If by late you are like me and like to be asleep by 11 pm.
I wanted to blog before going to bed for some odd reason, but I'll go with it. I wanted to blog about the November Blahs. I really don't like the month of November. It is too early to be fully Christmas-y, and to me all it is, is cold and dark. November is like the Monday of Winter, it makes me sad because I know I have so much more winter to go. This month was actually a lot of fun because I had a lot of visitors, but recently the lack of daylight, cold weather and FLURRIES have been bugging me.
I think that humans were suppose to hibernate. I seriously dislike winter, and it isn't just because of the cold or the snow, it is simply because it is dark all the time. It makes me want to be a vegetable. Motivation to go the gym is lacking, motivation to do anything productive is lacking, and all I want to do is stay in bed and watch movies. Anyone else get like this in the darkness of winter??
So tonight I tried to get stuff done, even though I really wanted to watch TV. I cleaned a little, made peach oatmeal muffins from Two Cups of Happy (SOOO GOOD!!), cut up 5lbs of carrots and decided to make a veggie soup with kale for lunch/supper tomorrow. I also edited a gas turbine combustion report for the BF. Exciting. Tomorrow I actually have to get up semi early, because I want to go to Body Attack and Body Flow at the gym after work and I need to get my butt moving to get out of the November blahs.
However getting up early has been an issue the past few weeks because it has been so dark out.
Some background info...where I work has relatively flexible hours. You need to work 9 hours, and you can start between 7-9 and work until 4-6. We get half an hour lunch, but if you take a longer lunch you just work longer in the day. Some guys come into work at 6 and leave at 3 because they are crazy.
So this is good in a bunch of ways, it isn't a big deal if you are 5 minutes late, there is no missing the alarm stress, and it is flexible for anyone's personal schedule (ie picking up kids from day care etc).
The downside to this is I like sleeping in too much, and even though I would love to work from 7-4, my morning brain does not like this idea and I end up making it into work around 9. So today I was at work at 8:45 had choir practice at lunch (an hour long) so I was at work until 6:15 and then by the time I got home it was close to 7. And I am in bed by 10:30. That isn't a lot of time to get stuff done.
I have often joked about Morning Kaylee vs Normal Kaylee. Normal Kaylee makes plans to go to work from 7-4. Morning Kaylee has the worst logic in the world, always goes for the snooze alarm, and negates any reasoning to get out of bed early. So at 5:45, which is when I have to get up to make it work at 7, my alarm goes off. I always have an alarm set for this time even though I rarely get up. I think about getting up, then immediately fall back to sleep. This process repeats itself at 6:15, 6:45, 7:15, and FINALLY at 7:45 I haul myself out of bed. Within 2 minutes of actually waking up I am slightly annoyed that I slept in that long. This happens almost every day.
I find now that is dark until about 7:20 in the morning, I am having an even harder time getting out of bed. I have pretty much given up getting to work from 7-4, and instead have embraced the 9-6 routine. Perhaps once it starts getting lighter outside I will wake up earlier. But that can cause havoc on days where I actually want to get stuff done..like tomorrow. If I go to work from 9-6, I will miss body attack, and then I will probably be discouraged and not bother going to bodyflow.
Ok Morning Kaylee you got the message loud and clear right...work from 8-5 tomorrow so gymmage can happen as planned ok???
How much do you want to bet that tomorrow morning I will sleep in again.
Is it Christmas Vacation yet???
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Just a Normal Busy Week
I can’t believe it is the end of November already! Crazy! It feels like just yesterday that it was June 20th and I had just moved to Toronto.
This past week seemed to go by especially fast, and unfortunately so did the weekend.
My week started off kind of weird with a PUFFY EYE. I woke up Monday morning with a sore eyeball and a puffy eyelid, and thought it may have been something contagious so I called in sick, went to doctor, was told it was just a blocked duct, he gave me some eyedrops and I headed to work for the afternoon. So because of all that mess I didn’t go to the gym on Monday or Tuesday (because my eye still felt weird, that is a valid excuse right).
On Wednesday I went to my first work Christmas Choir rehearsal. At work they form a choir to perform at the xmas party. I joined with some hesitation, but after that first rehearsal I am totally hooked. Taking lunch to go sing fun Christmas carols kept me smiling the whole afternoon. It also totally reminded me of High School, which was the last time I was in a choir, and how much I miss singing/performing.
On Thursday I really really really really didn’t want to go to the normal yoga class I go to (mostly because the normal teacher wasn’t going to be there) so I didn’t go. Didn’t even feel bad about it. Instead I watched repeats of cake boss and made a cake using limited supplies and ingredients. Turned out delicious.
On Friday Mike and I went on a road trip up to Yorkdale mall for Christmas shopping and movies. The issue was that the mall closed at 9:00 and the movie only started at 10:30. We decided to grab food while we waited. The two restaurant options were Moxie’s and Rainforest café, neither option really excited me. Moxie’s had a ridiculous wait, so we went to the Rainforest Café, we got in at 8:50 and they closed at 9:00 so I felt really rushed even though we were allowed to stay for a reasonable time to eat. The food wasn’t that great and somewhat overpriced but our server was really nice.
Since we STILL had time to kill before the movie we went back down to Moxie’s and got dessert. The desserts were really tasty, however if you have never been to Moxie’s, the waitresses are dressed very…umm how shall I put this, minimally. They wear little black dresses, which in theory is fine, but some of them were so short or so low it was actually gross. Gross enough that I probably wouldn’t go back by choice.
