Who is this woman?!

I only worked for half a day today. I waited until there was a half hour span between emails and phone calls and took off. Woo hoo!! I'm off until the new year! I am so burnt out, I can't believe it's finally time for rum and sleeping!

So we've spent the rest of the the afternoon cleaning and baking. My parents fly in tonight.

We sat down to relax for a bit, turned on Food Network.....what the hell? Who is this woman??

What a train wreck!! She is an Italian New York guy trapped inside a freaky woman's body. I have never seen her before, but I guess she's popular enough to have her own Christmas special.

Oh - and there is our new tv! Remember the old one?

Slave to the Cookie Part I

This year my parents are coming to spend Christmas with me. This is the first time that they have spent the holidays at my house - ever. I'm stoked.

Other than the frantic scrubbing, washing and cleaning that is in my near future, the second biggest thing I want to do is make cookies.

I don't have the best track record. However, I'm blazing ahead.


So the first cookie on my list is Chocolate Shortbread. Remember the last time I made these? Well, this time I have a new problem. The recipe says to leave the dough in the fridge for an hour.

I made the dough last night and then things got busy and we had to go out! So the dough has been in the fridge over night and now it's so hard I can't do anything with it.

I took it out of the fridge 3 1/2 hours ago and it's still super hard.

I'm tempted to eat it like a giant hamburger.

I won again....

Our office Christmas party was last night. Dinner, drinks....you know the drill.

Near the end of the night they drew names for two gift baskets. I settled back in my seat because I couldn't possibly win since I just won my iPad.

I won the biggest basket!

I think I should buy a lottery ticket next.

Lunar Eclipse

The coolest app I've put on my iPad so far is called Star Walk. I didn't think I would be able to have a program like this, because you would need access to the internet to use it. I almost peed my pants when I learned this is not the case!

Remember The Perseids? That was only 3 months ago, and I was elated to have the laptop. It's such a huge leap in technology since my old star chart...the one with the Bailey's spilled all over the case....although I'm always going to take it with me for stargazing. But now I have this:A few days ago I noticed that there was going to be a lunar eclilpse this morning. We woke up at 6:00am and saw part of it. SO cool! Here is a photo from our balcony before the moon disappeared behind the clouds.

At 7:00am, Brad announces "Let's beat the crowds and get up to go Christmas shopping!" Yeah, I don't think so. We fell asleep, intending to be up in an hour.

After sleeping until 10:30, we left the house around one in the afternoon. When we got downtown, we lined up to get in the parkade. It was one car out, one car in. Wow.

But now we are done our Christmas shopping! We even got all the rum, Bailey's and other liquors we wanted. Now the trick is not to drink it all in the next two weeks.

Let's Move On

For those of my three readers that have been here since the beginning (ahem, Rawbean!) you understand what the blurb on the top of my blog meant.

Don't you think it's time I change it!? I've been living in Victoria for three years, let's accept that shall we?

I'm just really stuck on what to put there. I mean seriously, what is my blog about? What do you think when you see a new post from me? "Oh good! I needed to turn my brain off for 5 minutes!" or "Oh, GOD what now?" Why do you come here?

On this note, I have another confession.

(ahem)

I still have my Vancouver phone number on my cell phone.

Yes, you read that right.

At first I rationalized it! I thought that since I knew nobody here that whenever I went back to Vancouver (which would be every single weekend in my mind) that I could call all my Vancouver friends without charge. It made sense for the first 6 months - it did.

Now I really, really have to do something about it.

My goal is to make these MAJOR (minor) changes before Christmas.

I. Won. An. iPad.

I'm serious.

On Thursday I went to a trade show. When I walked in, they gave me a card and said that if I visited all the booths and had them sign it, I could enter for the draw.

I stayed for most of the show because there were actually a lot of booths I wanted to see. Close to the end, they announced that there was only 20 more minutes to get your card in for the draw so everyone, everyone was rushing around getting their cards signed.

