Second or Third - what do you think?

The first warm day of the summer I had the pleasure of opening our pool. Unfortunately, the sunscreen I put on wasn't good enough to protect against the sun. These pictures are proof of how bad the sun can be. These pictures are from 7 days later and as you can see I was still suffering. By this point, the blisters had all popped and I had gone through about 40 different treatments of aloe vera and chamomile cream. Thanks to James and my mother for their assistance, I now look like I have a suntan - with a white x marking the spot!

Is it worth it?

Things have been happening to people around me, and to me I suppose, that have caused me to question what exactly is worth fighting for.

Is it worth going to court on something even if it means that you would be embarrassed or that you would have to live through the pain of the original incident?

Is it worth it to fight for a song that the people of Canada have been paying for for decades?

Is it worth it to fight with someone over a bloody plastic spoon?

Is it worth it to fight your employer if they are treating you unfairly? What if what is being unfair is the way your coworkers treat you?

Is it worth fighting with your friends because they drink beer and you don't?

Is it worth fighting over needing to take your turn off the playing field?

Is it worth fighting for someone that is cheating on you?

Is it worth fighting over a person's comment on a post secret secret? Is it worth going back and forth with someone over how you don't like what they said?

Is it worth fighting over what colour you are going to wear?

Is it worth fighting with your hamster for where they want to hide their pretzels?

Is it worth fighting over where you are going to go for dinner?

Is it worth fighting with a teenager over what they want for their birthday? Haircolour? Outfit?

Is it worth fighting with a four year old over whether or not you should read this story or that before bed?

2x concentrate

Just a bit of a random thought....

2x concentrates are taking over the industry, and I know for a fact that pretty soon you won't be able to find the big bottles with the regular kind.

They keep advertising how it's so much better for the environment because the bottles will be half the size as you will only need half the size of the liquid to clean your clothes. This is supposed to help with the environment.

In reality, the smaller bottles, probably won't work that much. People like my mother are used to using a certain amount of liquid and probably won't trust the concentrated liquid to get the job done. Chances are, she'll go through more bottles rather than less.

Therefore - you still have bottles that will be filling landfills and not getting recycled.

Either way - are we really coming out ahead?

Completed antidisestablishmentarianism

It's official! They are done!!! Unbelievable!!! I'm burning the disk right now and it has 23 minutes left. I can't wait to give it to them!

Vanessa was a beautiful bride and no one will forget the way Phil's eyes teared up as soon as he saw her. They are such a great couple and I'm so glad that I can give them the gift of beautiful pictures. I just have my fingers crossed that they feel that I captured them at their best.

I've even become friends with some of the people that were in their wedding party - namely Eddie from England. He and I talk every few days or so. He's a really good person and it's fun comparing notes from his trip. He went to many of my favourite places when he was here - mostly in Niagara Falls. If you haven't been there - you are missing out! He even went to Nightmares, which to me, is the absolute scariest haunted house. Sure it doesn't have the same gore but roaming around in the pitch black following little red lights, and not knowing where your going or how you are going to get there - or what is around the corner. It's freaky. Of course I was probably 8 when I went through last. I'm not stupid enough to go through now!

Onto another topic - there's this commercial out for Dairy Queen right now with this little black boy and his parents having waffle bowl sundaes (which look delicious by the way). In the commercial the little boy wants some and his dad says "only if you say this one little word" in which he asks and the boy repeats the word ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM. Okay, I have two issues with this commercial. First of all, the video of the kid is soo fake. It's obvious that they taped the kid seperate from the parents - because even when later the mother character says "you can't even spell it" the kid starts this crazy giggling but the dubbing is so bad that he starts before she gets the words out. I know kids laugh at anything sometimes, but it was so bad. Secondly, the word antidisestablishmentarianism is not a word that anyone would even know if it wasn't so long. Just what the heck does the word mean anyway and can anyone really use it in a sentence? And I don't mean the way I've used it in two sentences.

I challenge you to use the word, in it's proper form. Do it. I dare you!

life in a blogshell

I spoke too soon.

It's going to be a kick ass event no matter what! My BOC is a great bunch and I know that I was stressing over nothing.

I've been working for weeks at trying to go through the thousands of photos we took at Phil and Vanessa's wedding. It's taking longer than anticipated due to the slowness of our network and the fact that for some reason it takes an hour to burn anything onto a cd/dvd on either of our computers. The process is interesting. Taking the photos was nothing compared to the amount of work I'm putting in to analyze the photos and pick out the best ones.

I think part of the problem is that I'm too picky. I want them to be happy with their photos. I want them to go through and see photos that they want printed - not duplicates of all the same shot where someone is looking to the side, or someone else just isn't smiling right. I want them to be happy with the finished product.

I understand now how it takes photographers a long time to go through it all and narrow down sample albums - and they do it full time. Me I'm only doing this part time when I'm not busy with everything else that appears to be going on in my life - and believe me there are lots of things going on! From tea parties, to surprise 40th birthday parties, to helping my sister in law paint, to helping my mother who just finally got her cast off. Life has been crazy as of late.

I'm not sure if I mentioned how my mother broke her arm, but let's just say it involved a very poorly marked wheelchair ramp outside dollarama, her falling and dollarama not wanting to call the ambulance because a: they only rent the building and aren't responsible for the parking lot and b: they don't like calling the ambulance because they ask too many questions. She's doing okay, but I still think she should've sued! I mean, she couldn't even put her own bra on let alone all the other things you normally do in a day. We've all been pitching in to make sure that the house continues to run smoothly.

