Happy Birthday, Eelke!

Today is PANCAKE DAY.

Today is also my muffin's birthday!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dear Eelke,
Happy birthday to you! xo

Yay Canada!

Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Metal Results:

G11 S12 B6 T29

G9 S9 B7 T25

G7 S10 B7 T24

What's Eelke getting for his birthday?

How about a new girlfriend?

I went Terrestrial on my hair tonight (literally!): that's what the box said the colour was. I look totally alien now: I barely recognise myself in the mirror! Miranda will freak out when she sees me in the morning. At least you can't see my two grey hairs any more. I did it in retaliation to the haircut I got last Friday by Allen. I liked it well enough then, but today the bangs were bothering me, too long and too thick; so I went home, cut the bangs a bit (still too long) and decided to throw the colour on. I told Eelke I was going to colour my hair; he said Cool! I gotta go, miss you and call you tomorrow. (but with less punctuation) eeek! I seriously need to go to hairstyling school and learn to cut my own hair. I hate having to rely on other people for things like styling my hair. That's what I'll do - I'll go to hairstyling school, quit my job, and style hair for a living. Darn that Anthony for leaving me! He would never have let my hair get into this state. I'm gonna go bang my head against a wall now.

Weeds

After her husband suddenly dies of a heart attack, a housewife sells pot in the suburbs to support her family- it's not really a plot that I would be interested in, but I AM LOVING IT! Why? I'm not sure. It's marketed as a comendy, but it is not laugh-out-loud funny; it is captivating with its subtle shockers. The finale of season was amazing! I cannot wait for the show to resume in July.

Weeeeeeee!

Earlier in the week it was looking like the temperatures would be horrible for our trip to the mountains, but the weather co-operated! It was cold on Friday night (-28C) but that didn't stop us from donning our swim suits and running outside to be (literally) boiled in hot tub.

Skiing was great on Saturday! The temperature went up to about -4C, and it was just like riding a bicycle, which is a good thing, considering I have not been skiing in over 10 years. The morning runs were terrific! I'm no speed deamon, and but I really enjoyed myself. Being exhausted, and the lack of snow made the slopes very icy in the afternoon, so my confidence was stolen after a few spills.

On Sunday, Eelke and I went hiking, made snowangels, watched the squirrels and simply enjoyed some quiet time with the winter surroundings.

Eelke's post-doc friends are super nice, and it was fun to be in their company. They are also very well behaved in the car. ;)

See all the pictures here!

Bathtub Test

It doesn't hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time, and this should help get you started.

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

"Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.

"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup.

"No." said the Director, "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window ?

Ski Bunny

It's snow time! We're taking tomorrow off work and heading up to Jasper to hit the slopes. (I hope there is snow in the mountains, because there is still no show here in the city. YAY!)

Miranda pitched a fit when I told her she would be staying with Grandma & Papa and that Eelke and I would be staying at a hotel. "WAH!" she said, "It's not fair because I've never slept in a hotel before! WAH!" She's 6 and gets pissed off when she discovers she hasn't experienced everything the world has to offer in her few short years.

8*C in February!

Yesterday it was so warm that I was outside for 2 hours without a jacket! I still brought along my gloves, and Eelke gave me a hard time about that, but at least he did not hear me say that my hands were cold!

We had a wonderful, long walk in the river valley, which ended up being a hike as Eelke led us up and down muddly slopes in an atempt to get closer to the river. He wanted to touch the ice chunks that were floating downstream.

After the walk, Eelke suggested we stop at McDonald's for ice cream. Instead, I took us for some real soft serve at Dairy Queen. Mmmmm good! view the photos

I'm a blond bimbo girl, in the fantasy world

So I go to pick Miranda up from her afterschool care the other day... (Scott, you'll love this one; there's no escaping Barbie in this world)

I walk into the room, I see three 6-year old girls (Miranda and 2 friends) sitting at a table playing together. Suddenly, Barbie Girl starts blasting from the CD player and ALL THREE GIRLS start singing their hearts out. (And so do the other 5 girls in the room.)

"I'm a barbie girl, in the barbie world
Life in plastic, it's fantastic!
You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere
Imagination, life is your creation
Come on Barbie, let's go party!"

They are putting on a "show" tomorrow. Six girls are going to be singing and dancing to 5 songs. They are so excited and have been "rehearsing" all week. It is a PD day at school so the afterschool care is having a pajama day. Miranda has asked if she can take a cool dress to change into for the show. Let me think about that ... ah, NO! It's daycare, not a fashion show. *sigh* I tried to get the song list out of them, but all they can tell me is Barbie Girl and Macarena and then they go off on a tangent.

Strawberry Body Butter Soothes the Soul

I was feeling a little down today but some retail therapy, a trip to the mall over morning break, made it better. :) yay! I went back to the office with candles and a small pot of Strawberry Body Butter from The Body Shop. It is divine! Sweet smelling, pink and fluffy cream, it would be like smearing strawberries and cream all over your body! Only I wouldn't know since I only got a 50mL pot to keep at my desk at work for my hands.

