My hands are tinted with a light shade of purple. Stupid me for not knowing better to wear gloves. 

This weekend was really fun. It started off with a friend’s 25th birthday party. Then on Saturday, we visited A’s grandparents and then went to a Cuba reunion party. It’s been a while since all 19 of us got together. This time the party was being hosted at my brother’s place. While at the party, I learned how to play beer pong, got invited to a weekend and  started getting ideas and plans from the girls for our next trip down south.

Sunday we got crafty and tie dyed. It was an event put on by Spins and Needles. For $10, all of the materials are included, except for your item that you would like to dye. To tie dye, we brought pillowcases, a small knitting bag and white tights. Everything is still drying right now. I’m hoping to be able to put everything in the dryer this evening. Here are a few pictures of our creations.

To finish off our weekend, we had a BBQ feast at our place and played some Electronic Banking Monopoly*.  I love weekends like this, busy, but fun.

This week should be a little crazy with work and stuff. Will post more soon. 

Hope you had a good weekend.

* I won.

• Black eyed pea tacos
• 10 uses for pillowcases
• Turn a grate into storage space
• Mark on Call iPhone app
• Romantic idea: things I love about you

{dancing}  is the word of the day, for the One Word Experiment. For dancing, I tried to find a YouTube video of a  movie scene that I love.

I found the one with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston in Along Came Polly. I love this part of the movie. It’s when Ben Stiller has just finished taking salsa lessons to try and impress Polly (Jennifer) at the salsa club. 

I think it’s so romantic that he went out of his way to do something nice like this to impress her. Take a look.

I’m sorry in advance that this clip is in Spanish.

{dancing} was part of the One Word Experiment from TurtleHead.

This weekend was perfect for my last weekend of Entertainment under $10. We did nothing! The only thing I bought was a bottle of champagne to watch the Oscars last night.

Friday night, we had a few house showings to go too. The houses weren’t anything spectacular, actually, one of them was down right scary. I was scared to go from one room to another. Let’s just say, that the location of this house was near a strip club and currently vacant (although, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that someone was ‘living’ there). No thanks.  

In the evening, we were going to head to the casino and spend $10 on slot machines, but we when we got home, I got really into my puzzle and said forget the casino.

Saturday, we spent doing this and that. I went to a travel agent and booked my Disney trip (yea! more on that in another post!), hunting for macarons at The French Baker, went to dinner with A.’s parents and grandparents and then stopped in to a friend’s place to say hi.

Speaking of stopping in a C’s place, we heard a rumor, that one of the guys, may have asked his girlfriend to marry him… rumor to be confirmed..

Sunday was spent taking it easy. Drop off some beer bottles at The Beer Store (made $10!), drop some clothing off at St. Vincent De Paul and then went to some open houses for my mom in the afternoon. 

In the evening, we had our Oscar party. Okay, it wasn’t really a ‘party’, it was really just the two of us write our picks for the Academy Awards, while drinking champagne and seeing who got the most choices right. I won. I got 8/24, while A. got 6/24. I don’t think we saw any of the movies featured last night, so all our guesses were really a shot in the dark.

Today is Monday. That’s sucky.. hopefully this will be a good quick week

• Head to a casino with $20 ($10 in my case) in change and play the slot machines. They often serve free cocktails on the casino floor (source: cosmo)
• Pick up a couple of cheap plastic sleds at your local sporting-goods or hardware store and go sledding. Warm up afterward by roasting s’mores on your stove top. (source: cosmo)
• Stay in and rent a movie.
• Go enjoy the last weekend on winterlude and try one of the restaurants for the tastes of winterlude.
• Come help J. finish her puzzle.
• Go through your winter clothing and make a donation at a local Salvation Army.
• Make some money, by dropping off all your empties at the beer store.
• Don’t forget to drink tea and knit.

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. I am one of those people that likes Valentine’s Day. I love the whole cheesyness of it. For me, it means a day to do something special with your loved one, something that you don’t normally do together.

