Small things amuse small minds!

I'm so excited!! I just got back from booking the flight for my vacation in Feburary. I still don't have my passport yet, I still have no idea where i'm going but my flight is booked. This means i'm offically going and that is damn exciting! I've even figured out exactuly what day's i'm taking off work, and i'm going in tomorrow to book them off... I can't believe how excited I am over something that cost so much and is still far away!!

How sad is it when your younger sister can drink you under the table

I'm feeling pressure from my friend Joanna to increase the blog posting as she as just started a blog as well and has quite a few posts up. Today I choose to write about my sister's 19th birthday.

I am the oldest of four kids; with two brothers and one sister and 8 years between me and her as the youngest. Way back when, when i first found out my mom was pregnant again, I was so excited at the prospect of finally getting a sister as I had been putting up with two boys for what felt like a very long time. When she was finally born, I was still very excited and she was an adorable child. I even got to help name her. Those fellings lasted for about 3 years. Between the time she was 4 till she was 10 I was very annoyed with her, at all times! She had the tendancy to be very clingy and I can remember spefic times when my friends, or even some of my brothers' friends, would come over and she would maul them, quite literlaly. I found it irritating and hard to handle. But after I moved out, and went to college, I saw her less frequently so she got on my nerves that much less, but I still never really considered her a friend. Over the last year or so, I feel like we've both really grown up and become more and more like friends. I even went out with her for her 19th birthday this past Sunday. When she asked me a few weeks ago if her and her friends could come down to Waterloo and stay the night if they went out, I assumed i would just stay home as I had to work the next day rather earily , and don't do well on little sleep. (it's amazing how bad it gets when you get older) Anyway things got changed around and I ended up with Monday off so I decided I would tag along with them and having a good time.
It took us a while, but we finally decided where to go, as it was a sunday night and we figured we'd be limited in options so we thought we would start at a pub, grab some food and then wander around downtown waterloo and see what else was open. At every place we hit she would drink more and more, by the end of the night, we had gone to 5 bars, she had had 10 drinks and 5 shots and was still a very reasonable drunk. She claimed she could walk stright but i think that was pushing it a bit. Still no falling down, no passing out and no vomitting, even despite the praire fire, jajermister and the goldshlager shots I bought her. But at the very least, she had a really good time. The final bar we hit was a slimy little country with, you guessed it, Karokee. Her and one of her friends got up and sang a few songs, they even made friends with a group of guys that were there and ended up singing and dancing with them for a few songs too. We were able to get out of there, the whole group in tack and happy!!

Happy Birthday Jan

and the answer is.....

Sorry this took me so long guys... but better late then never.
There are a few answers that I would contest but hey, it's all in good fun.


1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants

know the score or the leader until the contest ends....boxing

2. The North American landmark constantly moving backward...NiagaraFalls. (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. The only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons....asparagus and rhubarb.

4. The only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defense, and the offensive team can score without touching the ball....baseball.

5. The fruit with its seeds on the outside...strawberry.

6. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the bottle. The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.

7. Three English words beginning with dw...dwarf, dwell, and dwindle.

8. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar..period, comma,colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

9. The original lakes referred to in Lakers...in Minnesota. The teamwas originally known as the Minneapolis Lakers, and kept the name when they moved west.

10. The seven ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit...taking a base on balls (a walk), batter hit by a pitch, passed ball, catcher interference, catcher drops third strike, fielder's choice, and being designated as a pinch-runner.

11. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed,cooked, or in any other form but fresh...lettuce.

12. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with "S"... Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes,stockings, stilts.

This is a toughy

I got this e-mail today and thought it would make a good Blog post! There are some really good questions. I'll post the answers later, I want to see how many some of the teacher folk can get right!!!
Good Luck

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for severla growing season. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4 Name the only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defense, and the offensive team can score with out touching the ball?

5. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

6. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

7. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters "dw"and they are all common words. Name two of them.

8. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

9. Where are the lakes that are referred to in the Los Angeles Lakers?

10. There are 7 ways a baseball player can legally reach first basewithout getting a hit. Taking a base on balls (a walk) is one way. Name the other 6.

11. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

12. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "S."

VACATION!!!