We finally went to the movies at 10:30. We went to see the Muppets and it was hilarious. Mike is huge Muppet fan, and we both are huge Jason Segal fans. I got a kids pack of popcorn even though I had just had all that food. I need to have popcorn at a movie, even if it is just a small amount.
On Saturday instead of being a good person and getting up and going to the gym, I slept in and skipped the gym, did groceries, some walmart shopping, and went to buy some kijiji winter tires out in Vaughan. Then Mike and I met up his friend who was in town for a university business competition and we went out for dinner at Real Sports Bar and Grill. I had my favorite the Black and Blue burger. It was very good, but I was so full. On Sunday we went out for Breakfast at Eggspectations with friends and afterwards we gave Mike’s buddy a tour of Toronto (in the rain) since he is moving to Toronto in January for a co-op work term. After he left for the airport, I decorated and Mike did some homework. I also had a wonderful skype chat with one of my besties who is teaching in France until the summer!
After a homemade supper we watched copious amounts of you-tube bloopers from our favorite
shows. Very productive evening. It made up for doing so much this weekend.
So if you have been following along this past week I didn’t go to the gym at all. AHHHH. And
I ate out quite a bit. Ahhhhh! So for the next three weeks I am going to the gym 5x a day, and
other than Christmas Party events, every meal is going to be home cooked (to benefit my wallet
as much as my health). I started the week off right this time (no puffy eye) and went to Zumba
for the first time in a while. I had so much fun, I am so mad at myself for missing it for the past
few weeks!
This past week seemed to go by especially fast, and unfortunately so did the weekend.
My week started off kind of weird with a PUFFY EYE. I woke up Monday morning with a sore eyeball and a puffy eyelid, and thought it may have been something contagious so I called in sick, went to doctor, was told it was just a blocked duct, he gave me some eyedrops and I headed to work for the afternoon. So because of all that mess I didn’t go to the gym on Monday or Tuesday (because my eye still felt weird, that is a valid excuse right).
On Wednesday I went to my first work Christmas Choir rehearsal. At work they form a choir to perform at the xmas party. I joined with some hesitation, but after that first rehearsal I am totally hooked. Taking lunch to go sing fun Christmas carols kept me smiling the whole afternoon. It also totally reminded me of High School, which was the last time I was in a choir, and how much I miss singing/performing.
On Thursday I really really really really didn’t want to go to the normal yoga class I go to (mostly because the normal teacher wasn’t going to be there) so I didn’t go. Didn’t even feel bad about it. Instead I watched repeats of cake boss and made a cake using limited supplies and ingredients. Turned out delicious.
On Friday Mike and I went on a road trip up to Yorkdale mall for Christmas shopping and movies. The issue was that the mall closed at 9:00 and the movie only started at 10:30. We decided to grab food while we waited. The two restaurant options were Moxie’s and Rainforest café, neither option really excited me. Moxie’s had a ridiculous wait, so we went to the Rainforest Café, we got in at 8:50 and they closed at 9:00 so I felt really rushed even though we were allowed to stay for a reasonable time to eat. The food wasn’t that great and somewhat overpriced but our server was really nice.
Since we STILL had time to kill before the movie we went back down to Moxie’s and got dessert. The desserts were really tasty, however if you have never been to Moxie’s, the waitresses are dressed very…umm how shall I put this, minimally. They wear little black dresses, which in theory is fine, but some of them were so short or so low it was actually gross. Gross enough that I probably wouldn’t go back by choice.
We finally went to the movies at 10:30. We went to see the Muppets and it was hilarious. Mike is huge Muppet fan, and we both are huge Jason Segal fans. I got a kids pack of popcorn even though I had just had all that food. I need to have popcorn at a movie, even if it is just a small amount.
On Saturday instead of being a good person and getting up and going to the gym, I slept in and skipped the gym, did groceries, some walmart shopping, and went to buy some kijiji winter tires out in Vaughan. Then Mike and I met up his friend who was in town for a university business competition and we went out for dinner at Real Sports Bar and Grill. I had my favorite the Black and Blue burger. It was very good, but I was so full. On Sunday we went out for Breakfast at Eggspectations with friends and afterwards we gave Mike’s buddy a tour of Toronto (in the rain) since he is moving to Toronto in January for a co-op work term. After he left for the airport, I decorated and Mike did some homework. I also had a wonderful skype chat with one of my besties who is teaching in France until the summer!
After a homemade supper we watched copious amounts of you-tube bloopers from our favorite
shows. Very productive evening. It made up for doing so much this weekend.
So if you have been following along this past week I didn’t go to the gym at all. AHHHH. And
I ate out quite a bit. Ahhhhh! So for the next three weeks I am going to the gym 5x a day, and
other than Christmas Party events, every meal is going to be home cooked (to benefit my wallet
as much as my health). I started the week off right this time (no puffy eye) and went to Zumba
for the first time in a while. I had so much fun, I am so mad at myself for missing it for the past
few weeks!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Healthy Noms on a Budget
Ok here is my beef (hehe) with the show extreme couponers. I was watching last night and this woman saved 99.9% of her grocery bill. Good for her. My issue is that she bought hotdogs, and pop, and chips, and cookies, for her toddler age children. I am totally for saving money, but I don't think you need to eat junk to do it.
When I first moved to Ontario started shopping at Loblaws because it was nearby and I knew the brand. Every week my boyfriend and I would be spending around 130 a week for groceries. This is included shopping the sales, and the coupons (not extreme coupons though). We typically buy fresh food, and avoid the frozen food aisle and the junk food aisles. So this means we make 90% of our meals from basic ingredients, including lunches.
