We got our four days!

Woooooohooooooooooo!! We ended up getting our four day weekend afterall. Too late to plan any camping, of course! But we still got it. :)

DBF ended up getting an extra leave day (at the last possible minute), and I sent yet another email to my lovely bosses...and voila, extra long weekend. Maybe they could all hear me whining from afar? haha.

Sure enough we woke up to rain today though...typical. It is supposed to be sunny today and tomorrow, so maybe this will blow off. It's not raining right now, but it's grey and gloomy...boooooooooo. Still warm though, so we're off for a relaxing adventure anyway.

We decided to pack a little lunch and grab the dog and just do a day trip down the shore to check out the potential camping spots. We've never been to the parks, so we might as well see what they are like before we pick a place to spend a weekend anyway. I really just wanted some "us" time so that's what we are doing.

Mojo likes car rides and we can let him run a bit when we get to the parks so it will be fun for all of us. Hopefully the rain holds off, but if not, oh well!!

Hope you all have fun plans for today!

I just need a minute to vent!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I'm so annoyed and frustrated right now!

Good news: DBF's sailing schedule got changed at the last minute. He was supposed to leave tomorrow for five weeks, but due to some unforseen preparation issues they have been held back for about a month. He'll still have to go away, but not for quite as long and not until the end of July now. (So he'll be away for August instead of July). Technically we still miss out on part of the Summer together, but that can't be avoided so I'm happy just to have him home now.

Bad news: This weekend should be a long weekend, right? Canada Day is on Tuesday, so you would think that most government agencies would be taking Monday off as well, right? mhmmmmm. So I get all excited that "holy shit, Arron and I might actually get like a four day weekend together!!! this never happens!" Yup, but nope. Leave it to the freaking Navy to decide that they have to work on Monday. Booooooo. So no one can make any special plans for the weekend because they just have to come back to work for one day in the middle of it. Stupid.

I'm especially annoyed because my job was totally willing to help me out and give me the two days off (and I'm not even supposed to get Canadian holidays), but that nice gesture goes to waste because I can't even take them up on it.

Sure, he could book an annual vacation day, but then that can bugger up any future time off he wants for trips to see his son, so again I get burned. Well, not me...but us. It's always "our" stuff that gets the shitty end of the stick.

You would think since they just screwed them all out of any Summer plans they had already made (ie: because they were supposed to be home in August but now they won't be) that they might step up and give them a long weekend to spend with their families....but, noooooooooo.

Today I hate the stupid military.


(and to top it all off, we decided we might still go camping anyway, but stupid Nova Scotia provincial parks have a no booze rule until July 1st anyway. Boooo. Who camps without some drinkies? Someone just doesn't want us to have a little getaway....)

Good thing most of the neighbors know us and like us now...

...cuz I think Mojo just went for a little jaunt around the neighborhood.

We keep the back door open pretty much all the time to keep the air circulating around the house (it's pretty stuffy in here). And since DBF just built us those handy-dandy stairs, we make sure to block those off so that the dog can't just wander off. By "block" I mean that we drag a patio chair in front of the opening. :) Who needs a gate?

Ha, well apparently we do.

So I'm sitting up in my office (which faces the back yard) and through my open window I can hear what sounds like Mojo's collar jingling. I look down, and low and behold there he is just trotting around the back yard. Um, ooooops.... we don't have a fence. I give a call, and he comes happily skipping back to the deck...up the stairs...and I watch him actually step over the planter. Ah-ha! So that's how he got past the chair! Bugger!

I go down to adjust the chair situation and realize that he's panting like a mad man. Errrrr.....panting like maybe he'd just had himself some serious activity. Ya, I'm guessing a nice little run around the street and houses and general neighborhood.

Whooooops. :)

And these are the people in your neighborhood...

Saturday night's get-together quickly became a who's who of our neighbors. Love it!

