Yay for long posts

Yeah, so it's been a while. Things have been crazy busy. I went from studying, to having to work overtime consistently, while trying to pack, move, then unpack. In fact, I just unpacked the last few boxes last night. Felt great. Now there's only a few things left to do and the place will be complete. First, my couch broke in the move. Argh! Who doesn't make their biggest elevator their moving elevator? Apparently my new building. So the couch had problems fitting into the elevator, and getting out was even harder from the sounds of it. Whatever happened during the move seriously messed up my couch. Tonight I had a guy come in to do an estimate and he was like, yeah, this is extensive damage. Eep. Thankfully it won't cost too much to repair and I will have a much happier, well-put together couch afterward. I'll take a half day next week so they can come in and fix it. Next are curtains. I have sheets and blankets up on the windows I feel need them which is a little ghetto. I've decided what I'll be doing so I will head to the store to buy some curtains soon. Maybe even this weekend. The last thing to do is to paint two accent walls!! I've picked out the colour for the bedroom, but the paint samples I picked out to go in the living room were all the wrong shades so I have to go get some more to choose from.

I've bought a few fun things to make my new place feel like mine. I got two beautiful paintings by a local artist. Art! I've never had real art. It's fun, and it makes the place feel more put together. I love it. I also bought some fun kitchen things like a Kitchenaid stand mixer and a red toaster. This reminds me, I made gnocchi in my Kitchenaid mixer and it turned out soooooo well. It made a dough, rather than a sticky mess. It was great. Now I have a bunch in the freezer for later. Also made pizza dough in it. The dough was the best pizza dough I've made. Yum.

So after all the crazy busy Jer and I took a mini-vacation and went to Niagara Falls. I had never been so it was so great. It was a little nerve racking when we first got there. We arrived at the hotel and the girl was like, you're not in our system, I bet you're at the sheraton attached to the casino. Ooops. She calls there, and no, we're not there either. Ah, oh noes? Jer ordered on the phone and they said they were going to email the confirmation but never did. So all we had was a confirmation number. The girl was absolutely amazing. She called hotels searching for our hotel and did everything she could to help us out. Jer happened to know the day he made the reservation and found the phone number in his cell. She called that number and found our reservation. Turns out we were in the Marriot just next door. Relief!!

The day we arrived it wasn't a very nice day. It had rained all day and the sky was still very cloudy. We had a falls view room though and I am so glad we did. The view was gorgeous, even if it was gray and cloudy out. And the view only got better.

We got a package deal with the hotel, so we got dinner and brunch vouchers, and 20 dollars in casino chips each. The dinners were delicious. I got this gigantic pork tenderloin the first night. It felt like I was eating a whole pig it was so huge. Despite it being so tender and wonderful I couldn't eat it all. Jer's pasta was meh that night, but the calamari was great. The next night I got a ravioli that was incredible. Jer got steak and it was so tender and delicious. Mmm, meat. Then we had dessert. Jer had this white chocolate mousse with raspberry and thin crispy layers of pastry and it was one of my favourite desserts ever I think. Then we were so full all I did was lie in bed complaining of full tummy haha.

We went to the casino the one day and wandered around. The poker tables were so expensive to play so we weren't all that interested. I stumbled across a game that had a 1 dollar min bet. Score! We had 5 dollar chips though, so we were big spenders *lol*. Me, I've always had a bit of luck when it came to games. I did awesome at this game. It was a wheel that spun with canadian bills on it. The 1 dollar had 1-1 odds, the 2 dollar had 2-1 odds, the 5 dollar had 5-1 odds, and you get the idea. I won most of my bets. Jer lost his money fairly quickly hehe. My last bet I made had 20-1 odds. I swear, the guy had a slight panicked look in his eye when I placed that bet. Sure and behold, that 20 dollar came to fruition and he handed me a beautiful black casino chip. 100 dollars. Excuse me while I dance a little. We stopped there cause I don't like to push my luck. We wandered a bit more then decided to play some War. You know, that childhood game of where high card wins. haha. Jer sat down first, lost his first hand, then convinced me to sit down. I proceeded to win a bunch of hands, but then got in a losing streak and came out about even I think. Still fun. Then we tried slots which was NOT fun at all. You press a button, most of the time it says GAME OVER. Some times it'll highlight random pictures on the screen and say win. Lame. I really don't get why people enjoy it so much.

After that we went out and enjoyed the beautiful day that developed. We went on the ferris wheel which, wow, was pretty rough on me. The first 1/4 rotation I thought I was either going to throw up or pass out. Once we got up a bit I could focus in the distance and my stomach settled. So it wasn't so much the heights as just motion sickness. Thankfully after the first rotation I was feeling mostly fine. By the 3rd I could actually move around without freaking out and took a few pictures. Overall it was enjoyable and glad I did it.

After that, we walked along the water and just enjoyed the beautiful blue scenery. When we got back to our hotel room there was a rainbow!! I was so surprised and happy and stared at it for ages. It lasted for hours it was so awesome. Even during dinner we could still see a little bit of it lingering.

We also went behind the falls. That wasn't so impressive, since all you saw was white and occasionally could make out some water. But the one look-out point at the base of the falls was so beautiful. I didn't get nearly as wet as I thought I would have though.

The next day we went by the falls one last time for some pictures, then slowly drove up to niagara on the lake. We went on the white water walk and walked on a boardwalk beside the level 6 rapids. Beautiful. Then we went for a walk to check out the whirpool which I loved. On the way back from that Jer jerked me to stop walking and I looked over and there's this gorgeous deer just staring at us. He moved to hide a bit in the bushes but continued to stare at us for a while. So pretty. Eventually we left when we realized he was going to out stare us.

We did a bit of shopping on niagara on the lake. Got some fresh turkish delight in many different flavours which was delicious. I wish we had bought more. We went to a winery and bought some wine. Then we headed home for a quiet evening.

It was a great break and everything was so pretty. It was a wonderful getaway.

In other news, I find out which job I'm rotating to as part of the actuarial program. The consulting group has been great, but it will be enjoyable to get to know a business group well. I know where I want to go, and they want me too so hopefully the people doing the matching doesn't mess this up!

*waves*