On the ship

Strangely enough my pics of the boat are far more interesting than the pics of the ports! Do you see the dolphins? The white bit just right of centre is a dolphin splashing back into the water. You will just have to take my word for it. I saw lots of Pelicans, Sea Lions, Dolphins, lots of Grey whales and 3 flying fish.



Linda Sutherland gave Sarah a gift certificate for the boat's casino. After losing on the 25 cent machines, Sarah spotted the 5 cent slots. We quickly won. I won 400 nickles 3 or 4 times. But of course I didn't walk out of there a winner.


The view looking down on the more expensive staterooms. We were on the top floor, there was no one looking down on us.







Sarah do you regret this shot? She thought it would be so funny to take pictures of herself in the bathroom. Alcohol was probably involved.

Puerto Vallarta

Hello Puerto Vallarta! A pirate ship AND a Walmart! Walmart was the first stop as Judy's luggage was lost.



We went to a corn tortilla shop. The best tortillas I have ever eatten! Here's dad grabbing some 2 Kg for the road.



A shot of the streets

Mazatlan

Me in Mazatlan. Sarah and I wandered all morning looking for something to do. All the restaurants, pubs and stores were closed. All the hotels were deserted. Huricane Paul was on it's way!



The seas were angry


Sarah and I decided to go back to the ship and try to get in at the spa. This the view from our balcony before the storm hit.


And this is about 30 minutes later. This isn't fog its rain. I have never seen anything like it.

Cabo

Our last port was Cabo- By far our best port.

We finally fit in some beach time. We hired a little glass bottom boat to take us out.

Judy's nephew Lee, Dad and Lee's mom Venita


Pelicans! They are so cute!


A rock that is supposed to look like the Baja


It was pretty rough out there. A few times I thought we might tip, especially when our tourguide started bailing water! This is the famous Cabo rock formation that probably has a name.


Seal Lions! Sunning themselves on the rocks


Leaveing Cabo- some random shots from the ship

Right in the middle of this shot is the beach-side bar that we hung out at and caught the glass bottomed boat and the water taxi home.


The waves splashing up on Divorce beach, the other side of the rocky island was nice and calm- it was called Lover's beach



Leaving port- check out the awesome beaches. I would definately come back to Cabo

Bon Voyage!

Back in a week.

The bookshelves

These pictures sort of capture the space shortage for books I have. Double ply books. This bookshelf is in one of my closets. Luckily I have more storage space than actual living space.

Salem

Sadly I have nothing new to report. I'm studying like crazy for midterms and trying to do everything before the cruise. The only thing I've taken pics of lately is Salem.

Salem on the balcony


Salem in a box


Salem checking out the new Chinese latern Suds gave me.

She isn't as photogenic as Lexi, but she has less practice. She's been watching America's Next Top Model to learn about 'smiling with her eyes' and giving a 'fierce look'!

more stuff

Santa Claus Suds came to visit yesterday! He brought with him my new fancy Coach purse- Love it!




And I also got a matching wallet! Love it!


And I also got luggage for my trip!

It has some fancy locking mechanism where the zipper pull tabs are locked, and it has a combination type lock to undo it. Very fancy.



And this is just strange. I put my water bottle in the dishwasher and it came out smaller! Below is the normal size and the shrunken one beside it. Isn't that so strange? I think I like the smaller size better, but I'm a little scared about drinking from it.


See how much more fun my blog is now that I have camera!!! BTW it is a fuji A400

More books up for grabs

I have done a small cull of my books.
-Do you like Grisham books? I have about 8-10 paperback copies that are mostly in good condition. It's not worth it for me to store them any longer- there are around 300 copies of each for sale on Amazon- selling one of my Grisham books would be like winning the lotto. If you want them- and you don't live in Moncton (sorry Micah the postage would kill me) they are free for the taking.
Also up for grabs
- moving beyond words by gloria steinem
- about 15 VC Andrews books
- some older daniel steeles and jackie collins books that are on their last legs condition-wise
- stephen king and Clancy are next on the cull list- I have about 20 of them. if you want them
- Slow waltz in cedar bend by robert james waller- he wrote bridges of madison county- I think I have a couple more books of his that can be taken too.
-wanna learn the fine art of microwave cooking? Well if this describes you, boy do I have the cookbook for you!!
- The English Patient- apparently the book is better than the movie

-I have about 800 books for sale, and about 500 books to be given away. I might have the book that you've been searching for. I would love to getr rid of some

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am a sucker for materialism. I bought myself a digital camera.