We started out planning the evening as a way for some new friends to meet some old friends in order to grow our social circle. Now that Summer is here and we've been settled into our new place for six months I am starting to go a little stir crazy with not knowing a whole lot of people to do things with. Especially with DBF's travel picking up more now.... I NEED to meet some more people!

I met a great couple through another friend of ours, so we invited them and thought we would have an intimate evening of maybe four couples....hehe, but I should have known it would turn into a party cuz that's just what we do! :)

The original friend actually ended up not being able to make it because she and her date both got food poisoning the night before. Drag!! But the other couple came so we got to visit and get to know them which was the plan anyway! Then our other super-close friends arrived and it turns out that the wives both work for the same company. So the idea behind us all getting to know each other totally worked out.

DBF had invited a few neighbors, but we really thought that only the one guy next door would show up. We've become friends with him and his wife, but she is a flight attendant and was out of town. And we thought maaaybe the guy from down the street would come, but again his wife was supposed to be busy so we weren't sure.

Well, surprise us both by everyone showing up! :) Guy from down the street got his wires crossed and his wife wasn't busy, so they both came (which was great because I've wanted to get to know her!) and shortly after that the guy from next door came. A little later we were surprised to hear the doorbell and it was the couple from the other side of us, plus their house guest. Soooo cool, because they are usually pretty quiet. Good thing they came too, because we learned that we had his name wrong all this time....LOL. And then to top the evening off, the couple from across the street stopped in when they got home. They are in a band and we thought it would be much too late when they got home, but we were still going strong. Again, lucky me, another woman when I really thought it would mostly be the guys from the neighborhood. Somewhere in the midst of all those people, DBF's buddy from work and his wife arrived too.

Glad I made as much food as I did (BTW, the food was a hit!! People were super impressed with the "spread" I put on.)! The blue cheese potato bites were awesome...try them!

Do you know what though? I didn't take one photo. Not one!! Me who is so usually camera happy. My girlfriend had a camera that I know got used, but I have no idea what she took shots of...hopefully we find out soon!

The night went on until about 4am... the last few boys still hammering away on their guitars and trying to mesh drunkenly together. A good time!! (and not a lot of mess believe it or not...I guess it helps that I was too busy to drink a lot and kept tidying as we went.) We are so pleased with how it worked out! I've never really gotten to know many neighbors anywhere else I've lived, but here everyone is sooo nice and friendly and conveniently about our age. And now we are the cool kids on the block, so we'll try to do this again soon!! :)

And the original couple that we started this all for had a good time and invited us to join them for a dinner party sometime soon. Yaaieeee!

Party Planning

DBF gets home on Friday! Yaaaieeeee!! But leaves again for FIVE WEEKS next Thursday. Booooooo!! So we decided that we would have a little gathering on the weekend. I've met a couple of friends through another friend that I would like him to meet, and this is really our only chance until late August.

I started out planning a casual BBQ, but due to peoples' schedules, that just wasn't going to work out....so I've turned it into an evening of yummy drinks and snacks. There will only be 8-10 people, so I'm sure I've gone overboard, but everyone loves to eat so I'm not worried. :)

Here's the menu plan so far:

- two batches of Sangria (one white, one red)
- meat & cheese tray
- herbed goat cheese & red pepper jelly
- warmed brie with honey and almonds
- assorted crackers & baguette
- toasted bread (rye or maybe sourdough) with olive tapenade
- grilled scallops with lemon herb marinade
- spanokopita & tzatziki
- these yummy potato bites I saw in Rachel Ray mag
- plus all of the usual little filler bits of olives, cherry tomatoes, grapes, etc
- possibly something chocolatey, however a guest is making mini-cheesecakes!

I am off to start the big shopping tonight, then can get the last minute fresh items on Saturday morning. I think I will stop by HomeSense to look for a few new platters too...because I say that every time I make appies, but never actually get around to it. I'm looking for white, simple and fabulous! :)

Aside from the meal planning, some tidying and cleaning will be in order...but I've been keeping on top of it for the most part, so nothing too excessive...thank God!! Should be a great night. :)

The organizing gets worse before it gets better!

