Happy Halloween!

It's trick or treat night! The day that we can all eat lots of junk and not feel guilty about about it. We can say with confidence "But it's Halloween...so I can eat this"!

I'm going to my brother's place for Halloween tonight, as I've done for the past three Halloweens. I don't get any Halloween-ers (my mom's definition of a trick or treater) lol, so I go to my brother's place to hand out treats and see all the kiddies costumes. My brother is a typical guy. He participates in holidays, but does the bare minimum. Meaning, he'll buy the treats, but he doesn't want to pass them out. That's where I come in. It's a system that works. Plus, he orders pizza for us for supper, so it's a winning situation all around! LOL.

I love to see how the costumes evolve over the years. They're getting more and more spectacular each year! I remember when I was a kid, the majority of Halloween costumes were made by our moms. My first Halloween that I can really, truly remember, my mother made me a Mickey (or maybe it was Minnie?) Mouse costume. She even made a tail that she pinned on my bum. I remember this because the safety pin kept sticking into my bum the whole night, lol. Did your mothers make your costumes for you when you were little? Do you remember what you dressed up as when you were a kid? What are you dressing your kids up as this Halloween?

Can you believe the snow we had yesterday morning? I stayed out at Ryan's parent's house that night and when I got up in the morning, I was shocked to see how white everything was. Where Ryan's parent's place is, they usually get more snow than in the city because they're at a higher elevation, so I figured that the snow was just in their area. Wrong! When I drove into town to go to work, there was snow in Fredericton too! Not as much as there was out at Ryan's parent's place (I'd say there was a good inch and half to two inches out there at 6 a.m. when I got up) but there was snow. I hate snow. Except for on Christmas.

I'm Ba-ack!

I'm back from vacation - wishing I wasn't, but am back nonetheless. It's always hard coming back to work after having a week off, but let's not dwell on that anymore.

So let's see what have I been up to lately? The weekend before last was when Carrie and Chris got into town (on Saturday the 20th) but I didn't get to see them until the following day (Sunday). That Saturday Ryan and I rented a movie and got a pumpkin pie blizzard from Dairy Queen, which I must say I was a tad disappointed with considering that I love pumpkin in any form.

The next day Ryan asked me if I wanted to go mudding in his parent's 4X4, so I said sure. We headed out to Mazerolle Settlement Road and up through a ton of trails on Mountain Road, taking in the gorgeous views. Ryan knows this area well and said there was a hiking trail that would take us to Woolastook park. I was all "Yah right, Woolastook park is WAY far from here". Well little did I know that he wasn't pulling my leg. We hiked (downhill on the way in mind you) for a while and sure enough we ended up in the back campground lot of Woolastook park. I was shocked and a little disappointed that we didn't take full advantage of this by bringing a blanket and a picnic lunch. We hiked another trail that took us to a ravine and then another that took us to Kelly's creek and then finally hiked out (uphill!) and went back to the truck. I was tired and thankfull that I'd lost 75 pounds in the last year because I don't think, no, I know, that I wouldn't have made it without doing so. We continued on out through Mountain Road mudding and splashing our way to Harvey. We stopped for a drink and a quick carwash and then met Carrie and Chris for dinner. It was so good to see her and Chris and her expanding belly! We went to the Back Nine downtown. It wasn't bad, but holy crap it was expensive!

Monday I took my car into the dealership to get an oil change, have my tires rotated and to get the annual inspection. Carrie and Chris picked me up at home (the dealership shuttled me home after I dropped my car off) at around noon. Carrie was craving a kabob, so we went downtown and got some lunch from George's canteen and then went to the mall. They then dropped me off to get my car and $129 dollars later, I had wheels again. In the evening I went to my friend Derek's house to get him to guarantee my passport application and hideous passport photo, lol. Ryan and I are planning a trip to Arizona in April of next year and well, you need a freakin passport to fly into the US now. I decided that now was a good time to get my passport as I was away from work this week and had to waste waiting at the passport office, lol.