I snapped 2 pics:
The first is Salem in her favorite hibernating place- under the covers of my bed


The second is a flower in my garden. There is some sort of flower mode that I wanted to try out. I think that the extreme flower close up is pretty good. Up until now I've had hand-me-down 35mm cameras. This picture has convinced me that a digital camera is superior.

After taking these 2 pics I tossed the camera in my bag a la Shannon -who seems to not leave the house without her camera. I went to Whitney's for a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. I brought along my webcam so sarah and ryan could join in. It was great that they got to be there. It still sometimes blows me away how much technology has changed in my short lifetime.
I completely forgot about my new digital camera until whitney was walking me to the bus stop. Here she is in her slippers, new coat and a mug full of bailey's with a splash of coffee. Directly across from Whitney are 3 cop cars- needless to say she is re-thinking the mug of alcohol and the slippers on Denman street!!!

Cruise paid for - with creative math!

This is the diamond princess. The ship that I will be on in 3 weeks!

I was telling someone my strategy for quitting smoking. My idea was to take the money that would have been spent on ciggy's and reward myself instead. I did do that for the first couple of months very happily. But after a while I forgot. I might have still spent the money, but I stopped thinking of it as a reward.

So anyways. I was doing the math. I spent about $1000 a year on cigs. October is my one year mark. add that to the $571.78 from book sales and taa daaa! Cruise is paid for! ....well .... sort of.

I saw you! Now please go away!

I love I saw you's. Sometimes there are funny. I like this one.

I think I saw you jogging along my street...
You, tall and lumbering with a Charlie Brown head. It was dark, and I am not used to seeing you without the playstation thingee in your hand and the couch under your ass. If that was you, quit it. It's just poor form to display your sweaty self "accidently on purpose" to the girlfriend of five years that you broke up with while she was cleaning out the kitty litter. Go jog on your own street. Later, heartbreaker.

Meow

http://www.stuffonmycat.com/

If you loved cats in sinks, then you'll love stuff on my cat.com!


I give up! I give up!



The softest baby wipe yet!



Do I fit into my skinny jeans yet?

PLUG

Yesterday I had a customer who is some sort of Halloween expert. He works in the film industry and I think does huge halloween displays. He comes in every year and buys a thousand dollars worth of decorations.

He also goes around and shops for halloween best buys. Shoppers has been a best buy the last few years we had some anatomically correct skeletons that were reasonable. I believe the website guy has used our skeletons as movie props. This year we have cool looking skulls. Check out his website- it has lots of links to cool halloween related websites. http://www.vancouverhalloween.com/

Catching y'all up

Doesn't it seem like all of a sudden summer is over and autumn is here? Wool socks are now in high rotation, time to put away the flip-flops.


Micah- you little love bird. My step-sister is getting married on a Princess cruise to Mexico. A bunch of people are going. We leave Oct 21 st for a week.

Cathy- It seems it's just your comments that don't show up immediately. Very strange.

Anyways...
It's no secret that I dislike my job and have been looking for something else. My summer job search was disappointing. My employer is hiring 50 new employees in the next week I have no desire to train that many people. In the last month 5 out of 6 of the management people have either quit or gone on long-term medical leave (including the store owner) and all of the pharmacists have quit except one (who is now also working 7 days a week.) I feel bad for my boss who has been working 7 days a week. Up until now I have been working as the Assistant Head Cashier, but I can't keep working 4 days a week while going to school full time. So I began taking courses through my work. Starting sometime in October I will be working as a Pharmacy Technician- less responsibility, and more money. My plan is to gain some experience and then apply elsewhere. We'll see how it works out. Clearly I need to jump this sinking ship!

Don't you just love electronic tracking!?

My laptop is almost here! It just got scanned at the Richmond sorting plant. So I should get it tomorrow. What did people do before electronic tracking? Stay at home never knowing when their package might arrive.

