Quality Time With The Mother

The past few days I've been playing tourist because my mom was in Toronto for a conference. It was fun to stay downtown!

On Thursday night we went to see the Famous People Players. This is a dinner theatre with a black light show. The whole dinner and show is put on by people with special needs. It was great and I'd recommend it to anyone!

Here's my lit up dessert napkin!

Mom and I waiting for the show to begin.

We did a bit of shopping and noticed Elvis out on the street. My mom is hysterical, she would not believe this was a real person. Finally she saw him say, "Thank you very much" to someone giving him money and had to believe it. I guess they don't have a lot of statue people out in the boonies.

We also went out for some sushi. If you're a fan of sushi and have never tried sushi pizza, order it next time. Very yummy.

My mom's a real pro with the chopsticks.

The only bad thing about our time together is that I always feels a bit homesick after!! Oh well, good times, mother!

The Song

Last night M and I went to see City and Colour at Massey Hall. Oh so good! Really, what's better than a man with a guitar AND a harmonica?

The show began with a vocal warm-up to "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was pretty fun. Dallas sang all of the songs one might expect plus a few covers. All I can say is that his voice is pure heaven.

A while ago M was telling me the story of "The Girl" and how Dallas had written it for his now wife, Leah Miller. He wrote a slow and fast version of the song and asked Leah which one she preferred. She suggested both, and that's how the song is recorded now - begins slow and repeats, much faster. It's great.

We actually chose this song as the first dance at our wedding, very much as a last minute idea. Usually we think of "Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional as "our song" but it's just way too fast to dance too. Believe me, we tried, and it wasn't working! So, we browsed through our collection of music and decided on "The Girl".

I think it's pretty perfect.

source

Baby Shower Time

This weekend we made a quick visit home for A's baby shower!

She's due in five weeks and looks great! Love that bump!

This is the coolest invention! A punch fountain!

We played games and I won a prize! Yay!

Lots of nice gifts!

My two pregnant friends!

I can't wait to meet your baby, A! You're going to be a great mom.

Bugs Galore

A few years ago I was driving out in the country one night and thought it was raining. After a few minutes I realized it wasn't water hitting my windshield, it was bugs! I never saw such huge creatures! Oh the joys of growing up in farmland. I don't think this happens in the city, does it?

Every spring this is what happens to my car when I go home...

I love when you can see all the bloody bits.

Gone Shoppin'

What's the best thing about going to my parents' house for the weekend? Other than seeing family and friends... going shopping in my mom's cupboards, of course!

Look at all the goodies I found this time!

Frozen veggies, cranberry juice, a bathrobe, crackers, yogurt, hot dogs, guacamole, tuna, chipotle dip, gum, beans, popcorn, strawberry desserts, crystal light, and 7-up! Thanks mom!

My Productive Weekend

I was busy, busy over the long weekend and got so many things done, it was great! I completed ALMOST everything on my to-do list. Here are a few things I did that I took pictures of:

Lots of reading! I really like the author, Ruth Reichl - this is the third book of hers that I've read. She is or was a food critic for the New York Times and it's very funny to read about her experiences there.

I also tried a new green tea latte from Second Cup, which tasted exactly like hot green tea ice cream! Yum!

M and I decided on a few pictures to get printed off and put them into frames (one of my 36 in 365 goals). Now I just need to find a place to display them. The first picture is from last summer in Thailand, the second was from our Europe trip in 2005, and the last is one of my favourite pictures from our wedding. Everyone is au natural in it- the best man is sorta doing the splits, a groomsman is checking his cell phone, my sister-in-law is fixing her hair, etc.

I decided to go to High Park to see if any cherry blossoms were left, but they were long gone. I did find this tiny waterfall. That place is so huge I see something new every time I go.

M bought a bunch of steaks from someone's fundraiser at work, so we made a nice dinner with roasted veggies, mushrooms, onions, and of course some wine!

We also went out for drinks a couple of times (yay for having a friend who lives nearby now) and found a restaurant that has 50 flavours of wings! We tried butter chicken, sweet and sour, satay, and mesquite. Oh yes.

M and I also saw a couple of movies, and if you haven't seen I Love You Man yet, go see it! There were only 6 of us in the theatre so I didn't want to laugh too loud, but oh man it was funny.

Only 28 more school days... I think I might just make it!

Reminiscing

I knew that I'd eventually make a wedding scrapbook, but I didn't think it would take me 10 months to begin! Shortly after getting engaged, our guest bedroom became my wedding room. And it still is, but hopefully not for much longer. I have given away or sold almost all of the leftover wedding stuff that was at my condo (sorry mom, you still have a lot at your house) and all that's left are papers and mementos from the planning process.

Finally, this weekend I got the motivation to begin! First it started here...

Then moved to here....

And now I'm happy to say it's all in here...

