Less Than A Week To Go...

Wow, I can't believe today is December 20th! Five days until Christmas! I'm actually feeling pretty prepared this year. My shopping is done, I only have ONE project unfinished (a scrapbook for my Grammie) and a relatively free schedule from now until the big day! As of Friday, I'm on vacation until January 2nd. Wahoo! In that time I have SO many people I'm getting together with...hopefully it all works out. I can't wait to meet Baby Elliott!

Yesterday I discovered the joys of text messaging. How convenient...it's like MSN on the go. Very cool. I'm hooked.

Tomorrow I'm having lunch with my friends Chris & Dana. Chris & I work together but never really get to see each other. Dana used to work with us and the last time I saw her was the summer. It will be nice to catch up and we're going to one of my favourite restaurants...Coppa Di Gelatto.

I think I'm going to rent "Christmas Vacation" tonight. It's one of my favourite holiday flicks and I haven't watched it yet this year.

Be sure to check out Simon & Claire's travel blog on the right of the screen. They are on a year-long trip around the world and Simon is an amazing photographer, so it makes for some pretty sweet armchair traveling.

I Did It!

Yesterday I finished my Christmas shopping. What a great feeling! And I didn't have to fight the crowds at the mall. I went to Petrolia and went shopping with my sister. It was great because there were no line-ups and I got unique items that I wouldn't have found had I just gone to the mall. As a bonus, I ran into a few people I haven't seen in a long time. Feels good to have that done :)

Getting to know me...

This is one of those things that gets sent around in your e-mail circles. I know some people find them annoying, but I think they're kind of fun and sometimes give you some insight into people that you wouldn't have known otherwise. I decided to post my answers here so you could learn a little something about me today!

1. What is your occupation? Graphics Girl - A-Channel, London
2. What color are your socks right now? black3. What are you listening to right now? Matt Costa - The Road4. What was the last thing that you ate? a berry smoothie for breakfast
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes… every day. Although I couldn't really when I bought my car :)
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Sassy Red
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Char
8. Favourite band: that's a really tough one...some of my top favourites: Beatles, Paul Simon, Jack Johnson, Coldplay, Matt Costa, Dave Matthews Band, U2
9. How old are you today? 2910. Favorite Drink? gingerbread latte11. What is your favorite sport to watch? none
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, that reminds me, I need to make an appointment14. Favorite Food? BBQ Steak15. What was the last movie you watched? The Holiday16. Favorite day of the year? Christmas Eve17. What do you do to vent anger? vent to Char18. What was your favorite toy? my cheerbear19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Fall20. Hugs or kisses? Both
21. Cherries or blueberries? Cherries22. Living arrangements? one roommate... Jodi23. When was the last time you cried? Monday night
24. What is on the floor of your closet? Christmas presents25. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Nicole26. What did you do last night? went to Williams for a chai latte with Sue.27. Favorite smells? fresh laundry, the beach28. What inspires you? hmmm, a deadline29. What are you afraid of? blue foods
30. Favorite dog breed? I'm not much of a dog person, but I think I like labs
31. Number of keys on your key ring? 632. How many years at your current job? 7.533. Favorite day of the week? Monday night...because of Prison Break (otherwise Sunday)34. How many states have you lived in? None ...just Ontario35. Favorite Holidays? Christmas & Canada Day
36. Ever driven a Motorcycle or heavy machinery? I LOVE motorcycles and heavy machinery... well, I'd say a tractor. I've driven a tractor.

I take that back...

