This week has been testing my patience in more ways than one! In no particular order:

*I had the option to leave work early one day but had already told someone I would stay and wait for them to show up as they missed their earlier appointment and they really really needed to give me something. They never bothered to come at all and in the midst of my waiting for them a horrific lightning storm came along which I would have avoided had I left early. I have this bizarre fear of lightning and can't drive in it at all but in my defence this storm was BAD. I was now stuck at work alone, waiting for the storm to pass and had a 6:14 train to catch in another city. (FYI that storm killed someone who was hmmm struck by lightning so my fear isn't totally irrational).

*I made it to the train station however had not changed my clothes as I had planned to do as they were in my trunk during the storm. I decided instead to get into the LONG line up for tickets and wait for my friends. Over the loud speaker comes "due to a police investigation at such and such a line the trains will be delayed"..... great! I went back to my car to change, managed to get a stain on the front of my VERY white shirt and spilled my Advil ALL over the dirty wet parking lot. The train left an hour late and I never bothered to stop and grab dinner beforehand, nor change in a normal place or brush my teeth or do anything I had planned to do because of the jackass who put me behind in my plans. Next time someone misses an appointment fuck em, not my problem, you go to jail you go to jail *shrug*! (FYI I found out my client lied to me anyway and didn't in fact have what he really really needed to give me which made me furious)

*Warning this part is GROSS!!! I was watching a friends house and cats while she was away. I won't be around for garbage day and she barely had any so I figured I would toss it all into a shopping bag and bring it to work. She had one of those food buckets and it appeared to have some paper towels and a bun in it. I thought I would save her the bag and just dump the few items into the shopping/garbage bag. So I did and on the bottom of the food bag was a big HUGE pile of maggots, yes maggots! Ummm I can't even look at those things on TV they make me want to die and I have never seen them in person EVER!! I don't know how but I managed to get the whole bag in there without touching any, took it outside and luckily ran into a neighbour. I never said anything about the contents of the bag but I did ask her to take the garbage out next week as there was NOOOOOOOOO way in hell that bag was coming in my car. *BLEH*

I was scratching myself alllllll day long cause I felt itchy and gross!

I am hoping this weekend will be MUCH better!!! I have a concert on Friday and will be going out with my pals to drink this week away. I also hope to hunt down Ms. Sly as I know she's in town!! Kisses!!!

My camera started smoking on my last vacation so I decided it was time for a new one. Funny enough though in my new manual I read a section regarding "if your camera starts smoking when using the flash"! How odd......

Anyway I seem to be one of those people that's loyal to a brand. I asked around for advice regarding various point and shoot cameras and low and behold I bought another Canon. The last one held up famously and even fell into a raging fire without so much as a scratch or a burn mark! How durable :)

I love my new one though, it's super cute (pink...almost fuchsia really) and it's very tiny which I love! I wasn't in need of a big fancy camera so this one is perfect for me!

PP and I went to a fancy restaurant for Summerlicious which was delightful. I didn't get to use my new camera as whipping it out felt a bit gauche but we did snag photos of our food with my blackberry! Our waiter was hilarious and very friendly which was the opposite of what I was expecting. All of the reviews of this place said the waitstaff were snobby and the clientele even more so ........ pffff bullocks I say! Everyone was lovely, we even had a table right beside the piano and just our luck the musician was a chatty cathy! It did work to our advantage though as he played a bunch of PP's requests but he wouldn't stop talking to us. I didn't mind as he reminded me of Val Kilmer a la his Iceman days, PP however was like"WHY does this always happen to us???" Ha!

Appetizers:

Sea Scallop and Forrest Mushroom with Truffle Essence and Poached Egg


Roasted Onion and Tomato Soup with Cumin Cream

Dinner

Roasted Cauliflower Gratin with Mushroom and Sage Risotto

Dessert:

Chocolate Custard Cake with Toasted Meringue and Stewed Strawberries

I'm obsessed with this new website I found called Groupon. Basically you pick your city and every day you get a coupon emailed to you based on your location. The catcher is, you only get that deal if enough people sign up for it, they are able to offer great deals through group purchasing.

I just signed up recently and have yet to actually purchase anything however I took a peak back at their prior offers and some looked really good. They had an indoor climbing class for beginners and a months pass with rentals for $49 regularly $195. There's this yummy restaurant Utopia that I adore and they had a coupon where you pay $20 and get $40 worth of food! Nom nom nom......

They seem to offer a variety of services, I've seen mani's and pedis for cheapola, scuba lessons, yoga, the spa, recreational activities, the list goes on! Check it out and see if they have one in your area!! I think it's a great way to try new things AND for smaller price than you would normally pay. I mean I doubt I'd go out and take scuba lessons but I would most likely try a beginner class for 1/2 price. Why not right?!?!

Another busy weekend with gorgeous weather woot woot!

I was in an all day charity volleyball tournament again this past weekend. It was loads of fun but I got quite the burn and a few other injuries. How about some photos.......

This is the lovely burn I came home with! I actually wore sunscreen as I seem to be getting wiser in my old age AND I even remembered to reapply it. I suppose sitting in the sun for ohhhh 9 hours will burn you regardless.

This is my knee, I dove for the ball in our last game and sliced it open on I'm guessing a rock.....we played like 7 games and I had to go and hurt myself in the last 3 minutes of the tournament!

I bruise super easily and now have an entire forearm to prove it. They aren't showing up well in photos but trust me when I say my arm has 3 ginormous bruises and three lumps to go along with them. Ouch!

I also got an elbow to the head ... hard.... which gave me an instant stabbing pain in my noggin! Again, during the last game thankfully and not near the beginning of the games. It's still quite tender though awwww!

