Future Shopping

On Saturday, Ian and I did a bunch of shopping for the future. We didn't purchase anything yet... but picked out some essential pieces for the house. We have a formal dining room and a set to go in it... But nothing to go in the dinette. After the 3rd store, we were pretty shocked we hadn't found any candidates. At least candidates that were reasonable! At the fourth store, we were pleasantly surprised to find pieces in our style.

We need a dinette table, chairs and barstools. Fortunately, the store offered furniture from a company that will customize all of the pieces for us. Let me know what you think! The fabric is the same in both pictures... but comes off blue in one and green in another.

Bear Tagging In Algonquin Park

In July we are heading to Algonquin Park to camp with Ian's parents. To be honest, my co-workers are freaking me out with horror stories about the bugs. But after seeing this video, I really want to go. Mainly to pick up a bear or two. The video is really worth the 7 minutes. I've never seen an entire Rick Mercer report... but he seems to be the embodiment of Canadian humor. His breaking news report on SNOW in Toronto was hilarious! Anyway, laugh and enjoy.

Happy Mother's Day!

"In truth a family is what you make it. It is made strong, not by numbers of heads counted at the dinner table, but by the rituals you help family members create, by the memories you share, by the commitment of time, caring, and love you show to one another, and by the hopes for the future you have as individuals and as a unit."

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful Ma! I couldn't ask to have a better mother. We have so much fun when we are together. Last year I met my goal of seeing her once a quarter but this year I will most certainly fail. The consolation prize is that when she comes to visit I will have a real place for her to stay. I can't wait for her to see the house and see how successful she has helped me become. I owe her tremendously.

I also can't wait to get pictures like this of my kids and her. I love you Ma!

Max Quacks - Everything Is Hilarious!

Do I Dare?

I have a chance to get another pair of glasses. These look pretty good on me... but they are a little bold!

Coop Scoop - Best Hits

I haven't had any solid videos of Cooper recently.... so I decided to post his best hits. Or best hit. =]

Congratulations Canada!

Your political system is just as messed up as the US! (I'm leaning towards more...)

DISCLAIMER: I really don't know exactly how the system works. The following information was gathered from different resources - Ian, Media (heh), and Wikipedia. I'm probably going to get a lot of it wrong... but the basic jist is still the same - it's a messed up system. A note in this disclaimer: I hate politics, no matter what country.

Let me break it down. (Yeah, I SAID IT!) There are 5 political parties in Canada.

• Conservative Party of Canada (referred to as PC or Tories): Currently hold power. Their leader Steven Harper is the Prime Minister.

• New Democratic Party (NDP): They are *GASP* a socialist party. Socialism is currently a dirty word in the US... but probably for all the wrong reasons. Their leader is Jack Layton.

• Liberal Party of Canada: You guessed it - they are liberals. I don't pay a lot of attention to the political news here but the liberal party seems to be the most vocal. Their leader, up until last night, was Michael Ignatieff.

• Bloc Quebecois: Their ideology is left wing... but as you can probably tell from the name, mostly concerned with Quebec's interests. Their leader, up until last night, was Gilles Duceppe. (Side note: I call them a party but according to news reports, they didn't win enough seats in the House of Commons to be considered a party anymore.)

• Green Party: Oh, Ralph Nader would be proud. There is a tree hugging party up in Canada. They are led by Elizabeth May but have as much of a chance at leading Canada as Ralph does of the US.

As I mentioned a couple times above... there was an election last night. Ian just recently explained that voters do not vote specifically for Stephen Harper or Jack Layton. The election is to vote in specific members of parliament (308 spread over the country). The majority party's leader becomes Prime Minister. Here is the part where Canada gets classified as messed up. The winning party last night won by getting 36% of the vote. The winning party was PC and their leader, Stephen Harper is once again the Prime Minister. See below.

That's right - this GOOBER is Prime Minister once again. I don't know what it is... but he just... looks and sounds like giant GOOBER. I am sure after last night he has said something along the lines of "The Canadian people have spoken." Really? REALLY? 36% of them?

I can't see why the NDP and Liberal Party can't figure this one out. You can't split the vote 3 ways. Canada is a socialist/liberal country. But if they keep splitting the vote, it will always be run by a Conservative Party. It's very simple! Politics here are the same as in the US though... attack ad after attack ad. The NDP leader, Jack Layton, once spent some time at a massage palor 15 years ago *GASP*. The former Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, lived outside of Canada for too long. The Prime Minister is a GOOBER. It's all the same - all very tiring.

Last point. Elections cost money. Money paid by taxpayers. This was election came early because a vote of No Confidence passed in parliament. But it didn't matter because the two parties wishing to overthrow the Goober's Government wouldn't join together.

[In a last minute fact checking run... I see different reports about the winning percentages - some 36.. some 39. Either way, NDP was 30% and Liberal 18%. Do the math and you get a more appropriate majority government. Also, there are "other" parties as I am sure there are in other countries. But when I looked at the list... a few awesome ones jumped out - The Rhinoceros Party, The Pirate Party & The Marxist-Leninist Party. The full list is below~]

Stone Gone Awry

Short story: We had extra budget and decided to get a built-in unit in the living room. It was going to look great! Then the vent guys installed a vent in the corner - a.k.a. the entertainment center was going to look off-center. The solution was to shorten it and build a (insert correct word for vertical bulkhead here) on the other side. The builder suggested we put stone around the outside because it would hide the bulkheads. We've been waiting for the stone to go in... and all of a sudden it was.

