Waffles

No less than 6 months ago I was adamant about being a dedicated blogger.
Somewhere along the way I lost steam & ambition, convinced I had nothing worthwhile to write about. Now, as I have been following friends (& strangers) blogs quite regularly I've begun re-thinking my down-right laziness with regards to blogging.

Should I start up again?
Should I not bother?
If I do - will I just quite in a few months all over agian?
If I don't - will I wish I had?

I'm waffling.

{mmm, waffles}

Don't Think I Forgot

The perils of not having the internet at home means that this photo a day thing gets really behind. But at least that means you guys have a whole bunch of posts from me all at once.

Friday November 13th was a mostly uneventful day - so I thought I would share with you what some deem a most mysterious place - the inside of a woman's purse.

So let's see what I got in here....

The purse itself is an etsy.com Christmas gift from last year from my best friends, Jason, Katrina, Beth & Chris. Made all the ways away in Florida by fatorangecat. Its a nice and soft black corduroy with an awesome green filigree designed material inside. Loves!

Anyway...inside...

My brown corduroy wallet which holds all of eighty US cents

My MP3 player

Tinkering Ink's Greaseless Lotion - it smells like passion fruit and grapefruit..yummers.

There's also Bath & Body Works Anti-Bacterial Moisturizing Hand Lotion - its Nectarine & Mint scented, which you think would be a terrible combination, but its amazing.

A mandarin orange

My keys

Two Hershey's mini chocolate bars (in case Mat gets hungry when we're out)

A black eye liner pencil

3 pens

Eucalyptus lip chap homemade by my friend Gudrun

USB key

Brush

& A scrap post-it note


What's in your wallet? I mean, purse?

the {not-so} jazz festival

What a crazy fun weekend!
I know its been three days since the weekend, but it has taken me this long to recover & gather my thoughts {& photos} of all of it.

& I'm going to tell you all about it in a non-chronological/ non-structured order.

Saturday {the mother-day of the weekend} I forced my adorable husband out of bed at what SHOULD have been a respectable time to get outta bed, but this particular morning, it was really a cruel cruel hour & a mean thing to do {more on this later}.

We headed out to Brambleberry Farms {aka my personal little paradise} We picked blueberries for a few hours - we lugged 39 lbs of those awesome little blueberries home with us. Then we had an awesome BBQ dinner with Adam, Andrea, Cameron & Cory. While the boys went fishing down at The Point, Andrea & I stayed at the house & indulged in all that girly talk. It was great - she is such an awesome person. You should all agree.

Sunday was church & the then another round of blueberry picking. Only 18 lbs this time though {but no worries, we'll be picking more this coming weekend! & no, I am not crazy.}

I don't really know what else we did that day other than go for a walk {where we were laid siege to by mosquito's} & waste ourselves away in front of the laptop watching MASH. So nice.

Back tracking the story, all the way to Friday: After work Mat & I took off to Toronto for the Beaches Jazz Festival. It's been a tradition between Mat & his friend Albert for the past three years. I have only been privy to it for the past two. It's a lot of fun, but I mostly just went for the kettle corn {I wish Albert never introduced me to that stuff, it's so addicting!}

The traditional stroll along the Beaches on the way to the StreetFest. Can you see the CN Tower in the distance there?

Someone who was rich enough to actually buy waterfront property in Toronto had this bizarre mirror fence set up. I had to get a picture...cool eh?

The StreetFest. See the two little kids in the bottom left getting ice cream!? Isn't that just SO cute!?

The 2nd {& best} band we saw all night. They weren't jazz, they were that salsa/Mexican music that I love. The accordion player was just getting right into it too. I never knew someone could rock out on an accordion, but this man proved me wrong. But {as was the theme of the night} 'Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do it'

There were a lot of 'big band' bands this year. These ones were probably the most well dressed. Though the drummer (not pictured here) looked like he belonged in the mafia.

We had a short stop for some dinner in a park. This was probably the highlight of the whole night for me {next to the accordion player} This little squirrel got SO close to us, {no zoom required!} apparently he REALLY likes Subway bread.

Ahh, Toronto hospitality. Something I don't miss. {For those with bad eyes, the sign reads: "DON'T EVEN THINK OF PARKING HERE!"}

I'm always interested to see how the little shops and stores a long Queen street try to incoroporate a jazz theme into their window displays. The toy store had stuff animals on a mini drum kit & other stuffeds playing saxophones. But this dress was by far the best.