At some point I wondered, even though we were saving money by eating home cooked meals, was there anyway to save money on groceries??
First we found a website called soscuisine.com where you register, for free, then the website looks up all the flyers in your area and gives you budget menus. I don't have enough time to go to multiple places to get the best deals so I use the website to see what is on sale at one spot and plan my meals accordingly. I have used some of their recipes and they are pretty quick and easy. This helped me save money a little bit more, but we were still spending way too much.
Next we tried the going to multiple stores thing. Groceries that week took us 2 hours and we actually spent more than normal. That was a big old fail.
Finally we tried going to No Frills. No Frills is the President's Choice version of Price Chopper for those of you who have never been. The first week we spent $100. The next we spent $80. From then on we averaged out about $90 dollars a week. Some quick math..that is $40 a week, or $2080 a year. That is significant. Only negative that we have found shopping at No Frills is that the fruit goes bad slightly faster than at Loblaws, and...that is pretty much it. There meat and frozen fish is good, and we just make sure to watch expiration dates closely.
So a typical grocery week for me starts on Friday with looking over SOS cuisine for the things that are on sale. I then base my meals on what is cheap that week. Then I am may have to do some recipe research if I can't come up with anything. On Saturday we go do groceries in the AM and fight off the old people loading up because a certain item is really on sale. Very exciting. So on Saturday night not only is my fridge full but I know exactly what I am eating for the rest of the week, and I can spend Sunday doing any prep work, like making healthy muffins, or homemade hummus.
Some quick grocery saving tips:
1. Buy the no-name brand. Sometimes it tastes even better
2. Look above and below. The more expensive items are placed at eye level, so cheaper options are on lower/higher shelves.
3. Shop sales and flyers and coupons, but don't buy something if it is on sale just because it is on sale
4. Plan meals so you don't have a bunch of random food items and nothing to cook
5. Make stuff yourself. 2 cans of chick peas and the spices needed to make 1 L of hummus cost me about $2 bucks, compared to buying a 300mL container for $4 dollars!
6. Eat all your food. It kills me to throw out food so some times I have to be creative to make sure something doesn't go bad!
I guess the entire point of this post is that you don't have to eat poorly to eat on a budget, you just have to be organized! For example this was our meal plan this week, it was pretty delicious:
Saturday: Steak with a blackberry compote, asparagus and roasted potatoes.
Sunday: Veggie pizza (we had a free coupon to Panago, it was really good)
Monday: Whole wheat pasta, shrimp, veggies, cheese and THAI CHILIES
Tuesday: Slow cooker curry chicken thighs, tomato and cucumber indian salad
Wednesday: Healthified Fish and Chips and Coleslaw (first time making coleslaw, it was very pretty!)
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: Whatever we have left in the fridge and can create a meal out of
For lunches I either have leftovers or some sort of salad. This week I also made pomegranate pumpkin muffins, and spicy hummus for snacking.
I also made a delicious lunch on Saturday that I would like to share:
Open Faced Avagadro Sammich
Yes it is a Avagadro Sammich. The nerd that is the BF thought it was HILARIOUS that Avocados sound like Avagadro, and hence we have the sammich name
Makes 2 sammichs, serve with chips and salsa if you want!
Ingredients include:
4 Pieces of Chicken bacon, or Breakfast Chicken as the brand I have calls it.
1 Avagadro Avocado
2 Whole wheat bready pieces
6 slices of cheese (motza tasted good)
Step one. Toast the bread
Step two. Cook the chicken bacon
Step three. Mash the Avocado
Step four. Put half the avocado mash on a toast.
Step five. Top with bacon and cheese.
Step six. Nom
Ok, I realize this recipie was oober simple, but it was SOOO DELICIOUS it had to be spelled out.
And there you have my food life. Organized, on a budget, and delicious. Just like the rest of my life!
Do you have fun grocery/cheap food tips? I would love to hear it!
When I first moved to Ontario started shopping at Loblaws because it was nearby and I knew the brand. Every week my boyfriend and I would be spending around 130 a week for groceries. This is included shopping the sales, and the coupons (not extreme coupons though). We typically buy fresh food, and avoid the frozen food aisle and the junk food aisles. So this means we make 90% of our meals from basic ingredients, including lunches.
At some point I wondered, even though we were saving money by eating home cooked meals, was there anyway to save money on groceries??
First we found a website called soscuisine.com where you register, for free, then the website looks up all the flyers in your area and gives you budget menus. I don't have enough time to go to multiple places to get the best deals so I use the website to see what is on sale at one spot and plan my meals accordingly. I have used some of their recipes and they are pretty quick and easy. This helped me save money a little bit more, but we were still spending way too much.
Next we tried the going to multiple stores thing. Groceries that week took us 2 hours and we actually spent more than normal. That was a big old fail.
Finally we tried going to No Frills. No Frills is the President's Choice version of Price Chopper for those of you who have never been. The first week we spent $100. The next we spent $80. From then on we averaged out about $90 dollars a week. Some quick math..that is $40 a week, or $2080 a year. That is significant. Only negative that we have found shopping at No Frills is that the fruit goes bad slightly faster than at Loblaws, and...that is pretty much it. There meat and frozen fish is good, and we just make sure to watch expiration dates closely.
