Old Folks Convention at the Rogers Centre

Today I took a vacation day cause I realized not going into work sometimes is very nice.  It was a beautiful day out.   Very sunny and warm.  I went to the mall to do my Christmas shopping.  I went in the morning so it wasn't busy which made things less annoying.  I had lots of great luck and found some great stuff.  I haven't had a lot of luck shopping lately so it was a great change.  I couldn't believe it only took 2 hours including walking time! 

When I got back from shopping I watched a bunch of episodes of an amusing new tv show.  Then I did a bit more shopping and had some supper.  Great day... great day indeed!

Word of the day: Whilst

It's nice to have people at work look out for you.  Like when there's free chocolate in the kitchen when you're not around, they grab one for you and put it in your drawer. 

7 days

7 work days until Christmas vacation and counting!

Fresh laundry equivalent at work

Brrrrr i'm cold.  It's been cold at the office lately.  Are they trying to save money by lack of heat?  I guess it's okay if you're wearing a suit with a sweater underneath, but since we've moved to "smart business casual" there's no need for lots of layers anymore.

 

Today I discovered the 'laundry out of the dryer' equivalent at work: paper right out of the printer!  Soooo warm.  It warmed up my arms today for a bit.  It's not quite the same though.  No fresh smell and not as cozy.  It still amused me.  I feel like printing more, but instead I'll go home.  Yay weekend!

I'll have wine with my wine, thank you!

I went and saw Wicked last month!!!!  It was amazing.  I loved it.  Yay witches!

My company's Christmas Party was a couple weekends ago.  It was at this fancy place on Toronto st.  I didn't know there was a Toronto street.  It's very short.  I couldn't find a new dress to wear, so I bought new shoes and fun earrings and called it a day.  High heels are amusing!!  Since Matt came with me I could wear really high heels while still being short.

The party was fun.  Matt and I amused ourselves by drinking lots and enjoying the tons of fancy food.  Soup, salad, steak, and two, yes TWO desserts.  Creme brulee and white chocolate raspberry cake.  Soooo yummy.  Oh, and the bread was awesome.

I don't think I made a fool of myself.  I think I left before the last of the alcohol really hit me so I didn't feel too embarrassed on Monday.  Nobody commented really about how much I drank so all is good.  Thankfully nobody saw me kinda stumble down the stairs.  They were narrow stairs i tell you. It had nothing to do with the wine.

This weekend I went for lunch with Holly and Nadia to celebrate Holly's birthday.  Happy Birthday Holly!!!!!!!!!  We went to yummy spring rolls then Holly and I wandered the mall, and hung out at timmy's.  It's nice that hanging out at timmy's is done by choice now, not because of lack of any other options.

Last thing, is that I am one super duper nice person.  People say I'm mean, but they are sooo wrong.  In the mail there was a cheque for some guy I hadn't heard of before.  Being the first to live here, means it had to be the wrong address.  I was just going to write return to sender and drop it off in the out box at work, but then I decided it's likely just the suite number was wrong.  I took the time to talk to security and found out just that!  The security guy was going to make sure the cheque got to him.  I'm awesome. 

Waking up in a cloud

I had to try really hard to be able to see anything outside my window this morning.  It amused me. 

Customer Care

I just got to talk to the best phone help person ever.  I'll start at the beginning though.

I got a call saying I had a cable installation appointment tomorrow morning.  What???!!!  This is news to me.  So I call, and have to go through the lame voice menus.  Since I was at work I felt especially stupid.  Thankfully it worked well and I didn't have to repeat myself.  I got to the end and the recorded voice said there was no scheduled appointment and asked if I wanted to talk to an agent.  I said "agent".

The guy who helped had a voice that could have been used as the recorded voice or on commercials.  It was awesome.  I told him I just got a msg saying I had a cable installation appointment tomorrow that I knew nothing about.  And then he asks, so you have rogers people coming to drill holes in your house and you don't know why?? hehehe he even made a joke!  I was so amused.  He had a good idea of what the problem was right away which was cool.  He checked to see if somebody else had an appointment with my number and they did.  Why somebody says my number is their number confuses me, but at least the mystery is solved.  He explained he couldn't change the number without the other person's permission.  Then, while I was still on the phone, he put a note in the file saying that the number belonged to somebody else.  Now I know it's been taken care of as much as possible.  To end it well, he makes sure that the reason I called had been resolved.  Well done. 

Rogers customer care rocks.

Cat bonds

I haven't felt like going to the gym lately, but I was given a publication about Insurance-linked securities and I suddenly feel like working out on the elliptical machine while I read about cat bonds.  I'm a little frightened.

Infamous

I GOT TO SEE SANDRA BULLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!! She looked so pretty!!! Eeeeeee!! Okay, I have that out of my system... at least for now ;)

Tonight was the North American Premiere of Douglas McGrath's Infamous. It was exciting because It was a TIFF's prestigious Gala event at Roy Thomson Hall. Matt and I lined up fairly early in hopes of getting good seats. It looked like we had succeeded until closer to start time when swarms of Priority Seating people kept going in. A TIFF volunteer came by asking if we wanted to upgrade our tickets to the main floor seating. Without it, we could have gotten either the main floor, or the balcony. It seemed like a good idea so we went for it. We got a little worried if it was the right choice after seeing how many Priority Seating people there were.

