Insurance woes [29 Jan 2007] [ time started | 9:02 p.m. ] [ song playing | A Quiet Thing - Christiane Noll ] Okay, the last week has absolutely flown by, which is good in some ways, and upsetting in others. I still feel like I have tons of stuff to get finished before I leave, which is coming up very soon. Work is super busy with our new program, and me trying to sort out all of my stuff for my replacement to take over. My biggest issue right now is getting insurance coverage for while I'm away. My government coverage - OHIP - can be extended for while I'm away, so I have to get to an office and apply. I should be eligible for some coverage in England once I start working. But then, I should probably have additional emergency medical and such, so I'm working on finding the best policy. I will also need life insurance, since I'm currently covered through work, but that will end when I quit my job! So, it looks like I'll be taking another day off work on Friday to try to get all that sorted out. Right now, it's looking like it'll cost me about $700 for a year of medical and life - yuck. :-( In spite of that worry, we did have some fun this past weekend! On Friday, Todd and I went to see a movie with Michelle, Peggy and Shannon. We saw Pan's Labyrinth, which was really, really good, despite the very graphic nature of some of the violence. I spent a fair bit of time with my face buried in Todd's shoulder. :-) But what I did see was very good! Afterwards, we went for dinner at a pub and had a good chat. I don't see those guys nearly enough since they went to work at other companies. On Saturday, Todd and I visited the Ontario Science Centre, to see the super hero exhibit, and also just 'cause I'd never been. It was really fun! We spent over three hours there. It's very hands-on, and we tried out a lot of the displays. Unfortunately, the Space Hall was closed for renovations, but we still enjoyed everything we saw. Speaking of Todd, his parents just sent us this picture they took of us while we were home at Christmas time - this was during a walk through one of the parks in Edmonton: I think that's about it for now. I've been reading more about my neighbourhood in London, and I've found the closest Catholic church, which isn't really close - it's about a 2 km walk. Still closer than the one in Mississauga was though! 36 days until London! [ time finished | 9:15 p.m. ] [ song playing | You Can Get Away with Anything - The Woman in White ]

Hooray for Jeffrey! [21 Jan 2007] [ time started | 2:15 p.m. ] [ song playing | Heaven Help My Heart - Chess ] Yup, it's that time of year again - Canadian nationals! And Jeffrey won his 3rd consecutive men's title, with a beautiful new program. I am happy. :-) The rest of the skating was pretty good too - I like Virtue & Moir more all the time, and Dube & Davison are really fun too. And David Wilson choreographed ALL the winning programs....coincidence? I do actually have some exciting news about my own life too! I had the day off from work on Friday, so I took the opportunity to get everything figured out for my apartment in London. So I have now officially put down my deposit, and the apartment is mine! It's pretty tiny - here is the floor plan: The woman from the agency seemed concerned that I would find it too small - she said it's not what I'm used to in Canada. I think she's overestimating some of the apartments I've had. :-) Anyway, it is small, but I'm sure it will be fine for just me. All of the apartment talk reminded me that I hadn't taken any pictures of our current place! So I grabbed my camera and put together a little virtual tour for you all! Todd thinks I am silly. :-) Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so we chatted for quite a while. I am going to miss being able to give her a call any time I feel like it. The time difference when I get to London will be 7 hours, which makes talking during the week pretty difficult. Other than that, my weekend has been pretty slow. We ran a bunch of errands yesterday, and today Todd needs to do some school work, so I am relaxing, reading, and watching the rest of the skating. 44 days until London! [ time finished | 2:25 p.m. ] [ song playing | The Winner Takes It All - ABBA ]