So a typical grocery week for me starts on Friday with looking over SOS cuisine for the things that are on sale. I then base my meals on what is cheap that week. Then I am may have to do some recipe research if I can't come up with anything. On Saturday we go do groceries in the AM and fight off the old people loading up because a certain item is really on sale. Very exciting. So on Saturday night not only is my fridge full but I know exactly what I am eating for the rest of the week, and I can spend Sunday doing any prep work, like making healthy muffins, or homemade hummus.
Some quick grocery saving tips:
1. Buy the no-name brand. Sometimes it tastes even better
2. Look above and below. The more expensive items are placed at eye level, so cheaper options are on lower/higher shelves.
3. Shop sales and flyers and coupons, but don't buy something if it is on sale just because it is on sale
4. Plan meals so you don't have a bunch of random food items and nothing to cook
5. Make stuff yourself. 2 cans of chick peas and the spices needed to make 1 L of hummus cost me about $2 bucks, compared to buying a 300mL container for $4 dollars!
6. Eat all your food. It kills me to throw out food so some times I have to be creative to make sure something doesn't go bad!
I guess the entire point of this post is that you don't have to eat poorly to eat on a budget, you just have to be organized! For example this was our meal plan this week, it was pretty delicious:
Saturday: Steak with a blackberry compote, asparagus and roasted potatoes.
Sunday: Veggie pizza (we had a free coupon to Panago, it was really good)
Monday: Whole wheat pasta, shrimp, veggies, cheese and THAI CHILIES
Tuesday: Slow cooker curry chicken thighs, tomato and cucumber indian salad
Wednesday: Healthified Fish and Chips and Coleslaw (first time making coleslaw, it was very pretty!)
 |
| Coleslaw w/ LF Mayo, lightly breaded sole, potatoes boiled then slightly grilled for fries |
Friday: Whatever we have left in the fridge and can create a meal out of
For lunches I either have leftovers or some sort of salad. This week I also made pomegranate pumpkin muffins, and spicy hummus for snacking.
I also made a delicious lunch on Saturday that I would like to share:
Open Faced Avagadro Sammich
 |
| Avagadro's Sammich |
Makes 2 sammichs, serve with chips and salsa if you want!
Ingredients include:
4 Pieces of Chicken bacon, or Breakfast Chicken as the brand I have calls it.
2 Whole wheat bready pieces
6 slices of cheese (motza tasted good)
Step one. Toast the bread
Step two. Cook the chicken bacon
Step three. Mash the Avocado
Step four. Put half the avocado mash on a toast.
Step five. Top with bacon and cheese.
Step six. Nom
Ok, I realize this recipie was oober simple, but it was SOOO DELICIOUS it had to be spelled out.
And there you have my food life. Organized, on a budget, and delicious. Just like the rest of my life!
Do you have fun grocery/cheap food tips? I would love to hear it!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Visitors Round 2!!!!
This blog post has been ready to go since Monday, but since I have been having computer issues it's actual posting has been delayed. HOWEVER, I have good computer news! The Mike installed Ubuntu on my computer (Linux based operation) and it is 1000000 times faster than windows. I can now blog and stream videos with ease. It is pretty much amazing. Anyway back to the point....
This past weekend (as mentioned before) my friend Erin came to visit! Well actually she was here on Tuesday night, so technically she was here for more than a weekend which was awesome! On Tuesday Mike and I drove to the airport for a dinner with my dad who was over-nighting before catching a plane to the States for work. It worked out really well since I had to pick up Erin anyway. While we were waiting for Erin, Mike decided to do some studying with this book...
It's amazing he didn't get accosted by security. Once we got Erin, we arrived back home late so I was not the most social host and went to bed, since morning was quickly approaching.
On Wednesday, we went out for Sushi at To-Ne (Queen St) with some other friends of Erin’s. She met these two girls from traveling around Europe post-grad. They were both super nice! I was so impressed at how put together these girls looked, especially since I felt like (and think I looked like) a zombie from being up too late the night before. The sushi was good, and the presentation was very well done. Oh look, a lovely picture I took (once again, blogging fail):
By the time we got home it was getting late so once again I had to be lame and go to bed.
On Thursday, Erin and I did something CRAZY. We decided to go to the gym for 3 CLASSES IN A ROW and a hour walk total to and from the gym. We started at 5:30 with Body Pump, then a 6:30 Body Attack, and finished off with a 7:30 Body flow. I have done the attack then flow thing before, but never 3 in a row. It surprisingly wasn’t too bad (at the time). We stopped at Starbucks on the way home (as a treat for surviving) and then made it home and had some supper…and then I went to bed.
On Friday I woke up and still wasn’t that sore from the gym, and went to work, then I came home, we had a nice home-cooked dinner, went to the movies (PUSS IN BOOTS!!!) and out for drinks. We ended up at Nirvana on College St. and had veggies and dip as a snack..healthiest bar snacks ever. The prices were good, and are waitress was fantab. This was a picture from one of the bathroom stalls.
No I don’t normally go around snapping photos in the bathroom, but this couldn’t be missed.
And by the way, by this point both Erin and I were having trouble walking..not from drinks, or from shoes, but from the 3 workouts the night before. It was also freezing outside when we left, so we caught a cab home.On Saturday Erin and I hit up Queen St. West for some shopping. I got a sweet poster that I had been eyeing last week for Mikes office, a clock for an empty space on my wall and some second hand clothes from a "clothing exchange" (aka thrift store)
And we stopped and ate poutine. I don't eat poutine often, but when I do...it better be delicious, and this bad boy from Smokes Poutine was all kinds of delicious.
