Presents!

I know, I know, Christmas is about family and spending time together and all that jazz...but LOOK WHAT SANTA BROUGHT FOR ME!

2009 LOOT:



Thanks Mom! I really like the way it looks against our blue couches, and it's suprisingly warm.



Thanks Jon! I'm about 40 pages in right now and it's hilarious!


Okayy...thanks Dad...looks, um, fun.


Wait a second, this looks like it has some potential. It also looks slightly reminiscent of lower Thornhill.


Redneck-hance!

We played this game on boxing day with some friends. I laughed so hard I had a backache the next day.

And now, the Pièce de résistance :



That's right ladies. MY HUSBAND bought me a K I T C H E N - A I D M I X E R.



THANKS HUNNY!!

A Kick in the Pants

I realize I have not posted in...some time.. Ahem.

I have been mulling over my own reasoning for this. In some ways I feel that my life isn't really interesting enough to write about day in and day out and expect people to be interested. Some days I feel like it's a self-inflicted obligation in the midst of a flurry of REAL obligations. Other days I can't wait to write about a funny moment in my day, or vent about a frustration.

In any event, I received my birthday gift from my mom today, (fyi: my birthday is in October!) and the magazine to the left was part of said gift.

Isn't it puuurdy??

So I guess I have to read it and use it to BLOG.

Here Comes Halloween!

We hadn't planned on dressing up or doing much of anything this Halloween. Both of us were feeling tired and lazy, and neither of us wanted to be hung titties in a church pew. That being said, when the big day came, we both felt like we shouldn't be without costumes so we took some last minute help from a very seriously jam-packed closet that will remain anonymous.

We carved our pumpkins on the 30th, while watching the movie 'Orphan', which was a TERRIBLE movie. Painfully predictable and just poorly done. We fast forwarded the last 20 minutes of it and didn't feel like we had missed anything important.




Okay, so there were only two or three people that actually correctly guessed my costume. I'm not going to tell you what it is, because even though these pictures aren't very good, YOU SHOULD KNOW what I am dressed as. I'll even give you a very, very, VERY BIG HINT. Please, for the love of god, tell me that you get it now. IF YOU STILL DON'T GET IT.


Dave is dressed as a pirate, which is not very clear in the photos, but was otherwise pretty obvious.

Secure in his manhood.

It was my birthday on Friday and Dave bought me a lovely gift and saw to it that I had a special and memorable day - like the fabulous husband that he is! However, I am writing this post to highlight an unexpected bonus - THE WRAPPING PAPER.

Dave broke into my scrapbooking supplies to wrap my gift.

Exhibit A:


And inside was this...



Romantic right? This book is on my list. Dickens is a little intimidating, so I'm not sure how soon I will read this, but I'll let you know when I get there!

I live in Canada, therefore I eat turkey in October, mmmkay?

Martha Stewart has never failed me before. Her recipes are unfailingly easy and reliable, her crafts are cute, creative and simple, her site navigable, her readers plentiful, and her information punctual....If you are American.

I HAVE BEEF!

Martha, what you fail to understand is that you have CANADIAN READERS! I PAY MONEY for a subscription to your magazine and I have even given subscriptions out as gifts to other Canadians! I visit your website regularly and I have purchased your cookbooks! To withhold Thanksgiving recipes, decor and craft templates from us until November is UNFAIR. WE REQUIRE ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

This morning I spent two hours on your website searching for craft ideas and recipes. While I was able to find some information, you have the whole Thanksgiving portion to your site that does not open until October 26th. What am I supposed to do, save the info and wait until next year?

It's a good thing I'm creative and can think up my OWN decorations and recipes. I don't NEED you Martha.

There, I said it.

A Saturday Morning Giggle

My good friend Diana linked this to me in a recent message.

Enjoy.

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

The Dave - Perception of Self Edition

This evening Dave and I had a slight misunderstanding about the time we were supposed to arrive at a friend's house, which snowballed into a bit of an argument, because I was taking too long to get in the car. A classic, you might say. The details of said argument are insignificant - we arrived at our friend's on time, and I had been able to apply lipstick, so all was well.

All that was to set the stage for a most memorable little gem that Dave let slip later on, when expressing that he may have overreacted about our punctuality.

"I'm like God. I'm merciful, but don't fuck with me."

That is what he said.

I can hear you laughing, but be careful, he might smite you. You don't know what he is capable of.

Fall - The 'It's Moving Way too Fast' Edition

Only a week later and look at all the golden leaves! It's beautiful, but it serves as a reminder that winter is just around the corner...

