OK, so maybe I don't know the tricks yet. I thought doing a little cross-border internet shopping might be fun for a couple of Christmas gifties. Nothing super exciting, but things I can't buy here....
Specifically...Bath & Body Works and Sephora.
Annoying.
First, I tried Bath & Body Works because when I was in the store in Vegas I couldn't find the Exotic Coconut soaps and lotions. The sales girl told me it was probably a "classic" fragrance...meaning that not all of the stores carry it, but it would probably still be available online. I should note that she knew I was from Canada.
So today I go trotting through the website, find the soap and a few other things for good gifties, and even qualify for a cool sample set of a bunch of their products. Only to realize that when I went to checkout, they don't deliver to Canada. Did I mention annoying? I surfed around the site and even though they have stores in Canada now (only Ontario and Alberta) they still only ship from their US warehouse and don't do international. Argh.
But, no big deal, I'll just try Sephora instead. Another place we don't have here or back on the island so it would still make a nice hard-to-get-on-their-own gift. Not as good a selection in the price-range I'm looking at, but I still found a couple of appropriate things that would do just as well as the BBW stuff would have, both on sale for $5 off. Added the things to my cart, qualified for some free samples and free shipping ($5.95 for shipping on orders under $50). Until checkout....yup, switch to Canadian checkout and sure they deliver but now it's $9.95 unless you have a minimum of $120...PLUS the sale prices on the items I chose are now gone. So now it's not worth it....$20 extra on $50 worth of stuff. As DBF would say, this is my unimpressed face.
So back to square one and in-store shopping...which is fine but I was looking forward to bringing gifts that those people may never have gotten on their own at home.
So what's the big deal about online shopping?
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
I'm Spoiled
Ha! Yet another belated birthday giftie arrived today from my lovely friend back home, Miss Ingmarie. I just love how this birthday keeps on going, and going, and going. I opened my front door today and laying on my porch was a puffy little UPS package. What a way to brighten a day!!
Look at this cute winter-white clutch! (the picture doesn't do it justice as I couldn't get it to show the color properly...it's not yellowy at all!) It's very soft, smooshy leather.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Happy Airmiles to me!
As if all the fun birthday goodies I've received lately haven't been enough....I got myself a treat from Airmiles too. I was online cashing in points for a few Christmas gifties for the family when I happened upon the Cuisinart Griddler...and had exactly enough points left for it! I have wanted one of these for quite a while and although I did mention it as a good idea for a Christmas gift I am pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten one. DBF doesn't like to buy appliances, etc as gifts (which is great...unless it's something I actually really want! haha) and my Mom wouldn't buy it because then I'd have to lug it back from BC with me. So I ordered it for myself. :) Nothing better than freeeeeeeeeee!
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And it showed up within like 4 days!! They say allow up to 4 weeks for delivery, but I ordered it on Thursday, it shipped on Friday and I received it yesterday afternoon. Nice!
I see some pancakes & bacon in my menu plan for Saturday!!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Happier Thoughts
Since I'm sure you are all sick of my bitching about the friggin snow-in...I thought I'd share some happier thoughts...via photos!
My girl Tiffaney sent me this coolio belated birthday gift. A Lululemon GC for my Lulu addiction!
My Mama sent me a second birthday card with a second Starbucks GC...for another of my crazy corporate addictions!
The snow might suck but it looks nice with my festive Christmas decorations. That new wreath on the garage door is 42" and pre-lit!
In keeping with the festive theme, I set up our lighted Christmas village last night. We got it last year but never got to use it. I love it!
And because no random photo post would be complete without it, here is a pic of Mr. Stoopy looking tough in the hallway today. Moments prior he had been rolling around in the sunny patch on the carpet.
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More bitching about snow...
...argh.
Recap: Saturday I went out again in the afternoon to try to tackle it...by the time I pushed all the snow off my car, I basically had to reshovel everything I had done in the morning. DBF and I park our cars so close together that there was about 4 feet of snow piled between them. Oh yippee. I had to give up. Sunday morning I got up early, made coffee and went out at it again. Thank freaking God my fabulous neighbor across the street saw me and took pity and came and helped. He did the most work (because he's strong enough to use one of those big scooping shovel things) and his girlfriend and I did as much as we could. It was awesome! I had to climb in the passenger side of my car, so I could back it out and we could get at the huge heap in the middle. But when we were done....I was freeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It only took an hour and I was so grateful.
Bullshit: We have sidewalks on our side of the street...which they did plow last year, but this year they didn't seem to be doing. Of course, it's tough to see the difference between lawn/sidewalk/boulevard when you are shoveling 3 feet of snow, so the sidewalk area (on the whole street!) had been filled in with tossed snow. Until 3am this morning!! When those city assholes came along with their little plow and made a ton of racket and plowed the living shit out of the sidewalks. Ya, that's right....making not one, but two huge blockades at our driveways again. Mhmmm. So I just went at it for 45 minutes and maybe got a third of it done. I'm snowed in AGAIN. It's hard and heavy and solid snow now....not impressed.
I would die to hire a kid to do this for me. Where the hell are they all?
Edit: some fabulously wonderful neighborhood elf dug me out!! I just went to get ready to take another stab at it and someone has cleared the huge mess from the mouth of the driveway!!