I look more like I was in an ultimate fighting match than a volleyball game Ha! I had a great time though and will be doing it all over again next month!

Things I'm into right now:

Mmmmm lemon in ice cold water! I had a craving for this mid summer and its become my drink of choice as of late. It's so bloody refreshing and lovely on a hot sunny day!

Come Dine With Me

I fucking love this British TV show! They take 4-5 strangers each of whom has to host and cook a three course meal for the other contestants all the while vying for a 1,000 pound prize. Well you can only imagine several strangers with several types of personalities getting together every evening over the course of a week. Favorite quote from a guest reading the menu "that sounds absolutely disgusting but it has rum in it so I'll give it a bash"! And another as she was scoring the host "Tonight has been horrendous, it has been something I have never come across in all of my years on this earth". Here's a short clip on Youtube of another episode that's funny!

Skull and Bones Ice Cube Tray

I was out shopping around at my favorite store downtown and came across this lovely tray! How much fun is this?!?! I was thinking of putting some food colouring into the water just to see how the coloured cubes stand out! You can see from the photo that it's hard to see the details in the two I popped out but whatever, they're still super cute!!!

Helios Heating Pad

Best invention ever!! I've always seen these things at kiosks in the States and I've always wanted to get one but never have....until now!!! You basically snap a small coin inside of the pad and voila it heats up to 130 degrees in seconds. The Helios Pad is perfect for my desk at work as my regular heating pad has a short cord and needless to say is a pain in my arse when I've hurt my back.

Day two in Pittsburgh started out with a lovely vegan/vegetarian brunch. We're not entirely sure which it was but it was certainly a meatless feast! Nom nom nom! It was a very unique setting, at the back of an antique store with various lamps, paintings and articles around the tables. They had a nice spread of salads, fruit, hummus, noodles as well you could pick one main entree off of the menu. I got a walnut/tofu "meatball" sandwich with sauce and "cheese" which was delicious!

They had this crazy bathroom with owls EVERYWHERE! I took a photo with my cell but have since switched phones and forgot to snag all of my photos beforehand. Of course the net is made for such things and I found the above two photos on google search!

After stuffing ourselves we drove the hour or so to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater! It really was quite an amazing structure! He incorporated the natural environment into the home by building around the rock formations on the land, he made the hallways almost cave like and the bedrooms rather small but the balcony's quite large. He wanted the Kaufmanns to live within and be one with the nature surrounding them and thus built the home "on top of" the waterfall. His goal was to bring them out of the structure and right into nature as well as to bring nature into the home.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside of Fallingwater but as you can see from this photo the stairs lead from the water right up into the living room which was a very cool idea!

On our way home we decided to stop for some scoff but not just anywhere, Jennifer wanted an authentic in the middle of nowhere experience. As you can see from the above photo we got just that! The locals stared as we walked in and I desperately wanted to take a photo of a truck outside with sooooo much shit in it they could barely close the door! Our waitress was a young gal but absolutely wonderful, pleasant as can be and very attentive!

The food was yummy but I still don't understand their love for ranch dressing over there. I mean look at the size of the bottle on the table in comparison to the ketchup and glass of pop. It's bloody huge!!!

I love Pittsburgh!! Of course we got slightly lost .... but in the actual city which was a change as I once ended up in Rochester while trying to get to Ohio! We stopped at a sketchy gas station to ask for directions but the bulletproof glass and thousands of people in line did not make that an easy task. I gave up and asked a local, he was super friendly and sent us on our way. We stopped at a light and Jennifer was like "there's some man gesturing at you in the car beside us" so I rolled down my window, it was the friendly guy from the station. He wanted to make sure we were going the right way "keep going, follow the 28 alllll the way down"!!

On our first day we went to a lookout above the city which had a great view of the skyline! We went to the Andy Warhol Museum and yes we found the Furry Convention!!!! Seriously as we were driving to the Museum we saw a person dressed up as a fox or something, I squealed, snapped a photo and vowed to return to walk amongst them!!

I loved the Warhol Museum and other than his actual paintings, my favorite installation was "The Silver Clouds"!

It was a room full of helium balloons floating via fans, so we walked around them, had a "pillow fight" and for a moment I just laughed and laughed. It was refreshing and lovely to be right in the present moment, I just felt soooo light and very happy! Andy certainly had the right idea :)

After the museum our mission was to find the furries and find them we did. They were milling about EVERYWHERE and we sidled up to the bar where the convention was being held and had a drink. There was a pirate on one side of us a la Jack Sparrow and a man with a very lush tail on the other. K leaned over and whispered "I think the pirate is kind of cute" I agreed, Jennifer just shook her head. I desperately wanted a picture with one of them but felt a bit sheepish asking so Jennifer marched me over to a wolf to ensure a photo was taken. I then declared that I had a thing for the Lemur and got one with him/her? as well. I looked up "furries" after our peak into their world and I still don't get it. Not to be rude but almost everyone there (other than the pirate) looked beyond super geeky and other than "role playing" which we saw ( I was too shocked to even think about taking a video) I don't quite understand what they do at these conventions. Anyone....anyone????

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That evening we went for a yummy dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant and then out for some drinks on a patio. I ordered some type of Pale Ale and got something pretty gross. I drank it anyway and then asked the waitress what my friend was drinking as her beer was quite good. "Founders Pale Ale" she replied even though no one at the table had ordered that. I asked for one of those and she brought me the same nasty beer as before (which K was not drinking) ugh!! I'm pretty sure on the 3rd round I asked for something completely different and maybe they all taste the same but I got the same beer as the 1st and 2nd time. It was maddening but humorous all at the same time. Ahhhhh!!!