I forgot to take before pictures, but just trust me that these two small rooms were each piled high with random boxes, piles, furniture, whatever. A lot of things that were marked "basement" by the movers just got dropped in our little rec room (which really is just a den, and is now DBF's guitar room) so when we cleaned up in there, everything just got stuffed behind closed doors.

So yesterday I got out the handy-dandy drill and built the shelving (which I already built last year! but, of course, the movers disassembled it) so that I could stack up the Christmas decorations properly. Lots of room to maneuver now! Funny, I wound up with yet another HUGE box of garage sale stuff....amazing the amount of crap we moved with us that we soooo don't need (I think we have like 8 boxes so far, and we haven't even scraped the surface in the garage).

Then I got into the room under the stairs. Not really a lot in there, but what was there was just shoved in and taking up way more room than necessary. And we had started piling stuff outside the door in the alcove, so it was getting silly. I just rearranged and pulled a couple of things out and that's all it took. I was then able to slide our wine rack in there and finally unload our blossoming wine collection! (ha, and discovered quite a lot of white wine that needs to be drank (drank? drunk? drinken?) this year....good thing it's Summer soon!)

Of course, the camping gear still needs a home....so that "extra" space under the stairs will probably get used up (it goes waaaaaay back behind those suitcases and paint cans, but the home inspector told us to keep a clear path to the water shut off that is under there). At least now it's all tidy so I can see everything though, so it will be a quick transition. Actually what I'm hoping is that once the garage is finished, we can move that extra paint out there....and I just now decided that those suitcases are going next to the guitar cases in the Christmas closet...so yup, lots of room for camping gear! Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow. :)

Like a Doubleshot needs added Energy!

Those crazy Starbucks kids are at it again. While surfing their site after seeing this fabulous post by Mouse, I learned that my new favorite SB Summer bevvie has been pumped up.

Starbucks Doubleshot on Ice + Energy

As if the three full espresso shots plus original syrup that are in a grande aren't enough, but now they have amped it up with extra energy. LOL.

"A blend of B vitamins, guarana, and ginseng is shaken with the Starbucks Doubleshot™ on Ice Beverage for added energy."

I think I know what I'll be trying this Sunday!

Solar batteries?

Two of my cute little garden lanterns aren't lighting up. Boooo. They are so perfect when the blue lights come on. They are solar powered, but they do have battery-type things inside them. Anyone know if I can just replace those thingies? I guess it's another trip to the trusty local Rona to find out!

Good Doggy!

Mojo was a very good boy today.

We've been saying for ages that we needed to get him in to get his claws clipped. We can't do it ourselves because he's usually a bit of a spaz and it takes like 2 people to hold him down, and another to do the dirty work.

I was walking him yesterday and realized he was starting to look like one of those freaky people from the Guinness Book with the world's longest fingernails. Poor guy...not sure how he was walking on them! OK, not that bad, but bad enough.

So I booked him an appointment. Of course, he thinks that a car ride is a good thing so is all stoked to get his leash on and hop into my car (and immediately start drooling and shedding of course). Little does he know that this isn't a car ride to the walking trail, but instead a ride to the evil vet office. Uh-oh.

Well, surprise of all surprises. He was sooooooooooooo good. Walked into the office, and not only were there other dogs, but there were also kids....not one bark. I couldn't believe it. He usually turns on his loud non-stop bark and scares the kids and annoys everyone else. Nope, not this time...just a lot of sniffing and letting the kids pet him. Nice!

Then we went into the little room to wait for the tech....he didn't like that very much, figured he was getting something evil done I'm sure....so there was some heavy-duty whining, but still no barking. The ladies came in to do the work and he was so good with them. I mean, a bit of squirming and obvious tension, but such a good boy!!

