Sunday, March 29, 2009

I Love Geeks

Dallas Green is a huge geek and I love it! I was watching some of the Junos tonight, and was surprised to see that show wasn't all that terrible!

M. was showing me an article about City and Colour on Dose.ca that makes me like Dallas even more. Here's a quote: Green says he finds the whole Juno thing decidedly meh. "Awards, they just make me feel weird," he says. Read more here.

Don't you just want to roll him into a little ball and eat him up?

In the article, he also talks about writing "The Girl", which I'm quite partial to! I love watching him scrunch up his face as he sings. It's very odd, but cute.

pictures sources 1 and 2

Baby Bumps All Around

I had a nice weekend with my ladies. Lots of baby talk, which I loved! Shopping, eating, and boardgames! We live on the edge!

I didn't know baby bumps were contagious! It's amazing what you can find in maternity store change rooms!
We even celebrated earth hour!

Good times had by all!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Tips for Making Guac

Boy, do I love guacamole. I loved visiting Las Vegas because they had guac everywhere! Even at Subway!

I make very simple guac, no fancy stuff, and that's just the way I like it! The one below has 3 avacados, juice from 1 lime, a sprinkling of salt, and 2 cloves of garlic. That's it!

Here are some tips I've learned along the way to keep guacamole from turning brown.
1) Put a pit in the middle while storing.
2) When covering, put the saran wrap directly on the guac, so no air can reach it.

Works like a charm!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Girl's Weekend!

Yay, my girlies (well, three of them) are coming to visit this weekend! I've got the taco dip and guac ready!

Here we are karate chopping at A's wedding in October, 2006.

And hunting at S's wedding in June, 2007.

And posing nicely at my wedding in July, 2008???? What happened to our crazy actions?
Happy, happy!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Rest and Relaxation

The resort we stayed at in Cuba was called Sol Rio de Luna y Mares and we loved it! I'd recommend it for sure! The beach was absolutely gorgeous - white sand and no rocks at all. About 10 minutes down the beach was a reef that was awesome to go snorkelling in.

I got up early on our last day and went down for the sunrise. It was so peaceful first thing in the morning.

Below is the view of the beach from up near the pool area. The resort was small enough that it only took about 2 minutes to get to the beach from our room. The pool was basically right outside our block of rooms. Very convenient for bathroom breaks!

One of the nights, Air Transat hosted a beach party. Air Transat is total crap in general, so it was no surprise that this was the worst dinner of our entire stay. The line for the buffet was so long and by the time we got there, the food had run out. So we had dinner #1 at the beach, then went for dinner #2 at the regular buffet. The scenery was nice though!

Staying at an all-inclusive was very different from the vacations than M and I are used to taking. We are usually go go go, walking for many hours a day, and always doing something. I must say it was nice to lay on a beach all day! So relaxing! And although I did not finish the entire Twilight series like I set out to do, I did finish New Moon, Eclipse, and am halfway through Breaking Dawn. Close enough! That adds up to about 1500 pages in one week!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Swimming With Dolphins

During our vacation we took a day trip that included riding a catamaran, snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, and eating a lobster lunch. Good times!

Here I am enjoying the catamaran ride. I was so, so nervous because I still have seasickness nightmares from Thailand. I took a gravol and everything was a-ok! So relieved.

We went snorkeling for 45 minutes and it was amazing! This was my first time really snorkeling - I did go once in Thailand but again, me and monsoon waves didn't mix. This time though, I saw some very cool fish and reefs. Our leader opened up a spiky shell thing for me to hold and all the fish came to eat the insides. I loved it!

After snorkeling we hopped back onto the catamaran to head to the dolphin reserve. It was interesting because the dolphins still live in the ocean water, but their space is fenced in. We put on a very fishy smelly life preserver and jumped into the very fishy smelling water. Blech! It was just lovely getting splashed in the face with that water!

I have always, always, always wanted to swim with dolphins, so this experience was very exciting for me! Here I am getting a kiss from Bea! She was not very gentle!

Dolphins are so incredibly soft to touch. We were trying to decide what it felt like and came up with either really soft rubber, or a wet glass. I couldn't get enough of it!

Dophins also make hilarious sounds! Ee-eee-eeee-eeee-eeeee.

Here's C checking out Bea's mouth. He actually accidentally licked her with that big tongue of his.

What an awesome experience!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Goin' To Town

One of the very interesting parts of our trip to Cuba was taking a horse and carriage ride into the town of Guardalavaca. I felt so sorry for the skinny little horse that had to pull us around! It was so hot and the poor horse was all sweaty. It was very sad to see all the damage that hurricane Ike caused last September. It just felt wrong taking pictures of people's half torn up houses, but it was such an eye-opening experience. Many people's homes have only half a roof and in the picture below you can see some fallen trees. Everyone's backyard gardens were ruined, and are just starting to grow back now.

The Cuban people are friendly and wave as you're passing by. I felt like a celebrity. Louis, our driver, took us into a housing complex where a lot of kids live. C and R had brought a bunch of things to give away like baseballs and hair clips, etc. The kids were so happy and grateful.

I stuffed a big purse full with clothes and gave it to a woman I saw. I wish I knew some Spanish to speak to her a little bit, but I guess there's always next time!

I'm so glad I brought some things to give away. Next time I'll pack an extra suitcase of things. Everyone is in such need, but I'll get into that more when I have some time to write a longer post!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Back to the Grind

Our trip was divine.