I found a toonie on the way home. I think these are 2 good things that are suppose to cancel out the bad day at work. My 4 hour shift on my day off turned into a 7 hour day, no breaks, 3 new employees, 1 one day door crasher sale and one asshole employee that ended in me threatening to write him up when all I really want to do is punch him. So after checking Shannon's blog and seeing the Dalai Lama pic. I think nothing will fix today except reggae played too loudly and canning pears- lots of pears. My neighbours must really wonder about me, they must think I'm a rasta.

Woo Hoo!

I sold 2 textbooks tonight! I'm thrilled since I haven't sold any of the texts I thought I would. BUT...The 2 text I sold are ones that I used at Douglas College. I have a fear that the idiot buyers have bought the wrong edition. As long as they don't return the books I will have had a record setting few weeks. Only another $900 to go and the cruise will be paid!


For some reason comments are not showing up right away. When I publish a new post then all the comments that have been left since the last time I published show up. I don't know why. But don't stop commenting! I'll try to fix it.

The odds are 1 in 1 688 000

So this is the PNE prize home. I'm going to win it. I went to the PNE on Friday with Ryan, who was here for 2 days. We got to the PNE just before it opened and ran to the prize home to walk through before the line got too long. There were parts of it that I loved, and parts that I hated, but I'll take a free house gladly. The house is really just a rancher, but there is an small open loft-like room on the second floor. Ryan and I agreed that it was a waste of space, they should have made it the master bedroom. We both bought 5 tickets for $25, but I just realized we are total idiots! The tickets are 5 for $25 or 15 for $50, we could have got an extra 5 tickets for the same price! Oh well.



I also bought my self a laptop! I can't afford a nice one, since I have to pay for the cruise. But I did get one that will hopefully get me through the next year of classes. This way I'll be able to get more work done while I'm stuck at school and of course work on my term papers, which will be due just after the cruise. I will actually be one of those horrible people that take their laptops on vacation! I chose the Gateway computer because the Toshiba is $150 more this week. Unfortunately I won't receive the computer for more than a week, as it isn't released until the 8th (pre-sales.)

The best cobbler EVER!

As the title hints at, yes, I have found a to die for Blackberry Cobbler recipe.

Let's call it:

Hilary's Blackberry Cobbler

1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbs cold butter
1/4 cup boiling water
2 tbs cornstartch
1/4 cup cold water
1 tbs lemon juice
4 cups fresh cleaned blackberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil
in a large bowl mix the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 1/4 cup boiling water just until the mixture is evenly moist.
In a separate bowl dissolve the cornstarch in cold water. Mix in remaining 1 cup sugar, lemon juice and blackberries. Transfer to a cast rion skillet, and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Drop dough into the skillet by spoonfulls. place skillet on the foil linned baking sheet.
Bake 25 minuted until the dough is golden brown


But whatever. That's too much work. So what I did was:

Mix all the ingredients as it says. But I don't have a cast iron skillet so I put the sugar berry mix into a pyrex dish and did not cook it, as it will cook in the oven anyways. It was recommended that you double the dough recipe, which I did. I would also cut the sugar down a bit, maybe 1 cup total. Also if you double the dough you have to cook it for longer. It took about 35 minutes

Update

Well in response to the many inquiries I received, today I went back to see what was in the duffle bag. It was GONE. I'm so happy because the last thing I want to do was get close to it!

This last week, I met up with Theresa who is visiting en route to Taiwan to teach English. We had a very nice long walk around the sea wall, through stanley park on some trails, and around and around the west end. Add it all up we probably did close to 20 Km! We topped the day off with sushi and met up with her Vancouverite friend who did not know a single landmark in Vancouver. Lost Lagoon-nope, Denman- nope. Georgia-nope. Second beach-nope. Needless to say meeting up with this person was exceedingly difficult!

I also went to the BCCOM show and shine on Sunday. It was amazing! I didn't expect such a huge show, or such crowds. Good job Shannon. I watched Jim Byrnes play, which was awesome, and then I sat 3 feet away from him as he chilled between sets. Darren scored a table on an patio with the perfect view of the stage and the loner guy who danced the entire time by himself! Clearly this guy was feeling the music. Unfortunately his girlfriend wasn't feeling it when he pulled her up infront of the crowd for a little bump n'grind. ewww. We also met Otto from Norway, a businessman here for a month. Very nice man, we enjoyed talking to him. I think he just didn't know what to make of the North American bike culture.

gluttony

Doesn't anyone know how to make pies anymore?

