I've been on holidays for the past week and for some ridiculous reason I decided it would be a great idea to go to the gym at 8am for a class. The evening prior I had dropped something very heavy on my foot and low and behold the next morning half of my foot was black and blue. So I was tired, it hurt to put my runners on, I put my crap in the locker, click and "oh shit"!!!! I locked the bloody key to my lock INSIDE the locker.

The tiny girl at the front desk hands me these gigantic bolt cutters, I thought she was kidding. So there I am, tired, cranky and sore trying to break through 8 million layers of metal to no avail. Several other women in the change room tried to help but nothing was working. I wandered around looking for anyone to help but the problem was the gym was quite sparse, it was the holiday Monday for everyone else as well and the gym had just opened right at 8am. I asked some man who was just standing there to help me, I think he thought I was trying to pick him up cause his response was "ask my wife, she's over there doing push ups, she's strong". I went over to ask her and when I explained what I needed help with I thought she said " I don't really care"! I thought WTF is WRONG with the two of you!!!!! Thankfully that didn't fly out of my mouth as I had not heard her correctly, she had actually said "I don't work here"! She did come to try and help but she too could not cut through the lock. FINALLY this older gentleman came to my rescue! Turns out he had to loosen a bolt in order to make them cut further which clearly none of us noticed! I was soooo thankful and happy as my purse and keys and everything were locked away.

I gotta say I was totally annoyed with the first guy though. He was just standing there doing nothing and he wouldn't even try to help. I can't stand people like that! If someone needs help I help them as best I can. A little while ago I saw this very old woman standing at her trunk with grocery bags. I was heading into the store, stopped and asked "Can I help you put those in your trunk?"She didn't even have to ask me I just saw that she might need assistance and asked. Clearly my parents raised me right!!! So a big fucking brick to the douche and a big bouquet to the helpful gentleman!

I'm one of those people that HATES getting sick. I don't think that anyone actually enjoys germs but I go to great lengths to make sure I avoid them. You can imagine my dismay when a woman walked into my building last week, glassy eyed, coughing and looking like death. I asked if she had been sick all weekend to which she replied "no, just today"! I thought oh dear Lord she's CONTAGIOUS!!!! Why oh why would one go out in such a state! I stayed as far away from her as possible that day but quel surprise it got me. I think we should take a cue from the lovely people over in Japan, I saw several people over there wearing masks to avoid getting/giving germs when I was visiting! Brilliant idea!!

Once I felt better Starbucks lured me in with their 1/2 price frappucinos I mean come on $2, who could resist! The old Miss Ash would have gone several times for the deal, the new svelte MA went once (granted it's on for a few more days soooooooo.....) and thoroughly enjoyed a fatty Vanilla Bean Frap with whipped cream! Yummmm!

I also had the most juicy and delightful strawberry! Seriously it was amazing! It's always hit or miss I find with strawberries and pineapples. Some are super sweet and yummy, others more tart, meh and flavourless. I completely lucked out this week on both the berries and pineapples nom nom nom!!!

As most of you know gas has been creeping up, actually no, no it hasn't been, it's shot up to exorbitant prices 140.9 per litre in my neck of the woods. I'm lucky to live in a border city and have been heading over to the States weekly to fill up. Even with the drive and the toll I've been saving lotsa moolah and with the amazing exchange rate I can't go wrong! It's always hit or miss with the border guards as well, some are friendly and have great personalities, others not so much. I had one guy flip through my passport "You travel a lot" to which i replied "I sure do" (translated in my head to "hence why I have a passport jackass" or "thanks tips") He then questioned where I work and made some condesending remark "you have to go to Ghana to do that?" as he glared at me. I actually started to laugh at him, I thought he was joking. Clearly the man has never left his little booth at the bridge, he didn't even crack a smile, nor did he appear to enjoy my smirking at him as shown through his icy stare but he eventually waved me on. The man I got the following trip over was much more jovial and we shared a few laughs.

