12 posts tagged “weekend”
With Steve gone up north to close the cottage for the winter, it was just me and Belle this weekend. Since the passing of my Grandmother in September, it's reminded me just how short and precious life is and lately I've found that I don't spend enough time with my parents. So Steve packed a travel bag for Belle while I packed my own overnight bag and we drove to my parents' house for a weekend sleepover.
I arrived there just in time for a curry and roti lunch on Saturday afternoon (gawd I love roti!). My sister and bro-in-law also stopped by for lunch and the five of us sat at the kitchen table talking until almost dinnertime. Then they left since they had another family function to attend but had planned to come back later to pick up their dog.
In the meantime my mom, dad, and I sat in the family room watching one of my cousin's wedding video. It was fun to just hang out with my parents and talk about who was who in the video. For a second there, I felt all my adult responsibilities melt away and I felt safe like I did as a kid with my parents there to support and protect me.
After a quick dinner, my sister and bro-in-law came back and announced that they were going to sleep over too. Okay this felt so nostalgic except this time, as my mom put it, my bro-in-law was allowed to sleep in my sister's room instead of the sofa! It really did feel like old times when I got into my old bed in my room where everything is the exact same way I left it (the calendar is still stuck on July 2008). I turned on the lamp, pulled out my book, and read until 2am, exactly like I used to when I lived at home. Luckily it was daylight savings so I got an extra hour of sleep. The best part about sleeping in my old room was that it was pitch BLACK! I'm still not used to my bedroom where light peeks in through the blinds at all hours of the night/morning.
The next morning at 7:30am my dad stuck his head in my bedroom to tell me it was morning and time to wake up. He then proceeded downstairs to make a warm, hearty breakfast. Again... this was a normal occurrence on the weekends. It was so nice to go downstairs and have all this food waiting for me on the kitchen table! I really can't complain though since now it's Steve who makes my breakfast =) After breakfast we said our goodbyes and headed home to start the rest of our weekends.
It was so nice to just be home with my parents again. And it's wonderful knowing that that home and our parents will always be there for us.
I had lunch at my uncle's house today to celebrate my Godson's 9th birthday. He showed me what was left of his vegetable garden since summer is almost over and the cold weather is blowing in.
This year he had a good crop of cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, head and romaine lettuce, mini red and green peppers, cabbage, zuchinni, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, jalapenos, chili peppers, and squash.
Aside from vegetables, he also grew a variety of herbs and beautiful red and white roses that would be perfect for wedding bouquets.
In the middle of his garden he has a huge black compost bin. He continously adds fresh food scraps to the bin throughout the year. Then as summer approaches and he begins to cultivate his garden, he empties the compost and scatters the rich soil before planting the seeds.
Last month, to his great surprise, a watermelon along with numerous honeydews started coming up. Unfortunately they need a few more weeks to grow to full size but because the weather is getting cold, they may not have that chance.
Just before we left we managed to score the biggest honeydew that grew =)
One of my best friends is getting married next year to her boyfriend of 7 years. She was one of my bridesmaids at my wedding and now she's asked me to be hers. We've been friends since we were 11 but only developed a real friendship when we were 14 and started high school. Since then we've had more ups than downs and we've pretty much been inseparable.
During high school she used to work for a video store chain and with free movie rentals as a perk, she became a huge movie buff. It's so fitting that she chose an old, beautiful movie theatre as the venue for her wedding reception, and is planning a whole movie theme for her wedding.
I came up with the idea to do a movie scene slate money box. She loved the idea but was stumped as to how to make one.
Next weekend is her engagement party and I thought we could surprise her by making the money box. So yesterday my sister, her hubby, Steve and I had an arts and crafts day. The money box turned out exactly how I had envisioned it. I can't wait to show my friend.
When I moved out of my parents' house and into my condo over a year ago, I only brought over my clothes but everything else in my room remained intact so if anyone went inside my room today, they'd think I still lived there. Since then I hung up all my clothes in my new closet but never really took the time to organize.
This weekend I decided it was time to tackle the closet. Cleaning the closet is not always fun but it is when you find clothes you forgot about and never wore before! I've also been meaning to do something creative with my tank tops, camis, and halters so that everything is visible. I tried a friend's suggestion of rolling them up and storing in a drawer. I love how they look in the drawer but we'll see how that turns out.
I also finally unpacked a subset of jewellery I had stuffed into a plastic bag at the bottom of my closet. My dresser came with these 2 top drawers lined in velvet which was the perfect place to lay everything. I'll have to figure out what to do with the rest of my jewellery that was left at my parents' house.
