CONGRATS!

congratulations to my friend carson for winning the prestigious title of wind instrumentalist of the year at the canadian smooth jazz awards.

you may remember, i reached out to you, dear reader, and asked you to vote for him - i'm not sure if you did, but if so, thank you!

and congratulations, carson. i've said it before, and i'll say it again: you always have been full of hot air. :) haha, that joke never gets old (for me, anyway)...but seriously, you deserve all the accolades you're getting and more!

when it rains, it pours...on weekends

did anyone else notice that the weather is rainy/cold/irritable on weekends only? and during the week it's beautiful/sunny/making me irritable because i am cooped up indoors working?

well, this past weekend, i beat the system - at least, i thought i did. i had to work on saturday, so i planned to take friday off. it was promising to be the best day of the week yet, with sunny skies and a high of 23 degrees. beautiful. i planned to see my friend in the morning, have lunch with her, come home and enjoy our patio and maybe go for a bike ride.

cue thursday and cue the only cold i've had all year. i slept in on friday until 1pm and pretty much spent the entire day indoors, doing sinus rinses and trying futilely to breathe through my nose. it rained on saturday as promised, and the weather was unsettled and undecided today (although i will admit, it was semi-nice out).

but the long-term forecast promises rain and cool temperatures for next weekend. sigh.

i'll find you, nice-weather-weekend...one day. i hope.

dana, this one's for you

kris has always enjoyed biking. i, on the other hand, have not. i didn't bike too much growing up - maybe it was the thought of sharing the two-lane 80km road with vehicles or being subjected to gravel roads that made me shy away from it. anyway, since we moved to the townhome in june 2008, i've been determined to be a better biker.

we started by fixing up the bike that i had. we got a super nice seat so my bum wouldn't hurt, got it tweaked and fixed, bought a helmet and i was ready.

we practiced on one of the out-of-the-way streets by our house. we would ride up and down it, and i would practice stopping, starting, turning and standing (again, to preserve le bum while going over bumps), but never pedalling and standing at the same time, noooh, that was just too much.

things since then have progressed pretty well. i've learned how to stand and pedal at the same time so hills are so much easier...i know what the gears do and how they help when biking up said hills...i am more confident sharing the road with cars and my legs don't start burning three seconds into our excursions.

we usually ride to the lake, because it's close, easy to get to, and once we get there, there's a bike path that we can follow. today, though, i got overconfident. i hate when that happens.

we ventured off the bike path, onto this dirt path that consisted of mostly pedestrians. i chose to get off and go around some of the pedestrians that didn't want to get out of my way. after sitting on a bench and enjoying the peacefulness and beautiful scenery, we continued on our way. this path was hilly and bumpy at times, but i was negotiating fantastically well...until i tried to scale a hill that was bigger than it looked, while trying to go around two ladies who wouldn't get out of my way. i ended up going slower and slower and slower up the hill until i was no longer moving at all...i worried about actually going backwards down the hill, but ended up just falling over instead. i wasn't hurt, although i got a nasty bruise on my leg pit (how come we all talk about arm pits, but no one references their leg pits? i hereby resolve to raise leg pit awareness) and a slight bruise to my ego. luckily, the ladies were inconsiderate and heard me fall but didn't bother to turn around.

gotta love toronto...the only place where you can hurt yourself and no one will bother to make sure you're okay, ensuring that you don't cry in front of strangers. home sweet home.

dental diatribe

i went to the dentist recently. before she even saw my teeth, the hygenist asked me if i floss everyday - i replied yes, because i do, and religiously, and she was all like "mmm-hmm" (translation: i don't believe you). why bother asking if you're not going to believe what i say anyway?

then she lectured me for the entire length of my cleaning about flossing and brushing everyday, WHICH I DO, even though she grudgingly admitted that my teeth looked good, despite the 3 year hiatus i had taken from the dentist. i know it's terrible i waited so long, but i think i was subconsciously avoiding the lectures. it's one thing to chastise me when i've actually not brushed my teeth, i would be fine with that. i am NOT fine with being lectured for no good reason. and then the hygenist told me i should come for a cleaning every 3 months, even though she said i was a good brusher, and didn't have any cavities after not seeing a dentist for 3 years. 3 months?! i would have rather she just said that she wants to make as much money as possible, so can i please come as often as possible? at least that would be honest.

it took all of my will power to not say something in retaliation, so instead i looked for split ends in her hair while she cleaned my teeth. i found plenty, and so i mentally told her she should get her hair cut more often. it made me feel a bit better. and now it's time to look for a new dentist.

hello kitty mania!

when we were in england last summer, i found a hello kitty eraser that had a little roller on top that sweeps up all the eraser bits! it was so cute! it was also $20 with the exchange. no matter how cute i thought it was, i refused to pay $20 for an eraser, unless it cooked dinner for me too. months later, i still thought about my eraser wistfully and kept trying to convince myself it wasn't meant to be.

then, in seattle, we stumbled upon a hello kitty store (which is how my photo opp with miss kitty below came to be). THEY HAD MY ERASER! FOR $2.95 US!!! the one had blacks and dark pinks, and was more of a "badass" kitty image, which i appreciate. she lives at work so i'll try to remember to take a picture of her to post here.

i wanted to buy more than one, but kris wouldn't let me. so i bought only one, but i'm very happy with it...the roller part actually makes erasing about 7 times longer then just brushing away the bits with your hand, but it's sooo worth it. and now i know it was meant to be.

