Mexanese Mumbo Jumbo

Sorry I missed last week, it was a bit of a gong show week.

Anyways, I've been on a bit of a health kick of late. Trying to eat as healthy as I can during the week because, let's face it, I have no structure to my weekends and food is basically whatever I have in the fridge/cupboards that I can form into a semblance of a meal so that I don't have to go downstairs to get groceries.

Of late I've discovered a love for green leafy veggies. I've always been a fan of spinach, but only in raw form and in salads. Seeing as how it's currently still winter, I was looking for warm alternatives. I tried out Kale the other day. It is, as Cam from Modern Family so aptly put it, the "new spinach". Sauteed with some S&P and a bit of garlic - it was quite tasty.

I also decided to be adventurous and give Swiss Chard a try. My best friend's mom loves it and swears it's the best leafy veggie out there. Again, made the same way kale was and it too was very tasty. (as an aside, I learned the feline is also quite a fan of the leafy veggies as he all too quickly chomped up a small fallen bit). Dinner that night was a success. Check!

I had made the whole bunch so that I'd have leftovers for lunch the next day. BAD IDEA. It was so bitter! I could barely eat it, but since I didn't want to have to go buy lunch, I forced myself to eat the bitter green stuff as fast as humanly possible.

Note to Self: Green leafy veggies do NOT make good lunch leftovers. And they leave bits of green in your teeth that people don't tell you about because they think it's funny. Or they're mean.

In an attempt to take more photos, or at least think about the shot more often, I've started carrying my camera in my purse (don't worry, it's a big purse and I pretend to be strong enough to carry it).

To be honest, I think I've taken my camera out, maybe twice, to snap a shot on my commute to and from work. It has however, scared TY away from even touching my purse thanks to Dana instilling a deep fear of a photographer's wrath for touching any of their gear. (If only we could instill a similar fear so he would stop pouring booze into plants or old coffee into water bottles).

On the other hand, thanks to a fun little app called instagram, I have been taking a lot more photos with my iPhone. This in and of itself, has been great at getting me to look at every day things in a new light. And while the challenge of getting the exposure correct isn't there, it certainly challenges you to frame the shot correctly the first (or 10th) time.

Here are a few of the latest ones.

The days are getting longer in Vancouver which really only means one thing to me - summer is just around the corner! Throw in the lovely sunny days we've been having and it's almost down right pleasant. Aside from the freezing cold air that numbs any expose body part in about 2.5 seconds

This weekend was so nice out, I headed downtown for a photo walk with my friend Frank. I managed to snap a few shots, including this one of an abandoned ski pole in the downtown business district.

Constantly teasing. Constantly calling my name. Taunting me, daring me to cave. Whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

How does one resist? My will power goes out the window. I try and distract myself but nothing works. Why do I love you so much Salty Goodness?!?!

Yes. That's right. You read it correctly. Salty Goodness. My nemesis is Salty Goodness.

Lately it has been in the form of tortilla chips or the ever so tasty Baked White Cheddar Chips from Kettle. It takes all my will power not go to on a daily Salty Goodness hunt. (Although at least at work I know CT & Chels will help me devour an entire bag of tortilla chips in 2.5 seconds so I won't eat the whole bag to myself.)

As I'm typing this, the plate of chips in the photo below are across the room and I keep getting up after typing each sentence to go take a chip or two.

Sigh, can someone please donate their will power?

I love to eat. I mean, seriously, who doesn't? And depending on what I'm eating, I can eat a lot.

The other night, having had a craving all day, I picked up a frozen pizza from the grocery store. I ate the whole thing. I didn't see anything wrong with this, considering I've also been known to eat an entire Earl's pizza in one sitting.

When I hit the hay 2 hrs later I suddenly felt ill. I figured it was either nausea, heartburn or indigestion. Or possibly all 3. Regardless, I couldn't sleep. Everytime I laid down I felt like I was going to throw up. I had to prop myself up and sleep in a half sitting position all night! Let me tell you, it was not pleasant.

Note to self: Eating a whole pizza 2 hrs before going to bed, not a good idea. Actually, in general, eating a whole pizza is not a good idea.

Well somehow the end of this week go away from me. Between dinner with Gina, Hell's Kitchen's grand re-opening and drinks with the folks from work, suddenly it's Sat and I haven't had time to write, much less take pictures.

Today's post was inspired by catching up with this week's PVR'd shows. It's to the point where I feel the need to hold an intervention...for myself. I watch a lot of TV. The amount of TV I watch probably rivals my friend Scotty's, except that I'm sure he watches quality TV shows with good writing, acting, etc. I, on the other hand, have pretty low standards for my TV show selection.

