My Summer Rollercoaster

I have never really enjoyed roller-coasters. When I was a kid, I could tolerate them, but did not enjoy them. When the family would head to Canada Wonderland or even during our trip to Disney World, my mom and brother would venture onto the craziest of rides while my dad and I sat quietly watching our crazy family members. To this day, I do not understand the thrill and can no longer even tolerate the beasts. But I go on them every once in a while to make sure my dislike of them is still valid and every time I do, I come out a little worse for wear, but alive. To say that the last few months have been a roller-coaster ride with all those dizzying highs and nauseating lows, barely even begins to cover it.

For just under the last two years, Dave and I have been planning our Fall wedding. Since it was a long engagement, we ended up having this vision of our wedding being way off in the future of Fall 2012. It was beautiful and awesome all at the same time, our friends and families were having a ton of fun and Dave and I looked amazing in our wedding clothes. But, it was still way off in the future, something we could enjoy planning and looking forward to, but nothing to worry about. It was 'round about 3 months ago that I realized that it wasn't way off in the future anymore and that we needed to step our planning into high gear.

For whatever reason, there was absolutely no slow period at work and as a result, we ended up working very long hours at the office and trying to squeeze our regular gym appointments and now all the new wedding meetings/tasks into the mix. It resulted in a lot of stress, some of it inevitable, while some of it was completely avoidable and yet wasn't avoided.

Next came raise time at work. This was at first abysmal but after some very good conversations with my boss' boss, it got resolved for the better and I was moved from hourly to salary and was given a much more tolerable raise. In fact, as stressful and upsetting as this time was, the actual process, was pretty straight-forward and pleasant as everyone pretty much agreed with my position. But it left me feeling nauseated nonetheless.

The 2 month mark quickly came and I was really feeling the physical and emotional draining that was happening to both myself and Dave. To be able to meet deadlines both in my professional lives as well as my personal life, I had to take some time away from blogging and to be honest, pretty much everything other than work, going to the gym, and wedding planning. There was time for friends and family, but even that was cut shorter than I would have liked due to work and stress loads.

Then, about a month before the wedding, my grandfather was suddenly hospitalized. It left my entire family in an awful state. My mom drove roughly 3 hours a day to visit him with my aunt and getting the updates from her was not only difficult because it was pretty clear that he would not pull through, but also because of the pain and sadness I could hear in my mom's voice each time we spoke.

Two weeks before the wedding, he passed away. There was a private graveside memorial attended by his family and closest friends where he was laid to rest beside my grandmother. It was quiet and peaceful, exactly what he wanted. As a child, you are sad because a family member is no longer around. As an adult, you understand what has happened not only to the one who passed, but to everyone else as well. You can visualize the unspeakably painful day when your own parents become sick and you are forced to deal with their mortality.

Luckily, we have a really amazing circle of friends and family who supported Dave and I through this time and some great co-workers who picked up our workloads so we could take a day or two off to try to cope and spend time with our family.

We returned to our wedding planning and trying to get things settled at least somewhat at work. After a very long last week at work, we had made it - 2 glorious weeks off! We spent the week before the wedding not paying attention to work emails and tying up all the lose ends for the big event. We made lots of ribbon flowers and decorations; managed to pick up over 600 bulbs that we had ordered and get them into our wedding favours a few days before-hand (thanks mom and dad); arranged drop-off times and locations with vendors; finalized and issued schedules for the wedding party and our families; picked up suits and dresses; and did what seems like a million other things. The rehearsal day came, and I was super stressed and a little nervous. Everyone got there eventually and things went pretty smoothly for the rest of the night.

Something happened that night though, as at some point while I was sleeping, all my worries drifted away. When I awoke, I was super calm and stress- and worry-free. I came to the mindset of, if something went wrong, it didn't matter, there was little to nothing I could do about it now and I had done my very best up until this point. I am not sure how I got to this mindset, as that is typically not my style whatsoever, but it was a great place to be for my wedding day.

This post is longer than I had anticipated, so I will not go into great detail here about the wedding day itself, mostly because I feel it deserves it's own post, but let me just say it was amazingly awesome. There were a few tiny hiccups, but nothing that mattered then and definitely nothing that matters now. It was a beautiful day and I came out of it as a wife to a loving and caring man, who I love more than life itself. I am now Mrs. Koning and all of the roller-coaster lows of this summer are made a little easier to handle by this fact. I am honestly and truly happy.

