Drivers

I realize that the last little bit, the weather has been crap. Yes, beautiful snow if you're looking at it, but not the least bit fun driving in the stuff. I finally had to succumb to buying winter tires. Ka ching! But it was time. One day I'll talk about my conversation with my husband about winter tires BEFORE the big snow storms hit. LOL!

Anyways, now that the roads are good, people think they can drive like maniacs. Remember the scene in Superman 2 (I think it was that one)...and Superman tries to fly really fast around the earth to turn back time? Well, that's what I'm thinking when I see these insane drivers. Just because you lost 4 days in time...not matter how fast you drive, you're not going to go back 4 days. So relax.

As I was thinking all this, sure enough I saw 2 cars that fell into the ditch and one of those cars bent a whole light pole. They were lucky they got out alive.

As much as I think some of these folks are idiots for driving so fast, I hope they remember that there are people at home waiting for them. If you're not going to drive safely for those around you...then drive safely for the sake of your family. It's never a good time to lose your life...but especially not around the holidays.

TV

Alright...the Christmas shows are over. The only thing that I remotely watched that was Christmas like this year was part of "The Grinch." Miss J...you'll be happy to know that my kids loved it, but I didn't finish watching it. I figure it's on EVERY single year, I can watch the last half next year.

Along with Christmas shows, there were just a ton of reruns. I was doing a lot of channel surfing...but I was so happy that one of my old shows was on. Totally un-Christmas like and totally not something that someone would have expected me to watch. Yep...Tommy Lee Goes to College. I can hear you mocking me now, but that was one of the best shows EVER! I watched the whole damn series when it first ran. So I was even happier to see that one of my favourite episodes was playing. I'm not a big Tommy Lee fan at all (excpet on the Supernova show where I thought he was awesomely hot). However, while going to college, I got a new appreciation for the guy.

That's going to be my new Christmas must do show.

Snow

Ok, I'm sick of seeing the stuff and I'm sick of talking about it. We got our White Christmas...so let's wait another 10 years before we get another one. I'm thankful that on Christmas day, it stopped long enough so my parents could actually come out to my place and enjoy Christmas day with our family. Lot of cooking and I was tired from it. But the main thing was that my parents were happy, the kids seemed happy with the magic of Christmas and my husband seemed like he was content with his gifts.

Anyways, on Boxing Day, our family headed out to see the in-laws. It started to snow. We got there, and it was still snowing. We had our brunch, opened gifts and we decided it was time to go. Not to be rude to them, but we really wanted to get home as soon as possible to ensure that we could actually get home.

So, we white knuckled it back home. For those that live in the Lower Mainland...you'll know this route. From Pitt Meadows, towards the Merrihill Bypass (sp?) which was slippery as hill. Barely had any traction and slipped a couple of times. We made it to the Port Mann Bridge and we were freaked out because we slipped too. And of course, there is that big hill on the other side of the bridge to take the 152 exit. Ok. Made it through that. Then we had to brake safely to make sure we didn't hit any of the Guildford Mall Boxing Day maniacs who went shopping. After that, at least 2 major hills to get up. Freaked out the whole time. Then, we drive up the little hill to get into our cul-de-sac and we just barely make it up that hill. It was really icy and I thought I'd have to push. Victory. We make the left turn down the hill to get into our driveway. I swear...within 10 feet of getting into our garage we are completely stuck. We seriously can not make it in.

I get out of the car and I'm saying the following phrases..."We're so close, but not quite...I f%#@ing hate the snow...stupid White Christmas...stop gassing it because I'll push the car...s%#t...I really f%#!ing hate the snow." Get how much I hate the stuff??? Granted, I was happy that we were stuck in our driveway rather than on the street somewhere where we would have had to wait 3 hours for a tow truck.

But really, enough with the snow. Enough with the bad weather. Just a small reprieve so I can stop swearing. My ears are starting to hurt from all of it.

Chocolates

Ok, chocolate is a good thing. I'll admit I like the stuff. But what I really love are cherry cordials!!! So imagine my glee when I got a box today!

I was out in the garage sorting my recyclables. And I heard this noise. Honestly, I thought it was either the mail van finally making it to our house to drop off mail. Or it was Santa's sleigh running on diesel. Well, I was partly right...it was my awesome friend Miss N with her diesel car.

She knocked on the door and saw me in my awesome house clothes, sweat pants and all. I'm sure she's wanting to burn her eyes out about now. But hey, it's me.
She dropped off a card and some cherry cordials. I was like..."I thought we weren't doing gifts!" And her reply was "No one eats this stuff except for you. Consider it a mercy gift." Hey, works for me.

