Happy Holidays & Experience Challenge # 25 Yaletown Yums

Hello all. Did you survive the holidays?

I did and boy I got spoiled. The day was pretty crazy, we started out our Christmas in our little suit and exchanged gifts. I received this crazy hair curler thing and a pretty sweet paintball mask from Corey so guess who’s gonna go paint balling looking like a babe during the Slush Bowl next week! He loved his guitar and looks stellar in the jacket I got him so my shopping hunt seems to have gone well. Even Zoey was thrilled to open her presents. She received some toys and goodies for us but I think the real highlight of her gift opening with the Chuckit ball thrower that she got from Nicole. The moment it came out of the wrapper her eyes were transfixed. We will be going out today in the field to give it another round.

We then packed the three of us in my car and raced over to my families. We enjoyed cups of tea and a rather noisy gift opening. I love Christmas with my family. Everyone sprawls across the room and chitchat away while holiday tunes make up the background noise. It’s so comforting and I wish we still had that kind of unity every day. Jason played Santa and started handing out the presents. To name a few things, I got a kitchen aide mixer (every woman who cooks has a dream of owning one, I swear!) and a bread maker so I can now stop stealing my moms. Throw on top clothes and goodies and horseback riding lessons/trail rides, hot damn I’m a lucky girl. Everyone loved their presents and when everything under the tree was unwrapped we unveiled the big surprise by trotted my dad out to the backyard to find the last present. It took some searching but he found it on the deck with a little help. A few months ago out old hand-me-down BBQ bit the dust. We tossed it and put a brand spanking new one underneath the old cover. My dad was thrilled! Corey got spoiled rotten by my family as well. I don’t think we got home fast enough for him to try out all his new gadgets and electronics.

We then zipped over to Coreys parents and had yet another gift opening. This was then followed by us running back to my parents, picking up and dropping off presents at home, returning to my parents for an early dinner with my grandma and then having a second dinner at the almost-in-laws. Phew! What a busy day. We ended it with a nice cuddle on the couch with eggnog and Doctor Who. (Did I mention that I got Tardis color changing glasses and tree ornaments?)

Yesterday (boxing day) we cleaned house and went to my mom’s side of the family to celebrate Christmas. Boy, that’s a noisy group if you ever saw one. I think local restaurants fear our birthday song!  My uncle brought oooooold videos of Christmases past. One from 1990 when my cousin and I were about 10 months and one when we were four and our little brothers were one. It was hilarious and we all had a riot laughing at the old hairstyles, clothes and glasses everyone wore. I loved it! Food and drinks where shared all around before the party slowly disbanded.

Christmas isn’t over for us just yet though. We have still yet to celebrate with Corey’s grandma and extended family tomorrow.

Ah ok, I know this is long but I have to squeeze in a cheater experience challenge. On Sunday Corey and I went on a double date with my best friend and her BF. We ate at a fancy restaurant in the ritzy part of Vancouver, Yaletown. I’ve never had the pleasure of dining in a classy place like that and good god the food was good. I wish I got a picture of my entrée but I did get one of the dessert. We even had tableside entertainment. A blind date or something else was going horribly wrong for the couple next to us. Imagine a polite, middle aged women going on a blind date with a fat cat, old, executive style, highly conceited, rich guy that is sexist to the core. It was a train wreck but we couldn’t stop eavesdropping. That poor woman even tried to tell him a few times that he really wasn’t her type and yet this guy told her flat out ‘you think you can do better than this?”. Oh gawd, it was awful.  We had a laugh though. Poor Corey wasn’t feeling well and we had to cut our date short but we have to do that again sometime!

The next day I treated Corey to a day at the spa where we had a couples massage. Man, was that perfect timing. Nothing like a relaxing day being pampered right in the height of the stressful holidays. It was much needed.

I realized that I haven’t done a week of experience challenge. It’s been crazy busy getting things in order for the holidays so I will have to make up for it in the New Year for sure!

