Hello. I’m still here. Barely. Last weekend was full of  busy fun. It was full of knitting, book club, cookie swapping, Christmas wrapping and novel-writing.

On Thursday, I took another class at Wabi Sabi to learn how to knit mittens. I have to say, mittens are probably my favorite thing to knit so far. They are much easier knit than socks and I find that I can see results quickly. Carole was mentioned that socks was her thing that she always has in her purse. I think mittens will be mine. I’m so happy with the way that mine are turning out. I can’t wait to make my next pair. (will post pictures soon)

This weekend was my first cookie swap. Have you ever done one before. It’s really fun. Everyone makes a plate of Christmas baking, brings it over to someone’s house, put the plates out to nibble on and then towards the end of the evening, you go around and take samples from each tin for yourself. I think I took too much of Amy’s. Thanks Amy. I promise, we’ll eat them all.

In other news, I’ve managed to kill all of my indoor plants. Not because I didn’t water them, I did water them. I think it’s that we don’t have much day light in our place right now. They didn’t survive very well without this light. I look at this as a learning experience, leave the plants outside.

At the A&J household, we’ve also decided to not do our advent calendar this year. I’m a little disappointed about this, but I’m afraid that our schedule’s this month would be accommodating to any extra activities. I think we’re still going to do as much Christmassy stuff as possible, but it won’t be a day-by-day thing.

I’m jealous of all you mommy bloggers doing the advent calendar. Have fun doing it this year.

Things around A and J’s house have been pretty status quo lately. I’ve been really busy trying to finish reading Eat. Pray. Love and writing my novel. I feel so behind. I really need to give it another push tonight.

While reading and writing, my knitting has been pushed to the side lately. I really should get back into it. There is a pattern that I would really like to do for my mom for Christmas, I just need some time to start it.

This morning the internet was down and my computer wasn’t working. I was in a bit of panic this morning. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to pick up where I left off in my book. Luckily, when A. woke up, he took a look at it and restarted the computer. Thank goodness it worked!

While the computer was not working, I start reading my next book. I am now reading a biography of Guy Liliberté. He is the creator of Cirque Du Soleil. I’ve only read a few pages of this book and think that (a) his ex-wife is nuts and (b) I love the saying within the first couple pages of the book. It says:

Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not. It’s the real performers on the street who can hold people’s attention and keep them from walking away. — Andy Kaufman.

Christmas shopping needs to be done this weekend. Christmas crafting has not even made my radar yet. Although, I am looking forward to A and I’s advent calendar this year. Hopefully we’ll come up with some good ideas.

The holidays. Got to love them!

Here are some random things that have been running through my mind lately:

• Every morning, A. and I get our coffee at Tim Hortons. Most of the time, we are served by the same woman. She never smiles. Some days, I wish I could just give her some flowers to brighten her day.
• In my 26th year, I want to Eat, Pray, Love.
• I catch myself yelling VEGAS randomly throughout the day. Can you tell I’m excited?
• I bought a food processor, yea! I’m pretty happy about that. Now I can make wicked awesome banana bread.. and pesto too.
• What do you call a personality trait that needs to be worked on? I found out recently that I have two. Sometimes I tend to exaggerate and sometimes I can be overly organized.  I need to work on these.
• I love knitting. I just haven’t had a chance to do much of it lately. I’m getting a little stressed out that I won’t have some of my handmade Christmas gifts done in time.
• I love Christmas. I can’t wait to put up my tree. Is it weird if I put it up in November?
• Weddings. A wedding.
• I wish I had more time. We are always so busy. I would like to go visit my dad in November, but every weekend is booked up.
• I started taking this stuff called Udo’s Oil. To help me during my workouts… I keep forgetting to take it.
• Lately, I’ve found that food has no taste. I’ve been eating out allot and everything tastes gross. Why is this happening?
• I love having someone to sleep next to every night.
• I happy that I do not have a dog right now. However, I do enjoy babysitting our tenant’s dog once in a while. She’s great.
• I’m trying to think of good Christmas gifts for my friends. It’s hard when they don’t have a blog to write about the things they like. Get a BLOG.
• I love my mom. She’s been so great lately. I’ve never seen anyone give as much love as she does on a daily basis.
• It’s Tuesday.

My birthday is coming up (5 days). I can’t believe I’ll be turning 26! I remember last year, I as so nervous to turn 25. I heard so many stories about the quarter life crisis that I freaked myself right out. Well, now I know it affects everyone differently, if anything, I feel more sure of myself than before. I learned so much over the past year, than I learned in any other year. It really was a fantastic year.

A couple of days ago, A. was having some trouble thinking of something that he could get me for my birthday. So, I send him a few suggestions of things that I would like off Etsy for my birthday. Here are some of the things I suggested:

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope you all had a weekend with friends and family. This weekend was pretty family packed, we looked at an income property, my mom helped me with my Halloween costume and continue knitting a few Christmas projects. It was great.

The big highlight this weekend was that A. and I’s parents had Thanksgiving dinner together. At first, I was a little nervous about the idea, but everything went really smooth and I had nothing to worry about. We are so lucky that our families get along.

In other news, our little Giant Tiger in Hintonburg caught on fire this weekend. I’ve heard that it was the old electrical wiring that started the fire. I’m really sad about this, because I was able to walk there easily and do my groceries and now I can’t. I hope it doesn’t take six months to fix. I need my GT boutique sooner than that.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

As most of you know, Google Sreet View went live yesterday. A. mentioned a few months ago, that he saw the Google car around the Somerset area. We looked it up yesterday and yup, here he is:

(click on image to see A.)

