So I was reading a magazine article the other day and I was like "what"? Apparently there's a certain hotel chain over the pond that offers a human bed warming service. If you so wish an employee of the hotel slips under your covers wearing a fleece onsie until you are ready to go to bed, thus keeping your sheets toasty warm until you retire for the evening. I want that job!

Other jobs I would like:

*Dessert Taster

*Host of the Amazing Race "you are team number two!"....see I'm totally qualified!

*Host of the Thirsty Traveler "Kompai" "Cheers" "Salut"

*Island Caretaker



Okay so obviously I just want to be able to eat, drink and travel around for a living! Who wouldn't......

What's your dream job?

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Okay I was just reading Rawbeans blog and she posted this HILARIOUS link to a "show" called Ikea Heights....seriously check it out! It's a "soap opera" that is filmed inside of a real Ikea store
without the stores knowledge. I love it! Scroll down and start at episode 1!

I can't even believe I'm going to say this but I watched the Olympics for quite a while this evening and actually liked them. I watched some bobsledding, skiing and skating. My friend and I were watching the blurbs about the Olympians and I said "you know I never watch the games but now I'm dying to see these two competitors skate". There seemed to be a lot of hype around a Korean skater and a girl from Japan and he wanted to see them too! Hilarious, two Olympic haters dying to see the outcome! We actually sat around waiting for them to skate.

Then there was Joannie Rochette, when she finished, tears were streaming down my face as my heart went out to her. Such courage to go out there days after her mother had passed away, what a moment! I wanted to reach through my TV and hug her.

Sigh I think I'm hooked..........dammit!

Randomness......

*Why is it when people miss or almost miss their exit on a highway do they feel the need to either cut off anyone and everyone behind them in order to cross over 4 lanes to get to their exit or they just stop in the middle of the road until it's clear to go??? Also I saw a genius the other day and I wish I was kidding, drive into a very deep ditch to get to a missed exit. My jaw was literally on the floor, I've never in my life witnessed such a display! Whatever happened to just getting off at the next exit? Shocking concept it seems but that's what I do, I watch the one I'm supposed to take go by and I take the following one and turn around rather than cause mayhem and accidents behind me.

*I had purchased a few items in the States back in November and decided I wanted to return them if at all possible. I realized that like 3 months had passed and it may be wishful thinking and rather than waste my time going all the way over I figured I would call the stores to inquire about their return policies before I made the trek. I was dumbfounded when the Customer Service rep said "Hmmmm that's a good question" when I asked what the policy was at that particular store..."gee I"m not sure...." She didn't tell me to hold on and offer to find out, she just kept saying "hmmmm, I'm really not sure" Okay then! It's interesting because most stores around here have a very limited time frame in which to return an item anywhere from 8 days to 30 and yet both of these stores gave me my moolah back for 90 day old swag. Cha Ching!

*I watched very little of the Olympics...oops! I caught some figure skating and I saw clips of the folks who were on Oprah friday afternoon. I'll try better this week!

Okay okay I know I know I'm like the only person on the face of the earth who is not super into the Olympics even though they are *gasp* taking place in Canada......how unpatriotic of me! I'm actually NOT going anywhere this weekend and vow to watch at least one hour (or more) of the games this year. I am interested in getting a glimpse of these tight inappropriate outfits that some of the athletes are wearing. Apparently our snowboarders have tight tight pants and I've heard cries over some of the figure skating outfits, not to mention a package here or there.

I do quite enjoy skiing so if those events are not over I wouldn't mind checking out some moguls or jumping (though with my luck all that's left is curling *yawn*).

So I'll give them a chance....just this once....it will be like that time everyone was raving about the Star Trek series and I poo pooed it before I had watched an episode.....and then I watched an episode and still didn't get the appeal.

Enjoy your weekend whatever you may be up to, I plan to relax, read and watch EGAD the Olympics!

PS I did see a bit of this guys routine the other night while at a friends house......umm yeah......it was interesting to say the least.

Yours truly has not been getting the sleep she requires. A few late nights (6am and 2am respectively one on a work night no less) make for a very tired young woman. And to think this week I vowed to start getting 8 hours of sleep a night......I'm failing miserably as I got about 8 hours in total over the two evenings. Sigh, there's always tomorrow.......

