Big Bike

In May I will be one of these smiling people riding the Big Bike for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Heart and Stroke is one of the organizations that I never hesitate to donate to and when I found out the Regional Office where I work was starting a team, "the Taj Mahaulers" (the building we work in has been refered to as the Taj Mahal since it was renovated probably about 10 years ago...not because it's really nice, but because everyone thought it was a waste of money). I get the opportunity to ride a giant bike around town and look like a fool? Um, CLEARLY!!

We're having a competition with another Health Region facility and the team to raise the least money will have to wear stupid hats. While I will do some active fundraising, I am secretly hoping the other team raises more...silly hats doesn't sound like a punishment to me. :)

So, now comes the good part, the part where I hit you up for money! Mwahahahaha! If you would like to sponsor me and donate to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, you can click on this link: http://blba.us/i.asp?id=331127-284558335-1 which will take you to my team page and you can sponsor me.

Thanks so much!!

Vegas, Vegas, Here We Come!

The time off has been booked, the flights have been booked, and our hotel is arranged; we're goin to Vegas!
My friend Leah (former twin sister from Smithers) is getting hitched in Vegas in April and she invited us! So we searched and searched and found a reasonable deal. The difficult part was definitely that we`re going down over a weekend. I hear the deals are just ridiculous if you travel during the week, but we think we did pretty good for a Thursday-Monday deal.
We`ve booked at the Stratosphere and opted to pay the extra .73 per night for a room with a view (14th floor or higher). We're there for four nights and essentially three full days (plus Thursday evening) and other than Leah's wedding, we have no idea what we'll do while we're there, but I'm definitely extremely excited about it! Maybe that's why I'm still awake at 12:19 on a work night?

Now the only question is what to do with Ollie while we're gone. Mum, wanna come puppysit? :)

Blog Interupted...

...by fog. A thick fog descended upon Swift Current this week, coating the trees, houses, car antennas, and anything not moving under it's own free will with hoar frost. Sure it looks pretty, but hoar frost on power lines means power goes out. On Wednesday and Thursday I can say without exaggeration that the power went out more than a dozen times. So, the computer stayed off.

I went for physio on Wednesday morning and while I was standing there waiting for my appointment to begin one of the "good ol' boys" came in and, as sacred tradition for said Good Ol Boys Club mandates, commented on the weather.

Here is the conversation:

Good Ol Boy: "Some fog, huh? Well, you know what this means...in 90 days it'll rain. Good news for the farmers."
Receptionist: "Really? Fog means rain in 90 days?"

Good Ol Boy: "That's what they say...either that or wind"

Hmmmm, so what we've learned from this exchange is that fog is a surefire way to predict that in 90 days there will be either rain or wind. In Saskatchewan. Rain. Or Wind. So if it doesn't rain, it'll definitely be windy. Huh. You don't say. And people scoff at superstition.

Pictures from the Past Month or So

Since I've been away from the blog for so long, I thought rather than write a summary of everything that's happened in the past few months, I would just post some photos with some captions.
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Brad, Me, Ollie, Mum, Da, and Gus on a walkie down to Riverside (aptly named due to it following the Bulkley River)
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Mum and Brad with the dogs
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Of course, we decided to go up the ski hill on the foggiest day of the week. It was hard to see more than a meter in front of your nose at the worst of it, but we still very much enjoyed the day and the snow was fantastic!
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Me (the first time I willingly wore goggles and found them remotely comfortable), Christi, Frank and Brad.
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Frank and Christi being nauseatingly cute on the chairlift
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In the Chalet after the runs. Hot Chocolate and Tea never tasted so good!
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Supper at the Williams table (with some Gieslliams' and a Mulder)
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Totally out of order, but this is me and Vassy in Drumheller as we drove from Calgary to Saskatoon. Vassy was in total disbelief when I told her that Drumheller has many many dinosaur statues decorating the town. So we stopped at one and took some photos so her parents would believe her. we didn't get a photo with the biggest one though as we were already on our way out of town and there was some road construction. (It was a gigantic T-Rex wearing red Olympic mitts. FYI)

A Return to Blogging!

That's right, I'm back! It's only mid February and my second post of the year, what's the big deal?
The reason for my hiatus has been a mix of travel (to Calgary, Saskatoon, Smithers, and Regina), family related things, and a decomposing computer. Really, the excuse lies mostly with the latter reason.
My computer, fyi, was more or less the same one that my parents gave to me on my 18th birthday. It's had some parts replaced and upgraded, but for better or worse, the thing is just about 10 years old. For your horror, I'll tell you that the operating system (Windows XP) was running on a 10GB drive. As time went on I found myself deleting other programs just so it could run.
But yesterday Brad and I went out and purchased ourselves a nice shiny new one! By no means top of the line, but as I pointed out to Brad, at this point ANYTHING is a huge upgrade. And (surprise surprise) I was right! Where my old model sounded like I was operating an airnailer when it was thinking, this one is whisper quiet. The previous model would take a solid 5 minutes to start up, and this one is running in about 10 seconds. We didn't go for the 1 terabyte hard drive, but I think 500GB is far superior to 10, wouldn't you agree?
In all fairness, my computer did me well, it lasted through about a dozen moves, two years of College, and 9.5 years or blogging, gaming, photo editing, and general nonsense. A service will be held later this month.
So, the blog is back and I'll be posting photos from Smithers asap!