I went to the mall over there to browse and they were having a big sale at one of the department stores. There were racks and clothes everywhere and it was a bit chaotic. All of the workers were very polite saying "excuse me" to the throngs of people in line as they weaved in and out, asking if they could help, they all seemed to be in great moods considering the crowds. I then overheard a woman talking to and then screaming at a sales clerk. From what I gathered she wanted to know where something was and when the saleswoman didn't know or couldn't find what she was looking for the woman's solution was to scream "YOU WORK HERE NOT ME" "YOU PEOPLE ARE USELESS YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE ANYTHING IS, I'M NEVER COMING BACK HERE"!!! I kept my mouth shut but you have noooooo idea how badly I wanted to say "you will be doing the staff here an enormous favour if you never come back here so please make good on your promise". I did tell the worker to ignore her, she was clearly having a terrible day and told her how impressed I was with the service that day.

It really irks me when I ask people who they are voting for and they tell me that they don't vote. I'll admit I used to be that guy but thanks to Jennifer and a few others I smartened up in my early 20's and have been casting my ballot ever since. I always find it very interesting to see the various signs in certain cities. Where I work it's a sea of orange (NDP), in my hometown it's nothing but blue (Conservatives, barf)! It doesn't appear as though things are going to go my way Le Sigh :(

I've been trying to get through those Malcolm Gladwell books I spoke about a little while ago. I must say for such a popular author the first one I picked up (Blink) was a bit of a letdown. He had some interesting points but they seemed to drag on and on and on I actually had to put the book down two thirds of the way through and couldn't finish it. I figured the book was a lemon and went onto What the Dog Saw. I'm a few stories in (they are articles that he wrote for the New Yorker) and I'm still not very impressed. There are several sections and perhaps I should move on to the next as my attention is waning reading about Ron Popeil and ketchup. Hopefully The Tipping Point will be of more interest.....

I was in a spin class today and normally I am focused on the class and don't look around much but this evening my eyes wandered outside of the room to a woman on a stair climber. Her ass was completely covered in sweat! She had these two wet marks that covered her entire cheeks which of course made me giggle! She looked as though she had sat in a puddle, not a drip of sweat anywhere else but her buttocks! So weird!

A few of my favorite things:

I rarely eat frozen dinners as I find them repulsive and terrible for you. This one however caught my eye and I figured why not. Every now and again I'm lazy and don't feel like making something for lunch at work so ta da! The curry could have been less watery but other than that absolutely no complaints. It tasted great, filled me up and I really enjoyed it! So bizarre!

Mmmmmm speaking of Indian food I'm absolutely in love with Gulab Jamun! I could seriously just sit and eat these little balls of sweet delight for breakfast, lunch and dinner one right after the other, nom nom nom!!!!

I was at Sephora buying nail polish and could not keep my eyes off of the sales woman's lips. They were soooo shiny, subtle flecks of pink and sparkly. I was surprised when she showed me a lip gloss as I thought for sure it would be a regular lipstick. I realize in the photo below it doesn't look like much, maybe you need movement to get the full effect, I swear it was like diamonds on her lips! I just adore this new gloss!

Speaking of Sephora, I've been looking for a sugar scrub to exfoliate my skin and get it ready for the nice weather! (Ummm ya so it snowed the other day, clearly I have more time than I thought). Anyway, I came across Sweet Cheeks by Cake, what a delightful treat! It's a brown sugar scrub and yet has hints of cinnamon and vanilla and feels amazing on my skin! I smell like a cinnamon heart after I'm done! Love it!

• Thank you for all of the good thoughts towards LD and her family. It is with a heavy heart that I tell you he did pass away this weekend. I don't think I will ever be able to wrap my head around cancer and how quickly it changes a life. I'm sad to say he is not the first person I've known to pass so quickly after the diagnosis. It's taken so many of my friends parents that I'm unable to count them all on one hand, it's touched my life as well, I've had several relatives succumb to the beast and I will never ever understand how it can transform lives within days. They told my Aunt she had pneumonia and she was dead within 2 weeks, she went into the hospital with a general feeling of malaise and never came out. LD's dad was sent to physio for a possible pinched nerve in his back and meanwhile it was spreading all over his body.

• I've met several breast cancer survivors and my friends mom did live for a year with brain cancer before she passed but come on, somethings gotta give! You would think with the bazillion dollars spent on "research" they would be closer to finding a cure or at least detecting the many different kinds of cancer before it's too late. I know there are mammograms and paps and some tests that can find irregularities but my experiences with those close to me have not been positive. They're fine one minute, feeling not so good the next and then poof they're gone in less than a month. I still can't wrap my head around it.......