The funny thing is, is if you go up the street one more shot. You can see A. watching the Google car.

What kind of cool stuff did you find with Google Street View?

J.

TGIF!!

Finally! I can’t being to tell you how excited I am for the weekend. I have all this fun stuff planned and I finally have (some) time to do it.

Yesterday, I won tickets to absolute comedy, so a little group of us are going. A and I used to go to Absolute allot, I get excited now when I don’t know who is performing now. I’m looking for a good hard laugh tonight. I hope they can deliver.

Tomorrow we’re going to start our Halloween costume search. We still have no idea what we’re going to be in Vegas. Runners up (so far):

- The Flintstones (Betty, Fred, Wilma, Barney and Dino)
- Night at the 80a Prom with Principal Pete

That’s it so far. Hopefully I can find some good costumes on my search. Anyone seen any good costume shops around town?

Saturday afternoon is Oktoberfest! I’m excited to eat sausages, drink beer and have fun. Do you know anyone going?

Hope you have a great weekend.

The past couple of days have been pretty quite here. Monday night, A. and I made an Asian fest at home. I wish I could show you the pictures. I’ll try and upload them soon. We made TONS of sushi and TONS of won tons. The won tons that A. made were so amazing. Thanks D. for the recipe! Yum.

Tuesday night, we had dinner at my mom’s. She’s been busy working on the house and debating to join a photo club or not. Does anyone know of a good photo club for her to join in Ottawa? She’s looking for a group that is well organized and it looking to learn something from one another.

Tonight is the Hintonburg Annual General meeting; I’m looking forward to it. They always have good information on the events that happen over the past year, new developments in the area, (hopefully) a construction update and a few more things. It’s really nice to know what’s happening in your neighbourhood. It gives you that sense of community when you attend these things.

I’m also hoping tonight to go to the gym after work. It’s been over a week since I’ve last been. That’s bad, that’s really really bad. I’ve got to get back into it. Going to Las Vegas is just around the corner and I need to step up my gym going in order to fit into a cute costume for Halloween.

The rest of the week is pretty tame. Thursday night is my sock knitting course and Friday, no plans as of yet. A. is working on a friend’s roof this weekend, but on Saturday we’re going to Oktoberfest at Beau’s Brewery in Vanleek Hill. There are probably about 20 of us going. It’s going to be a blast. I can’t wait. Are you going?

Weekend update:

For the next three Thursday nights, I’m taking a sock knitting class at Wabi Sabi. As I mentioned in my quick post yesterday, I’m finding sock knitting allot more challenging than I thought it would be. I think this is good, I’m learning something new.

Friday I was home sick. I had been sick since Friday and I wasn’t getting any better. So, I stayed home, ate soup, watched 3 movies, knitted and slept… allot. I’m pretty sure we went to bed at 9pm on Friday. Woot! Party animals.

Saturday was a bit better. Saturday morning, my mom and I went to Bayshore, spent some time there and then went to Westboro for the 3rd Annual Taste of Wellington event. It was good, but the line ups were too long. In one line up, we almost waited 20min for two very small pieces of sushi. It was good, but long.

Saturday night, we invited a few friends and went to Westpark Bowling in Hintonburg. It was very local, but very fun. I really enjoyed it. I’m not good at bowling, but I do love playing. I get all excited when my friends get a strike. The pixel characters that laughed at you when you got a gutter ball were pretty funny too. Ah.. good ol’ Hintonburg.

A. and I have a friend who is building a house in the country. He’s been building it since about April or May. This Sunday, we went over and helped paint his walls with primer and help finish the ceiling. It goes really fast when you have 10 people helping out. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product. It’s going to look so nice.

Sunday night, we took it easy. I finished A.’s braided scarf, finished my homework for Wabi Sabi, watched another movie, went for pho, relaxed.

Today I’m gearing up for another busy week. This week I have more knitting, HCA Annual Meeting, dinner with mom, Oktoberfest in Vanleek Hill… and I am hoping to get some much needed clothing shopping done.

That’s it for now. Just a little update.

It’s been a while since I’ve dipped into the pot of post-it notes from the one word experiment. So this morning, I’ll pull out a few and write a sentence or two about the topic. Here we go:

• Dog (Adorn Inc.) – Still wish I had one, but not upset that I don’t. I love animals. I really wish our lifestyle would allow us to have one, but I’m just as happy now babysitting one once in a while. If you need a sitter, let me know.
• Another Blog (me) – I’m really enjoying reading craft and wedding blogs right now. I know, I know, I’m not engaged, but I love reading about how they organize it, the ideas, the topics. I love everything about it. The craft blogs, I’m gathering ideas and hoping that some day I’ll have enough time to do them all.
• Blankets (me) – I love blankets. I love curling up in bed, putting the blanket up to my head and get cozy. I made a knitted blanket this year and hope that I will be able to put this on my bed before November. Will keep you posted on my progress.
• Zippers (Kitchen Wall Gallery) – This is probably something that I will never understand when it comes to knitting or sewing. Why do things need zippers anyway?
• Apple (Ottawa Dog Blog) – Let’s start with apples, the fruit. Now is probably the best time of year to go apple picking, I would love to go and pick my own apples. If you know A. personally, please email him and let him know that I want to go. Regarding Apple products, from my experience, I’ve found this brand the easiest to navigate, sync between it’s products, tv products are great, I pretty much love everything about Apple. What’s your favorite thing about Apple?
• Go (TurtleHead) – This is my life. Go, go, go. I’m looking forward to when my life’s theme song is “Sitting on the dock of the bay”. Ah, that’s the life.