New Year, New Level of Ambition

Brad and I decided that it was time to pick up our socks and get going on some more home renovations. A good place to start seemed to be the soon-to-be-spare-bedroom downstairs. Once renovated, the spare bed will be moved down from upstairs, along with some extra linens, etc. The free space in the upstairs current-spare-room will be converted into a highly functional scrapbooking(YAY!)/sewing/computer room. This will allow for a much happier Jessica, and an exponentially happier marriage*. SO, down we went to the depths of our basement and cleared all of the boxes and boxes of things from said soon-to-be-spare-bedroom. We then took down the wood paneling from the one "feature wall" (I assume that's what they were going for). Sadly, when we pulled it down, the painted wall underneath appeared to be cracked and rippling, a sure sign of water damage. Awesome. So today, armed with workgloves, protective eyewear, and N95 respirators, we went downstairs again to begin the demolition. I have provided photographic evidence for those of you who don't believe we actually achieved a level of ambition high enough to renovate again.

I know what you're thinking: WHY would I want to renovate a room with wallpaper and paint like that?! It's unfathomable.
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Don't mess with me, gyprock! I'm gonna open up a can o' whoop ass on you! (and yes, my gloves are salmon pink. I chose them because of it)
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The remnants of a big and useless closet. I kicked holes in the drywall to tear it down. I highly suggest trying this if the opportunity ever arises.
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Brad starting to rip through the very weak drywall on the water damaged wall. GROSS.
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The moult we found. (Brad is fascinated by these things and said "you should take a picture of this mould!" He also said these same words when we threw out two-month old muffins...please don't ask about the muffins. To this day he still says those were the coolest muffins he ever saw and he wishes he had kept them.)
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Pfffft, wall...who needs a wall?!

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All in all, we took a full truck load of junk, mouldy insulation, and rotten drywall to the dump. Tomorrow? We bleach.

*Note: This statement is not to be taken to mean we are experiencing marital troubles. Our marriage is quite solid, but as the saying goes: Happy Wife = Happy Life. A dedicated scrapbooking room will make me a VERY happy Wife.

Christmas at the Giesbrecht Household

It was our third Christmas in Swift Current and I think we've done a pretty good job of incorporating some of my family's Christmas traditions into our own traditions. On Christmas eve we went for a drive around the city and looked at the beautiful lights. Darlene came with us this year and suggested some areas of Swift Current which we hadn't visited before and definitely paid off with some excellent displays of festive lights. She also got into the spirit of things and joined in the critiquing of displays (not "judging" as some would say, just deciding which were tasteful, which were over the top, which were gawdy, and which were "a nice try". Ha! I'm so judgemental!!). After our tour de Swift Current, Brad and I went home to watch the classic movie A Christmas Carol. Black and white, Alistair Sim, 1951. Can't be beat.

On Christmas morning we got up and had a delicious breakfast (waffles a la Jessica, eggs & sausage) and then got to opening prezzies. We opened the stockings first and then our presents. Once again, we were definitely spoiled with lots of goodies. After prezzies, we went to Ben and Brenda's house for a turkey lunch and lots of visiting with family well into the evening. Boxing day continued the festivities as we went to Darlene's for brunch and more prezzies. By the time Sunday rolled around, I felt like I needed a vacation from our long weekend! But it was a nice time to relax and visit and generally not have to go to work!

Now, here are some photos:

Our Christmas tree on Christmas morning, loaded with prezzies!!
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Ollie feels it would be very much in the spirit of Christmas if Brad would share his breakfast
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The stockings were hung by hour electric-fireplace-entertainment-stand with care...
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Brad's new scarf!