Screw selling books, I should sell pies! Everyone should learn how to make pies, it's so easy. Well maybe instead of doing canning for Xmas, I'll make frozen pies. I'll go for the tri-fector for Shannon, Blackberry pie with goat cheese and post-its.

My secret dream is to own a goat farm and make expensive cheese. Good to know there is another goat cheese fiend out there, I'll need a taste tester.

ever feel like you're in a movie?

Well for some reason I haven't been able to upload pictures onto my blog for a while. Sarah had the same problem a while ago- I assumed it was something she was doing, apparently not!

I was trying to upload a picture of blackberries. The fruit not the tech-gadget. There is maybe a week or so left in this years blackberry season. Get outside and pick some! It has always been a little scary picking blackberries as there are tons of coyotes in the ravine. However this year apparently there is a cougar in the ravine as well. I find it hard to believe. It was sighted a few weeks ago- apparently. Although today I thought I found a body...

I pick behind queen's park hospital, not actually in the ravine, but along the edge of it. In some spots there are trails that go down into the ravine. I was near one of these when I saw what I thought was the upper half of a person in a little clearing in the middle of the blackberry bushes. After a few deep breaths for courage, I took a closer look. It was a rather large duffel bag that was stuffed full. I have no idea what's in there, I was too scared to look. But I figured if there was some poor soul stuffed in the duffel bag it would probably smell. Who knows. If it's still there next time maybe I'll give it a kick or something. In movies duffel bags either contain bodies or unmarked american money...

If your curious I'm making blackberry jam and pies.

shameless self promotion

I have a huge book donation. The freecycle website has come through again for me. I just picked up about 200 books from 2 people on Agnes street. Since I don't drive this presented a problem! I borrowed a really good granny cart from Nana (it actually collapses small enough to fit in a grocery bag.) So I was able to lug all those books home. The strange thing is that some guy actually follwoed me the entire way uphill from Agens at St. Mary's all the way through the park, down pathways, all the way to ginger drive! Freak alert! (some middle aged guy) The books were so heavy if he'd offered to pull my cart I might have said yes!!

I am hoping for a good month of sales, as August is a huge month for textbook sales. With some luck I might get the bloody cruise paid for! So remember if you have any books to donate, let me know! Now that I have a sexy cart, I might just be able to pick-up! Thanks to Dad, Judy, Cathy, Sarah and Whitney for their donations. Actually I can't remember if Sarah has actually given me any books, but she should!!! hahaha!

¢ ¢

This is what I learned today:

press ALT and then type 0162
and that's how to get a ¢ sign!!!!
I have always wondered how! Tell everyone you know

millions of apples, apples for free

hey!
Do you know how to can applesauce?
Neither do I.

I have been looking online for recipe but all the ones I found say that you have to strain the apple mush. I don't want to (mostly because I don't want to buy a strainer.) I don't actually like applesauce- especially since I'm allergic to apples, but I promised Nana I would make her some in exchange for the apples. So if anyone has a kick-ass recipe, let me know. Thanks!

Kassie

Today Shannon told Kassie how they are going to go for a trip on a ferry so big that they can drive their car on it. Kassie started to get upset and said she didn't want to go. So Shannon keeps telling her how much fun it will be, how big the ferry is and how they are going to go to an island. At this point Kassie is almost crying. Finally Kassie says that they only 'ferry' she's ever seen is Tinkerbell, and she doesn't think she wants to see a fairy that is big enough to carry the car! Isn't that the cutest!!!

Nearly Grown Up...

To answer the question once and for all.
How Much Longer Are You Going To Be At SFU?
I have 30 credits to go which is at MOST 10 classes. At the very least it is 6 and a half classes. Do I see the light at the end of the tunnel? No. I'm still scared to death that'll flunk out and finally admit to being a lifer at shoppers. That's scarier than the shining and nightmare on elm street!

cruiser chicks

Sarah and I went for a cruise around coal harbour and the sea wall monday. We decided that having super cute bikes made it much more fun. We borrowed the bikes from Justis- they are for sale in his shop The Denman Bike Shop. I have to admit that when I saw the price of the bikes I was more than a little nervous!!!! As Sarah said on her website, we only had one helmet (which Sarah wore) I was more worried about damaging the bike then I was my head.
I think I look super cute on the bike! After a few blocks I got use to back peddle brakes.
Out front of Whit's place. Justis gave me an earful about how I shouldn't be wearing flip flops on a bike. We were both wearing flip flops until I called Sarah to tell her about the shoe clearance going on at the bay! Big mistake, that girl can't pass up a shoe store without buying. How can Ryan possibly think she only owns 20 pairs?!!