(not bad for 10 minutes of shopping)

It all starts with a kink in the road

On Friday I get an email from Eelke, excited about this "kink" in the road just outside of the city, so we make plans to go there on our Sunday trip to the country. The explaination for the kink in the road: it goes around a lake that is too small to indicate on the map. So we were driving around the lake and on the "out" side there was a little piece of heaven tucked away: Lily Lake Village Resort! Oh my it was lovely! Campgrounds, a Bed & breakfast, Cuddle Inn, fine-dining restaurants & bistro, and the piece de resistance, a small wilflife park! Bison, elk, llamas, horses... there are pens for other animals which have probably been moved for the winter months. The bison seemed to charge at the fence but stopped. One even let Eelke touch it! Then we got back in the car and drove to Legal, where we stopped at a truckstop for a bite to eat. Finally without the responsibility of keeping my eyes on the road, I took some pictures. see the photos here Eelke will probably blog about the trip as well, and he'll have pictures of what we saw on the drive, so watch his space for that!

Presents for Mummy

For my mum's birthday I bought her a yoga mat so we can do pilates together, and I promised her I would make her some jewllery. Her birthday was over a month weeks ago! Bad me, I have yet to see her for pilates, and I still have to give her the jewllery. I will be seeing her today so I hope I will remember to give her the present.

Speech, Speech, Speech!

No, I am not remarkable enough to have won a Nobel Prize or an Academy Award! :( In the morning, I have to stand up in front of 100 people (the whole office!) and give a brief introduction and outline of the Social Committee and what our plans are for activities for this year.

To make a long-ish story short, 3 people resigned and now I am now running the Social Committee show. I must admit, it's a bit exhilarating to have that kind of control! Also, I am being forced to get over my fear of public speaking... eeek! I am a quiet talker, so do I used the microphone and run the risk of having it make that horrible screeching noise when I first open my mouth to speak? or, do I go without and hope that the people waaay in the back can hear me? agh! I'm going to be up all night worrying that I might sleep in and miss the meeting (I'm already being called in to work a 1/2 hour early for this meeting). I think faster than I talk so I hope I don't stumble on my thoughts. I suppose I could actually write out what I have to say, I mean I sort of already did, but it's just a list of items I need to touch on and not really exactly what I have to say; besides, I don't want to be "reading" a presentation to the office. I will just have to take deep breaths, and try to slow down my thinking, and no Redbull for breakfast (the caffeine makes me think even faster). Sure, I can do that!

It has been suggested that I picture the front row naked... eeek! That's probably scarier than having to give the presentation in the first place.

Groundhog Day Consensus

It's unanimous: 3 out of 3 groundhogs predict it will be an early spring!

Balzac Billie (in Balzac, Alberta) , Wiarton Willie (in Ontario) and Shubenacadie Sam (in Nova Scotia) emerged to overcast skies, hence, no shadows to be seen!

To the South of us, USA's Punxsutawney Phil (in Pennsylvania) saw his shadow, predicting 6 more weeks of winter.

History of Groundhog Day: It is based on the European tradition of Hedgehog Day. It was believed that if the sun was shining on Candlemas Day (Feb 2nd) then winter would last another 6 weeks; if cloudy, spring would make an early appearance, as the vernal equinox and the traditional beginning of Spring is 6 weeks after Feb 2nd.

Why the hedgehog? They go back to Roman times, when they believed spring was decided by hedgehogs seeing their shadows at night by the light of the moon.

When Europeans settled in North America (where hedgehogs are not indigenous) the shortage of hedgehogs forced the people to turn to the rodent's cousin, the woodchuck (a.k.a. the groundhog) .

I Woke Up Screaming

I had a horrific dream last night, one that found me waking myself up screaming, and left me afraid to go to sleep afterwards.

Someone was stalking me but I didn't know it. I went outside and found the windshield of my car cracked, like rocks have been thrown at it. Then I was driving my daddy's truck and the same thing happened, but this time the person responsible for it made it known to me that it was intentional, and he was after me. I was being chased and as I tried to find a door with the lights on insides, Icouldn't find one. When I finally did get in to a house, with the hopes of being safe, the man chasing me comes crashing trough the door because there is no lock on the door!

There was more after that, but I the details are hazy. I remember screaming, screaming in terror. I was screaming when I couldn't get the door locked but I got past that point and it wasn't until later on when I was screaming again that I woke up.

Manefestations of reality. I know a lot of people believe that dreams are not so literal, but I often have dreams that reflect on goings on of the day before. My brain needs an off button, or at least a mute button, so I can get through the night.

Cards and Flowers

Cards and flowers on Valentine's Day
Heart-shaped candies help to say
I love you in a special way
And love is the reason for Valentine's Day

With Barbie cards for the girls, and Dragonball Z cards for the boys, Miranda is all ready for Valentine's Day! The children in her class will have their cards attatched to little goody bags, containing a lolly and 2 small heart-shaped erasers.

I am so delighted to have this done and out of the way, instead of rushing the night before to get everything in order. The extra Dragonball Z cards I made up for my friends at work. I am such a dork, but whatever, there's no point saving them for next year!