Weekend Update

Saturday was celebration day for Raylene's birthday. She invited me to join her and some girlfriends for brunch over in Dartmouth, and since I love brunch and need to meet new people I gladly accepted. Brunch was at an Alderney Landing restaurant called Ducky's. By the name, I thought it was going to be a greasy-spoon sort of place, but it was more like a little bistro with a decent view. I had the Eggs Benny and it was really good. So was the coffee! (I'll have to go back and really wander around there one day...there was a market of some sort going on that had homemade pies and jams and stuff!)

There ended up only being three of us...one of the girls slept in (and it wasn't me!). We sat and chatted for a couple of hours and it was great. I miss just drinking coffee with my girls (and Mikey!) and chatting about whatever.

Afterwards, the girls went to meet some other friends and do some shopping. I was invited, but had errands to run so I opted out. I ended up doing a little shopping of my own trying to find some cute trouser jeans, but after about 30 tries I gave up and bought cute new shoes instead. LOL. I can always find shoes that fit!! The jean trials were frustrating...all of the good stores like Banana Republic or even RW&Co don't make their pants long enough. I was stoked to fit into size 6's (hello vanity sizing or what!) but nothing was long...even if they called it long it would only be like 33"....no good for me if I want to wear heels. Tres annoying! Oh well, such is life.

I managed to squeak in a short workout on my way home to check on the dog and get ready for the evening too.

The evening plans were for a group of us to meet up for a pub dinner, then go see a band at the Casino. Originally we were going to go to the Split Crowe to eat, but because the weather looked a little wet, it was changed to the pub in the Casino hotel. Good thing that the company was good, because the service was absolute shit and the menu was soooo boring. Our waitress was either new or just bad at her job, because she was about the slowest server any of us had ever had. Getting our bills was pure torture as well. (This led to some of the people skipping out on their bills, but I'll rant about that another time...un-freaking-cool!!)

But I got to meet a bunch more of Raylene's friends and most everyone (minus the bill-jumpers!) was fun and hilarious so that is really all that matters. Birthday girl had herself a very cute dress and a very cute boy too! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the night...boooo!

When we went to see the band, they had only played an early set due to the Comedy Festival that was going on....so the group ended up dividing up at that point. Raylene still wanted to dance and since it was her party a few of us agreed to go with her to the Lower Deck across the street. The others didn't want to go there, so stayed at the Comedy Show. The Deck was hot and crowded and I'm not a huge fan of the music upstairs, but it was still a fun night out. A few minutes before 2am, I decided to get my coat before everyone else did and grabbed a cab home.

A bit of a gong show, but a good time!

Sunday, Mojo let me sleep til noon and I spent the day just puttering and basically doing nothing. Lovely. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...well, not Summer that's for sure!

My friend Raylene told me that it always snows on her birthday....every year. She says no one ever believes her because her birthday is April 24th. But low and behold, what happened overnight? It freaking snowed. She's truly a fortune teller.

Personally I think we should do away with her birthday if it is going to mean snow in April every year. Geesh.

Happy Birthday Raylene!



(She also says this is usually the end of it...so I hope she's right about that too!)

Relay Meeting

First, a shout out to Mom, Mikey and Jamie for their super generous donations!! Thanks you guys! What a way to start out!

Tonight, a few of our team members went to the introductory meeting for the Relay. We picked up our t-shirts (which I am happy to say are not hideous!) and additional pledge forms and such. The volunteer co-ordinators were there and very gung-ho...and there was a representative from the Canadian Cancer Society who I must say I was very impressed with. Everyone was really excited and very nice and offered any help we might need. Seems like even though we are a smaller community, we are having an excellent turn out this year. Last year they had 12 teams...this year we've already passed 25 teams. Nice!

I sort of get the impression that I'm a little more into this than the rest of my team. Maybe I take it more personally. I'll have to ask them each why they are doing it. Everyone has their own reasons I'm sure. I will have to really rally around everyone and get them as excited as I am!

They treat this as a very community event. The local high school has really stepped in this year and several community businesses are donating food and services. They are encouraging the teams to really get together and get to know each other while we are there overnight. They are bringing in as much entertainment as they can (although there is no drinking....). It's going to be a little different than the 24-hour relays I saw in Victoria, but a good different. A different that will make a difference I think.

Even Water is Evil

Man, if it's not one thing it's another. It seems to me that EVERYTHING can cause cancer. I'm not going to go into all of the things that have been mentioned in the news over the last couple of years, but I am going cry all the way home about my beloved Nalgene bottle being on the hit list now.

It's pink. It has a flower on it. It makes drinking water fun.

And now it's going to kill me apparently. Grrrrreat.

So what do I use now? My gym has a "plastic bottles only" rule for the safety of patrons. And as if anyone would use a glass bottle, that's just inconvenient and dumb...not to mention difficult to drink from while on a treadmill. Smashed front teeth anyone? I'm not about to start buying bottled water each and every day...that's seriously wasteful and expensive...which is why I got my Nalgene bottle in the first place.

I know there are metal alternatives, but are those really safer? I'm sure sometime in the next two years, the government will tell us that those are bad for us too.

I did find an article today, which gave me some hope. Nalgene is discontinuing any bottles made with BPA (I'm guessing that was a no-brainer since no one wants to stock them or buy them anymore) and they are replacing them with some other kind of impact-resistant plastic-type substance that apparently isn't going to cause cancer (yet!). But who knows how long it will take for those to hit the open market?

Until then, what do I do? Keep living on the edge drinking from my pretty pink bottle? I guess so. Í mean, I'm probably going to get cancer from the sun, or pork, or lead toys my future children will play with, so what's a few litres of water from a tainted bottle?

Thoughts?

Relay for Life

I have joined in the fun for the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life this year. For several years I have talked about volunteering for the Society, but unfortunately life always gets in the way. For this reason, I was really excited to be asked to join a team here in my new city. Finally, an opportunity to do something for cancer research and support!

The Society is close to my heart and important to our family as we have been directly affected by losing loved ones to cancer. I need support from each and every one of you to help reach my personal goal of $500. I have started the pledging with $25 myself, and ask that each of you donate whatever you can.

Please pledge generously!

Follow this link to my personal Relay page where you can donate in support of our Relay.
http://convio.cancer.ca/goto/coast-to-coast-jaime

Thank you!!!