Stuck in a Furrow

It's coming! I got the official word from my favourite barista.

Remember the glory that was the Cinnamon Dolce from Starbucks?

Yes, my friends, it is returning.

In sugar-free format.

January 2, 2007.

So long, Venti Sugar Free Vanilla, Non-Fat Joy Tea Misto.

Hello Dolce. Yum.

Yup. That's right.

Saturday is the day.

Dinner and a movie.

At least it isn't a blind date.

Dan and Char welcomed a baby boy early this morning at 3am! His name is Seamus Michael Peter (after his dad) and he was 7 lbs 3 oz. I can't remember how long he was but both Char and baby as well as Dan are doing great.

It is scary when your friends from highschool start having children.

I was invited to the Flames Staff Christmas Party last night. It was a great time and I wish my own company Christmas Party was just as fun. I was invited as the non-date date of a friend of a friend. Confused? My friend Sarah's boyfriend Brandon works at the 'Dome as a vendor. His friend Mick had an extra ticket and I was the lucky recepient. Sarah called to see if I wanted to come and I'm really glad she did. She assured me that this was not a set up and it wasn't. Really! It wasn't awkward at all, which is nice and he is a really great guy. And funny. And normal. And a gentleman. AND he volunteers with the Special Olympics. AND he is my age. AND...he was wearing a blue shirt. (*sigh*)

Anyways, there was food and wine and a bar and dancing and cheesy holiday photos and door prizes. I didn't partake in the dancing but did enjoy the bar and the wine. Don't worry, I didn't enjoy it TOO much.

I am usually very unlucky at these events and never win a thing. Tonight, my luck changed! I won 2 things...They were reading the list of prizes and I won a signed Hitmen jersey. Mick went to get it for me as I was too lazy to walk to the front of the hall to get it. When he got back to the table, I let him keep it. Partially becasue I'm nice and sweet and partially becuase what am I going to do with a jersey. He gave me his seat ticket in return so I could have a chance to win again. Lo and Behold, I did! I won a Firefly Snowboard jacket which has more pockets and fun features than I know what to do with! It is way to big for me so I'm not sure what I am going to do with it. The tags were removed so I can't return it but I might try to anyways and exchange it for a smaller size. We'll see. Or maybe I'll regift.

It was a really fun evening, even down to the bazillion photos that Sarah and I took of ourselves on Mick's camera and the ones we had done with the photographer in front of the decorated tree.
(By the way, the tree had deer on it and peeking out of the branches. Even the tree topper was a wreath of berries and a deer head crafted out of many willow branches. It was very interesting!)

So this is my 100th post. I wish I had something interesting to write about but I don't...so here is just some random thoughts and things going on in my life.

...I did a headstand at yoga last night and I was very impressed with myself.

...I didn't get the job I applied for. Again. Rejection sucks. Twice. But I'm not nearly as sad about it as I was last time. I think I might even be relieved.

...My friend from Bibleschool got engaged. I'm so happy for her and even though I don't know David very well, I know Karin and know that he is very lucky to have her!

...No baby for Dan & Char yet. It will be before Christmas though

...I'm going to the Flames Staff Christmas Party tonight. I have to find something fancy to wear and actually do something with my hair. Oh the stress.

...I'm done my Christmas shopping and most of it is wrapped already. Do you wrap stocking stuffers? I never remember

...I'm restless at the moment. Every so often, I feel the need for a change, a move, a new hairdo...something to make me feel like I'm not in a rut.

...I'm only 6 lbs away from the goal weight I set for myself. I just need to tone now. Maybe I should have asked for a gym membership for Christmas.

...I am having some work friends over for a little shindig on Thursday night. It is a going away party for a co-worker and friend. I will miss Cara! There will be 12 people in my small apartment. It will be very cozy.

That's all I got. I'll post after this christmas party tonight. I hope it doesn't suck!

It is nice to hear from a friend that I thought I had burned bridges with.

Very nice indeed.