While waiting to get in we saw fancy cars drive in and I got to see a few glimpses of Sandra!!! giving autographs. Yay Sandra!!! The crowd was totally there for her. They were a little excited for other actors but went crazzy when Sandra showed up =) That's cause Sandra's awesome.

So finally we got in and luckily the upgrade didn't fail us. I was very happy with our seats. We were in the middle of the theatre with a great view of the screen.

Finally it was show time!! Douglas McGrath was there and talked about the movie and he was very excited and passionate about the movie. After hearing what he tried to accomplish made me really happy to be seeing this movie. Then it was time to introduce the cast! You didn't think I was satisfied with seeing glimpses of Sandra from the distance were you??!! I got to see Sandra on stage!! It was so awesome! I felt like a little kid at Disney World seeing Belle or Cinderella *lol* Throughout the movie I would randomly think "eeeeee I got to see Sandra Bullock!!!!!" then forced myself to concentrate on the movie once again =)

So the movie was about Truman Capote (played by Toby Jones who was also there!) during the time of his life while he was researching his book In Cold Blood. It was an excellent movie. I thought it was very well done. It highlighted his good and bad times nicely, had a lot of funny parts, and made you feel for him. I'm curious to see Capote to see another writer/director's take and will probably see it at some point but I'm not sure how soon I will be ready to watch it. Right now I'm more interested in seeing Infamous again. The movie also makes me want to read In Cold Blood. I think that's pretty impressive.

Yay for Sandra being in another great movie. She did an amazing job and I hope people agree. There are talks that Infamous is an Oscar hopeful which is extremely cool. I hope it does well. I guess I'll have to read some reviews tomorrow to see if other people agree.

The Last Kiss

This afternoon I took my half vacation day and went to see the Last Kiss starring Zach Braff and Rachel Bilson. It was about relationships and I don't like giving things away cause I don't like knowing things so that's all I can think of without giving away alot. I enjoyed it alot. Getting to see it before it's released was fun!! Yay!!

Check it out, pictures from the premiere of Fido are on imdb! I was there and saw those guys =)

Fido

OMG!! Last night was incredible!!! I'm still not over how great it was. For my first time going to the film festival, it couldn't have been more perfect.

Yesterday was the start of the Toronto Film festival, and Matt and I went to the Canada First! opener and saw Fido. We went about an hour before the start time because I was told lines get really crazy and I saw no good reason not to go early. It worked out well because we had lots of choice when we got into the theatre so we had great seats.

We had no idea who might show up so it was an amazing surprise to discover everyone came!! The producer, the writers, the major cast including Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker to name a few. They introduced everyone and talked about the film. It was so cool!

Honestly, choosing this film was pretty random. I would read parts of the descriptions of the movies and quickly put it on my list of possibilities or reject it. I thought it would be cool to see a Canadian movie and once I read "pet zombie", I was amused! I sent Matt the link kinda as a joke while still sort of wanting to see it. He was also amused and it slowly joined the must see list. For a random movie which we knew very little about... it turned out to be extremely funny! I really enjoyed it. If it comes out on DVD I would buy it in an instant.

Afterwards they had a Q&A session and one part was Billy Conolly talking about how it was like acting as a Zombie. He was entertaining. He was talking about Situational Fashionists. He gave an example of this of when you are on a plane coming back from Mexico wearing a sombraro and you think, What was I thinking??!! He explained that he was in Scotland a few days ago so at the time his plaid pants and tux like jacket made sense but that he was currently feeling the "what was I thinking?!" regret hehe.

My first TIFF

This morning, I went to the box office and picked up my Toronto Film Festival tickets so it's official.... I'm going to see Sandra's new movie Infamous!!!!!! Eeee! Yayayayayayayayay!! *happiness*

Matt and I were interested in the same movies so we picked some we wanted to go to, as well as a few good backups. I was up early yesterday when individual tickets went on sale and refreshed refreshed until eventually I was able to buy tickets. I managed to score tickets for 3 really great movies so I'm very excited.

To begin the experience, we're going on opening day (tonight!) to see Fido - a Canadian film about a kid with a pet Zombie.

On Monday, I'll be using vacation time for the first time ever, to take the afternoon off to see The Last Kiss, with Zach Braff and Summer from The O.C.. Matt will be taking a long lunch and working late instead. It's what I did alot as a co-op but it's alot of hassle and it'll be nice not to worry about making up time. Yay for becoming a real person!

And Thursday the 14th is the big day! My first gala event and the North American premiere of Infamous starring Sandra Bullock =)

And because I don't say this *nearly* enough... Toronto freakin rocks!

Breakfast of Champions

There was an article in the newspaper today about how much sugar is in cereal. I've always known there's a lot, even in the "healthy" cereals. I've never cared. Mmmm sugar. The article compares how much sugar is in various cereals and chocolate bars.

They try to convince you cereals are bad by saying: "You'd never consider a Kit Kat for breakfast, but it contains no more sugar than at least one popular cereal."