I finished taping in all of the pictures, papers, etc into a book. That took me over 8 hours. Blech. I used about 3 rolls of tape! Now the hardest part is left - writing all about it! My goal is to finish before summer!

I have only ever made one scrapbook in my life about our first trip to Europe - and I must say it's awesome taking it out and reliving our adventures! I know this one will be worthwhile in the end as well!

I am one grain of rice...

Yesterday I went to an interesting exhibit called, "Of All The People In All The World: The Americas", downtown at the Harbourfront Centre. It basically uses grains of rice to represent different population statistics. One grain of rice = one person. They also have a cool website!

The first piles below show the number of people on the U.S. terror suspect list in 2003 vs. in 2008 (yikes).
These piles below show the people who bought "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on the first day of release in the UK and U.S. vs the people who bought the Beatles single "Can't Buy Me Love" on the first day of release in the U.S.

Next shows the passengers whose flights were diverted to Canada on 9/11 vs the confirmed deaths of 9/11. And last, we have Martin Luther King delivering the "I Have A Dream" speech vs....

Barack Obama's Facebook supporters!

Very clever!

Finally Finished Blurbing

Earlier today M and I finished up our honeymoon blurb book. Finally! I'm very excited to see the finished product and I hope the quality is great. We'll wait and see - right now it's expected to be shipped by the 26th.

You can go look at the first 15 pages here. It's 70 pages in total, hard cover, and cost $45 - and that's using a free shipping coupon. I also opted for the "premium" paper, whatever that means.

Here's what the cover looks like:

We came up with a very creative title, eh?

Blurb is the company I used to make the guest book at our wedding! I was happy with that book, so I can't wait to see this one!

Rejoice, It's the Weekend

I started my long weekend off with a massage! Actually, I needed it badly because I hurt myself trying to take my coat off when I was stopped at a red light. It's so much better now. Here are a few other things I may or may not do this weekend:

**Edit - The bold ones I have done!

- visit the Toronto Islands
- go to the Harbourfront Centre

- watch Breakfast At Tiffany's
- ride my bike
- eat steak
- drink wine
- see what's left of the cherry blossoms at High Park
- go to the movies
- smooch my husband
- read
- nap
- geocache
- have a green tea latte from Second Cup
- call my mum
- catch up on emails
- paint my toes
- finish the honeymoon book
- play Euro boardgames 4 times!

I'm sure there's a few other things I can think of...

What are your plans?

Enjoy the weekend!

Newlyweds!

Happy weekiversary (almost) to the latest newlyweds, M&J! These two got hitched last Friday and I couldn't be happier for them! Don't they make a nice looking family? I wish you two a lifetime of happiness and love.

Also, you know what's weird? My BFF and I have almost the exact same engagement ring. We did not plan it or even discuss styles we liked. Granted, she did get hers before mine and she showed me pics, but I swear, I didn't remember anything. Some things are just meant to be!

CONGRATULATIONS, again!

Happy Mum's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all moms and moms-to-be!

I got to spend Mother's Day with my own mumzies today! My mom and dad went to a wedding last night so we met them in Burlington for lunch at Paradiso. It was a great restaurant choice!

For appetizers we had bruschetta and....

soup!

Next up for our meals were Napoli Pizza, Roasted Veggie Spanakopita,

and Wild Boar Sandwich!

For dessert a key lime tart,

chocolate cake, and

creme brulee. Mmmm.

Yum, everything was so delicious. I was so full I brought home most of my spanakopita and had it for dinner! My mom only ate a few pieces of pizza and M didn't even finish his meal, which is unheard of!

It was a very nice lunch and I was happy to spend the afternoon with my mom! I love you mom!

Thunder and Lightning and Hail, Oh My

Here is what the view from my balcony usually looks like.


Here is what it looked like this morning when I woke up. I love storms! M woke up to the ding of hail hitting our windows.


And here is what it looked like one day when the condo across the street was on fire. Don't worry, nobody was hurt! Except for my lungs.


I love foggy days the best though. It seems like you are alone in the universe. And the bloody lit up sign on the building across the street is hidden. Yup, those days are the best.

Pot Luck League

The last few weeks have been stressful at work. And now they are over! w00t! But my condo looks like this...

Here we have lots of shoes, running clothes from track and field practices, cell phone charger, 3 coats, the script from the musical, and anything else I dropped there as I came in the door.

This is a collection of clothes, TFC paraphernalia, bills, toothpaste, and other random papers that have no home yet.

M can't believe I took pictures of our mess. I know I'm not alone though. Please tell me your homes sometimes (often?) look like this too! Today we finally had some time to clean up.

Last night M and I went to game one of our pot luck league! We went to a friend's house downtown and he is quite the impressive chef! I didn't get any pictures of the food but I did take some pictures of the view from his condo. Lovely!