I recently switched to Telus and I made a list of all the shows I record during the week. Now before I tell you how many tv shows I record, let's keep in mind that some were on break since they are summer shows, and a couple had been cancelled but I just hadn't gotten around to deleting the series recording.

The list took me 20 mins to write. 20 mins! Turns out, I was recording 35 tv shows! Seriously, 35 shows!! In a single week! (Can I use more explanation marks!!)

Even with my low standards, I find this number ridonkulously high. The amount of time I spend watching said 35 TV shows during a given week, well, let's just say I've become an expert procrastinator. It's what my evenings revolve around. It's the first thing I think of when the idea of putting something off enters my mind. I've even said I was busy when friends invite me out, just so I can stay home and watch TV (ok I lied, I said that for effect, but I wouldn't put it past me).

It's an issue. It's a commitment. I'm having a relationship with my PVR. No wonder I have cats.

Ok, so before anyone gets too excited, it's not for me.

My sister's 30th birthday was this past weekend, and as a birthday gift, her boyfriend gave her the best gift ever - he proposed!

If you've ever met them, you would instantly see how perfect they are for each other and how much love there is between them. They are the definition of true love. It's beautiful, amazing, wonderful and re-affirms my belief that there is a soulmate out there for everyone.

Big hugs to both of them!!!

I cheated on this week's photo because I took this a while ago, but it's the only photo I have of him smiling nicely :)

P.S. I'm now taking bets to see how long until she's preggos :)

About 8 months, I bought an Ikea Lack shelf to put up in my bedroom. Being 5' nothing, a good place to store stuff is up. I also needed it to be high enough the cat couldn't reach it (though it didn't stop him from trying).

The sis' boyfriend was willing to help me put the shelf up, I just needed to go get the hardware. Procrastination got the better of me, of course, so 8 months went by and I finally made it to Homedepot. I found a lovely lady to help me and the first question she asked - how many screws do you need? Uh.... I had no idea! I hadn't bothered to look! I took a random guess and said 8. Next question - do you need drywall or stud screws? Crap, 0 for 2. Again, I winged it, and decided 4 of each, just in case.

By this time my sister & her bf had moved into a place in Richmond, so I enlisted Wayne's help to put the shelf up. First thing he says when he looks at the # of screws I bought and the instructions for putting up the shelf - soooo...you didn't buy enough screws. Then he started to drill the holes into the wall - none of them hit a stud.

Not only did I not buy enough screws, I also didn't buy enough of the right type of screws.

Note to self: Before going to Homedepot, check how many screws you actually need and check to see if the screws will actually hit studs or not.

Although, turns out I wasn't the only one to struggle with this mini project. Wayne's math was a bit off so he ended up having to put the shelf up twice, and it still not centered.

Ever have those days you stay in your pajamas all day? Don't leave your house, be lazy, watch tv, read, whatever?

Those days are a necessity in my family. Over the years, my sister and I have developed a Christmas tradition around this concept. We call them LoTR days. We spend the entire day, in pajamas, eating whatever we feel like, no cleaning, no chores, no work. Just watching Lord of The Rings, the extended version, from beginning to end.

At the end of day, you just crawl back into bed and go right to sleep. You'd think that after a day spent doing absolutely nothing we couldn't fall asleep. You'd be wrong. The amount of sleep my sister and I require is akin to that of a cat.

Yes it might sound ridiculous, but it keeps us sane. Otherwise you'll have us standing in a Dollar store having a meltdown because they're out of stars for the top of the Christmas tree. (This time, it was my sister.)

Oops, sorry to the less than 5 ppl reading my blog. Thought I had scheduled my photo of the week to go out on Thursday but apparently I don't know how to use technology sometimes. A little late but better than never as they say.

This past weekend, my mom hosted a birthday lunch for my sister and I. Since our birthdays are in December (me) and January (sis), it's easier given our busy schedules to combine the event.

My mom always makes a mexican meal for our birthdays, and this year was no different, nor did she disappoint. A few of my sister's friends joined us for the traditional meal, and Sanjay & Joslee (sp?) even brought me a beautiful orchid as a birthday gift.

Knowing my family's history with plants, Sanjay gave me permission to kill "him" and he wouldn't take offense. Since it was already decided that the plant was a boy, I was going to name him Bob, but decided that a Pat the Plant rhymed better. Fingers crossed I keep Pat the Plant alive, and that I find a way to keep Jack away from him too.

For the past few weeks, I've been trying to think of a decent, mildly entertaining, theme for a blog series. It's been a challenge because let's face it, I'm not all that interesting sometimes. But the other day, I was telling someone a story and at the end of the story, I said "Note to self, Self: blah blah blah".

Ok, I didn't actually say blah blah blah, but you know what I mean. I happened to be telling a story about the silly, random, not so smart things I do. That's when it hit me. I should document all my Note to Selfs.

