On The Mend

American Idol is on, and I'm kickin back. Work has been CRAZY busy for me lately...you know when you do one thing and you have 1 1/2 more things added to your task while you're at it? Its frustrating...or when you can't get a thing done? Anyways, I'm exhausted now that I've come home. Oh well.

Our home is so comfortable...our new couches, our impressive tv...the snow falling outside our wall window on our busy street in down town Calgary...our fireplace...I love it here. We are so blessed.

We had company for lunch, and dinner yesterday, and then we're having company twice more this week. Its crazy but its fun. Its fun to prepare yummy food for our friends...and to have wine to serve, and delicious desserts. I spent yesterday cleaning and preparing.

Ok so right now A.J. Tabalo is singing for A-Idol...I don't like him, I wish he would go home. He makes me cringe and want to run out of the room. Ugh. For once I disagree with Simon.

The dude who sang first this week, and last, last week...he was awesome! I like that guy. but my FAVORITE is that Rob & Amber are back on the Amazing Race! I love that show! I guess I watch too mych tv. Oh well. I love the Amazing Race, and hopefully this time, they'll win.

Anyway, this post is borning and I'm rambling about nothing.

S

Still Sick

I feel so shoddy! Its strange cause if I take Advil or whatever, it makes me feel a lot better, but when it wares off...yuck. Nasty again. I am so bored though. Watching TV, Suduko puzzles, video-games, reading...and repeat. Its funny...with the world at one's fingertips on the Internet, how can one still get bored.

While I was feeling alright this afternoon I cleaned up our office, which was atrocious. Its a lot better now, but there is a large pile of ironing on the couch calling out to me. I refuse to hear it. I hope Troy doesn't need me to iron plants for him tomorrow.

Anyways, I'm going to go crawl back into bed, I feel horrible still.

S

Family Day Weekend

So far my family day weekend has been me sitting on the couch or in bed, doing little to nothing. Watching TV, or playing videogames. I am feeling so ill. On Friday at work I actually threw up. Those of you who know me well, know that I don't throw up. I can count on my hands the number of times I've thrown up in my life, and I'll detail for you:

• Christmas Party 2004 - woke up hugging toilet...unfortunately.
• In Europe, In Czech Republic actually...I woke up trying to throw up, and with cold sweats, but I couldn't.
• When I was a child we were in vacation in California (I think) and I was very sick there.

Those are the only times I've recalled throwing up. I've been sick, and even tried to make myself throw up (when I've felt like this, to try to make myself feel better). Anyways...so on Friday I threw up at work, and got the cold sweats and the shakes, felt incredibly dizzy, and decided I just could not continue working for the afternoon, so I took off 2 hours early. I've been feeling sick ever since...my throat hurts, my head hurts, my tummy hurts. I'm a piece of work.

So now I'm sitting in my big cloud of a bed, watching "The Wedding Planner" on TV, or rather, listening. Troy is playing at Centre St this evening, so he's not home, but he has been taking great care of me.

Unfortunately its not a snowy weekend like its been for the last while...its beautiful outside, and I'd love to be out walking...shopping...playing. But I'm sitting in bed, trying to make it 2 minutes without taking a drink.

Oh well.

I sent 2 postings last week from my work email to my blog, and none of them arrived. I wonder where they got to?

My Valentines Day was fantastic! We had some appetisers and then went to get Pedicures together. After that, we prepared dinner, and my flowers were delivered. 18 red roses in a beautiful vase. Then we exchanged presents. Troy got concert tickets to see the Killers, a membership to the Killers Victims fanclub, and an itunes gift-card. I got a home-made card, and some paint supplies. Not a romantic gift in itself, but the way it ws presented was romantic. It was a fantastic valentines day...I loved it.

Anyways, nothing more to write. Have a great Family Day long weekend!

S

Its Been Nearly a Year

Well its nearly Valentines day...a day that for years I hated...but now I love, for more reason than just a present from my love, and a present for my love...but I got engaged on Valentines Day, I also started dating the love of my life on Valentines day (not the same one...but A Valentines Day). Troy also started his job on Valentines day...so it makes it a pretty good day.