• I was with her at the hospital, she was curled up in the bed beside him as he slept and I couldn't stop crying, I felt so bad for her family and the pain they were in, knowing at any moment he could be gone, offering anything to the universe for one more minute. Through tears she said "do me a favour, go see your dad and hug the shit out of him when you leave here" and I did! All of my love goes out to her and her family, we'll get through this together! I love you!

Randomness -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------*I was out of the city and wanted to go to the gym so I headed to the closest one in my chain. It was inside of a mall and I realize I"m going to work out so I should be happy about having to park a mile away but my lord! Seriously, parking was ridiculous I was like 50 rows away from the entrance and then I get inside and guess what?!? There are four flights of stairs to climb to get to the actual gym. Sheesh, I felt like turning around and thanking them for the workout. Someone remind me again why I'm paying for a membership?!? --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------*I was flipping through the channels and came across some extreme coupon show. Ummmm what the fuck is wrong with these people? One woman bought 60 bottles of mustard and her husband doesn't even use it! This same woman bought hundreds of boxes of cereal and containers of yogurt. Her bill went from $1500 to $100 but my jaw was on the floor. Everyone loves to save a buck or two but what the hell would you do with a million bottles of mustard?! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *I'm not sure if it's the cold rainy weather or if I'm just tired in general but I know when I need to take a week off and it seems as though it's time. I get sick of the excuses from my clients and even the people that legitimately have issues and reasons for lagging behind are on my last nerve. It's hard when you've worked with someone for 18 months and for 18 months they've done nothing. Every time there is an appointment it gets cancelled for some reason or another, then they pop in and demand to see you, they promise and promise and plead for more time ad nauseum and yet nothing ever gets done. I've had one guy cancel 10 appointments due to sickness, it's actually laughable now, I wait for his name to pop up on the day of his appointment as I know he's going to call he's sooo predictable....I finally asked him why he's always sick....he said he's not used to the weather in Canada....I asked him when he moved here...he told me 12 years ago! I had one woman beg me not to send letters to her house as her partner was not aware of her criminal activity and would kick her out if he found out. I find it odd that he's reading her mail and wonder what kind of relationship that is where you have to fear being kicked out for making a mistake but that's going off topic. I told her all she has to do is show up to her appointments and no letters will be sent. She's missed two now and she's done nothing, I have bent over backwards trying to make her appointments through third parties and phone calls and I'm done. I'm sending a letter if I do not hear from her by next week, it's not my problem. That is how I know that I need a break! --- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Someone recommended an author (Malcolm Gladwell) to me so I went to the library to grab a few of his books. He must be rather popular as I had a hell of a time finding any titles by him, they had all been taken out across 4 libraries save for two books. I snatched those up and plan to crack the spine this evening. I'm excited to read something new! Are any of you familiar with is work?

I've become a bit lax with writing on my lovely blog so my apologies, I promise upcoming posts will be more frequent, maybe not entertaining but more frequent! Ha! The bachelorette party in Montreal went well and a good time was had by all. A few tips for those taking 7 plus hour road trips.....make sure to put the correct address into the GPS AND make sure to spell words correctly when using another language. I wasn't the driver thus not in charge of directions which I'm sure everyone was happy about, but the driver forgot to enter "west" at the end of the address. We ended up at some dead end street, confused and clearly not at our destination. I realized her error and kept trying to type in the correct address to no avail. We drove for a while and eventually ended up where we needed to be. Turns out "west" is spelled "ouest" in French hence my not being able to enter the full address correctly. I was like "WHY won't it let me put WEST at the end of the street name?!?!"

I've been sworn to secrecy about the goings on of the festivities but I will say I had beer, champagne and wine in front of me all at one time during dinner, I ate pizza twice (the super cheesy fatty one above and another more reasonable thin crust with just a sprinkle of the white stuff) and had poutine at 2am even though I declared "I'm full, why am I eating this?" Even drunk Miss Ash knows when she is being bad! LD and I were able to sneak off in the wee hours of the morning to our favorite 80's bar with the blessing of the bride to be, she was supposed to follow but didn't quite make it!

