Sickness, Transit and Chivalry

The past few days have been difficult.

You'd think at 5.75 months preggo I would be past the morning sickness thing. I am, for the most part. But then out of the blue it comes up and smacks me. Yesterday, it even made me get off the train and head back home to become one-with-the-couch for the rest of the day.

My experience trying to get home brought me to realize that transit in the Tri-Cities SUCKS. It took me over an hour to get home from Port Moody, a 10 minute drive by car. It would have taken over 2 hours if my mom didn't rescue me halfway home, as I was still 2 buses (that come every 30 minutes) and a few walks away. Thanks, mom!

Today was not much better, but unfortunately I didn't start feeling sick until after Port Moody, which meant I was stuck on the train dealing with my nausea for 25 minutes...with no stops. It wasn't fun.

Oops, I told a white lie. I already knew Tri-Cities transit sucked. Last week, people were filing on my bus. The final bus on my "4-bus and a train" journey home. Just as I was about to step on, the bus driver sticks her hand out at me and says, "Bus full, sorry", then closes the door and takes off. Leaving me to walk 30 minutes to get home. Could've waited 30 minutes for the next one, but there's no bathrooms at the station. That bus leaves people behind every day. They need another one.

One good thing is happening in transit though.

About a month ago I was offered my first seat on the bus! This is great! I even wrote it on my pregnancy calendar. I am dizzy and usually not feeling so well on transit, so I decline at first. Then when they insist, I will gladly accept the chivalrous gesture.

I am getting offered a seat almost every time I'm on a full bus now. And I have made an observation:

All the people who offered me seats have been women between the ages of about 30 and 50, so I am wagering a guess that they've all been through it themselves. BUT COME ON, MEN! Isn't it supposed to be you?

Entertain Me

I have taken up Andrew's challenge of naming a movie from A to Z. I am only listing movies that I would recommend. I tried to make my list different than both Andrew and Ryan, but some I just agreed with too strongly!

A-Amazing Grace
B-Benny & Joon
C-Chicago
D-Dead Man Walking
E-Evil Dead series (so funny!)
F-Fried Green Tomatoes
G-The Gods Must be Crazy 1 and 2
H-Hook
I-The Illusionist
J-The Jesus Film
K-K-Pax
L-The Labrynth
M-The Mission
N-The Notebook
O-October Sky
P-The Pursuit of Happyness
Q-The Queen (well, I haven't seen it YET but will soon)
R-Robin Hood-Prince of Thieves
S-Shawshank Redemption
T-Titanic (ok, stop groaning)
U-Unfinished Life
V-I have hated all movies that start with V
W-Willow
X-X-men 1
Y-I recommend no movies that start with Y
Z-Zoolander

Guilty Pleasures

Today is a perfect day!

It's gorgeous! It's warm! I didn't wear a jacket on my lunchtime walk! The fact that it's Monday isn't even ruining my mood.

I went for lunch with a friend today. Afterwards, I felt like I NEEDED a fruity icy drink. And I do mean NEEDED!

So we walked into Blenz coffee of all places. I've actually never been in one before. To my delight, they sell these:

I got a Yogurt Caribbean Colada Smoothie....SO delicious! There's about 5 flavours to choose from, and you can get them made with ice cream too. Whipped cream optional.

I think these will be my summertime guilty pleasure. Guilty because of the cost, not the ingredients. I'll probably have to take up a part time job to pay for it.

But it was so worth it.

Shoe? What Shoe?

Commuting downtown, you are constantly inundated with advertisements on billboards. We even have some billboards in PoCo now, but at least they're only advertising realtors and CD's.

Billboards in general drive me nuts. There's that one by my bus stop that is 8 stories high with 3 girls linking arms and carrying lots of bags. They're smiling of course, because they've just spent hours and hours at the mall. If I were in that billboard, I'd be grimacing.

Anyways. Slogan on that billboard? "260 sales, One phone". What?!? It bugs me every morning because it makes no sense.

The ones that really bug me though, are the "fashion" ads. I understand that companies use stick figures on a billboard to make their product sell more, but one particular ad is completely ridiculous, and has been bugging me for quite some time.

Feast your eyes on this:
Hmmm. Umm. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ALDO a SHOE company? Oh, I see. Yes it is. It even has the website www.aldoshoes.com on the ad.

Well...since ALDO is a SHOE company, should there not be a SHOE on the ad??? Alas, not a single shoe to be seen. They've even seemed to purposely cut off the stick figures at the ankle so we can't see the shoe.

What's this supposed to accomplish? Is the consumer supposed to think, "Oooh, how mysterious, it must be beautiful". Or maybe, "Wow, maybe if I wear any ALDO shoes I can look like her and be stared at by some guy in a suit that's 2 sizes too small!".

Maybe. But here's what it makes me think: "If your shoes are not pretty enough to put on the advertisement, they obviously aren't worth the effort of checking them out at the store".