After 3+ hours of folding, hanging, and rolling, I was quite pleased with the final organized result. Even Steve who is the master of organization was impressed.
No TV, telephone, email, internet or any other info-overload distractions.
Yet I'm still typing away on my crackberry blogging!
Last Friday was Steve's birthday. This year didn't mark just another birthday but a milestone birthday as Steve turned the big 3-0 so big celebrations were in order. Now that we live together, it's really hard to surprise him with a gift especially since we live in a condo and there's not much space to hide a birthday gift. So I had to outsmart him and hid the gift at my sister's place. On Thursday night when he wasn't expecting the festivities to begin yet, my sister and her husband came over and we surprised him with gifts and a Reese-flavoured ice cream cake.
Steve is the hardest person to shop for b/c first he's a guy and second he has everything he actually wants and needs. I walked around the mall for 5 hours and ended up buying him the very first thing I saw. I decided to buy him the Sony VAIO travel laptop so he doesn't have to lug around his huge HP laptop every time we travel. Of course he loved it b/c I'm just that good at anticipating what will make him drool.
On Friday we hit the golf course with Steve's parents and we lucked out b/c the forecast was calling for rain but instead we got clear blue skies with lots of sun. A bit too much sun though b/c I actually got a nasty arm tan. Think golf shirt with short sleeves and golf gloves =(
After 18 holes of golf we raced home, showered, and were out the door again to meet friends for dinner and dancing. I picked a restaurant that turns into a lounge with a small dance floor at 10pm so we could take our time after dinner and enjoy some good music. We weren't disappointed as the food was great and the DJ was spinning great top 40, RnB, and reggae that made us get up and dance.
Sunday night Steve's parents had a BBQ at their house and invited my parents, my Godfather and his family, and Steve's Godmother and her husband. Again the weather was nice and warm so we sat outside in the backyard and ate steaks, pork, and mango, potato and seaweed salad (so yummy). I love how our families get along so well.
Steve and I were up super early on Monday morning b/c his little bro (who lives in Hong Kong) came to visit with his gf and we had to pick them up at the airport at 7:30am (hey that's early for a Saturday!). I realized that I love being a tour guide for our beautiful city, Toronto. There are so many places to visit and so much food varieties to try that throughout the day I kept changing my mind about which restaurant I wanted to take them to. We began the day with breakfast at Cora's, then swung by Steve's parents' house to say hello, headed downtown to the C.N. Tower, stopped by the distillery district for lunch, drove up Yonge so the gf could see the city, brought them to our place for a visit and a nap, and finally took them to a Chinese seafood restaurant for dinner with Steve's family.
We were exhausted by the time we got home that we all crashed as soon as we got back to the condo. The next morning we were up early again and made the 2.5 hour drive north to cottage country. I was psyched to chill on the dock and get my tan on but it was soooo cold and windy. So, no tan for me.
It was back to work on Thursday and as soon as I was greeted by the 220+ emails in my inbox, I was kicking myself for not taking the last 2 days of the week off.
Anyway, I can't complain b/c Steve had an awesome birthday with lots of
food, drinks, family and friends, and so I am happy that my goal was
accomplished =)
Steve and I own two cars because we each had our own car before we were married. Our condo only came with one parking spot so we had to rent a second spot from a resident in the building. It worked out well since Steve was able to talk the guy down $10, but after living here for a year we realized we really don't need two cars. I take the subway to work 5 days a week while he drives to work, and on the weekends we pretty much use the car together. So for the most part, my car is sitting in the parking garage taking up space and costing us money.
So we decided to get rid of Steve's car since his is older, and it just so happened that my brother was looking for a car. After a couple months of planning, today was the day we officially transferred the car over to my brother. It was such a sad moment for Steve who has grown so attached to this car. He bought it when he was 20 and he's now going to be 30 in a few weeks so this was the car he drove all throughout his 20s. He's had so many awesome adventures with this car and will definitely miss the after-market stereo system and speakers he put in that makes the car vibrate. I took a couple pictures of Steve with his car to show our future kids that this was the car daddy drove in his "younger" years.
Steve has been through many drive-thrus over this past decade and every time he received change he would put it in the pocket at the bottom of his driver's side door. You can imagine how much change has accumulated over the years. Today we emptied it and went to a local grocery store that has a machine where you dump all your change in for exchange for bills. So we started dumping and at one point the machine actually asked us to stop so they could "catch up" with the total.