The weekend was wonderful, I loved loved loved Smiths/Morrissey fest and we danced well into the morning. It was hot as hell in that little room and most of the cute boys were taken by other cute boys but we had a lot of fun dancing and singing along. I ralso an into my high school chum once again and had a quick chat. We always seem to end up at the most random places.

We got in late and were woken up at ohhhh 7am by the people next door to us arguing. The girl was screaming "fuck you" something about a baby and the guy kept telling her to quiet down. This went on for a good 10 minutes before I turned into an 80 year old man and called the front desk to complain. It subsided however I was woken up once again a few hours later to nasty moaning sounds....apparently they were having loud make up sex, ewe! That eventually stopped and a little while later there was some coughing/moaning sounds that eventually trickled out into the hallway. WTF were these people doing? Some sort of choking foreplay in public....no idea, but we never heard them again thank god!

The following day we headed to the John Mayer concert and while he clearly needs to learn to keep his mouth shut while not performing....he has one hell of a voice and put on one amazing show! So we sit down in our wonderful 10th row seats and these two girls go by, one in a velour purple track suit and both wheeling suitcases....huh? The one had braids in her hair, perhaps they just flew back in from some far off vacation....but if that wasn't odd enough the one in the purple was sporting a tshirt that said and I quote "I love boobies"! LD was like "does her shirt say I love boobies???" It sure did........

The opening act was sooo energetic and fun, they're apparently from San Fran and I would go and see them again in a heartbeat. They ran around the venue, brought people on stage, they just had such a good energy about them not to mention some eye candy! LD and I were thoroughly entertained by the one bloke. So thumbs up to Michael Franti and Spearhead for putting on such a great show!

Ah back to Mr. Mayer, he sounded phenomenal, played until 11:45pm and shed clothes as the night progressed. He was hilarious, sang some inappropriate song about Valentines Day and almost had me in tears when he spoke of his friend Issac who was in the crowd. "Issac has to go to the hospital alot...." Awww my heart broke for this cute little boy, who's extremely ill, that part was quite sad. He handed out flowers to the crowd, sang like an angel and played the shit out of his guitar. I had a great time!

We went out dancing (again) afterwards and ended up hanging out until 6am with some people that we met that evening. It was a great weekend, best way to spend Valentines day in my opinon.......I'll take a sweaty John Mayer and time with my gal pal over a romantic dinner anyday.....that's probably reason #567 why I'm single :)

Every time I see a car with dents/scratches/chunks missing from it and I see the driver acting like an asshole I think.....clearly your fault! Case in point I was driving along a very busy road when this boat of a car decided to sneak up much too far from a side street, waiting of course but his bumper was in the middle of my lane. I had to swerve around him and as I did I noticed scratches all over his front end....gee I can't possibly imagine how THOSE got there (insert sarcastic tone)!

I've been quite lax as far as the gym is concerned and then it dawned on me....why do I even bother going. No seriously, it's like I've been going for years and years and years and there are really no results to speak of...or none of great significance anyway. I'm well aware that I'm not working to my potential and of course my eating habits are poor at best...so I get why it's not helping...I just don't understand why I bother going at all. Seems like a big waste of time and money if you ask me.

Ugh oh it seems as though cranky Miss Ash has reared her ugly head. It happens from time to time, I start to evaluate my life and do the "WTF have I done", "where am I going" "what am I doing"......and then things stay the same.....and months/years down the road I evaluate again and the same thoughts pop up. It's a pattern, I'm working on fixing.....

I'm thinking this nasty bleh weather is not helping, it's cold, I certainly do not get enough sleep and therefore I'm tired and of course a bit bitchy. But I mean seriously who goes to bed at 10pm??? I'm lucky if my head hits the pillow before 1am, I'd have to drug myself to be in bed before that time on any given evening.

I was reading an email from someone today and pointed it out to another person and was like WTF..."why can't I be like her" and burst out laughing as did my friend. I was obviously kidding, it was this cutesy "good morning everyone, enjoy the winter wonderland!!!" sort of email. The complete opposite of something I would send, Ha! Perhaps I need an attitude adjustment.......

Anyway all is not lost, I have a fabulous weekend planned away with one of my gal pals as it's a Smiths/Morrissey Fest and the invite reads "Let's be miserable together" ahhhhh finally I will be around my type of people!!!! It reminds me of the "Feeling Gloomy" evening in England that I adored ohhhh so much! Monday is holiday around these parts as well so we're planning on hitting up another night of dancing after our concert on Sunday evening! So cheers to drinks, dancing and letting loose!!! Perhaps those things combined with brighten my spirits! Enjoy the weekend my lovelies!