Tuesday morning I got up and headed over to the passport office. I waited there for an hour and a half and handed over $87 for the privilege of George W. Bush allowing me to visit his country. I then went crib shopping with Carrie and Chris in the afternoon and then in the evening we went to Bingo (and lost, lol).

Wednesday I rose bright and early and got on the road to Moncton with Carrie, Chris and Carrie's mom. This was primarily a shopping trip, but I didn't end up going too crazy. I came home with a Christmas gift for Ryan's parent's, 4 t-shirts from Old Navy that were $1.97 each, 2 long sleeve shirts for 10 bucks each from Costco and an industrial supply of popcorn from Costco, lol.

Thursday was a pretty boring day. I didn't see Carrie and Chris at all. I went to Ryan's parent's house in the evening and we watched Survivor.

Friday was lunch date day. Ryan and I, Carrie and Chris and Mike and Shelly all went for lunch at Ringo's uptown. I hadn't eaten there since Shelly got married 7 years ago. We had a "stagette" dinner there for her. The food was really good and fairly well priced. In the evening I had coffee with Carrie and her family and said our farewells. It's hard to believe that the next time I see her, she'll be a mom!

Saturday my brother and I went to Saint John just for the hell of it. Ryan was working, it was a boring, rainy day, so off we went. We went to the Moosehead brewery store, to the mall, Old Navy (where I scored again with some cheap shirts! lol) and to East Side Mario's for lunch. My brother had never eaten there before and had always wanted to try it, so he got his chance. That place is so good and they really need to get moving on the plans of building one in Fredericton! Saturday evening Ryan went to a Halloween party (I didn't want to go as I didn't really know anyone there) and I did laundry, made some Halloween cupcakes and carved a pumpkin for my mother, which she was nagging me to do for her.

Sunday I made the traditional big breakfast for Ryan and I and we relaxed for the majority of the afternoon. I then went up to Mom and Dad's for supper and a visit. Later I headed out to Ryan's parent's place and had a nice, quiet evening with him.

One More Day Til I'm Free Of Work For A Week!

One more day of work and it's vacation time! I can't freaking wait to log out and be rid of work for a whole week. I haven't had any vacation time since the first week of June, so this is well needed. The weather was still chilly and not "summer" weather when I was off in June, so it was very hard to go all summer and not have any week's vacation in there.

My week of vacation is at a great time too - Carrie will be here tomorrow! I'm so excited! It's not by accident though that she's going to be here the same week I'm off. See, for the past three years I've gone up to visit her in Ontario during this same week in October. It's Pumpkinfest in her town this weekend, which is a huge event and I've gone up to visit her during that week. Once I found out she was pregnant, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford to go up to see her this upcoming week and after the baby was born, so she decided to come to Fredericton during the week I booked off to originally go and see her and I'm heading up her way in early February after the baby arrives.

There are no real plans for the week off. We're thinking of doing some day trips and I've got some errands to do too while I'm off. I need to get my oil changed and my car inspected and I'm dropping off my application for a passport too, so Ryan and I can take our trip to Arizona in April. I got my passport pictures taken on Wednesday after my hair appointment and let me tell ya, they are gorgeous! HAHA, of course I'm being sarcastic, they are absolutely horrific. Then again, does anyone ever take a good passport picture?

Speaking of the hair appointment, it wasn't completely disasterous, but I will not be making this place my salon of choice. The package that Ryan got me for my birthday is a four visit deal. The first visit it says you get hair consultation and a designer cut, shampooing, deep conditioning, scalp massage, blow dry and style. I was at the place for a total of 20 minutes, so do you think I got all that? Ah no. I get there and she takes me to wash my hair with shampoo - no deep conditioning treatment. And I guessing the "scalp massage" was her washing my hair, lol. I go to her chair and she asks me what I want done to my hair. I was all "Ah...I dunno" because I thought I was supposed to get hair consultation and a designer cut. I said "Well, I don't want to go super short and I don't want bangs, so I guess whatever you think from there".