Fall - Late September Edition

The maple tree in our front yard has begun to change colour. I'll post a new pic of the tree once a week to show its progress. It is beautiful here in the fall.

lovelovelove

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been adjusting to SCHOOL and I've also been sick. SO SICK.
Anyway, I'm not going to bore you with the details of SO SICK. I recently discovered Our Broken Garden on a site called The Black Cab Sessions, which is very cool.



lovelovelove.

RETROTAINMENT

Dave is a SHARPSHOOTER!!!

A Garage Sale Run of the Decade

Labour day weekend! For me this year, a celebration of a last and a first. This weekend is the last time I will have two days off in a row until Thanksgiving, as I will be going back to school and restructuring my work week to fit everything, much to the chagrin of my days off. As I ordinarily work on Saturdays, this was the first one this summer that I was able to spend with my husband. In preparation for this momentous occasion, we both did a lot of thinking about what we should do together. And of course as the passionate romantics that we are, we settled on garage-saling.

I proceeded to make a map (which I later discovered I couldn't print, damn you Google terms of use!) that would enable us to efficiently visit every sale in a tidy circuit.


View Terrace Garage Sales Sept 5 in a larger map


Having successfully overcome the obstacles of The When and The Where, we proceeded to search for little gems amongst the usual clutter that is the Garage Sale.


Exhibit A:



Two to three years worth of reading, all great books, most of which were already on my reading list.

Exhibit B:



Let's get ready for some good old retrotainment!

Exhibit C:



A SNOWBOARD. The guy just gave it to us, literally. He was like, 'oh, you're just learning how to board? Here, you go, it's yours.' Karma? I don't know. Bindings are awful, but we have another set, as well as boots. I'm officially OUTFITTED PEOPLE!

A Dumping Ground Free Home

When we moved into our first home, it was clear immediately that the spare room needed a little sprucing up. The walls were a horrendous color of peach, accented with mullberry blue curtains and trim. Horrifying.

The old ceiling tiles are sagging and we were planning to drywall, as well as remove the carpet in favour of laminate.

In light of the amount of work needing to be done, we didn't take the time to create a usable space. Instead, the room became a place to dump the laundry when we didn't feel like folding, or hide things that you didn't really have a place for. A bedroom sized junk drawer, in an already tiny house.

A year and a half later, we still have not done one ounce of the work that is needed in the spare room. One reason could be that we haven't really ever had enough money to supply materials (which isn't reeeeally true), or that we aren't using the room anyway, so why fix it?

Finally the time came when I couldn't take it anymore. We needed to stop wasting the valuable space, ugly or not. My wardrobe has recently outgrown my closet, thanks to a generous friend who provided me with an enormous number of closet-castaways. (A good friend, indeed). We needed to buy a wardrobe, and while we were at it, I was really ready to get my books out of the prison of cardboard they had been in for the past two years, and to do that we were going to need bookshelves.

As stated, the room is still extremely ugly and we have in no way abandoned our plan to renovate. (We actually are hoping to claim some writeoffs from renovations, and we could easily spend over a thousand big ones in this room alone). So, before Christmas, CHANGE WILL COME. In the meantime, we have this:

A Very Special Day

This photo is one of just a few that I have of David's Grandma and Grandpa Hannon, (which is ridiculous, considering how many pictures get taken when we are all together!)
Regardless of the quantity of photos that I have in my possession, this particular image perfectly captures their silly, loveable nature, which is not reserved only for their many grandchildren, but also for eachother.

Happy anniversary you two!

Black Beauty - Sewell

The first of my 100. 'Black Beauty' by Anna Sewell.

A beautiful, eloquent novel written from the viewpoint of a horse, Black Beauty, and spans his life and his experiences, which range from pastures in the country to the cobblestone streets of Victorian England.

Sewell draws attention to the mistreatment of horses, emphasizing that while horses may be 'dumb animals' they are no less affected by the treatment of their masters.

"I said, 'You used to stand up for yourself if you were ill-used.'

'Ah!' she said, 'I did once, but it's no use; men are strongest, and if they are cruel and have no feeling, there is nothing that we can do but just bear it - bear it on and on to the end. I wish the end was come; I wish I was dead. I have seen dead horses, and I am sure they do not suffer pain."

The first of many

I gifted myself with this lovely handpainted bookmark in order to christen my journey through 100 classic novels. I am sure I will use a great many bookmarks along the way, but this one will always be the first.

A Personal Goal

I am a person of lists. They give me a feeling of control in my life, of intentionality in my decisions. I make lists for my grocery shopping, my every day to-do's, my personal finances, wish lists, and most recently I have decided to make a LIST OF THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE. (The inspiration for this list came from MightyGirl, check it out).

