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!!!

I just realized that I had not posted anything new and I'm heading to Shittsburgh.....errrr Pittsburgh this evening for a little while. I've never known anyone to take a vacation to Pittsburgh and when I mention that I am people are like "huh"? Huh indeed, though I do hear that they have a fabulous Andy Warhol Museum woot woot! J and I are going to visit the lovely K as she's going to school there. Ever since we returned from visiting her in Africa ohhhhh 4 years ago we've been saying "let's go and visit" so we finally got our shit together and we're heading out this evening! Probably not the best idea for me to be navigating at all let alone in the dark, have I mentioned I get lost EVERYWHERE that I go??? It's totally true! J is also well aware of this fact so she can't get mad at me....right Jennifer!?!!?! :)

I'm looking forward to spending some Q time with my gal pals as we always have a great time when we're together!

I'll catch up on blogs and post again when I return sometime next week!

I lounged in the sun with PP for most of Friday afternoon which of course left us both red and crispy, oops! I actually used sunscreen for once however went swimming several times and didn't reapply which obviously is a must. I would like to point out that it was waterproof but yeah I know it doesn't last alllll day so totally my fault. I will say though that is was the perfect way to spend an afternoon, not a cloud in the sky, good tunes, yummy corona and of course swimming yay! Oh and the Snowbirds were apparently on their way to a show and flew right over us so I snapped a quick photo.

I then gorged myself at Ribfest, yes Ribfest but noooo I did not consume any meat. I scarfed down a bloomin onion AND some funnel cake both of which were shared as hello that's like 3 days worth of calories right there! Nom nom nom.......

( I "borrowed" these photos from google)

Next some grocery shopping which made me realize just how nice people are and made me laugh all at the same time. You see I ran in to grab two items and therefore left my bags in the car, didn't grab a basket or a cart. Well of course I ended up with several items which I balanced nicely on top of a pizza box, some salsa, broccoli, mushrooms, dressing, fake meat, bread which was totally getting squished. Anyway the woman in front of me was like "feel free to lean those on my cart if they get heavy" I thanked her but told her that was unnecessary it really wasn't that heavy. The man in front of her took a look and then offered me his cart, again I declined as it was totally fine. A minute or so later a man in another checkout was thrusting his basket at me "please take this" which made me laugh and again I told everyone within earshot I was fine. I'm 32 not 102 I can hold a few groceries for a few minutes but they would have none of it. The woman in front of me started to back her cart out "go ahead of me" I thanked her but told her I was fine, no worries but she would have none of it and insisted. I was not going to win this one so I smiled and put my groceries on the belt. As luck would have it a new line opened up right after we switched spots and she was able to check out at the same time as me anyway, gotta love Karma!

Things that I'm into right now:

Crest Glide Cool Mint Floss

I've never been so excited to find a floss that I enjoy using. Seriously, I've always used the stuff the dentist gives me after a visit and for some reason (on more than one occasion) the floss has actually gotten stuck between my teeth. Literally stuck, like it it's dangling from my mouth and I have noooo idea what to do, pull as I might it gets lodged right in there. Not the Crest Glide super awesome floss, it tee hee glides right in and makes me want to floss!

Lipton White Tea Island Mango & Peach

Yummmm! These actually remind me of the tea bags I got at a fancy spa once, the brand is different but the bags are similar in style and just as good! The mango and peach bags are quite refreshing and I'd like to try and make iced tea with them on a nice sweltering day!

Cute skirts to wear in the summer

I adore summer as most of you know, the hot weather, cute sandals and of course super cute skirts! I came across this website recently from the UK and they have lots of different attire, it appears as though they have a gothic flair but I really like a lot of the pieces nonetheless! Please who am I kidding I love gothic shit!!!

Randoms of the week:

Bon Soir! I do wish I had actually continued on in school with my French lessons. I will say as an adult that's one thing I regret. Back then I was like pffffffff who cares......now I think it would be lovely to be able to speak a second language. At least to be able to say more than "hello my name is" and "I am cold"!

