I've got 6 invites, if you want one either drop a message in the comments or email me.
We're starting to get into a grove now, although most of our spare time still seems to get eaten up by running errands either related to living arrangements or the wedding.
That still hasn't stopped us from thoroughly enjoying our new life on this beautiful island. So on Friday when my boss was here on vacation and said "Come scuba diving with us" we ducked out of work early and did just that!
We rented equipment for a steal ($50) and then just walked into the ocean from the beach. It was fantastic. I had no idea how stunning the underwater world on the coast of Canada was. I anticipated a lot of murky water with not much to see, but that wasn't the case at all! It was colorful and vibrant and just an incredible time. I can't believe I live somewhere where I can scuba off the beach only 20 minutes from my house.
Another perk is a hiking trail just down the street from where we're currently living (and will still be living when we move into the new house, it's just down the street too) that follows the Englishman River. I can't tell you how awesome it is to decide to go for a hike and be at the trail in 5 minutes.
When I get a chance I'll take some pictures of the view from our "basement" suite we're living in. Spectacular.
I'm so ready for this island living gig.
Pardon my language, but on this day in two months, I'll be married.
Egads.
I think I'm going to go and throw up now.
(And I have a 5 page list of stuff to do! I've changed my mind, I want to elope.).
We bought a house yesterday.
Our New House. Hopefully, assuming we get the mortgage, and that is still to be determined.
What do you think?
Another person lost her job for well, not being sunshine and lollipops all the time on her blog, apparently.
She never mentioned where she worked, or specifically bad-mouthed the company either. She just didn't wax poetic on the town she lived in and worked as a tourist agent for in every_single_post she wrote.
I'm of two minds about this. The first is if you're going to publish your life on the world wide web, be prepared to catch shit for it. It sucks and it's not necessarily fair but it's a public forum and at some point its bound to happen. Either at work or in your personal life. It's happened to me, it sucks, you get over it and learn a very important lesson. Don't use your real name, or password protect your blog, or don't write about anything even remotely interesting to anyone but your friends and family, or have TWO journals, one that is generic and one that is the real you. Of course, you don't tell anyone about the real one.
The second mind is that after work on Fridays we head to a pub and have a couple of beers with either co-workers or friends. And we bitch. We bitch about our jobs, our bosses, the companies we're forced to work for, our good-for-nothing spouses (hehehe, just kidding!). How is the 5 of you reading me bitch about my job any different than the 5 of you listening to me bitch about my job over a beer? Someone might stumble upon this page and thing negatively about the company I work for? Sure. Someone might eavesdrop on my conversation and think negatively about the company I work for too. I don't see a difference and honestly the average blog doesn't have a lot of readers.
If any one ever called me on this blog I would simply say "What blog?". I don't have a blog.
I seldom publish anything especially interesting because I'm worried about who's out there and who's reading it. And well, sensitive ears do read my blog and I'm not in the habit of offending them. I do find that some of the most interesting blogs to read are the ones where the writers don't guard their thoughts online. Or the blogs are password protected and they know who's reading it and therefore don't have to worry about every word typed.
Bottom line: Watch your cyber-back. I'd also like to add that I truly like my boss. In case he reads this...
take that, spammers. heh.
And thank you muchly Miss. Candi! :)
I wish I could entertain you all with the comings and goings of my life but things are rather uneventful at the moment. We've been taking care of a few of the irritating wedding-related items and watching TV since new TV has finally arrived and we're not forced to watch crap like Canadian Idol (eh, sorry if you like Canadian Idol).
oh, if only Canada had TiVo I'd be a happy, happy little Amber and I wouldn't be going through some serious General Hospital withdrawals right now...
Last Thursday Steve and I went to Canadian Tire and registered for the wedding. It was a riot! We were registering for all sorts of ridiculous items that made me giggle. Things like a 6 foot flag pole and a 2 foot by 5 foot Canadian flag and a camping port-o-potty delux. This thing is the bloody Cadillac of in-tent peeing. Not that I do a lot of in-tent peeing, mind you, but I might if I had this port-o-potty. I had tears rolling down my face I was laughing so hard at our selections. We didn't put the port-of-potty cleaning kit on the list however, for fear someone actually buys it, it was well within the range that anyone would purchase it. The port-of-potty is really a little too expensive for someone to purchase for a laugh.
Of course, the folks at Canadian Tire are fucking morons and all our time and energy spent registering was wasted since they haven't even updated the registry and I have a sinking feeling that the whole event was a waste of time and it didn't work at all. So I can't even share with you are silly registry.
Still, it was fun. Home Outfitters was not fun, it was serious and took forever adn we're still not done and chosing a plate set is not my idea of time well spent. Why can't I just have money if people are giving gifts anyway? I find the whole etiquette shit frustrating.
I want a cookie.
Does anyone know how to not archive comments in MT? I'm getting far too much span in my archived comments and I don't really need to keep comments forever and ever and ever. Amen.