Ok, last night I was singing the praises of the fluffy blanket of snow. Um, I take that back. While it is still really beautiful...it has basically shut down our city! Today everything is closed from the University to the bus line. I went out to shovel this morning (after shovelling at 9pm last night) and the snow was about 2 feet deep against the door. I managed to scoop out a little path to the sidewalk which was also completely filled in. So, I cleared a path to our laneway. Jodi (who is a teacher on SNOW DAY) is currently out there trying to uncover her car. The photo above shows how much snow fell after she came in last night at 10pm. Today is the first day in 7.5 years that work actually called me to say... "hold off on coming in until we see how things go". The crazy thing is that tomorrow the temperature is going above zero and will stay there for a few days, so I guess it won't be lasting long. In the meantime, if you live in London, enjoy your snow day. If you don't live in London, apparently you have no idea what I'm talking about!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

My intention was to rant about how much I hate the snow...and for the most part I do. However, as I went out to shovel the drive tonight, I realized that the snow can actually be quite beautiful...almost poetic. I went out tonight about 9pm and it was so quiet. The snow was coming down in giant white flakes and landing silently on the ground. Even the cars that drove past were somewhat muffled under the fluffy white blanket. When you don't have to drive in it, the snow can be a wonderful thing.

Random Thoughts

I consider myself to be a pretty healthy person. So, when woke up with a cold yesterday, I was surprised and a little annoyed. I take vitamin C on a daily basis in the winter months to avoid such situations. However, here I am...my sinuses all stuffy and a nice red nose. And tired! I can't believe how tired I am. Last night I took a Nyquil and went to bed by 9pm! Usually Nyquil is a magic drug and I get a nice sound sleep, but last night I tossed and turned, propped my head with pillows, then removed them, even trying to sleep in the chair in the livingroom for a while. All this to say I have a cold and am not enjoying the stupor that I feel I'm in.

I can't believe it's already December 6th! I haven't even sent out ANY Christmas cards yet! Yikes. I really need to get moving on some things...and SHOPPING is one of them. I bought gifts for my nieces & nephews in September and since then have had this idea in my head that I'm ahead of the game this year. However, I haven't done any shopping since. Now I'm perplexed for good ideas and am soon running out of time! On Saturday I'm planning a trip to Port Huron and am hoping that will finish things off.

Congratulations to my friend Sarah. She got a new job this week at City TV in Toronto. She'll be doing a lot of the same things she's currently doing at her job at OMNI but I think she's looking forward to a change. I believe she starts the 2nd week of January. Way to go Sarah!

Welcome to the World Elliott

I am happy to report that Amy & Patrick are the proud new parents to Elliott Graham Robitaille. He was born on Wednesday, November 29th at 3:10pm. They are all doing very well, and to quote Amy, he's "impressing us with his cuteness every minute of the whole day that we have known him."

what's on your i-pod?

I thought it might be kind of fun to see what people are listening to. Leave a comment and list the last 5 songs played on your i-pod.

Mine are:

All Of You - Tony Bennett
F-Stop Blues - Jack Johnson
Politik - Coldplay
Seymour Stein - Belle & Sebastian
Girl Next Door - Matt Costa

Crazy Day

During my lunch-hour today, I heard an interesting page on the intercom system. Apparently there was some sort of "situation" in the lobby. I decided to go and take a look. It was the same man that had come to the station last week when he wanted to let his views on poverty be known.

Today he came back and was more assertive than the last time. There was quite a little crowd gathering in the upper part of the lobby with several staff members in the lower part preventing the man from entering the building.

Before the police got here, he had urinated on our Christmas tree and lit up a cigarette inside the building. He was taken away without much incident, but it was definitely and interesting afternoon at the A-Channel Studios.

He Comes From The Land Down Under....

Last night I went to see Xavier Rudd at Centennial Hall. I think he's about the most talented multi-tasker I've ever seen! I thought it was pretty impressive when I saw Jacob Moon http://www.jacobmoon.com use the "jam-man" to loop his own music and play over it. But this was even better!

Xavier sat on a little platform amidst various drums, guitars, didgeridoos, and tropical-looking plants. As he sang, he also kept time with his barefoot on some sort of drum machine. He would also play the guitar, harmonica, didgeridoo as well as a multitude of other drums (even a clay pot at one point) But the impressive part was he was doing this simultaneously! VERY cool.

I was introduced to his music through my friend Laurence this summer. We both became a little obsessed and when I found out he was coming to London, we jumped on board and got tickets. It was an awesome concert and I encourage you to check him out at http://www.xavierrudd.com or watch the video below.

Due Date Party!