So a year ago today, I went to bed thinking, "Will I be getting a ring tomorrow? Will it be ugly? Will it be exactly what I want? What if he doesn't propose? I wonder what he's done..." And a year from then I'm happily married, going for pedicures and hot stone foot massages for Valentines Day, and making a yummy meal together with my love...then possily watching a romantic movie on our new tv, sitting on our new couches, enjoying life.

Mmmmm....yum.

Well I want to hang out with my man a bit, so I'll sign off. I thought I'd post a couple more links, and bake this blog a bit more fun. Anyways, happy Valentines day is a crock day! (that's what I used to call it...so why stop now!)

S

Beautiful Today

 

It looks incredibly beautiful from my office today…so serene, with the snow sitting so gracefully on the roof-tops and the trees.  Thank goodness I’m not out there.  Its frigid.  So my car is dead.  It wouldn’t start yesterday morning…so we had the unique privilege of being a 1 car family for 1 day.  Not fun.  I didn’t enjoy it at all…and Troy didn’t even get to work until 10am. Oh well.

We get our new TV on Monday.  We’re excited! 

I don’t really have anything to write about…I’m just bored at work.  I love su doko puzzles.

 

S

 

 

 

Not Only That

I also had a lady come in today, and breast feed a 2 year old child right in front of me while I was talking to her.  He was crying, so she offered him an afternoon treat.  How nasty.  (her Grandfather was sitting right beside her)

 

 

 

Another Thing I Hate

I had a conversation like this today.

Me – Would you like glass insurance on your vehicle.

Him – yes

Me – Ok well I’ll just give you that information now. Its $168/year with a …

Him – (interrupting me) That’s not with ING, that’s with AMI isn’t it?

Me – Yes it sure is! They offer better coverage with….

Him – No they don’t.

Me – Um…they offer great coverage, and have lower deductibles than the other companies are…

Him – No they don’t. I was just at Canadian Direct and they gave me a quote for $100 for glass insurance.

Me – They were probably offering you a $250 deductible with that, with this…

Him – No they weren’t. But its not worth arguing about.

I nearly blew a gasket. Don’t come into my office, seeking my expertise, and then try to prove you know more than me. Also, he was arguing with me about whether a 2006 Mazda came in a V6 model. He was telling me it didn’t…when I had the information in front of me telling me it did.

I nearly blew an even bigger gasket, when I gave him the price, and he laughed in my face. I’m not kidding. Probably 1 minute of him laughing loudly…asking me if I was serious, that that was a joke, and he couldn’t believe it.

He was a complete jerk. I’ve never had a bigger jerk I don’t’ think. I’ve had some jerks, but no one like him, that’s for sure.

One More For The Show

It is so dreary and glum outside.  I can’t wait for summer…and flip-flops…and having the fan on while I’m sleeping.  Mmmmm….summer.  We’re having Chelsea & Andrew and Jack over for dinner.  Well Jack won’t be eating with us…but Troy and Andrew will play some Nintendo Wii, and Chelsea and I will play some board games, and Jack will sit there and coo…and look cute.  I’m excited. We’re having Taco’s.  I better go, I just needed to pass a few minutes.  I love Troy.

 

Things That REALLY make me mad

1. Driving in LESS than the speed limit, in the left lane.
2. People who don’t signal.
3. Persons who will go unnamed, who live directly beside you, and insist that their base cranked up to max, is appropriate noise for living in a condo.
4. People who tell me they can’t hear me on the phone. (even if they can’t…it still makes me mad)
5. People who drive into a traffic-jammed intersection, even if they have to sit in the middle of it, blocking traffic going the other direction.
6. Stupid people.
7. People in any public place where there are large groups of people….who are walking and then stop abruptly, nearly causing others to bash into them. (in my opinion…bash away)
8. People who talk r-e-a-l-l-y r—e—a—l—l—y—slowly.