She cut a couple of inches off and gave me layers...which I had to begin with, so I basically got a "trim". She then started blow drying my hair and said "this is just a quick blow dry, for $10 I can fully dry it and style it". I was thinking to myself "Huh? This is nuts, they're going to send me home with wet hair unless I pay 10 more bucks"? I was a little fed up at the sh*ttyness of the value of the package deal, so I told her "No, just do what comes with the package". So yes, my hair was still somewhat wet and not styled at all when I left the place. I don't think I looked any better, and maybe even a little worse off, then when I had first arrived there. Honestly, it doesn't even really look like I got my hair cut either. Ryan didn't notice, I had to say "What do you think of the hair cut" with a smirk and he said "It honestly doesn't look any different" and he's right, it doesn't really. Ah well, it didn't cost me anything other than the "gratuitie" that wasn't included in the package. I guess that's why they stress that "gratuities" aren't included in the package, because they suck and you wouldn't give them one voluntarily, lol. We'll see how the rest of the visits go. I honestly don't really want to go to them, but since Ryan already paid for them, I kind of have to.

Breaking Routine

Right from the get go, today has been and will continue to be a busy day. I'm tired and have huge bags under my eyes too, so that ain't helping things, lol.

I had a bath last night early in the evening. I got out of the tub at around 7:30 and the phone rang. It was Ryan. I was surprised because on Tuesday evenings he has training for Crabbe Mountain Ski Patrol. He was on a break and was calling me to ask me if I wanted to meet him out at his parent's house at 9 when he was finished, since they left for Victoria earlier that day. We both enjoy spending time together at his parent's gorgeous home, but I wasn't sure I wanted to head out. My hair was wet, I had my pajamas on, it's a 20 minute drive out of town and not to mention that I would have to get up that extra 20 minutes early in the morning to drive to work. He twisted my arm (lol) and out I went.

We didn't do too much, watched some tv and talked. At 10:30 I decided it was time to go to bed since I had to get an earlier start and I was yawning like every 2 minutes at that point, lol. I was out pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow. Even though it was only 20 minutes earlier that I got up this morning, it felt like it was 2 hours earlier than usual.

So I got ready for work and managed to squeak in something quick to eat for breakfast. Out to my car I went and it had ice on it. Yes, ice. Not the regular moisture that has been on cars in the morning for the past couple of weeks. Ice. Frig. I dunno if it was because I was out the Hanwell and at a higher elevation than in the city or what, but there was frigging ice on my car. I didn't have my snow brush/scrapper in my car yet. Frig again. So I sat in my car for what felt like forever with the vents turned up full tilt waiting for the windows to clear off.

Like the majority of the working world out there, I need to have a coffee every morning to get me going and ready for the day's work. Since I was out at Ryan's parent's place all night, this threw my morning routine completely off so I opted to treat myself to a coffee from Tim Horton's this morning. I never have Tim Horton's coffee, I actually prefer "home brew" lol, but the thought of not having to actually make a pot of coffee this morning was nice. Even though it wasn't busy, I decided to skip the Tim Hortons on the Hanwell and opted to stop at the one that's close to my work. This particular Tim Hortons is located in a strip mall with the drive through operating behind the mall. So I pull into the mall and start to drive around the building to approach the drive through. I get to the back of the building and the cars are lined up the complete length of the building. I couldn't believe it was that busy! This was before 7 a.m. people. I could see if it was just before 8 a.m., but before 7 a.m. - holy crap! I needed my coffee fix and any time I've opted to not go through a drive though and go inside the store instead, it's always taken longer inside than in the drive through, so I waited patiently in the drive through line. While I was waiting, I was watching the advertising monitor. One ad that it showed was that for 25 cents you could add a pumpkin spice flavour shot to any beverage. Since I love pumpkin flavouring, I decided that I would try it. I got my coffee and drove to work with the warm aroma of pumpkin pie filling my car. I couldn't wait to get inside of work and crack open that coffee. Let me tell ya, I was disappointed. It sure smelled good, but it didn't taste any different than what a coffee with no "flavour shot" would have tasted like. How disappointing.