We were staring in disbelief as the total surpassed $10, then $20, then $25. After a 10% usage fee, here was our grand total.
On Saturday night I went to celebrate my friend's last night out as a single lady. She's getting married at the end of this month and her bridesmaids planned a very fun bachelorette party. We all arrived at one of the bridesmaids' house around 5:30pm where we were greeted by Rex, the naked blow-up doll with a large schlong wearing a cowboy hat. A pole dancing instructor was also there setting up her pole in the living room. The bride-to-be arrived at 6pm and the pole dancing lessons began. We were taught how to do 8 moves around the pole where the instructor showed us one move at a time and didn't go on to the next until everyone did it.
At first everyone was a little hesitant and shy but once we got into it, people's inner stripper came out and it was just so much fun! After practicing the 8 moves once we each had to do a 2-minute solo where we competed with each other and combined all the moves together to make it look like one seamingless dance. Ha! Yeah right! We weren't allowed to help each other and call out the moves so the dances were all choppy which made it so hilarious. When everyone had a turn the instructor called out that the winner was my sister! So we had to call her "stripper" all night.
After that we played a couple games. We sculpted penises out of playdough and had to give the bride-to-be a sexy lap dance. Good thing the alcohol was flowing freely and consumed at this point.
At 10pm the party bus arrived complete with hardwood floors, zebra-fur ceilings, loud music AND a stripper pole! Can you imagine how rowdy the bus was with 16 semi-drunk ladies (most pretending to be single) who were out to have a good time? The bus took us to 2 different clubs where every other bride getting married this year were also celebrating their singlehood. What's funny is that Steve went out the same night for a bachelor party and at the club they went to, all the men getting hitched were having their bachelor parties there too.
Throughout the night our bride-to-be had to find various men of our choosing (i.e. Man wearing a suit, man with the reddest face, man with white hair, etc) which was a little hard at the first club b/c there were a lot more women than men. The rest of the night was spent dancing, drinking, and having a great time.
If you're planning a bachelorette party, you MUST do the pole dancing lessons. Once you do it you'll certainly understand why women everywhere are opting to install one in their bedrooms!
On Saturday morning Steve and I had an appointment booked for a side by side couples massage. My sister and I normally go for massages once a month and our husbands felt left out so we decided to bring them along this time. We booked a 60 minute full body massage and I told my massage therapist to focus on my lower back. She was extremely good in the sense that her pressure was strong and never wavered but I felt she worked too much on my shoulders and not my lower back.
I tend to tense up if the pressure is too strong around my neck and shoulders, and I think she thought she had to put extra focus there b/c my muscles were stiff. A word of advice for those new to massages: tensing up is probably the worse thing you can do during a massage b/c if the massage therapist is working on the tense muscle, you're going to feel pain.
It still felt good but I wasn't completely satisfied after the 60 minutes were over b/c my lower back was still stiff and uncomfortable. This was totally my fault though b/c afterward when the four of us were comparing notes in the car, I found out that it's not my lower back that's the problem, it's the part where my back meets my butt which is called your glutes. Or the top of your glutes. It must be the way I sit at my desk all day that makes my glutes sore. I have the worse habit of bringing up my legs and sitting cross-legged or crossing one over the other... almost like the spine twist yoga pose but on my chair instead of the floor. Next time I'm not going to ask for the full-body massage but a 60 minute back massage with a focus on my upper glutes.
Unfortunately Steve didn't get the great experience I was hoping for b/c his massage therapist sucked. Apparently she'd do a full 2 minutes on a left muscle and slack off and do 1 minute on the right. And THEN she massaged his face with the eucalyptus oil (awesome btw!) right after massaging his feet. LMAO!!! Only Steve would care about that.
Luckily Steve's a sport and said he'd go back b/c I promised him I'd book him with Vicky who's probably the best massage therapist there. She's the one who realized my glutes were sore and needed attention before I even knew it. I'll probably book our next appointment for 3 weeks from now.
Gotta love Steve's work benefits =)
The warm weather has finally arrived and it was the first time I could bust out my new Michael Kors sandals which I love to pieces. It was free hamburger day at my favourite burger joint but I was starving and one look at the long line-up was enough to make me turn on my heels and find something else to eat. Free or not, I will not wait for a ridiculous amount of time for food.
So Steve and I went across the street and ordered a rather pricey (but delicious)burger which we enjoyed outside on the patio. There was a slight chill in the shade but it was nice and warm in the sun. Felt so good to have some sun shining on my bare arms again after being cooped up inside all winter.
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