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Me helping Ollie to unwrap his prezzie (Yes, I am wearing a pile of ribbons on my head. what's it to ya?)
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Love!
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Ollie determines the best location to play with his new squeaky lion is on my new sweater. Who am I to deny him this fun?
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Our first Christmas as the Giesbrechts (or Gieslliams, depending on who you ask)
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Ollie is all tuckered out from Christmas, but is certainly not willing to part with his new toys while he naps on my lap (I swear I didn't put them there!)
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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

It was time for a change. BIG time! So I booked an appointment, and chopped the hair! I realized a couple of weeks ago that I've been trying to grow my hair out for three years. I finally did, and now what? All it did was annoy me, weigh me down, make me feel too hot, and cause issues. Sooooo, Goodbye hair! (In true makeover fashion, I took the before photo with no makeup, not smiling to really emphasize the transformation. Haha! )

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Last year after Christmas we bought two packages of LED christmas lights on sale. The particular ones we bought were solar powered. It seemed like such a great idea: no increase on the power bill, and totally self sufficient! So this year near the start of December, Brad was up on a ladder stringing our lights along the front of the house, and around the front window (we didn't buy enough to go around the house. whoops!). The solar panels were tricky to position where they would receive enough light but Brad did his best.
So, why was it not a good idea? Well, solar powered lights run on a battery. Batteries don't work too well in -28. Cold wires don't conduct electricity very well. Solar panels don't work very well when they're covered with snow. HA!
I wondered why there were so many boxes of them on the shevles of Canadian Tire when we bought them. They seemed like such a good idea! But I guess some other people were a little quicker than we were in determining the flaws. We do get points for trying though, right?

Merry Christmas to Me!!

Upon selling my car I sat down to determine what would be the best way to spend my newly aquired funds. I was trying to decide whether to put it towards our Vegas trip in April, or a downpayment on a new car (or blow it frivolously on a shopping spree for cute new clothes and fun things...come on, I wouldn't actually, but it was fun to toy with the idea) when I remembered the letter we had receved the other day reminding us that our property taxes were due. Sigh. Sometimes I hate being a grown up. So I decided to do the *gag*responsible*gag* thing and give the city the money they tell me belongs to them.
BUT, there was some left over. So, in consolation, I bought myself the new camera I've been eyeing up! Scrapbookers, rejoice! Not that my old camera wasn't working, it just wasn't producing the quality of pictures I want. Being that it is Christmas time, this particular camera went on sale every other week at one or more stores in the city. Of course, the Saturday before Christmas meant that pretty much every single store was sold out. Except the Source, and they are now. (Sorry). The main selling features were the 10megapixels, and the 10X optical zoom. (yay geek speak!). I convinced the very nice teenager in the Source to give it to me for the sale price at Staples; they're not supposed to if the store that has the sale is sold out, but I found a loop hole and got him to cave (don't EVER get in the way of a determined shopper with a goal in mind).
So I started playing around with it when I got home. Here are a few of the shots my Canon SX120 IS has taken.

It may be blurry, but it was the first picture I took. Ollie was very curious

(the only picture from the Christmas party last night. Brad reminded me it was at a casino, and thus, no cameras allowed. Sigh. Scrapbookers nightmare.)

The End of an Era

I sold my car on Thursday. It served me well, but just wasn't what we need anymore, so it was time to sell. It's funny though, I felt a little twinge of sadness to see it switch hands. That little cavalier carried a lot of sentimental value. My parents found it for me when I moved to PG in 2006 and with help from my mechanicl, Tony, it kept me mobile for that full year, with a ton of trips to and from Smithers in all kinds of weather. It had the tires stolen (I think we all remember that day. And if you don't, the blog entry is still here, just look for the one with all the swearing from November 10th, 2006). It got me to Swift, and carried Brad to and from Rosetown for a year. Yup, definitely a good little car.

Truly Upsetting

In an attempt to annoy Brad this evening, I flipped through the tv channel listings and clicked on the Fireplace channel on Shaw. (not exactly his idea of rivetting suppertime viewing). To my horror and dismay, Shaw informed me that I was not subscibed to the Fireplace channel, and in order to view it I would have to pay $13.95!! That's right, 13.95 (plus a service fee, I'm sure) to watch a crackling fireplace on your tv. Occasionally a hand will reach into the shot and deposit a new log to keep the fire burning (usually that part scares the crap out of me if I'm entranced by the flames).
Good news though, the Christmas Tree channel is still free. Phewww!

Christmasy things

Since we're just about at the middle of December with less than two weeks to Christmas, the activities have started.

Friday night was Brad's Community Health Christmas Party. We went to the Modern Family Restaraunt's Banquet room for supper, games and prezzies. Afterwards, a number of the people we were sitting with decided it was time to go to the bar, so we went off to the Big I where we stayed for about an hour. Anyone who's been there will understand that an hour at the Big I while sober is more than enough. We went home after. Ha!Karlene, Kyla, Myself, and Erin doing a very festive China White shot. Yum!

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Me and Kyla (from Brad's office) at the Christmas Party.
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Yesterday we put up the tree and decorated. It's nice to have some festive decor in the house. And so far, so good; Ollie seems disinterested with the tree. Fingers crossed it remains that way. The bottom foot of the tree remains bereft of ornaments in hopes that he won't get creative and learn how to use a stepping box.

Ode to Winter

Holy CRAP it's cold!