If I was a guy, Valentine’s Day would be so easy. I would either make a reservation at a really expensive restaurant or book a B&B somewhere for a night or do something creative or just buy something really nice that they’ve been wanting for a while now (… since they’ve been on a no-buying useless stuff freeze since January 09) for my ‘homeslice’. 

This year, we don’t really have anything planned. Well, actually A. did have some nice stuff planned, but apparently they didn’t work out.  I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed, but I shouldn’t say that, because we are still doing something. Hey, we’re waking up early and going to Montreal with friends to pick up a car and then spending a good part of the day there (Montreal Ikea??) and then heading back to Ottawa to make dinner. That sounds pretty good.  

Eh. I shouldn’t get worked up over this. I mean, its-just-one-day… and everyday is Valentine’s Day right?

Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I thought that I would post a 110 Romantic Things To Do With Your Partner:

1. Watch the sunset together.
2. Take showers together.
3. Back rubs/massages.
4. Listen to classical music and cuddle in the dark or with blacklight.
5. French Kiss.
6. Hold your wife with hands inside the back of her shirt.
7. Whisper to each other.
8. Cook for each other.
9. Skinny dip (discreetly).
10. Make out in the rain.
11. Dress each other.
12. Undress each other.
13. Kiss every part of your wife’s body.
14. Hold hands.
15. Sleep together. (Actually sleep with each other…not sex)

More of the 101+ romantic things to do list after the fold…

16. One word…Foreplay.
17. Sit and talk.
18. Buy gifts for each other.
19. Roses.
20. Wear your lifemate’s favorite cologne/perfume every time you’re together.
21. Wear your husband’s clothes.
22. Find a nice secluded place to lie and watch the stars.
23. Incense/candles/oils/blacklights and music make for great cuddling/sex.
24. Kiss at every chance you get.
25. Don’t wear underwear and let them find out.
26. Kinky is bad…Blindfolds are good.
27. Lightly kiss their collarbone and their jawbone just below the ear, then whisper “I love you”.
28. Bubble baths.
29. Go for a long walk down the beach at midnight.
30. Make love.

31. Write poetry for each other.
32. Kiss and smell your wife’s hair.
33. Hugs are the universal medicine.
34. Say “I love you”, only when you mean it and make sure they know you mean it.
35. Give random gifts of flowers/candy/poetry, etc.
36. Tell your wife that she’s the only girl you ever want. Don’t lie.
37. Spend every second possible together.
38. Tell your wife that she doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to. And mean it.
39. Look into each other’s eyes.
40. Very lightly push up your wife’s chin, look into her eyes, tell her you love her, and kiss her lightly.
41. Talk to each other using only body language and your eyes.
42. When in public, flirt with each other.
43. Walk behind your wife and put your hands in her front pockets.
44. Put love notes in your lifemate’s pockets when they aren’t looking.
45. Clothes are no fun.
46. Buy your wife a ring.
47. Keep something special of your wife’s/your husband’s somewhere where you see it everyday.
48. Sing to each other.
49. Read to each other.
50. PDA = Public Displays of Affection.

51. Take advantage of any time alone together.
52. Tell your wife about how you answered every question in math with her name. (Assuming you’re continuing your education).
53. Draw. (If you can.)
54. Let your wife sit on your lap.
55. Go hiking and camp out together in the woods or on a mountain.
56. Lips were made for kissing. So were eyes, and fingers, and cheeks, and collarbones, and hands, and ears.
57. Kiss your wife’s stomach.
58. Always hold your wife around her hips/sides.
59. Husbands like half-shirts.
60. Take your wife to dinner and do the dinner for two deal.
61. Spaghetti…(Ever see Lady and the Tramp?)
62. Hold your wife’s hand, stare into her eyes, kiss her hand and then put it over your heart.
63. Unless you can feel their heart beating, you aren’t close enough.
64. Dance together.
65. Sit in front of a roaring fire and make out/make love.
66. Tell your lifemate you love the way they look right after they’ve fallen asleep, with their head in your lap.
67. Carry your wife to bed.
68. Waterbeds are fun.
69. You figure it out.
70. Do cute things like write “I love you” in a note so that they have to look in the mirror to read it.