As soon as I get off work tonight, I have to to head to the salon for 5 p.m. to get the first of my four spa sessions that Ryan got me for my birthday. Yes I know my birthday was back in August, but I'm just getting around to getting this done now. The salon is so anal with their "rules" for this package too. You have to schedule your appointment atleast a week in advance, you have to allow atleast a week before each session, blah, blah, blah. There is seriously a big list of rules on the back of the spa certificate. Not to mention the big cautionary line that "gratuities are extra". That peeves me off. To me a "gratuitie" or "tip" is something to offer someone for a job well done. This is a reward you offer for exceptional service. It bugs me that you are required to offer this reward regardless of the service you receive. I know that Ryan paid a lot of money for this package, so it bugs me knowing that they expect more money on top of what he paid for it. Mind you I always do tip a hair stylist for a job well done, so it probably would have happened anyway, but just the notion of being required to do it bugs the heck out of me.

Anyway, tonight's session is "hair" and the certificate says that I'll be getting a designer hair cut. I'm both nervous and excited for this. I am looking forward to a new hair style, but I don't want them to hack off a bunch of my hair. It's taken me a couple of years to grow it back and I want to keep some of it's length. We shall see what happens. After getting my hair "did", I'm going to try and swing by the SuperStore and get my passport picture taken. I want to submit my passport application next week while I'm off and free during the day to do so and I need to get my guarantor to sign not only the application but my passport photo, so I have to get that done a.s.a.p.

Boring Weekend, But I Ain't Complain'!

This weekend I did absolutely nothing! I seriously mean that, there is nothing whatsoever exciting to report on that I did this weekend, lol. But that's ok, because sometimes weekends like that are good! LOL.

Friday night I got home from work, made supper and was just puttering around the house. Ryan called and asked what I was up to. I told him nothing and he asked if I wanted to just rent a movie for the night and take it easy. I told him that sounded great to me as I was beat with the work week having caught up to me and I didn't feel up to much for the evening. He hadn't eaten supper yet, so he said he was going to swing by a fast food joint and pick up something to eat and asked if I could run over and pick up the movie. Not a problem, so off I went.

The video store was packed and there was hardly anything left on the shelves to pick from. I ended up selecting Blades of Glory which was decently funny. We watched the movie and hit the sack soon after as we were both zonked and this was Ryan's Saturday to work.

Off to work Ryan went on Saturday morning. There was a corvette show going on at the dealership that day, so he was a little excited to go to head to work that morning. I got up and made something to eat, did some work around the house and then decided to go up to my parent's house and do my laundry instead of waiting to do it on Sunday, like I usually do. I had a nice afternoon visiting with the folks and I stayed and had supper with them.

Back home I soon went and Ryan followed home not long after me. We were sitting on the couch bored, wondering what to do and if we really want to go and do it. We didn't come up with any solutions. We decided to go and get a six pack of beer, return Blades of Glory, pick up a new movie, get something good to eat and stay home again. If I thought the video store was lacking with selections on Friday night, you should have seen Saturday. It was terrible! So terrible that we ended up watching Norbit that night, so that tells you right there that we had nothing to chose from. After the video store a stop at the neighbouring grocery store to pick up something good to eat. A Chicago Deep Dish pizza was chosen. It was alright, but nothing spectacular and definately not worth the many calories I indulged in. Oh well.

Sunday I made the usual big breakfast for us and we were in our "blah" mode once again, sitting on the couch like lumps, not doing anything, lol. I suggested that we get up and go somewhere, but where was the question. There is precious little to do for excitement here in Fredericton. It was cold and windy outside, so doing something like going for a walk or hike somewhere, etc. was out of the question. I suggested we go to the flea market or the mall, but Ryan wasn't feeling like shopping and blowing money on stuff that neither of us needed, which I had to agree with him on. So we stayed on the couch, watched tv and ate some Halloween candy, lol.