So, I'm going to start with Note to Self Sundays, every other week for now, and see how many stories I can remember. Hopefully you stay tuned and get a laugh out of my silly, random, not so smart moments.

It was one of those hangovers. You know, the type where you feel like if you move too fast or stand for too long you're going to throw up? This was how I started my Sunday last week. I felt bad because I had plans to go take photos with Sev, something we've been trying to do since our photography outing

Once I managed to stand on 2 feet without waves of nausea overwhelming me, I met up with Sev and Frank and we headed out to UBC to take some photos. By the way, a good hangover cure - freeze cold weather. It was insanely cold out. I could barely take a picture before my fingers froze.

Sorry it's a bit dark & blurry, was being sneaky

The light was amazing. We couldn't have timed it better was we caught the golden hour. We putzed about there for a bit, then we headed over to Spanish Banks to see how the light was there. It was starting to get a bit dark, but just as we were about to call it a day, we saw this gent getting a bit of exercise before the sun fully set.

For more photos from that day, you can check them out on my photography site: Fortune Hill Photography

Well it's been an interesting evening so far. It started off with a run after work with the girls, and while it was kinda chilly out, it felt good to get out and run again after the holidays.

I came home and found this in my mail box.

First paycheque for a photography gig! This was the high point of my evening.

This excitement hit a prompt low the moment I walked into my bedroom where I found some "treats" the felines left for me. Or more likely, Ellie did. I won't go into details, but I'm sure any pet owner can image what I walked into. Good times.

Well another year has come and gone, and though I was planning on staying home last night, I ended up going out with Bailey. To Sandbar. And it was bad. Like really bad.

The only saving grace was that I had a few glasses of bubbly throughout the evening which did a fantastic job of causing me to forget parts of the evening. Of course this morning I was singing a different tune. But nothing some greasy greasy, a caesar and an Irish car bomb couldn't fix.

After brunch I went home and lounged on the couch with the felines, watching TV and surfing. As I perused FB, I came across a post by a friend I used to work with, and he explained that his 2011 resolution is to always have his camera with him and to post a picture a day. It got me thinking about photography, of course, and of my own resolutions, which I haven't made in a number of years because, let's face it, my laziness gets the better of me and they never last more than a couple of weeks.

Inspired by his post, I've decided to set certain challenges instead of resolutions for 2011, in hopes that they'll stick. So...drum roll please...here are my 2011 challenges:

1) Take more photos and post once a week. I was going to try the daily posting of photos but again, the depths of my laziness will undoubtedly get the better of me. I also decided that photos taken with my phone are acceptable since during the week I will likely not have my big camera with me, but that shouldn't prevent me from taking a great shot.

2) Cook a proper dinner at home once a week instead of my usual breakfast for dinner. This one might be the harder challenge to meet since cooking dinner for one usually sucks balls. But we'll see what happens.

So there you have it. I've put it in writing, out there in the series of tubes for the world to hold me to it. Fingers crossed I do.

A while ago Justin decided he'd had enough of the city and moved up to Whistler. With 2 weeks off from work, I decided to go up to visit, do some boarding and get away from the city myself for a mini vacay.

I headed up boxing day and thankfully the roads were pretty clear so that Justin wouldn't have to push my car the last 200 meters up to his house. I was greeted by Coda quickly before she promptly laid down, totally knackered after 2 hrs at the dog park.

After a great afternoon on the mountain, we headed back to take Coda out for a walk. Just a note about walks with Coda. They're not the leisurely stroll you see Vancouverites doing. These are hikes through the snow, sometimes on a cleared path, sometimes up the mountain, which if you're lucky, someone will have already gone through the trouble to carve out a path for you. If you're lucky. I think I did more exercise in 8 hrs than I have since my Christmas holidays began!

The next day we took Coda to the dog park and then walked around Alpha lake. We threw snowballs for Coda to catch. We climbed up the side of the mountain surrounding the lake. We did bum-slides down the mountain. And best of all, got to see how truly beautiful Whistler is.

...from tall dark handsome, and rich, gentlemen. They do say marry the first for love, the second for money. If Serendipity could throw in some blue eyes, that'd be fantastic.

It's been 3 years in the making but the day has arrived, I'm officially divorced! I can finally put that remaining bit of closure on that important part of my life.

I know some sort of celebration is in order, I'm even willing to pop a bottle of bubbly for the occasion, however the "Divorcée's Debauchery" has been put on hold for the moment as the other member of the club has been bogged down with the flu. Seems only right I celebrate with a fellow divorcée.

So stay tuned for the stories of that night because I'm pretty sure we'll make a pit stop at Sand Bar, which is always good for some blogging material.

Well, the cats have commandeered the couch, leaving me the table I call a desk to sit at. I figured while I'm sitting here, I might as well blog.