Here's another one of my ALDO favourites.

Is there a shoe? Oh, I think I see a few. Or is she barefoot?

Unfortunately I couldn't find the bus ad for the one above. There's a photo of the shoe (gasp), then a photo of a closeup of Miss. Stick's face, and then this one. It would be nice if the product just spoke for itself without having the other 2 meaningless shots added to it.

I went to the ALDO website to see if maybe they sell other things than shoes, like tight suits and mini dresses. And when I got there, all the photos are of architecture! Check it out for yourselves. They are beautiful shots, but some on people! Shoe company or architects?

I did find that they sell more than just shoes. Bags, belts, and accessories...all which are omitted from the above shots.

ARGH! Down with ALDO. They don't sell size 5 anyway.

Bandits in the Night

Last Thursday night, we were sleeping soundly. Then at about 3:30 am, we hear something right outside our bedroom window! There are those house noises where you say, "What was that?" and it ends up being nothing. Then there are those sounds that make you both jump up and rip the curtains open to see what's going on.

This was one of those sounds. It sounded like wood hitting concrete.

We looked out of the window and saw this:

A minute later, we saw a raccoon exiting the hot tub. It sat on the concrete for awhile, staring into our basement window. Then it hissed, and left.

That evening, Colin lit a fire under the hot tub to smoke it out (in case it was in there again), but it didn't seem to like the location it performed the break-and-enter on the night before.

Great. Stupid raccoon. One more thing to fix!

What's that Smell?

Being pregnant has significantly heightened my sense of smell. Luckily, I haven't been bothered by a smell enough to throw up, but have been close many times.

I started noticing it when Colin was pouring a glass of orange juice in the kitchen, and I could smell from the living room what he was pouring.

I've discovered some new smells.

Construction worker smell: The smell of dust and drywall mixed with a bit of dirt and B.O. I CANNOT sit beside them on the bus. If there is a construction worker within 10 feet of me I have to breathe through my mouth, or smell my hand when I inhale. Colin has been working on a construction site on and off for a few weeks. I can't get too close until he takes a shower.

Lead Finger smell: People whose fingers are so heavy that they can't spritz on just a bit of perfume. Instead of a "Pfft" spray, it ends up being a "Pffffffffffffffffft, Pffffffffffffffft" spray. A more pleasant smell than construction worker smell, but has the same effect.

The other day on the train I sat next to a lead finger lady and I felt so sick by the time I got to my stop. I vowed never to sit next to her again. Then this morning I saw her walking towards me. "Don't sit here", I was screaming in my head. She walked right past me. About 30 seconds after she was out of sight, the unmistakable smell of her noxious perfume attacked me. I never would have smelled that before I was pregnant.

Today on the bus, I was sitting beside a man who did not smell nice. Then two women came and stood in front of me. They only had a "Pfft" spray on, and it smelled so good that I actually had my nose turned to them so I could smell them instead.

Coffee suffocation smell: The smell of coffee used to take me to my "special place", but now it makes me feel like I'm in a coffin. It seems to surround me and suffocate me.

As I was eating my sushi lunch, I had 2 different kinds of soy sauce. I opened both and could tell without even trying that one had more salt than the other.

Smells aren't always bad though. On the first few days of spring, I was overloaded with the smell of the grass, flowers and blossoms. I've never smelled spring like that before! Now hopefully it will come back so I can smell it again.

Rustic Easter

This Easter was different than the usual, but was really fun! Colin, me and 8 friends headed up to the Nahatlatch River to go camping!

We stayed in a "sketchy" (the word of the weekend) but cute A-frame cabin, which was a little, um, well...sketchy! When someone walked around the loft, the people downstairs would cover their heads, in fear that the person upstairs would make a swift decent through the floor. Within the first 30 minutes the spider count was about 8...all killed by girls I might add.

Then there was the nest. Rhonda went upstairs to scout out which matress on the floor she wanted and she found a nest on the ceiling above the bed I eventually slept in. It was a very empty, deserted looking nest, but you think it housed the devil by the way we talked about it (by "we", I mean Rhonda!).

This all being said, it had a flush toilet about 75 paces from the cabin. Insert angelic music here: "AAAhhhhhhhh!" With the amount of times I use it right now, a flush toilet was all I needed to keep me happy. The bathroom was actually so clean and smelled so good I contemplated sleeping in it.

I am not complaining about it though. I love rustic trips because you really get back to nature and experience God's creation. Nature always makes me feel like God is present. And what better weekend to spend surrounded by God than Easter? Plus, if I survive, I'm left with some stories that make my parents shake their heads! My reward for roughing it!

What was neat about this location is that we had to drive about 30 minutes on a logging road to get there. The cabin was on the bank of the Nahatlatch River, and at the spot where a category 4 rapid was! So at night we kept the windows open and heard the roar of the rapids as we slept. Loved it!

