The Corporate Move

Colin and I are no strangers to moving. In the 5 years we've been married, we've lived in 2 basement suites, an apartment and a house. That's 4 big moves. We've also helped friends relocate their abodes.

But I've never experienced anything like THIS before!

Tomorrow, my department is moving to a brand spankin' new building!

About a year ago, we were told that we were moving in Sept 2006. Yeah right. That's the PROJECTED month, but I never thought the move date would stick. But it did!

3 weeks ago, I started getting ready for the move. There were some "data management" things to do in preparation. It's been an exciting 3 weeks, because I've been working on special projects...stuff out of the ordinary.

But nothing as out-of-the-ordinary as this week!

It all started on Monday. It was BAU (business as usual) in the morning. All of a sudden, at 11:27, a caravan of wheeled file-cabinets called "gondolas" (not the gondola I'm familiar with) and red plastic tubs big enough for me to sleep in showed up.

The chaos began. Chaos doesn't seem to do it justice, but I don't know another word. How 'bout EXTREME CHAOS? Since we only had 1/2 a day to 1 day to pack, we all grabbed our moving supplies and got started. I was instructed to leave only essential supplies for Tuesday. It got me thinking... "What are the most essential supplies for my job?". This is what I came up with:

- my computer
- a red rubber finger
- a pen

This morning was BAUAMAP (business as usual as much as possible). All I have to say about that is, "YEAH RIGHT!". The moving guys came in and started dismantling the place I've been 8 hours a day for 2 years. There's drilling, and pieces of the ceiling falling off, and metal cubicle dividers clanging to the floor. There's no fridge, no phones, and no computer as soon as I finish writing this. There's double the amount of people in here, and quadruple amount of stuff because these "gondolas" are HUGE! There's blocked office doors (mine got blocked after I finished typing that...so I'm stuck), workers without chairs, and hallways only a foot wide!

So I have one more afternoon to deal with this, and then the big day is tomorrow! I have to be here at 7:30 to start the fun of moving thousands upon thousands of medical records! By Friday my computer will be hooked up again in my new office.

I had no idea how crazy moving an office could be! It's like a whole neighbourhood moving to a whole new neighbourhood, all at once, all to the same place, and all using the same moving guys!

I want to know something from all of you. No matter what your "job" is, what are the 3 most essential supplies to your job?

Cache-and-Go-Seek

Colin got a GPS a few weeks ago (when I got my iPod). I admit that at first, I thought it was a waste of money. What do we need an electronic map for? But my opinion has since changed.

It's not an electronic map. It doesn't only tell you where to go and how to get there. It has sunrise/sunset times, tide charts and tells you when a good time to fish is. And if you're on a road trip and want to go to Wendy's for lunch, it will find the closest Wendy's, give you the phone number and directions! How cool is that?

It has a "compass mode" too. We use it for our almost-daily walks. Colin will set a point on the GPS and hand it to me in compass mode, and then I have to find the point using the compass only. Gives our walks a bit more purpose!

This weekend, my appreciation of the GPS rose to a whole new level.

We discovered "Geocaching".

People have hidden little plastic containers all over the world. Then, they post the coordinates of the treasure on a geocache website. Anyone with a GPS can use these coordinates to find the treasure! They're everywhere! I'll bet everyone has walked right past one.

The plastic containers usually contain:
- a log book
- a pencil
- little treasures and trinkets

When you find the cache, you are supposed to sign the log book to prove you found it. Then, you take an item from the box, and leave one for the next person. Sometimes, people put gift certificates in it, as a REAL treasure for the first person to find the cache.

Since we were heading out to do some errands yesterday, we decided to check out a geocache on our way. Lets see what all this secret hype is all about! I deciphered a hint for the whereabouts of our treasure, Colin entered the exact location in the GPS, and off we went. We drove partway, then had to get out and walk through some trails in the woods. We found the area of the cache, but it was a heavily wooded area, so the GPS wasn't 100% exact on it's location in the area. So we had to search a bit. After about 10 minutes, the GPS gave me a clear signal and lead me right to it! I moved some sticks, and there it was.....our first find!

Inside the plastic box was the log book, pencil and about 10 trinkets that other cachers had left behind. Sometimes people don't take something out, so the trinkets can accumulate over time.

It was really exciting! We read through parts of the log book. The first entry was on March 29, 2005! It's been hidden for 2.5 years! So we left our trinket, didn't take anything, and went on to the errands we had to do.