I got woken up this morning by a phone call from the Telus installation guy, who was slated to arrive between 10am-12pm today. He called at 9:23am. He arrived at 9:35am. I guess I'm just lucky that I live one block away from a Telus office. (can you hear the sarcasm? haha)

Needless to say, I've been up way earlier than I prefer to be on a Saturday, yet somehow the day has slipped away from me. It's almost 3pm and I have less than 3 hours before I have to be downtown pretending to be photographer extraordinaire at a friend's christmas party. But I think the worst part of it all, somewhere between getting a cup of tea and sitting back down at the desk, I've completely forgotten what I was going to blog about!

Maybe I should've have had another cup of coffee this morning. Oh well. Here's the a happy weekend to everyone!

Last week was Halloween, and while most people relish the thought of getting dressed up, I am actually starting to hate it.

I'm not quite sure where my hatred for it began. Probably due to the many years I wallowed in my own lack of creativity in the costume design department. Or perhaps thanks to my amazingly slack "life PM" skills that never had me organized early and then left me scrambling 2 days before Halloween for a costume.

Or perhaps it was because the last costume I put together involved dressing up like a 12yr old Mexican boy and getting told by a random stranger at the bar "Apparently you're hot. I just don't see it".

Regardless of my feelings towards this debaucherous yearly event, I have found that I am perfectly content spending Halloween dressed as the regular schlep that I normally am for the other 363 days of the year (you gotta spiff up a little bit on New Year's don't you?).

At least for the next week or so :)

This past thanksgiving weekend, I headed up to Kelowna to Chez Streefkerk. Streefy and I were yet again running the half marathon, and this year, the weatherman promised it would be warm.

The run was good considering I could feel my fingers and toes. It just decided to rain. Hard. 20 mins before the start. And the wind came along for a ride. It's one thing to have a light sprinkle while you're running - that's actually quite refreshing - it's something completely different to have it downpour on you while you're herded like sheep in the shute. Complaining aside, we managed to finish is a respectable 2hrs and 18mins, even if the 70yr old Grandma we'd kept pace with until about the 15km mark beat us.

That night was a first for me. I ate deep fried turkey for the first time in my life and I have to say, it was amazing! Add the Streefkerk's neighbour's casserole and Jason's butter filled stuffing and you've got a feast fit for queens! Or in this case, half marathon runners. :)

Our 3rd day in SD began with a morning surf for the boys, while I took pics. We then headed over to the Comber for morning screwdrivers and bloody marys. Next thing you know, we're all a little buzzed and we're ordering pizza from the pizza place across the street. (The Comber doesn't have food so they allow you to bring in take out. It's very convenient).

Devin, one of the neighbours, was having a birthday party for a friend on the deck that night, so aside from being off to a good start with about 3-4 free poured bloody marys in me, preparations for the party began. Devin and Ed walked to 100 metres to the liquor store to pick up a keg they had ordered, and the liquor store owner gave him a 40oz of Vodka for his party. Clearly they're regulars.

The party was a huge success and included drinking on the deck, a fire and going across the street to the Comber for "a shot and to close down my tab", as Ed put it. It was a line he used a few times, yet every time I thought "Didn't we already close his tab?" Not one of my brightest moments. At least this explains the pictures posted to FB that I don't remember being taken.

The next morning was a bit rough for me, so the boys went out surfing while I "recovered". Once I felt a bit better, I headed out for one last surf and even managed to catch a few waves this time. As it was the 4th of July, there were many folks out and about with red/white/blue on which made sitting on the deck drinking and people watching that much more entertaining. That and one of Ed's neighbours had marching band music going from about 9am all day long.

The building was having a BBQ so while I sat around trying to not look as hungover as I felt, Vinny, the resident chef, BBQ'd up some chicken legs with jalapeno and strawberry marinade and some Dr. Pepper braised ribs with homemade BBQ sause. It was amazing!!

This is also when Ed introduced us to "Sink the Biz", which if you mention this drinking game to Dennis, he will cringe and possibly grunt in disgust. The jist of the game is you fill a bucket with enough beer so that a glass (aka the biz) will float. Then everyone takes turns pouring beer into the biz. Whoever sinks the biz has to drink the glass. If you sink the biz 3 times in a row, you drink the bucket.

Ed convinced the boys to play by claiming that having to drink the bucket is very rare and he'd only seen it happen 1 or 2 times since he learned the game in university. Enter Dennis, resident myth buster of "it rarely happens" situations, who, in his gloriously hungover state, managed to sink the biz 3 times in a row and had to drink the bucket!

Finally it was time for us to leave, and while we were sad to say goodbye to such an epic weekend, part of me was somewhat relieved to be going home. I was exhausted. Next time, I need to be put on a proper training regime for the marathon in drinking known as Ed.