Edit #2: and then of course, the sidewalk plow just came back and fucked it up again. Seriously...I understand that they have to do the sidewalks, but do they have to keep blocking our driveways?!!!
Recap: Saturday I went out again in the afternoon to try to tackle it...by the time I pushed all the snow off my car, I basically had to reshovel everything I had done in the morning. DBF and I park our cars so close together that there was about 4 feet of snow piled between them. Oh yippee. I had to give up. Sunday morning I got up early, made coffee and went out at it again. Thank freaking God my fabulous neighbor across the street saw me and took pity and came and helped. He did the most work (because he's strong enough to use one of those big scooping shovel things) and his girlfriend and I did as much as we could. It was awesome! I had to climb in the passenger side of my car, so I could back it out and we could get at the huge heap in the middle. But when we were done....I was freeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It only took an hour and I was so grateful.
Bullshit: We have sidewalks on our side of the street...which they did plow last year, but this year they didn't seem to be doing. Of course, it's tough to see the difference between lawn/sidewalk/boulevard when you are shoveling 3 feet of snow, so the sidewalk area (on the whole street!) had been filled in with tossed snow. Until 3am this morning!! When those city assholes came along with their little plow and made a ton of racket and plowed the living shit out of the sidewalks. Ya, that's right....making not one, but two huge blockades at our driveways again. Mhmmm. So I just went at it for 45 minutes and maybe got a third of it done. I'm snowed in AGAIN. It's hard and heavy and solid snow now....not impressed.
I would die to hire a kid to do this for me. Where the hell are they all?
Edit: some fabulously wonderful neighborhood elf dug me out!! I just went to get ready to take another stab at it and someone has cleared the huge mess from the mouth of the driveway!!
Edit #2: and then of course, the sidewalk plow just came back and fucked it up again. Seriously...I understand that they have to do the sidewalks, but do they have to keep blocking our driveways?!!!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Officially Snowed In
Yup, I just spent 45 minutes out there shoveling and all I got done was the front stairs and down one side of my car. My arm is dead and it's still snowing. There is about a foot of snow on top of my car, 2 feet piled beside and behind it, and another 3 feet piled in the mouth of the driveway from the plow. I'm officially screwed.
Friday, November 21, 2008
I'm Ready
Thankfully it didn't snow anymore yesterday so once I got the driveway shoveled and the car cleared off, it didn't just get covered up again. And today the sky is clear and blue and the sun is shining...actually makes the snow really pretty!
I got my Winter tires put on today (and no I'm not that late! my neighbors just did their yesterday and they are lifelong East Coasters!) and now I feel like a true Haligonian. I guess it's only right, since we've been here almost a year now. My, how time flies.
Another bigger storm is predicted for tonight into tomorrow morning. 20-30cm of snow accompanied by some strong winds. Oh joy. So I properly cleared our porch stairs and salted them and scraped out the last bits of snow from the driveway. I dug out the edges of the mouth of the driveway the best I could because last year the previous owners didn't do that...they just kept driving over the snow and it turned into an ice block that we couldn't get rid of until March. I dumped some salt on it too to try to head it off before the new snow. There is a slight chance of power outage (as there is anytime it gets windy here) so my flashlights have batteries, I know where the blankets are, and I always have plenty of candles. I guess that's about as prepared as I can get.
Hopefully the power doesnt go out because I have a cozy weekend of reading, movies, baking, and cooking planned. I don't care if it snows to high heaven because I don't really plan on going out...but losing power would stink. I like power outages at night for about an hour, but after that they aren't so much fun.
Wish me luck. Happy weekend everyone!
I got my Winter tires put on today (and no I'm not that late! my neighbors just did their yesterday and they are lifelong East Coasters!) and now I feel like a true Haligonian. I guess it's only right, since we've been here almost a year now. My, how time flies.
Another bigger storm is predicted for tonight into tomorrow morning. 20-30cm of snow accompanied by some strong winds. Oh joy. So I properly cleared our porch stairs and salted them and scraped out the last bits of snow from the driveway. I dug out the edges of the mouth of the driveway the best I could because last year the previous owners didn't do that...they just kept driving over the snow and it turned into an ice block that we couldn't get rid of until March. I dumped some salt on it too to try to head it off before the new snow. There is a slight chance of power outage (as there is anytime it gets windy here) so my flashlights have batteries, I know where the blankets are, and I always have plenty of candles. I guess that's about as prepared as I can get.
Hopefully the power doesnt go out because I have a cozy weekend of reading, movies, baking, and cooking planned. I don't care if it snows to high heaven because I don't really plan on going out...but losing power would stink. I like power outages at night for about an hour, but after that they aren't so much fun.
Wish me luck. Happy weekend everyone!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Waiting Paid Off
Last night I started noticing my neighbors shoveling their driveways and thought I probably should get out there...but I wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to wait.
When I got up this morning, it had frozen overnight so I was desperately worried that the snow would be all hard and heavy. So again, I decided to wait on the shoveling.
So I finally went out there about an hour ago and low and behold it was easy-peasy! A lot of the now that was on the asphalt had either melted or at least started to melt and soften up. The main part was getting the broom unstuck from the icy back deck (haha, it had fallen over, then got snowed on, then froze to the deck...I had to dig it out with my boot and kick it until it came loose). I brushed off my car and then spent maybe 2 minutes shoveling the snow away from the side and rear of my car. Of course, it took closer to 10 minutes to clear the mouth of the driveway from where the plow had gone by....I wish there was a way to avoid that!