Claire made a lovely post the other day about simples pleasures and of course it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so I thought I would post my simple pleasures as well!!

*My delightfully comfortable bed that I sink into every night and despise leaving every morning.

*Condensed milk in tea.....it's a treat and not an every day thing but ohhhhh sooooo good!

*Dry feet on a wet day

*Amazing friends who put a smile on my face every single day whether sharing laughs over a cup of tea or whooping it up on the dance floor I love each and every single one of them. I'm blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

*Finding a penny on the street and making a wish (and still having hope that maybe just maybe that wish will come true)

*Receiving a compliment from a stranger

*Getting butterflies.....

*My super warm slippers that look like boots! Not only are they very cute but they are sooooooo toasty as well!

*The smell of cookies baking

*My VERY comfortable lululemon get up, seriously I wish I could wear the pants and jacket every single day to work.

*A beautiful sunset....I took this photo while at a get together up north. Everyone else was drinking and chatting away and I left for a few minutes to sit quietly and take in this amazing view.

*Watching the little ones in my life grow and learn each and every day. To see the world through their eyes is so uplifting. The smallest of things brings a huge smile to their faces, they view the world with such awe! They remind me to stop and appreciate the small things ..... really really appreciate them!

What are your simple pleasures?

Jennifer wanted me to post the 5 second video of me snowboarding or shall I say finishing. It's really not very exciting; had she thought to work the camera ohhhh about 10 seconds earlier she would have caught my fall! Instead it's me already on the ground......yay for slow friends! All you can hear is her laughter and me mumble "I'm done"



I'm once again out of town for the weekend quel surprise. I'm very excited about my dinner plans tomorrow evening as I'll be checking out a restaurant that I've been wanting to try for some time. They have a fixed menu for Winterlicious so a nice 3 course meal at a cheaper price. Someone who I will only refer to as the douche was supposed to come with me....but PP is taking that person's place....yay for good friends!

I'm going to stay a few more days as well, visit with a friend I have not seen in a long time and I have dinner/drink plans with another person Friday evening :) I may even relive my youth (well late teens) and head to one of our old haunts on Saturday night with a few of the gals. So it will definitely be a fun filled, very packed weekend to say the least. Seriously though I'm in desperate need of a good time. I had to leave work early this week due to a horrendous headache brought on by stress ....I'd had it and my body let me know. So enjoy your weekend whatever you may do as I will certainly be enjoying mine!

Goal List Update

Working On:

#14 Take Vitamins every day for 90 days 63/90

Whoa!!! Almost had a slip up this past weekend! I was driving out of town for the weekend when I realized I had forgotten to take my vitamins. I figured I would just grab some at my friends house.....and then I forgot to ask her.....and we left for a few days. Bah! We stopped at a grocery store and I bought some! I WILL complete this goal dammit! I'm going to keep these extra ones in my purse just in case.......

#35 Read all of the unread books on my shelf 13/35

And of course I'm still reading.....slooooowwwlly as I haven't even finished a book at all this month.....for shame!!! I am in the middle of two though.....

Completed:

#6 Try Snowboarding

So J, S and I decided to give snowboarding a go. We didn't have much time so we opted for the quick lesson deal which was a good idea. It was a lot of fun and hilarious and of course difficult but not horrendous as I had imagined. J's board needed some wax and would not glide as it should have, I was good to go until we hit the one hill (and by hill I mean smaller than the bunny hill) I fell hard on my ass and then had a hell of a time getting up. S took out the instructor and smashed her board into his shin......oops!! Way too much fun and definitely something I would like to try again!

#57 Go on a minimum of 5 dates 5/5

You know I must say I'm glad that I decided to make this one of my goals. I wasn't out there per se and was content to keep to myself. I've met some cool people, had some laughs, nice meals and good conversation. I remember that girl with the "mermaid" disease had said she wanted to be a dating kind of girl...it made me giggle as I thought that was sweet of her.....but she knew what she was talking about!! It's fun and hopefully I'll continue to keep myself out there!