As a reward for getting through this post, I am going to share the following image with you. Dave and I took it on Honeymoon #1 to Niagara Falls. My camera had felt a little neglected this summer so gave it lots of attention during this trip and I hope that the next year of traveling and honeymoons makes it feel loved.

Beverly’s Birthday

 

Today is my Mom’s Birthday. I hope she has a fantastic day.
The above photo was taken at Tyler and Lynn’s wedding back in 2008 – don’t we look great.

Today also happens to be my parent’s wedding anniversary…it’s actually harder to find a photo of the two of them so we will just have to stick with wishing them a Happy Anniversary.

Rock Band

Oh Rock Band…how I love and loathe thee simultaneously.
Justin’s parents were up over a week ago and brought his Rock Band with them. It is now set up in our living room and we have spent quite a while playing it. In fact, Justin and Dave are playing as I blog.

I like the drums the most but am still not very good at any of the instruments (guitar, drums, vocals). I do however, really like the free drumming parts like at the end of certain songs and when you want to activate your star power (I think start power is the guitar hero term, but I can’t think of the rock band term).

(image from Google – our version is also for the PS3 though the photos is the XBox 360 version).

Decade in Review (2000-2009)

I have been alive for over two and a half decades, but it is only this last one that I remember with almost perfect clarity. You see, in the beginning of 1990-1999 I was barely in school and can only remember certain moments, and even those may be contrived from photographs I have seen and stories I have been told. During the last decade though, I was 15 to 25 years old and able to remember everything - though not everything is worth remembering. Below is a listing of personal highlights and a photo of myself from each year in the past decade:

2000 - got my driver's license; house was robbed; finished technology enriched school program;

got first digital camera; became quite active in extra-curricular activities in high school. Below photo taken by me in the hallway of my parent’s room.

2001 - broke up with first serious boyfriend; travelled to Moosonee; took first college course in photography; learned how to develop film photographs; thought of becoming an architect; became co-president in several clubs (and remained until end of high school). Below p

hoto taken either by my friend Alaina or myself. Either way, it is from one of the many nights I spent at Alaina’s. Notice the curly hair – she did it and it likely lasted about 1 hour.

2002 – started using ICQ to talk to pretty much everyone; received SLR camera; learned how to take manual photos; started playing rugby on high school team. Below photograph taken by me while sitting in front of the computer in my parent’s house.

2003 - graduated from high school; started university; met best friend; lived in university residence; lost 25 pounds; stopped drinking alcohol (no real reason); employed at Forwarders' Museum. Below p

hoto taken in my residence room while I was studying chemistry with Justin

2004 - started dating the love of my life; Tyler graduated from university; moved into rented house with friends; mom diagnosed with breast cancer; worked for last time at Forwarders' Museum; failed first course ever. Below p

hoto taken by Dave. This was one of the last days of first year – Dave and I took photos of each other around campus as we were going to be apart for the entire summer.

2005 - failed second course; starting working at City of Ottawa (Eng. Assistant); started budget spreadsheet; lost 20 pounds. Below photograph by me. Taken in my room on Glen after getting my hair cut short. I think there are remnants of the first dye-job I had done (blonde highlights).

2006 - moved in with Dave (in ‘boy house’); started my first blog; saw first Cirque de Soleil show live; learnt how to make bead jewellery. Below p

hoto was taken at my City of Ottawa job - it was a co-worker's birthday.

2007 - Eddy died; stopped receiving money from parents (for rent/bills); went to Chris' cottage for first time; worked at City of Ottawa while finishing up B.Eng; got my iron ring; graduated from university; ended career as professional student (over 19 years spent full-time in school). Below p

hoto was taken by Dave. I am holding my B.Eng degree from Carleton University in my room in the ‘boy house’.

2008 - travelled to England; flew in plane for first time; got my first dSLR camera; moved into rented townhouse with just Dave; got EI for 1 month; had the first job I really hated; got my first real engineering job; started night courses in photography; Tyler got married. Below photo was taken in the London Eye while Chris and I were on travelling there.

2009 - got in a car accident; bought my first car; traveled to Montreal; traveled to Chicago; started my grown-up life. Below photo was taken by Christine Sweeton for a class assignment.
I did it – I remembered a few things from each year AND found a photo of myself from each year (though some were hard to find and most had few options). Now it is on to 2010 (though I realize it has already started). I do not know what the next decade holds for me or those I care about – though I do hope the majority of it is worth writing good things about in 2020.

