December 31, 2002 Only 359 days until Christmas! ;-) Just kidding! I won't start again *just* yet. Tiger is fine, for anyone who was worried about him! He was *so* happy to see me, and has hardly left my side for a moment since. I keep almost stepping on him, I'm not used to him being underfoot so much! But he's perfectly healthy, so that's the important thing! I had a really great holiday. I flew home on the 24th, we had our annual Christmas Eve fondue dinner, and then to mass. I was up until after 3 a.m. that morning, visiting with everyone, seeing my sister's wedding pictures, etc. Christmas morning was great, and that afternoon we went to my grandfather's for dinner, along with our cousins from Edmonton. Lots of fun had by all. :-) We were supposed to go to Saskatoon on the 27th to see my other grandparents, but unfortunately our car broke down half way there! :-( We were stuck on the side of the road in Saskatchewan for an hour and a half (luckily it wasn't very cold!!), and ended up getting towed back to town. So I'm disappointed that didn't work out, but the rest of the trip was very enjoyable. I got to see my sister's place in Edmonton (I hadn't been there for a couple of years), and spend lots of time with my mom, and we used her new barbecque (a present from my siblings and I), and I made a layer ice cream cake (raspberries, yum), and ate lots of food, and it was just all what Christmas is supposed to be about. Oh, and there were presents too. ;-) I got what I really wanted, which was a scanner for my computer! (You may have noticed the new photos in the gallery...more to come!) Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to have it plugged in at the same time as my keyboard, but I'll keep playing. I also got a nice sweater, a family picture from my sister's wedding, and lots of Christmas-y stuff including a whole new porcelain town, this one a "Santa's village" kind of thing. I think everyone liked what I got them too (read: Shanda didn't hate it). Mom cried when she opened her gift. :-) This is also the time of year I usually do my "year in review" in my journal, but I think I can sum it up pretty quickly this year. I had a crisis in living arrangements but ended up with a great apartment. I had another great trip to Europe. My sister got married. Oh, and did I mention, I MET ANTHONY WARLOW?!?? :-) Have a great New Year's everyone, and I'll be back shortly with a new design for 2003! December 23, 2002 2 days until Christmas!!!!! Wow, I can't believe it's really that close! I fly home tomorrow after work. This past week has just flown by. Work was busy, and then the weekend was very busy, but fun. I went to the children's Christmas party and skated, then baked cookies, then Laurie came and we went out, and then the next day we had lunch with Jen and then saw Gangs of New York (good movie!), and she stayed over again last night. I have *just* finished my sister's Christmas present that I have been working on since May. Nothing like cutting it close! So now that that's finished, all my shopping is done, I just need to pack to go home. I am a little concerned about my cat, because nobody is gonna be around to check in on him over Christmas, so he will be alone for 6 days. But I will leave out tons and tons of food, and water, and he should be fine. I just know that I will be worried about him the whole time. Laurie got me a new sweater for Christmas! I really need to buy more clothes, but I always find other things to spend money on. So it's a good thing when other people buy them for me. :-) I also got a great package from Jörn with fun things like the Elisabeth TAC CD (I am so addicted) and a review of the show from its premiere in 1992! It's really interesting to read. Have a very merry Christmas, everybody, and a great New Year's! I will be back in Toronto next week, so I likely won't update until then. December 17, 2002 8 days until Christmas!!! This past week has been very busy! We have had a *mountain* of food at work - besides the restaurant-going activities described in my last entry, we have been sent all kinds of bagels and muffins and popcorn and cookies (even M. Félix and Mr. Norton!!) from different medical facilities. Plus, yesterday I got another free lunch that I wasn't anticipating! I haven't even been eating anything in the evenings, 'cause I'm so full by the time I get home from work. :-) On the weekend I baked cookies all day Saturday!! I made sugar cookies and shortbread (a few too many of the latter - I didn't realize my mom doesn't usually double the recipe), which I took to work yesterday for everybody. And then on Sunday, Karen and Gill came down and we finally had our skating date!! Unfortunately it was raining at the precise time that we decided to go to the rink, so the ice was pretty yucky, but it was fun anyway!! Then we walked through Eaton Centre to marvel at all the crazy shoppers, and did a bit of browsing ourselves along Yonge Street. Plus, before we went downtown, they came out to Scarborough to see my apartment and bring me many cool gifts (yay for ironed shirts!!). It was a very fun day! Next Saturday is the ING Children's Christmas party. They are having a skating party up at York University! I've been jealous, because I wanted to go too, and then yesterday an email was sent out saying there were looking for volunteers to skate around with the kids and make sure nobody gets hurt. I am so there. :-) I am very nearly finished my shopping! I have to pick up 3 more things, but I know what I want - I just have to go out and get them. And I get to go home a week from today, yay! December 11, 2002 2 weeks until Christmas!! After not going out to eat for nearly 2 months, I am going to be going out 5 times over the next week. :-) Tomorrow, an adjuster at work is taking me out for lunch, then on Sunday Karen, Gill and I are going out after we go skating (yay!), on Monday, a friend and I are taking another colleague out for dinner because she's retiring, on Tuesday we are having a catered lunch from a rehab facility, and then on Wednesday is our big unit buffet lunch. I love Christmas time. ;-) Yesterday was a beautiful day, so I went skating for nearly two hours (!!) after work. I certainly didn't intend to stay that long, but I think that's about how long it took me to be able to try everything I wanted to try, because there were so many other people on the ice. And no falls for me this time, yay! I even did my lutz in the middle of the ice (trying the new entry that all the people on TV are using ;-), which has to be one of the very, very first times I haven't had to be in the corner to do it. It's all psychological. :-) I just found out that one of my good friends is coming to Toronto for Christmas!! Her parents live here, although she and her husband and their kids have moved out to B.C. I haven't seen here since before they moved, about 2 years ago. So that will be cool! I'll probably go out to lunch with her too. ;-) Work has been crazy busy so far this week. Everyone's trying to get caught up before they go on vacation. I'm looking forward to the weekend! December 5, 2002 20 days till Christmas! I have a Christmas tree! It makes me so happy. :-) It is a little pine tree, about 4 feet tall. It only took one string of lights to fill it up. :-) It really makes a huge difference though, it makes it feel so much more like Christmas! And I have two new ornaments as well! One is the new VeggieTales ornament, which is my present from Krista, in a roundabout way. ;-) And the other is a cute picture frame one, that I put a picture of Tiger in. Today was Zorana's last day at work until January. It is going to be pretty lonely there without her! She's the only person I feel comfortable sharing my obsessive theatre tendencies with. :-) But the time is going pretty quickly lately, with all the Christmas happiness, and I'll be going home in less than three weeks anyway, so I'll just have to survive! :-) I want to go to Berlin and see Ethan as Scrooge!! I have spent more than $50 at the post office in the last two weeks. I swear, the rates they charge to send parcels are criminal. I went skating for the first time this year on Monday! I would have been happier if the rink had been flooded, but it was still fun! It wasn't very busy (probably because it was about -15), so I got to warm up a few of my jumps and spins. :-) Tomorrow night is the Christmas party at work, but I'm not going to go. It is a very formal dinner and dance affair, and I think I would just feel out of place. But just our branch staff are going for a Chinese buffet lunch at Mandarin on the 18th, so I'm looking forward to that! Previous entries Back to Main Page