Last Minute Vacay Countdown

Weeeeehaaaaaa! I can't believe we leave tonight for our much anticipated, much needed vacation to Punta Cana! (Not stoked about the 6am flight that requires us to be at the airport for 3am...actually a little earlier to Park n Fly...but if it means I'm going to have sand between my toes in 24 hours then I'm all for it!)

Being the planner that I am, I made myself a to-do list this morning:

Since writing the list I've added in printing Park n Fly coupon, charging my iPod, charging my extra camera battery, stopping by the clinic for my final Twinrix shot, paint my toenails, confirm flight, and shower and blow-drying my hair before our nap (so I'm not futzing around at 2am!). Man I hope that's everything. It's an action packed day that's for sure. Good thing I'll be relaxing for the next seven days.

FH will be out and about this afternoon buying shorts and swimtrunks (nothing like leaving it til the last minute!) and getting us some travelling cash. I'm putting him in charge of bringing home dinner too, since I don't have time to cook and don't want any extra dirty dishes laying around.

See you all in a week!

And away he goes....

Today DBF is leaving to go visit his boy in Winnipeg for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately it still hasn't worked out for me to go with him and meet his little man, but we're working on it. It's actually harder now that we've moved, because now I want my vacation time for visiting my family and friends back home. A compromise will have to made at some point...just not this time.

He's looking forward to taking part in a major childhood milestone...the boy's first bike!

Our friend Mark was asking me last night what my plans are while DBF is away, and my answer was NOTHING. LOL. Well, actually I said "sitting on the couch in my undies watching reality TV"...but I only plan to do that once or twice. :)

I actually plan to do the opposite of nothing. I have started a MASSIVE to-do list. I have several goals for the next couple of months, and a few things that need to be done in the next week or so. DBF's sailing schedule is nutty for the next three months, so I figure I'll do as much as I can while I'm here on my own...so that when he does have time off it's not consumed with chores. He can work on the few bigger projects (like the stairs off the back deck) and I can deal with organizing and sorting and decorating. At some point this Summer we need to have a garage sale, so keeping things organized for that will be important. It would be nice to actually be able to use our garage for more than storage too, so I'll be chipping away at that each weekend now that the weather is more agreeable.

We have a few big ticket items that need to be sold too....some furniture, some appliances, etc...so if I can make those easily accesible that can be something else easily dealt with when he's home for a few days. The internet will be our friend on those things.

When we moved in, the movers dumped a lot of stuff in the garage...in the storage room...in the furnace room...and in the spare room. Most of which needs to be rearranged and moved around for proper storage. It would be nice if all of the Christmas decorations were in one place...and maybe the camping gear was all in one room. Makes sense to me, but apparently not to the movers. And honestly there is a lot of crap that we probably should have gotten rid of, but the move was so hectic it was easier just to bring it.

This week's main goal will be to finally organize all of my paperwork and get my taxes done. It's amazing how every year I say I'll get them done earlier, but inevitably I end up racing to get them done at the end of the month. I do have my own new file cabinet now, with folders for each month of the year...so at least next year I won't have to spend a week sorting and entering all of my expenses into a spreadsheet. I plan to do them monthly....mhmmmmmmmm.

You would think I would be used to DBF going away by now, but I'm not. I'll miss him. Boooo. :(

We have arrived! - Day One/Two

OK, here it is! The post you have all be anxiously anticipating!!

We have arrived!!!

Well, fine, we arrived like 3 1/2 days ago, but give us a break...we were tired!!

I think I'll break this down into a couple of posts...one for each day...make it a little easier to write and to follow. :)

DAY ONE/TWO: FRIDAY & SATURDAY

After managing to fit absolutely everything I had with me into my two suitcases we dragged them out to the car along with my laptop bag, purse, cat carrier and a small bag containing the one tiny little plant I decided to take along with me. Tiffaney offered to drive so that she and Nicole could see me off at the airport.

I had to be there 90 minutes before the flight because you can't book your seat online when you travel with your pet. No worries, this left time for dinner before the flight....well, almost! After check-in we headed over to the White Spot so I could enjoy my one last Triple-O burger. We arrived at the restaurant at pretty much exactly 6:30 which we thought would be plenty of time for an airport restaurant....I had to be through security by 7:25. Crazy us, we assumed an airport restaurant would expedite service since 99% of their patrons are probably about to catch a flight. Well, we should know better than to assume!!

After waiting more than 5 minutes just get served, we waited over another 20 minutes for our food to arrive. I had to choke down my burger and barely made it through my fries. Not quite the situation I wanted before having to get on a plane for an hour and a half. By the time I got through security, my plane was already boarding....I just squeaked myself in at the end of pre-boarding.

The upside to this was that I didn't have time for a really teary goodbye. We had some hugs, and definitely a few tears, but I had to suck them back (I almost lost it in front of the first security guy) so I could get through security with my cat in my arms. Unfortunately it also meant that I didn't even have time to turn around and wave a final goodbye. BYE GIRLS!!!

The flight to Calgary was OK. Poor little Stoopy was not impressed about being in his cage on the floor, but it's not a super long flight and the turbulence wasn't too bad, so all in all he was OK. We lucked out with an empty middle seat so I had some room for my feet, but they don't let you move the carrier off the floor which is sort of stupid...especially since the woman in the aisle seat would have been fine with it.

Our layover in Calgary was only supposed to be about 45 mins, but ended up being a little over an hour. Then they were still loading baggage even after we were all on the plane so we were well over half an hour late leaving. The turbulence then started before we were even off the ground. By far, the worst turbulence I've ever encountered!! Up and down, back and forth. I was pretty proud that I didn't get sick...in fact I was only even slightly nauseous...maybe because I was more worried about the poor cat than I was about myself. He let out a few pretty serious meows, but once the turbulence let up he calmed as best he could. He did manage to get a claw out the side of the cage and into my toe at one point, but I figured that it was only fair. :)

The landing in Halifax was quite pretty....lots of snowy trees and such!

Cosette was there to meet me. Poor girl had been waiting an extra half hour and was starting to wonder if my plane was ever going to show up! I'm sure glad she is a morning person and being up and at it for 7:00am is normal for her.

We stopped by her place to pick up Mark and their daughter Camille. We dropped Mark at work, then made our way over the bridge to my hotel. DBF had actually arrived at the hotel around 6:00am and had called Cosette to let her know that he and the dog were safe and sound.

He was so sound asleep when we got to the room that he didn't even hear us come clomping in with all of my crap! Mojo greeted me with a short growl followed by recognition and some major tail wagging. I set the cat up with his new litter box (thanks Cosette!) and some food and water, washed my face, brushed my teeth and climbed into bed next to DBF. Yaaiiieee for the king size bed and comfy duvet! Three hours later we awoke and he realized I was there. :)

We spent the day lounging around the room, exchanging Christmas prezzies and ordered room service. After dinner we decided to go to a movie...we ended up choosing Sweeny Todd, which turned out to be a lot gorier than Tim Burton movies usually are...but I still enjoyed the singing!

I wish I had taken a picture of the view that first day because it was absolutely perfect for our first day in Halifax. We look right out over Chocolate Lake...it's all frozen and snow covered and the sun was shining. Lovely!!

I'm outta here!

GOODBYE VICTORIA!!!

HELLO HALIFAX!!!