Ampersands and Lemniscates &∞ + Experience Challenge #24 Matching Manis

I have a good friend that really likes the ampersand symbol; this bad boy right here “&”. While its shape is a bastardization of a-t, meaning and in Latin, there is a beautiful little saying behind the ampersand.

“A broken infinity. It reminds us that nothing truly lasts forever but there is always an AND”

So, nothing really lasts forever. Bad things pass. Grief will fade away…etc.

I love the ampersand, I do, but I have always liked the lemniscates more. Lemniscate. More commonly known at the infinity symbol. I didn’t know it had a specific name until a few months ago. I always drew these figure eights when I was stressed. Still do. There’s something comforting in those endless loops. I like to think that my love for those around me will last forever. I will constantly be there for those who need me without fail. I will will remember to be kind and forgiving at every turn. My loyalty will never waiver. I will always find happiness. 

Always 

 ∞

 

Denise, Nicole and I all went out to get a little festive with matching manicures. Originally Nicole came up with the idea of getting candy cane designs on her nails, which I ended up stealing for a ‘feature nail’ or whatever the hell you call it. That idea snowballed and we all ended up with glittery matching Christmas nails. Aside from everyone getting French manicures at grad, I don’t think I’ve ever had matching sets done before. It was a lot of fun and we celebrated after with lunch at the Henry.

Experience Challenge # 23 Puppy Practice!

Hello blog. I didn’t forget you. Finding time this past week to do much of anything relaxing has been hard. I’ve been dogsitting (Cat sitting too) at this very lovely house this past week. This dog is one of my regular walking clients but I got to watch him and the cats he lives with while his owners soaked up some sun. It was a lot of fun being able to temporarily live in a mini mansion but it will be so good to sleep in my own bed tonight. I snuck little naps in at home just to be able to put my head on my own pillow in between all my running around.

One of the cats, I was warned, has a very grumpy demeanor. For the first four or five days I couldn’t be in the same room as Princess without her hissing and freaking out at me. The first night I thought there was something about to kill me under the bed but low and behold it was a very angry, very fat cat. Through the course of my stay she watched my every move and even tried to block my way on the stairs so I couldn’t go to bed. I think I surprised her when I didn’t yield. Duke helped my chasing her up the hall for me a few times. Slowly she came to realize that I was the one with the food and let me get a little closer. Sadly, dog training methods don’t work on cats and I never won her over but the other cat was happy to be my buddy.

This silly cat named Dyson, however, liked to push crap off of counters as soon as I went to bed. The moment my eyes closed I would hear a crash downstairs and would go flying down the steps with Duke by my side just to see her standing next to the mess she created with a proud look on her fuzzy face.

She apparently like to knock the plastic containers that hold all Duke’s treats onto the floor and feed him. I came down one morning and three, THREE busy bones had been demolished out of their packages. Who knows what else! This happened every night until I took everything and stuck it out in the garage. Silly cat.

Saturday Nicole and I had our practice session for our puppy class. Disaster!

People cancelled or didn’t show last minute. I was stressing out for a while but thankfully my dad came and I had a few friends attend too. I am the master of mumbling and felt totally unorganized and a little defeated. I'm not a good teacher to begin with. I am rather scatter brained and do my own thing in weird orders. Luckily I had Nicole remind me on a few things I missed before we closed the class. Ugh. Practice, practice, practice I guess. I’m really nervous to start but hopefully we can start off on the right foot and help out some owners teach their pups a thing or two!

Emotions Derived

Ubuntu

"I am, because we are"

-4

My weekend was a bit of a gong show. Nothing really goes to plan and it just gets frustrating. People are frustrating. People that you’re supposed to look up to but in all reality act like spoilt children are frustrating.

Luckily Corey and I hid from the sub zero world under blankets and got lost watching Doctor Who together with tea and homemade soup.

I’m hoping this week goes by fast. I have a lot of dog sitting starting today. Already had the first dog dropped off. He’s a great cuddle bug but he’s a little stressed seeing his dad go this morning. Hopefully I can turn that around with a little love.