problem. Being a girl I immediately open up the glove box and dig out the owners manual. During this time Abbie (my dog) escapes the truck and scares the heck outta me cause my first thought is that she is gonna be a pancake as she is probably the dumbest animal I have ever met and would have to go see what those things ZOOMING by at 120km/hr are. I think there are donkey's that listen better. When I say something to her she crooks her head to the side and gives me a "i'm really really cute but I dont get it" kinda look. But back to the tire problem... here I am crouched down in my flip flops at the back of the truck successfully cranking the spare down to the ground and getting ready to jack up the truck.. and to my relief a super nice guy and his wife and their really cute kid pull over (about the time I was thinking "hello people! I am a GIRL!" cause only about 50 vehicles had driven by without a thought.. does ANYONE have a good bone in their body anymore?) and the dad takes over and does all the brunt tire changing work for me. THANKS buddy! Definately appreciated. I am sure I would have gotten frustrated somewhere along the way so he totally helped. His kid was cute too.. I shoulda got their number - looked about Alexandra's age! Haha. He kept running through the swampy ditch.. I thought for sure he would fall in and get soaked.

Then came the fun of having to get a new tire. That took a few phone calls and the shock of a new one costing almost $500 big ones! YIKES.. luckily two tire shops and 10 or so phonecalls later I found someone that didnt LIKE their tires so I got one of their take offs for a much more affordable $150.

Oh and for the second time in my life I am taking up a sport. The last time I even considered that was in gr 5 when I curled! haha! This time I have picked golf. Yes.. me golfing.. teammates be warned - i do throw clubs when frusterated. lol. The goal is to get over that habit and actually become a calm and decent golfer. However just incase the decent part doenst happen we are playing best ball so I can depend on my team to keep our average closer to par! We'll see how that goes.. tomorrow is the first night - wish us luck!

Ok.. well hope everyone has enjoyed.. please let me know if I am destined to be a blogger or if I should just quit now!