Ughhh my satellite radio has been a thorn in my side since I had it installed. Don't get me wrong, I love the bloody thing, I however do not love the fact that it refuses to stay put on the sticky pad on my dash. In less than 3 months, it has come off ohhh 4 times, there it is flopping around driving me bonkers. I've wasted more time and gas driving back to the store to have them tell me "how unusual that is" and try to fix it. I finally caved and bought one of those suction cups, $40 more dollars to stick the thing to my window. Fingers crossed it will stay put for good!!

I played in the annual all day charity volleyball tournament this weekend. It was fun though it rained like crazy until about noon but we were lucky as the sky cleared up eventually and was overcast for most of the day. We played 6 maybe 7 games and came in 3rd in our league woot woot! We played our first 5 games in a row, on for 20 mins off for 20 mins on for 20 mins etc however we had to wait and wait and wait for the playoffs to start. Seriously it was 6:30pm before they got going.......and then we lost by 2 points ouch!!! My legs have sand burn as it was wet and full of rocks on one side and nice and fluffy on the other! I also brought suntan lotion but clearly forgot that hmmm you can get a burn through the clouds and didn't bother to put any on. I have total raccoon eyes, super hot!

I just ate a fly....EWE like literally. I was eating dinner and went to take a sip of water from my trusty bottle only I felt a chunk of something in my mouth. I almost bit down but decided at the last minute to spit it out, ummm ya and there was a fly laying on the couch looking totally stunned! It must have been on the spout of my water bottle. Ugh I feel like vomiting!


WTF is up with critters lately anyway?? I was driving into work the other day and caught something out of the corner of my eye. I actually thought it was a fly but then I really looked and it was a fucking spider hanging down on a web beside my arm. Not a good thing to have happen to a complete arachnophobe especially while driving on the highway. I grabbed the case to my glasses to smash the bloody thing and in the process ended up ohhh in two lanes. I'm sure the transport truck behind me was thrilled. I have noooooo idea if I actually hit the thing *sniff*


Today I was clearly not paying attention as I walked right into a big thick tree branch, boink it scraped against my forehead and stunned me for a moment. I thought I would have a nice big bruise on my head but alas I do not, just a scrape in my hairline. Awesome!


Is it the weekend yet???

Apparently I love spending money on theatre and concert tickets which don't always run cheap. The line up so far this year:

Rock of Ages

An Ideal Husband

Wicked
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30 Seconds to Mars

Kings of Leon

Tears for Fears (ohhhh yaaaa!)

David Gray & Ray Lamontagne

Keane

Lady Gaga

I just can't seem to help myself, I always get these Pre Sale emails and then try my luck in cyberspace. If I can snag decent seats then I go, end of story. I always find it rather odd when I meet people who have never been to a concert before ... HUH? You mean these people have never spent their mornings as a teen lined up outside a record store waiting...and waiting....for the ticket machine to open? I love seeing bands live, I love the energy from the crowd and the smiles on all the faces; oh and the music we can't forget the music! It sends chills up and down my body sometimes, when the singer hits a note just so. If we could all learn to live every day as though we were at a rock concert the world would be a much happier place!



I'm super excited for the weekend as I'm going out dancing and drinking with my gals ohhhhh throw in a little bit of shopping and I'm a happy kitty! The DJ's will be playing music from the 1890's until now in chronological order woot woot! Have a great weekend pals!

Once again the weather was fabulous for this lovely weekend! I went to see Jennifer's roller derby game and her team kicked the other teams ass! I forget the actual score but it was like 200 and something to like 50 some odd points. Woot woot!!!




On sunday I took advantage of the sun and went for a nice long bike ride. It was surprisingly quiet on the path and I found a parking spot right away which is odd. I have but one complaint to those walking along the path.....move the fuck out of the way and hmmm I don't know maybe SHARE the path with others. Maybe it's just me but I like to treat the path as a sort of road if you will. If I pull off on the grass to grab a drink I always look for other people before hopping back on. Makes sense, however today several people just sauntered on right in front of me without so much as a look. A man, a woman and their dog just walked blindly on, dum di dum I almost ran over the dog, a woman and her baby did the exact same thing and yet another woman stepped back from the grass onto the path to take a photo but didn't turn around to see if anyone was coming......ugh! I had to swerve around her. I think I'm going to buy one of those awfully loud horns HONK HONK! I do have a bell which I ring when I come upon those douches walking four people across taking up the whole bloody path granted it doesn't help much, by the time they turn around to look I'm usually right behind them and they go in every different direction which is usually the same one I'm going........isn't bike riding supposed to be nice and relaxing?