You know what's funny, my coworkers will often ask ME for advice regarding their computers. How do I do this......where does this file go.......which absolutely baffles my mind as I am not a whiz with computers. I'm lucky I know how to turn the bloody things on. It's a sad state of affairs when I'm the computer techy!

Case in point, as I'm sure you've noticed I've decided to try a new template for my lovely blog. It only took me all of ohhhhhh an hour perhaps longer to figure out how to load the fucking thing. There were four steps in the instructions...FOUR and yet it managed to take me quite some time to figure it out. Computers are quite maddening if you ask me and oftentimes I've been tempted to toss mine out the window and not look back.

I chose to trek on this evening and voila it eventually worked in my favour however I am a creature of habit and I'm not sure I love the new layout as all of my items are on the opposite side and where the hell did Sami the Sloth go???

As well what is up with that "search" bar and contact.......and rss feed.....is there any way to remove those items or is it too bad sucka use as is???

Ugh ohhhhh I woke up this morning sneezing with a bit of a stuffy nose. You know how you can just tell when a cold is coming on and you want to do everything in your power to prevent it from happening but it's already too late! I searched and searched my cupboards for some Cold FX but to no avail. I haven't a clue if it would even work though some people say that it helps. I guess I'll have to go the old fashioned route......vitamin C and sleep!



I have a ridiculously busy week ahead including 4 birthday parties (side note... is it smart to eat cake AND go out for dinner 4 days in a row....probably not!) as well as a weekend getaway in the snow. I might not be able to fit into my gear if I eat cake at every party.....



I'm just hoping (you'll never EVER hear me say this again) that there is snow on the weekend. It's currently overcast and raining which isn't conducive to snow making weather however they appear to have all of their runs open today so weather be damned it might be a go.



Rawbean wrote a post recently and is thinking about posting more during the Olympics. I made a comment that I dislike the Olympics and could feel every eyeball on the internet glaring my way like "no she didn't" as everyone seems to LOVE them! I felt like Elaine in that Seinfeld episode where everyone loves the English Patient and she hates it!

I feel like I'm in bizzaro world today! For some reason I have had more compliments today than in the past few years combined......it's making my head puff up just a wee bit!

It all started with the lovely parking attendant. He's a much older jovial man who always gives patrons candy. I'm often greeted with a "hello beautiful" and a great big smile. They have a no in and out (sounds mildly dirty) policy however I absolutely had to leave and return so I sheepishly asked if this would be okay. He started to laugh at me and shrugged his shoulders "Sweetheart, you're beautiful you can do whatever you like"! I love this man I mean who doesn't want to hear that a few days a week!

Once inside I was told that a certain someone was checking me out! Yay for me! And not an hour later I had to speak to this certain someone whom I've seen a bazillion times but have never had a reason to talk to. Today I had to talk to him about a client.....odd how the world works!

I was leaving my satellite office when a man stopped me "where did you get that purse I love it" I told him I was flattered as everyone thinks it looks like a 90 year old womans bag and he completely disagreed. As we parted he yelled out "And I'm a straight male for the record" it was so random and hilarious I loved it!

Oh I'm not done! I left the purse man and got into the elevator when a woman looked at me and told me how much she loved my jacket.....Seriously people by now I was certain that I would be stuck in the elevator due to my ballooning head!

I arrived at my other office and as I was talking to a coworker she stopped in mid sentence "you have the most beautiful teeth I've ever seen"! She kept on telling me how white and perfect they were, Oh why thank you :)

I'm not sure what I've done to deserve such praise and all in one day but let me tell ya I'll take it!! I've always been one of those people who poo poo's compliments like "oh it's not that great" or "oh I think they're totally yellow" but not today. I decided to try something new, I smiled at each and every person and simply thanked them!

I often will go out of my way to compliment a stranger on whatever I love that they have... shoes.....jacket...purse....hair cut....I figure it makes them feel good and I'm always genuine about what I like so why not let them know.

Task for everyone today.....compliment at least one person in your travels and see the smile it brings!

Something that brought a smile to my face yesterday was this hilarious clip (Jan 19 Police Call) played on a radio show. The man had called a police station to ask if he would get a "promise to appear" if he decided to masturbate on a firetruck. It's long but funny as shit and worth a listen, the cops responses killed me!


Enjoy the weekend!

Well if I learned one thing at all from this past weekend it's that I have the most fabulous friends in the whole wide world! Seriously I do! They're lovely and understanding and help me out whenever I need a hand and I'm forever grateful to have them in my life. Awwww!!!