A few hours later when we were at home, we sort of looked at each other and said "LETS GO DO SOME MORE!!!". So we perpared for a few more! The 2nd one of the day (on the PoCo trail) took a bit longer than the first. But we found it. Our treasure? $2!! Hey, this may pay off! Then we did one closer to home, and found it as well. We took a beanie baby from this one.

We got hooked on this new hobby in one day! Anyone interested for some adventure? Let us know! There's probably a cache in your neighbourhood!

A Blizzard of Brides

The ladies in our Bible Study (past and present) have always wanted to get together and do something in our wedding dresses! But what? After about a year of talking about it, and trying to figure out what to do, Marilee came up with the event of the year:

THE RETRO BRIDAL SHOWER!

It wasn't "retro" in that it was a bridal shower in retro style. No. It was a Bridal Shower for all who have been a bride in the past! Although some things were definately retro, like my mom's photo album!

The idea snowballed from a small get together of about 4 brides who wanted to eat appys, look at photo albums and chat all things wedding, to 27 beautiful blushing brides and a ton of activities!

There were brides who had been married less than 6 months, and some who have been married 30 years!

What shower would be complete without some sort of gift exchange? And not just ANY gift exchange, a lingerie exchange! New lingerie, of course! With each gift that was opened there were "oohs", "ahhs", and some laughs and gasps too!

We all enjoyed looking at each others photo albums, from the orange velvet one, to the modern one on the laptop!

And what would a shower be without games? We had a "guess who's engagement ring this is" game, a bride bingo game and a bride trivia game. Winners were sent to "The Panty Wall", where we were instructed to cut a pair of panties off a sting in the kitchen as a prize!

To top off the "Bridal Experience", my friend Julie, who is a wedding photographer, set up a studio in the living room and took photos of us brides! It was the icing on the cake!

Speaking of icing, I made a mini replica of 7 bride's wedding cakes for dessert! Not only was it fun, but I wanted to do this because some of these brides I didn't even know when I got married, and now they are close friends. Like Rhonda and Karen:

















Jenn had a funny cake story! Her 3-tiered black forest cake fell over and crushed in the freezer, so I made her a crushed cake! Actually, Colin gets the credit for smushing the cake! I think he enjoyed being allowed to do it! Hope you enjoyed the leftover "Smash Forest Cake", Ryan!












Kate was married in Austrailia, so I couldn't attend her wedding (Oh sorry...I meant Kate AND Andrew's wedding!) . Try as I might, $5000 did not drop out of the sky so we could afford the plane ticket. So it was great to finally see her in her dress (...and lingerie?) after almost 5 years!
















I also missed Marilee's wedding... I had a good excuse though, I was on my honeymoon! She was married 7 days after me. It's been awesome to have a friend who's been married the same length of time to swap advice and stories!













I made Carissa's because her actual wedding cake was the first one I ever made! She let me practice on her, a brave bride!
















And I made my cake, well, because it was fun!


















WHAT AN AMAZING DAY! Who said that you only wear your wedding dress once?

Technical difficulties

ARGH! I finally have a post that I have been DYING to put on my blog, but the blog hasn't allowed me to upload photos for the past few days! So please see Laura's take of the day, and come back to see mine real soon!

Back To Reality

September.

It's the time where the schedules start. No more carefree summer evenings! In a sense, it's time to get back to reality.

Of course, I'm talking about reality TV. Luckily, there was only one reality show I watched in the summer (So you think you can dance) and I wasn't devestated if I missed a show. It was nice to not have the contents of my evenings dictated by the boob tube! But, my favorite shows are starting once again.

Tomorrow (Thursday), Survivor, Season 13 begins! Every time a new season begins, I say to myself "I am not going to watch this season", but I am almost embarrassed to admit I've seen all 12 seasons. I really hope I'm not going to watch this one though because: (The next line contains a "survivor spoiler" so don't read if you don't want to know!!) this season, the tribes are split by ethnicity. I am really sensitive towards racial comments, so I don't think I want to subject myself to it for one hour every week. We'll see. I'll have to learn how to use my VCR again, since I am out on Thursday nights.

On Sunday, The Amazing Race, Season 10 begins! Ah yes, here is where my loyalties lie! This is my favorite show ever! I have seen every episode of every season (except maybe 2), and will continue watching it until they don't make them anymore. Besides, I need to keep getting ideas for the upcoming Amuzing Race's at church!

So You Think You Can Dance is another new fav. Not too sure when that one starts, but I'll be watching it once it does!