All in all it was a good night. Not enough jazz, & definitely not enough kettle corn vendors. Around 11pm we broke away from the bustling crowds & made our way to the Beaches again {they are so beautiful in the nighttime} We then proceeded to get horribly lost in downtown Toronto for probably close to an hour. {Who knew Gerrard just suddenly stopped being Gerrard & turned into a tiny little alleyway side street!?} When Albert finally got us back to our car, Mat had to change a busted light bulb {something he had never done before} Needless to say we didn't get out of the city until well after midnight, & finally pulled in to home around 2:30am. {THIS is why it was so cruel to walk Mat up at 9:30am...but he did it for me, & blueberries!}

A fun & busy weekend. This weekend is Adam's birthday {woot!}, a funeral, a bonfire party & more blueberry picking. I can't wait! {well, maybe I can for the funeral}

Wild and Reckless

Every once in a while I get this overwhelming desire to do something wild and reckless. This desire has led me to do lot of wild and reckless things. Some of which I am glad I did and others I will never repeat or admit to in public {sorry if you were expecting to hear the juicy details}

That same impulse is gnawing away at me right now. I don't know where it comes from or even what makes it go away {except doing something bizarre like shaving my head, or bungee jumping which I have done}

I think I feel this way because right now there is so much going on but so actual little living happening.

It seems like day after day is work. We get up and go to work, and then Mat works most evenings. Then the weekends are full of either work-related things or other scheduled events that we are required to be at, whether we really want to or not.

In all honesty I wish I could just get in my little Elantra with my husband and start driving. I don't care where. Just away. Anywhere where no one knows.

Maybe it's just that simple. I need a vacation. We haven't really had a vacation since our honeymoon. I mean, we did have our little short trip to Sauble Beach in February {and believe me I reveled in every moment of that place} But it wasn't a REAL vacation, it just was three days rest - a long weekend.

What sucks most of all is that even though this overwhelming desire to just disappear from the 'world' is surging through me, responsibility chains me down like a prisoner. And there isn't even a glimmer of hope..the summer is almost over and every. single. weekend. {did you catch that?} EVERY. SINGLE. WEEKEND. is booked with something.

And of course, my adorable husband would say something like, "We are blessed to have the jobs we do, we could be living in the 3rd world....etc. etc. etc." Yes, I agree with him, we have it good but that doesn't diminish my desire to take a break from everything. As good as it all is, I'll begin to hate it.

We were supposed to be just getting back from a month long journey right now in the southwest. My job put that trip on hiatus until next summer, and I can't help but think it was the stupidest thing we've done, because now here I am reckless and discontent eager to do something stupid and wild because I feel trapped in this day after day monotony without a means of escape.

Listen to track #1 (NFA) on the above audio. It by my good friend Troy. He knows what I mean.

10 things I love Tuesday

So I know I'm not faithful at this every Tuesday but I figure as long as I get around to it once in a while - that should be fine, and hey if I do it on a Tuesday, well that's all the better!

So here is my second installment of 10 Things I love Tuesdays

Field fresh raspberries. Mat and I picked some on Sunday. I just ate a whole bunch of them for lunch. Awesomeness. PLUS! We have TWO raspberry bushes growing in our backyard - complete with berries!

Watching one of my favorite childhood shows, MASH. Father Mulcahey was always my fav. character. Though lately I think I like BJ Hunnicutt more.

My landlord's doubledecker bus. (Not the one pictured above) His is the same as this one, but totally rotted out & falling apart. I'll share pics. of it sometimes soon. It's pretty neat. We can see it from our backyard.

Mat bringing me fresh flowers in the house almost daily.

Hans Zimmer

Trying new wines.

Watching part of Lord of the Rings every night before bed. Samwise Gamgee is my fav.

Getting to crawl into bed with Mat every night. Isn't the bed frame above so totally cool!?

Hosting dinner parties.

Oh & #10 is this blog. I've been reading it everyday at work. I'm going through all the archives & having to keep myself from busting out laughing all the time. Katie is SUCH a great writer.

pretties.

So there are times when I just surf the internet looking at neat things. Etsy is always my #1 stop, which after a while takes me to a blog. Blogs, quite quickly lead me to scrapbooking websites. Here are some of the yummy things I found over the past few days.

{such pretty dish towels}


{Now thats recycling at its best!}

{Perfect for pillow fights!}

{I think I might try doing something similar at our new house}

{I think this would make me smile every day}

{I've already bought this collection of paper by Crate Paper. So much fun!}

{I really want to try my hand at embroidery thanks to these}

Well thats about it for this edition of 'random things on the internet I like' *laugh*

my list

The following is a list of a few reckless and/or stupid things I want to do before I die...OR this might just be a list of reckless and/or stupid things I may die of.

(in no particular order)

#1 - Base Jumping.
I think I've dreamed about this since I was a kid...every time I was standing on the edge of some place crazy high I would just have this impulse to run at full speed off the edge - I never had a parachute so I never did it...but one day.

#2 - Sky Diving.
I actually had the chance to go for free, but I missed the deadline to sign up. I was pretty bummed out. But I did do the bungee jump thing at Canada's Wonderland.