Hurricane Ivan is expected to hit the the south-east coast of the US sometime tomorrow.
You're right. It really does sound dumb.
I've been doing some research for work and have come across a few news sites for the Oil and Gas Industry. One of the top stories is several terrorist attacks in Turkey, one being at an LNG plant - yet the top story at canada.com is the hockey lockout, Martha Stewart and the hurricane with no mention of said attacks. We really don't care about terrorist attacks unless they're in our own backyard I guess. Unless, of course, it involves a school seige. I never thought you'd have to up the shock value of a terrorist attack to make the front page of the news.
Entropy, Saffron and I arrived at Grandma's house just after 11:00 on Saturday in one piece. Tired and cranky but safe and sound. I don't think you could ask for more than that.
The drive was long. Bloody long. And there was construction and a horrific accident so that added about two hours to the the whole trip. I hate the stretch near Chilliwack to Vancouver. Those folks drive like crazies. Big city driving doesn't please me, that's why the big cities have fantastic public transportation (except Calgary, which doesn't so you have to drive).
The cats were fantastic though. Entropy stopped the non-stop crying around Golden, Alberta and then just occassionally let out a whine if she was disturbed from her sleep. Saffron took it all in stride, like he usually does.
The kittens seemed to be happy at Grandma's when I left them there on Sunday. I'm planning on a quick trip to Grandma's tonight to check in, clean the box, and all that jazz. I think they'll enjoy staying at Grandma's and hopefully Grandma won't go mad from their constant sleeping and whatnot :).
I'm working in a cubicle in Steve's office building and that seems to be working out. Still getting used to being around people all day, every day (I became a bit of a hermit in Spruce Grove) but so far, so good. We're only on Day 2 so I can't really predict the future. There's a lot of free, fattening food happening though that could get real dangerous, real quick. So far today I've had a cookie, half a chocolate bar, a handful of chocolate covered almonds and there's quite the spread going on over at the kitchen involving aged cheddar, crackers, more chocolate, fruit of every description and nuts. I think I gained 5 lbs in the last two days just eating the free food. I'm avoiding the kitchen spread since I really don't need to eat anything else right now.
In the end, if I hate it here at the office, or I gain a 1000 lbs, I'll just pack up and work from home.
Home is a room in the suite that Steve's buddy is renting. It's cheap, but not especially ideal. For one, none of my stuff is there. I prefer to cook in my own pots and have all my bathroom essentials taking up every square inch of the bathroom. Secondly, we're sleeping on an air mattress. The dog's bed is farther off the ground than my own is. And it's an air mattress. You can imagine how comfortable that is. Our own beds are stuffed at the very back of the storage unit we've rented so unless I can dream up some sort of alternative sleeping arrangements, the air mattress is it. The other downside is that the other animals and people tend to keep Vegas excited a lot of the time which I'm finding rather annoying. Maybe he was always excited and I just don't remember, but now he's HUGE (like 80 lbs plus huge) so it's annoying to have a 80 lb puppy bouncing off the walls, pawing you for attention, and just basically always, ALWAYS moving. He's still cute as all hell. I just love his floppy ears and tail wagging ways. The other creatures we're sharing the house with are all really wonderful. There are four indoor cats that are really lovely, and two more dogs that are so sweet and very, very well trained but still very spoiled like all dogs should be :). More spoiled than Vegas, they're allowed on the couch (and Vegas is NOT, I'm very strict about that)!
That's the update. Long and boring, the best way to know that things are as they should be.
I'm off to the mild British Columbian coast and won't be online until Monday (I think!).
Wish me and my little, annoying car luck!
(ps: Lisa, I'll have to stop by another time, as it turns out I'm going to be going through Vancouver and catching the ferry immediately to get to the island so I can go to work again on Monday. Sucky work. We'll have to get together soon though, since we'll be so close to each other!)
What's fun is driving along the busiest stretch of highway in Alberta at the end of the long weekend and being 80 kms outside the nearest town and seeing your battery light go on.
Then willing and praying and reasoning with your car to make it that 80 kms and watching the light flick on and off and on and off, finally staying on, then watching as your headlights dim and brighten, then dim, and finally fade out and climaxing with the car dying completely right under the exit sign to the town you were trying to get to. The exit sign lets you know that the exit you were desperately trying to get to is a couple of kilometers away.
Now, get out of your very dead car that won't turn over or give any form of life at all (not even the god-damn interior light so you can find your purse) on the side of the busiest highway with cars whirling pass you at 140 km/hr. Put up your pathetic little orange triangle and haul up the hood making it obvious you're broken down and need help.
Then sort of stand there for a bit looking pathetic because surely, at 10 o'clock at night, someone is going to feel mighty sorry for you and give you a lift into town. On the busiest stretch of highway where there are oodles and oodles of people passing by.
Curse and swear bitterly when no one stops or even glances at you shaking your fist at them.
