jenn's american life

Getting back on track

2010-08-16T02:11:00.003-04:00

... Hopefully. So here I am lying in bed with my iPod touch posting a blog. I haven't been keeping up with the blogging world but maybe it's time to get back into it. I guess the past year has been ok. Most of my close friends know by now that I've been struggling with infertility. I've been trying to keep a positive attitude, but I am definitely getting tired of all the doctor visits, medications, shots, and procedures with no results. My condition is PCOS. I was responding to the medications alone but every few cycles my doctor goes a step more aggressive. I'm at the stage of deciding if I want more injectables. But you know I don't want to end up like Jon and Kate plus Eight. Anyhow I may or may not create a separate blog for the gory details of my fertility treatments as I'm sure not everyone wants to read about that.

In other news the housing market in my area is continuing to crash. There are a few houses in my subdivision that are foreclosures. I'm hoping the market will eventually go back up. I'd like it if my area would attract more businesses (and therefore jobs) so we wouldn't have to drive to a neighboring town for just about everything.

I experienced nasty fire ant bites for the first time recently. They suck. I don't recommend them. :P

I've been playing sc2. It's pretty fun. And if course Curt and I are still on WoW in garona as alliance.

As much as I'd like to write more, typing on this this gets annoying after a while. So bbl!

A year minus a day.

2010-04-12T15:31:00.003-04:00

Well a whole year has gone by since my last update (minus a day). I don't know what has happened to the time really. Nothing much has happened! I guess I haven't been updating because I was in a rut. Or maybe it just felt that way because the previous years had been such a whirlwind.

So what's new? Once again not much. I've been searching for a job with not much luck. However tomorrow I will be substitute teaching Science. So that will either be really fun or a huge disaster.

Curt's job seems to be going well, so hopefully that will continue. The dog and cat are happy too.

I've learn that I am much happier when I have a project to keep me occupied, so I'm planning on converting our back porch into a workout room. I'm still making jewelry, but not as much as I was. No one seems to have the spare cash to buy anything these days so it was just accumulating dust. I tried my hand at some candle making for fun. I enjoyed it. I've also done some cake decorating, and paper crafts.

My new favorite thing has to be my iPod Touch. It's great with Apopka's wifi! I still reeeeaaaaaaaaaaally want an iPhone, but I guess I'll have to find steady work before I can afford that.

In other news, I have my full green card now! So I'm set for 10 years. :D

Ages and ages.

2009-04-13T16:50:00.006-04:00

So it has been a while, but things have been hectic. Anyhow, time for a massive update.

Lets see, we went on our trip last summer. We had a great time! Seeing Curt's friends was great and MN was beautiful. Curt's parents were great hosts, and they took us on nice adventures in Minnesota. The north shore was really nice, and I think the bugs thought I was really nice (and tasty) too. I was able to get a some nice photos, but not too many cuz lugging my camera around is a huge pain in the butt. Curt's parents were very nice to let us stay so long. I can't wait to go again!

Unfortunately when we returned Curt was having some stomach pain. He tried to ignore it and go on about his business, but eventually went to the doctor. And it's a good thing he did because he had appendicitis! He had to have emergency surgery in downtown Orlando, and I spent the next week driving to the hospital... but I eventually put the dog in a kennel and stayed for a couple days at a time. Curt (and the dog) got to come home but Curt was out of commission for a while. Although he was pretty stubborn about trying to get back to work (when he was ordered to stay in bed... men). So by the time that was over it was already October.

October was pretty good, Curt's parents came down for a visit and happened to arrive on our birthday (Curt's and my birthdays are 2 days apart, so for simplicity sake we just share). I think (hope) they had a nice visit. In November my parents were down to visit and they stayed for Thanksgiving. So August-November were pretty busy for us.

Curt and I went up to my parents place in Canada for Christmas. Once again we drove. The drive wasn't too bad until we got into snow, and realized that when we had the car place replace the washer fluid with -40 stuff, they used regular 32 or whatever it is. So our car had no washer fluid and the car place we tried on the way told us we'd just have to let it defrost (unless they were about to pull a tropical climate out of their back pocket I didn't see how that was going to happen). When we go to my parents house we were able to take it to the local Canadian Tire and they defrosted it for us with a heat gun. They said they had a lot of cars from the southern states in for the same reason. Christmas was good, and the drive back was uneventful.

But.. when we got home Curt had kidney stones. This time it didn't require emergency surgery, but he did have to go to the ER. I'm starting to think we just shouldn't leave the state anymore.

Oh, and on top of that, I was sick due to some side effects which STILL haven't gone away. They're slowly getting better, but I pretty much spend Jan and Feb in bed.

In other news, I've been continuing with my jewelry making. I've been slowly learning, and now that I'm out of bed I've started practicing/experimenting with silversmithing. I've been working on rings.

I'd like to find some classes to take, but I haven't really found anything local. Right now I'm learning from books and YouTube.

So that's it for now, I've skipped a lot of stuff, but I got the major updates out of the way. Hopefully I'll be able to update more often now.... no promises...

Road Trip!