Renovated Home

For the last few years, home has been Ottawa. But at the same time, home will always be Prescott. Recently though, my parents have renovated the house and upgraded many features that they have been talking about for years.
My dad is taking advantage of the home renovation tax and environmentally upgrading the house. He has increased the insulation in several parts of the house, installed a tank-less water heater and new windows throughout.
One of the biggest things they have done to the house is the installation of a downstairs bathroom/powder room. My dad has been talking about this and planning it for the last twenty years and for many of the past years, this room was used storage for the Proctor and Gamble products. It has a black and white theme with slight hints of mauve and purple and looks so great.
Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it when I was home, so you will have to take my word on this.

Out of Town Again

Once again Dave has been sent out of town for work. He is going to be doing three waste audits and asbestos update surveys in Peterborough, Lindsay and Cobourg all of this upcoming week. While he is doing all these site visits he will be staying with his parents in Peterborough, which saves the company some money since we don't have to get a hotel room for the week (he will also get to pocket a few bucks as an incentive for doing this).
Unlike previous out of town work Dave has done for DST, it is not one of our bosses that has scheduled all this work for him - it was me. The waste audits he will be completing are part of my job for the ORC. The asbestos update surveys, also for the ORC, are not my project, but were kind of left under my watch while my boss is on paternity leave - well, at least the scheduling of this site visit was.
So, long story short, Dave will be out of town for a week leaving me to figure stuff out on my own. What will I do you ask? Well I have costumes to sew and a house to clean. I also have some free time for friends and catching up with the girls as Dave will be night work for the majority of the week and therefore will not really be available to talk that much either. All in all, not much will be different from when he is here, except I will be a little less happy, and lot more lonely.

One Minute Writer #31

What is the greatest sacrifice anyone has ever made for you?

I feel Dave has made a pretty significant sacrifice to stay in Ottawa. He has sacrificed time and energy in finding a job in his field for me to gain experience in mine.
I truly believe that others have made sacrifices for me, namely my parents, but I do not know of them - but do appreciate them greatly.

Maritimes

My parents called last night mostly for one reason: to let me know that they are heading out east today for up to two weeks. I am very happy that they are doing some sort of vacation. My dad has a vacation every year when he goes out fishing with his friends in Ompa, but my mom on the other hand, tends to just sit at home during her vacation every summer. Anyway, they are taking Comet with them which is what makes this vacation so perfect for them as finding someone to watch their puppy is hard since he has separation anxiety and other little quirks that make him special.
I am not sure what their plans are, or what route they are taking though I know the driving is going to be my dad's favourite part of the trip. He loves long drives and road trips.
Originally, Dave and I had planned on making a road trip out east, but then the car accident happened and we can no longer afford a big trip, as mentioned in a previous post. This was the time that I was wanting to go on the maritimes trip though, so I am a little sad that we can't go. But I really hope that they have a good time and hopefully are able to get some good pictures.

One Year at 1212

As of June 18, 2009 , Dave and I have been renting our house at 1212 for a full year!! Isn't it exciting?!

Last year at this time, I was packing our stuff into totes, boxes and bags and we were slowly, but surely, moving them over to the new house any way we could (Thanks Yan for letting us use your car so much). After about 7 car trips, 2 or 3 bike trips and one long walk we had most of the small, non-everyday items moved.

Mom and Dad came up the beginning of July and helped us move our larger items over to the new house (thanks to all the friends who came and helped out), which took about 4 truck loads, with the trailer in tow! It wasn't until we were trying to fit it all in the house that I realized just how much stuff Dave and I owned (okay mostly just me).

Shortly after moving in, we started a garage sale pile that never made it to a garage sale and is still located in our basement. A large portion of our items are still in boxes, totes and bags to this day and will likely never be unpacked. They too could probably be sold or donated as we likely will never need or use them again.

I love our house so much and have really enjoyed the last year living in it with Dave. We have been able to purchase larger and nicer items without the fear of them being broke or mistreated, not that any of our past roommates would purposely do either of those things. We have started our own garden in tiny backyard and a gym in our basement. Our house is a compilation of stuff from our parents' homes as well as a few things we have bought for ourselves and is slowly getting closer to 'our style', though at the moment I couldn't tell you what that is. It is perfect for the time being and I hope the next year is as joyful as this past one has been.