I won't disclose the contents my list at the moment, but I will say that one of the items on that list is: Read 100 Classic Novels.

So naturally, I made a sub-category list of classic books that I want to read. So far there are 63 books on this list and I am needing assistance to fill in the remaining 37. I am very interested to hear what your favourite classic novels are, and I'd love to add them to my reading list. Please comment!

The Horror Part Two: The Disclaimer

The first thing you should know about Vampire-Field-School-of-Hell-2009 is that, well, parts of it were really fun. I know you guys are all looking for a good rant, and you'll certainly get one, however I consider it is only fair to say that there were moments, even hours, that remained miraculously unscathed by the administration's fastidious work at crumbling the foundations of my education. Usually these shining moments occurred when the teachers were either missing or their power was usurped by provincial park workers.

If you would like to read the original post click here.

One more disclaimer: If, by some incredible fluke of the internet, you happen to be a student of NWCC and are reading this, please bear in mind that I am writing an exaggerated rant on some of the lower points of the 2009 "Kitlope" Field School. I originally signed up for this program because every single person I spoke to who had been said that it was an absolutely incredible, life-altering, revelatory experience. Please don't let the rantings of a morbidly over-opinionated blowhard change your mind, because you would undoubtedly miss out on the event of a lifetime. Even having experienced some of the lower moments of NWCC staff that often resulted in a lot of frustration, I have every intention of signing up next year for the Haida Gwaii field school and so should you.

Phew, now that that's over, let's talk some smack!

Just give one of these to Kim Jong-Il

My girlfriend Elizabeth grew up, and still lives, on a farm. When she first told me this I remember feeling kind of bad for her, like, that's too bad you never got to do x-y-z in the big city.

My feelings changed in that regard the first time I went to her farm and met her many nuzzleable and smoochable 'pets'.

Three weeks ago the family golden retriever Missy gave birth to 10 puppies. Yep, count em, 10. So of course when she invited me and a few friends to come over and, ahem, inspect their pedigree, I jumped at the chance.

I may have screamed 'PUPPIIIIIIIIIEEEEES!' and lept into her arms, I don't really remember.

Does not compute

Posting has been light lately for a number of reasons. Reason number one is that we have been having a tropical heat wave here in Northern British Columbia and, as much as I feel a duty to satisfy my readership of 4 people, posting from an air mattress on the Lake is not as easy as it looks.

Reason number two is that my laptop is on the fritz. It's broken. It really sucks. Right now I am posting from work, shhh. I have a bazillion pictures that I want to show you of the awesome summer we've been having, plus I am acutely aware that I have not finished telling the gruesome tale of the college's Hellscape-Neverending-Daymare Field School of Satan. Don't worry, it's brewing, and once I can access my pictures it will be unleashed upon the interwebs.

At the moment I am waiting for a new battery and power cord for my laptop to arrive in the mail. As neither of mine work, I am obviously unable to turn it on and everything that is on there is trapped in the limbo of computer-memory-storage-land and will not see light of day until my shit arrives. Not being able to access my documents and pictures, and my inability to sit with my laptop, feel its radiant warmth....let's just say I've developed an eye twitch and I've been spending way too much time with the toaster.

FAIL Blog

While I was surfing the interwebs this afternoon I came across a most exciting new development, one that has the potential to become a regular installment of my daily timewasting routine. You may have already experienced the ridiculously epic entertainment value that FAILblog has to offer. (Not to mention the incredibly valuable public service they provide). If you haven't, I suggest you click the link to your right and get yourself some educations.

What is this new development you speak of? It is none other than a new blog by the good people at FAIL entitled 'emails from crazy people'. Catchy right? Well, I just got my daily ab workout from reading the first few posts and I can tell you, it is worth getting busted by your boss for sluffing off on the web at work, so GET TO IT PEOPLE.

That is all.

I has a windoooooooww!

On the way home from New Aiyansh after a busy day of frolicking.

Summer Activities - Waterfall Edition

Saturday night Dave and I and a few friends decided to check out a waterfall near the Extew River. It was a hefty drive down an old logging road, but once we were there it was only a short (but steep!) hike to the falls.

We brought Zoe out on a hike for the first time, (we've always been wary that she'd disappear never to return), and she did marvelously, although she promptly fell asleep for the night once we got back to the vehicle!


Kieran - Always ready for a sudden bear attack.


Kieran - "Wait, you've never shot a rifle before?!"


This is the very bottom, where the waterfall lands.










photo courtesy of Heather Roberts


There was so much spray we might as well have gone swimming.







Photo courtesy of Heather Roberts


Photo courtesy of Heather Roberts


Somebuddy's tie-tie...
Photo courtesy of Heather Roberts