New Condo for Jen

Superb pancake breakfast this morning. Since Jen is fancy, she didn’t have any regular flour and ended up using a combo of 3 flours she had in the cupboard. It was the first time I ever had coconut flour. Fancy!

The morning was extra exciting because Jen bought a condo! We went to look at one final place with her agent before she settled on a property she had seen earlier in the week. We went to the Heartland Cafe so she could sign the offer. We shared a piece of carrot cake there and I had my first London Fog (Earl Grey tea, steamed milk and vanilla syrup in a latte-like frothy concoction). Not quite as exciting as buying a condo, but good none the less.

It was a tense afternoon, waiting to hear back on the condo so we went for a patio drink at the James Joyce Pub and then it was off to the airport. I insisted on taking a few pictures before leaving so I'd have some from the weekend, but we were laughing too hard.

Once my standby seat was confirmed, we still had some time, so we went to the mall to try and get Jen a bathing suit for her Palm Springs vacation next week. She doesn’t own 1 bathing suit! I’ve downsized to 5. It’s a travel essential. You never know when a hot tub party will break out. A rule as important as having audition pieces prepared at all times in case I’m ever “discovered”. Dance audition: Tapping to All that Jazz. Piano audition: Chopin waltz. Vocal audition: Oops I Did it Again. My vocals are the weakest link. Clearly, it’s what has prevented my solo career from taking off.

Jen was happy that the mall we ended up in didn’t have a Swimco and the Bay only had maybe 10 sad and oddly-sized suits, so she didn’t have to try anything on for me. This is why I buy off the Internet. One time I racked up a pretty big bathing suit bill from Victoria’s Secret. When the charges didn’t show up after a few weeks, I called back to make sure the transaction went through. They read the number back to me and it was wrong, but because the charge had gone through, they said there was nothing they could do. I would have liked to see the guy that had a $300 Victoria’s Secret charge on his credit card try to explain to his wife that it was some kind of mistake.

I had an uneventful flight home and found out the next day that Jen got her condo. Congratulations! I’m expecting photos Jen! I picture you in the new condo, with Jazz hands. Wearing a new bathing suit.

Calgary Girl Time

In the morning, Jen, Dani and I went for brunch to Diner Deluxe: sourdough French toast with berry crumble for dessert. We shared dessert so the calories didn't count. We got there just in time because the lineup was out the door by the time we left.

Jen and I went shopping for the day but the only thing I bought was a green scarf. And a Diet Pepsi. Fructose corn syrup goodness.

We were supposed to make dinner for some of Jen’s friends, Nathan and Derek, but they had to cancel because they found a bed bug in the house and didn’t want to risk contaminating anyone else. Sounds bizarre, but it’s true! Poor Nathan stayed at some infected hotel in Edmonton and has been steam cleaning everything in the house for weeks.

We ended up going for sushi at Sushi Kawa instead. I forced Jen and Dani to have sake strawberry margaritas with me. The evening ended with Sex and the City DVDs and wine. And tickle fights in our jammies, of course.

White House Disappointment

This week I'm in Reston, VA, which is right outside Washington D.C., for a conference. I came in half a day early so I could take some pictures outside the White House and around the National Mall. Turns out the Marine Corps Marathon is today so all the roads in that area are closed off. Thwarted! I wandered around the shops in the area instead and had lunch at Jacksons - beet salad, lychee cocktail and lemon meringue pie. The lunch of champions.

Hiddily Ho Neighbourinos!

Today the time came to put away summer sandals and get out the winter shoes. Boo! I've had a pair of basic black shoes for years that I wear so often there are holes in the bottom. Every year I vow to buy new shoes but I hate shoe shopping so much, especially when combined with the resulting blisters, that I end up putting it off. When I went to unpack the old shoes this time, they were gone! I threw them out last spring to force myself to buy new ones. I tricked myself! Darn you, self!