And now, a montage of some thoughts I've had recently:

New Kids on the Block (groan if you will)
I have recently changed email addresses, so I only occassionally check my old address to see if anything useful has come in through the piles and piles of junk email. You may recall last year my intense excitement to see the New Kids perform in Saskatoon. Well, I signed up for their emails so I could hopefully get a pre-sale. I still get those emails. One that came the other day had this as it's title: Limited Edition Autographed Platinum Albums Now Available. Now, I may have been at the concert, screaming like a hormone charged teen, but I draw the line at spending $625 to have one of 100 limited edition platinum albums. And, to be honest, I judge those who do not draw their line there. I have, however, added the collection of 6 holiday ornaments featuring Joey, Donnie, Danny, Jordan and Jonathan for only $100. It would take any christmas tree to a whole new level of tackiness! (kidding! Kidding!!)

Christmas
It's December 8th today, which is pretty remarkable. Christmas is suddenly approaching very quickly and yet, I still don't find myself in the spirit. We've received a couple of Christmas cards, and Bev and I sat down and made a ton as well. I've even just about finished my shopping. Still, nothing. Maybe once we have the tree all decorated and some other festive items up, it will feel different.

Winter
DAMN it's cold out!!

The New Year
So far, I've got quite a list of things to look forward to in 2010, and looking forward, I am! At the end of January, Brad and I are hoping to get away to Smithers for a post-christmas holiday. In April, Vassy and I will be on the floor at the John Mayer concert in Saskatoon (this time, SHE'LL be the one screaming her undying love to a performer on stage). Later in April, Brad and I are going to be heading to Vegas for Leah's wedding (can't wait to see everyone from the Twin!!), and in July Frank and Christi will be getting married! It's looking like a good year so far!

In the meantime
Christmas...sigh...still feels weird. Luckily Ollie is in the spirit: His christmas list to Santa includes many squeeky toys, a couple of lovely bones, and more delightful clothing (he told me so!!)

Adventures on the East Coast!

Last week I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to Halifax for a career fair. The major bonus (aside from seeing the other side of the country again) was that I was able to extend my stay a couple of days and see Maureen and her boyfriend Barry. They were gracious enough to let me stay with them and made sure I had an amazing time and got to see some of the many highlights the city (and Nova Scotia) have to offer.

~Drinking Champagne out of mason jars en route to the restaurant~

The night I arrived we went for supper and drinks at a restaurant known for their martinis. It was excellent and a nice cap to a long day of travel. Thursday Maureen took me downtown where we wandered the shops. We had intended to go to the Maritime Museum but never made it. Ha! Too many fun stores to look at before hurrying back to her place to help Barry make perogies for a supper with friends that night. We made a heap of perogies (around 80 I think) and everyone enjoyed the delicious meal.

~The restaurant owned by Mike Smith from the Trailer Park Boys! Love it! ~

~Maureen and I in front of Citadel Hill~

~Making perogies~

~At Barry's Brother's place~

Friday was the career fair which went very very well, and afterwards we went back downtown to look around and visit some more cool shops. The three of us went out for an amazing supper that night at a fantastic Italian restaurant downtown. Saturday Maureen took me for a tour of the Halifax Farmers Market. It was just amazing! The whole thing is held in a series of historical buildings and is jam packed with craftsmen selling their creations, as well as meats, cheeses, baked goods, and veggies. Maureen had promised to take me on the ferry from Halifax across the harbour to Dartmouth. Since we were short on time, we took the 12 minute ride over, got off the ferry, re-boarded, and came right back. It was a neat way to view the city though and reminded me of the Seabus in Vancouver.

~Taking the Ferry to and from Dartmouth~

Saturday night was Halloween and Barry's brother Robbie and his wife Sonia hosted a Murder Mystery Party at their place, 30 minutes outside of Halifax. It was a ton of fun and I loved meeting all of their friends. We spent the night there (long drive, plus a little too much booze) and left after breakfast.

~Dressed up for the Murder Mystery Party~

~The cast of Murder in Margarhitaland~

After showering, Maureen and I went for a drive to Bridgewater to try to find a huge Adirondack chair that was apparently somewhere in the town. We got mildly lost (it wouldn't be a roadtrip adventure for me if we weren't somewhat lost at least once!!), and asked for directions twice. Despite the help from locals, we couldn't find the chair and left the community to visit Peggy's Cove before going home.

Peggy's Cove was incredible! I was struck with how powerful the ocean is. And it was a pretty calm day at that!

~Peggy's Cove~

We left Peggy's Cove after sunset and went back to Halifax where Barry had made supper (yum!) and afterwards we went to a comedy sketch show with a local troupe called picnicface. I certainly laughed my money's worth!
Monday it was a ridiculously early morning and I was on my way by 7:40 Halifax time, arriving back in Swift at 5 Sask time. A long day of travel and a busy busy week, but so worth it!