Hahahaha seriously? I've had chocolate bars for breakfast many times!! Chocolate is great. Why not start the day with something so yummy? I do admit I don't do this nearly as often as I did in high school now that I'm more health conscious, but it's still not unheard of. I'd like to think I'm not the only one out there who's done this.

I'd also like to point out that yes, cereals have tons of sugar, but it's really unfair to compare them to chocolate bars. Chocolate bars are loaded with bad fats (mostly sats now) and cereals have at least some nutritional value to them. To conclude, all I have to say is stop dissing my Count Chocula!! ;)

Tea in Toronto

This weekend my mom came to visit me!!!  It was a very big deal for her to venture to the scary city that is Toronto.  The last time my mom was in Toronto was about 7 years ago and it was for less than a day.   They found my place no problem.  Well, they got a little confused when they got to HVE, but I went down and helped them out.  Now that they've realized it's not so hard to get here, they should be able to come more often! yay!

 

My mom came with boxes full of crap from the garage that she no longer wants to store but I may want to keep.  *sigh*.  Ah well, it can stay in my storage locker I guess.  Some of the stuff she brought was cool.  Like my grade 10 class blues tape!  My painting of Notre Dame.  There was also a picture of me holding a cute kitten but I look huge!!  Why she thought I'd want that picture is beyond me! 

She also came bearing gifts!!!  Yay birthday presents!  She bought me canisters that now hold tea, sugar, flour, and unknown (maybe cocoa powder?), fun napkins, tea lights, kitchen towels, and this fun metal basket organizer thingy.  I can't decide where I want to put it yet.  She also brought a yummy chocolate truffle cake.  My mom rocks.

It was alot of fun showing my mom and George around Toronto.  You can't experience Toronto without going to one of the summer festivals so we went to the buskerfest.  There were lots of little shops set up which my mom and George loved.  We listened to a really cool band from Australia.  The one guy had an electric didgeridoo!  So fun.  We also heard this guy playing the drums which sounded really good.  Then we saw he was playing with buckets!  It was unbelievable. 

Afterwards, we wandered around downtown a bit.  I showed them some of the path and took them to see where I work.  Then we went to the Fat Belgium for dinner.  It's so yummy there!  They really enjoyed it.  They can't get food like that back in the boonies.

When we got home, George helped me fix Rob's vacuum.  While I was cleaning in preparation of my mom coming, I discovered it was MAJORLY plugged, and rob and I couldn't get all the crap out of the tube.  Ewwww it was so gross.  But anyway, with George's help we solved the problem!  I was all excited to vacuum to see how well it works, but I got lazy.  Maybe I'll do that this weekend.  Later we watched The Longest Yard which they both really liked.  We paused near the end to watch the fireworks at the ex.  Gotta love the view.

Sunday morning we went to Cora's for breakfast and it was amazing as usual.  I can't see myself ever getting sick of that restaurant.  Then it was time for them to head off.  The good news is they can't wait to come back!  I have a list of things to do in future visits.

Crybaby Tiger has some competition

Thursday was SR's staff association golf tourny. A couple people in my team were going so I decided it would be fun to go too. We went to Brampton, and the course is long and difficult! I was afraid it was going to be cold and cloudy, but the weather turned out to be perfect. A very enjoyable way to spend a late afternoon/evening.

It was best ball and we had alot of fun. I was going to use the golf simulator the night before to practice, but I was tired so I napped instead. Even so, I'm glad to say I didn't embarrass myself. They were impressed with how I did as a beginner. I made some nice shots, my ball was used a decent amount of the time, and I made one gorgeous put. Putting is the hardest I'd say. Not like mini golf at all ;) I must say, my dad is a great teacher! People say I have potential.

Afterwards there was a bbq and prizes! I like prizes. Our team won!! ... for having the highest score hehe. I did mention the course was difficult right???? At least we were able to get bogey's consistently =) But it meant I got a SR golf towel!! Now I just need a golf bag to put it on. I also got 3 "Big Bertha" golf balls with the SR logo on them. Very nice!!

On my walk home I decided it would be a good idea to drop by the matts first. Silly me I called first. We decided it's not necessary. I like this plan. It's so fun living close. More people should move into Cityplace. Yay Cityplace!!

The only bad thing about Cityplace is that they tore down the Spadina golf course. If they hadn't, Jeff and I could go play golf easily. Maybe other people will be interested too and we can all go somewhere like this golf course I really like which is east near my dad. Hopefully one day...

Wedding bells

This past weekend was Justin and Monica's wedding. The ceremony was really nice and they both looked amazing. Mon changed a couple times during the reception and each dress was gorgeous. The flower girl and the ring barer were so cute! When the ring barer started walking too fast the flower girl put her arm out to stop him, then they continued along. The Father's speech was a little questionable and it wasn't really related to marriage. It was mostly about how electronics have taken over and how people should take time away from them or something. Meh, I like my gadgets.

