Like 7 Inches from the Midday Sun

Yes, it's a hot one! 7:30am and it's already 25 degrees celcius. Yesterday it went up to 41 degrees celcius (that's about 106 for you fahrenheit folks) with the humidity...crazy I tell you! I can't complain of course since I work in an air-conditioned office but my dear hubby who works in a warehouse and unloads steaming hot metal trailers...yup, he was practically cooked by the time he got home.

And just like with a full moon, the hot weather brings out some of the weirdness in people:

I think a lady in the office who's already slightly unstable has broken out into a full conversation with herself. I walk over and hear "Son of a......Seabisquit" which made me break into an eruption of laughter inside my own head like when Will Farrell in ELF did the "Son of a...Nutcracker" thing (I just love that movie). Now that I think of it, she's kinda talking to her computer screen - is that better? Full conversation with a piece of office equipment? hmmm...I guess the computer is pushing all the wrong keys again, entering all the wrong information, printer just has a mind of its own and starts involuntarily spitting out paper...God, I hate it when that happens!

Guy next door came over to chat with Jamie whilst BBQing last evening. And I was chatting too and squealed slightly when I saw the biggest most giant ant ever in the whole wide world on my steps approaching my kitty cat who was chillin' out in the heat and eating every blade of grass in sight. If it wasn't for the fact that my kitty cat is also enormous I would have thought the ant could have totally carried him off. Ants can carry like 5000X their body weight people! So I think my concern may have been legit had I a pet weighing that of a normal feline. Anyways, I say to the neighbour who I don't even really know yet, "Kill it!"
"You can't kill it?" he asks
"No" giving him the "are you mad?" stare and pointing down, "flipflops" (Flipflops are not appropriate bug-killing footwear)
He laughs
"But you're wearing big boots...you get it" I squeak
And then he knocks it off my step and down to the grass and says, "Let it go free" in his deep authoritative european accent.
Ok, HUGE ant on my steps and he's letting it go free. That's ok, he'll know better when the ant goes to his house and tries to carry away his son or something.

And then I chose yesterday to be the first day of a little exercise routine Jennifer discovered online. It combines 20 minutes of "strength training" with 30 minutes of cardio (walking for me) 3 times a week. Yesterday was HOT, the kind of HOT when Health Canada tells people to stay inside and exert as little energy as possible because of the extreme humidex. And I begin exercising on this particular day. Great idea Myrna. Brilliant. But had I been a guy instead of a water-retaining woman I could have easily lost 8 lbs just by sweating it out sitting on the front steps. Alas, it is not nearly that easy for me and walking my ass off (I hope literally) in 40 degree heat was the next available option.

Today's lesson: Gobstoppers actually taste quite good this early in the morning. Try it, it's the making of a beautiful sugar-filled day. (Wasn't I just now talking about exercising in this exact same blog entry? How quickly I get off track...)

I think maybe the heat could be getting to ME now...I really should go do some work.

Oh, and just found out that yesterday afternoon a guy SHOT himself after shooting a guy in the leg just down the frikkin' street. Like, literally, right next to the Tim Hortons and Wendy's that Jennifer and I frequent...um...on occassion...like not twice a week or anything outrageous like that. Ya know I could totally see someone shooting someone in the leg because they didn't have air conditioning on a day like yesterday. Jamie could have almost done that when our air conditioning wasn't quite working properly last night. I wonder if that's where it all started...guy is crazy hot with frying brain cells and goes to a guy in stripmall down the road, "I demand air conditioning be installed in my house TODAY!" to which came the reply, "very sorry sir, no air conditioning fo' you until next week, too busy this week." And then psycho guy goes and pulls out the ammo and says "Oh yeah, well take this...boom!....now you know the kind of pain I'm in from this unbearable heat"...and then he realizes that being hot with no a/c will not stand as reasoning with la policia and decides to put an end to the 40deg misery. Such a sad story!
*I am totally not mocking this terribly horrible situation, just letting my imagination run wild (like the reporters do) cause I really think my scenario is completely possible...crimes have been committed for lesser things you know.

Cutie Petuties

Somebody please tell me that my nieces are not the cutest ever...like the cutest ever in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD! lol :)

A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and Champagne...

