Happy Hali-versary!

One year ago today, FH and I arrived in Halifax for our new adventure. My how time flies!

We arrived at the tail end of a snowstorm. Lucky us. This is the view from the hotel room we stayed in for the first 10 days.



Here's Stoopy happy to be released from the tiny carrying case he spent about 12 hours travelling in. (I flew with him....FH drove.)

Here's our Mojo happy to curl up on the floor instead of in FH's car.

FH's car was very very salty after driving it across the country during Winter.

The Story You Have All Been Waiting For

Most of you already know from Facebook that DBF will from now on be known as FH...Future Husband!

I thought you might be interested in how it came about... :)

So, it's Dec-30th. DBF and I have both arrived home at ungodly hours from our individual family Christmases. Mine obviously in BC, his in Manitoba. We are both exhausted and I'm slightly airsick. So we go to bed at 8am and sleep most of the day away. He gets up around 2pm and I remain snug under the covers until about 4pm when I decide to drag myself into the shower and try to feel human again.

Since there is no real food in the house and I really have no desire to cook we head out for a quick dinner at our local greasy spoon and stop by Wal-mart to look for New Years decorations. I want to go shopping for New Years party food but he convinces me to wait because we don't have a confirmed number of guests. So we get ourselves a cheap bottle of red wine and head home to exchange our Xmas gifts...we've been anxiously awaiting our own little Christmas.

This year we agreed to a $100 limit on our gifts. He's been telling me for a couple of weeks that he was happy to find something under the limit. He also told me it required some assembly so it wouldn't be wrapped and that he was quite happy with the choice because he felt it would be something I could use every day. Needless to say, I had no freaking idea what it could be. Let me just also note that I stuck to the budget....

I've told you all of this so that you understand that to me this was just a tired lazy day that I expected to end without much to-do. I was wearing my Lulu hoodie and mucklucks for crying out loud!

For whatever reason he goes first. He asks me to go upstairs while he brings it out because it's not wrapped....nothing odd about that so up I go. I can hear him downstairs in the basement but that's not odd because it's where his den is and I know that's where he hid the gift. So a few minutes later he calls me back down to the living room....

...and hands me a treasure map clue!

Yup. He handmade clues for me to follow. He wrote each one himself. Each well written in ye olde pirate speak, rhyming and everything, and each one with a bit of a personal touch. I find my way to clue #2 on the back of his favorite guitar, then clue #3 in my pantyhose drawer, #4 with our beloved Mojo's ash box, #5 leads me to the furnace room (where there was a lovely bottle of wine with the next clue)....then I was stumped for a few minutes by a name in the clue that I didn't recognize. He planned it that way...stumped me so we could stop for a drink. :) While we let the wine breath I figured it out....the artist that did the print in our living room...hello clue #6 which led me finally to the basement again....where I found a candlelit "x marks the spot" hiding my surprise....an engagment ring!!

There...standing in the storage closet doorway...we became engaged. :)

Merry Christmas to All!

To each and every one of you...Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The Weather Followed Me

So while I was watching the satellite TV on the plane yesterday I happened upon some BC news where they kept talking about the snow storm that had hit the lower mainland and Vancouver Island. I knew there was snow in Nanaimo because I had talked to my Mom, but when I had checked with a friend in Victoria on Thursday it hadn't snowed here so I assumed the news wasn't talking about Victoria.

Oooops, you know what assuming does!!

When my plane had a touchdown in Edmonton I had a window of opportunity to use my cell phone, so I called my girlfriend here to find out the scoop and sure enough a little blizzard had blown through the southern island and Victoria got about 10cm of snow overnight. Oh yippee. Didn't I just leave that stuff? Minus 6 here yesterday (un-freaking-heard of) with lots of icy wind and disgusting slushy roads. Victoria is just so unprepared for snow. It's been 36 hours and some of the main roads are still a mess.

Oh well.

If only I had actually packed snow-appropriate footwear. Gah.

At least I'm happily seeing my friends and have a cozy place to stay and work. The snow is supposed to stay all week and the below zero weather has no plans to leave town. Hopefully it stays at bay and the highway is clear for Mom to pick me up next Monday.

Tis the Season to be Starbucked?

To keep up with the "corporate whoring" at Christmas I picked up a new Starbucks Christmas tree ornament today. There are two new ones...so I'm sure I'll be picking up the other one any day now! (and yes I know I shouldn't be buying myself these things this close to Christmas, but I can't risk the chance that no one will buy them for me and then they'll be sold out!)

Today's newbie:

Today's newbie on the tree:

Ornaments from years past on our tree this year:

The snow globe one really must be protected by the miracle of the corporate whore because all of my other snow globes were broken when we moved across the country (too cold, liquids froze and busted the glass) but it was the only one to survive the trip!