Our newest neighbours, Amy & Andrew, that moved in across the street last December had us over for dinner this evening. They also invited our second newest neighbours, Erwin & Maia. We got a tour of their house, including a bathroom that's as bad our black and green tiled monstrosity. But theirs has wood panelling! Luckily, that's just one room in their basement and the rest of the house is very nice. Amy has ties to Bekta, the #1 restaurant in Ottawa, and her cooking didn't disappoint. Squash soup, salad, pork (credit to Andrew for the meat preparation), vegetables, apple pie...! Drink highlights included white wine with cassis to start and an iced apple wine from PEI for dessert. Good thing getting home was just a short stumble away.

Overeating in Abundance

Kevin and I drove to Toronto for the Thanksgiving long weekend. Saturday was mostly spent preparing food, but we went out to dinner at Kelsey's with my brother in the evening. I had a terrible drink called a Frost Bite: mandarin and lime blended with tequila and chili flakes. It was neither spicy nor tart. Not recommended. Mike also had a really bad Caesar salad. But of course, we pretended to the server that everything was great. You can only expect so much at Kelsey's to begin with so why try to squeeze blood out of a stone?

Sunday, we got sent on an errand to Yorkdale Mall. Why was I not previously informed of this mall? They had a bunch of stores I didn't know were available in Canada: Bath & Body Works, Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma. I also had time to stop in at Bebe and H&M. I didn't buy anything, but I'm coming back. With more money.

Sunday night was the big Thanksgiving dinner - 18 people! I tried to eat a normal portion and ended up only feeling uncomfortable, rather than horribly sick. My only regret is not eating less proper dinner in lieu of more pumpkin pie. Kevin mocked everyone who took smaller pieces of pie and had a full piece of apple and pumpkin. Thus, opting for the horribly sick option.

Kevin's nieces brought the bunnies vegetable tarts. They were huge (at least for bunnies) and left grease stains on the packaging. Spuckler ate a normal portion and left the rest for later. Savvy ate the whole thing as fast as he could without stopping. Savouring just interferes with his busy day.

Bada ba boopee!

Still no hot water in the shower this morning. I used my credit card at a pay phone to call the hotel people to complain. Visa found the 30 cent charge suspicious and canceled my card. For my protection, of course.

It's our last day in Italy so we decided to shop seeing as we won't have to lug our backpacks around much longer. We debated buying a Pope hat, or if they would even sell one to us, but found out they're unbelievably expensive. So that problem solved itself. We took a picture in the window to give the illusion that I'm wearing one instead. We also passed by the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps one last time. Our bad luck continued when we went to buy tram tickets for tomorrow and the machine ripped us off and charged us for an extra ticket. Bada ba boopee! I think Italy is trying to tell us to go home.

At dinner, I have one last spaghetti and clams meal (#5). Usually there are street performers out during dinner but they stay in the middle of the square. There was a crazy woman on the loose tonight that kept standing right next to diners and "singing" opera. It was actually more like a one-note screech that she would hold for an unbelievably long time. And then expect people to give her money. She didn't do it to us, which was disappointing because I was totally in the mood to use my gypsy punch on someone.

Back at the hotel, we have hot water again but the toilet is still leaking. Counting down the hours.

San Marino

This morning, the woman working at the front desk of our hotel, Acasamia, was showing someone around and didn’t realize our room was occupied. Luckily, we were already awake and dressed, and we had warning with key fumbling noises at the door, but she was totally embarrassed when she whipped the door open on us. The unwelcome surprise may have been an omen for the day ahead.

Aside from the beach, the real reason we came to Rimini was so we could go to San Marino for the day. It’s off-season right now so 2 buses come to a stop outside the train station each hour, and that’s it. This bus trip was a true nightmare. We got to the bus station about 15 minutes ahead and the buses were already pretty much full. It seemed like people with some type of ticket were still being allowed on, but everyone else got turned away. We decided to try our luck on the bus an hour later. In the mean time we asked at the tourist office and the ticket office about getting tickets, and were told you buy them on the bus. So we planted ourselves at the curb so we’d be at the front of the line for the next one.