I learned that green bananas take FOREVER to ripen and had no idea they were impossible to peel at said stage AND that they're putrid when not ready. I seriously brought a bag full of fruit to fill up on so I would not eat like a super pig and could watch my points somewhat. I bought greenish bananas as I hate when they get toooooo ripe only mine where horribly under ripe. My friend suggested I hang them in the sun.....so I did....only that made them worse! They ended up green with black marks everywhere and I had to toss them. Bye bye bananas!

I watched the interactions with groups of friends and it made me appreciate mine that much more! When one of my friends is acting like an asshole I'll tell them, they'll tell me...end of story. It's very very rare for my friends and I to get into fights, we may have disagreements and not see eye to eye but at the end of the day we're usually smiling. One girl actually got upset with her friends because they were talking to guys. If any of my gals was chatting up a bloke I'd be giving them the thumbs up as long as their beer googles hadn't creeped up! This girl was clearly jealous her friends were getting attention, she yelled at them, told them the guys were ugly anyway, it was rather amusing!

I let myself have a few treats but other than that super cheesy pizza and the poutine I was a good girl.....booze not included! You know, brown toast when I wanted eggs benedict, fruit smoothies when I wanted frappucinos! I didn't do soooooo bad! I lost a pound this week so that made me happy!

A phone call came as we were leaving the hotel, devastating news, like a punch in the face you didn't see coming, LD's dad was in the hospital. What was originally thought to be a slipped disk was much much worse! Can everyone out in bloggyland please please please send positive energy to LD and her family! Her dad has unexpectedly been touched by an illness and while it can not be cured they just want more quality time with him! So join me in sending light and love their way!! He's not done!!!!!!

Oh look, the slacker is back!

Lady Gaga put on an amazing show as was to be expected. Lots of fun costumes, audience interaction, she sounded great live and of course that little girl from Winnipeg stole my heart! I also had no idea that the Scissor Sisters were opening up for her so that was a fun surprise and our seats were much closer than I had anticipated so that was a treat! People in the crowd were dressed up, the cutest being the two gals in front of us in the photo above, they were a big hit!

The only complaint I have is it took Ms. Gaga an hour and a half to start her show. Seriously, the SS finished at 8:45pm and she didn't hit the stage until 10:15pm ... huh.....she played for 2 hours though!

Dog sledding was so much fun and a great workout! I'm not a fan of snow but I must say the further up north you go the prettier it is. It was the perfect day to go, not too cold, not too hot, snow had fallen the night before so the trails were in great condition. I was surprised at how hard it was to actually do though! Seriously, I was "driving" J and I in the beginning and asked "ummm J is it going to be this way the whooolllleeee time"? to which she replied "yes", I thought oh jeez! Whomever is "driving" aka standing on the back has to get off on hills and walk/run and push the sled up to help the dogs. That person also has to "skate" on flat ground to help push your passenger and yourself. We took turns driving and resting and it was really a lot of fun and soooo beautiful!

I fell in love with our lead dog Leroy, he was sooo freaking cute and had such a great little personality. (I'll never ever get lost in that jacket!)

Via some miracle, I lost a pound on my birthday week! Go figure! I went to the Cheesecake Factory and gorged myself on appetizers, shrimp scampi and ice cream cake. I also got a big ass piece of cheesecake to eat after my weigh in. I worked my ass off at the gym that week but I honestly thought I would stay the same. I was smart though, I ate half of my meal and saved the rest for lunch the next day, ate the cheesecake in nibbles over the week rather than in one sitting, only had one piece of birthday cake and voila, 3500 calories off my ass! I get it I get it, it could have been 7000 aka 2 lbs lost but meh, it was totally worth it!

I have my get together with friends this Saturday and will be heading to Montreal next weekend for a bachelorette party which should be a lot of fun! Seems like I'll be spending every waking moment in the gym this week to make up for my indulgences in the coming weekends! That's the good thing about me though, I'm like the gestapo with my points! If I haven't earned any or don't have any then I don't eat it! Kinda like a credit card, if you don't have the moolah to pay for whatever item you want then you don't buy it. So I may eat a piece of cake or gorge on appetizers but it will always be within my points limit!