I'm sad to be back! We got back home just a few hours ago, so I will leave you with some pictures for now!







Friday, March 13, 2009

Just Makin' Some Fruitcake!

Here's a ridiculous video of me making the fruitcake I was talking about in yesterday's post. Truly, I usually don't act like this, I think I had gone insane from stirring. And I don't think there was cherry jam in the fruitcake recipe! Enjoy making fun of me!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

One Year Ago..

Exactly one year ago during the March Break I was:
...stirring and stirring and stirring some more
...burning my fingers repeatedly
...and praying for non-runnyness

Can you guess?

Making jam, of course! Before this, I had never made jam, and after this, I may never again! Or at least not 144 little jars of it! After a week of making jam for many hours a day, I'd had enough for long, long while!


With the help of my mom, I was also:
...mixing, mixing, and mixing some more
...soaking cheesecloth in booze
...and praying for tastiness after a four month period

Can you guess this one?

Indeed, making fruitcake! Don't ask, it's just a wedding tradition! I wish we would have made more (or just cut smaller pieces) because this was very surprisingly a hit at the wedding!

Those were the good old days, but hey, Cuba doesn't seem like a bad replacement!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Saga Continues!

Here's the floor of our living room tonight!

If you look closer, you will see the guilty pleasures that I'm so excited to continue while on vacation! The Twilight series! Oh yeah. I started New Moon earlier this week, so that'll go in my carry on, and the rest of the series in my suitcase. That's about 10 pounds of books! I hope to finish all of them, but that is a whole lot of reading in a short period of time. What can I say, I have great expectations!

When M. got his wisdom teeth out back in November, I started reading him Twilight, and have been waiting patiently for a good time to start the next books... so much to read, so little time. Well the time has come... wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Who Needs A New Toothbrush?

This was my project for some of the night.

Packing! Yahoo!

This is the first time in a long time that I'm going away for the March Break! I'm soooooo looking forward to it and have been counting down the days! My plan is to fill one side of my suitcase with things I actually need (left) and the other half with things to give away (right). This will leave me with an extremely light bag on the way back home!

Tonight I went around gathering clothes, school materials, bathroom items, and basically whatever I could find that I thought the people in Cuba might need and want. Under the bathroom sink I found 10 new toothbrushes, still in packages from the dentist! I hope they need those, but perhaps I should bring toothpaste too?

I have a lot of stuff to give! I'm not quite sure how to give it though! We're planning on going on some day trips, so do I give things to people I see around the town? Leave it for workers I meet at the resort? I don't like awkwardness! Help!

Monday, March 9, 2009

The Ever Expanding Family

Over the weekend my family got together to celebrate the bro G's birthday. Holy, we're getting old!

Blow harder!

Just a lovely time. It's especially fun to watch the three kiddos play together. The little guy, L, now enjoys saying "HOCKEY" and "SHOOT IT" over and over again! So cute. He also enjoys eating!

Look at the concentration!


What do you mean, I have something on my face?

Here we all are! If you count 13 people in this picture, you would be wrong! I'm going to be an Auntie again in October! Yay!

Congrats G and MT!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Green Monster, Take 2

A huge mess happened last week during my first attempt at making a Green Monster! So this morning I began my second attempt and was successful! M says these pictures make him nauseous, so you've been warned! Obviously, he did not partake in the goodness.

Thanks for letting me borrow you magic bullet, mom!

The ingredients in my Green Monster are: 1/2 cup of Almond Breeze, 1/2 a banana, a handful of blueberries, and 1 large kale leaf. Blend, blend, blend, until you can blend no more. Then pour it into a fancy glass to make it more appealing!

Look, one of my plants is still living!

Oh la la, there you have it, my first ever Green Monster! I got the idea from Angela from Oh She Glows, who seems to drink 1-2 of these daily!

Now, you're probably wondering - WHY??? Yeah, that's what I was thinking as I was drinking it. Actually, it tasted quite fine because banana is very overpowering, but it didn't smell all that great. The health benefits of kale are the main reason I'd drink one. Kale has more nutritional value for fewer calories than almost any other food and it also appears able to lessen the occurrence of many cancers. Haven't you always heard that it's good to eat your leafy greens?

Well, I'm not sure if these reasons will actually make me want to have one every day, but maybe if I get some vanilla protein powder I'll be more likely to have one, because I'm always looking for different ways to up my protein.

So, what do you think?

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Good Eats

Last night I met M. downtown for some Ethiopian food. I've been wanting to try this place, Ethiopian House, for a long time because it gets really good reviews and it's something different to do. Even Woody Harrelson eats there! There is a hilarious candid photo of him with his mouth full on their website.

It's not hard to find this place with all its Christmas lights!

We asked the server what we should order and ended up with a vegetarian platter, a beef dish, and some chicken. It was way too much! We were only finished half of it and were already so full! Next time we will definitely only order the vegetarian platter because it was much more tasty than the meat.

Oh my gosh, you tasted so good.

To eat Ethiopian food you use the bread-like stuff, called injera, to pick up the food and soak up the sauce. Injera feels so weird... it's sorta like a crepe but really spongy. You can see it up close in the picture below - the food is sitting on one big piece of it. There are no forks or silverwear at this place!

Here's M. picking up some of the vegetarian dish.

I really enjoyed the dinner, it was delicious and very inexpensive. If you have an Ethiopian restaurant where you live, you should try it! Or if you come to visit Toronto, we'll take you there!

Ooh, and that's one more thing off my 36 in 365 list! Yay!