let the countdown begin

Tomorrow (Tuesday) marks exactly TWO WEEKS until we leave for Calgary en route to England!  Most of my down time is spent researching things to see.

I am totally guilty of imagining myself doing all of these stereotypical English things. I'm not ashamed.  I'm going to have tea.  I'm going to have biscuits.  (I'm going to have tea and biscuits at the same time).  I'm going to ride the train, the double-decker, and take some pictures of the red telephone booths (ok, that is a touristy thing).  I'm going to wear my trench.  And I am not going to wear runners no matter how much walking we do (#1 "don't" if you want to avoid looking like a tourist).  Yep, I am a tourist, but nobody has to know...

Cheers!

lemon meringue

I'm no Martha Stewart (or a true Mennonite woman at that...), but I have spent some good quality time in the kitchen these last couple of days.

Since St. Valentine's Day was on Tuesday, I decided that on my day off on Monday I would bake my guy his favourite pie: Lemon Meringue.  I added a {super lame} little personal touch as per the photo above.  And since I had two pie shells (and because the first time I tried separating my eggs, the yoke broke...and fishing it out with my bare hand reactively didn't quite pan out the way I thought it would (weird) so I had a bowl of extra eggs) I decided to make a quiche.  A broccoli cheese quiche to be exact.  They both turned out!

That's two points.

I topped the day off with a loaf of bread in the bread maker (not as domestic since it's machine made).  It did not turn out as it didn't rise and settled into brick form.

That's minus one.

Today, I was un-busy enough and made a chicken broccoli pasta with sundried tomato alfredo sauce.  It turned out!  Roommate also liked it.

Plus two points (two points because I made enough to feed a family).

I'll go back to cereal, toast, and strawberry's with Nutella soon enough...as soon as the family sized pasta pack runs out.

UK

These are the kind of posts I live for:

I'M GOING TO ENGLAND!!

You heard right.  Next month in March, I, along with my guy Dallen, will be heading to Great Britain for 10 days (I wish it were for longer, but unfortunately there's the issues of cost and work, but 10 days is better than none).  Since his sister and brother in law live in Brighton, we'll be staying with them (which also saves us a bank load).

Brighton is situated along the south shore, only about an hour's train ride from London.  It's a dream come true for me to be able to go to England, let alone leave this contient for Europe!  Ultimately, I'd have won the lottery so I could spend blindly in order to see the UK in its entirety, but we'll have to be a bit conservative with our spending habits as the British Pound is pretty much twice the Canadian Dollar.

I hadn't mentioned anything in previous posts as I just couldn't allow myself to believe it was a reality until we booked the tickets.  And today was that day.  We're booked!  I'm a bit beside myself...

I would also like to take this time to thank the person who dumped a perfectly good (circa) 1960 guitar amp in a dumpster in order for Dallen to find it and consequently sell it for the price of our round trip plane tickets.  Bless you, and your loss.

(These two photos are courtesy of Dal's sister's facebook album.  We hope to visit this incredible place!  It's like walking into a Jane Austen film....*le sigh*)

un peu

We definitely have not had a normal winter here in Manitoba this season.  It almost doesn't make me feel like a true Canadian of the North.  I am by no means going to complain about how sunny and mild it is considering I sleep in a hoodie and sweats now.  I do, however, miss how our winters look: pure white everywhere and not just muddy, dirty mush (I don't even bother washing my car while driving in the city...she's hideous already).  The hoar frost this past week was incredible though.  It really brought out the beauty of winter.  It was even better outside the city.

On a "random/cool" note, today on my way to work I happened into a young fellow who said to me in shy English, "Excuse me, do you speak French?"  Well, me having taken my second language course many moons ago until the tenth grade and wanting to help him out the best I could, said in a half confident/half wary way: "uhh...un peu".  He proceeded to ramble off in French and as I listened very intently I realized...I could totally understand him.  I don't know who was more excited, him- when I responded back in (broken) French what he needed, or me- who completely just had a tiny exchange in a second language (bare in mind, this is irregular).

This reminds me of my friend Danielle's and my conversation about her living in Germany and being able to converse in German and actually beginning to think in German.  Makes me really want to buffer up my second language skills.  I had a shining moment of glory and now I want more.

one year

 Yesterday officially marked 1 year of dating this handsome man.  Despite the fact that we couldn't celebrate all day like we'd hoped, it was still a super day with a super fly guy.  He's even man enough to take me to see Beauty & The Beast 3D!  Yup, we watched that.  What a great movie...I mean guy.  Love you!

cankle

Well, I can say I don't look nearly like the sweet little dude above, but I did injure myself.  Friday evening at a basketball game I twisted my ankle.  I won't tell you the details of that, but I'll just say that I wasn't very happy.  I tried to be a hero and work at my job (where I'm on my feet all day) for the rest of the weekend, but decided my left leg was probably going to get a lot more muscle-y than my right soon due to a good limp (and because it just didn't seem to be getting any better).

So to the Pan Am clinic this morning it was.

Turns out I've got a sprained ankle and a badly strained/minor micro-tears in my achilles tendon.  Doctors orders: take a week off work.  Well, it sure is nice to have a week off, but it really will be noticed in my bank account later on...

So, 2012 has started out with a bang.  But as I let the prescribed painkillers set in right now, I don't really care...

a new year

It's already the 3rd day of the new year 2012, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I spent my New Years Eve hanging out with my man.  And 5 of his male friends.  Just me and the guys. Rock Band and hot tubbing ensued (as well as the classic pizza, beer, & cigars) and I got a quick News Years kiss (just kidding mom & dad, we don't do that...) as there was an awkward ratio of guys surrounding us.

I never make new years resolutions, but I do plan on having a better year this year than last.  Last year had its hardships from sickness, to losing people, nearly losing others, to being clean broke.  But this new year can only be better and I look forward to it!

I hope the year holds exciting things for you all and I ho--

Oh sorry, I thought the world was ending just now....

cozy blankets

Apparently I can't avoid anything lately when it comes to sickness.  I had the stomach flu a couple of weeks ago and now I'm fighting tooth & nail to not get the full blown strep throat and/or sinus cold that're going around. My tonsils are a little swollen so I've been forced to revert back to my Mono tactics: hot water with honey, soup, and laying on the couch with a couple of cozy blankets and a movie (Narnia's on tv right now).

Good thing I have a redeemable massage from Giselle's from my man for Christmas!  Oooo boy!

i'm dreaming of a white christmas

Well, I realize that this is already a few days overdue, but my limited time off for Christmas was spent with family & loved ones.  I had a great Christmas and was very grateful for all of the things I received.  I always wish I could spend so much more on gifts on people, but unfortunately life's finances never seem to allow it.

It was weird how there was nearly no snow on the ground for Christmas Day!  Watching White Christmas was almost parallel; the four main characters head to Vermont: "it should be beautiful this time of year, all that snow!" but arrive to an extension of fall...but at the end of the movie it snows...it didn't in Manitoba.  I'm not complaining that we've had a mild December thus far, but Christmas isn't supposed to be a crunchy brown.  I accept it though.  Christmas doesn't come in snowflakes.

*Merry Belated Christmas!*