The reception was really nice. I was amused by the wedding memento. Everyone got a poem in a frame and mine said: "I promise you as a lover and a friend; I will love you like I never love again; With everything I am". How sweet of Justin to give me a love poem! Too bad he is married now, otherwise how could I resist?? hehe

I didn't have alot to eat during the day since I was told there was going to be an 11 course meal for dinner. My drink for the night was white wine since it was easy. It hit me pretty quickly. After one I was feeling it, after two.. you could say I was kinda drunk. I think around this time the first or second course was being served... oops. I've been told the multiple Advil I had earlier in the day wouldn't have helped either. I didn't end up eating too much since there was alot of seafood and by the end of the meal I was too drunk to even bother eating. People seemed to be amused that I was the first one drunk. Chris probably wish he wasn't sitting beside me. I know I annoyed him when I kept trying to put heart confetti into his hair.

The night consisted of trying to walk straight, seeing double, and having fun. I managed to catch the bouquet! It came flying at me and landed in my arms. No moving necessary. The flowers are beautiful. That made me happy, and no, I haven't suddenly decided to get married anytime soon! My mom and dad were both freaked out when I told them I caught the bouquet. Apparently they believe in the meaning more than I do.

After catching the bouquet, I was waiting until the lucky guy got to put the garter on my leg. I remember past weddings not wanting to catch the bouquet solely for avoiding this, but drunken jen was amused by this idea. I waited, but it never happened! I guess they didn't know of that tradition. No worries, later that night I enforced it! And of course I made him use his teeth. That's how it's supposed to be done. Apparently I agreed that Greg could take it off later that night, but I don't remember that part! I ended up going to sleep with it on cause it amused me. How silly of me!

We were sent home with ALOT of cookies and cake. That's what we had for breakfast on Sunday. Mmmm cake and cookies. Well, I guess it was more lunchtime by the time I wasn't dizzy any longer and was out of bed. We played some cards, watched baseball and nascar, and I napped later. Very enjoyable weekend.

My ears hurt

9:30 am:

Last night, at about quarter to 5, the fire alarm went off! I was having such a nice sleep too. It went on for about 15 minutes? no idea. Way too long anyway. I discovered you could silence the alarm in the suite by pressing the "silence alarm" button (go figure). It helped, but you could still hear it from the hallway, and it only worked for so long. It would start up again and eventually we couldn't silence it anymore. Damn technology!!! It also made me realize I have no idea what the building fire procedures are. There were two different alarm sounds and I have no idea what they mean.

Finally the alarm went off and I started to try to go back to sleep. It of course went on again. I stumble out of bed with the intent to try to silence it only for it to stop. *sigh*. So I get back into bed, then there's the worst noise yet! I would compare it to a very very loud feedback noise from a microphone or something. Then the security guard came on the intercom (and of course the announcement was ear piercingly loud!) to inform everyone that there was a pipe broken and we don't have to leave our suites. Not that anybody was going to anyway. I saw about a dozen people wandering around downstairs from the window. I figure I would have headed downstairs if more firetrucks than just the one arrived. Well... probably.

After the announcement, I figure that's it for the fire alarm problems. It pretty much was, except when I was finally starting to fall asleep again, the intercom would come on for a bit, but all it did was click on and sort of buzz for a bit. It was enough to startle me back awake. That happened a couple times.

So, I was pretty tired this morning. My shower in the morning didn't wake me up like it normally does. I decided I would buy a cup of coffee on the way to work today for a morning kick. I discovered buying coffee when you don't normally is actually harder than I would have thought. The fact I was tired made it alot worst, but was also the reason for buying coffee! What a vicious cycle.

I decide to go to Timothy's for a treat since I love their Cafe Mocha's and thought I'd try their coffee. First, I manage to get in the pay line, so I had to back up a bit to order. I asked for a medium coffee with milk and 2 sugars, and she says milk and sugar are over there and points. I look... I feel stupid. Then she kinda waves her arm pointing out all the coffees I have to choose from. Of course it wouldn't be as simple as just asking for coffee (I'm such a Tim Horton's girl, obviously!!), there were like 10 different kind of coffees to choose from. This isn't actually uncommon, but in my state this was unexpected (well, i saw them when I came in, but my brain never registered what they were). I kinda read the names and I'm like oh goodness, i have no idea what any of these mean!!! I like my coffee, but I'm no expert by any means. She sees I'm totally clueless so she starts to describe a few, but being tired my brain clues in shortly afterwards, so I didn't really see what she pointed to, so I just said medium strength and she poured me a cup.

I've decided they should have coffee shots when you walk in to help get your brain working so buying coffee isn't so complicated.

So now I'm at work, my coffee finished, with a slightly burnt tongue due to my anxiousness for caffeine, and I'm only marginally less tired than I was an hour ago. Figures!

10:30:

Update: It's an hour later now, and as I'm slowly becoming more awake, I realize how pitiful my little "adventure" to get coffee really was.

11:30

Update 2: HAHAHAH Now there's a fire alarm at work.

Gotta love DQ

Tonight we went to Fresh, a veggie place on Spadina. It was interesting. I tried eggplant. It wasn't gross, but I couldn't get used to it either. Everybody else really enjoyed their meals though. It was Dave's last wing night for a while since he finishes work this week, and it was Reena's first! She ended up driving which turned out to be a bad idea and missed most of it =( Awww poor Reena! I hope next week is more successful.