Lord Byron had the right idea. If only Jamie's dad had agreed. He arrived last week with his 2 brothers (sadly, to visit their dying brother in Sudbury) and proceeded to tell me about how he has GOING to bring lobsters but decided against it because Jamie doesn't like them. Well, screw Jamie, I say! Sorry babe, but HELLO...loving daughter-in-law here positively dying for fresh lobster. Perhaps I shouldn't complain since he brought me a case of bottled moose meat but STILL...COM'ON people, it's Lobster!

Despite his trangressions, I must admit it was nice to have Jamie's dad and Uncles with us for a couple of nights visit. Uncle Mike and Uncle Jack flew back yesterday morning. Jamie's dad will be staying and Barb will be arriving within the week to attend Jamie Caines' wedding on June 3rd.

Camping on the weekend was pretty fun. Jamie and I went just for Saturday night. Saturday ended up being a really nice day although a bit cool. But we managed to stay warm playing volleyball and having fun with Quinton's funnel and sitting by the fire later in the night. And of course once the night wears on and everyone gets pretty tipsy you forget about the cold cause you're laughing so freakin' hard:
At Corey Cullihall trying to play the guitar even tho' he couldn't even stand on his 2 feet
At Quinton and Brian betting each other to strip! "Man, I'll do it you do's it"
At Quinton and Darryl professing their undying love and friendship to each other...all slurred "Man, I lovsh you", "Man, I'm shum glad we're friends", "like man, we 'avs some fun eh?" and to Kristen, "Man, I'm sorry I keeps bringing out the funnel but man, I just wants ta 'av fun and I just wants everyone else to 'av fun too." (I don't recall seeing any arms twisted to do the funnel, you guys?! lmao!)
At Sun (sp?) telling the story of Brian going pee and she could see his "bird"
Ha ha!
Not so funny, on Saturday, OMG, we woke up to SNOW! Sheesh, what up wit dat?

We came back on Sunday and went to Bella's birthday party. It was mostly our family and a couple of Erykah's friends since Isabella doesn't really have any "friends" yet. It was cute! But she's not too keen on having Happy Birthday sung to her. Not sure why but when we brought out the cake and started in on the song she's like "NOOOOO!!!!" lol...funny girl.

Funny girl as illustrated in the following story as told to me by my sister: Yesterday, Isabella was "holding" the baby on the couch and the baby started to cry. My sister says "Ok, just a sec, Mommy will be right there to feed you." When Tracey walks into the room she sees Isabella holding the baby with her shirt up (in imitation of her mom breastfeeding). "I do it" she says. LMAO!! Tracey said she just about died and had to call me right away to tell me about it. Too much...they really DO imitate everything don't they?!

Gonna go post some pics now.

Happy Birthday Tracey!!

Before Romeo and Juliet

...there was Tristan and Isolde.

Watched this movie on the weekend - Really Really liked it! Check it out.

I recommend watching the theatrical trailer and the video clip for the Gavin McGraw song "We Belong Together"

Quote Woes from PC Insurance

I wouldn't advise any of you to call PC Insurance for a quotation unless you are definitely planning to sign up.

Back in the fall before we moved into the house we called to obtain a quote from them out of curiosity to see if it would be better than our current insurance. Everyone does this right? But we decided not to switch.

When we moved into the house we got all of the paperwork from PC with our BRAND NEW home and auto insurance package. Well thanks very much, but we never did change over to your company. Jamie called to tell them of the mistake. They told us we had to pay a cancellation fee! A WHAT? Cancellation fee to cancel something we never had?! You have got to be kidding?! So of course Jamie refused.

And so it began with the calls and the letters and the this and the that...

A few months later now after numerous phone conversations with PC customer service, faxes to PC Insurance with letters from our insurance company, proof of our current policy, etc. As well as many of those wonderful customer service reps telling us that the issue was resolved, no problem, sorry about the hassle, thanks and have a nice day....and NOW today we received a notice in the mail....
What kind of notice, you ask? A COLLECTION AGENCY NOTICE!!!