When I got up this morning, it had frozen overnight so I was desperately worried that the snow would be all hard and heavy. So again, I decided to wait on the shoveling.
So I finally went out there about an hour ago and low and behold it was easy-peasy! A lot of the now that was on the asphalt had either melted or at least started to melt and soften up. The main part was getting the broom unstuck from the icy back deck (haha, it had fallen over, then got snowed on, then froze to the deck...I had to dig it out with my boot and kick it until it came loose). I brushed off my car and then spent maybe 2 minutes shoveling the snow away from the side and rear of my car. Of course, it took closer to 10 minutes to clear the mouth of the driveway from where the plow had gone by....I wish there was a way to avoid that!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The First %^&$ing Snow of the Season
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Snow. Disgusting, gloppy, wet, sideways snow. If it has to snow, why can't it be the crisp, fluffy, fun kind? I hope this isn't what Halifax snow is usually like. :(
Yesterday it snowed lightly for about 4 hours, but it took 2 hours for it to even start sticking so when I first started taking pictures you couldn't even see it.
By the time I went out to get the mail at the end of the day, there was a pretty dusting of it laying on the lawn.
Then it rained all night and this morning we were back to the madass sideways crazy Halifax rain. At 1:30 today I was making lunch and grimacing at the shitty rain....then I got on a conference call and I guess I didn't look out the window, because at the end of that call 2 hours later there was an inch of snow on the ground and no sign of stopping just yet.
But it's not pretty or fluffy or fun. It's still windy as shit, and the snow is more like thick slush being thrown from the sky at full force. Boooo to the crappiest driving conditions ever. Blech. (I get snow tires on Friday....I'm sure Mother Nature must be smiting me since she dropped this crap two days before I got prepared...bugger!)
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Birthday Love Just Keeps on Coming
In the mail yesterday I received this beautiful notebook from the lovely Catriona...What a sweetie!!
And then today my card from my Mom showed up, and she showed me the love with a Starbucks gift card.....weeeeeeeeeeee, all my upcoming EggNog lattes are now freeeee to meeeee!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sleepover!!
(Have you noticed my backdating trick yet? This is for those of us that don't get around to uploading our pictures until it's later than planned. bwahaha.)
Martini glasses from Miss Bonnie. Love them! They a bigger and better than my existing set, so these will be the new go-to glasses and the old ones will be put away for backup.
Bone china tea cups from Cosette. Lovely. Just the right size for a good cup of tea! How did she know I was lacking these? (and some gourmet hot chocolate for those chilly nights without DBF!)
And from the lovely Marie-Claude, these fantatic orange gerbers. The picture doesn't do them justice. I don't think I even told her that gerbers are my favorite. I'll have to do that!
And ya, I only got the two pictures of actual people. That's what happens when you get a group of women together who talk the whole time. They forget to take photos!
Anyway, so "yesterday" I planned a little girl's night in for my birthday since DBF is away and he took me out to celebrate last weekend anyway. Through some discussion we ended up decided to do a sleepover because a lot of the girls live over in Dartmouth and beyond and that sucks that someone would have to stay sober for the drive. My friend Missy coined it "Jaime's Jammie Jam"...haha.
In the end, a couple of people cancelled last minute and a couple of people were sick so there was only 4 of us confirmed. But then Angie surprised me and was able to pop by for a little while at the beginning (she couldn't stay due to a prior engagement, but she told me she would do her best and so she did!!). Such a doll, she brought me a lovely giftie...knowing my love for all things Starbucks (and little did she know I was eyeballing these babies up while taking in all the Christmas action at SB earlier in the day). Couldn't have guessed better if she'd tried. :)
Since I had thought there was going to be double the people, I had seriously overbought on food. Cheese, meat, olives...oh my! Plus my guests brought food. There was enough for an army, but we still managed to put a good dent in it. Hello Bonnie's Mexi-dip....drool. And Marie-Claude's now famous stuffed mushrooms...more drool. Thank God for Cosette's veggies and hummus so I could feel slightly healthy. (sidebar: I made those new PC salmon wellington puffs...they were OK, but I found them kind of dry...just so you know.) And don't forget the wide variety of martinis!! I now have about 6 flavors of vodka in my pantry. Wooooo!
Around 11:00 we moved to the living room so we could inspect the "candy buffet" I had put together. What's a sleepover without Smarties and gummy bears? Believe it or not I had planned popcorn too...but we never even talked about that!
Then we decided to get into our jammies (I got new pink Xmas ones!) and cozied up on the couches for a movie. We had talked about watching something old school...I was thinking "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (80s Sarah Jessica Parker) but instead we settled on 27 Dresses. By this point Marie-Claude chose to go home...she lives next door and was nodding off and decided to be cozy next to her husband instead of us. :) The three of us left finished up the movie and then got to talking some more. Poor Bonnie hasn't seen 4am in a long time, but both Cosette and I are night owls so even after Bonnie dragged her butt to bed, we stayed up another hour. We finally decided that our conversation could be carried on at some other time and went to bed.