Afterwards some of us played a Robot board game. I did horribly the first game, but when I killed myself I managed to kill Matt first so all is good. The second game was a super hard version and I kicked ass and made it look easy! Yippee!

On the walk home, we made a very exciting important discovery... An Orange Julius/Dairy Queen store is opening up in HVE!!!!! YES! This DQ is even closer than when I lived at Westcourt AND there's an Orange Julius too!! Can't beat that!

Mid-Twenties

My birthday was yesterday! Yay birthdays! Friday night I spent all night cleaning. New carpets suck!!!! They should sell pre-vacuumed carpets. Vacuuming shouldn't make a bigger mess than when you started. My dad told me to keep vacuuming every few days until it's better. bah!!

Saturday I went for breakfast at Cora's with my Dad, Debbie, Vincent and Erin. It was a last minute thing so it was really nice. The food was sooo yummy it was a great way to start my birthday weekend.

Afterwards I dragged Keizo out of bed (at 2:00!!!) to go to the the gym and show him the super club. I also got to try out my new work out shirt! It's cool.

The rest of the day I spent getting ready for my party!!!! It was lots of fun. More people were able to come than I expected so I was thrilled. Highlights included earrings, melon bread, turtles (slippers and bread), alcohol and as i mentioned, friends!!

Sunday I spent watching nascar, gilmore girls, and big brother, and napping. Tony Stewart was passed in the last few laps which was a bummer, but I can't get everything I ask for, even if it is my birthday. On the other hand, HOH was revoked and a player i liked ended up winning it so yay!

Toronto has been fun like always. I got to go to the beaches jazz street festival with Rob, Patrick, and Toni which was fun. There was alot of non-jazz played, but I hadn't been down queen street east before so that was cool. We also ran into Kenny which amused me. I went to the yonge street festival with Dave which was alot of fun. We saw these amusing dragons, really creative music/art/dance/drama performance, big band, and really funny improv.

I'm getting into the habit of going to the gym and going on the elliptical machine. One week it was really hot and my ac was broken so i only went once that week, but other than that it's been successful. I'm looking forward to when exercising is no longer new, but just part of my routine. I've wanted to do this for a while so it's nice it's finally happening! I guess the next step would be using weights, or taking up some other form of exercise as well. No rush though! haha

I've been to Waterloo a couple of times. I got to see Keizo try lobster for the first time. Their eyes are beady and gross. When he was finished I hid it with my napkin. It was creeping me out!! I tried a piece and I'm not a fan of the texture. I chew, but nothing happens. I don't understand the appeal. It didn't taste gross, but didn't taste amazing either.

I discovered I can buy movie tickets at work for 9.50. That means I don't have to avoid going to the movies in Toronto since I hate paying more than I was used to at Waterloo.

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but that's my fault for not updating in over a month. oops!

Ack! I'm becoming a *real* person!

Goodbye freedom... hello working world!

I started working yesterday. Pretty sweet day. Got to catch up with some people I knew from working as a co-op, met some new people, did some reading and paperwork, went for lunch with my boss, then left early to watch the Italy semi-final match! The game was great, but did they have to scare me so much??? I really did not want the game to go to Shoot outs. Nice goal at the end though! Viva Italia!! After the game I went to Rancho Relaxo for first *wing* night in months!! Yayaya! Great times. Afterwards, Chris and Will came back to see my new tv and hung out for a bit. Speaking of which, the tv is awesome! I love it. So pretty. HD rules!!

Today was just as great. Did some more reading, there was a fire drill and afterwards we got free ice cream!!! I got a cookie dough ben and jerry's ice cream bar. Soooooo yummy. That turned out to be my lunch. Oops! haha. I had a nutritious supper to make up for it though. Best part of the day (and this is even better than the ice cream!!), was discovering an old co-op friend at SR is back working full-time!!! I had heard she went to a pension firm so it was a huge shock!!! Yay!! I have an actsc friend at work that's cool, and is at the same level as me. YES! Life is good =)

The Last of my Vacation

After convocation, I went to my grandma's with my dad for a visit. We played golf every day, watched the italy game, went tv shopping, had lots of yummy food and saw some family. We had a great time. I only wish the visit could have been longer. Now that I'm back in Toronto I'll get to see my dad more often which will be nice. The golfing was lots of fun. We played a 9 hole golf course with all par 3's. I had one par each day, and near the end I was getting alot more consistent with alot less re-do's. I want to get a couple golf clubs so I can practice in the golf simulator in the superclub.

Keizo and I went to Detroit for the Astros' series. Comerica Park was awesome. I loved the real field and the open area. They had alot of fun baseball displays, a carousal with tigers, cup holders for every seat, and daiquiris. It was great. Too bad the astros got swept, but we made it on tv!! Keizo almost caught a foul ball that came straight at us. Unfortunately he was scoring the game so he didn't have his glove on, so the ball bounced off his hand. Ouch.