On Saturday I went to my first "due date party". :) My friend Amy decided a few weeks ago that since she was due on a Saturday, she might as well have a party! This was such an "Amy" idea. As predicted, no baby yet. But, it was a good time to get together and anticipate the new bambino! Can't wait to hear the big news!

Jeff Craig

This is my friend Jeff. He keeps bugging me to put him in my blog, so here he is...his very own post. Some of the things Jeff likes: Smoked Salmon, "Rescue Me" (TV show), Shakespeare In Love, scaring away burglars and bad jokes. Things Jeff does not like: Danny Bonaduce, apple pie (apparently) and making dubs of my Grammie's DVD.

Comments

If you're here reading my blog, I'd love for you to leave a comment. Otherwise I think no one's reading! Thanks.

I'm so glad we did this trip. What an awesome experience. I just adore my Grammie and this trip proved to me how brave she was to come to Canada and leave everything she knew behind her. What a love story!

The Main Event....

On Wednesday, we were up early and headed to Pier 21 for the day-long celebration. Grammie was thrilled when she got her VIP badge with her name on it. We walked around and saw the exhibits and took in the really cool multi-media presentation. Soon it was time for the vow-renewal ceremony. There were 18 couples that renewed their vows after 60 years of marriage. It was so cute!

Lots of mingling and listening of stories (which boat, how the couple met, etc) and then it was off to the Gala Dinner. It was a beautiful evening with celtic dancers, the Premier of Nova Scotia, an orchestra, piper and A CONGA LINE to finish the evening off!! It was a hoot, seeing all these 80+ year old women shuffling along in a line to "It's A Long Way To Tipperary". He he.

Day Two - Warbride Reunion

Our second day we had "free". We weren't really sure what we were going to do until we got there and looked through some brochures. We settled on heading to see an exhibit on Anne Frank at the Museum of Natural History. It was pretty neat, but there was a large group of school children there and after a while...we were ready to go!

We had some lunch and then headed down to the boardwalk as it was a lovely day. We took a nice walk along the water and enjoyed the time outside.

The VIA train carrying 250 warbrides was due to arrive at the train station at 4:30 so we headed over to welcome them. The station was a buzz of activity before the train even arrived. Cadets, Red Hat Society, Reporters, Warbrides and general well-wishers were all gathering.

We happened to meet a sweet lady named Jeanie that came on the same boat as Grammie just a few months before her. She was there with her daughter and we made an instant connection. When the band started playing the old war-time songs, Grammie & Jeanie were dancing away. It was such a great moment, I realized I was so lucky to have this chance. What a great memory!

Because of all the well-wishers that lined the tracks on the way to Halifax, the train was an hour and a half late. But, it was worth it to see these ladies (still full of the spunk and sense of adventure that brought them to Canada in the first place) get off the train. Many were overwhelmed with the welcome as it was like a cross between a Hollywood Premiere and Military Honour Guard.

We decided to have dinner with our new friends at a restaurant close-by.

Warbride Reunion

This week I flew to Halifax with my Mom & Grammie to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Canadian Warbride. What a wonderful experience for us to share!

We headed out Monday morning for the Hamilton airport. It was my mom's first time on an airplane so she was a little nervous. Once we were onboard, I was disappointed to learn that we did not have seat-back TV's on our plane. :( Fortunately, I brought a book so I just did some reading.

When the flight attendant was passing out the snacks, she asked my Grammie if she'd like "jet mix". However, she thought she was offering "bread sticks". To her disappointment (and my amusement) it was a pretzel mix that was in the package...not bread sticks! he he...too funny.

As we were approaching Halifax, I noticed the trees looked like they had snow on them. "Hmmm, I wonder if that's really snow, or if it just looks like that because I'm up high?" Well...it was really snow. I couldn't believe it...we had left a beautiful day in Ontario (one of the FEW this fall) and landed to Halifax's first snow. It was really wet and gross. Fortunately it had turned to rain by the time we arrived in the city.

Our first night we were all pretty pooped so we had dinner at the hotel and relaxed in our room.