 

 

Its been a while

Today our living room is getting a make-over. Ok, not a total make over, just a couch make-over. The hideous couches we've inherited from Troy's parents...(thankfully it has been covered with a couch cover) is being picked up by the Women In Need Society. I've inserted a photo, so you realze how hideous it really is. I'm also donating the couch cover if they'll take it.

Hopefully after this couch is taken away, our new couches will arrive (hopefully not the other way around). We purchased them across the street from our house at Urban Cottage. I can't wait to get them. Not only that...but hoepfully next week, our new tv will be arriving. We've purchased the 42 inch Panasonic HD Plasma television. Our experience at Soundsaround was not great...but...hopefully we'll have a tv before not too long.

We walked in and knew what we were looking for, but Troy decided to ask a few questions. The salesman (Stephen) went on and on about how he prides himself about customer service, and how he once purchased a stereo from Soundsurround about 12 years ago, long before he started working there...and 10 years later, the salesman came up to him and said hello to him by name, asked him about the product he'd sold to him and that impressed Stephen so much that he wanted to work at Soundsaround. Funny thing...Stephen didn't even ask for Troy's name, or my name, until we were paying for the thing. We came shortly before closing (about 45 minutes) and decided we'd like to go ahead and purchase it. Stephen started to do up the paperwork, and called over some dude with braces and a white shirt on. He started talking a mile a minute, trying to sell us cords, and dvd players, and all kinds of things. He was talking like an auctioneer...hardly taking time to breath. Moving his hands like crazy. (On an entirely different subject, I wish I was a writer or a tv producer, cause recently I've come across some phenominal characters, and he's one of them!). Anyways...crazy man, didn't end up selling us anything, but we'd mentioned to him that we'd like to pick up the tv since we didn't want to pay the $100 for delivery. He informed us that we needed a truck or a mini-van. Not an SUV or anything else. We inquired as to the dimentions of the box, just to make sure it would fit in our car. Before we got this, they rang through the sale. When the man came back finally with the dimentions, we found out what the pick-up hours were. 9-11am, 1-3pm. When on earth can someone pick up their tv...? So we decided that delivery would probably be better. Now white shirt/braces man was mad, cause he needed to reverse our entire order, and re-start, and it was about 2 minutes to closing. So he re-does the entire thing, and then says, ok, when is good for us to deliver. We deliver between 9-11am, and 1-3pm. AGAIN...WHO IS HOME FOR THIS??? He was being rude, and short with us. So un-confrontational me...says "You should probably tell your patrons when the pick-up hours, and the deliver hours are, before you ring through their purchase." He looks me square in the eyes, and pulls out the invoice, and says, "well originally you said you wanted to pick it up.." and I cut him off with "Yeah I know what we said, but we were uninformed about the pick-up hours." He points to Stephen and says, "well that's his fault." Then he finishes with me, "And now we've transacted the delivery for these hours", and I said "Yes, and we were never told what those were either." once again, that was Stephen's fault.

I think it is extremely unprofessional for a manager to push the blame onto someone else, when both Troy and I agree, it was his fault.

Anyways, I've left a message for some dude at Soundsaround to call me back. I left the message at 8:10am. No call back as of yet. Once again, unprofessional. Oh well. I don't think we'll purchase there again. I'd actually be tempted to call them and have them credit back our order, except that they have a strict NO REFUNDS policy. Stores with that policy, you should definitely stay away from.

Anyways. Soon we'll have a NEW living room.

In other news I won tickets to last Friday's Calgary Flames game. It was a fantastic game and I was thrilled to see my favorite player Craig Conroy back. I cried (literally) when they traded him, and I'm thrilled he's back, and playing on the same line as Iggy no less!

I also purchased tickets to go see Bill Cosby at the Jubilee on May 10. What a fun night I'm looking forward to.

I should go...I've been playing Zelda like mad...last night, my dreams were a video-game. You know you're a video-games nerd when!

My Map

Wii

I went to 4 different Best Buy's and 1 Future Shop today, however I did get the much anticipated Nintendo Wii. It is FUN. And a work-out. I can't wait to figure out all the games. Troy is playing baseball right now. Come over and play with us! Its a blast!