Vacation's Over

My first vacation while working at DST is over. We went to Peterborough for Jess' convocation, to the Toronto Zoo and my mom came down for a day in Ottawa. It was very pleasant and relaxing and didn't cost that much overall which is really awesome. Now I just need to decide when I want to take some more time off and what I want to do with it.

One Minute Writer #16

Write about an experience that made you feel like a "grown up."

There have been several experiences in the past little while that have made me feel like a "grown-up": the car accident (or rather dealing with the car accident), the purchase of the new car, getting the taxes without my parents (and filing as a common-law couple with Dave), Jess graduating tomorrow, driving to and from parents' homes (mine and Dave's) without their assistance, dinners with friends during which we talk about the economy, co-workers getting engaged, friends from back home getting married and/or having children, thinking about getting a dog, and just turning 25 in general. So many things have made me feel grown-up and I don't know if I really mind. Sure the care-free days of childhood were great, but they came with a loss of freedom and though now I have responsibilities and have to go to work almost everyday, I am able to afford really cool stuff and do things I was unable to before. I just don't know if I want to grow up anymore.

Belated Gifts

Two months later and I still haven't decided what I want from Dave for my birthday. I just bought him his present, Ratchet and Clank Future for his new PS3. It isn't his fault or anything, I haven't picked it out and we don't really get each other surprise gifts - we just end up buying each other gifts that we want but can't rationalize spending money on at the time. Originally I was planning on putting his money as well as that from my parents, towards my macro lens but this didn't happen as at the same time I was going to buy it, I got T-boned. Oh well, one way or another I will figure out what I want for my birthday and then use the money towards that...I just have to figure it out.

I also just got a present in the mail from Chris - she got me a subscription to PhotoLife. In the letter she sent me telling me she had ordered it she called it my birthday present, but if memory serves it is actually my Christmas present. My birthday present was HIMYM Season 1 and a WW cookbook. But either way, the magazine is awesome and I can't wait for the first issue to get here.

One Minute Writer #14

Write about a childhood memory related to reading.

When I was little, my dad read to me most every night. I remember lying in my bed with him sitting on the edge with the giant fairy tale book in his hands. I would pick out which story I wanted to hear and he would read it to me over the course of a couple of nights. I don't remember any specific details, but the peaceful image is stored in my memory bank.

Car Extravaganza

(image found through Google).
On April 17th, 2009 Dave's 2001 Nissan Sentra was t-boned while I was driving it to work. I was on turning from Conroy onto Thurston on a yellow light. The cars coming in the opposite direction were stopping and I thought it was safe. Obviously I was wrong as a Mazda Protege 5 smashed into the passenger side of my car bringing me to a complete stop. Somehow I managed to keep the car from hitting any other vehicle and then parked it on the side of the road. In an attempt to make this part of the story a little shorter, the man who hit me was extremely upset and unnecessarily rude. A witness came back and told me he saw the man run the red light (this witness had been behind me in the turning lane and obviously also thought it was safe to turn as he was right behind me when I was hit). The car had some pretty serious damage to it, but it still ran. The passenger side doors no longer opened and the back passenger side was smashed in so far the you could stick your hand through the opening.I went into work and my boss helped me find out what station to go to and how to get there, I really appreciated how helpful he was. When I arrived at the station I spoke with an officer, waited for another officer and called the insurance company. I also called my dad and asked him to come up and help me as Dave was in Toronto for work. After taking the car to a body shop and getting a rental car (a stupid, horribly designed Toyota Yaris), my dad took me back to Prescott where I spent the weekend trying to relax and figure out what had just happened.(image found through Google).