I am so pissed off right now I can not even stand it. I emailed "Silverman Helps" and everything. (That's the guy on cityTV who helps people with stupid idiotic problems like this). I cannot believe the gall of these insurance companies? As if I wasn't annoyed at paying them an arm and a leg already. Now they're sending us to collections for not paying $75.60 for a cancellation fee for a service we didn't receive! OMG, I swear I could seriously injure someone right now. It's totally not about the money, I mean $75.60 is not a huge deal if WE REALLY WERE WANTING TO CANCEL SOMETHING!

Our good credit is going to be marred by this?! Ugh! Oh the nerve! Oh MY nerves!

Any suggestions? recommendations? hitmen perhaps? (don't really mean the "hitman" part but I'm just really super angry right now).

Happy Birthday Bella!!!

Isabella's Mom: What do you want for your birthday Isabella?

Isabella: Um....(thinking) Cake

Mom: And what else?

Isabella: Um....(thinking again) Pwesents

Mom: And how old are you going to be on your birthday?

Isabella: (Holding up ALL five fingers) FWEE!!!!
*Note: She's actually only going to be two!

Too cute!

Denim Day...

...In support of Breast Cancer research is TODAY and all of the office ladies (and some of the men) at my work have made their $5 donation to wear denim. Ev heard about it and our boss agreed that it was a great idea for us to participate and help raise funds and awareness for this horrible disease.














For more information:
Visit the CURE foundation at http://www.curefoundation.com
The Canadian Cancer Society at http://www.cancer.ca
Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation at http://www.cbcf.org/index.html

Happy Mother's Day!!
Mama
Tracey
Granny
Nan
Mom-in-law
Vanessa
Amanda
Daphne
Tara
Steph (to-be)
My Aunties
and to all you other moms out there too!

First Time Ever

You may not believe this.

Last night I, for the first time ever, ate at Subway. The restaurant, that is. The one that makes the submarine sandwiches. But I guess the rest of y'all would know that being I'm probably the only person in North America who has never eaten there before. In fact, Quiznos is the only "sub-sandwich" making place I've ever eaten at (not counting Tim Hortons for their bagels). And I only tried it maybe about a year ago when Jamie's dad was visiting and I didn't want to be a horrible daughter-in-law and deny his lunch wishes.

"And why have I never tried these popular food establishments?", you may ask. I have a list as follows:

#1. I absolutely abhor. detest. hate with a passion MAYO! Since childhood I have associated sandwiches with mayonnaise and therefore never had any desire to try something potentially good with something I loathe so greatly.
#2. My mother would make me sandwiches with butter instead of mayo. I've been somewhat uneasy about asking anyone else besides her to prepare a sub/sandwich for me in such fashion.
#3. Love bread. Love meat. Love cheese. But quite honestly the thought of it all being thrown together in one single bite just never appealed to me before. I've always been a food separatist. Definition "food separatist": A person who cannot combine any foods together and must have invisible (if not real) sections between the meat and potatoes and salad on her plate. I assure you I am getting better in this regard.
#4. Don't like veggies much. Sandwiches are always garnished with lettuce and tomato and onions and pickles. Yuck. Why is it so wrong to just have the meat and add cheese? Why do you look at me so funny when I say "no garnish please" like I'm a sandwich criminal, like I'm the first person to ever not enjoy veggies. Lucky for me, I found at least one other person in the world who doesn't like veggies and then I married him. Ha! So there you veggie sandwich making people!
#5. Never realized all the other choices. Now that I've been introduced to the world of dressings and sauces OTHER THAN MAYO that can be added to a sandwich to give it flavour, I'm liking the idea of the bread and the meat and the cheese all being combined in one nice munchible package. Just imagine the endless possibilites!

So last night my hubby wanted to have subway - Chris told him about this fantastic new meatball sub on garlic bread something or another. And I agreed to go with but didn't plan to try the sub shop myself. But when I got there I said to myself "ah, what the heck. May as well try it" and I ordered up chicken and bacon with cheese on whole wheat 6" sub with the Southwestern Chipotle sauce...and it was fantastically delish!

And with that I've gotten over yet another hurdle caused in part by a childhood filled with the horror of mayo-riddled sandwiches.

Life has new meaning!