They gave him some treats and some good cuddles, and although they had to hold onto him tight, he really didn't put up much of a fight....just a lot of shedding. The ladies were super awesome and I made sure to tell them so. And Mojo and I promised not to wait so long to come in for his next mani/pedi.

Good dog!

Hmmmm....

That didn't go quite as planned. Work ran late. Got talking to Mom on the phone and sort of lost track of time.

I did get the dresser dragged to the front porch...of course, then I realized that today isn't garbage day (it's compost day...we only get garbage pick up every two weeks) so now the ugly dresser is out on the front porch. Oooops. Well, it's only a week. :)

I could've continued on and done either the boulevard work, or some of the storage work, but I had to go to the gym....so, the list (minus the dresser) moves on to today.

After work today...

- pick up some topsoil for the little strip of boulevard in front of our place
- quick mow, rake, water, lay topsoil, rake again, sprinkle grass seed, water again
- rope off so neighbors and sanitation workers don't step all over it
**project weather dependent of course. looking like it really wants to rain out there.**

- drag broken-ass old dresser down the stairs and out to the curb...piece by piece
- prep cardboard that seems to multiply in our garage for recycling day

- assemble shelving for furnace room
- start (and hopefully finish) organizing camping gear & Xmas decorations

- oh, and get to the gym somewhere in there too!

I am a gardening ROCK STAR!

Or so I think anyway!!

I was bitten by the gardening bug this morning, so without wasting any time I was outside checking out the front garden. It was OK, but lots of blank spaces, some brown dying shrub bits, and a very bug eaten lily that I'm not sure will ever produce an actual flower (lilies here are attacked by these nasty little red beetle things that are impossible to get rid of).

Before:

The lawn is still pretty rough as DBF thatched and fertilized it and filled in some dead spots with topsoil and grass seed before he went away, and that has yet to take and start growing in. Hopefully it will catch on this week.

So I decided to put edging around the pre-existing garden, so that when we can mow the lawn, I can trim around the edges and make it look all even and pristine. I've never done edging before, but how hard could it be? haha. Actually not hard since the perimeter of the garden was already there....I just had to dig it out with the shovel, then push it in and pat all the dirt back into place. I watered it down and that worked like a charm. Now, if only I could actually get in there with the weedwacker and trim that grass.... soon!!

During:

Then I wanted to fill it in with some more flowers, greenery....definitely perennials so I don't have to do it again next year....plus perennials tend to really fill out and leaf up so it should be quite a lush garden within a month or so. So I wandered through a few garden centres, not really knowing what I was looking for....and eventually walked out with:

- 3 hosta
- 1 rudbeckia
- 2 new leafy shrubs....1 ___ and 1___
- and 13 little 99cent fillers.... 8 ___ because they are a beautiful blue and grow low, and 5 others that will grow tall and colorful and attract butterflies (I planted the tags with the plants so I would know what they are, so I'll have to fill that in later...haha)

After:

I had no idea what I was doing with any of it until I got the edging in and started placing stuff out. Turns out I bought pretty much exactly enough stuff. Could've done with maybe one more hosta (or something similar size) but I'll wait and see how things shape up once they start growing. I put the 8 low, blue ones spaced out along the front edge, so those should do really well.....and put the taller ones in a couple of places throughout, towards the rear. Turns out it was good that I bought the two shrubs (gotta love buy one, get one half price!) because I found perfect homes for them.

I then finally put out my solar lanterns. I love them....so cute!! And they light up blue LED at night.

The existing round shrubs could look better, but I really don't know much about shrubbery so I'm not too sure what to do there. Mainly I'm just hoping everything else will fill in around them and you won't see the dead, brown underbellies anymore.

I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing and can't wait to see how it looks when the lawn gets up to speed and everything starts to grow and blossom. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The Spare Room

Slowly it is going from "spare room" to "guest room".