71. Break every one of your ’safe’ relationship rules for your lifemate.
72. Make excuses to call your lifemate repeatedly in one day.
73. Even if you are really busy doing something, go out of your way to call and say “I love you”.
74. Call from your business trip to tell your lifemate you were thing about them.
75. Remember your dreams and tell your lifemate about them.
76. Drive home from work just to see your lifemate, before turning around and going back to a business meeting in the evening.
77. Sit in your car in the driveway, honk, then blow your lifemate a kiss as you leave for work.
78. Tell each other your most sacred secrets/fears.
79. Share your deepest convictions.
80. Be Prince/Princess Charming to your lifemate’s parents.
81. Act out mutual fantasies together. (Not necessarily sexual)
82. Brush your wife’s hair out of her face for her.
83. Stay up all night to think of 101 ways to be sweet to your lifemate.
84. Hang out with your lifemate’s friends, too.
85. Learn to listen.
86. Take your wife to see a romantic movie and remember the parts she liked.
87. Cuddle together under a full moon on a clear night.
88. Learn from each other and don’t make the same mistakes twice.
89. Everyone deserves a second chance.
90. Describe the joy you feel just to be with your lifemate.

91. Make sacrifices for each other.
92. Really love each other.
93. Write a fictional story about how you met/fell in love, etc. and give it to your lifemate.
94. Let there never be a second during any given day that you aren’t thinking about them, and make sure they know it.
95. Hot tubs are great.
96. Learn to say sweet things in foreign languages, including sign language.
97. Dedicate songs to them on the radio.
98. Fall asleep on the phone with each other.
99. Sleep naked together.
100. Stand up for your lifemate when someone says unkind things about them.
101. Never forget the kiss goodnight. And always remember to say, “Sweet dreams.”
102. Groom your spouse. Ask to brush your wife’s hair when she gets out of the shower. Shave your husband’s face.
103. A Short Story – You know the guys that go around in restaurants and bars with the basket of roses selling them? My husband sought him out one evening before coming home from work, bought the entire basket of roses, and left them on my doorstep, then called me and told me to go to the front door! That was so romantic!
104. Be waiting at your mates car when they get off work, out of the beauty salon, get done grocery shopping…be creative!
105. Buy 11 real roses and one fake one…leave a note that says I’ll love you until the last rose dies… -Mark Ansley
106. Kiss your mate on their forehead.
107. While your lifemate is out. Put a bag of Hershey hugs on the door knob. Put rose peddles mixed with Hershey kisses on the floor leading to the bathroom with lights off. Candles for your light lined up all the way to the bathroom also. Two dozen roses lined all over the bathtub. With a card in plain view. And on the card write ” Now that I have hugged u before u walked in the door, kissed the ground that you walk on, and showered you with roses. Will you be mine 4-ever.” – Joseph Wade Stepp
108. I am in the military so for anyone that has a long distant relationship with their spouse. They can create a jewelry box, you can buy all you need at an inexpensive gift shop store, and decorate it with the things she likes to send you in her letter or emails, for example hearts and stars and stick them all over the box. Then inside the box you can write a thought for every day of what you remember as your great memories with her in your relationship, or things you like about her, reasons why you fell in love with her or even things you want to plan with her for the future. Then tell her when she receives this magic box that when ever she feels lonely like me when I am not with her or thinks of what I am thinking about throughout the day, she can open the box and be reminded that she is all I am thinking about.
109. Take a latex balloon (not inflated) and fill it with some confetti, a love note to your lifemate and a photo of yourself. Take the balloon to a balloon shop and have them fill it with helium while the items are still in the balloon. Attach a pin and a note that says; “Please pop” to the balloon string. Leave the balloon by your lifemate’s bedside before he/she wakes up in the morning. My husband really enjoyed this romantic action.
110. Post a Lovenote to her, even if she is with you, using her office/house address or care off her friend’s postal address.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

This weekend, I plan on taking a friend and heading off to go see that He’s Just Not That Into You movie. I’ve really been looking forward to this movie. We haven’t had a really good romantic comedy in a while now. Hopefully, this will be the one.