#3 - Ride a Bull.
This is very ignorant of me to say but I just can't totally grasp how come its so hard to stay on a bull...I would like to be proven wrong. And on top of this, I'd like to do the "smack a bull" game, it just sounds hilarious.

#4 - Smash something with a sledgehammer.
The first problem with this is that I would have to gain enough strength in my arms to lift a sledgehammer...but beating a television set into a pulp would be such a cool thing to do.

#5 - Herd Cattle
So it's not so reckless, its just more stupid, like "Why would you want to round up cattle?" There's just something about the challenge of it that sounds exciting to me. I've sort of done it before (on foot, not riding a horse) and its very difficult.

#6 - Get another tattoo.
Again, not so reckless or stupid...just kinda one of those things. It's totally unnecessary but it'd be nice.

#7 - Hike to Base Camp at Everest
I'd never climb the thing. I hate the cold, but sitting at the base of something so incredibly huge and deadly would be a thrill.

#8 - White Water Rafting
So I might actually attempt to do this through the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon next summer with my husband. It costs quite a bit though and they make it sound so wicked deadly that it kinda has be freaked out. I know you're thinking {you want to jump off of the earth and your afraid of rafting?!} But I never promised that this was going to be a rational list of things I want to do.

#9 - Ride in a Smash Up Derby
Bumper cars always bothered me...whats the fun of banging into another car intentionally if you're not going to wreck it up? I guess this sort of stems from the same desire to smash tv's. I just can't help but think that smashing things would be fun.

#10 - Play Roman Candle War
I've wanted to again and again with friends, but they keep wussing out...I promised I wouldn't aim for the face!

#11 - Swim with humpback whales.
It would just be so cool!

#12 - Midnight Golf War.

If you don't know what this is - you and friends grab a club each and a bucket of balls, and you split up on a golf course in the middle of the night and swing the balls at each other trying to hit one another. Yup - stupid, but it sounds fun.

10 Things Tuesday

Ten Things I Love

#1. smoothies
(which I am eating right now)


#2. wild bunnies run around the neighbourhood

#3. long weekends


#4. iced coffee from Tim Hortons *drool*


#5. New sunglasses (tomorrow yay!)

#6. Going for walks with the hubby after work


#7. The daisies I got from my last job that are still alive

#8. The greenery of on-coming summer


#9. warm slippers


#10. and this picture
(thanks Andrew & Michelle)
That is me being hooded by Dr. Davis in the background and the hubby talking with Dr. Stiller in the foreground.

What are some of your favorite things today?

Right Now.

Yesterday I:
Had oatmeal for breakfast
Met all the fellow staffers at Youth Unlimited for the first time
Went for a nice long walk with the hubby
Counted five wild bunnies roaming the neighbourhood

This morning I:
Had oatmeal for breakfast
Voluntarily wore a skirt
Watched Toronto news because I missed it
Had a debate about Harry Potter

This afternoon I:
Went to the mall (for work!)
Ate an awesome $3 caesar salad for lunch
Bought much needed work clothes
Sped home because I missed my husband (seriously)

This Evening I:
Had a lovely dinner prepared by the hubby (it included more yummy caesar salad!)
Went for an extra long walk with the hubby :)
Had a great discussion about some things that were weighing on my heart and mind
Will read Lord of the Rings (its FINALLY getting good!)

Tomorrow I want to:
Eat oatmeal for breakfast
Leave work right away so I can spend time with hubby
Work on my antique bike (pots about this to come later)
Pack for our trip to Toronto for grad!!!

Right Now I am:
Eating a blueberry smoothie
Doing laundry
Thinking about snuggling in bed with a book
Wishing my hubby would get off the phone so that we can hangout

What are you doing right now?

Today

Yesterday I:
Had oatmeal for breakfast
Met all the fellow staffers at Youth Unlimited for the first time
Went for a nice long walk with the hubby
Counted five wild bunnies roaming the neighbourhood

This morning I:
Had oatmeal for breakfast
Voluntarily wore a skirt
Watched Toronto news because I missed it
Had a debate about Harry Potter

This afternoon I:
Went to the mall (for work!)
Ate an awesome $3 caesar salad for lunch
Bought much needed work clothes
Sped home because I missed my husband (seriously)

This Evening I:
Had a lovely dinner prepared by the hubby (it included more yummy caesar salad!)
Went for an extra long walk with the hubby :)
Had a great discussion about some things that were weighing on my heart and mind
Will read Lord of the Rings (its FINALLY getting good!)

Tomorrow I want to:
Eat oatmeal for breakfast
Leave work right away so I can spend time with hubby
Work on my antique bike (pots about this to come later)
Pack for our trip to Toronto for grad!!!

Right Now I am:
Eating a blueberry smoothie
Doing laundry
Thinking about snuggling in bed with a book
Wishing my hubby would get off the phone so that we can hangout

What are you doing right now?