Well the next bus comes and the crowd starts crushing forward. We figure we’re at the front, so we should be okay. As we go to get on, the guy tells us we need tickets! Turns out about 5 minutes before the bus, some old lady comes wandering down the street, lays out her gear on the garbage can and starts selling tickets. She yells stuff so you know she’s there. In Italian. So everyone at the back of the line sees her and figures out what’s going on, but if you’ve waited an hour at the front and only speak English, you’re screwed. There were quite a few of us that missed 2 sets of buses, so the public outrage began. Eventually the ticket lady got on her phone and called for another bus, so we only had to wait about 20 minutes rather than the full hour. We met some very nice Irish people during the riot. They said they resorted to hair pulling to keep people from cutting them in line. It was a real Amazing Race experience.

Happily, San Marino was totally worth it. San Marino was the 3rd country on this vacation as it's a republic separate from Italy. It was founded in 301 by Marinus, a Christian fleeing religious persecution by the Roman Emperor. San Marino is the oldest constitutional republic in the world with the world's oldest written constitution, from 1600. It's at the top of the Apennine Mountains. I knew about it because they used to hold a Formula 1 race nearby at Imola.

There are 3 towers still standing on the cliffs. We kept taking pictures of the awesome view only to spiral up higher to an even better spot and have to do it all over again. We saw the towers, basilica and the main palace guarded by colourful military guys called the Guard of the Rock, learning for free as we went. I bought a second purse and found some Ferrari series San Marino stamps for my brother. He wanted something Ferrari from Italy that was cheap, but anything with their brand is super expensive. Ugly screened t-shirts are often €80 and toys are at least €60. It only gets worse if you want something nice or useful. Although I was tempted, I refrained from buying a cane that had a built-in bicycle bell and booze holder. I'll have to come back at retirement age.

We didn’t want to press our luck by taking the last bus and getting stuck hotel-less in San Marino, so we only stayed a few hours. This gave us some time to walk downtown Rimini and view more assorted historical sites.

When we got back we had some wine in the room before dinner. I ended the day by throwing my plastic purse from Canada in the garbage. The leatheresque paint was starting to chip off.

Venice

We left Lucca today. There was still some confusion when we tried to pay so we ended up with free parking. I think karma kicked back by screwing us when trying to return the rental car in Florence. Their streets are messed up! They’ll go one way east for 2 blocks and then switch so that they’re one way in west for the next 2 blocks. Fantastic system if you’re into mazes, but not so much if you’re trying to return your franjammerrin’ rental car. I don’t know how Kevin found the garage, but he did. I certainly was no help. Finally car free, we walked to the train station to get to our next stop in Venice.

Venice is so pretty! We're staying at Hotel Dalla Mora which has a great view of the canals from our window. We’re on a mission because we only have one day here and have to soak it all in. We walked the canal then did a self-guided tour on a water ferry. I’m super paranoid of motion sickness and water is always especially bad. To be safe, I took a Gravol and wore my Sea-Bands. Success! No puking! One less tale of public embarrassment to share.

From the ferry stop, we walked to San Marco square. Unfortunately we got in too late to tour the Basilica and clocktower, because they looked awesome. We learned what we could for free then went shopping. Venice has all the cool, high-end stores: Gucci, Pucci, Valentino, Versace – you name it. I did end up fulfilling my mission for an Italian purse. It isn't Prada. The nice thing about the stores here is they have little price cards in the window with their displays. So if you’re not familiar with a store you can see if their stuff is €50 or €500. Beats going in, looking at price tags, then leaving in shame.

After spaghetti and clams #4 for dinner, we got Kevin a take-away beer and I had an orange granita, which really turned out to be a regular slurpee. Although I’m glad I didn’t go for green, because here that’s mint, not lime.

We went back to San Marco square, which is amazing at night. Especially since the crowds of cruise ship tourists have cleared out by the evening. Bands play at all of the patios on the square and you can walk around and enjoy concerts for free. We also went to the Rialto bridge, which is the oldest bridge in Venice that crosses the Grand Canal.

Sex and the City - Finally!

I've been dying to go see the Sex and the City movie, but all my scheming to make a friend in Ottawa and go see it with them hasn't worked out so far. I think they hear the desperation in my voice and slowly back away. Then they turn and run as fast as they can, far, far into the distance. "Come back! I haven't told you all my bunny stories yet!" Enter Calgary Jenn. She actually flew to Ottawa to go see the movie with me! Those WestJet employee flight benefits sure come in handy.

