christmas eve traditions

as always, we spent christmas eve with kris' family and enjoyed a traditional polish christmas eve dinner: beet soup with "ears," pierogies, cabbage rolls and other dishes that i don't know the name of. yum.

we came home and watched christmas movies and exchanged presents. i'm not sure if it's a polish custom to exchange presents on christmas eve, or if kris is just too impatient, but it has now become our tradition. he spoiled me with a beautiful wool/cashmere coat that i had tried on, fell in love with, but decided was too expensive. i gave him a shirt that we had admired some time ago. i tried to get him something else, but couldn't find what i was looking for, so i will save that for another time.

and another family tradition: to take a picture of us, scout included, by the christmas tree. don't mind scout's crazy looking eye. here it is:



merry christmas to all, and all a good night!

hola, sun

i was going to blog each individual day about our trip, but i'm too tired and lazy so i'll do one big post instead. you may need your bookmarks for this one.

we stayed at sirenis la salina in varadero. it just opened this past july, so it was new and clean and quite efficiently run, considering it was so big. kris and i went with our friend chris. we were initially hoping our other friends would join us, but no one else could get the time off work, so it was just the three of us. i called it a miko sandwich - two chris/kris' on the ends, and miko in the middle. i meant to get a picture of the three of us with me in the middle, but forgot.

when we got there on december 13, there were no christmas decorations...but as the week went on, more and more started to appear. all of their christmas trees were crooked, though, which was cute and now something i will come to expect when i see a cuban christmas tree.



we had planned to do some day trips, one to havana and one on a catamaran where you can swim with the dolphins (well, more like jump in the water, take a picture, and get out), but we were just too tired. we wanted to relax, and kept thinking maybe the next day we would be up for it, but that never happened. oh well, perhaps next time. we did rent mopeds and visited downtown varadero a couple times. we bartered our way through the flea markets, did a bit of sight-seeing and went to a couple restaurants just to compare to our resort food.







oh yes, the food. the buffet food was terrible. corn had this weird starchy, dry and hard texture to it; we thought it was just old, but when we went to the a la carte restaurants which had significantly fresher and better food, the corn was the same, so maybe that's just the way it is. any cubans that come to canada probably think our corn is strange because it's so juicy and filled with a weird flavour. i probably would have lost weight on this trip if i didn't drink so many pina coladas...tee hee! we were warned though that the food in cuba isn't great, so i was kind of expecting it. in fact, if it was good, i may have been a little disappointed. yeah, probably not.



as mentioned, the a la carte restaurants were pretty good - you were supposed to only get two a la carte dinners, but we begged and gratuity-ed our way to a third reservation. yay! the only problem was that the reservation tickets only had the day number on it, but not the actual day of the week. we had no idea what day was what, kris and i don't wear watches and chris had one but never wore it, so we ended up going to our last two reservations a day late (they were on back-to-back nights). oops? they squeezed us in though, so it was all good. i hadn't read one review or heard from one person a bad thing about the japanese a la carte restaurant. so we went. my expectations weren't high since we weren't in japan, but i was very disappointed. the sashimi had clearly been frozen then thawed. the teppenyaki chef poured excessive imitation soy sauce over EVERYTHING and there was a little je-ne-sais-quoi that didn't agree with my tummy (i think it was the fish - i shouldn't have eaten it, but i did anyway...) and i'm just getting over it now. thank goodness for imodium otherwise our last day on the beach would have been a nightmare!

the beach was amazing. there was one day that the waves were huge, so it washed up a lot of seaweed and shells on the beach, but otherwise the sand was soft and clean. the reviews that i read complained that there weren't enough lounge chairs and hut thingies for shade...the reviews said that people actually woke up at 7am to put their towel on a chair, and then would go back to sleep. while we were there, they brought in more chairs and they were building umbrellas, so it wasn't that bad. it was kind of like finding parking at a shopping mall the week before christmas...not impossible to find, but you have to hunt a bit.





i befriended some cats, of course. the dogs looked a little sketchier, so i left them alone for fear of contracting cuban rabies.