I had a massage today and it was glorious. I went to the swanky Riverside Spa. I have benefits at work and these cover massages, but who knew that you could have said massage at a fancy schmancy spa?!?!

After getting change and donning the robe and slippers they provide, I was told to wait in the fireside room. It was dimly lit, serene and filled with bird noises. There was an assortment of organic teas, juices and cookies. It was so peaceful and relaxing, that I could have napped right there!

My masseuse was named Jennifer and she was awesome! The hour seemed to fly by and before I knew it, I was donning my robe again and heading to the change room. As part of the experience, I got to enjoy the showers and steam room. The shower was incredible and I didn't want to get out at all. There were 5 shower heads, one a rain head, 3 body jets and a regular shower head. Fantabulous! I want one for my own bathroom.

I can't wait for my next appointment! Jennifer said that I have some shoulder injuries that I "need" to have worked on. The fact that I can't put my hand on the small of my back without shooting elbow and shoulder pain, makes me believe her. Even if she is lying, I don't care.

My hair smells good, my skin is soft and I'm so relaxed amidst this crazy holiday season. Only 2 months till my next appointment.

Carmen's

Mine. It is a trailer....


Maigan's

Carmen and I had our 2nd Annual Gingerbread House Making Festivaties on Monday night. It was a good time! Maigan joined us this year for some sugary architecture. I know this activity is probably not the best for a diabetic (as evidenced by later that night!) but it was fun nonetheless...I love those Swedish Berries!

I'm so glad that I took today off of work to "recover" from my trip to Phoenix. It was such a jam-packed trip to begin with but when you thrown in a few delays and 50 people, then you get quite the experience.

I'll start at the beginning. I spent the night at Bre's house so that her mom would drive Bre, Monica and Rachel as well as myself and Bre's boyfriend Jeremy to the airport at the ungodly hour of 4:30am. That is, we were leaving at 4:30 am. We went to bed at midnight after some good girl times (no pillow fights in our panties but there was wine involved, Laguna Beach and some internet stalking. Ah...Jason). This is what the rest of the day looked like!

4:30am - Rachel and I are RUDELY awoken by Monica. We may have overslept the alarm. We have about 2.3 minutes to get dressed and in the van for the trip to the airport. I must admit that Rachel and I look pretty darn good in the morning without much effort!
5:00am - Arrive at airport. We are pretty much at the back of the pack of our team checking in. The line up in hugely long and we inch slowly, oh so slowly, towards customs and then on towards the security line.
6:30 - We are at the front of the security line! Woot Woot! We take our shoes off, pull our Ziplocks of gels and creams out of our bags, dump our camera and MP3 players in the bin and wait for our turn to go through the beeping thingy. NO SUCH LUCK! There was a security breach! We all had to leave our stuff and walk back around the corner (where we were about 20 minutes prior) and wait. We had no idea what was going on and they wouldn't say anything other than it was a "security breach". Later, we discovered that another passenger had an electronic neck massage pillow and one of the wires was exposed. We were let back though and we all rushed to board the plane as most everyone else was on the plane already. Starbucks will have to wait!
7:05 - departure time
7:30 - still on tarmac. Then the pilot comes on and say there is a problem with one of the altitude panels and they are getting it checked out.
7:45 - still on tarmac
8:00 - still on tarmac.
8:30 - testing failed and the flight is CANCELLED!
9:00 - we are heading back through Canadian customs because since we went through US customs, we now have to go through Canadian customs.
10:00am - we are rebooked on a 3:15 flight to Phoenix...which was no easy matter, I'm sure, as rebooking 50 people in 1 group was probably a bit challenging. We headed to Montana's with our airport vouchers and took over the restaurant.
12:00pm - we meet as a group in the airport chapel (I didn't even know there was an airport chapel)
1:00pm - here we go again! Back through check in, customs, security and finally on the plane!
3:05pm - Arizona bound. I'm sure the other passengers thought we were crazy as there was quite a bit of cheering as we took off.

