just like when I was five...

when I turned five, my aunt and uncle got married on my birthday...I can't remember exactly how many birthday parties/birthday cakes I got that year...seems to me it was at least three or four...well...this year came pretty darn close to that year! Last night was my last birthday celebration for a year (maybe I'll skip my birthday next year...I'm still overwhelmed by this year!)...Alex and I arrived in Kelowna in time for dinner with my Mom and Dad, Kelsey, Rebecca and Jared and it finished up with a scrumptious, famous, Mom's white cake...mmmm...

bye bye birthday...back to the real world!

any excuse for a party (and an appearance by Snuffleupagus)

so...my birthday and Stacey's birthday were both last weekend, but why not extend the birthdayness and have a party (or two) a week later?

We met Stacey, Sunita, Warren, Goran, Peyton and Ciara for brunch at the Bayshore in honour of Stacey's birthday...Mmmmm...brunch buffet. It was scrumptious and of course we all ate too much, but how often do you get to go brunch buffets?



After a few hours of coffee, food and some silly laughter, we went our separate ways, with everyone but Ciara, who was off to a wedding, planning to meet up again in a few short hours at my house.

Stacey and Sunita arrived at the blue house in time to have smokies with me and Alex and then kick us out of the house for half an hour. When we returned, the house was decked out in streamers and there were people arriving.

Stacey brought an amazing cake with all kinds of chocolate bits on it (yes, I know I'm not SUPPOSED to eat chocolate, but it was still my birthday...kinda...)



Heather brought me a crown that says Princess for a day...it suits her quite well too!!!



And the gang from the morning appeared on my deck...minus Ciara :(



Warren is apparently a big fan of the Girl Guide movement.



There were a few noisy games of table hockey....after a dismal start, Sunita and Heather crushed me and Stacey!




Including one that saw one poor player injured, but after a good talking to, he was ready to keep on playing!



There were lots of photos...and lots of avoiding said photos...



And then the moon came out to bid us goodnight...



What a great evening...good food, good company...all good stuff...and now the vacation begins...oh and Snuffleupagus, aka Heddy's D, arrived toward the end of the evening, tired and starving from a day full of flying...

What a super birthday week I've had...I think it's time for a break...at least until next year...thanks guys!



(PS punk and raceface...the cupcakes I promised have been forfeited in favour of half a chocolate cake and half a strawberry cake...sorry, I can only do so much cake in a week!)

look, it's sammy!

Before I left the dark, windowless cave, my cousin lent me The Devil Wears Prada. She had been to my place of work and thought that maybe if she introduced me to "The Devil," life might feel easier to me. Well it did...and then I found a new job, which unfortunately meant that Heddy ended up with some of my old duties...you can ask Heddy how she likes that ;)

After weeks of "We should go for coffee," "We should meet up after work," " I haven't seen you in ages" and similar conversations, last night, Heddy and I decided to go see the film version of The Devil Wears Prada. I had seen a few reviews that were lukewarm, but you know, for a summer movie based on a somewhat fluffy novel, it was a good movie. There were enough laughs, the changes to the story line weren't totally off base, although I was a little disappointed at the loss of the real Lily character...it definitely made for the very different ending...I don't know if they changed the ending because of Lily or if they changed Lily in order to change the ending. I loved Meryl Streep though. She was amazing and while the book made me realize my job wasn't as bad as it could be, the movie definitely reinforced that. We left Alex and the D-man to their own devices (actually, I think they were both working) and when we got to the theatre and realized most of the males in the audience were sitting next to the women who had dragged them there and they were pouting and looking bored out of their minds, we knew we'd made the right decision. And it definitely fit into the "chick-flick" category...Happy summer movie! Definitely worth it on a hot summer's night and even more so if you've ever had the ultra-demanding female bosslady!

Look...I made my very own Sammy!

PS If you don't know who Sammy is and need to know, email me!!

That's all...

One book down...many many more to go...

My mom lent me The Virgin's Lover ages ago. It floated around my room for a while and then after I moved in February, I finally picked it up and started reading it. I read it for a few nights and then I'd forget about it for a few weeks, but this weekend I sat down to read for 15 minutes and all of a sudden I was almost done (and almost two hours had passed)....

So...it was good. I'd recommend it for sure. I love historical fiction and the author did a good job of keeping it believable and interesting.

Hmmm...I don't know what else to say...I had tons to say on Sunday after I'd finished it, but my brain has since turned off. So I'm off to read Elizabeth because now my brain is wants to read more about the Virgin Queen!

it's back!!

Last summer the toy car came and hung out in our parking lot for a week or so. Today, as I wandered in to work, what do I see hanging out in the parking lot again?!?! THE TOY CAR...and I had my camera with me...it's an amazing thing, this car!!

more "no pictures please" photos

tsk tsk...who let that girl have a camera?

that picture on Saturday wasn't the first infraction....someone let her into the Theatre Royal Haymarket...not that these photos are particularly great but they are photos nonetheless...

cupcakes for breakfast

yes, yes I did have cupcakes for breakfast...but it's my birthday, I'm allowed to do silly stuff like that.

Alex sang Happy Birthday to me and brought me two scrumptious cupcakes complete with two candles...



Aren't they pretty!!