QUICKLY GLANCE AT THE PICTURE. If you focus too long... you start to see all the bad parts. Our designer got it... "when it is fixed, it's going to look smashing!" We couldn't agree more - the idea behind it is perfect for the room. But oh... so many things are wrong with it. At the last minute, we decided to put the stone on top of the unit. The designer and I thought that would get around the awkward bulkhead on the other wall. It appears that wasn't communicated to the stone trades. [No, they're not just not finished. The house is being cleaned for carpet to come in and the boxes of stone were gone.] Also, the "illusion" wasn't fulfilled. The illusion was that the wall is made out of stone and the unit is set back in the stone. You get that illusion by having the stone wrap around the drywall, completely covering it. As you can see below, that didn't happen. It just looks like stone stuck on the wall - even I could do that! [Maybe]. Thankfully, our builder is all over it and will be fixing it as soon as possible.

Starbucks Mug Collection

When Ian and I first went to Seattle, we went to the original Starbucks at Pike Place Market. Ian bought a mug that had a picture of the storefront on it. From then we started collecting their "'08 Icon Series City Collection". So far we have...

• Barcelona
• California
• Los Angeles
• Pike Place Market
• Scotland
• Seattle
• Washington, DC
• Vancouver

We got our latest addition on Saturday. Toronto!

Why do we collect them? Good question. I'm not sure why. They hold a decent size cup of coffee or tea. They are colorful and will look good in our glass corner cabinet in the kitchen. But they are also pretty interesting... most have sketches of the city's skyline on them. It's surprisingly fun to "collect" something too. They aren't as tacky as say... Nascar Collector Plates!

We've been able to expand our collection with the help of my co-workers. If I'm lucky, I will be able to add Greece and Korea to our collection soon! Here is the list of cities that you can get. If you happen to be heading to any of these cities, let us know. :)

Aachen, Acapulco, Alaska, Amsterdam, Ankara, Arizona, Aruba, Athens, Atlanta, Auckland, Austin, Australia, Austria, Bacolod, Baguio, Bahamas, Bali, Banff, Bangkok, Barcelona, Basel, Batangas, Beijing, Belfast, Berlin, Bern, Bonn, Boracay, Boston, Bremen, Brisbane, Bucharest, Bulgaria, Calgary, California, Canada, Cancun, Cardiff, Cebu, Charlotte, Chengdu, Chiang Mai, Chicago, Chihuahua, Chile, China, Chongquing, Ciudad de Mexico, Cleveland, Cluj-Napoca, Colorado, Corfu, Crete, Culiacan, Cyprus, Dalian, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Dongguan, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Edmonton, England, Florida, Forth Worth, France, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Geneva, Germany, Gold Coast, Greece, Guanajuato, Guangzhou, Hamburg, Hawaii, Heidelberg, Hong Kong, Houston, Indianapolis, Indonesia, Ireland, Istanbul, Izmir, Jacksonville, Jakarta, Kaohsiung, Kiel, Koln, Korea, Kuala Lumpur, Las Vegas, Lausanne, Leipzig, Lima, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Los Cabos, Lucerne, Macau, Madrid, Malaysia, Manila, Melbourne, Memphis, Mexico, Miami, Moscow, Munchen, Munster, Myconos, Nashville, New Mexico, New Orleans, New York, New Zealand, Niagara Falls, North Carolina, North Island (NZ), Northern Ireland, Nurnberg, Ohio, Orange County, Orlando, Pampanga, Paris, Pattaya, Penang, Philadelphia, Philippines, Phoenix, Phuket, Pike Place, Pittsburgh, Playa del Carmen, Portland, Portugal, Potsdam, Puerto Rico, Qingdao, Rhodes, Rio De Janeiro, Romania, Ruhrgebeit, Sabah, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Scotland, Seattle, Seattle (2), Seoul, Seville, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Singapore (Merlion), Singapore (Orchid), Sofia, South Island (NZ), Spain, St. Gallen, St. Louis, Stuttgart, Switzerland, Sydney, Tagaytay, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei, Taiwan, Tampa, Thailand, Thessaloniki, Tianjin, Toronto, Turkey, Twin Cities, Valencia, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Veracruz, Vienna, Wales, Washington DC, Whistler, Wiesbaden, Wuhan, Xian, Zacatecas, Zurich

State of Our Union - May Edition

It's May. Quick question - Where has the time gone? For me... the time is flying~! For Ian... not so much. It's a day to day battle to keep him from going crazy from impatience. As much as I notice that the time is flying, the anxiety surrounding the house still has its good and bad days for me. I am trying to fill the days while we play the waiting game. Here are some upcoming events...

• The House Updates: There is a list of items to be fixed or finalized. We've been lucky to have access to the house so far. It's starting to feel very familiar.

• Red Sox Game: On May 11th Ian and I are going to see a Jays vs. Sox game to celebrate his birthday. I found some cheap tickets and it should be fun!

• Ian's Birthday: He turns the big 2-5 on the 12th. But there is a bit of a hiccup. See next item...

• Ian's California/Vegas Trip: The hiccup is that the evening of his birthday he is flying to California for a work meeting. I would normally feel bad for him but afterwards he gets to go to Vegas as a sort of... "corporate retreat". Naturally he isn't looking forward to it and I'm jealous. Like I said... "they need to include spouses who miss their mommies".

• Springtime!: I'm still excited for spring. It seems to be getting warmer and once Ian is back I'm hoping to hit up some of these - Grand River Trails. Maybe even get in some Geocaching!

So that's it.. the month of May. Let's hope that it goes quickly!