This is what it looked like when I started yesterday:

This is what it looked like when I finished:

The open box in the middle of the room is garage sale stuff....just the box is too heavy for me to lift alone. The boxes behind that are board games, and DVDs that don't fit on our rack....so I need to find a shelf for those (I'm thinking an extra shelf in our laundry closet will take care of the games....dunno about the DVDs yet). The stack of boxes to the side are all DBF's....mostly stuff that was cleared out of his closets when we moved, but he hasn't gone through yet. And the dresser is broken and will be moved to the curb on garbage day for whatever industrious soul comes along to give it a home.

Almost ready for it to get a bed! Mom, when are you coming to visit? haha. :)

The movers are haunting me!

Argh, we've lived here SIX months now, and the stupid movers are still haunting me.

You may remember that I mentioned back in December that the movers had to take apart everything we own in order to fit it on their truck (don't get me started on why it wasn't planned better). Well, most of our shelving, etc is from Ikea. The movers even told me that they aren't supposed to take apart Ikea stuff...but for some reason they still proceeded to take ours apart.

Of course, we were told that everything would be reassembled on this end. Um, nope. They put together a couple of the easy things, then basically ran for the door. So, DBF ended up putting together the main piece that goes in our living room (and yes, this stuff is mainly fibre board so yes there was damage) and I've been puttering through stuff as I need it.

Well, today I finally needed the bookshelf. I'm 3/4 of the way through clearing out the spare room and it's time to get the books, photo albums, etc out of boxes.

Let me just say this.... putting together a 2 shelf bookcase from Ikea should be straightforward, but because these asshats took it apart and of course I no longer have the instructions, it is now wobbly as shit. And the back piece is missing so stuff is going to fall off the back of it. Argh.

So not impressed right now. Stupid movers.

The weekend shall be mine!

My inevitable to-do list has been growing all week. Summer is upon us and everything I had wanted done for Spring is still nowhere near done. Ack. Stupid East Coast weather has impeded the process...as well as laziness and hectic schedules. Booooooo.

This. ends. now.

I decided last night that I would get all of my housekeeping done so that I didn't have to do it all on the weekend as we usually do. No helper for the chores this week, since DBF is at sea....so I didn't want it to consume my entire Saturday. Got everything but the vacuuming done, but that was taken care of today so it's all good. I even did all the laundry....folded and put away too. Woot!

So this leaves me all day tomorrow and Sunday to work on the crazy-ass to-do list. I don't even know where to start. I guess the weather will help dictate that, because if it's as windy as it was today there won't be much getting done outside.

I think I will start in the spare room and work my way downstairs towards the storage rooms and garage.

Indoor list for your perusal:

- Office (sort filing, finish tidying, etc)
- Spare Room (move garage sale stuff down to garage, put bookshelf together, get rid of broken dresser, make ready for actual use)
- Storage Under Stairs (pull everything out, put back only wine rack, luggage and wrapping supplies)
- Furnace Room Storage (pull everything out, build shelving unit, put back only Christmas decorations... and potentially camping gear)
- Garage (aka: black hole of death... keep plugging away at sorting between "keep", "sell", "trash", "donate")

I bought a dolly today. I don't know why we didn't think of this before. Now I'll be able to move the extra appliances and heavy stuff out of the way for proper sorting, viewing and storage. For only $35, who knew?!! Had I known they were that cheap I would have bought one years ago.

More stuff that needs to be done outside:

- design garden area (figure out how to deal with the boring mess the previous owners left us)
- dig out said garden area and plant perennials (oh ya, buy perennials....and a shovel...oh and edging...hmmm, and an edger...errr, and top soil...)
- more weed n feed for the lawn (those freaking dandelions are resilient little buggers)
- edge and clean up lumpy lawn mess around deck
- finish sanding new stairs
- sand and paint fire pit thingy in back yard (apparently it's good fun, when it's not all rusted and ugly)
- power wash front steps, paint front steps
- tidy up front garden area (maybe add some of those perennials...)