When that fails, start walking along said highway, in the dark cold night, with sandles on, into town. An hour later, after walking through some assholes shit from their trailer's septic tank and cursing every bloody car that whizzes pass you but doesn't stop to offer you a lift, you arrive at a 24 hour gas station and can finally call a tow truck. Wait around another half an hour or so (not that you really know since you don't have a watch or anything), and spend another hour and a half retrieving piece-of-shit car and drive the remaining 100 kms to your house with a tow truck driver that is very excited about cars because you know, right now, you just love cars.
oh, and hand over $200 for the experience.
Now that's a good time.
I'm going to bed. It would be wise that if you decide to interact with me at all tomorrow it is only to tell me that you either a) love me or b) think I'm beautiful.
For The Record:
There has been some question as to whether or not I had the cd player on and the heat fan going. Yes, I did. It was cold and the drive is boring. That is, I did right up until the battery light started flashing and then everything that uses the battery was turned off in a mad panic to preserve precious battery juices. I am an idiot, but not that big of an idiot. I didn't turn off my headlights because, well, it was dark and that would be dangerous.
Man, things just keep getting worse.
Some time ago I took one of my wedding invitations in it's envelope to the post office to determine how much it was going to cost to mail. The post office clerk told me 2 stamps. Excellent - 2 stamps is very doable so I go ahead and make 70 invitations, pack them all up and address most of my envelopes.
Today I take 40+ invitations to the post office and the guy tells me it is going to be a minimum of $5.05 an invite. I have over 70 invitations and the cost goes up for all those invites that are farther away than Calgary. $5.05?!!!! That's a far cry from 2 - $0.49 stamps. We're talking $350 to mail invitations that only cost me $150 to make!
I was a moment away from tears. I just spent $1400 on my car, I don't have another $400 lying around to spend on stamps (essentially) and the whole reason I made my invites was to save money. I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't have made my odd shaped invites if they didn't mislead me about the cost. Apparently a new clerk is to be blamed for the misinformation and I'm to cough up an awful lot of money for paper.
I'm tempted to put two stamps on the thing and see if it reaches the destination but I'm afraid my poor Grandma will have 70 invites sent to her house for lack of postage.
Steve and I were toying with the idea of hand delivering most of the Calgary invitations because let's face it, at this point I'm not making new invitations and re-addressing another 70 envelopes but I can't decide if that is just too un-traditional. Should I just suck it up and pay the money to have them mailed? If I had been remiss is figuring out postage I would say that was the most obvious option, but for once I wasn't a total airhead and I'm still suffering. Should I hand deliver as many as I can? Can you see any other option that I'm missing? I considered calling Canada Post and making a scene but Steve figured that was a waste of my time and energy. Mom thought I could call and inquire to see if I had other options that were less expensive.
The other confusing bit is I sent an invite to the US and two to England while I was there (figured I better do at least that) and they only cost $4 to mail. Of course it's the slowest possible mail route and it's going to take 2 months to get there (they are invites to people I know aren't coming) but why is it cheaper to mail to the US? I was so upset that I didn't even think to ask.
~sigh~
It never fails, no matter how many times I go through this process the paralegal (or whatever they're called) always pisses me off. It's this attitude like because they've called you, you're suppose to drop absolutely everything you're doing to cater to their every whim.
And how did we manage to make something as simple as buying a house so bloodly complicated. First she was pissed off that Steve isn't in Spruce Grove (I'm sure I told her, but let's assume I didn't), then today, at 11:00 am she sends me an email stating that she faxed all these documents to Steve and he's to sign them, have them witnessed, and then stamped by a notary and couriered back to the office immediately and as soon as she has them, I'm to come into the office to sign. Doesn't inquire about my schedule, like say, am I even going to be in town when this happens (highly unlikely if you want the truth).
This was all on email. On fucking email. She doesn't call and talk to me directly, she emails. And even if I didn't tell her Steve wasn't in town, she acted like I made her life unbearable because she had to redo the documents. It's a fucking template!! Honestly, I'm not buying the poor pitiful paralegal act. I'd feel a smidge guilty except I actually remember the conversation where I told her that Steve wasn't here and we'd have to fax the information and gave her the fax number (which she lost) so she knew, she just wasn't listening.
There's also the small little tidbit of well, Steve isn't in his office today. Imagine that, he's not at her beck and call. Of course, she hasn't called me or passed any of this by me, or even called Steve for that matter, just faxed all this shit to his office and then sends me an email. At 11:00 am and expects it to be couriered back to her office sometime this afternoon so it arrives first thing this morning. Color me crazy, but she's had two days to do this, but Steve is suppose to track down a notary republic in a few hours while he's at a mill?
These people make me crazy. The thing that gets me, if they actually treated us with a little bit of respect I wouldn't be pissed off. I'd gladly do all this shit completely understanding that you have to when you sell or buy a house. It's the attitude of the people you deal with at the lawyers office that never fails to get under my skin and piss me off.