Have you read the book? I have. I loved it. Some people don’t and some people do. I agree with it. Why? Because in my opinion, allot of it is just common* sense. I think that there are allot of people out there, don’t have it when it comes to love.

I know one person in particular that would really benefit from a book like this. Really give her a good shake and say “If he dosesn’t call you or email you.. He’s Just Not That Into You”. It’s too bad though, because she won’t read the book. When I suggested it to her in a causal way a few months ago, I got a response along the lines of self help books aren’t for me.

As Miranda says, in the Sex and the City episode, it’s refreshing to be able to say this. Hey! Shoot! If he doesn’t want to call, that’s fine, he’s just not that into me. 

* I’m sorry, but there was part in the book where it talk about a woman, who’s boyfriend/husband is sleeping with other women, but tries and convinces her it’s okay, because she doesn’t have as large as a sex drive as him. Agh! As the book would say, go!, leave him, find someone that will love you just the way you are. Sometimes I just want to shake the woman in this book for letting these men doing these things to them. Read the book.

{movies} was a part of the one word experiment.

For some of our friends this year, they will be hitting the BIG 25 and other will be 26 and 24.

It’s funny.. other the past couple of years, it was kind of an unspoken rule, that if someone wanted to go out to a bar on their birthday, you have to go. 

Last year, you could tell that this trend is slowly starting to change. For my 24th birthday, we went to Spins and Needles (and Pub 101 for a drink), my 25th A., D and Care organized a surprise birthday party for me in our new house. I’ve also heard a rumor that this year, one of our friends wants to go to a shooting range for his birthday.

I really like these ideas. It’s something different. Something that says a little bit more about the persons personality. I like it.

I was thinking about coming up with a list. A list of things to do in Ottawa for a large group of people, since birthdays is normally more than two people there celebrating.

Some places encourage a large group, where others, not so much. You wouldn’t want to take a big group of people to Vineyards would you?

Anyways, I’ll make another post, please add your thoughts to it. I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with.

{Birthdays} is a part of the one-word experiment.

Organizing is fun. Friday, I spent my evening downloading music and organizing my iTunes account. It took almost took 3 hours! We had a lot of untitled, unwritten artists and genres that needed to be updated. Apparently, I have a lot of patience for this. Oh well, it was fun. I enjoyed doing it. 

Saturday, we went to Montreal for what was supposed to be a romantic evening for two, turned out to be a fun evening for eight! I didn’t mind at all, they were the same good crowd of people that we went to Cuba with, so really it was a pleasure to have them with us. 

While we were in Montreal, the girls went off to get a bit of shopping in, since we only had about an hour to shop, and the guys went to a nice pub on St. Catherine St. After shopping, we headed off to the Montreal Auto Car Show to check out some nice cars. The one thing that I saw that I really liked is called an e-scooter. I think I would like to see one of these again up close. I would actually consider getting one, but need a bit more information on them first (and can’t buy one this month anyway).

For dinner, we went to the Baton Rouge ($$!) and then drank some Cuba rum in our room. Yum! Rum Punch. 

In the morning, we went to Eggspectation for breakfast. I tired a soft boiled egg for the first time, I wasn’t too impressed and then we went to the Eaton Centre to kill one hour before our train was to leave.

Overall, it was a very nice weekend. I really enjoy our spontaneous trip to Montreal and the spontaneous people that joined us. It’s nice that people can just jump on an opportunity on a whim. I look forward to the next time that we’ll all travel!

Looks like it could be Vegas!

It’s funny, because the whole point of the romantic trip with A. was to go to Montreal, rent a movie, get some room service popcorn and just hang out, the two of us. The first thing I did went I got to the hotel, was check room service for popcorn. They didn’t have any, I felt allot better about not going through with this plan.