Now I'm settling into my apartment, waiting for my dad to bring my 32'' lcd flat panel tv. No apartment is complete without a tv. So far I'm loving the new place. I love looking out at the water and all the boats. I can see and hear the fireworks from Ontario Place which is really fun. Not only do I have a kitchen facet that actually works, it's a really nice facet. It becomes a hose and sprays. There's also a dishsoap dispenser to hide the bottle. I love the granite countertops. Very easy to clean. The appliances are great. I love that you can tell the fan to go on for so many minutes. The gas stove still scares me a little but I'll get used to it. My walk in closet is a beautiful thing, and having my own washroom rocks. The toilet paper holder is ingenious. The one end is open so you can just slide it off, but has a little edge so it doesn't fall off. I'll post pictures once the living room is finished.

Pictures of Convocation and Detroit

Convocation

Last Friday was Convocation so I am now done with U of Waterloo!! It was a grogeous day out which just makes everything so much nicer. My dad bought me white and purple roses while we were waiting until I had to go line up. So pretty. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered I was lined up with 2 other white people! It made the wait until we could go into the gym go by quickly since we chatted. The gym was ugly with the bleachers and their "gold" curtains, but it didn't matter. I got my robe and degree which is all that counts. It kinda sucked that it was split by Math and CS because afterwards I couldn't get pictures with all my Math friends. I did get pics with my actsc friends and my fav prof in her bright pink robe which rocked. Afterwards my mom, George, Keizo and I went for lunch at Ennios. My mom made a cake which was so yummy. She even gave a piece to the waitress! I was amused, hehe. For graduation mom bought me canadian diamond earrings. They're gorgeous! That night it was off to Aga's to celebrate! Good times.

Baby Toronto

I went to Calgary on June 6th to visit my brother for a week. The plane ride was so fun. I haven't been on a plane for about 8 years so I didn't remember it well. It was a mostly clear day so I was able to see land for most of the trip. I loved being so high. I want to fly more now. The plane ride home wasn't as exciting. Mostly cloudly but it was fun seeing different kinds of clouds.

Mike met me at his apartment when I got in. His place amused me. I figured because he has a well paying job, buys expensive shirts and suits, that he'd have this stylish little apartment downtown Calgary. Well, it's definetly downtown... He uses his dishwasher as a drying rack and leaves it open and pulled out, he has empty boxes scattered all over his apartment, his liquor bottles are on the end table in the living room, and has alot of magazine and telephone books all under his coffee table. Other than that though it's a nice little place. The elevators were so slow though!! My only complaint =)

The first thing I really noticed once I got to Calgary was that they have their traffic lights horizontal. I've never seen that before. I'm told they do that in Quebec too. I find it funny. Their transit system is fun too. Their subway system couldn't be underground because of the river that runs through town I believe, so they have street cars. Instead of street cars in Toronto where it loads like a bus, it loads like a subway. It's also the honour system like the GO which I find so crazy! Calagary's so cute though cause the suburbs are actually in Calgary. That's why I think of it as Baby Toronto =)

Mike showed me around a bit and he took me up to see his office which was hilarious. Piles of papers everywhere! All over his desk and floor. I can understand the need for lots of piles but I try to keep it more controlled than that hehe. His office was nice and big and the view was gorgeous. A very fun building.

So the day I arrive it's sunny and beautiful out. Then it gets cold and cloudy and it rained at times. When does the sun come out? The morning I leave!!! The weather wasn't nice to me, but it was still great. I wandered around while Mike was at work and we'd hang out when he got home. He made supper a few times and we went out a couple times as well.

I went to visit (Mom's boyfriend) George's daughter Bonnie and her family the one day. They're a great bunch. Bonnie and Dean are very nice and the kids are lots of fun. Mike played soccer with Spencer for a while which was funny and I drew with Spencer and Sydney for a bit. I also got to meet the neighbourhood cat Buddy. He wanders around visiting people when they are outside. It's awesome! The fun of a cat without the hassle of cat hair and littre box.

Some of the things I saw in Calgary were City Hall, Calgary Tower, Stephen's avenue, Chinatown, Eau Claire, Saddledome, a couple of malls. Speaking of which, I have to talk about the malls!!!!! I *heart* shopping. The first one I went to was Shinock. I'd compare it to Yorkdale but ALOT closer! It was sooo beautiful. Lots of great stores, newly renovated, it was great. The food court was unbelievable. It had a carasoul and had lots of big windows. The Mall downtown is above ground and has lots of levels. It even has a big garden by the food court. It was cool.

One last thing I loved about Calgary: the police officers wore cowboy hats!! Yeee-haw!

Best Penny Spent Online

What's inside?

My cell phone!

How cute =)

No longer homeless

Waterloo Jen is dieing. She gets her keys to her new fancy condo in Toronto today. Tomorrow Toronto Jen is making Waterloo Jen chop off most of her hair. So far people say Toronto Jen sounds like a jerk! Oh no!! That's what happens when you move to the big t dot though. Don't take this too lightly. It happened to Rob too.

Other than getting a place in Toronto I've been taking it easy. Keizo and I went to Jay's Photo Day and I got a few good pictures. I got one of McGowan, Overbay, Glaus, Molina, Lilly and Stinske. I also got a signed Ted Lilly baseball card! Now I have a Ted Lilly candy dispenser and a signed card.