Morning came much too soon...but because I'd quit drinking like 3 hours before I actually went to bed I was fine. Cosette had left before I got up (daughter had swimming lessons) so I just puttered around and cleaned everything up...and by the time Bonnie came down I was all done. Nice. We shared a bagel and had tea/coffee for a short bit, then she too had to go take her daughter to a sports event. I think I missed the boat on kids and sports!
I admit I was disappointed at the few cancellations, but in the end I still had a great time. Smaller group make for easier conversation. The best part was having friends from different circles all meet and get along great! Thank you all for making my birthday very special!!
And now the good stuff...my birthday loot:
Martini glasses from Miss Bonnie. Love them! They a bigger and better than my existing set, so these will be the new go-to glasses and the old ones will be put away for backup.
Bone china tea cups from Cosette. Lovely. Just the right size for a good cup of tea! How did she know I was lacking these? (and some gourmet hot chocolate for those chilly nights without DBF!)
And from the lovely Marie-Claude, these fantatic orange gerbers. The picture doesn't do them justice. I don't think I even told her that gerbers are my favorite. I'll have to do that!
And ya, I only got the two pictures of actual people. That's what happens when you get a group of women together who talk the whole time. They forget to take photos!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Birthday Morning
I almost forgot to mention....that our good friend Mark popped by this morning with his daughter to bring me a birthday surprise. Flowers and a balloon! What a lovely way to start my day. :)
Merry...um...Birthday?
They say it's your birthday....da da da da da da da...Well it's my birthday too, ya!!
So, being that DBF is away and my party plans aren't until tonight, I decided to just treat this like any other Saturday. I already did most of my chores last night, and already bought the majority of the groceries I need...so it is my day to just chill. Of course, I decided that I needed to start my day with a trip to Starbucks...one birthday latte pour moi coming up!
But to what do my wondering eyes appear?...Yup, it's that time. Christmas has arrived at Starbucks. Tra la la la la, la la la la. Red and green everywhere. Peppermint Mochas, Gingerbread Lattes, Cranberry Bliss Bars, Christmas Blend coffee....and the best thing of all...the Eggnog Latte!
Now normally I don't do Christmas before December...and especially not before my birthday. But what was I to do? I was surrounded. And I have to tell you that these East Coasters sure catch the Christmas Spirit early....folks started putting up their lights the day after they composted their jack-o-lanterns. I thought they were a bit nutty, but I guess that's what you do when you live in the land of snow and ice...gotta get it done before the flakes fly. So this year, in the spirit of now being an East Coaster, I decided that it was OK to have a birthday Eggnog Latte. :)
Afterwards I wandered through Chapters eager to buy myself a birthday present, but nothing really caught my eye. I have a stack of books here at home to get through and I didn't really see the need for the $90 Twilight box set just yet. So instead I carried on with my errands.
Well, happy Christmas to me. er, I mean Merry Birthday! um. hmmm. Well, whatever. My birthday gift to myself ended up being new LED warm white lights and pine garlands for our front porch (remember this is our first Christmas season in this house). I also picked up Christmas cards because I might as well start now as it will take me a couple of weeks to get them all done! After that I went to Costco, where I got us this crazy huge lighted wreath for our garage door. Love it.
Oh, and I did get myself a real birthday giftie after all....Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book and this month's Rachel Ray Everyday magazine. Yes, I'm a corporate whore (she's just cheaper than Starbucks and LuluLemon).
Friday, November 14, 2008
Catch Up
I know, I have gotten bad about keeping this blog up to date. Not a lot to report as often, and then when there is I put it off and it becomes old news. But here I am!
DBF was home for a glorious 3.5 day weekend. I managed to keep work to a minimum on Friday (worked while he caught up on sleep and F1) so we got to spend a fair amount of time together.
Friday night I went to the Feist concert, so he had a boys night with his buddy Mark. He ended up having car trouble though so wound up staying over at Mark's place because he didn't want to get stranded in the middle of the night. I got home from the concert and thought that he'd decided to drink and stay out...haha. So we sorta lost that night. He got home right after I got up on Saturday morning though (I was dressed and heading to Starbucks) so we got to go out for a greasy breaky which for some reason is one of our fave things to do...and something I rarely do when he's away (if ever).
We ran a few errands, then he brought me home while he went in search of a birthday day prezzie for me. I did some chores and read my book and that was about it, until the evening when we got dolled up for our dinner out (only chance for us to do my birthday dinner together).
We met up with Mark & Cosette, and our friends Brand & Collen who we haven't seen forever, and their friends whose names escape me right now, at Bish. Yum! Arron and I arrived early (you just never know how fast a cab is going to arrive at our place) so we sat at the bar for a cocktail until everyone arrived. I had this yummy raspberry vanilla martini that I wish I had written down. Dinner was really tasty and fun...with 8 people it's tough to really do a lot of good conversation, but we managed to get caught up a bit.
After dinner we were all supposed to meet up for drinks, but Brad & Colleen ended up calling it a night and their friends had gone home to relieve their babysitter, so the other four of us hit up the Shoe Shop because that's what we always do. Lots of chit-chat, drinks and fun. :)
(I only wish I had taken pictures!!! Boo me.)
Sunday morning we slept in, then went for a fast food lunch and picked up a video. Stopped at the grocery store for dinner fixings, but ended up picking up Chinese take-out later in the evening because it was a lazy day and I didn't feel like cooking. Spent most of the afternoon sitting next to DBF reading my book while he played Playstation. :) He picked up my prezzie while I was in the grocery store...an iPod dock for the stereo so I can have tunes for my girls party tomorrow (of course I have no idea how to hook it up!).