Accident Prune

When I was backpacking the magestic Alps of Austria in 1999, my German tour guide Siggy used to call me her accident prune because I was always getting myself into little accidents here and there that were Bizzarre. Today another one of those occurred.

I was cleaning the pitcher from our blender, getting ready to make a smoothie for our breakfast, and the little demon spikes at the bottom (otherwise known as the blender) attacked my finger. It seemed to look a LOT worse than it was since it was bleeding everywhere...but when it stopped, the cut is maye 2mm long. Progressively over the course of the day, it has gotten REALLY painful, and I feel like quite the baby, but I couldn't even hold a pen by the end of the day, and I'm 2 finger typing now. I can't bend it, or straighten it...its too painful, and its swelled up quite a bit. Now what the heck is going on with this? I feel like an incredible loser, and even cancelled out on my floor hockey team today...I didn't know how I'd hold and shoot my hockey stick! What is happening to me!

Now I'm annoyed and in a BAD mood.

Oh well. Sorry its taken me so long to post. Nothing exciting has happened in my life....except of course American Idol started last night...which wasn't that great, but its a bit entertaining.

Anyways. I should go...my hand hurts.

S

A Few More Photo's

Awake

We've been watching the tv show 24 ALL day. Troy woke me up at 8:30am to watch it...then we went for groceries around 10:30. Back home to make some breakfast, and then back to watching 24. We left here around 4:30pm to go to Costco, and Future Shop and Church, and then back to watching 24. I am HOOKED, but Troy had to go to sleep. He was too tired, and he has to work in the morning. Not me! :) So I'm chatting with an old friend, and my brother.

If you're reading this, I urge you to send me a link to your most FAVORITE site, for my bored times. Thanks!

S

Snoring Boring

 

My day at work has been snoring boring.  I can’t wait to go home!  I wish I was busier!  I guess that’s the season though.  I don’t really have anything to write about…I need to spend some more time on my blog.  I have a lot more friends links I’d like to add.  My cousin Jill has moved to Australia for 6 months, and Kerey Smith is in Korea.  Tonight is a lazy night for Troy and I.  We’re nearly recovered from our trip back east…the laundry is done, the house is nearly clean, and the Christmas Tree has been taken down. YEAH!  Our living room looks boring now.  I need to be satisfied with what we have, even though I’d LOVE to go out any get some more furniture.  Does anyone need a “new to you” couch?  I’m going to call the Women in Need Society to come get one of the couches off our “wall of couches”.  I hate it.  Anyways.

It looks like an amazing day outside.  I’m going to go enjoy it.  Happy Weekend!

S

Photo's

Sleepwalking And Other Adventures

So last night before bed, I put all the ingredients to make bread, in my bread maker, and set the timer to begin at 3am.  When I woke up this morning, I thought…it doesn’t smell quite like bread baking...and was surprised to see a weird lumpy, semi-warm  rock of bread ingredients in front of me.  Its not that it hadn’t been cooked…its just that it seemed to be not quite done….but the machine was turned off.  Strange. 

I left there and went in the bathroom to start showering...and I saw the Listerine on the counter.  It was then that it all began coming back to me.  I don’t remember actually turning off the bread maker, but I do remember, coming out of the kitchen, and walking past the bathroom, and thinking…I’m going to rinse my mouth out with Listerine before I go back to bed.  Apparently I was having some mid-night wanderings around the house.  In fact, now as I sit here typing, I remember also being up at 11pm and thinking it was morning…hum….I wonder what on earth I was up to last night.

I have been extremely overtired lately.  After our trio out East, I’ve just been exhausted. It might have something to do with our flight back.