Erin wanted to find a bag and a new coat, and found both at Winners! Yay shopping success.
Then we came home and made lasagna. I forgot how long it takes to make lasagna, so in a rush we finished it, ate it and then peaced out to get to MAMMA MIA on time. The show was out in Mississauga, so we had a 35 minute drive (or more). We literally got there and sat down one minute before the show started. The show was amazing. The lady who played Donna was one of the best musical theater singers I have ever heard. She blew my mind. Also for those of you who do not know Mamma Mia, it is a pretty funny musical, but for some reason whenever we laughed (at the appropriate parts) a lady in front of us would turn around and glare at us. Sorrrry we were enjoying the show.
After the show we had a super exciting night of watching Gold Rush Alaska, and then falling asleeps. Erin’s flight left at 6:30 am, so she had to be at the airport by 4:30 (silly international flights). After dropping her off, and getting home, I promptly fell back asleep.
It has been a pretty boring week without visitors! Anyone want to come and visit me this weekend??
This past weekend (as mentioned before) my friend Erin came to visit! Well actually she was here on Tuesday night, so technically she was here for more than a weekend which was awesome! On Tuesday Mike and I drove to the airport for a dinner with my dad who was over-nighting before catching a plane to the States for work. It worked out really well since I had to pick up Erin anyway. While we were waiting for Erin, Mike decided to do some studying with this book...
 |
| An Introduction to Combustion |
On Wednesday, we went out for Sushi at To-Ne (Queen St) with some other friends of Erin’s. She met these two girls from traveling around Europe post-grad. They were both super nice! I was so impressed at how put together these girls looked, especially since I felt like (and think I looked like) a zombie from being up too late the night before. The sushi was good, and the presentation was very well done. Oh look, a lovely picture I took (once again, blogging fail):
 |
| Source |
On Thursday, Erin and I did something CRAZY. We decided to go to the gym for 3 CLASSES IN A ROW and a hour walk total to and from the gym. We started at 5:30 with Body Pump, then a 6:30 Body Attack, and finished off with a 7:30 Body flow. I have done the attack then flow thing before, but never 3 in a row. It surprisingly wasn’t too bad (at the time). We stopped at Starbucks on the way home (as a treat for surviving) and then made it home and had some supper…and then I went to bed.
On Friday I woke up and still wasn’t that sore from the gym, and went to work, then I came home, we had a nice home-cooked dinner, went to the movies (PUSS IN BOOTS!!!) and out for drinks. We ended up at Nirvana on College St. and had veggies and dip as a snack..healthiest bar snacks ever. The prices were good, and are waitress was fantab. This was a picture from one of the bathroom stalls.
 |
| Nerdy Awesomeness |
And by the way, by this point both Erin and I were having trouble walking..not from drinks, or from shoes, but from the 3 workouts the night before. It was also freezing outside when we left, so we caught a cab home.On Saturday Erin and I hit up Queen St. West for some shopping. I got a sweet poster that I had been eyeing last week for Mikes office, a clock for an empty space on my wall and some second hand clothes from a "clothing exchange" (aka thrift store)
And we stopped and ate poutine. I don't eat poutine often, but when I do...it better be delicious, and this bad boy from Smokes Poutine was all kinds of delicious.
 |
| Mushrooms, cheese, fries, chicken, GRAVY |
Erin wanted to find a bag and a new coat, and found both at Winners! Yay shopping success.
Then we came home and made lasagna. I forgot how long it takes to make lasagna, so in a rush we finished it, ate it and then peaced out to get to MAMMA MIA on time. The show was out in Mississauga, so we had a 35 minute drive (or more). We literally got there and sat down one minute before the show started. The show was amazing. The lady who played Donna was one of the best musical theater singers I have ever heard. She blew my mind. Also for those of you who do not know Mamma Mia, it is a pretty funny musical, but for some reason whenever we laughed (at the appropriate parts) a lady in front of us would turn around and glare at us. Sorrrry we were enjoying the show.
After the show we had a super exciting night of watching Gold Rush Alaska, and then falling asleeps. Erin’s flight left at 6:30 am, so she had to be at the airport by 4:30 (silly international flights). After dropping her off, and getting home, I promptly fell back asleep.
It has been a pretty boring week without visitors! Anyone want to come and visit me this weekend??
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Visitors!!!
One thing I love about living in Toronto is that it is a city that people visit, whether it is for work or fun. So this month there are definitely more people saying “I am going to be in Toronto this weekend” than normal and I love it!
It started last weekend with a surprise lunch with my friend Trish (as I mentioned here), and quick trip by Mike’s uncle and little cousin. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see them, but Mike did meet up with his uncle for a after-hockey game beverage on Saturday night. I had a date with Survivor (online from Wednesday night) and a phone date with my friend Lynsey, who got me hooked on Survivor again. It is so weird whenever I think about watching an episode, she normally calls. Survivor telepathy.
Whoa went totally off topic there, anyway….this weekend Trish came back to write the National Dietitian exam so she can become a legit Dietitian. In engineering we do a similar thing where at the end of our Engineer in Training years, we need to pass a law and ethics exam. Difference is the dietitian one is 7 hours of multiple choice, that are all “correct answers but choose the best one” questions. Yikes. Trish is a much braver soul than me. So she arrived on Friday night, and she got some studying done, and Mike got some studying done (midterms) and I watched Americas Next Top Model on my computer (with headphones to not disturb the serious peeps getting their study on).