Winter has arrived! [16 Jan 2007] [ time started | 7:34 p.m. ] [ song playing | I Hope You'll Like It Here - The Woman in White ] So after months of spring-like weather, Toronto finally has some snow and colder weather. Still not COLD, but definitely colder. Yesterday was icy and slushy and gross, but today was okay. I'm hoping to actually go skating sometime this week, since I haven't been at all this year so far. Maybe on Friday, on my day off! I've made plans for my first trip once I'm in Europe! I've decided to spend St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, just because I can. :-) So I've booked a flight into Dublin on the morning of March 17th, and then a return flight to London in the early morning of the 18th. So I'm just gonna go over with no luggage, and hang out all day, watch the parade, listen to some music, drink a lot, and hopefully meet some cool people from other parts of the world! My cousin Meg, who is currently in Italy, is hoping to come over as well with some friends from her school, so it should be a blast. I'm finally reading Making it on Broadway, a book that Karen and Gill had recommended to me a long time ago. It's absolutely fascinating, just full of stories of what it's actually like to be a Broadway performer. So far, my biggest revelation is finding out that Doug Storm lived right across the street from Marlowe! I guess that's why we always found him in there. :-) Anyway, I highly recommend the book if you're at all interested in the theatre. That's about all for now! 7 weeks to go until London! [ time finished | 7:45 p.m. ] [ song playing | I Speak Six Languages - Spelling Bee ]

Being a tourist at home [13 Jan 2007] [ time started | 6:20 p.m. ] [ song playing | Someone to Fall Back On - Jason Robert Brown ] Alright, so we have a new design. Yup, it's a little bit premature, but it's getting REALLY close. :-) I'll be leaving for London in 53 days, or just over 7 weeks. More importantly, I only have 35 days of work left! As I mentioned in my last entry, I was approved for my UK visa, and it's since arrived in the mail, so that's all taken care of. Next up is finding some good travel medical insurance for long-term trips (any suggestions? email me!), and putting the down payment on my apartment. I could do that now, but I think I might wait a couple of more weeks. Long story. But I'm not too worried about it. Anyway, today I decided to take another stab at completing my "to-do" list of things that I want to see in Toronto before I leave. So this is me getting ready to go this morning: and this is our first stop (after seeing some swans swimming in the unfrozen pond), Colborne Lodge in High Park: It's a house/cottage built in the mid-1800s by a prominent member of Toronto society, who subsequently donated all his land to the city to form what is now High Park. We were the only people at the house at the particular time we went, and we got a fantastic in-depth guided tour. Apparently there is a ghost in the house, but naturally, we didn't see anything. :-) After that, we headed back to downtown, and then all the way up to North York, where we stopped in at another historic home, Gibson House: This one was also very interesting, but I felt a little bad because we hardly asked any questions. It wasn't that the tour wasn't good, it was just that most of the stuff in the house dated from the same time period as the first place we visited, and that tour had been so in-depth that we didn't have any questions left! We did watch a group of Brownies baking in the kitchen for a little while. So it was a good day, and now the only really big thing left that I wanted to see and haven't seen yet is the Ontario Science Centre, and it just so happens there is a superhero exhibit going on right now, so it's excellent timing. Hopefully we'll go next week or the week after. Other than that, not much is going on! Peggy came over for dinner on Thursday, which was really nice (I cooked, and it all went well), and there was finally some new episodes of Smallville and Supernatural. Lex and Lana are engaged now - blah. I also spent some time cleaning and re-arranging things in the apartment. I've moved some of our Rubbermaid bins out to the balcony, there they should be pretty safe from the elements, so that frees up a lot of space in the bedroom and living room. And I've been playing with my new laptop! I don't think I mentioned it in here, but I bought a laptop to take with me to London, including a webcam, and so I'm spending some time getting everything set up on it. Todd wants to copy all of our combined music library on to it - over 33 days of music - but I'm not convinced that's necessary. We've just started using a new web-based program at work, so that will keep things there interesting for a while as everyone becomes accustomed to it. I'm taking next Friday off as a personal day - I NEVER do that, 'cause I'm always saving my days off for something big, but this year, I get three days, and if I don't use them before I leave in March, they just vanish, so I plan on taking them!! I guess that's it - I've made a resolution to update more this year, so hopefully you will see me back here soon. In the meantime, if you're looking for something to do, check out my cousin Meghan's Blog. She's in Italy at the moment, and her life is way more exciting than mine! :-) [ time finished | 6:38 p.m. ] [ song playing | Let it Be - The Beatles ]