Then it was Monday again...and up at the crack of dawn I drove him back to the stupid ship.
Good news is that as soon as he got to work he found out they are coming home a week early...so Dec-5th instead of the 12th. I guess that's something!
DBF was home for a glorious 3.5 day weekend. I managed to keep work to a minimum on Friday (worked while he caught up on sleep and F1) so we got to spend a fair amount of time together.
Friday night I went to the Feist concert, so he had a boys night with his buddy Mark. He ended up having car trouble though so wound up staying over at Mark's place because he didn't want to get stranded in the middle of the night. I got home from the concert and thought that he'd decided to drink and stay out...haha. So we sorta lost that night. He got home right after I got up on Saturday morning though (I was dressed and heading to Starbucks) so we got to go out for a greasy breaky which for some reason is one of our fave things to do...and something I rarely do when he's away (if ever).
We ran a few errands, then he brought me home while he went in search of a birthday day prezzie for me. I did some chores and read my book and that was about it, until the evening when we got dolled up for our dinner out (only chance for us to do my birthday dinner together).
We met up with Mark & Cosette, and our friends Brand & Collen who we haven't seen forever, and their friends whose names escape me right now, at Bish. Yum! Arron and I arrived early (you just never know how fast a cab is going to arrive at our place) so we sat at the bar for a cocktail until everyone arrived. I had this yummy raspberry vanilla martini that I wish I had written down. Dinner was really tasty and fun...with 8 people it's tough to really do a lot of good conversation, but we managed to get caught up a bit.
After dinner we were all supposed to meet up for drinks, but Brad & Colleen ended up calling it a night and their friends had gone home to relieve their babysitter, so the other four of us hit up the Shoe Shop because that's what we always do. Lots of chit-chat, drinks and fun. :)
(I only wish I had taken pictures!!! Boo me.)
Sunday morning we slept in, then went for a fast food lunch and picked up a video. Stopped at the grocery store for dinner fixings, but ended up picking up Chinese take-out later in the evening because it was a lazy day and I didn't feel like cooking. Spent most of the afternoon sitting next to DBF reading my book while he played Playstation. :) He picked up my prezzie while I was in the grocery store...an iPod dock for the stereo so I can have tunes for my girls party tomorrow (of course I have no idea how to hook it up!).
Then it was Monday again...and up at the crack of dawn I drove him back to the stupid ship.
Good news is that as soon as he got to work he found out they are coming home a week early...so Dec-5th instead of the 12th. I guess that's something!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Feist in Halifax
Back in April I bought Feist tickets on a whim. Sounded like a fun thing for a few girls to do. Admittedly I only knew a couple of her popular songs, but based on those I knew she was my kind of music. I decided on standing room floor tickets since the seated floor tickets would probably have a bad view....wasn't sure if this was going to be a good decision as I was worried the standing area might be very small and full of teenagers...but it turned out to be the right choice.
Funny enough, even though I bought the tickets MONTHS in advance, when the day arrived I ended up with an extra ticket. The date just didn't work for the people invited and with such short notice we couldn't find anyone else. Oh well. So, it was just Cosette, Marie-Claude, and me.
The opening act started at 8:00, but we chose just to listen from the bar area of the arena where we chatted and had a couple of drinks instead. Just as Feist was actually about to begin, we made our way down to the floor. The show was far from sold out, and there was tons of space so we were able to stay at the back of the crowd but were still only about 8 rows of people from the stage. Pretty much the perfect viewing situation.
Her show was about an hour and fifteen minutes long, which is a bit short but good for those of us that were standing the whole time. Her music is lovely but it's not like you spend time dancing around and staying limber so the timing was just right for me. (haha, I guess I'm getting old for this stuff!). She is very enjoyable live...more so than on CD I thought...but she would be much better suited to a more intimate venue. The Halifax Center was far too large for her...and although our view was great I heard a lot of people that were sitting in the stands complain that they couldn't see her.
One of the best parts of the show was the artistic display on the screen behind her. Instead of just a video of her up there (which of course would have been nicer for those folks that were too far away) she had all sorts of different art/displays/media projected up that went along with each song. You could see the artists working feverishly at the back of the stage to keep up....very interesting.
All in all, a fun experience, but if I ever see her again I hope it's in a bar or lounge with a more intimate feel.
Oh, and due to the fact that we couldn't take cameras in (which they never even checked for!) I don't have any photos of the evening....but I did find this video of My Moon My Man that someone put up on YouTube (it won't let me embed it here for some reason).
Funny enough, even though I bought the tickets MONTHS in advance, when the day arrived I ended up with an extra ticket. The date just didn't work for the people invited and with such short notice we couldn't find anyone else. Oh well. So, it was just Cosette, Marie-Claude, and me.
The opening act started at 8:00, but we chose just to listen from the bar area of the arena where we chatted and had a couple of drinks instead. Just as Feist was actually about to begin, we made our way down to the floor. The show was far from sold out, and there was tons of space so we were able to stay at the back of the crowd but were still only about 8 rows of people from the stage. Pretty much the perfect viewing situation.