On Saturday we all got up nice and early (read 6:30am) drove Trish to her test, then Mike and I proceeded to have the most productive Saturday Morning ever. We went to the gym, went and did groceries, and I even went and got a library card and a book for book club. And we were home by 11:00. Then I had a nap to make up for all that productivity.
After Trish was done her test, we went out for dinner with one of Mike’s friends from Halifax who was in town. We went to Salad King, on Yonge near Dundas Square. If you like Thai, and you like being thrifty, and don’t mind noisy restaurants this is the place for you. It was really good and the portions were huge for the price! They also had sweet colorful decor going on. (And yes I am a blogging fail and didn’t take any pictures all weekend so I am borrowing them from the interwebs/old pictures I had, you all can pretend I took the pictures myself this weekend…)
Ooo look it is the Phud Thai I ate
Ooo look at the lovely picture I "took" of the decor
On Sunday Trish and I spent the entire day walking around Toronto. We went down Front Street to Union Station (because it is pretty)...
....through this place near the Hockey Hall of Fame (because it is pretty)....
And then over to St. Lawerence (because it is old, and pretty). We found a sweet antiques sale going on at the market which I may have to hit up at some point. Then we went and checked out Occupy Toronto. It was way more intense than I thought, but it I mean the actual camp set up not the protest. Not much was going on.
Then we went down Queen Street, and headed to Little India for lunch. It was a buffet. We ate a lot of food.
It is funny, because when I moved to Halifax I hated going to the same restaurant over and over again. I wanted to try as many new places as possible. Here it is the opposite, once I find somewhere I like I keep going back, and Little India is one of my favs. After lunch we spent the rest of the day walking around Queen Street and going west of Spadina (my normal Queen street adventures are mostly between Spadina and Yonge). Little did I know I was missing out. There are so many cool home decor places. Totally out of my price range, but fun to look at!
We drove Trish up the airport on Sunday night, and was back to the normal grind on Monday…but tonight my friend Erin (my roomy and bestie from uni) is coming to visit from Louisiana where she is now living! We have 5 days full of food, intense gymage, and MORE which I will blog about later! This time I will actually remember to take pictures like a good little blogger.
It started last weekend with a surprise lunch with my friend Trish (as I mentioned here), and quick trip by Mike’s uncle and little cousin. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see them, but Mike did meet up with his uncle for a after-hockey game beverage on Saturday night. I had a date with Survivor (online from Wednesday night) and a phone date with my friend Lynsey, who got me hooked on Survivor again. It is so weird whenever I think about watching an episode, she normally calls. Survivor telepathy.
Whoa went totally off topic there, anyway….this weekend Trish came back to write the National Dietitian exam so she can become a legit Dietitian. In engineering we do a similar thing where at the end of our Engineer in Training years, we need to pass a law and ethics exam. Difference is the dietitian one is 7 hours of multiple choice, that are all “correct answers but choose the best one” questions. Yikes. Trish is a much braver soul than me. So she arrived on Friday night, and she got some studying done, and Mike got some studying done (midterms) and I watched Americas Next Top Model on my computer (with headphones to not disturb the serious peeps getting their study on).
On Saturday we all got up nice and early (read 6:30am) drove Trish to her test, then Mike and I proceeded to have the most productive Saturday Morning ever. We went to the gym, went and did groceries, and I even went and got a library card and a book for book club. And we were home by 11:00. Then I had a nap to make up for all that productivity.
After Trish was done her test, we went out for dinner with one of Mike’s friends from Halifax who was in town. We went to Salad King, on Yonge near Dundas Square. If you like Thai, and you like being thrifty, and don’t mind noisy restaurants this is the place for you. It was really good and the portions were huge for the price! They also had sweet colorful decor going on. (And yes I am a blogging fail and didn’t take any pictures all weekend so I am borrowing them from the interwebs/old pictures I had, you all can pretend I took the pictures myself this weekend…)
Ooo look it is the Phud Thai I ate
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| Source |
Ooo look at the lovely picture I "took" of the decor
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| Source |
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| Union Station (3 years ago, pretend its from this weekend) |
....through this place near the Hockey Hall of Fame (because it is pretty)....
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| Sooo coool (also from 3 years ago) |
Then we went down Queen Street, and headed to Little India for lunch. It was a buffet. We ate a lot of food.
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| Source |
We drove Trish up the airport on Sunday night, and was back to the normal grind on Monday…but tonight my friend Erin (my roomy and bestie from uni) is coming to visit from Louisiana where she is now living! We have 5 days full of food, intense gymage, and MORE which I will blog about later! This time I will actually remember to take pictures like a good little blogger.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Halloween Part 2: Costume Time
Annnd I’m back. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays; it may even be my favorite. As a kid, I loved playing dress up, and I loved the spookiness of Halloween, it wasn’t even the candy aspect for me, but the event itself. As a big kid, I still love the event, and any chance I get to bust out a costume is fine by me (by any chance I mean musicals, dance recitals and costume parties not just randomly, I’m not that crazy).
So this Halloween was looking a little dismal on the activity front. I did the Halloween Haunt thing, and thought that was going to be it. I didn’t even have a costume prepared or thought about…which is ridiculous considering most years I have 2 or more. So on Wednesday when our friends K and T (same friends as the Halloween haunt kids) invited us to a Halloween party on Friday I was totally sold. But the party was two days away, and I had no costume!! OH NO!!!