I went to Kincardine for a couple weeks to visit my mom. I sneezed alot. My kitty slept on my bed for the majority of my stay which made me happy. My mom dragged me to her early morning exercise class the one day. It wasn't so bad. Makes me look forward to using the fitness facilities in my condo building. We baked alot the one day. Well, my mom baked. I kinda watched and read ingredients at times. We made this mocha cake, these chocolate cheesecake cupcakes, and rhubarb muffins. The rhubarb muffins were my favourite. The chocolate cake was very yummy and I was undecided about the cupcakes. They were good, but I couldn't decide how good. I enjoyed just spending time with my mom and getting to see her pretty gardens. I also got to see two friends from high school i haven't seen in ages which was fun.

I went to Peterborough for Mother's Day and had a nice time with my mom and grandma. We went for brunch and they were happy because I ate more than they expected. My grandma gave me this pretty 3-D picture which I'm looking forward to finding a good spot for.

The past weekend I went to London to visit Holly. We had supper with some of her school friends, then went and saw X3. It turned out we were celebrating Holly's birthday (not to mistaken with her brithday). Ie. a few people pretended it was Holly's birthday for free cake hehe. On Saturday We went book shopping, wandered around the market, watched some tv shows, and watched Howl's moving castle which i enjoyed. She made this really yummy sausage and red pepper pasta for supper. I liked it so much I'm going to have to make it again sometime. Sunday was great. We watched the majority of firefly, made these amazing hazelnut chocolate chunk shortbread squares, and had pizza for supper. Then on Monday Holly woke up early for me so I could catch my bus since the London to Kitchener bus doesn't run very often on Monday. Thanks again for such a great weekend =)

Now I've been looking for renters insurance and a cell phone. Both are proving to be very frustrating!! I also opened my PC account which was fun. I look forward to making 3% interest. It also makes me realize i should figure out what I'm going to do with my money: how much I want to save, do i want to buy phantom shares, how much should I spend on clothes... that kinda thing.

YES!!

I've been waiting ever since I found out I passed all my courses for confirmation that I did, in fact, fufill all my degree requirements. I found this in my transcript today:

- - - Degrees Awarded - - -

Degree: Bachelor of Mathematics
Honours Actuarial Science, Co-operative Program
Statistics Minor

Degree Honour: With Distinction

Confer Date: June 16, 2006

Yes!! I did it! Now i get to wait until convocation to get that expensive little paper =)

All Done!!!!!!!!!

I finished my last exam this morning. Wohooo. Now I just have to wait until the school confirms I did in fact, complete my degree requirements and I'm no longer a student!! Wohooo!!

It's 4:30 am. I tried to sneak into my house, but I didn't succeed. Ryan's dad is sleeping on the couch. I was as quiet as possible, but I still woke him up. *shakes head*

I went to weavers for a friends birthday celebration, then to Matt's house for "South A reunion" party. There weren't many South A People. But it was fun.

Now I'm calculating stats for my forecasting class. My prof posted the final marks at approx 8:30 tonight.

HAHAAHAHHA.

The good times

Saturday was Rob's birthday, happy birthday Robbie! Ang and I made dip and watched some of the Aristrocrats while we waited for Johnny and Bernada to come over to head to Robs. The Aristrocrats was hilarious! I have to see the whole thing now.

Robs was alot of fun. Got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while. Convinced Chris to join the nascar pool. Chris also came up with a great idea of when Ang moves to Windsor, and I move to Toronto. We can buy socks and mail each other one part of the pair so we can have the same socks and stay connected hehe. There was drinking, yummy food, amusing people, so it was a great time.


On Sunday, Ang and I went to Williams just to hang out and chat. I had such a great time. We had the most amazing cheese cake ever. We're planning on doing this more often. Aftewards, I went back to Ang's place to watch Grey's with the girls. It was alot of fun.

Yesterday the "Actuarial Science Club", and I use that term loosely, went to... Chuck E. Cheese's!!!! SOOOO much fun. At first it was a little weird and ackward with so many kids. But we let go and had a great time. Skee ball rocks like always, but Wheel of Fortune was my favorite. Angela won 150 tickets on her first try!! We never won big again, but it doesn't matter. We are totally going again. I loved it!! Oh, and the pizza was actually really good.

More Chuck E. Cheese's pictures

Opening Day

I'm still mad at the Jay's for trading away O-Dog. I'm also still mad at sports in general because they kept betraying me. In spite of all this, I'm going to the Jay's opening day and I'm so excited about it!!! Keizo bought 20 tickets near the bullpen in row's 8 and 9 or something. Best we could find for 20 people. Not sure who all is going yet but it'll be fun.

Keizo took out his braids. This time we took a picture before he did so though. Now it's back to being long and out of control!

Bonus

Matt just discovered that my laptop has an SD slot. My camera has an SD card! How cool is that?

The Escape

Sunday night, Ryan and I were having another couple games of speed (I won of course!) while Rosencrantz was running around in his ball on the floor. I either put him back in his cage when he stops moving around, or when I'm going to bed. While we were playing, it got quiet, so I thought I should check on him to see if he wants back in. Nope, the little bugger escaped his ball and was running around on the floor!! Thankfully I found him relatively soon after he got out or it would have been alot harder to find him.


