My siblings impress

My siblings are all blogging. Well not Grud but she will be the hold out for sure.

I keep reading my sister Chach's blog and being blown away by her mad sewing skills and creativity. I feel like I'm looking at items from an Instyle magazine for les enfants. Each item has a cool story about how and why it was made. I think she needs to start a business. Seriously. I look at the stuff and my ovaries hurt. Way too cute and the tie in with being sustainable makes it doubly great.

Now Richard's blog just makes me double over with laughter and wish she would compile it all into a book or start writing a column in the globe and mail. People need to read this stuff. And the props to my infrequent cooking don't hurt.

The golden boy writes about the family meal and while the subject isn't high on my list of interests (as I barely cook for myself and often get stuck with cereal for dinner) I love the occasional glimpse of my niece and nephew and the stories about them. I also like trying to interpret what the Japanese food is that they are eating. I feel proud of the cultural melting pot that is my brother's family. Pizza and udon.

Joey is the busiest sibling but has committed to attempting to keep us informed of her life when she has a moment. No pressure. She is just getting her master's and working so she must have hours to spare to write about her life.

This is so much better than facebook. I am tired of reading about people's lives in the format of 'X is tired', 'X is wishing it was Friday', 'X is confused'. Give me the whole story or none I say.

Short week, long week

The four day work week seemed frantic. Not sure where it went but I didn't bring my laptop home at all so I was SOL on blogging.

My latest project is selling my road bike. I am not working hard enough at it; one posting at work and one posting on craigslist does not a sale make. It also makes me sad to think of letting it go; I feel like I need to verify that the new owner will treat her well.

Made a real effort to go out this evening. Instead of getting home and then talking myself out of heading out for the evening I just kept moving and forced myself back out the door. Before I knew it I was at Toby's with a pint of Strongbow in hand and a room full of people I apparently know from work. I would guess there was 40 people there and I knew maybe 12 of them. Still, felt good about going and the yam fries were great. Kristin and Niina accompanied me to social engagement #2 of the evening; ironcops fundraiser. My cop friend is doing ironman and it isn't enough that the cops actually train for and complete the ironman but they decide to raise a bunch of money for cancer research as well. Way to overachieve.

So I was invited to catch up with A (the cop) and potentially check out the talent. It turned out none of the guys were in uniform. Many of them were in fact having their heads shaved or legs waxed to raise money for cancer research. The leg waxing was painful to watch. Some of them had not trimmed the leg hair and the area was gone over a few times.

Good evening. Must make effort to keep the momentum going on Fridays. Must also remember to have dinner rather than a few snacks as it is midnight and my stomach is growling and I just can't eat before going to bed.

Brunch and burn

Wicked Sunday. In my move to save money and enjoy life I made breakfast for R rather than us meeting up for brunch at a restaurant. I must say, I did a great job. Used my new egg poachers and made the lattes. We worked out that the cost for each meal of toast, two poached eggs, bacon, oranges and latte was approximately $2.50. Can you beat that? We then went to Pure Nail Bar for pedicures. I mean, I saved so much on brunch why shouldn't I throw $35 away on a pedicure? I am starting to think I need to go somewhere else to have someone deal with my feet. I just wasn't that impressed. They had a great episode of Sex and the City playing and there were some nice trashy magazines but I'm not convinced that my feet are that much better off. I'll have to test out some other nail salons to compare.

There is nothing that says to me more that I am no longer an athlete living off of $500 per month than the fact that I can afford a pedicure. It is essentially throwing money away. It is something I could do myself but I choose to pay someone to hover over my toes and fix my funky pinkie toenail that seems to grow an extra piece off the side. It makes me feel adult to spend money like this. But I don't get manicures because I wreck them as soon as I leave the salon.

R and I then went to sun ourselves and burn our fair Scottish skin. I now have a very odd burn on my legs that goes to just above the knee because I was wearing capris. I had hopes that my legs would be tan enough from the one day of sun that I could wear a skirt to work tomorrow. Now I have lobster skin and won't be able to attempt the skirt for a few weeks.

The rest of the day was spent reading a book and then hanging out at R and C's and drinking a couple of glasses of wine. A perfect Sunday.

Sun, wine and nice meal

It is hot in Vancouver. Like Africa hot. I think I got a burn today and I spent very little time outside. I try to remind myself that I am Scottish and while I love a nice tan my skin does not.