I have officially given up on The Apprentice, and missed the ENTIRE last season (I am so proud of myself)! I am sick of hearing people scream at each other (as opposed to the lying and backstabbing in Survivor).

I guess 2 hours of TV per week won't interfere with my life too much.

Let it Rain!

I really enjoyed the wet weather we had this past Saturday, and spent some time with my camera trying to capture the beauty of it!

I thought of Laura. She has helped me realize that rain is actually a wonderful thing!

Nancy's Nano

I have officially joined the world of commuters.

I have ended the frustration of listening to people's conversations.

I have stopped grinding my teeth when I hear someone's loud and annoying laugh on transit.

I...have bought a 2 gig iPod Nano.

Lately, there have been more and more commuters walking around or sitting on transit with the signature white headphones. So Colin and I went to go check them out and price-compare to other MP3 players. We found that all the other brands of MP3 players were the same price as the Apple, so obviously we chose the iPod over the other brands.

I have uploaded my favorite CD's. A variety of Jack Johnson, Great Big Sea, Casting Crowns, Third Day, and yes, even some Johnny Cash!

I've heard they get scratched very easily, so I got a case to put it in. Other than the time it was out of the case to take the first photo, it's been snug in it's blue blanket, safe from sharp things!

The day I got it we went camping for one night. I spent the entire evening sitting outside with my iBook plugged into the trailer, uploading songs. The life of the party!

I love it! Colin and I played "name that tune" a few nights ago. One of us would have the headphones and the other would control the song choice. Then we'd see how quickly we could guess the song correctly. Colin won with 1 second. I'm not going to say how long we spent playing that game...

Can anyone (other than Colin) guess what song is on?

Alarming Morning Call

The purpose of this post is two-fold.

1: I need to post so that the photo of the spider doesn't pop up when I open my blog.
2: I need to tell you about our alarm

We have a unique kind of wake up alarm. It doesn't beep, it doesn't play music, it doesn't flash, display the time, and we don't EVER have to set it. I guess you could say it's an "automatic alarm". I am willing to give it away if anyone wants it, since it's set to the wrong time, and we can't yet figure out how to change it.

You see, our alarm is a blue-jay. It's name is.... Alarm.... because it is just that!

At 6:03 every morning, it sits in the Laurel tree which is right outside of our bedroom window and starts to screech, and screech, and screech and SCREECH!!! I have always noticed the racket, especially since our window has been open most nights lately (allowing spiders to enter as well). But it wasn't until this week that Colin asked if I noticed that it starts screeching at the EXACT same time every day! So now every morning when we're awakened by the "song", we look at the time.

6:03.

This is just another example to me that God exists. He has pre-programmed instincts in certain animals. Predators know that they need to hunt, herbevoirs know they are born vegetarians, and blue jays know to start chirping at EXACTLY 6:03.

Do any of you readers get up at 6:03? If so, you are more than welcome to lurk around our backyard in the wee hours. When it makes it's appearance, feel free to cage it, and take it home with you. Then, and only then, will you be at peace knowing that you will wake up every morning without having to remember to set your alarm.

Frightening Lullaby

Yesterday had a fairytale ending. The fairytale was a cross between "Little Miss Muffet" and "Arachnaphobia".

Time was 10:45. I was laying in bed. I sat up to grab a kleenex from the headboard. And there...before my very eyes....was THIS:

Yes. The ugliest, biggest un-caged spider I've ever seen indoors. It was sitting on my book called "Every Woman's Battle". Kinda ironic, eh? Most women I know battle with spiders, although that's not the battle the book talks about.

I jumped up on the footboard of the bed as fast as humanly possible. Colin had thought I fell out of bed (and he didn't even move, I might add). When he finally knew what was going on, he caught and flushed it. MY HERO!

Usually I say "It's the biggest spider I've seen", and Colin disagrees. BUT THIS TIME, he agreed! That thing was a good 2 - 2.5 inches across! Colin laid back down after the drama and I stood on the footboard until I could convince him to shut the window, check behind the bed, check under the bed, check in the bed and around the bed for any more friends. He spent the next 15 minutes explaining to me which spiders are poisonous, and which are not, and saying they are afraid of ME. Hummm....it didn't look too scared.

Searching Google for the photo I used actually got my heart racing. I even gasped when it uploaded onto this post.

It made me wonder.

I seem to be able to handle spiders outside, but as soon as they enter my domain, I am terrified! I even saw two large spiders on my tomato plant earlier in the day, and let them LIVE because they are eating the bugs off the plants. I thought I was making a lot of progress until this happened.

How can I get over this fear?