I hardly slept on Monday night.  I’m not sure why except maybe I was excited to go home.  Maybe it was because my ears hurt.  My ears hurt because I was at my Dad & Paula’s house, and because there’s not much room, Troy & I were sharing a room with my brother Josh and his wife Becca.  Both Troy & Josh snore, so I was having a hard time sleeping.  Paula gave me some disposable ear plugs to use…but they hurt my ears.  I did use them however for several nights, which brings me again to Monday night, when my ears were hurting, so I didn’t put them in.  ALSO, the rest of my siblings went in to New York City on Monday night, so I was anticipating Josh & Becca coming in at any time.  Regardless, I didn’t sleep. Maybe 20 minutes all night.

We got to the JFK airport at 6am(4am Calgary time).  Looked around for where we were supposed to check in for about 5 minutes and then got into an incredibly LARGE line.  I’m thinking at least 200 people were in front of us.  For 20 minutes, we didn’t move. The line was INCREDIBLY slow, and we started to worry thinking…our flight is in 1 hour and 15 minutes.  They called up the folks who were flying to Vancouver.  I figured that we shouldn’t worry because if our flight time got near, they would likely call us up to the front in the same way. We finally got to the front of the line at about 7:30am (our flight was scheduled for 7:45am).  It took us probably 10 minutes to figure out the silly touch-screen sign in (which is why it took everyone else so long), and finally we were finished.  A gentlemen came to put the baggage tags on our luggage, and that’s when he told us our flight had been delayed until 10:30am.  I was not impressed.  Then he proceeded to say, “Where is your 4^th bag?”  we told him we’d loaded all our 4 bags onto the scale, and he’d taken all of them.  “Oh….I must have forgotten to tag one of your bags.”  Lovely.

While the dude ran down to luggage-land to find our untagged bag, Troy & I made it through the line at security, and found the food court where we found ourselves some breakfast.  I was exhausted, and we were both a bit cranky with the situation. We sat around for a couple of hours, trying to sleep, and pass the time…but of course we couldn’t sleep.  Our gate number was not up on any of the screens anywhere, so we weren’t even sure where we were supposed to be, so I sent Troy to find out.  It was in a different section of the airport.  We collected our things and walked over there.

There were not many seats left, but we found some directly across from the “Hudsen News Stand”.  The lady who was in charge of the store, would not stop humming. When you are tired, and cranky and waiting for a delayed flight, I don’t recommend sitting near a lady who can not hum on tune…and who will not stop. I tried to get her to stop by humming louder than her.  It didn’t work.  Oh well.

At 10:45 the dude came on  the intercom and said there were some electrical problems and to sit tight, we’d be underway as soon as possible.  At 12:00pm, we boarded the plane.  Once everyone was boarded, the captain came over the intercom and said they continued to have electrical problems and so would turn off the power for 30 seconds, so not to be alarmed.  20 minutes later, the power was turned back on, and 40 minutes later, we were on our way.

When we’d gotten into the air, the captain came on the intercom again, to tell us the details of the flight and all that jazz.  He also told us the flight attendants would soon be around to offer food for purchase, and drinks.

½ an hour later, still no food or drinks, but the Pilot came on again, and said the restrooms were not flushing, so they were unavailable.  If you needed to go to the bathroom, you could hold it, or pee your pants.  (he didn’t say that part, but you know that’s what he wanted to say).  ½ an hour later the flight attendants started to come around with food.  FINALLY.

About ½ hour later, the Pilot came over the intercom again, to say the washrooms had not been fixed, but people could use the bathroom if they didn’t flush the toilets.  The flight attendants would flush the toilets as necessary.  Hmmmm…He said if it became a health and safety issue they would land the plane in Winnipeg in about 1 ½ hours. 

I ended up having to use the bathrooms several hours into the flight, and luckily for me, the flight attendant flushed right before me.  He told me he was flushing, every 5 users.  How freaking nasty is that????

We finally reached Calgary at about 4pm Calgary time, (6pm NY time), and made it through customs FINALLY.  We arrived home at 5pm. 

IF YOU ARE FLYING AIR CANADA, YOU FLY AT YOUR OWN RISK!  I hate that company. 

Anyways, that’s my rant.  This is super long, so I should go.  I’ll post some photo’s when I’m home as can’t do that from work.

