This

everythings covered in ice!!

 

The weather was insane this morning!!! Freezing rain so bad there was a 4 transport truck pile up on the 401, a couple of trucks caught on fire and the highway was closed in both directions. Buses were cancelled, schools were closed… I though I’d take the back roads to work, but after figuring out that 30 km/h wasn’t slow enough for the conditions I turned around and headed back home. No work for me today!! YESSSSSS!

A certain someone named Jason is stuck at home too, looks like it’ll be a day of blog reading, big bang theory, yoga and snuggles (:

Dance Commander

Tags

electric six, iphone photos, new years eve, Ottawa

 Everyone seems to get so hyped up for New Years Eve and have unrealistic expectations as to how the night will go. I was SO glad when we decided keep things low-key and see Electric Six in Ottawa. To be honest I really didn’t want to get super dressed up (gasp!!! I know!!) and I was kinda happy we’d be hanging out in a sketchy bar.

Since my friend invited us to the concert and Jay and I had never heard of the band we YouTubed them. We were a tiny bit scared when we saw their freaky/out there/crazy music videos and didn’t know what to think! In the end Electric Six played an awesome show. Decked out in retro suits and sun glasses they were full of energy and fun, they counted down the new year mid song, and ran around giving unsuspecting fans (myself included!) massive bear hugs after the show. Jay ended up buying one of their cds and a t-shirt, he liked them that much!

We didn’t bother trying to catch a cab back to the hotel after the snow, instead we trekked through the slush taking in the city at night and stopped at a random poutine place that even had vegetarian gravy! My friend Pete got some sort of double bacon poutine which looked absolutely disgusting, a heart attack special overflowing from a giant greasy cardboard box. He was a champ and tried to finish it but couldn’t, it was just that greasy. Despite all the New Years Eve fun we managed to wake up early and have brunch at il Primo one of the very few restaurants open on New Years Day.

Santa brought me a tripod

 

… even though he knew it would mean lots more pics for him!!

New Years Resolution

Tags

what should i do in 2012?

pics from a christmas party that had really tricky lighting!

It’s almost that time of year, the time where people write a looooonng self-improvement list and vow come January 1st to adhere to each and item. But by march most people have given up. The key to being successful with a new years resolution is it should be something you actually want to achieve, rather than something you think you should achieve.

I like to make one resolution and actually stick to it! It’s usually something I’ve been trying to change or do for a while, something that’s pretty important to me. Last year my resolution was to go completely vegetarian, and a year later I’m happy to say I’ve stuck with it (:

This year I’ve decided I’m going to learn how to use my camera properly and to take some photography courses. Photography is such a powerful form of art, I look at the work of photographers I admire and am blown away at their ability to tell a complicated story with just one image.

Basically I want to learn how to take photos that are properly exposed and figure out how to create a decent bokeh!!

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas and splitting the day between both our families meant we got to see so many people, eat lots of great food and catch up in general (: My favourite gift this year was two vegetarian/vegan cookbooks (Fresh & Fresh at Home) from my fave place to eat! Since my biggest complaint is most “vegetarian” cookbooks just take out the meat and use lots of cheese/cream/oil instead (don’t really get the point bothering to be vegetarian if that’s how you operate!) I was soooooo happy to have books that actually feature fruits and vegetables!

There’s a whole section on Thanksgiving Dinner and I happily volunteered to host it next year. Since my family loves to bug me about being vegetarian they agreed to come only if Jay cooks a turkey!

Happy Holidays everyone!

hey good looking, why the frown? You always look better when it’s upside down. You say that you got nowhere you’re going to. Can I go nowhere with you?

Tags

craft beer, fun stuff to do in Canada, iphone photos

Whenever I hear a Joel Plaskett song I always think of singing along to his cds in the car on the way to the Muskoka Beer Festival this past summer. Sometimes it’s tricky trying to explain to people how craft beer events are not all about drunken debauchery, how it’s nothing like the cheesy beer commercials on tv. Thanks to big corporations (ahem Molson!) people have this mental image of beer drinkers as frat boy types chugging beer after beer chasing after girls. The craft beer scene isn’t like that at all! Microbreweries put a lot of thought and effort into their products and the results are flavourful, none of this I’m-drinking-different-brands-yet-they-all-taste-like-water nonsense.

That whole weekend was full of memories and the beer festival itself was the perfect day. Even though I wore wool shorts and roasted in the sun, I wouldn’t change a thing.

baby its REAL cold outside!

As I get ready to meet up with friends who are home for Christmas I’ve sadly concluded it’s just way too cold out to wear fun tights and my pink fall coat. Boo!

This morning I accidentally hit the off button instead of snooze, was late for work and generally had a super rushed day because of it. Despite this setback I accomplished a lot, the biggest thing being a job application for a position I really want in Ottawa. Fingers crossed this works out because we are moving soon and there aren’t many jobs there for people who can’t speak French… or should I say for those who can barely speak French! Jay and I both went to school in Ottawa and fell in love with the beautiful city, neither one of us can wait to move back (:
 
Since Jay’s new job starts mid jan and I have yet to find something, the interim plan is I stay with family here during the week and work, then head to Ottawa on the weekends. Obviously it’s not ideal, we like being together more than being apart, but so far we haven’t come up with something better.

On a slightly different note this hilarious article about Ottawa style is sadly the truthful! Despite being know for its lack of fashion sense, Ottawa has plenty to offer (restaurants, museums, proximity to Montreal, etc) and although it’s fairly small with only a million people, it sure beats living in a village of 800!!

Flying Monkeys Christmas Party

Tags

craft beer, flying monkeys

Earlier in the week Jay and I went to the Flying Monkeys Christmas party at the beautiful Maclaren Art Center and met most of the people responsible for the great brew. If there’s one thing I learned from that night (besides the fact that everyone is laid back and friendly) it’s that beer and cameras do not mix!! These snaps of dessert are the only salvageable photos from the evening (everything turned out to be a massive blur), so next year I’ll be sure to bust out the camera before I open a beer!!

monday morning you sure look fine

You know it’s Monday when it takes restarting your computer 7 times before the internet will work. Reliable internet connection is one of the many things I miss about living in the city, when we move back (only a month and a half before that happens, a very long month and a half) I will never take my internet connection for granted again. promise!

It’s really hard to be surly on this particular Monday morning because Christmas is less than a week away AND there is snow on the ground. Even though I’m not quite done my shopping (one of these years i WILL finish in November, it’s happened once, it could happen again) and I have less than a week to get it done, listening to She & Him Christmas keeps me calm. for now anyways lol.