Last night Ang and I went to a couple of info sessions. It wasn't to get free stuff. It's not like we already have jobs or anything. First was EY. They had subs and pop. Not bad. I was really upset that I didn't get a pen though. Who doesn't bring enough pens to an info session? So not impressed. I am not applying there anymore. Next we went to the University Club for the Principal Financial info session. You know what's great about the University Club?? Free Alchohol! What I learned at the info session: Iowa only has corn and pigs. I mean doesn't only have. right... Ang won a t-shirt for knowing (remember from the info session last term) that Winnipeg was the closest major Canadian City to Des Moines. They had yummy finger food including fruit, veggies and dip, chicken fingers, other fried goodness. I was very impressed with Angela. When one of the workers was picking up the discarded plates, she convinced him to bring us drinks! She's pro at these things. Overall it seemed like a decent company, and If I could bear working in Iowa, I'd apply there.

Temporary House Pet

Keizo has left for his vacation to the dominican for his friends wedding. I wish I could have gone too. Instead, I get to write 2 midterms on Thursday. Fun. But while Keizo is gone, I get to take care of Rosencrantz! He's such a cute ball of fur.


We've been playing alot of cards lately. Crib, Speed, Crazy Eight Countdown, and a bit of Rummy 500. So far I'm undefeated at Speed. Sooo much pressure to keep winning now, but at least I get to make fun of Ryan. Apparently I make too many "snarky", "smart ass" comments while playing cards. I don't know about other people, but that's how I learned how to play cards.

I've been downloading House this weekend. I discovered I liked it over Christmas break, thanks to my brother. It's on the same time as Scrubs though so I haven't gotten to watch it. Soon, I'll have the first season.

Blue cake is yummy!

Monday was a night of vicTORY! Stephen Harper and the Conservatives won a minority government. Horray! I made blue cake to celebrate. Delicious. The night could have only been better if a conservative won in the 416 area. I don't like the idea of moving to such a liberal area. Ah well, at least they'll have one more supporter there.

Last week we went to Bomber. We pre-drank here and I was very amused. There wasn't too many of us, but still lots of fun. Too bad Bomber was cut short by a fire alarm. I've never heard of a fire alarm going off during a bomber night before. How dumb. We were kicked out and off of the patio so we went to keep warm in the Math building. Talked to some random people until we were allowed back in to get our coats. Keizo was a sweetie and went and got the girls coats for us. I wish I could go to Bomber tonight, but I've left my pension assignment too long and it'll probably take me a long time to finish. Reading pension plan texts isn't fun.

On the weekend, Keizo, Matt, Ryan and I played Illuminate. It's one of Rob's card games. He let me borrow it since he doesn't play it anymore because it can get very spiteful. Yes, it can get spiteful, but it's also alot of fun. I want to play more!

I should get back to my pension assignment... but I'd rather watch grey's anatomy. Tough call =)

Football is poo!

This weekend started off well. We went to Fox and Fiddle on Friday night to celebrate Kirsten's birthday. There was a live band at times and they sounded pretty good. I liked that it wasn't too loud so you can still talk. It was fun.

Saturday and Sunday was alot of football. Saturday night Keizo's Tom Brady/Pats lost, then Sunday my beautiful colts lost, and then later i watched my brother's bears lose. *tear* oh who am I kidding? *sobs* So now I have no desire to watch anymore football this season. Maybe I'll still watch the superbowl because I was looking forward to it. Bleah.

Maybe I'm not meant to like sports. I start liking baseball and my O-Dog gets traded. I start liking football, and my colts go 14-2 only to lose in their first playoff game. Hmmm, Tony did win the 2005 nextel cup though. Maybe 2005 was my year for sports and it's time for a break?

Oh, it's official. I got a 9 on Exam C. Fun Stuff.

4 months to go

I'm settled back into Waterloo now. It's nice to be back. Keizo's working too much right now, but I still get to see him regularly so it's good. Westcourt is fun as usual. The first new show our house is tackling is grey's anatomy. It's great.

Christmas was nice. Got to see some family. My brother was done from calgary for a while. I always enjoy seeing him. He seemed to be amused by the "kill all the lawyers" book I got him. Everyone else was amused too. It still amuses me in fact. I got a pasta maker and recipe book, a panda coin, seasons 2 and 3 of gilmore girls (which i watched during break), new pjays, and Keizo bought me a really pretty tanzenite ring.

School's alright so far. It sounds like my classes will be interesting. I have great profs and friends in all my classes so it'll be a good last term. I'm looking forward to bomber on Wednesday since we didn't get in first bomber night. I enjoyed waiting in the line for a bit, but it got tiresome. Then we watched Office Space which is always funny.

I've officially passed Exam C. I ate sour gummi bears to start my celebration. They were my Exam C study food of choice. Yum. These ones were better because they were fresh. I was used to my old stale ones.

It's nice eating real food again. I lived off chicken fingers and rice for too long last term hehe.