And no, I didn't have TWO cupcakes for breakfast, I had half of each and Alex had the other half. I'm sure each cupcake has five pounds of butter in it, just in the icing, but you know what, it's my birthday!!!



And finally, the deck is done and ready to hang out on for hours and hours and hours. It's just too hot right now. I have a few errands I want to go do, but the washing machine man in here fixing the washing machine...again...For good this time I hope! I spent Saturday running up and down our landlady's stairs, trying to get as much laundry done without pestering her too much...so our own washing machine back will be a great thing to have!





Oh...and Alex disappeared right before he went to work. He wasn't in the house and his car was here and he didn't lock the front door. Turns out he ran out to buy me some flowers...awwwwwww...

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL!!! and finally some patio furniture

Cirque du Soleil was, of course, amazing. It was everything we expected it would be - crowded, colourful, stuff going on all over stage...it was great!



The things those guys do with their bodies amazes me...And how fearless they must be when they're doing flips onto and off of someone's feet or into a big sheet or hanging from a huge net high in the air above the stage...there's no way you could get me to do any of it...besides those pesky birds, I hate heights! It was also very HOT...hotter than last time if that's possible. At intermission we *had* to eat really expensive Häagen Dazs ice cream...yeah, they forced us ;) But it was soooooo good.

ahem...no cameras allowed!

I can't wait until it comes again...maybe it will be the Beatles show (or is that only in Vegas, anyone know?)

After the show, the saga of the patio furniture continued. Alex's friend Tony offered to help us out, so we told him we'd call him after the show and meet him at the great big huge hardware store on Terminal. We got there to make sure they had what we needed, but guess what...all sold out! And by then he'd decided to come in to town and wait for us in the general area...

Yeah, we felt bad...but he didn't and offered to help us another day if we needed him. The man at the great big huge hardware store offered to check at some of the other great big huge hardware store locations and found one at the great big huge hardware store near Alex's parents' place. So Alex's dad met us at that store and loaded the box of chairs into his station wagon...

We were having dinner with Alex's family anyway and the great big huge hardware store is only about four blocks from their house, but now that we had the huge box of chairs (and smaller boxes of table and umbrella) we had to get it home. Alex's dad, who dislikes driving into Vancouver very kindly offered to bring it all the way home for us...

We had a super visit with his family...yummy, two birthdays, two birthday cakes and came home exhausted.

But the big boxes in the dining room were tempting...kind of like Christmas.



The deck is a bit crowded this morning (but that will change...)



Ooops, what's missing?



One more snag in the saga...we're having trouble getting the table through the door. So at 12:30 we gave up and we'll try again this morning. And if that doesn't work, I'll take the legs off and we'll reassemble it outside...it's only about 1/4" too big and the door is so fancy that taking it off the hinges isn't even an option :( oh well, at least we finally have the furniture!!

Gotta love them early birthday presents

In approximately one hour and eighteen minutes I'm getting in the car and we're driving down to the old Indie track at Concord Pacific Place and we're going to see CIRQUE DU SOLEIL!!! WOOOOHOOOO...I can't wait!! We're going to see Varekai and in case you hadn't already figured it out, I'm really excited. After that we're off to have dinner with Alex's parents. I'm loving this long weekend!

And, I have to brag (is it really bragging?), my flowers are still alive and some of them are actually maybe even doing that thing called thriving. Like the fuchsia that bloomed three huge blooms and today there will be at least four more on that one plant before the week is up!!! Oooh pretty flowers. OOOoooh early birthday presents.









Thanks early birthday present people. I love them (and not because they're early, just because they're amazing gifts!)

Alex and I went for a wander down Broadway last night to pick up some food for dinner.



We got a few bags of groceries.




And then we came home.



Okay, so we didn't eat cupcakes from Cupcakes for dinner, but Cupcakes could make good mini birthday cakes (see the zucchini in the background!?!?). There are still two left...thanks for the suggestion punk!

Have a nice day...I'm going to Cirque du Soleil...bye!

Happy Canada Day!

Well...it's Canada Day again...and we have oh so exciting plans - the washing machine man is coming to fix the washing machine, we're going to Home Depot to pick up our furniture (FINALLY!), we might go to IKEA and we're going to try to put all the winter stuff away...oh, and I already caulked the bath tub! WOOHOO!!



This picture is from Canada Day five years ago in London. No pancake breakfasts, no fireworks, but still it was a lot of fun. We started at Canada House where Marnie McBean cut a huge Canadian Flag cake and then we went in search of a party. Megan and I are outside the Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden. Because you can take your drinks outside in London, the entire block had pint glasses full of Canadian beer. The only people inside were the ones buying more beer and the crazy people (it was definitely hot in there!) Expats celebrate Canada Day with an enthusiasm not seen in Canada. The noise from the pub was attracting people from blocks away, who were somewhat disappointed to find the celebration was "just" Canada Day. The entire block was full of people, it really reminded me of being at Arts County Fair with no bands. Some guy climbed the scaffolding of a building at the end of the road with a ginormous Canadian Flag and led the entire block in a noisy rendition of Oh Canada. It was great! Yup, I definitely felt like I was celebrating Canada even though we were an entire ocean away from it!

Happy Canada Day wherever you are and whatever you're doing!!!