Good lord!! It's going to be Autumn by the time I get through all of this. Well, at least I won't be bored. (and DBF will be home for a whopping five days so I'm sure he can crank out a few things....haha)

For Sale

OK, so I've mentioned before the overabundance of extra stuff we have wound up with since the move. And how there is so much of it that we are having trouble getting organized. I've been putting off trying to sell stuff because I really wanted to get to the big ticket items first, but those things are buried under the small ticket items so I finally decided to just start taking pictures of the stuff I can easily get my hands on and I'll go from there.

So today I posted five things on Facebook's CyberSales Online Yard Sale for Halifax.

My two extra TVs (I want the bigass one out of our bedroom and may consider upgrading to a smaller LCD later), my Ikea TV cabinet, DBF's extra dinette set (bar style), and my sad little Dirt Devil vacuum.

If they haven't sold by next week, then it's on to kijiji they go.

Next up I'm going to buy a dolly so I can start doing things out in the garage by myself. There is a cute loveseat, a washer/dryer set, a fridge and a stove out there that need to get gone! We need the room and would like the money! After that it's a lot more small stuff and I plan to have a yard sale for most of it....after that, it's probably off to charity for anything worth less than $20. :)

An Affair in Red Square

This was my first manicure ever (well, unless you count when Mom practiced on me as a teenager...but I wouldn't count that). I've had 3 or 4 pedicures now though and I really need to get them more often. I LOVE them!

I chose a french manicure for my fingernails because I'm not really much for color on my hands. I feel like it clashes with everything and often stands out too much. Plus when it chips, it's really noticeable. It was very nice to have the work done though because my cuticles have taken a beating over the years. I'm lucky to have very nice, strong nails naturally which is why I've never bothered with a manicure before...but it was a nice treat. I think in the future I'd probably only get manicures for a trip or special occasion though because it's only been a week and I've already chipped them a bit....life happens...a girl has to wash dishes or pick dead flowers from the garden you know!


I love the pedicures though. I have pretty healthy feet so I'm lucky, but it's still nice to have someone rub them and scrub them and lotion them every once in a while. :) I chose the dark red "Affair in Red Square" polish because I've had it before and I got lots of compliments. It's a good color for open-toed shoe season!

Maybe I shouldn't have called it stupid...

Technology bites me in the ass again!!

So work was pissing me off today, so I decided to opt out at 1:30 to head to the gym and run a couple of errands, with the plan that I would come back with a clearer head and work late to make up the missed time.

So I had a good workout, got some yummy groceries and got home by 3:30.

Decided to check my email, etc before I hopped into the shower just in case I missed something important. Answered about 3 emails, then went to check some stuff on the work website.... then...WTF...page not found! Uh-oh. Try again. Refresh. Page not found. Uh-oh some more.

Looked at modem, and yup, you guessed it. Online light not lit up. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Fine, so I hop in the shower figuring it will fix itself. Return fresh and clean 15 minutes later, only to find that it's still offline. Booooo. Then I hear some beeping coming from downstairs. What the hell is that? I follow the sound, and it leads me to our alarm system's main panel....beep, beep, beep. The display tells me there is "trouble", press #2 to find out what kind of trouble. "Telephone Line Trouble". Argh.

So yup, over to the phone I go. Press the talk button, and nothing....silencio. Lovely. So now, no internet for worky and no phone to call and let the bosses know. AND NO FACEBOOK OR BLOGGER!!! You know, the really important stuff. Yikes.

So I putter around my office doing a few other things. An hour goes by, still no action. Then I go downstairs and make fruit salad for this week's breakfasts. Check the phone...nadda. Go outside with coffee and read my book for half an hour. Check the phone again...you guessed it, nothing.

Gah!

Called Eastlink from my cellphone in there somewhere and get the automated response thingy that says yes they know there is a problem and they are sorry for the inconvenience. Whoopee. Good for them. I even saw an Eastlink truck in my area, but for all I know he lives out here.