I'm debating whether or not to take them into work because it's always nice to have a little nibble. But I'm a little worried as there is a co-worker who actually loves them as much as me. Hard to believe, I know. Anytime someone brings a box of chocolates and I KNOW there is a cherry cordial in there,I actually run for the box to beat her to it. And then I taunt her when I get it. She taunts me when she gets it. Maybe I'll just taunt her with my whole box.

So thanks Miss N! That was a lovely surprise! Now, if I can just hide them from my kids....

Snow

The other day, my husband got to drive down 2 houses. I figured today was going to be different and because so much shovelling had been done by myself and my husband, I'd be able to get out to go to work.

I actually woke up at 4:45am so that I could leave the house with my 1 kid at 5:40am. Early, yes. But I wanted to take my time getting to work and to start at 7am which is my normal start time.

I got out of the driveway fine...then turned a bit to turn my car around to face the same route my husband took yesterday. Well. I drove a whole house down before I got stuck. My husband made it further than me!

I was stuck in that same spot for 20 minutes spinning my tires. In between, I grabbed a shovel from the garage...heck, I'm only 1 house away! I shovelled underneath the car, shovelled snow away from the tires, etc. Nope. Still lots of spinning. Thank goodness for a wonderful neighbour. He came to my rescue...pushed my car while I pressed on the gas. I finally got back into the house. So, I woke up early just to get stuck in the snow and not make it to work. Why didn't I just stay in bed?

Snow Day

Well, the snow came. BOO. Yes, it's beautiful, yes, we'll get a white Christmas and yes, it's winter. But I'm not liking this weather. If it wants to be stinking cold, I'll take it but leave the snow off the roads! It's too difficult and dangerous. And I don't like shovelling.

So, it was a work at home day because I was not willing to venture out driving with the crazy folk just to get to work. My husband dutifully tried to go to work but it didn't happen. He got up, shovelled and tried to drive out. Well, the snow was so high that he didn't make it past 2 houses! So, he tried to back up only to get stuck. So I ran out with the shovel and he shovelled a path back to the house.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day. I'd really like to get out of the house and be at the office tomorrow. Just to wish some folks a Merry Christmas and if anything, get a good lunch out there.

Turkeys

Well, another Christmas is just upon us. This year, I have my parents coming over for Christmas lunch/dinner. It won't be your typical meal, but I do have turkey. There's also prime rib roast, shrimp and some other dishes. Should be fun. And I'm sure my parents are really looking forward to it...they've been calling me every night about it. But that's good.

This year, I might just call the toll free number at Butterball Turkeys just because I can. Every year, they get millions of calls from people asking how to cook a turkey. Most questions make sense and some are just out to lunch. Maybe I'll just think of an out of world question to keep them amused.

However, a classic story that Butterball tells every year is how a guy tried to clean his turkey using a metal scouring pad. He called Butterball because he didn't know how to get the metal shards out. Or the lady who didn't have room in her fridge...so she put the turkey out in the snow bank. But the next day, a major snowfall occurred so she couldn't find the turkey. She called Butterball to see if the turkey would still be good once the snow melted away. I'd actually think about volunteering for that hotline....

Pills

I have yet to take diet pills. I'm a big girl, but I'm not willing to go down that route yet. This is an individual choice of course. I just know that if I took something like Lipovox, knowing my luck, I'd get every side effect. That doesn't sound like a lot of fun. But at least they put those side effects in writing. People have a choice.

I know some folks that have done really well on the stuff. Good on them. And I'm glad it worked out. For some, it didn't work. But again, it's all about choice.

I guess even though I'm a big girl, I'm somewhat comfortable in my skin. I shouldn't be at my size, but I am. I guess there's so much more to worry about in life than just my weight.

Stuff

Seriously. At the rate the snow is coming down, I better get some safety equipment of some sort to ensure I can get out of this place. I'm sure other parts of the city got dumps of snow, but where I'm situated, I tend to get a bit more. Maybe because I'm closer to the water? I probably got well over 10cm yesterday. BOO.

But regardless, I'm not a lover of snow. I can't wait for it to end. I'll take the cold over the damn stuff because at least I can get around. Ugh. I'm an in between spring and summer girl. Can't wait for it.

Brrrrr

Snow really should be left on the mountains. I can dress for the cold but I hate commuting in snow and having to shovel it. The snowfall over the weekend was enough to put me over the edge. The thought of having to drive with some folks that have no common sense, the thought of taking 20 minutes to dress the kids up to go outside to play in the snow only for them to say they have to pee, the thought of muddied up snow...you get the idea. I'm not a fan. I was so hoping that we had gotten away with snow this year, but guess not.