Her show was about an hour and fifteen minutes long, which is a bit short but good for those of us that were standing the whole time. Her music is lovely but it's not like you spend time dancing around and staying limber so the timing was just right for me. (haha, I guess I'm getting old for this stuff!). She is very enjoyable live...more so than on CD I thought...but she would be much better suited to a more intimate venue. The Halifax Center was far too large for her...and although our view was great I heard a lot of people that were sitting in the stands complain that they couldn't see her.
One of the best parts of the show was the artistic display on the screen behind her. Instead of just a video of her up there (which of course would have been nicer for those folks that were too far away) she had all sorts of different art/displays/media projected up that went along with each song. You could see the artists working feverishly at the back of the stage to keep up....very interesting.
All in all, a fun experience, but if I ever see her again I hope it's in a bar or lounge with a more intimate feel.
Oh, and due to the fact that we couldn't take cameras in (which they never even checked for!) I don't have any photos of the evening....but I did find this video of My Moon My Man that someone put up on YouTube (it won't let me embed it here for some reason).
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Honey's home!
Yup, I got home from the hairdresser and there he was. Almost didn't recognize him. Who are you? hehe.
Of course, he's leaving again on Monday morning. Booooo. They don't even get an extra day home for the stat on Tuesday. Lame-o!
Good news is that he is supposed to be gone until Dec-12th (which would suck because I'm leaving to go back to BC for the holidays on the 14th), but there is a slight chance that they might actually come home on the 5th instead. Cross your fingers for a non-functional submarine!! If the sub can't work with them, then they don't need to be out. Down with the sub!!
Of course, he's leaving again on Monday morning. Booooo. They don't even get an extra day home for the stat on Tuesday. Lame-o!
Good news is that he is supposed to be gone until Dec-12th (which would suck because I'm leaving to go back to BC for the holidays on the 14th), but there is a slight chance that they might actually come home on the 5th instead. Cross your fingers for a non-functional submarine!! If the sub can't work with them, then they don't need to be out. Down with the sub!!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Beechville Book Club
Our book club is once a month. So far we've done two books and had two meetings and it's pretty fun! I even got to pick the book this last time, which means I got to host the meeting. (and by meeting I mean the wine and food party!)
Unfortunately our founding members...my neighbors two doors over...only have one more meeting before they are moving away. See how the Navy tries to screw me over...it's not even my family this time...but they are taking away some of the only cool new friends I've made here. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
But I digress....tee hee
The book I chose was Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. (honestly I chose it partially because it sounded good, but mainly because I had a faint recollection of Eurydice talking about it...haha). It received mixed reviews from the club....and some people found it a hard read and didn't even finish it. I think in the end we all agreed it was well written and a good book, but the people that said they didn't like it were more disturbed by the subject matter than the rest of us. I found it a gritty subject but I like that. It seemed really real...even one of the hubbies that joined us (and hadn't read the book) thought it sounded like non-fiction.
I do understand what they meant though, because last month's book was My Sister's Keeper...and although it was also controversial in it's subject, it was a much easier hard-to-put-down read. That book I plowed through in a couple of days. This one I had to fight for three weeks...and only finished it the night before our meeting.
The next title we are giving a go is The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen. One of our members had it recommended by a coworker who said she couldn't put it down. We shall see. I picked up one of only two copies in stock at Chapters so it's not a hot seller...but I don't think that means anything. I did find it interesting that while Googling we found that they have YouTube videos about this book. hmmmm.
Unfortunately our founding members...my neighbors two doors over...only have one more meeting before they are moving away. See how the Navy tries to screw me over...it's not even my family this time...but they are taking away some of the only cool new friends I've made here. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
But I digress....tee hee
The book I chose was Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. (honestly I chose it partially because it sounded good, but mainly because I had a faint recollection of Eurydice talking about it...haha). It received mixed reviews from the club....and some people found it a hard read and didn't even finish it. I think in the end we all agreed it was well written and a good book, but the people that said they didn't like it were more disturbed by the subject matter than the rest of us. I found it a gritty subject but I like that. It seemed really real...even one of the hubbies that joined us (and hadn't read the book) thought it sounded like non-fiction.
I do understand what they meant though, because last month's book was My Sister's Keeper...and although it was also controversial in it's subject, it was a much easier hard-to-put-down read. That book I plowed through in a couple of days. This one I had to fight for three weeks...and only finished it the night before our meeting.
The next title we are giving a go is The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen. One of our members had it recommended by a coworker who said she couldn't put it down. We shall see. I picked up one of only two copies in stock at Chapters so it's not a hot seller...but I don't think that means anything. I did find it interesting that while Googling we found that they have YouTube videos about this book. hmmmm.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Highway Robbery
How is it that the last of the good Christmas seat sales for flights home were in the first week of October? Ya. I've been trying to find a good deal to fly home for the holidays and after I missed that first seat sale I've been shit outta luck.
I finally just gave in and bought my tickets...with a departure date much earlier than I wanted...because I saw one sneaky little one-way seat sale that I couldn't pass up this time. But still $399 one freaking way. And I had no choice but to pay full price for my return ticket because the only cheap seats are on Dec-31st, which is such an unfair way for them to do it.
Anyway, I could vent all night about the robbery of it all, but I won't. Argh.
It would be cheaper to fly to Europe than it is to fly within my own country!