Now most of you know that Ryan hates what he calls "Crap-ality" tv, a.k.a. reality tv, so it's rare that he will watch any of it with me, with the exception of Survivor. So I was in the kitchen, come out and what does he have the tv on, but MTV - which is just one big "crap-ality" channel. Well Sunday was the "Life of Ryan" marathon. I swear to God I'm not making this up, lol. I never even knew this show exsisted, so we watched the "Life of Ryan" marathon for the majority of the afternoon, making comments about if they were filming the life of my Ryan right now, there wouldn't be much footage, lol.

After a couple of hours of "crap-ality" tv we both had enough. I know, me who loves reality tv have enough? LOL. I went up to my parent's place for the usual Sunday supper with them and Ryan went to his parent's place to spend some time with them. They're heading to British Columbia tomorrow, where Ryan's grandmother lives. Grandma had a nasty fall over Thanksgiving weekend and broke her hip, having to have it replaced with a plastic hip, so they're going out to help her as she's getting out of the hospital soon.

Riki's, Here I Come!

Short week almost over! Weekend's almost here! It was so nice to only have to work four days this week, instead of five. Then I'll work five days next week and have a week off for vacation! That and Carrie is coming home that same week that I am off! I'm so excited! This will however be her final visit home before the baby is born (due January 7th). I'm hoping that I'll have enough Air Miles to fly up and see her after the baby comes. As off right now I need exactly 200 Air Miles. I'm not sure if I can pull it off, but I'm hoping so. I've got my parents and my brother collecting for me too and I am making a point to shop at stores where you can collect Air Miles as opposed to ones you can't.

Yesterday was a hard day at work. It seemed that every annoying person who wanted to know every little nit-picky thing was calling. I felt like I was listening to nails down a chalk board all day. Then something cool happened. My message light lit up, I called and was asked to come to the promotions area. I went up and it turns out that I won a gift certificate for Riki's/Bootlegger. It couldn't have come at a better time, because I desperately need long sleeved shirts. I bought some new fall/winter clothing last year when I started losing weight because my "fat"clothes were getting too big. Now this year the new clothes that I bought last year are getting too big, so they need to be replaced. It's both a good and a bad thing at the same time. I'm happy to still be shedding the pounds, but it's hard on the pocket book to keep dishing out the quid for new duds. The gift certificate isn't a huge amount, but I'm hoping to stretch it far enough to get a couple of things.

Gobble Gobble Weekend Update

What a busy weekend but it flew by so quickly! It was great to have the extra day off in there as well, to shorten the work week.

Friday night Ryan and I went to Shane and Valerie's house for a few drinks. We ended up staying at chatting with them until past 3 a.m! That's the latest I think we've ever stayed there...and we weren't even playing poker or anything. I was exhausted to say the least, having gotten up at quarter after 6 Friday morning to go to to work and then not getting into bed until almost 4 a.m.

Saturday we slept in and I did some housework and then headed off to my parent's house in the evening to do laundry. Ryan headed downtown with some buddies who were celebrating one of the guys' last night of freedom - his wife is expected to give birth any day now. While at the bar, Ryan ran into his brother and some people from the wedding that his brother was in and ended up going to an after party with them.

Sunday was turkey dinner # 1. We went to Ryan's parent's house for the first installment of turkey dinners and dinned with Ryan's parents, his brother Brad and Brad's girlfriend Aimee. We stuffed our bellies, sat around and talked and watched a little TV and then Ryan and I and Brad and Aimee went to the movies and saw Good Luck Chuck. It was surprisingly not that bad of a movie.

Monday was turkey dinner # 2. Monday I cooked us breakfast and then Ryan went golfing at lunch time with his Dad and brother. I made a dish for Thanksgiving dinner with my parents (candied sweet potatoes) and just "chillaxed" in the afternoon while Ryan was golfing. He got back mid-afternoon and we went to my parent's place for dinner. Dinner was very tasty, but the evening was slightly foiled by my parent's dog and my brother's dog who are nuts...and embarrassing...and kept relieving themselves on the floor. That evening reaffirmed to me why I do not want a dog.