So on Wednesday night the four of us hit up Value Village and Walmart with some success. Well, Mike found all of his costume, and the rest of us had some more looking to do. I had decided to be Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s mostly because all I needed was a few accessories. I didn’t find what I needed but I found this knitted/quilted sweater at Value Village and almost bought it, just for shear awesomeness. And yes I totally snapped this pic will the sole purpose of putting on this bloggity blog.
On Friday I had a perfectly timed day off (one of my earned days off, everyone at the company I work at works 8.5 hours every day to have 1 Friday off a month). So I got to meet up for lunch with a friend who was in town for a conference, and I got to find the rest of my costume pieces. For the past 3 years I have needed a pair of fancy black gloves, and I finally found them at Fashion Crimes, an amazing girly (read expensive) store on Queen St. West. I walked in on a mission and blatantly asked for the cheapest black gloves they had, and I’m glad I did too! The ones I got weren’t out on the rack and they were only $18 compared to the $45 ones I was looking at (and would never buy). The sales people were fantab, and if I ever needed to buy a $700 party dress, I would totally hit up that store. Unfortunately I will never need (read actually waste money on) a $700 party dress.
I arrived back home around 3:00pm, and even though I knew we were only heading to the party around 10:00pm, I decided to start my costume assembly. I wanted to practice the hair because I didn’t want to be rushing with the updo 15 minutes before the party. I copied a video on Youtube, and within 20 minutes had actually done the hair do. I was shocked. So I lathered on the hairspray and at 3:30 I was all done up with no place to go.
Once we actually got to the party, it was a blast, and everyone had super sweet costumes. Our friends went as a bee and a bee keeper, which was an adorb couples costume.
They got asked by some randoms on the subway if they were in love. Hilarious. One of the best costumes of the night were two girls dressed as sushi, and a guy as a sushi chef. Easy costumes, but great effect. It was great to be out and social after about 4 months of not going out!
Mike and I were not very couply since he went as Dexter. Not even the same genre/era/theme or anything. Oh well, at least this year Mike was able to dress up since last Halloween he had a ton of school work, and couldn’t really go out or dress up. You can kind of tell in the pictures that his hair is actually sprayed with a gold/blonde hairspray to make him look more like Dexter. It made me laugh to see him with gold hair.
Yesterday, we went to visit my little cousins during the actual Halloween festivities. They were wired on chocolate, and it was fun to see all the trick or treaters in an actual neighbourhood. Like I said before, as a kid the actual candy part of Halloween was just an added benefit, but now, as a junk deprived adult, I totally would chow down on all that candy and junk!!
And now Halloween is over, and it is on to the next event. I have been reading a lot of bloggers who LOVE Christmas and November 1st officially starts their Christmas count down. I am so not that intense about Christmas, so don't worry you won't be getting any Christmas themed posts until about December 1st...and that is even early for me!!
So this Halloween was looking a little dismal on the activity front. I did the Halloween Haunt thing, and thought that was going to be it. I didn’t even have a costume prepared or thought about…which is ridiculous considering most years I have 2 or more. So on Wednesday when our friends K and T (same friends as the Halloween haunt kids) invited us to a Halloween party on Friday I was totally sold. But the party was two days away, and I had no costume!! OH NO!!!
So on Wednesday night the four of us hit up Value Village and Walmart with some success. Well, Mike found all of his costume, and the rest of us had some more looking to do. I had decided to be Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s mostly because all I needed was a few accessories. I didn’t find what I needed but I found this knitted/quilted sweater at Value Village and almost bought it, just for shear awesomeness. And yes I totally snapped this pic will the sole purpose of putting on this bloggity blog.
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| Turquoise and beige..impressive |
On Friday I had a perfectly timed day off (one of my earned days off, everyone at the company I work at works 8.5 hours every day to have 1 Friday off a month). So I got to meet up for lunch with a friend who was in town for a conference, and I got to find the rest of my costume pieces. For the past 3 years I have needed a pair of fancy black gloves, and I finally found them at Fashion Crimes, an amazing girly (read expensive) store on Queen St. West. I walked in on a mission and blatantly asked for the cheapest black gloves they had, and I’m glad I did too! The ones I got weren’t out on the rack and they were only $18 compared to the $45 ones I was looking at (and would never buy). The sales people were fantab, and if I ever needed to buy a $700 party dress, I would totally hit up that store. Unfortunately I will never need (read actually waste money on) a $700 party dress.
I arrived back home around 3:00pm, and even though I knew we were only heading to the party around 10:00pm, I decided to start my costume assembly. I wanted to practice the hair because I didn’t want to be rushing with the updo 15 minutes before the party. I copied a video on Youtube, and within 20 minutes had actually done the hair do. I was shocked. So I lathered on the hairspray and at 3:30 I was all done up with no place to go.
Once we actually got to the party, it was a blast, and everyone had super sweet costumes. Our friends went as a bee and a bee keeper, which was an adorb couples costume.
They got asked by some randoms on the subway if they were in love. Hilarious. One of the best costumes of the night were two girls dressed as sushi, and a guy as a sushi chef. Easy costumes, but great effect. It was great to be out and social after about 4 months of not going out!
Mike and I were not very couply since he went as Dexter. Not even the same genre/era/theme or anything. Oh well, at least this year Mike was able to dress up since last Halloween he had a ton of school work, and couldn’t really go out or dress up. You can kind of tell in the pictures that his hair is actually sprayed with a gold/blonde hairspray to make him look more like Dexter. It made me laugh to see him with gold hair.