I've been working full time for 4 years now and for one reason or another, I’ve only taken 1 week vacation. Usually because I've been starting a new job so I’m not entitled to the paid time off and can't afford to take off without pay. I assumed this was the case at my current job, I’ve only been there for 4 months now so I figured I didn't have any time owed to me, I was wrong so I took advantage of it post haste! I had already arranged to have the Friday, Saturday and Sunday off so I could go up to my Aunt's Camp, as they call it in Northern Ontario which is just west of Sudbury. So I sweet talked the manager into also giving me Thursday off, which gave me a full day to drive there, one for driving back and two full days there. First of all, it was a good think that I didn't try to drive on the Thursday night after I was done work at 5. I forgot how boring driving for 6 hours on your own is. I have a bad habit of falling asleep as soon as it gets dark also so it probably wouldn't have been very safe either. The other reason it was a good think I didn't try to drive at night is because the camp is buried 30 min off of HWY 17 in, basically the middle of a bush, with a lake in the middle of it. The road twists and turns and you actually lose sight of the road quite a few times. It's also very difficult to drive a standard vehicle up steep hills on gravel so there were 2 hills I had to try to take twice. I also had left gas as long as I could in hopes to find it cheap somewhere, not thinking that I would be literally in the middle of nowhere and an hour away from a gas station. Needless to saw the beginning of my drive home involved a lot of praying of sorts, but that's another story.
So I arrived around dinner on Thursday night which was also my mother's birthday so that was a nice treat to see her, since I really haven't seen or hung out with her for quite some time. My dad, aunt and my parents’ friends who were also over for my mom's birthday made an amazing steak and potato dinner, the only thing missing was corn on the cob, but we had that the next night. We also made a camp fire and watched the stars which were awesome because we were so far away from civilization, the stars were so nice and bright and the fire created a nice relaxing atmosphere.
So I had an awesome sleep which I was surprised at because of the not so soft looking bed but it was really very comfortable. So we all slept in a bit and enjoyed a nice big breakfast and then said goodbye to my parents’ friends. The rest of the day, my mom and dad, my aunt and I spent sitting on the back deck, facing the gorgeous lake and reading. My aunt and I did take a break from all the excitement to go for a little paddle boat ride which was enjoyable. I haven't been on one of those for years. But it was a good way to see the whole lake settlement which is quite big. Around dinner my brother came with his puppy who is a 2 and a half year old Rottwhiler, and the sweetest little thing you could ever meet. Pat and I goofed around with his dog for a bit and got to chat and hang out in general. We also had a sit in the Sauna which is one of my favorite things to do but I’ve realized that I don't enjoy steam baths, and i understand why they tell you not to put water on the elements anymore, doesn’t make for a very good experience. I tried going into the lake after the sauna but was just to chicken to take the cold water. I haven't done much swimming for a very long time and had wanted to swim to the island that was about 100' from my aunt's dock but thought better of it since I might get half way there and not be able to swim back. We had another campfire and some more star gazing which lead into another really good night's sleep.
The next morning I got up and tried to go for a run. I took the dog with me but he is so attached to my brother that we would just get off my aunt's property and he would stop, turn around and look for my brother. So back he went. I ended up taking a walk instead of a run because the hills were so killer. I would be running down and feel like I was going to slide down and hurt something so I decided that walking was better then nothing and still ended up working up a pretty good sweat. After I got back, my dad and brother decided they wanted to go fishing. They tried to bring the dog along with them but he was to chicken to get in the boat (he is a big suck) Once they were about 20' from the dock, he realized my brother was going away from him, he jumped in the water and tried to swim after him. The poor dog got about 80' out and then started swimming in circles because he was tired. My aunt being the wonderful person she is grabbed her Kayak and went out to rescue him. The made it to a sand bar and transfer Zeke into the boat. And no they didn't catch any fish! The rest of the day was a lot of lounging around and reading but I ended up going on a Kayak tour of the island which was fun because it was my first time in a Kayak. My other aunt, her husband and their 2 kids showed up and we all ended up going swimming. We had another big dinner and another nice campfire and yet another good sleep. But that was the end of the vacation time. I did mange to get a lot of sun which was really nice. For the first time in a long time I'm a nice and dark colour, no pasty white for me :)

Heading to the old country!

I've have started to plan my on trip to the old country, where my good friend Christelli is now! Another one of my friends has been overseas since April, her plan was to go with SWAP, which is an agency that helps you find work and accommodations internationally and of course get your visa. Her intention was to go there for a year and work and live in both England and Ireland. She started in Ireland where she ran into a lot of trouble getting work and getting paid. After that she decided to just travel and forget about the working crap! She has now run out of money and is kind of bored by not working so she is on her way home. However she can't return on her original ticket until October and can not wait that long so she has decided to purchase another return trip, come home on that now and then head back to England in the winter for some more traveling.
My original plan was to go over and visit her in the winter (when I had enough money saved) and then return with her when she came back home from her year away. Plans have now changed! Even when she was talking of coming back early, I still had wanted to go overseas because it's something I have wanted to do for a really long time, and if I don't make the plans, I'm never going to go! So now, I am going to go back with her on her trip back and we are going to be in Europe for 10 days, it should be a great time. WE really haven't decided what all were going to do or see, were just in the preliminary stages of planning, in fact I still haven't got my ticket or passport yet. But it is very exciting to know that I am finally going on a real vacation!!!