Including me.

I know the guy who drew my name so he looked right at me when he called it out. My immediate reaction: took a step backwards, did a double-take and barked out "As. If."

He had to say over the microphone "No, Jen seriously it's you! Come up here!!" On my way out of the hotel people were congratulating me left right and centre. I felt truly awesome because I had actually made a huge effort at the trade show and met lots of great people.

On the drive home I was like that woman in the Ikea commercial.

This thing is amazing. The first thing I put on it was Tiny Wings. But then last night I woke up a few times thinking of ways I could use it:

On job sites - rather than struggling with a pad and paper and camera....

Paying bills - no more random bits of paper with numbers scribbled and added up then left all over the place to make Brad growl.

I know I'm just barely grazing the surface here. I'm prepared though. I bought this last night:


I still can't really believe I can utter the words "My iPad."

Shopping Diet

About a month ago, my blogger friend Christielli stated she was going on a shopping diet. I thought this was a great challenge. I'm always up for a challenge especially if it doesn't involve me giving up coffee, sugar or gluten.

So the rules were that we could only buy necessities - food, music and in my case - an iPhone*. No books, no Etsy, no new clothing or accessories.....sounded daunting.

However, I actually found this challenge surprisingly easy! There were a couple times I almost bought e-books but that was it. I also didn't include visits to pubs or restaurants as cheating since I figure that fell under the 'food' part of the diet.

Now that it's over, I bought my first item:



It's a little case for my ipod - it's getting pretty scratchy inside my bag. And it matches my red nano! Can you take it?

I figure it's good karma from the shopping diet, because immediately after I bought this, someone bought three bags at once from my shop! And anyway, I haven't bought anything off Etsy since July.

*Which I decided not to get. I know. I'm waiting for the iPhone 5.o. Yes, I'm serious.

Kurt Cobain Sweater II

Lots of progress on the sweater for my nephew...

This photo is weird - the sweater is dark brown....I should take a photography course.

Anyway, after realizing there was a slight error in the pattern and ripping out twice, now it's super smooth sailing until the end. It's so cute and will look amazing on my cute little blonde nephew.

Blocking it is my next hurdle, but how hard can that be?

It's the least I can do...

Remembrance Day means a lot to me. My Grandpa, who I was incredibly close with was a vet. Since I moved to BC in 1996, I have only missed two ceremonies.

So today we got up and went out, but this time we tried a different one. A much smaller ceremony in Esquimalt. We actually showed up super early, which is not like us. So we stood on the sidewalk with a clear view of the cenotaph.

This is not good.

See, I have been to so many of these ceremonies but I have never actually watched one of them. The ceremonies in Vancouver and Victoria draw huge crowds - there is just no way. And anyway, my usual routine with it is to simply stand in the rain and cry.

So this year we had a clear view because we were half an hour early. As I stood there and watched the veterans file in to their seats I was already a hot mess. Nothing had started yet!

Thank goodness the parade filed in and stood between us and the seating, then all the people around us moved forward. Phew - cause watching the veterans is just too much.

I hope everyone got out to participate in a ceremony or at the very least took a moment today and thought about all the people who have given their lives in war. It's so important.

Heebies Forever

Holy hell.

I just got home from seeing the scariest movie EVER.


I love scary movies - which can be confused with gory movies. I like creep, not gore. Before tonight, the scariest movies I knew were The Shining or The Changeling from the 70's. Tonight there is a new king.

Paranormal Activity 3 was so creepy, I almost hated it halfway through - it was just too much! I think I spent half the movie wide eyed with my hands over mouth.

Spoiler Alert:
I won't be able to open doors, go to sleep or walk into a kitchen the same way after tonight.

And so refreshing that none of the actors are the Julia Roberts/Brad Pitt type. Spare me. In other words - totally real people which makes the movie so much more relative and hence - more creepy.

Poor Brad, it will be a few nights of me leeching on to his arm before I shake the heebies.