Speaking of which....look what they were handing out after spin class today.......I'm giving mine to my niece!

Oh it's going to be an exciting week I can just feel it! I Miss Ash am going to see the lovely Lady Gaga, I bought these tickets last May.....can you imagine....who knows what the hell they're doing 10 months down the road! And apparently there's been some hoopla about a young fan taking the stage with her, I haven't actually read about the girl but have been told by a few people that something like that is happening. I'm just excited to see all of the creative outfits the fans will be wearing and of course to see Lady Gaga perform as she's kinda out there and I like that! And *gasp* she can actually sing!

I also have plans with J to finally go dog sledding on Sunday! The trails flooded in January when we had our original reservation so this will be our second attempt. I looked at the weather forecast for this particular area and it was cringe worthy.....100 % chance of rain on Saturday (possible flooded trails again?) and 20 cms of snow on Sunday (ummm icy flooded trails?). It's a good 3.5 hour drive from her place (4.5 from mine) so I'm really hoping for good weather. Those meteorologists are wrong half the time right!?! I sure as hell hope so!

Ah yes, then my special day will be arriving next week. I've taken it off though I'm not sure what I will do other than dinner with the fam. I might go for a hot stone massage and pamper myself a little bit! I deserve that, I'll be 33 *sigh*

I was perusing the net when I came across a status update "I'm enjoying a Shamrock Shake"!!!! WHOA!!!! I *heart* shamrock shakes and had nooooo idea they were back or around at all. This person lived in Florida....could the yummy shakes possibly be in my neck of the woods as well!?! Clearly it was a slow day at Miss Ash's place and I started to research aka google "shamrock shakes". Can you believe there is a website dedicated to shamrock shake sightings, I shit you not!

I laughed and laughed and of course looked and looked, mocking the people for writing on this site but loving them all at the same time. This not so good for you but oh so yummy green drink appears to have a cult following...who knew!

I desperately wanted one on Thursday but waited until my weigh in on Saturday to get one. I weighed in, went to a spin class and grabbed a shamrock shake on the way home!! Ah the perfect day!!!

I thought I'd give you all an update on my first 3 weeks on Weight Watchers. I gotta say it's really not so bad! I'm not hungry, I can eat what I want, I've even had *gasp* french fries and fatty Indian food but have also eaten more fruits and veggies than I have in a long time. The first week I spent getting used to the program and probably chose a higher points value for items that I was unsure about. Like pupusas....where the hell are they in the book?!? When in doubt I try to look at nutrition values online for similar foods and guestimate the points value. So the first week I lost a whopping 5 pounds! I hadn't even worked out that week so it was a lovely surprise!

The 2nd week I struggled a bit, I made poor choices which I was totally aware of I just didn't seem to care. My friend made a lovely lunch for us gals which consisted of appetizers, punch, pasta with oil & shrimp, dessert, salad...the list goes on! You think I'd have been full for the day but nope, that evening I chose crazy bread(IE sticks of pizza dough baked and smothered in garlic butter)and beer as my meal! That same week PP and I had reservations for a set menu at a restaurant so I told myself "no bread, a diet pop, eat half the ravioli and a taste of dessert"! Well that didn't happen, as soon as I opened the menu I saw "sextini", ate 2 pieces of bread, my whole ravioli plate and both her and my dessert! Oh yeah, I gained 1.4 lbs that week!

I got back on track this last week, watched what I ate, had a few extras but of course went to the gym regularly, did not go over my points target each day and lost 4.2 pounds!

The most difficult thing I'm finding is learning how to socialize without the food and the booze! My friends and I will often get together for dinner or drinks, it's what we do to relax on the weekend! Just last Friday I had an invite to a bar, two free bottles of booze and a VIP lounge. I declined, told the inviter why and he said "alright"! Not but two hours later I get a "come on, so and so is coming blah blah" so I agreed to meet at his house for a bit beforehand, diet pepsi in hand but still said no to the bar. Next thing you know I'm at his place looking up the points value for vodka and shaking my head. I did make it to the bar, had one drink, danced my ass off and was outta there by 12:30am because I had to weigh in at 8:30am and spin at 9:00am. That's sooooo not like me but I realize that it has to be a lifestyle change, I have to pick and choose what I'm going to use my extra points on, I had already used mine up that week and didn't have any extra to drink away and so I didn't.

