Clothing Swap

And then there was the clothing swap!

Sarah in a Golden Girls inspired sheer shrug. I think she dug through the discard pile and took this one home with her.


Lila and Sarah managed to fit in these fat pants. I think we should email Jenny Craig!

Halloween

I went over to Shannon's this year to hand out candy. It was much more fun than sitting at home waiting for the few kids that bother climbing my stairs. There was even dry ice and a remote control fart machine!

I was the only one dressed up, I forced Sarah and Shannon to put ears on.


Shannon is the pumpkin master! I'm sure that she took some sort of advanced carving class.


This guy was hilarious. He sang to us for a while. He totally ad-libbed a song. Total band geek.


What a nice mask.

Lock up your marshmellows!

I was eatting a marshmellow when Salem caught a whiff. She just smelled it and went crazy. It was like the marshmellow was catnip. I though ok, you want this so bad? Take a sniff. To my surprise she took a bite! That's all she got was that one bite.

A week later I come home from the cruise to find ALL my cuboard doors open. I didn't really think anything of it until I found the marshmellow bag. She had climbed in the cuboard and shredded it. Most of the marshmellows along the edges had been chewed on. I don't think she ate too many though. Now I know why she had diarrhea! So from now on marshmellows must be stored securely! Look at her eyes in the second picture! She looks crazy

Katimavik

Micah and I are outraged about an email we received this week from Katimavik

"Last July, we were informed that the Treasury Board had approved funding only until August 2007, the end of our current program year. Due to the review of social programs initiated by the current government, we were further advised that a decision concerning our longer term status would only be communicated to us in January 2007. We have also been directed to cease any recruitment activities until further notice. "

Thank you Mr. Harper.

I personally believe that Katimavik is a valuable program. It would be a shame if the program was cancelled again. You know I'm all about the letter writting right? Sample form letters can be found at: http://www.fundingstatus.katimavik.org/support/index/ Almost 2000 letters have been sent in the last 4 days (mine waas letter #1638). Add your voice. I sent a letter to Mr.-hope-an-election-is-coming soon-Harper, Beverly Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women and my MP Dawn Black.

Please pass this info on to anyone you think may be interested.

LIMO

The limo picked us up at 4am. Dad and Judy surprised us with champagne and orange juice. However because our driver got lost on the way to pick us up, he was driving extra fast to get us to the airport on time. So as we try to wake up, Dad's trying to get us to pound the champagne
before we get to the airport.

Judy and Cory's partner Ryan


Cory, Judy's daughter

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.)