A lot of "red-neck" fun was had by all. Colin was in heaven. There was fishing, bonfires, gold panning, and target practice (yes, I was a gun-toting pregnant lady).
Yummy trout was an addition to our Easter dinner!
Other than some Garnets and fools gold, no precious stuff found.
Burn corn candle, BURN!

And what Easter would be complete without an Easter Egg hunt or two?

And of course, there was LOADS of food! Food to burn, so to speak.

We had an entire laundry basket full of chips.

On Saturday, it was Rhonda's birthday. I would insert a photo of the birthday girl here, but I don't think she'd appreciate the face she's making, due to her protest of having to wear a birthday hat.

Fun times, fun times!

The Rest of Junk Week

Junk Hunting days 2 and 3 were not as profitable as day 1.

I must admit that the load we got on Sunday was pretty out-of-the-ordinary!

DAY 2

Colin went by himself and got the following:

A reeeeeeally old radio that he wants to turn into a CD player. Total savings: $0.








A plant pot that I've been wanting to buy for a few years. Total savings: $25.

Also a few other little things. Not much this day.


DAY 3

We both got to go out. As we were driving down a cul-de-sac, who do we run into? My parents! Fellow rubber-neckers of the sidewalk treasures! We got them hooked last year when we got them a treadmill.


More plant pots. I had pots almost IDENTICAL to these in my shopping cart at Home Depot on Sunday, but put them back just incase I'd find them junking! Whaddya know?

Total savings: $15

No, you are not seeing double. We got another crib. Didn't we tell you we're having twins? Just kidding. I thought I liked it better so we brought it home. And I do like it better, so not only did we SAVE money, we might sell the other one and MAKE money!

Total savings: $150 (matress not included)

You ready for this rare jewel? This is one of the reasons I love Colin so much. He's so random. So unique! Look what he picked up:

Yes, that is a corn on the cob candle. It's like he won the lottery.

Total savings: $0. There's NO WAY we'd spend money on this.









And finally, when it was too dark to hunt any more, we went to Timmy's because I was starving by then.

Total savings: -$2.50




So as a recap:

Total savings from day 1: $850
Total savings from day 2: $25
Total savings from day 3: $162.50
Total savings from all week: $1037.50
Having the experience of junk hunting: $Priceless

There are some things that money can buy. For everything else, there's Junk Week.

Junk Hunting Day 1

Happy 100th post to me!

I've been trying to think of something really spectacular to blog about on this important landmark. Alas, I came up with this...

Ever heard of the phrase, "one man's junk is another man's treasure"? Not only do Colin and I believe this statement, we LIVE it!

You see, one week per year, the residents of Port Moody are invited to do "Spring Cleaning". They can put any amount of junk (aka: stuff they don't use that could be PERFECTLY good) on their front curb, and the city will remove it all...for NO cost!

This is said week.

"Why do YOU care, YOU live in Poco", you may be thinking.

Well, I'm glad you asked.

Junk week is one of our favourite times in the year! People throw out some perfectly good stuff. And instead of letting the city take it to a landfill to (hopefully) rot away, we root through it and remove things that we can use!

It's NOT dumpster diving, it's junk hunting!

We even talk to the residents of the house if they're outside, and they will put signs on a lot of stuff that says, "THIS WORKS".

In the past few years, we've picked up some pretty cool stuff: a full size trampoline, a working treadmill and a drafting table are my favourites.

So to make you believe that we're not just filling our house with junk, and that we are the cheapest people on the planet, I am going to run a list of everything we pick up and how much money it would have cost or how much it saved us.

First up, the crib. We were going to buy one for $300.00 (before tax) on the weekend, but didn't. It's got all the pieces, follows current Health Canada safety regualtions and looks almost new after I gave it a good cleaning.

We set it up last night and just kept staring into it, as if there was a baby in there!

Next: the 4 brand new Michelin tires! They're already on the car, as our tires were tread-less. This saved about $300-$400.

Last year we got these leather bean bag chairs. They're in need of filling, so we picked up another chair with beans in it, and filled ours up more. Estimated savings $50. They're not cheap.

We saw a big fish tank. Colin wanted the whole thing but I did not. So he took the plastic plants out of it and added them to our tank. Hopefully the fish don't die. Estimated savings: $48 (6 plants @ $8 each).

However, now all you see is plants so we want more fish.

There were other things too, like a GT racer and a snowboard, which Colin is going to combine to make a super crazy GT racer (steerable toboggan). I have told him he's not allowed to mount a baby seat on it.

We also got a neat kerosene lamp (well Colin likes it but I think it's junk), a sword for Colin's pirate costume, and a few other things that I can't mention because they'll probably find their way to our annual "crazy" Christmas gift exchange.

So estimated total savings on Junk Week Day 1: $850.00

I really think PoCo should do this too. Then we could dump all the junk we picked up, that really turned out to be junk, in our own yard.