When I returned Sunday afternoon I had several messages related to the accident one of which was from the constable assigned to the case. He came over to the house and charged me with making an unsafe turn. The man who hit me wasn't getting charged with anything. My witness had changed his statement after speaking with the constable (in my opinion, he was scared out of it by the constable but I do not know exactly what happened). I was upset and angry. I have since decided to fight the charge and have a court date on July 6, 2009 at 1pm. I hope it goes well.
Later on in the week I learned that the car was a total loss. After quite a bit of deliberation with Dave about the situation, we decided to take the money offered to us by the insurance company and find a new car. We started looking for cars when he was home for the weekend and then while he was back in Toronto. We had quite a hard time with this as we really didn't have any money and were both extremely stressed. The leaders in the car search were: a red 2008 Honda Fit (sport) with ~50,000km (image found through Google) and two red 2007 Dodge Calibers (with ~80,000km and ~60,000km) (image found through Google).Later on we also thought about a new 2009 Pontiac Wave (image found through Google).
After about 2 weeks of car shopping, we came to an agreement to buy the Honda Fit from the dealership owned by family friends back in Prescott. We liked the look of it and felt it was a better fit for our lifestyle. It has tons of space inside (seriously - just wait until you see it, it looks tiny but inside it feels huge!) and has so many features we couldn't afford in a new car.
We went to Riverside Saturday to purchase the car only to find more stress. Someone had the car out on a test drive! I was very upset (again) and was afraid that we were going to lose the only car we both liked and felt was the right price. We went back to my parents' house and made a few calls to some of the other dealers we had been talking to and were able to make a deposit on the car. Eventually we were able to go and test the car out again and we luckily saw that we hadn't built it up too much. It was still great so we purchased it. I got a courtesy car to drive, a red Pontiac Pursuit, until our car was ready as it needed to have a safety and inspection done to ensure it was up to the standards of the Riverside Pontiac Buick dealership.(image found through Google).
I picked up our 2008 Honda Fit on Tuesday and am absolutely in love with it. Dave will be home on Saturday (he is back in Toronto for work) and I can't wait for him to come home to our new car. It makes me so happy to have our own set of wheels again - ones we got to pick out and buy.

Mom

Yesterday I saw my mom while we were down in Prescott for the day and I gave her a card for Mother's Day. I don't usually get her a gift since she is impossible to buy for and no longer wants little knick-knacks and trinkets. I will call her later on as she is probably out for Sunday breakfast (or just about to leave for it).

Thanksgiving Preparation

Thanksgiving is the weekend of the 11th and it is currently looking like it is going to be a good one, though quite busy as well. Not only is our guest moving out two days before the weekend, but we have lots of family dinners in the works as well. In previous years Dave and I go in opposite directions for Thanksgiving (each to our respective families), but this year we are going to try and get to both families together – should be interesting to say the least.

Dave’s Aunt Melinda is having the Mantel Family Thanksgiving at her place near Toronto on Sunday. We will probably be spending the night at his parent’s home in Peterborough and then driving to Prescott to have dinner with my parents, brother and new sister in law on Monday. It will mean lots of food and possible some good leftovers to get us through that next week too. We could move my family’s Thanksgiving up to this weekend, but that would mean we lose two weekends to this holiday instead of just one and quite frankly I have been so tired lately I need the weekends to rest up from the previous week of work and early mornings.

The Mantel Family get-togethers are very different from the Beach ones. To start with The Beach Family Thanksgiving consists of about 5 or 6 people while the Mantel consists of ... well a lot more. Mantel Family events are planned way in advance as it needs to be decided which sibling will get to host the event (or have to host it depending on your outlook) while the Beach events are rather unplanned and just semi-‘go with the flow’. Dinner is of course planned, but the day that it happens doesn’t really matter as long as there is even notice to make the meal.They have the same family togetherness feel to them and there is really no drama at either of them, so I guess it is really just the size and pre-planning of the event that makes them different.

I am looking forward to being part of Dave’s family holiday as I have been attending the family reunions for the past three years and enjoy them very much. It will be nice though to have a quiet, peaceful day with my family after it all though.

Birthdays of the Past

Today is my 24th birthday and I woke up to an email from my Dad in which he had attached some pictures from my birthdays when I was little. They brought back great memories from when I was young(er).

This is me on my third birthday - looks like there was good barbecue food and probably just relatives at the house with me to celebrate. I have that sweater still somewhere - I used to put it on my dolls all the time.

This one is from my ninth birthday (according to my parents). I am the one in the purple dress. The girls with me are Leslie Payne (behind me) Melissa Szydlowski (in front of me), April Roode (on the bed) and Stephanie ? (at the end of the bed). I kind of remember this one - well I remember wearing the dress and having this group of friends at least.

I'm having friends over for cake and other treats and of course games and whatnot. Just general hanging out really - pretty low key, just the way I want it.