We of course started off the day with shopping in the Market. We hit all the standards including Workshop Studio (bunny necklace - but it's tasteful, I swear) and Trustfund (new jeans and a bicycle belt for Kevin). We also went to M.A.C. and I got a free lip gloss for recycling my empty containers.

After dinner with Kevin at MHK Sushi, Jenn and I headed to the cheap theatres to see Sex and the City. Ten weeks of waiting and it was everything I dreamed it would be. So shiny and expensive. I still hate Big. We ended the evening appropriately with cosmos.

$0.28 of Free Raspberries

Kevin's parents and granny are staying with us for one night before heading to a cabin they rented in Quebec. So off Kevin and I went to the Market to buy some fruits and vegetables for dinner. One stand had a fabulous deal on raspberries because they got their shipment late and wanted to get rid of everything before the weekend. They had half a flat (about 6 grocery store-sized containers) for $10, or a basket about half the size for $8. Kevin and I had $9.72 combined. We pulled the "but it's all we have" with sad faces routine, and success! $0.28 of free raspberries. Still got it.

ENSIS-tini Reunion

My first day back in Winnipeg since Christmas 2006! My mom and I went shopping at Polo Park for most of the day. We found some new clothes for her, we both got some new accessories and nail polish, and I introduced her to the miracle of Spanx.

At 4:30, she dropped me off at Earls on Main for the ENSIS-tini Reunion. All previous and current employees of ENSIS that I could track down were invited for drinks on the patio - just like the old days. Thirteen of us hung out and caught up on news. We also tackled important issues such as should Bruce shave his mustache? Unanimous yes. Does Earls serve the same white wine to everyone and pretend it's different varieties? Likely. Should we have reunions more often? Definitely.

It was so great to hang out with everybody again. I guess as of next Thursday, ENSIS will officially become part of the GrowthWorks Canadian Fund and entrance to the ENSIS alumni club will be closed. I can't wait to see the alumni pin-up calendar in another 10 years. Yikes!

Missing from photo: Bryan and John

World's Most Expensive Turnip (as declared by me)

We finally had a break from the rain this weekend so Kevin and I took advantage and headed out to the Ottawa Farmers' Market at Lansdowne. They mainly have organic vegetables and meat but there are a few stands with baking, miscellaneous food products and crafts. Our only purchase was a white Japanese turnip. $3! For one turnip! We were intrigued because this variety is pretty rare in Canada and it's sweet, so you eat it raw like an apple. There's nothing like sitting by the canal on a park bench, sharing bites of a turnip. It felt very hillbilly chic.

Camper Van Kudos

Since my parents are visiting from Winnipeg, where's the first place we headed to Saturday morning? IKEA of course. Good thing my parents brought the camper van. Kevin and I seized the opportunity and also took my old deep freeze in to the recycling center. The freezer came with my house in Winnipeg but I never needed to use it. We moved it to Ottawa and finally tried plugging it in this past January. 2,100 km and 3 years later... it didn't work!

We also made 3 trips to Loblaws to buy patio furniture. Trip 1 - informed there was a sale that day, but it only started after 5:00 pm. Trip 2 - mad rush at the store when everybody shows up at 5:00 and the 2 furniture guys have to fetch massive patio sets for all the waiting customers. We bought the furniture after getting a different table top because the glass in ours was smashed. Trip 3 - realized the bench was bent and took it back in exchange for the floor model.

Ultimately, success! It hasn't stopped raining here since the purchase so we only got to sit on it once.

Smell You Later NYC!

It was our last day in New York. We took Gerry out for breakfast at Utopia. I'll point out that it was his pick because when I searched for a link to the restaurant's site I came across an inspection report from 2 months ago that showed Utopia had 5 violations including not vermin-proof, roaches, mice, food worker prepares food or handles utensil when ill with a disease transmissible by food or has exposed infected cut or burn on their hand, and cold food held above 41°F. And since this resulted in only 25 violation points, no follow-up inspection was required. Oh, New York. I'm sure the honour system works though and they still took care of all the violations. Thank bejebus for that final Hep A shot (see April 7).