I procrastinated slightly on the gym this morning but it didn't seem to impact the overall time lines of the day. Met up with R and we took the bus to North Van to check out the wine store. I committed to buying only 2 bottles and spending no more than $50 but bought 4 bottles and spent just over $50. Decided to sample the cheaper wines and see if I could find a favorite to use as my 'house' wine.

The selection was awesome and it was a good thing we arrived on public transport...if we had had a car with us we would have been tempted to buy by the box.

R and I then went to Indigo across the street and I bought a book on Beijing so I can study up on what I want to see when I am there. I realise most of my time will be eaten up by travelling to and fro from the rowing course but there should be at least one day of no rowing when I plan to take in some sites.

We headed back downtown and had lunch at the Library Square pub. The burger was awesome! Not sure if I was really hungry but it was well above average. The soup was boring and we saved on the meal by using the entertainment book coupon. Am committing to using these more often. Not eating out more often just making sure that when I do I try to go somewhere with a coupon.

I lazed about reading the paper and R made an amazing meal for M, H and I on her wedding china. It was awesome. Tomato basil soup with homemade croutons, a wicked salad with figs, feta and hazelnuts on a bed of mixed greens, some amazing tarts with cheese, onion and pancetta (see photo) followed by a homemade rhubarb and strawberry sorbet with a homemade oatmeal cookie. I feel like I ate a 4 star restaurant and all I contributed to the meal was a very average bottle of red wine. Good thing Rachel enjoys cooking.

the decadence of alone time

Roommate is away for the entire weekend! I am 'working from home' tomorrow and this means I have the place to myself for 3 whole nights. And my roommate filled the propane tank for my new bbq so I can test it out this weekend. Looking forward to some sunshine and vitamin D. It always puts me in a great mood.

Got a great phone call from my best friend who lives in TO. We've been unable to connect on the phone due to the time difference and the fact that I was kicked off my free cell phone plan that previously allowed me to call anywhere in North America at any time of day. We got caught up and she confirmed that she is planning on attending Stampede. July is going to be a banner month with catching up with all my rowing friends in Calgary and then seeing a few of those still competing in Beijing. Fingers crossed they qualify the 8!

My only other plans for this weekend are to check out this store called Everything Wine in North Vancouver. I am going to have to restrain myself big time. Aiming to leave with no more than 2 bottles and spend less than $50.

As I don't normally use the living room or get home early enough for TV I am now going to relax with a glass of wine and watch the season finale of the Office.

I don't like eggs benedict

Had an average mother's day brunch at a place called So.Cial. I realized I don't like eggs Benedict; I hadn't had them before and I just thought it would be some great sauce on poached eggs on an english muffin. It was gross. And the potatoes were overcooked. Very disappointing.

Post-lunch I went with my mother to the Lululemon on 4th ave and she used a gift certificate the sibs gave her for her birthday. We picked out a nice pair of capris that I am sure she will love and wear daily like every other female in Vancouver. After I saw her off I went and shopped for wines; got the great blend Deaf Galah that I had at Gotham earlier in the week. It was awesome and I am psyched for the day I break that bottle open. At $30 a bottle that won't be anytime soon.

My financial diet is not going well. I had this great women's financial support group get together a few weeks ago that should have inspired me to start saving. Instead I bought a gift certificate for a couch (basically a savings because the gift certificate is for $1500 and I got it for $761), a bbq (again, through sales and free gift certificates I got $365 worth of product for $65) and then went on a shopping bonanza in Seattle. I picked up 6 pairs of shoes, a frame for my BA, lululemon pants (cheaper in the states!), 2 bottles of wine, some University gear to show my support as an alumni and makeup from Sephora. Total amount spent was around $700 but I don't really know because when I started to tally I thought I was going to throw up so I stopped. I also went away on two weekend vacations. I ate at a nice steakhouse this week but my date paid so maybe with that and all of the other great deals I am breaking even... Now I am buying wine like there is rumour we are running out of grapes.

Long time...no blog

My home computer has crashed. It stalls out after I log-in. Since I don't drag my work laptop home each night I haven't been blogging. I was also away the last two weekends...photos to be posted as soon as my computer is working. Currently blogging from R's. I am inspired by her blog. She is a gifted writer and makes me laugh out-loud. I am not just saying this because she also references my life in her blog.

And yes, I totally copied her blog style. We are twins...I have been known to follow her lead.

Looking forward to a weekend at home cleaning and putting together my new bbq. The first bbq I have ever purchased. Very exciting and grown up. Of course I have no car and will have to ask my roommate to take the propane tank to get it filled since there is no way I can carry I full propane tank for a kilometer. I USE to be an elite athlete...USE to be.