Yesterday, we went to visit my little cousins during the actual Halloween festivities. They were wired on chocolate, and it was fun to see all the trick or treaters in an actual neighbourhood. Like I said before, as a kid the actual candy part of Halloween was just an added benefit, but now, as a junk deprived adult, I totally would chow down on all that candy and junk!!
And now Halloween is over, and it is on to the next event. I have been reading a lot of bloggers who LOVE Christmas and November 1st officially starts their Christmas count down. I am so not that intense about Christmas, so don't worry you won't be getting any Christmas themed posts until about December 1st...and that is even early for me!!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Halloween Haunt: Revenge of the Traffic
My computer and facebook are obviously in cahoots. After I wrote that big ole rant 9ish days ago, my computer has hated my life and has been very sporadic with letting me OPEN THE INTERWEBS. I have been reading blogs and watching TV online (using wifi not 3G because I am a smarty pants) on my phone, because it is actually faster than my little netbook. Anyway, finally got the tech savvy BF to reformat/clean/defrag/perform magic on the netbook...and now it is just back to its normal slowness. (It's actually a little faster, but I'll never admit that to him..oh wait he reads these..ooops!)
Now you get to hear about all the crazy fun stuff I did in the past 9 days!
Last Saturday (the 22nd) myself, the BF and 2 of our friends headed up to CANADA’S WONDERLAND.
We went for the day to hit up the rides because it was about half price compared to the summer and the lineups were about 10 times smaller. After about 5 hours of rollarcoastering, we headed back downtown for a CW break, and then headed back up there for Halloween Haunt, which is an event where they make the park all spooky, and there are a bunch of haunted houses and mazes to do. Very spooooky.
Since the park closes from 5-7 our plan was to head back to TO, give our friends a chance to take their dog for a walk, then head back in time for a special buffet dinner at the park that came as an addition to our ticket. Our dinner went from 6:15 to 6:45 and then you could get early access to some of the mazes. So we left downtown around 5:30 because that same day it took us 45 minutes to get there.
Well that didn’t happen this time. One of the major area highways was shut down, and traffic was ridiculous. We also drove through the annual Toronto Zombie Walk, cool but not conductive to our plans. Around 7:00 we finally made it close to the park, and at 7:45 we finally made it to the parking lot. So many people had the same idea as us! Once we finally got in, bought our supper since we missed the buffet, we got to enjoy the haunted houses/mazes. The attractions were pretty cool, and they involved a lot of things jumping out at you, which after the initial shock, I find hilarious, so I spent a good portion of the time laughing. We saw a few shows, and left the park at midnight when it was all over…Then we sat in the parking lot for an hour and 15 minutes. Without moving. Way to have a horribly designed parking lot Canada’s Wonderland.
We finally made it home at 2:00am. I hate to sound so negative, but that wait at the end, and how much it cost, and the traffic to get there, definitely put a damper on things. I think next time I would probably just go at night, skip the rides, and just do the mazes and the shows. I would take the early supper option (5:15-5:30) get in early, and then leave before 11:30 to miss the rush. I would also go the week earlier because as it gets closer to Halloween, the attendance increases exponentially!
The next day was a lazy day interrupted by a fire alarm at 8:30 am…not impressed.
So in order for this to not turn into a MEGA GIANT POST, I am going to save this week/weekend for tomorrow’s post, where I will talk about my actual halloweening!
Now you get to hear about all the crazy fun stuff I did in the past 9 days!
Last Saturday (the 22nd) myself, the BF and 2 of our friends headed up to CANADA’S WONDERLAND.
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| The Mountain was so much bigger when I was littler! |
We went for the day to hit up the rides because it was about half price compared to the summer and the lineups were about 10 times smaller. After about 5 hours of rollarcoastering, we headed back downtown for a CW break, and then headed back up there for Halloween Haunt, which is an event where they make the park all spooky, and there are a bunch of haunted houses and mazes to do. Very spooooky.
Since the park closes from 5-7 our plan was to head back to TO, give our friends a chance to take their dog for a walk, then head back in time for a special buffet dinner at the park that came as an addition to our ticket. Our dinner went from 6:15 to 6:45 and then you could get early access to some of the mazes. So we left downtown around 5:30 because that same day it took us 45 minutes to get there.
Well that didn’t happen this time. One of the major area highways was shut down, and traffic was ridiculous. We also drove through the annual Toronto Zombie Walk, cool but not conductive to our plans. Around 7:00 we finally made it close to the park, and at 7:45 we finally made it to the parking lot. So many people had the same idea as us! Once we finally got in, bought our supper since we missed the buffet, we got to enjoy the haunted houses/mazes. The attractions were pretty cool, and they involved a lot of things jumping out at you, which after the initial shock, I find hilarious, so I spent a good portion of the time laughing. We saw a few shows, and left the park at midnight when it was all over…Then we sat in the parking lot for an hour and 15 minutes. Without moving. Way to have a horribly designed parking lot Canada’s Wonderland.
We finally made it home at 2:00am. I hate to sound so negative, but that wait at the end, and how much it cost, and the traffic to get there, definitely put a damper on things. I think next time I would probably just go at night, skip the rides, and just do the mazes and the shows. I would take the early supper option (5:15-5:30) get in early, and then leave before 11:30 to miss the rush. I would also go the week earlier because as it gets closer to Halloween, the attendance increases exponentially!
The next day was a lazy day interrupted by a fire alarm at 8:30 am…not impressed.
So in order for this to not turn into a MEGA GIANT POST, I am going to save this week/weekend for tomorrow’s post, where I will talk about my actual halloweening!
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