Beans is doing good. Not that you asked but I thought I'd share. I think she's finally happy with her cage and so am I. Her wheel kind of hangs off the edge but is propped so that it doesn't roll down. Now it runs silently and it's glorious to not be woken up in the middle of the night to her squeeky wheel.

I've also been trying to squeeze in a bit of Mii time. I need to lose weight - and I want to lose weight. James and I got a wii fit and it's been awesome to work out and start to see results. I have a bit more energy during the day and it's inspired me to try and watch what I eat. I've lost about 6 pounds in the past two weeks - not that anyone would notice. I am really fat after all!

I also got my hair cut and coloured. It's crazy now and the cut brings out my curls. Not to mention the humidity. I must say that it's nice to wash scrunch and go. Makes life sooo easy!

anyhow, I need to get back to the pictures even if the network is slow. I want them all done and ready for this weekend when we go to Paris to paint. I really hope they like them!

dropping out???

I have a meeting of the BOC tonight. It's going to be good to talk about things and hammer out the activities that need to happen the day of the Olympics. We've gotten some great things for the games and it'll be great for everyone to see it.

I've been really looking forward to the games, even though it seems that we are getting more negative information in the past month than positive.

We've had two teams drop out for different reasons. The one team consisted of one person that I know and that person is going to a birthday party for his daugther. I was cool with that. I mean - his ex wife is planning the party, and it is his little girl. I'd be mad with him if he chose to come to the Olympics over that.

The other team is having the same issues that many teams are having - getting a commitment from their team. Their team leader would be perfect for this event - he was enthusiastic, organized, kept up the communication. Problem he had was that no one is talking back. It's hard to think that you're team will come together when two people drop out and the others aren't responding.

It leads me to believe that people have a harder time saying no to someone face to face or on the phone - and that email is not a good method of communication to get excitement going.

I want to start a crusade to ensure that no more teams drop out. As it is, the event will be tight - with only five teams, that's a max of 30 players. Almost not even worth getting the kegs. Almost - not quite. But if we have four teams - we'll have to relook at our numbers and see if it's still worth it.

I knew getting involved I needed key people around me that have enthusiasm and a willingness to help and offer ideas. I've gotten that in spades. My committee has been wonderful with helping and being involved. I really look forward to getting everyone together tonight to go over things. Hopefully we can talk about ideas to get people interested in coming out and making a commitment!

I have some ideas about putting together a team of misfits on the day of - you know, people that come and show up and want to play but don't have a team. If we do that, we may be able to get the 6th team and balance everything out.

Why does trying to get a commitment from people have to be so difficult????

Death to me...

So I'm angry - really angry.

We went for dinner tonight and they screwed up my order. Normally, wouldn't be a big deal - but it's the kind of screw up that could kill.

We decided to try a Viet-Thai place that we've been to before. I'm not going to name them because last time the food was great. Hubby and I have been recommending this place to anyone who's been interested. It has a cool atmosphere, the staff seems really nice and they've been happy to see us every time.

Anyhow - tonight, they flubbed up my order. We ordered simply enough - I got a vegetarian stir fry and some vegetarian springrolls. James ordered the teriyaki chicken which came with soup and rice and a spring roll.

Not thinking that either of us would get anything we didn't order, we sat patiently waiting for her to come with our food.

Food arrives and it's James' first. It looked tasty and he dug right into his soup with plans of eating everything else later. My dinner came a few minutes later but it didn't look like what I thought it would. It had corn in it... but there wasn't any of the other things and I was 99% certain that the tofu - wasn't tofu - but it was chicken. It tasted okay - but was filled with tonnes of onion and mushrooms - which, thank god, were big enough for me to pick out. Around this time, James took a bite of his spring roll - it tasted fishy - and so he immediately put it down and promised to ask what was up.

I took about five bites and our waitress comes running out to apologize and say that they made a mistake with my order. I had tasted it and it seemed okay so I said that was fine. Then James asks the dreaded question "Is there shrimp in this spring roll?" The answer that "Yes there is shrimp and pork."

James, having been told all his life that he had an allergic reaction when he was a baby, told her that he was allergic and couldn't have the shrimp. She said "oh. Do you need someone to remove it from your plate?" He said "No it should be fine, I've never tested how allergic I am."

She looks at me for reaction - in which I didn't really give her one. She walked away and brought us water back. Fine, things go fine for a bit. I eat my first spring roll and it's a veggie one. The second one on the other hand had a very distinctive flavour that is not vegetarian.

I spit it out immediately.

Unlike James, I know that I am definitely allergic to shellfish.

I don't know if it had shellfish, but by the fact that I'm still here - I can only tell you that there was something else there in the spring roll that wasn't vegetables.

James didn't want to cause an issue so he didn't say anything - but seriously - restaurants need to pay closer attention to what they serve people! Ugh!!!!

The final countdown!!!

3 WEEKS TO GO!!!!!!

Beer has been ordered - teams are taking smack and it looks that competition will be fierce.

Opening ceremonies start at 3 - please try to be at the games for game day registration between 2:30 - 3pm. Yes there is an official torch, and yes there will be a parade of competitors. (This is why you need to send in your official songs!!!)

Games start around 3:45 - 4pm and will feature team events, partner events and individual events. Remember - all event disputes will be settled by pound off - so be sure to have at least one or two heavyweights on your team!!!!

We are hoping that the barbecue dinner will be ready by around 6pm. Yummy food!!!

We'll get back to games once we're done and will play, and drink, and drink and play until it's time for closing ceremonies. We're aiming for around 9pm. At this time we will honour the top three teams, the heavyweight of the games - as the person who consumes the most alcohol without showing it, and the lightweight of the games - the person who consumes the least amount of alcohol but can't hold it!

How ready are you????