We landed in Phoenix at 6ish. Met Damon and the bus and headed to the church for supper and a full evening of speakers and note taking. After we found out that the flight was delayed in Calgary, we called Damon and he reworked all the speakers that were supposed to meet us that afternoon, for that evening and Sunday morning. That meant a late night as the last speaker started at 12:30am. Most of us were fighting to keep our eyes open as we were running on 4 hours sleep!The speakers were good for the most part and we were grateful to finally head to the hotel room! I think I was asleep before I even hit the pillow...

We had to be up at 6 to get ready for church and be on the bus at 7:15am so we could hear the rest of the speakers at 8am before heading to the Pilgrim's Rest Baptist Church. This was a definite highight and another post to itself!

This is Troy Walters, who plays for the Cardinals and who paid for our trip to Phoenix. He returns punts.
The Seahawks. Cardinals won 27 to 21.
The stadium. It holds a 'measly' 64,000 people and it was packed! There is 2 levels above the ones in the picture. A definite sea of red...
Esther, Rowena, Me and Sarah. Our seats were at the endzone but row 8.

So good to be home, to my own bed! It has been a whirlwind trip to Phoenix but an incredible weekend. So many stories to post and many more stories that can't be put into words. I'll post more tomorrow along with some pictures about the trip and all the adventures.

I need to go to bed. I've had 12 hours of sleep since I went to bed Friday night.

My manager decided that we needed a break today from the daily grind of opening, sorting, coding, counting, batching, data entering, answering, replying and typing that encompasses our day. So, went went for lunch to Oriental Phoenix and then headed to the Operation Christmas Child shoebox warehouse to sort boxes for the afternoon. It was a lot of fun! We were late for the orientation but it is a lot of common sense. We headed to the Pre-inspection area, which is where all the boxes are given a once-over to ensure that the donations are removed from the boxes and no money is sent. They then get moved to another area of the warehouse where around 50 more volunteers are opening up each individual box, removing the contents, taking out all the stuff that can't be shipped (food items, gels, liquids, toy guns, glow sticks etc). This year, we had to inspect each tube of toothpaste for an expiration date. Apparently customs can get quite sticky if the due date is within 6 months. So each tube was inspected. Then all the stuff is reloaded into the box and taped shut. It gets loaded into boxes according to gender and age of the box recipient, then loaded onto pallets and then finally will be shipped in big cargo crates. After the box is taped by the volunteers, the next person to open that box will be a little boy or girl in another country. THat was a very fun thought as we rummaged through the boxes. There were a lot of great boxes, loaded to the brim with toys and candies and toiletries. We also got some duds, with a roll of toilet paper, 1 pair of tube socks and a notepad. Those boxes that need a little more loving head to the shoebox hospital where they are added to. McDonald's as well as other coroprate sponsors donate a plethora of toys and fun things to fill the boxes up so no child feels like they got a crappy deal. I have never seen so many happy meal toys in one place.

When our shift was over at 4, there had been about 9200 boxes that had been sorted through, I believe for the day so far. The 2 night shifts would probably match that. In total, just under 400,000 boxes have been processed in our 3 Canadian warehouses. It has been predicted that we will hit about 800,000 boxes to go overseas, about 50,000 more than last year.

That is a whole lotta shoe boxes. I have my 2 sitting on my living room floor. I have a plan to give them to some of our staff members who are going on the shoebox distribution trips to Nicaragua and El Salvador and get them to deliver it.

I decided that my Saturday night would be complete if I ordered sushi and watched Little Miss Sunshine.



There is a sushi place right across the street from my house. I've never been there and I figured that tonight was a good night to try it.

I called and the lady (in very broken English. I wasn't sure I had even called the right sushi place!) wanted to know how many people would I be placing the order for.

Just 1.

Just me.

Moi.



I proceed to place my order. Since I didn't have a menu and I'm not exactly a sushi connesseur, I went with what I knew and liked. California rolls, Tuna, Salmon and Avacado. Good stuff.

This is what I got.



A boatload of sushi.



Sushi anyone???