So I make a batch of tuna noodle casserole, read some more, make a marinade for tomorrow night's salmon fillet, prep some chicken in marinade to put in the freezer, check the phone and modem one last time...and at 8:15 give up and watch Juno. Cute movie. :) Oh ya, failed to mention that the cable TV was out too. Yaaiee for bundled packages, right?

Checked the progess when movie finishes at 9:30ish and I finally have my connection to the outside world back. Grrrrreat, now I can finish the work I wanted to do SIX FREAKING HOURS AGO.

Stupid technology

I always have trouble embedding a video from YouTube into my blog.

The copy/paste option for the code never works for me. It always seems to cut off part of the text in the code.

So I used to use the "post to my blog" option, which wasn't great, but it worked.

Now that seems to be gone.

I'm so technically challenged sometimes. Boooooo.

Relay Success!

First, let me tell you that we raised $1717!!! Go team!! (Considering when Dena started this, she thought we'd be lucky to bring in $500.... which I did on my own, and she surpassed on her own.) Yaieeee us!

The total amount reportedly brought in my the whole Relay in the Bay was $66,000. That is $23,000 more than the goal for the year. And this was just at the presentation time...finally tally still to be announced. :)

This was only the third year for the Bay area to have our own relay, independant from the main Halifax one. Year one they had only 10 teams and raised only about $20K. Last year there were 12 teams, raising approx $32K. So they figured on maybe 15 teams this year, with a goal of $43K. We ended up with 23 teams and more than 120% of the goal in funds.

Saturday was GORGEOUS all day. Some of us met up at Dena's early to pack up our gear and get to the field early for set up. We got there around 4:45 and pitched out tents, and set out our chairs and got ourselves all registered, etc. Two of the team members were going to be late, but the rest of the group was there by 5:30 and ready to get to it. (There are only 9 of us in total....small team.)

We had opted for a tropical theme for our site, but because of last minute decisions on that and a lack of places to hang things, it didn't quite work out how I had hoped. Learned lots of things this year, so we can do better next time. The wind ended up whipping a few of our things down pretty much right away...but it was a good idea at the time. :)

Just as they started announcing that it was time to start gathering for the opening ceremonies, the clouds shifted and the sun disappeared. Silly Nova Scotia weather. We all ended up in our sweaters immediately after the first lap.

They opened the Relay with a parade of RCMP in full dress and the bagpipers. Very nice. Then the Survivers Lap....so emotional. Dena and I were both standing there trying to suck up the tears. We don't even know these people, but what they represent is why we were there. Young, old, men, women, healthy and not-so-healthy. They are all fighters.

We did our first lap as a team, then the plan was to break off into pairs so no one was walking alone. Each pair would do 10 laps, then trade off with the next pair. In the beginning, most of us just stayed on and walked as a group because we were revved to go and didn't feel the need to sit around our campsite. Of course, a couple of hours in the rain came, so then we cut back to only the necessary few people on the track. The rain didn't last too long though....we used the time to work on some of our glow-in-the-dark accessories inside the big tent and took turns going into the cafeteria for coffees and bathroom breaks. By the time we got through that, the heavier rains had stopped and it was time for the Luminary ceremony.

The luminaries represent honor or memory of a loved one that passed on due to cancer. I chose not to buy these for Dad and Grandma this year, but after seeing the ceremony and watching all of the lanterns be lit, I will definitely be doing that next year. It was especially moving.

For the rest of the evening the rain kind of held off. It was more of an annoying mist made cold because of the light wind. Most of us ended up walking pretty much the whole time just to stay warm. No sense in sitting still in a camping chair, when you can be up and moving around. I did take a one hour rest snuggled up in my sleeping bag between 1:30 - 2:30, but other than that and a few indoor coffee breaks I kept on walking. I changed my pants and socks somewhere in the middle of the night and that helped refresh me....next year I'll remember a toque and some gloves. My hips and ankles started to get achy around midnight, but nothing to hold me back. It wasn't until morning that I noticed a blister on one toe and it wasn't until they had us standing still for a ceremony that I really started to stiffen up.