we met some locals on our journeys. one guy asked us to donate things we didn't want anymore. he had holes in his shoes and pants, and we felt very bad for him. we told him we would return later, and he told us where he would be waiting. he kept saying "lookie, lookie," to show us where he would be. this seemed to be a popular phrase amongst the cubans, we ran across a few people who told us to lookie lookie. we went back (on the moped so we could make a fast exit if needed) with a bag filled with stuff for him. he was so grateful...if we ever go again, we will definitely bring more things for the locals. i read that some people are very proud and won't accept tourist's hand-me-downs, so i didn't bring any unwanted items, but now i wish i did. i guess you can't believe everything that you read on the internet.

we named some of the people that we recognized throughout the week...we had a peppermint patty (a spitting image! i didn't take a picture but wanted to), a crazy eddy (he had big hand gestures, drank a lot, loved being in the centre of attention and unfortunately neglected his family a lot), john candy, kevin federline and two marco who was a casanova (our bus driver's name was juan marco, so we chose the next in line...get it...juan...one...meh) we made some friends, though. john candy and his wife and three kids was one set, and another was this group of quebecois asians who drank a lot the first night they were there (how we met them), but they kind of disappeared for the rest of the time. i definitely felt young since i was asked which school i go to a couple times and some looks of disbelief and awe when i said i was married...usually followed up by the question, "how old ARE you?!?!". haha.

our flight home was delayed because the plane was late coming in from montreal. we landed in toronto probably around 2:30am, and we were home by 3:30am. i didn't sleep until 5am for various reasons, so working the next day was definitely not the easiest thing i've done. we're happy to be home - i forgot how comfortable my bed is. we decorated before we left, so it was nice walking in immediately to a festive house. we spent the day today getting ready for christmas - we finished our shopping and everything is wrapped. we are good to go!

some more pictures:

petty miko

i had a coupon for a cheap manicure and pedicure. since we're leaving for cuba on thursday, and the coupon was about to expire, i thought i would take advantage of it.

it has barely been 24 hours, and i've already chipped a chunk off my right thumb. sigh...now i know why i never get manicures.

maybe i should stop being so PETTY. ha...get it?

sake it to me!

i went to my brother's roommate's birthday party last night. kris has a cold, and is furiously trying to get better before we leave on thursday, so he stayed home.

i had some cold sake in the fridge...and since the food and wine show, i've been considering mixing the sake with soho (lychee liqueur) - and voila, it tasted exactly like the lychee sake that i liked! i guess i shouldn't be surprised...still, i'm quite proud of myself for being so crafty. it was definitely potent, and i pretty much didn't have to drink much else for the rest of the night.

i made some new friends. i had a lively discussion about how throwing up wouldn't be so bad if vomit tasted like candy. or fruit. mmm...fruit. i found a guy who resembled reed johnson from the blue jays a bit, and took a picture of him for people who look like people, but i just couldn't capture the reed johnson essence through pictures. so i gave up. all in a day's work.

sleepless in etobicoke

this week has been a bad week. i haven't been able to sleep. kris and i are going to cuba in 6 days and because of that, i have to wrap up a lot of things at work before i go. this has resulted in me being stressed. so stressed that i can't sleep. on tuesday night, i didn't fall asleep until after 3:30am. then last night (wednesday), i didn't fall asleep until close to 5am. this is ridiculous! as a person who loves her sleep, and is naturally predisposed to sleeping at the snap of a finger, this is very disturbing.

when i was trying to sleep, i kept remembering things that i had to do, and would purposely keep thinking about it so i wouldn't forget. then i'd remember something else, having to remember two things, and then something else would pop into my head - this went on for a while - then my head was swimming with all these things that i had to remember to do, which is why i was up until almost 5am. i've been told before this tip, to write things down when your brain won't stop and that will help you sleep. i've never really needed to use this idea since my brain usually doesn't require prompt to stop thinking, but at 4:30, i got up, brought a notebook and pen to my bedside table, wrote down the things i was desperately trying to remember to do (one was order stamps for the exam mail-out. order stamps. seriously, i stayed up until 5am just to remember to order stamps?!). after that, i finally drifted off to sleep. three cheers for 4 hours of sleep.

i made it through the day, took a lengthy nap when i got home, and now what? it's midnight and i'm not tired. but at least that allows me to share this wonderful story with all five of you loyal readers.