I finally just gave in and bought my tickets...with a departure date much earlier than I wanted...because I saw one sneaky little one-way seat sale that I couldn't pass up this time. But still $399 one freaking way. And I had no choice but to pay full price for my return ticket because the only cheap seats are on Dec-31st, which is such an unfair way for them to do it.
Anyway, I could vent all night about the robbery of it all, but I won't. Argh.
It would be cheaper to fly to Europe than it is to fly within my own country!
The Amazing Race (13)
I honestly don't care if I ever miss any of the other shows I watch...but if I miss Amazing Race I get very cranky.
Is it just me or are all of the teams annoying as hell this season?
I don't care. It's still good!
Is it just me or are all of the teams annoying as hell this season?
I don't care. It's still good!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Vegas - Saturday (which rolled right into Sunday)
Saturday was check-out day. It was also sleep-in day thankfully! I didn't have to get up until 10am...wooooooooooooooooo!
The bad news was that check-out was at 11am, and my flight outta there wasn't until 11:20pm. Ya, 12 hours homeless in Vegas. LOL. So, first I got a coffee and wandered around the hotel....the Circus has a whole floor dedicated to carnival games and stuffs for the families. So loud and hard on the eyes for that time of the morning. I thought I was waiting for my bosses to get a bite to eat, but when they called they had decided to lay out by the pool until it was time to leave for their flight. Unfortunately I had already checked my baggage and wasn't wearing appropriate sunbathing attire, but I joined them anyway to read my book, get some sun, and relax for as long as I could.
Once they left at 1:00, I decided to head down to the Fashion Show Mall and do some shopping (well, more like window shopping). The bellhop offered me some good advice and said I should take my luggage with me and check it at the bell desk at one of the more central hotels so I wouldn't have to cab it all the way back to the Circus. Good advice, I didn't know I could do that! So I got my stuff and went to Caesar's Palace with it.
Ended up starting my shopping in the Forums Shops because they were right there...and I had gone that way in search of food because it was now 2pm and all I'd had was a coffee and a treat size KitKat! I got a slice of pizza in the Forum food court (so far the cheapest casino food I've happened upon but it was still crazy expensive considering what it was!)....sat there and read my book while I ate, then refilled my pop to carry around while I browsed.
The stores are mostly way too high-end for me. I did finally visit the Coach store and that's about the only place where I nearly talked myself into buying something. I really would love to have one great purse that I can carry forever....but dishing out $700 US wasn't something I was willing to do. I couldn't even justify $250 for a great wallet. Lovely, but just not me. Oh well. I browsed through a few other designer stores, but I'm not a very good window shopper....so in the end I landed up at Bath & Body Works instead. Much more my speed! Bought lots of good smelling hand-soap for me and a friend. I would have bought more but I was worried it would put my suitcase over weight.
And after that, I just walked and walked and walked. Went outside to the Strip and made my way through a few hotels I had never been through. Got to the Fashion Show Mall, wandered the whole thing...still didn't buy anything...went to Starbucks, but even that was too noisy and I was starting to get exhausted. Sat by the lagoon at The Mirage for a bit, but it was closing so couldn't go in. Mostly I was just wandering so I wouldn't fall asleep.
I timed it so I would get to Treasure Island in time for the first Sirens show. I got a good viewing spot, but I was still standing up. What I wouldn't have given to sit down by then. After that I made my way over to the Bellagio to see a water show....too bad it was the same damn Celine Dion one I saw last year....I was hoping for something I hadn't seen yet. Oh well, it's still one of my fave things to see on the Strip!
After that I decided I'd had enough and went back to Caesars and got my luggage and headed for the airport about a half hour early. The scariest cab ride ever (well, second to the uber-crazy ride I had in Rome once). He got me there in record time I swear. Insane!
I figured getting there early would be a good idea because usually security at the Vegas airport is super busy and takes at least 1/2 hour....but not this time. I checked in, and because Westjet is in the main terminal now I didn't have to walk a mile or take the shuttle or spend forever at security. In fact, I was the only person going through security....they even had so few staff on that I had to push my own stuff through the xray machine. So, needless to say, I was at my gate almost 2 hours before my flight. Gah!
I got some fries, read my book, played on my computer (free internet access!), and chatted with some other folks waiting for the same flight. I was soooo tired.
I tried to sleep on my flight, but my bad neck/shoulder really wouldn't let me. I was already hurting from walking around all day, but any tilting of my neck resulted in my arm pain going through the roof. Not fun. But somewhere along the way I did fall asleep from shear exhaustion, which helped make the flight to Toronto go a lot faster.
When I got to Toronto and cleared customs, I immediately went to my gate and found a place to lay down. I think I actually got a hour or so of solid sleep...until the gate started to get busy and noisier. A really nice man covered me with his jacket while I slept...so nice of him! Then, just my last couple of hours back to Halifax. Tried to sleep again, but same neck problem. Meh.
By the time I got to Hali, it was almost 1pm here. So that would be 9am Vegas time....so I'd basically been up for 23 hours. Oh yippee. Got my luggage, got my car, stopped to get groceries (because I knew I wouldn't be in any shape to go out again later), got home, had shower, and then crashed for pretty much the rest of the day.
I hate time zones.
One day I'll get to make a Vegas trip for fun instead of work. I look forward to that!