The "track" was around a football field, so we figured about 400m. Calculated at about 10 laps per hour, for 12 hours this is about 48km. Now obviously we didn't each do 10 laps EVERY hour, but some hours we kept going for 20-30 laps, so I think this is a good estimate. I wish I had a garmin or something to track it by. Maybe next year.

By about 4am I think we were all starting to get a bit nutty, and most of us just got together and kept on walking. At 5am they put out some food for us, then started the closing ceremonies. They gave prizes for most money and such, and for the relayer with the most stamina (there was one guy who seemed to never get off the track). They presented the huge check for $66,000. We all started to get pretty stiff just standing there....believe it or not we wished we were still walking. :) After that, everyone did the final lap and then started to tear down camp.

It ended up being just shy of the 12 hours by the time we packed up. It was messy and muddy, but we made short work of the treks back and forth to the cars with all of our soggy gear. We were on the road by 6:15, and I was in a hot shower by about 6:30.

I thank our whole team for doing this. I know that not every one of you is as passionate about this as Dena and I were, but your support through all of this was amazing. THANK YOU....Cosette, Amanda, Tara, Darren, Gwyneth, Nic & Candace. I look forward to next year, and hope that we can recruit a few more bodies for the cause.

I thank all of our supporters. Without your donations we may have lost our drive or our hope, but because of you all we just kept on pushing through the wet, cold weather and the sore hips and soggy shoes. We will call again on you all next year. THANKS AGAIN.

Tonight's the Night!

Finally the night of the Relay for Life has arrived.

I have spent my morning making banana bread (Sweet Home Alabanana from Eat Shrink & Be Merry) and potato salad. My teammates are making some yummy eats too.

Next I will be routing around our garage looking for my sleeping bag, camping chair, tarps, tent and lantern. (Wish me luck...the garage is far from organized!!)

We have picked up some fun decorations and a few costumey pieces for our site and our team. We opted for the Tropical theme since none of us are very creative and it was fairly easy to come up with stuff on short notice. I looked and looked for an inflatable palm tree, but to no avail. The guy that usually sells them is out of stock. Booooo. Oh well, we'll make it work! (at least we have grass skirts and a coconut bra!!)

Our team of nine seems ready to rock, so it should be a good night!

We got the final preparation email from the organizers and it told us that as of Thursday we had raised 120% of our goal donations!! Surpassed expectations and more than doubled last year's total (for our area). So thank you again to everyone that made a pledge and offered your support. You have made a difference!! Our team has ranked #10 out of the 25 teams participating, and all of the money has not been posted online yet....we could be higher!

Wish us luck! :)

And he builds stuff too....

At long last, the much-anticipated photos of the stairs DBF built while I was on vacation. Not bad for his first time. :)

The top step is a bit wide so the first step down seems a bit steep, but other than that they are sturdy and well built. Not sure about some of his "design" options, such as those extra bars in front of the main posts, but he likes them so I guess I do too. :)

But really...I'm very proud of his first stairs and now I know that I can use him to build us many more fun things in the future! :)

(Please ignore all of the dirt and crap under the deck...the previous owners weren't much for the yard work....we'll have it all prettied up this Summer.)

Lt(N) Honey!

Finally. After much waiting and anticipation, my honey finally received his promotion today!

He is now Lieutenant Honey!!

Congratulations Sweetie. It's been a long time coming, and you deserve it!

Movie Reviews

Some friends of mine have started up a new website, offering his-and-hers movie reviews. They are just starting out, so please visit and offer your support. Tell all your friends! and keep checking back for more and more updates and added reviews. (Currently it looks as though "he" has been posting more regularly, but I'm sure "she" will get on the ball too.)

http://www.worth-2-hours.com/

Enjoy!!