Christmas Presents II

I just finished Christmas breakfast with my parents after opening Christmas presents. Thisyear was a little different as Tyler wasn't here Christmas morning. He and Lynn, his fiance, will be coming downlater today. They spent Chirstmas Eve at her place and are coming her for dinner and more presents later. I openned up all the presents from "santa" and comet and my parents. I got the normal things like socks and batteries, choclates and my Gund toy (a little lamby one since I collect both those things). My big gift was a set of luggage - 6 pieces! It is really awesome. I am going to be taking at least two of the piece with me to London perhaps even three. Inside each bag was a little stocking with 50 or 100 dollars in it! I got a grand total of $500! I am not sure what I want to use it for just yet - probably a combination of London and the camera I want. There are still two more gifts from Tyler yet and I should be getting them later on. My parents liked their gifts from me and the ones from Dave which makes me really happy. My dad went and opened up his hockey cards right away - as he usually does Christmas morning. Comet seems to really like the little doll I got him which is good because I didn't know if he would as I bought it before ever meeting him.
It has been a really great Christmas so far - Hope everyone else's has been good too. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Comet Huggy Beach

This is my partent's new dog - Comet Huggy Beach (he came with that name). They got him about a month ago and he is now part of our family. He is so little and cute and adorable. He's so freaking little - only 5lbs!

He was a 'rehome' from a breeder as the 17 year old who got him initially bought him, moved to Vancouver for school and her parents decided they couldn't keep him. When Mom and Dad decided they were ready for a new dog, after Eddy's passing, they thought is was a perfect match - they needed a dog and he needed a home.

I do like Comet a lot, he is cute and adorable and really clingy actually. He has separation anxiety and gets really worked up when you return home. He staty right by your side when you start to leave although he apparently doesn't do well on trips as he gets car-sick easily. Seeing him hurts a little though as there are times when I think he is Eddy - my parents and I still call him Ed everyonce in a while. I loved Eddy and no dog could ever replace him, but Comet is a really good dog too and different which is very good.

Update

well let's see...where to begin.

I went to Chris' cottage last weekend -- it was so much fun. Her, Dave and I rented a car and drove there (it's seven hours away in Long Point right on Lake Eerie). Then we left her there after spending three days there ourselves and drove oruselves home. She is staying there until the end of this weekend. It cost us all about 100 dollars with the rental and gas (mind you there was 100 dollars pitched in by her parents) but it was SOOOO worth it. I had an amazing time -- so relaxing and peaceful and pretty -- I just loved it.

My mom came up today and we went Downtown as she has never really been (well she went once in the winter but it's the winter for goodness sakes). We went to Cora's for brunch and then we went around the Rideau Centre. We were looking at lululemon stuff because she was interested in the store...I showed her those really awesome bags they have there and said that I have wanted one for a long time but couldn't really rationalize the cost of them since I was on such a tight budget this summer. She then asked me when I was intending to pay my Dad back for the elliptical machine he bought me last summer and I told her with my next paycheque (I was supposed to pay him with this one but had to pay for the trip to the cottage instead). She told me they were giving me a grace and I was instantly up $1000! WAHOO! so she told me to buy the bag for myself -- so I did. Then we went to Danier -- to smell the smell like we like to do. And just like the last time her and I stepped into a Danier there was a coat just sitting there waiting for me -- it was red and gorgeous! On sale a little too (only a little -- it was still pretty pricey). So my mom (who has always wanted to find a red leather jacket that would fit her -- this one did not -- told me to get it). I would never have been able to spend so much money on my own -- not when it is still slightly my parents money. I mean I pay for all of my stuff now (tuition included) but they are still there just in case I need them so it's not really all my money.

After our big purchases we ate lunch at the Richtree Market in the Rideau Centre which was really nice -- took our time with it like we like to. We then went into the market and bought some vegetables and fruit after walking around a bit and then bussed back home. She didn't want to drive downtown (which I completely understand) so we took the bus everywhere -- not a big thrill for me but she had never really taken public transit despite the fact that she lived in Ottawa for a couple years while she got her nursing license -- so I enjoyed seeing her figure it out. But yeah it was a really great time and I am so glad she thought of doing this. And just to note -- I would have loved it just as much even if I hadn't gotten any money or big purchases. The day by itself was just fabulous -- I really, really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow Dave and I are going to see Cirque's Saltimbanco at Scotia Bank place. We are borrowing yan's car to make it easier to get there eventhough there are technically buses which could get us there -- it is just so much of an incovenience to get out there by bus. We bought the tickets way back in May and I thought it would take forever for the day to come -- but it really didn't take long at all -- the summer just flew by as it always does. We have tickets for the Phantom too but they aren't until September...the second I think.

I had an amazing day and by the end of this weekend I will have had an amazing weekend too. The month of August is turning out to be a fabulous one. Hope it continues this way :)