Friday night I spent time with P and she took me to this really yummy restaurant that had a thousand veggie options! It was absolute heaven! We also wandered around her part of the city which was full of drunks and rather entertaining. It was nice to be able to just walk around and enjoy the warmer weather as they don't have much snow up there and it's been ages since I've taken a walk outside. She even cut up some mangoes and pomegranates for us to munch on which was nice as my fruit intake as of late seems to consist of apples and pineapples.


Saturday I was a bit transient. My plans I thought I had got buggered up and apparently they were cancelled only I had no idea they were cancelled so I showed up anyway. I went to dinner with the canceller and then met up with J and K for pints at our favorite pub. We had a million laughs and I as I checked my camera this morning I noticed some rather interesting photos that neither myself nor J or K took....or at least I hope they didn't take this one photo Ha!


We then watched a Jersey Shore marathon while eating yummy bagels and stinky cheese. I can't believe I'm even admitting to that (the show not the cheese)! I'm embarrassed to say I'm addicted!!

I had some nice big belly laughs which always lift my spirit! Speaking of which I really need to start that bloody gratitude journal. It's probably not a good sign when one refers to their gratitude journal as "bloody" as if it's a chore. I don't mean it that way, it's just something I've wanted to start for quite some time and have pushed it aside to do other things.

Of course my heart goes out to the people in Haiti right now ....... there are no words....

I ran outside today to toss something in my trunk and it was so LOVELY and WARM outside that I decided to scrape off my car then and there in my t-shirt. Did I mention that it’s 1 degree today? I think it’s hilarious that it’s been sooooo cold lately that 1 degree seems heavenly! I do realize that I was in fact scraping ice off of my windshield so in reality it wasn’t THAT warm……but it was warm to me!

It’s also very sunny which I’m quite enjoying and I’m surprisingly in a rather sunny mood myself. It seems for the past few days I’ve been on edge and rather miserable so this is a nice change.

I’m going out of town again this weekend and will spend Friday evening with one of my gals, lazing around in our comfies, eating yummy take-out and of course talking the night away. I’m looking forward to doing absolutely nothing with her!! I was going to see an exhibit the following afternoon but am doubtful that will be happening so dinner and drinks it is for Saturday night! I’d also love to catch up with K who we went to visit in Africa . She’s in town for the weekend so I must track down her whereabouts so we can have a few laughs!

I also had a good laugh today when I came across an article regarding No Pants Subway Ride Day! Check out the video on this site, I love it! Such a fun idea, I'd probably ride the subway all day long watching (with my pants on of course)! Ha! Have a great weekend!

So it FINALLY stopped snowing here! I know I know it's January, I live in Canada.....I get it! For whatever reason though we've been hit relatively hard in the past week while other places not 25 mins away have no snow on the ground at all, it's rather bizarre. Oh and it's been quite cold to boot minus 20 with the windchill has been the norm, that's bonkers brrrr!

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I went to see Nine recently and while I heard it didn't get great reviews I myself enjoyed the film as I like singing and dancing......well not me personally doing those activities.....but watching other people sing and dance of course. I especially loved Marion Cotillard's portrayal of Luisa and thought she was just absolutely stunning in her role; there's just a certain je ne sais quoi about her. Now I want to rent "Le Vie En Rose" as she may be my new fav!

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I went to Curefest which was just like Depechemode fest only we spent most of our evening in the retro room rather than the actual room playing The Cure. I got sucked in by the old tunes I used to dance to when I was 19! It was lovely and I ran into a guy from high school ..... the same one I ran into a DMF funny enough considering I was in a completely different city. There were some rather interesting folks there and I was VERY jealous of the cute outfit/long legs on this one gal. She was dressed up as a school girl and had legs as long as the eye could see.....we talked to her outside briefly.....turns out she was a dude.....she still had the best body and the cutest outfit in the entire bar. Must get my ass to the gym.......

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I went for some yummy cake with a certain someone and also had a good hour long chat with a friend via telephoone that I haven't talked to in quite some time. I'm hoping to catch up with her on Friday, have a girls night in lazing around in our comfies but we'll see how her schedule is. I hope it's open as that sounds delightful right about now!

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Clearly I need to go back to school as I just realized I started almost every paragraph with "I went" Doh!!