 

S

 

 

 

 

7 1/2 hours of work left

Tomorrow we are finished work at 11am, and then have a company potluck! YEAH! Potlucks are fun. I hope someone brings deviled eggs. Those are my favorite!

I have spread my Blockbastard news to lots of people so far. I thought I would attach the letter I am sending them. And I will keep you posted as to what happens! J How exciting!

To Whom It May Concern, December 21, 2006

My husband and I live 2 blocks from a Blockbuster, so frequent there to rent, as well as purchase movies. I would say that more than half of our DVD library which is quite extensive, has been purchased at blockbuster. We’ve been members of Blockbuster for at quite some time. I’ll be honest, we’re not the best at returning our movies on time, so usually we have late, or restocking fee’s which we always pay promptly.

Recently we’d rented several movies (we probably had about 6) and of course, once again, we were delinquent in returning them. The day after returning them (with 30 days of renting), we received a call from an employee of the location they were returned from, advising us that we needed to return to Blockbuster to pick up the movies we’d returned, and pay for these movies, as we now owned them.

It was our understanding that if a movie was over 30 days late, Blockbuster would apply the price of the movie to your account, however if you returned that movie, that amount would be credited back to your account, and only the restocking fee would be applicable.

We were unaware of any change in your policies, as no one had advised us of this at the time of rental. We had not noticed any advertising (nor have we still) which advised us that their policies had changed, to our detriment.

I am very disappointed with Blockbuster. It’s not the change in policy, it’s that I feel it is being done in an underhanded way. Apparently the change in policy is being printed on the back of a receipt, and no notification is being made verbally to the person who is renting the movie. I wouldn’t have minded paying for the price of the movie, had I known about the change in policy, and still failed to return it.

Our bill was somewhere in the Neighborhood of $40-$70. (I’m not quite sure as my husband paid it). It’s not a lot of money, but it is my money…or it was my money.

Due to this, I will not be returning to Blockbuster. I will also be advising those I know, clients, and anyone else who happens to be interested in my story, so they are not put in the same predicament. Those I’ve already told were shocked, and I’ve let them know that perhaps Rogers is a better choice for movie rentals, and purchases. I don’t know I’ve never rented from them because I’ve always rented from Blockbuster, but I will be renting from them now.

I look forward to your response.

Shara

I did actually include our address and such, but didn’t want to post that. What do you think? My guess is I don’t hear back from them. Oh well. Whatever.

I’m hungry. I’m going to go get some lunch. BYE!

S

Blockbastard

Only 2 more days until we leave for Ontario. I’m wondering if I should get some of those motion sickness patches…or maybe Graval. Sometimes I get really motion sick, and then I feel awful for days. Hmmm…what to do what to do.

So…I’m ENRAGED with blockbuster. Not sure if I’ll go back there, for my movie viewing pleasure anymore. Here’s the story. T & I are not good at returning movies. However, since Blockbuster came out with their no late fee’s, we’ve become worse! Sometimes we’ll even keep movies up to a month. Its certainly not intentional, its just laziness. Anyways…APPARENTLY Blockbastard changed their rules. Now (as it says on their receipt) any movie kept more than 7 days after the return date, will NOT be credited back to your account when you return it. You will have to pay for that movie. No ifs ands or buts. We even tried to get out of it…with no luck. So they’ve changed their rules, and haven’t told anyone. Its on the small print of your receipts. So…lucky us, we had like 6-8 movies for more than 7 days. I’m not thrilled.

So….beware of renting from them. I’m going to be doing a LOT more renting from Shaw on Demand. There’s no late fees with them.

I got a BEAUTIFUL fuschia suitcase yesterday. I won it from Peace Hills Insurance. Its amazing, it’s a 20 inch one…so it is the biggest carry-on allowable in an airplane. And its Fuschia. Its awesome. When we get our computer back and working, I’ll try to remember to post a picture, or you can check out http://www.heys.ca/ to check them out.

Craig, your idea of blogging at work is a great one, however I mostly have too much to do. Today though its getting quiet. Hopefully posting this way work.

See ya!

S