I've lost 7.8 pounds in 3 weeks, I like the program because I can have a piece of chocolate or have some fries I just have to count them into my week. It will be a struggle though as I pretty much have to plan ahead and decide what I'm going to use my extra points on.....I can't go for all you can eat Japanese and out drinking in the same week. We went to see a play on Sunday and I knew the theatre only had chocolate covered almonds, cookies and ice cream as snacks so I packed some apple slices and a weight watchers bar into my purse in case I got the munchies. I'm going to Montreal for a weekend in the near future, I'm going to have to work out every day for hours prior to and pack the car with bags of fruit because I know I'm going to be eating out and drinking like a fish! But I'll also be dancing....maybe that will make up for the copious amounts of food and booze I plan to consume!

Ultimately it's my choice, do I get the poutine or the veggie stirfry, eat half of the meal or all of it? I'm in control I just have to make the right choices and I gotta say when I was out on the weekend watching all of the drunkies enjoying themselves...I was too! It was great to dance and laugh with my friends, but it also felt great to stay on track with my goals, go home early, weigh in and spin just as I had planned.

I used to be on msn 24/7 like literally left it running all day long. I've since found better ways to occupy my time and sign on every now and again to catch up with my friends which I enjoy. I don't know why I turned it on this particular afternoon, I had about 5 minutes before I had to be somewhere but signed in for the hell of it. Up popped a window with a "hey you" and a smiley face! Wow! Talk about a blast from the past, I briefly dated this guy years ago over a few months, I really really liked him, we had amazing chemistry and good times but it didn't work out and we went our separate ways. He's recently separated which explains his sudden contact with me, he's asked me to go out for a drink which I'm sure I will, neither of us is in a position right now to go that route again so it would be a friendly drink and I'm totally up for that as we always had a lot of fun and tons of laughs.

Not but two days later I see another window pop up on msn "you there" it asked. I'm staring at the name of the person thinking "you've got to be fucking kidding me"! This guy was more recent, a year ago to be exact, he treated me horrendously, constantly cancelling our dates, rescheduling, just an all around narcissistic douche who only cared about himself. He wanted to apologize for the way he had treated me which I welcomed, but told him it didn't really matter now as I was never going to make plans with him ever again. We chatted for a while, friendly banter, I try not to hold grudges and it was big of him to admit his douchebaggery but I honestly can't imagine seeing this person ever again.

Gotta love good ole technology!

Enjoy the weekend, it was soooooo warm and lovely here like 3 degrees or something for a few days then BAM it's minus who knows what today with 50km winds and we're getting 5-10 cm of the white shit tomorrow! Booooo!

This made my day, I laughed soooo hard when I watched this! Seriously it's 16 seconds, check it out! Enjoy the weekend everyone!!!

Ha! I saw this sign outside of a chuch and just had to take a photo! It almost makes me want to go there.......almost!

I watched a few episodes of Intervention this evening and started to laugh, not that addiction is funny but all I could think about was Rawbean once commenting "How can these people not know that they're on this show???" It's true, WTF, maybe they're too high to notice! It's been on for years, it's not like it would be a big surprise! "What do you mean I'm on Intervention" insert perplexed face!

I popped in to visit my friends cats after work as she is away and didn't the fire alarm start doing that loud "BEEP" "BEEP" every few minutes. Do you think I could find a chair high enough to hoist me up? Nope! I even tried pushing the couch under it and still could not reach. I called my friend who lives like 25 minutes away, it's freezing cold, dark and snowy and the lovey man showed up! He was shaking his head and laughing at me. It took him all of two seconds to change the battery, I thanked him and said good-bye, then I walked into one of the front rooms and saw a big ass ladder, DOH! I'm not telling him that! I seriously looked EVERYWHERE but that room! Worst looker ever right here!!

Apparently we're supposed to get some big ass storm over the next few days! Fingers crossed we get a snow day or two out of the deal! That would make me a very happy kitty! Sleeping in, flannels, tea and a good book *sigh*