Kevin and I headed over to the United Nations for a tour. The security tent alone was worth the trip - tourists getting yelled at for taking pictures and not moving to the appropriate metal detector - welcome to America! The wait for a guided tour ended up being at least 2 hours so we looked around the public part of the building a bit and left.

We spent the rest of the day touring the fancy American department stores: Bloomingdale's (very expensive), Barneys (outrageously expensive) and Macy's (expensive). Although we couldn't afford anything, I did get to touch some Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik shoes at Barneys. I guess I'll have to hold out until they start collections at Payless.

After several weather delays and annoying teenage girls in the airport wait area, we made it back to Ottawa. Air Canada gives you free booze if the flight is late. Just what you need - angry patrons full of vodka. I took a mini bottle of rum with me out of spite.

At home, the pet sitter had left a note that Spuckler somehow jumped out of her cage and the fence around the cage while she was getting their vegetables and attacked Savvy. He seems to have fully recovered but had these loose hunks of fur hanging off his butt. Poor guy. I'll have to knit him a butt toupee.

New York Times

Another day in New York. We started with breakfast at Sarabeths with Kevin's friend Jeff.

Gerry, who we're staying with, has a golden retriever named Bear. After breakfast we went over to Central Park to take Bear for a walk. We tried to find 2 geocaches, but the first location was too busy so we gave up. You can only stare at the walls of a tunnel pretending to examine the rocks for so long, before people think you're child snatchers. We did manage to find the 2nd one without people noticing what we were doing. Central Park was especially busy today because it turns out the AIDS Walk was taking place. Although we weren't wearing the ribbon, we were able to walk in it for a bit without being accosted.

Our friend Gina from Toronto arrived in New York for training, so after our walk, we met up with her at her hotel and went to Soho for shopping. Soho has all the fancy stores. You start to become numb to the crazy prices! Not numb enough to actually spend the $600 on a pair of shoes, but enough that it doesn't seem surprising.

The weather wasn't great, so we stopped at a café for lunch when the rain picked up. We also had a really hard time getting Gina a cab. Apparently 3:30-4:30 is a magic time where there's a cab vortex as shifts change over. So there's taxis everywhere, but none of them will stop. She eventually ran into the street, kicking a few babies and small children out of her way, and stole a cab from a group of people that were naively waiting at the curb.

After more shopping, Kevin and I had a Cajun dinner at one of his favourite spots from his New York days - the Great Jones Café. We both had shaggys - spicy ginger ale with rum. They were freakin' spicy all right! Tastes like burning.

With the sun going down, we walked over to the Empire State Building. We paid a ridiculous amount of money so I could go to the very top. Although the ticket is vastly over-priced, it was definitely cool to see so much of the city from up high and watch the sun set.

Rare and Unusual Sunday

Kevin and I went to the Experimental Farm's rare and unusual plant sale bright and early today. It's usually a bonus if I'm ready to leave the house on the weekend by noon, but I pulled it together for 9am today. How rare and unusual!

A lot of the plants ended up being things that are pretty ordinary, but some of the stands had some really different varieties. The prices were generally decent too. We really wanted to get some evergreen shrubs to fill in our front flower bed and some trilliums - Ontario's provincial flower. We snagged the last 2 trilliums at the show and bought a bunch of other random flowers and shrubs.

We went to Loblaws and Home Depot as well, to pick up a few more filler items. What did we find? A whole table of "rare and unusual" trilliums at Loblaws! At least we were able to buy a few more. Kind of killed the caché though.

We spent the rest of the day planting our herb and vegetable garden at the side of the house and all of our flowers and shrubs in the front. I managed to break the top off of all the tulips when I moved them, because I'm delicate that way.

Tulip Festival Weekend - Minus Tulips

Our friends Tim and Gina from Toronto are visiting for the weekend during Ottawa's Tulip Festival. Per usual, we headed to the Byward Market. We did a tour of some of the shops and had lunch on the Cornerstones patio - very similar to Earl's. They had raspberry mojitos, so how could Gina and I resist?