The bad news was that check-out was at 11am, and my flight outta there wasn't until 11:20pm. Ya, 12 hours homeless in Vegas. LOL. So, first I got a coffee and wandered around the hotel....the Circus has a whole floor dedicated to carnival games and stuffs for the families. So loud and hard on the eyes for that time of the morning. I thought I was waiting for my bosses to get a bite to eat, but when they called they had decided to lay out by the pool until it was time to leave for their flight. Unfortunately I had already checked my baggage and wasn't wearing appropriate sunbathing attire, but I joined them anyway to read my book, get some sun, and relax for as long as I could.
Once they left at 1:00, I decided to head down to the Fashion Show Mall and do some shopping (well, more like window shopping). The bellhop offered me some good advice and said I should take my luggage with me and check it at the bell desk at one of the more central hotels so I wouldn't have to cab it all the way back to the Circus. Good advice, I didn't know I could do that! So I got my stuff and went to Caesar's Palace with it.
Ended up starting my shopping in the Forums Shops because they were right there...and I had gone that way in search of food because it was now 2pm and all I'd had was a coffee and a treat size KitKat! I got a slice of pizza in the Forum food court (so far the cheapest casino food I've happened upon but it was still crazy expensive considering what it was!)....sat there and read my book while I ate, then refilled my pop to carry around while I browsed.
The stores are mostly way too high-end for me. I did finally visit the Coach store and that's about the only place where I nearly talked myself into buying something. I really would love to have one great purse that I can carry forever....but dishing out $700 US wasn't something I was willing to do. I couldn't even justify $250 for a great wallet. Lovely, but just not me. Oh well. I browsed through a few other designer stores, but I'm not a very good window shopper....so in the end I landed up at Bath & Body Works instead. Much more my speed! Bought lots of good smelling hand-soap for me and a friend. I would have bought more but I was worried it would put my suitcase over weight.
And after that, I just walked and walked and walked. Went outside to the Strip and made my way through a few hotels I had never been through. Got to the Fashion Show Mall, wandered the whole thing...still didn't buy anything...went to Starbucks, but even that was too noisy and I was starting to get exhausted. Sat by the lagoon at The Mirage for a bit, but it was closing so couldn't go in. Mostly I was just wandering so I wouldn't fall asleep.
I timed it so I would get to Treasure Island in time for the first Sirens show. I got a good viewing spot, but I was still standing up. What I wouldn't have given to sit down by then. After that I made my way over to the Bellagio to see a water show....too bad it was the same damn Celine Dion one I saw last year....I was hoping for something I hadn't seen yet. Oh well, it's still one of my fave things to see on the Strip!
After that I decided I'd had enough and went back to Caesars and got my luggage and headed for the airport about a half hour early. The scariest cab ride ever (well, second to the uber-crazy ride I had in Rome once). He got me there in record time I swear. Insane!
I figured getting there early would be a good idea because usually security at the Vegas airport is super busy and takes at least 1/2 hour....but not this time. I checked in, and because Westjet is in the main terminal now I didn't have to walk a mile or take the shuttle or spend forever at security. In fact, I was the only person going through security....they even had so few staff on that I had to push my own stuff through the xray machine. So, needless to say, I was at my gate almost 2 hours before my flight. Gah!
I got some fries, read my book, played on my computer (free internet access!), and chatted with some other folks waiting for the same flight. I was soooo tired.
I tried to sleep on my flight, but my bad neck/shoulder really wouldn't let me. I was already hurting from walking around all day, but any tilting of my neck resulted in my arm pain going through the roof. Not fun. But somewhere along the way I did fall asleep from shear exhaustion, which helped make the flight to Toronto go a lot faster.
When I got to Toronto and cleared customs, I immediately went to my gate and found a place to lay down. I think I actually got a hour or so of solid sleep...until the gate started to get busy and noisier. A really nice man covered me with his jacket while I slept...so nice of him! Then, just my last couple of hours back to Halifax. Tried to sleep again, but same neck problem. Meh.
By the time I got to Hali, it was almost 1pm here. So that would be 9am Vegas time....so I'd basically been up for 23 hours. Oh yippee. Got my luggage, got my car, stopped to get groceries (because I knew I wouldn't be in any shape to go out again later), got home, had shower, and then crashed for pretty much the rest of the day.
I hate time zones.
One day I'll get to make a Vegas trip for fun instead of work. I look forward to that!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Halloween in Suburbia
I've been trying to think back to when the last time I truly had kids at my door for Halloween and I really can't remember. The past two years, we were in our military housing in the country back in Victoria (only 14 houses)...so there were about a dozen kids from the neighborhood but that was it. For three years prior to that I was in an apartment....before that a condo apartment...before that a shitty apartment...before that a condo in Nanaimo...before that a basement suite on a street that didn't get trick-or-treaters...wow, so it was before that when I lived in a house with my ex. Yikes. What's that, like 10 years?!
So anyway, we now live in uber-residential suburbia, so I planned for about 100 or so kids. I didn't count, but I'm guessing I probably had 60-70. They didn't start coming until around 6pm, but once they started they came full force until about 7:30. Short and sweet. Surprisingly, it was mostly little kids....like 8 and under...with the majority being under 5 and carried by their parents. We have a lot of stairs so I met a lot of them at the bottom because those stairs were slowing the little ones down all up and down the block.
By 8:00 they were all gone. I think there may have been some older kids a little later, but I went out at 8:30 and the street was pretty quiet.
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