but. in less than one week, i will be on the sandy beaches of varadero, sipping pina coladas (never used to be a fan but apparently it's an acquired taste) and relaxing on a lounging chair, asking manuel the pool boy to adjust the back for me. or just adjusting the back myself since i don't think our resort has pool boys, certainly not on the beach, but more likely by the pool. or just focusing on keeping the sand off my towel since the reviews i've been reading say that one has to wake up at 7am to reserve the lounging chairs on the beach and you probably know how i feel about THAT.

yes...i'll just keep thinking of cuba...

re: crash into me - part two

i always enjoy when storylines are chopped up and delivered in the wrong order - at lesat, when it's delivered in the wrong order on purpose (and not like the time that ctv accidentally showed the wrong episode in season 2). that is definitely why i liked the movie memento so much. come to think of it, i'd really like it if they did a grey's episode backwards.

so tonight, meredith made a lot of headway...she is progressing in her relationship with both derek and lexie. too bad it might be too late for derek - but when they can't have each other, maybe then we'll go back to goopy eyes and elevator sniffs which makes the show so worth watching. of course we knew this would happen, and rose seems like a nice enough girl so i can't really hate her, but still. i really hope this mer/der-yearning-for-each-other storyline doesn't keep get recycled because it's going to get old, fast.

ugh, floppy meredith came back. i suppose she had to, with the symmetry that the writers likes to utilize; but instead of just being floppy, meredith added some lame hand claps that they insisted on showing over and over. but in the scene where she was overlooking stan's wife with ray in the recovery room, meredith looked positively stunning, so that made up for the hand claps. as of late, her botox face has made her not as pretty, but this was all erased for me in this one shot.

i feel so terrible for bailey; i really want her to have it all, the successful career as a surgeon, chief resident AND super mommy and wife. all the same, i suppose it's reassuring to most of us who can't even put their pants on properly in the mornings that someone like bailey has a bad day too.

does this mean george and izzie are breaking up? and will eventually get back together, when the timing is right, kind of like with derek and meredith? i guess if they're going to mirror that relationship, then george will have to tell izzie that he'll wait for her until the time is right, and weeks later he will go play kissy face with a floozy nurse. hmm, it appears i am a little bitter about rose. but really...can you blame me??

productive sunday

today was supposed to be a professional development day, combined with a christmas party, but it got cancelled because of the weather. while the weather didn't seem to be bad at all in toronto, perhaps in oakville, burlington and hamilton, it was worse.

the cancelled day gave us a chance to run some errands. as much as i was disappointed that the christmas party was cancelled, i was also delighted to have 8 unexpectedly free hours. i kicked off my day of freedom by making blueberry pancakes. yum! i bought christmas cards and found enough for the 38 teachers in my department and my co-workers...i'm very excited with the pretty ones i found this year! i have this thing about christmas cards; they have to be small enough so i don't feel pressure to write a lot, esepcially since i'm giving them to people that i don't know on a social level very well. we went to see another model suite for our new house that gives us a better idea of what our kitchen will look like, and saw how big our island will be. we restocked our liquor cabinet, with some favourites from the food and wine show (leaping horse merlot from california, beringer cabernet sauvignon also from california and negra modelo beer from mexico). i started my packing list for our trip to cuba in a week and a half (yay!) and got a good start on writing said christmas cards, which need to be finished sooner than usual because of our vacation being so close to christmas. ahhh...productivity makes me happy.

re: crash into me - part one

if meredith had any sense at all, she would just COMMIT to the guy she's dating and then he will be dating her. honestly. and i have to say, cristina is a more convincing dancer than meredith. meredith was actually embarassing to watch. very floppy. actually, it reminded me of addison's naked dancing in private practice. blech.

i've said it before, but i'll say it again. i love the chief and his relationship with meredith. the scene with with stan's wife saying good bye...was heartbreaking.

how could the white supremacist paramedic work with the coloured driver? or is it just when it comes to people treating him medically? i mean, i'm no expert on white supremacists, but his partner seemed concerned about him, which to me, means that he isn't an ass to her. bailey's scene at the end, where she calls on jesus and then slices open the swastika - so powerful.

and yes - two sure things in this episode: that the guy's carotid artery would burst, (and when lexie was in the room), and that bailey would miss lunch with her husband.

this week's episode is a re-run! so that means we have to wait another week to see the conclusion. and then after that, the radio tells me that there's only one more episode before they run out. sadness.