(no longer) sleeping in seattle

so our seattle trip has come and gone. we enjoyed sunny weather and beautiful views from our hotel on the shores of lake washington. it was already spring there, so we feel like we got to experience spring twice this year. i love spring. and travelling.

we saw the space needle, walked a LOT because i refused to hail a cab for any trip that would be 5 minutes long, even if it worked out to 20 minutes of walking, visited the first starbucks, saw the fish market, saw lots of sketchy and/or homeless people, met hello kitty in the flesh (*gasp* i KNOW!!!), experienced some only-average sushi (i think i built it up in my mind...although my sushi experience in vancouver didn't disappoint so perhaps it was just the restaurants that i chose) and met the. cutest. puppy. ever.

this is woody. he's a labradoodle, but both his parents are labradoodles, so he seems more lab than poodle. and he was the epitome of adorable when he wasn't chewing on my hair.

i discovered a new drink that i love, the john daly, which uses a tea-infused vodka mixed with lemonade. kris thinks it tastes like a tree, but i think he's crazy. i wanted to buy the vodka but didn't run across a duty-free shop before we left, meh...maybe i'll get some the next time we go to buffalo. oh, and the hotel bar offered FREE beer during the NCAA game. only in america.

some other pics:

seattle space needle.

view from our hotel

in front of starbucks


spring is sprung!

(about to be) sleeping in seattle

kris has been in seattle this week, and i am going to rendez-vous avec him tomorrow! whee!

i plan on getting my nails done, visit the first starbucks ever, take multiple naps, work out at the hotel's gym, eat lots of sushi, drink moderate amounts of wine (only moderate because my mother asked me not to drink by myself too much, and kris will be working on all of thursday and a bit of friday) and indulge in an excessive shopping trip (yes, trip singular. not enough time for trips, i don't think).

i managed to fly on points again there, but had to *gasp* PAY for my flight back.

but it's off to bed i go - i slept in this morning, which usually isn't a big deal because kris is around to wake me up. but he's not here, and scout is clearly NOT a reliable alarm clock - she was even up when i realized it was 8:30am, and i was supposed to be on my way to work already! i scolded her for not thinking to wake me, sometimes she's so inconsiderate. she muttered something about having to clean herself and losing track of time...yeesh - cats!

paying the blazer foward

i went to the mall on the weekend and a girl stopped me to ask me where i bought my fabulous blazer. there's nothing better than having strangers ask you where you bought your clothes!

both times i bought the blazer, i got a sheet of coupons to go back to the store and get 40% off future purchases for the month of march. so i gave this girl one set of my coupons. i'm just paying it forward...besides...one of those coupon sheets isn't meant for me since one of my purchases was bogus. conscience: lifted. stranger: thrilled. miko: at peace.

i knew it!

i have always been a fan of olay complete moisturizer with spf 15. i liked that it had sunscreen in it, but it wasn't greasy or heavy. then the packaging changed, and i noticed that the product was more like sunscreen, and less like the lightweight moisturizer that has been a part of my morning routine for 5+ years. i think this is the reason behind my new-found acne problem and why i've had itchy spots after moisturizing, especially on my neck. by the end of the day, my face was very greasy, and if i swiped my finger across my forehead, i could actually SEE the oil on my finger, and the mark my finger left behind on my forehead. blech.

i decided to "swag" my suspicions (have you signed up for swagbucks yet? well, you should), and i was right!!!!! they did change the formula, and no one likes it. there are scads of pages of comments from unhappy customers denouncing the new formula. i'm happy to know i'm not crazy.

in the meantime, i'm off to search for a new moisturizer that isn't expensive and has sunscreen in it. wish me luck.

another scent stumper...

luckily, this scent stumper doesn't include rotting cat vomit.

i love the smell of scotch tape. i will make a point to smell it whenever i use it. i also love that it has a smooth, satiny finish and removes easier than regular tape, and goes hand-in-hand with my general love for stationary, but i'm digressing. people think i'm crazy, but there is something about that scent that i love...and it reminds me of wrapping presents and school projects.

i always thought scotch tape smelled like something, and the closest thing i could think of, was celery. but after years of casually wondering, i have scotch tape's scent twin: gin. who knew?? we went for drinks with melissa on friday night and while sipping a gin martini, i came to my revelation. i am so astute when i'm drinking.

so i propose that gin martinis be re-branded as "scotch tape martinis," and scotch tape take on the name "gin tape." who's with me?!

ps. this makes me like gin martinis even more, is that wrong?