In this heat Slurpies are considered required

Just a quick update for those not in Van City. Sarah is back in town, and I always get lazy updating the blog. Anyways, I watched some of the baseball tourney (which they won) got a fairly wicked sunburn and ate far too much sushi. I went and saw Pirates of the Carribean, not as good as the first, but I think thte 3rd one will be really good. Number 2 seems to be just a build up to #3.

Sarah, Ryan and I also went for a day trip up to Whistler- It was a long trip because of the construction, it was nice I haven't been there in years. We stopped for cheese sticks in Squamish I remember them being soo much better. We also stopped off at Warren and Karens in Brakendale and met D-Boz the Pit Bull. The dog has some bad manners! He would run around growling with a ball in his mouth and then run up behind you and while you're standing there, and shove his head in between your knees!

Nana turned 90 on Monday, I went out for possibly the worst food ever at the jiffy wiffy waffle house. It was my first time there, hopefully the last! I also went and picked the apples off her tree, but it's too hot to do any canning, the thought of turning the canning pot on....ugh! Hopefully the weather will change-otherwise I won't get any canning done.

Last night I went to laugh lines- the headliner was really good. The warm up act was a 73 year old gramma. It felt really wrong to laugh at her, and all her jokes were really raunchy, which made it even more uncomfortable. There was hardly any AC in the club, I think I lost about 10 pounds in sweat! I think the club did it on purpose, I didn't even bat an eye at the $7.50 drinks.

As I'm sure everyone in Vancouver is already aware, It is SMOKING hot here. Bus journey's are no longer enjoyable. There are lots of deoderant ads on the bus and skytrain, but I swear no one in Vancouver has ever used any! I am actually starting to long for rain. 2 nights ago I managed to sleep a little with the help of a cold shower and an ice pack. Last night I decided to forget trying to cool my house down. Instead I made a bed on my balcony! I highly recommned it, I was actually able to sleep.

In the last 2 days I have had nearly 150 comments posted on my blog. They aren't from anyone I know. I have no idea why I'm being spammed, but it's getting to be annoying. It's not that the comments are bad- it's comments like "This blog has lots of information for a beginner like me!" They're nice, but there's just too many. So from now on when you post a comment, word verification is required. Just enter the word/letters shown. Hopefully this will stop the spammer.

Wading Through the Pox

... one child at a time. Kassie has chicken pox. Kaitlyn is coming down with the pox. The daycare kids have all been exposed. The neighbour's kids have the pox, the neighbour has the pox. Shannon is sick too. So what does this all add up to? Between 7 and 9 children with the pox, 2 out of commission mothers and one neighbour (me) who gets to run the daycare. Do you think Costco sells industrial sized calimine lotion?

Sleeping Beauty she is not!

"CLEVELAND (AP) - Officers who went to a home to serve a search warrant found a skeleton in the bed where an 80-year-old woman said her mother was sleeping.
Police believe the remains belong to woman's 98-year-old mother, who hadn't been seen in at least three years. Officers went to the home Wednesday to serve a search warrant for building, housing and health code violations, but the woman said they couldn't come inside because her mother was sleeping. After persuading her to let them in the house, the officials pulled back the blanket on the bed and found the skeleton.
The daughter, whose name was withheld until her family was notified, was taken to St. Vincent Charity Hospital.
Cuyahoga County coroner Elizabeth Balraj said Thursday she would need more information to identify the body, which showed no signs of injury.
Police Lieut. Thomas Stacho said no charges were expected. "

She must be crazy if no charges are pending. How long did she figure mom was going to sleep for?

I am shocked! Here's a pic of the guy behind cats in sinks and kitten war:


I don't think I can endorse his sites anymore. He probably has a kitten mill where he forces the kittens to be cute and pose for pictures. Very cruella de ville.

Better than cat's in sinks

I can't remember if I ever posted the www.catsinsinks.com website on the blog or not. Check it out if you like cats in sinks. Here's a sample:

But now these people have made a new site about kittens!!! http://kittenwar.com/