A trip to the Market wouldn't be complete without indulgent over-spending at Trustfund. Gina needed a new pair of jeans and couldn't decide on a style, so she bought 2. That seems to happen a lot at their store. By coincidence, Gina is going to New York for training next week so Kevin and I are going to meet her there and bring the jeans once they're hemmed. Very jet set.

After all the spending we decided to have dinner in. We bought trout, vegetables, potatoes and fiddleheads. None of us had tried fiddleheads before but they're big in Ontario this time of year. It's really a wild baby fern, rolled up in a ball. Turns out they taste like asparagus (but not quite as good).

We tried to watch a movie afterwards and picked Awake. Hated it. There were way too many graphic surgery scenes. And it sucked. The one redeeming feature is Jessica Alba - if you're a man. Gina and Tim both fell asleep.

We never really did tour any tulip gardens today, but yay Tulip Festival!

Speed Shopping

After breakfast, I had just under 2 hours to hit as many stores as I could before the flight back. I managed to fit in Victorias Secret, H&M, Betsey Johnson and Bebe. The most fun was definitely Betsey Johnson. They started picking dresses for me to try with a pair of sparkly gold high heels. Everything was so over the top bridesmaid-esque. I did avoid buying an expensive dress I didn't need, but I couldn't resist this ruffly, sweater/cape thing in aqua. Very Carrie Bradshaw. It's one of those things that people will see and will love, or mock mercilessly behind my back. Couldn't everyone's wardrobe use more aqua ruffles?

The flight back was uneventful. I watched The Golden Compass and Mad Money. Both were more disappointing than expected, so I'm glad I didn't pay to rent them.

Makeup & Tea - Yay Girl Day!

Jen and I went back downtown to the mall today. When Jen moved a few weeks ago from Toronto to Calgary, the movers lost and broke a bunch of her stuff. The worst part is they lost her makeup case of products and didn’t think it was a big deal. They couldn’t comprehend that it was worth hundreds of dollars. The one up side is we got to go on a spending spree at M.A.C. to replace everything (hopefully her insurance comes through). So many shiny bottles. After sampling and purchasing an assortment, Jen also got me a new eye shadow for a belated birthday present.

We wandered around the mall a bit and then went to the Tea Store. We had cranberry scones and shared a pot of excellent caramel tea on the patio. An older guy asked if we would watch his bike while he bought some tea. We appeared trustworthy, so his eyesight must have been pretty bad. Twenty minutes later we look in and he’s sitting there having lunch. He did agree to move outside and watch his own bike so we could leave for the airport.

We checked Jen in and made sure she had a seat on her flight, then left for a quick dinner. We ended up at Kelseys and shared nachos and a salad. We were the only ones sitting on the patio so I think the waitress forgot about us. We waited forever to pay the bill and eventually had to just scrape some cash together so we could leave without waiting again to run credit cards through. Unfortunately, together we had just enough to cover the bill and could only tip about 60 cents. Embarrassing, but somewhat justified. We peeled out quickly so the waitress wouldn’t run after the car shaking her fist and Jen made it to her flight on time.

"Calgary Jen" Visits

My friend Jen, now “Calgary Jen” once more, came to visit for the weekend. With a WestJet staff ticket, it’s actually cheaper and faster for her to fly from Calgary than it was for her to visit by bus from Toronto.

The weather was great today so we went to the Market for shopping. We bought some stuff and had lunch at the Empire Grill on the patio. I had an excellent champagne cocktail.

Afterwards at the infamous Trustfund, Jen almost bought an expensive dress. We decided to leave the store and eat a cookie so she could make a clear decision and she ended up talking herself out of it. Even before we managed to find some cookies. We didn’t have time to go to the mall because it was closing for the day, so we had drinks at Second Cup (thanks for the gift card Felipe and Hanita!) and went home.

In the evening Jen took me for a belated birthday dinner at MHK Sushi. Then we picked up a pie from the grocery store and rented The Darjeeling Limited. There’s nothing more classic than pie and a movie. I fell asleep so I’m not sure if the movie was good.