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..." somewhere else.

Ads

Well, as you know, I'm on Facebook now. And I've enjoyed it more than I thought. I think it's because I can play all my favourite games and quickly. Feels like I'm actually getting some free time to myself.

However, I do see a lot of ads on there. From the diet pill, to real estate, to flights, to scrapbooking. Really, I'm quite amazed at how many ads are on there and the variety. I think I'm ok with the written ads at this point as I can either read or ignore them. Once they start getting the movie like ones, that's when I'm going to freak.

But even if I freak, I'll still be on Facebook. Pathwords and Wordscraper await me.

Deadlines

Ahhh...I so have to get my butt in gear. I have to get my auto insurance renewed by December 24th. Ka-ching! I remember the last time I went in I was totally pissed. I didn't bring the renewal card in but I left it in my car. So I said if they could just look me up on the system. Of course they could, but it would cost an extra $15. Really. To look me up in a system?

So, I wasn't going to do that...that's fricken 2 barbeque ducks out the window! I go back in with the stupid card. Got the decal and renewal papers and went out to my car. I tried putting the sticker on but it was quite cold outside so it cracked somewhat. I went back in asking if there was an easy way to get a new one as I was worried that half of the sticker would come off. Of course...assuming I paid an additional $50 for a change in decal and insurance papers.

But not this year. I've got my card and papers ready to go and I know to keep my sticker warm before I stick it on my car. No way they're taking an extra $65 from me!

Coughs

Well, I thought I had my fair share of getting sick this year. But no, I've been gifted with another wicked cold. I'm stuffed up, coughing and bitchy. It doesn't help that I have a cranky kid with me who has the same thing. And my husband has it too. All I want to do is sleep but my kid just refuses too. Don't blame her as there really is so much to see and do in this world.

My husband is sick too and we've been too sick to go to the store. We've been drinking our kid's cough medicine. How low have we slumped?! The stuff sucks so I'm going to suck it up and go to the store today.

Cat Fight

Well, today was not a great day. But in the whole scheme of things, not a terrible day and really, totally do-able.

However, it doesn't take away the bitterness I feel about a certain campaign and a crappy committee. I was "voluntold" to do a particular campaign at work. Basically raise money for a certain charity and by getting people in the office involved. Now, I made it pretty clear that I didn't want to be the lead as I was the lead last year. At the end of the day, our goal was $8,000. But we ended up with over $17,000. Kick ass! I'm proud of our committee for doing this.

But, we basically all hated each other guts. I didn't like the lead at all for a number of reasons. First of all, she was slower than molasses. Nothing seemed to make her see the urgency in certain requests. That's pretty painful when you're working under certain timelines.

Secondly, she likes to tell people how busy she is and how this is taking up so much of her time. Hmmmm. You opted to be site lead and I guess the rest of us don't have work to do either.

Last thing that REALLY pissed me off was this idea that she could write an e-mail and get us to do something for the campaign right now. Well, when she did that today, I wrote a pretty blunt e-mail. There were no profanities, no rudeness and if my manager read the e-mail, there would be consquences. Basically, all I said was what I could do today, but in the future, I'd really appreciate some notice. I, just like her, have work to do and can't just drop stuff on the day off. And I wasn't going to attend the presentation in the afternoon. I got an e-mail back telling me all the work she had to do before she left on leave and that she didn't appreciate my rude e-mail.

What a cow. Really. I'm not saying she doesn't have work, but don't disregard the fact that I also have work. Don't disregard all the stuff I did for the campaign before she got her sweet ass working. I've been collecting gifts and making sure there were enough for the entire campaign. I didn't see her do that. I used my own money to buy some supplies that were not covered by the office.

And the ultimate pisser for me was her blatant disrespect of my time. Whenever I have to work with her on other issues, I always give her two weeks of time. The last project we did, I made sure she had that time, I set up a meeting and I made sure my portion was done. So what happened? She forgot we had a meeting and didn't show up. I had to go get her and then wait some more when she moved her sorry ass to the meeting.

Anyways, she was an absolute downer and pisser to my day. That "award" I got for helping and the shirt...well, I'll be recycling that award and giving away my shirt. WHATEVER. Nothing can erase this bitter memory.

Conference

I recently went to a conference and they were giving away promotional bags. I must say, I was happy that they were reusable cloth bags and weren't totally ugly. Sweet. Can never have enough of these types of bags.

However, I was totally miffed at the conference. They really marketed it as a certain product and yet when it was delivered, it wasn't even close to what was being marketed.

So, did they do this to get people in the dooor? Or in their mind, they really thought that they could deliver on the product?

Either way, what a friggen waste of time.