I LOVE how you have the beautiful water on one side:

and gorgeous houses on the other! It really is a peaceful place to be!

I spent the evening curled up with a good book and some green tea. I also tried to watch a few movies from my childhood, The Goonies and Weird Science. The former I still totally love, the latter hmmm not so much. I wonder what the appeal was way back when anyway?

Am I the only person that gets bizzaro friend requests on the monster that is FB? Wait, first things first, am I still the only loser that uses the social networking site? Okay, back to question #1.......I just find it incredibly odd that a married man from India, a guy from Argentina and a woman from California all want to be my friend. Huh? I could see if they were gathering buds to appear super popular from their own friends friend lists (even then I would decline) but these strangers and I have NOOOOOO friends in common. How the hell are they even finding me? I suppose I've never randomly thrown a name into the search option or looked for people far far away from me for shits and giggles. I already have a pen pal in England (yes we've been writing back and forth yearly since we were in Brownies and you all thought I was kinda cool pffffff) so I'm not in the market for any new pen pals. I just think it's weird.......

Maybe next year someone can remind me to deal with my legs BEFORE the hot weather hits?? They'll be covered in what appears to be large tampons (really it's just long cotton ballish things) and compression tape for a few days which in the warm weather is really quite awful. They itch, sweat, I can't wear shorts cause who wants to see tampons and tape all over my legs and then I can't wear shorts for like 2 weeks after cause they will be bruised. Ugh, why oh why must I be so vain .... hmmm sorta like a pun but not really Ha :)

Anyway get out there and enjoy the weekend, it's gonna be a hot one!!!!

What a lovely weekend activity wise and weather wise! I was able to see a bunch of my peeps I don't get to regularly hang out with, we went for drinks and of course got a little silly, ate deep fried food at 3am and then met up again on a patio the next day for brunch!

I finally got my bike out on the parkway yay and rode for about an hour or so. I have this bench that I LOVE to sit on so I brought a book to do just that. Unfortunately people were already occupying my spot so I found another. I sat down, pulled off my helmet and started to pull out my book when I heard "can we share this bench with you?" I said sure, it was an older couple from the states. They were actually super quiet and very respectful of my reading, they offered me some cheese and we chatted about biking for a few mins before I went on my way. I had to giggle to myself though, normally I would have been sooooo annoyed with the sharing of the bench, I wanted some peaceful quiet time after my long ride but for some reason I just went with it and figured meh whatever it's fine. I open up chapter 4 The Law of Least Effort in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra and was like WHOA! That chapter was all about acceptance and embracing people, situations etc as they come "Today I will accept people, situations, circumstances and events as they occur." Such an odd thing to read when I had done just that not 5 minutes before!!!

I also sat outside and finished off Mr. Chopra's book while enjoying this amazing 27 degree weather woot woot!!!! He had some very interesting things to say and I'm going to give these "laws" a try. I've wanted to explore a more spiritual realm if you will within myself and this seems like a great place to begin. Plus he talks about meditation which is something I've wanted to go deeper into as well.

August 22, 2007 to May 20. 2010

Can you even freaking believe that it has been almost 3 years since I began my list of goals?!?! I can't! Way back when on August 22, 2007 I made a commitment to myself to get out there and try new things, finish up others I had felt less important and step out of my comfort zone. In just over 2.5 years I have successfully completed 44 out of 75 goals, I've donated $120 to various charities as promised ($10 for unfinished goals) and I'm still raring to go! Oh yes my friends, I'm giving myself an extension.....