farewell, oil country

this morning, i woke up early to catch my plane. this is the most eventful of the three days, i have to say. i had packed my things the night before, but still ended up leaving a little later than expected. when i left the hotel, there was an airport shuttle that was just leaving, and i decided to take it instead of paying double for a cab. plus, it was perfect timing.

well, the shuttle goes around to all the hotels to pick up other people, which would have been okay had i had a little more time, and also the guy didn't take the highway, which means it took much longer to get to the airport than i thought. i thought it's not a big deal though, because i've already checked in, i just needed to print my boarding pass from the self-serve kiosk. when i got there, the machine told me i was too late, and needed to go to an actual person. so i did that, but there was a line-up, and only two very slowly moving people, one of whom disappeared for several minutes. she was the one who served me. by the time i got to her, probably 15 minutes had passed, and i was getting antsy. she was very pleasant, so i was pleasant back. she asked me for my destination and last name - when i gave it to her and she discovered i was very late, she turned into a very mean person. she started lecturing me about how late i was, that they weren't going to hold the plane for me, that i was going to miss my flight and lose the money i had paid. i knew that i was late, but couldn't really do anything about it, and i don't know how she thought that her scolding me would fix things or turn time back. i ended up sprinting to security in my three-inch heels.

at security, there were two ladies talking. chatting about nothing, really. i didn't know if i was allowed to go in the priority/disability lane and i could have snaked through all the rope divider thingies, but as i was rudely told, i was very late and needed to rush. i didn't want to just barge through the priority/disability lane for fear of being tasered and then killed, so i thought i would wait to ask. these ladies talked for what seemed like HOURS (but was probably only 20 seconds) before they acknowledged me. i'm sure it looked like i had to pee my pants because i wasn't very discreet about wanting to talk to one of them. finally, i got through security, and i heard the final boarding call for my flight. it was gate 16, which was very far away from where i was...i sprinted again, to the gate, and as i ran up, they were calling my name over the loudspeaker. actually calling my name. i'm THAT person, who's so late, they have to call your name. sigh.

the flight was uneventful again, and i slept for most of it. but that's not all.

i arrived in toronto at 2:06pm EST. i had to work at 4pm, so this was just enough time to grab a cab home, throw together some food for work, and get there in time to teach until 9:30pm. i got home, and was happy to see my cute kitty who had missed me very much. perhaps my cute kitty missed me so much, that is the reason why she puked three times on the bedroom floor. instead of getting food ready, i had to clean up cat vomit. i'm not even sure why this happened, but she seems to be fine now. strange.

by this point, i hadn't eaten anything at all yet, other than the bag of pretzels from the plane. i threw together some food quickly to eat immediately, but didn't have time to gather food for work. my solution? i called one of my work friends and basically blurted out in a big run-on sentence that i had just gotten back from the airport, that my cat puked on the floor, i had to clean it up, i might be late for work, so could he get me some dinner later that night so i don't have to get it before work and so i don't starve? he said yes. three cheers for friends.

and now kris doesn't finish up in edmonton until tuesday...then he flies to vancouver for another short presentation, then back home on friday. looks like it's only us girls for the week. just as long as there's no more cat vomit, i'll be just fine.

welcome to oil country, day two

we woke up fairly early since i didn't want to be jet-lagged when i flew back home today. we went for breakfast which was extremely disappointing. the "hostess" (i use the term loosely because she wasn't very hostess-y) told us that there were no tables left, except for that one. we asked what was wrong with that one. she said nothing, but there's no where to sit. oh, except there. there was a couple that was leaving their booth, so we asked if we could sit there. problem solved. we still don't know what was wrong with the first table.

service was slow and the food was not only overpriced, but also terrible. i've made a mental note in case we ever return to edmonton, not to go to albert's family restaurant.

we considered visiting the waterpark at the big mall, but decided to see a movie instead. afterwards, we went to a japanese restaurant where there were numerous pictures of oilers who have patronized this restaurant. apparently it's a favourite for them. we didn't see any though - that was a little disappointing. it was snowing and -20 degrees, so our short walk back to the hotel was long enough.

we were going to visit the lounge for a drink, but decided to go to sleep early again since i had to wake up early...