Dressing Up

Time for an update! Here are some photos from Halloween. I was an ipod and my friend Lawrence was "The Man In Black" Johnny Cash.

Reminiscing

I thought it might be fun to post the story of when I went to the Price is Right. I found this in a long-lost file in my e-mail. Hope you enjoy...I'm going to try and post the video soon!

Well, we did it! Our dream of seeing the Price Is Right & Bob Barker in the flesh (as weathered as it is) has come true! We had no idea how difficult and gruelling it would be to get on the show.... we showed up at 5:30am on the morning of our taping to wait in line for an hour... only to find out we had STAND-BY tickets...we hadn't gotten there early enough.
I guess the "hard-core" Price Is right fans arrived the night before and camped out. We were told to come back at 11:30am to see if anyone would not show up. (I'm not sure why you wouldn't once you have the tickets!) Anyway, we went back to our hotel for a nap and showed up at 11:30 to wait in line again...this time for about 1 1/2 hours. Keep in mind this is in an outdoor waiting area. We can't believe how many Canadians were there....those Canucks love their Price Is Right.
Well, the moment finally arrived when the stand-by people started getting tickets... would you believe that we missed it by 3 people?!!!! AUGH!!!!!!! Fortunately we noticed a group of red T-shirts that said "University of Guelph loves Bob" (for those of you from far away...Guelph is about an hour from London, where I live)

We went over to talk to them and told them our story. Our luck was changing... there was a group of 16 of them, but to qualify as a group you need 20 people. They had already given their 4 extra tickets away that day, but were coming back the next and said we could just meet them in the parking lot at 10am. (sounds like we were making some kind of illegal deal ...don't worry, its all ligit)

What a GRRREAT alternative to arriving at 2am and sleeping on the street just to get a ticket! We had a nice sound sleep in our hotel room and met the Guelph crew the next morning. Turns out one of the organizers won his way on stage only to be outsmarted by the secret X. Bummer. But he did get to spin the big wheel and keep the desk set from contestants row.

OK, we know we're in California, but the temperatures yesterday were COLD. It was overcast and raining and we waited 4 1/2 hours in this outdoor "shelter" with hard metal benches and a concession stand. Wow, talk about dedication.
The moment finally arrived when we were "interviewed" by the producer. Basically he asked our name, where we were from and what we did. Karla got the added question of if she watches the show. (what kind of a question is that anyway??? Like she'd wait that long for a show she's never heard of)

After we were ushered to more hard benches in a windy corridor, we were asked to sign a release form to be on the WAYNE BRADY show! (for those of you that don't know, he's the hilarious black guy from Who's Line Is It Anyway?) How cool is that? And then he walked by!
As you can imagine, the excitement was overwhelming. Not only would we be on The Price Is Right, but the Wayne Brady show too!

FINALLY we were allowed to enter the studio...about 10 minutes before taping began. If we have learned one thing on this trip, it is that NOTHING is as it appears on TV. (you'd think I'd realize that before since I work in the industry!!) The studio was SO SMALL. Like think small and then it was smaller. It was like a miniature set or something....crazy....and surreal.

After putting up with a cheezy version of the American National Anthem, the announcer appeared and "entertained" us until the man himself walked out on stage. Wow, what a moment! Because of the wild and crazy fans cheering, you couldn't hear anything the announcer said, including the names to come on down. There was a stage manager with signs that said the people's names. One of the first people called was the guy sitting directly in front of us from the Guelph group!!! It was so exciting to actually have someone to cheer on. He won his way on stage to lose an SUV in Lucky 7. However, he did well on the Big Wheel ($0.85) and was in the showcase showdown at the end of the show. He lost. However, the woman that won is a cute little lady that was across from us in line. She's from Minnesota and vacations in Yuma.

We were on the edge of our seats the whole time! It was exhausting! THEN Wayne Brady came out to tape some shtick for his show. He wanted to "come on down" and guess where he sat in the audience??? Yep, in the empty chair right in front of us! So, we will definitely be on the Wayne Brady show the end of next week AND on The Price Is Right March 3.