Goal List Update:

Working On

35. Read all of the unread books on my shelf: (15/35)

It has actually taken me 2 years to read 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen. There are 28 chapters in total, each focusing on a person who has been touched by the disease in some way, shape or form. Each story is more heartbreaking than the last and I can't possibly do it justice so if you're interested in an overview of the book go here:

http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780676978223

Completed:

63. Buy a new dresser

Ever since I was a little girl I've always had a long dresser and for years now I have been looking for a tall dresser, a chest if you will. I decided to check online one day at various stores around the area and voila one jumped out at me, I was in love!!! It's very pretty!



A reminder of the goals (the ones in bold text I've completed)

From August 22, 2007 until Thursday May 20, 2010


1. Ride a mechanical bull

2. Get an RRSP

3. Make my bed for 30 consecutive days (30/30)

4. Go topless at a clothing optional beach

5. Achieve BMI of 24.9 or less so people will want to see me topless at the beach

6. Try snowboarding

7. Take a sign language course

8. Complete the cancer bike a thon next year

9. Take a class at Good for Her (IE kink 101, giving great head)

10. Learn how to play the guitar/bass well enough to play one song

11. Try a hot stone massage

12. Try a new food (IE Korean)

13. Watch a Bond movie as I’ve never seen one

14. Take vitamins every day for 90 days (90/90)

15. Stop going to “obligated” events (IE Weddings I don’t care about)

16. Learn about Buddhism

17. Play a game of golf on a green

18. Pay off my car

19. Visit India *


20. Learn to speak better French (mine is at a grade 5 level)

21. Donate blood

22. Whiten my teeth at the dentist office

23. Take circus lessons (IE Trampoline, Stilts, Trapeze) Believe it or not there is a school for this near my work

24.Try a new recipe once a week for 4 months (16/16)

25. Learn how to sew (IE hemming)

26. Get a minimum of 100 signatures on my animal rights petition

27. Try bricklaying

28. Plant my heartnut (I’ve had this thing for over 10 years)

29. Take lunch to work everyday for two weeks (10/10)

30. Join the mile high club

31. Go real camping for a weekend (not at some campground but a National Park)

32. Floss everyday for one month (30/30)

33. Try waterskiing

34. Visit the Galapagos Islands *

35. Read all of the unread books on my shelf: currently (15/35)

36. Learn how to drive standard

37. Move closer to my job

38. Put a new battery in my watch

39. Go skydiving

40. Try a tofurkey for Thanksgiving

41. Visit 15 of my placements at work (15/15)

42. Go to the gym 4 x a week for 2 months (32/32)

43. Use my juicer (I bought it and used it once)

44. Clean out my closet/under my bed/dresser

45. Learn a new dance (IE salsa, hip hop, breakdancing)

46. Go on a jetski

47. Try wearing contacts

48. Take more pride in appearance (IE wear make-up to work, do my hair)

49. Mow the lawn (I’ve never mowed the lawn)

50. Put all of my digital photos on discs

51. Dye my hair a new colour (IE black)

52. Get a firebox for my important items

53. Learn the capitals of all US States

54. Go on an African Safari *

55. Learn how to play the drums well enough to play one song

56. Wear a tank top out in public sans jacket

57. Go on a minimum of 5 dates (5/5)

58. Wear sunscreen everyday for one month (30/30)

59. Visit 3 remaining continents (0/3) *

60. Glamour shots with Jennifer and Jessica

61. Send a care package to a Canadian Soldier

62. Donate in December to Ten Thousand Villages/World Vision

63. Buy a new dresser

64. Attend a movie at the theatre alone

65. Go skinny dipping

66. Plant a windowsill herb garden

67. Go to a flea market

68. Send a letter to a Canadian Soldier

69. Have my car detailed inside

70. Have the teeny tiny rust mark on my trunk buffed out

71 Read a Choose Your Own Adventure book without cheating

72 Strap on love with Scott

73 Finish the 1st 3 seasons of Lost before the 4th season begins

74 To ride the Wicked Twister and Top Thrill Dragster

75. A month with no booze
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To all the Canucks out there, enjoy the long weekend woot woot!!! Ohhhh and it's supposed to be 28 degrees today *SQUEAL*