2008-07-18T13:34:00.002-04:00

Next week, Curt and I are going on a road trip up to MN. I've already loaded up my iPod for the trip. :D

Before we go, here is my visited state list:

visited 19 states (38%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

And countries:

visited 4 countries (1.77%)
Create your own visited map of The World or determine the next president

I need to travel more overseas... o_O

Yay!

2008-06-24T15:31:00.000-04:00

Fedex brought my CD today, so I was able to fix my compy.

So it has been a while..

2008-06-24T12:57:00.003-04:00

And I'm getting complaints.

So here's the update. About my green card. I sent in my i-90 to get my card replaced with the correct name on it. The girl on the phone and the 2 people we talked to at the Orlando office said it takes 90 days. 90 days has come and gone so I got Curt to call them up (I'm just sick of talking to them and getting a different response every time). The girl he talked to this time said it's not 90 days, it's 180 days. So I guess I just have to wait a bit longer.

My women's club takes a break in the summer, so I don't have those meetings right now. In my spare time (which is like all day) I've been making jewelry. It's fun! I'm going to try doing some metal work. Curt helped me set up a workspace in the garage. My first few attempts will suck mightily, so no pics until I get better.

My computer... we had a power outage, then the power came back on and then it went back out again. On top of that my computer took the liberty of auto-updating itself at this moment (even though I have automatic updates turned off, it periodically is force-fed an update). The power outage happened right as windows was booting, but on the part where it was trying to update itself... so it basically ate itself to death when that happened. Right now I'm using the spare computer.

For the ppl who sent me questions for tarot readings, I will get them done asap.

Bork bork bork

2008-05-12T15:36:00.001-04:00

Don't say I didn't warn you...

Borkified!

PS...

2008-05-05T01:26:00.000-04:00

Drinking a giant glass of milk then playing DDR is a bad idea.

DDR!

2008-05-05T00:53:00.002-04:00

We got Dance Dance Revolution - The Hottest Party!

It's fuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnn!

Unfortunately I suck. It took me a while to figure out how to play, but I'm getting the hang of it. The manual naturally is no help.

Additionally we had really good steaks for dinner, from Costco. Mmmmmm :-d Nom nom nom.

Forgot to mention..

2008-04-30T11:40:00.002-04:00

Since I'm moving stuff off my own server, I put my recipes here: http://jennsrecipebook.blogspot.com/

Darn you kitty!

2008-04-30T11:18:00.003-04:00

I think the cat was bored last night. As a result, he was a royal pain.

At about 3:30am he decided that harassing the dog (who was sleeping on our bed) would be an awesome idea. The result was Mira snarling at him and waking me and Curt up. Grr. Despite my tossing him off the bed, he continued to bother Mira and pounce on my feet until at least 4am.

At 5am he coughed up hairballs loudly next to the bed. Once we were awake, he wandered off. Cat hairball-puke smells.

At 6am he decided to sharpen his claws on the mattress on Curt's side of the bed. Curt meow-growled at him to get him to stop, which he did for about 20 mins when he proceeded to attack the tag that hangs off the fan's power cord. I got up, and put him outside of our bedroom and closed the door.

At 7am he was not impressed with being locked out of our bedroom, so he head-butted, body-checked and scratched the door. Then he shredded the carpet under the door a bit.

At 7:30, Mira wanted to go out for her morning pee.

We are tired...

In other news, ABC runs international news at 6:30pm here. I only caught it briefly but it seems to be way better than CBS news. Yay, not feeling so bubble-ish now!

Also, I'm probably going to stop having my own server, since I never use it for myself and it's expensive. So all the people that are mooching space from me will have to find somewhere else to host their stuff.

Remembering Ernie

2008-04-26T00:24:00.004-04:00

My Uncle Ernie passed away this week. I was hoping that I'd be able to make it back to Canada in time to see him once more, but the screw-ups with my paperwork on the government's part didn't allow for that.

I'm sad I missed my opportunity to tell him just how important he was in my life. He stayed with my family on weekdays when I was a young teen, so he wouldn't have to commute so far to work. Perhaps it was a favour to him, but I think it was more of a favour to my family. He took care of me and my brother after school at a time when my parents didn't get home until very late. He did things he really didn't have to do for kids that weren't his. Driving us to Tae Kwon Do, making dinner, cleaning up after us, and many more... and I was at an age where having someone tell me what to do was extremely aggravating. Secretly, I was thankful for him and I enjoyed having him there, even though I didn't always show it.

Although these things were unsaid, I hope he knew just how loved he was, and is.

Rest in peace, Ernie, I hope to meet you again in your next life.

Mini News

2008-04-19T02:20:00.004-04:00

1. I made it so you don't have to have a google account to leave comments. I forget why I set it up that way, but I probably had a reason. Ah well, no more.

2. I've given up on the Friday Fiver. Got bored. Oh well.

3. I'm back on IRC. My friends are still network hopping, so I'll be following them a bit. I don't have plans to ever run a server again.

4. BSG... *CRY* Whyyyyyyy'd they do that?

5. I'm going to bed now... really.

It's old but...

2008-04-18T18:48:00.000-04:00

I ROFLed.

And that dream reminded me

2008-04-18T09:56:00.003-04:00

of a couple shows I miss.

This Hour Has 22 Minutes
The Mercer Report

(Yep, those were the two shows where I got the real news updates...)

Had a strange dream.

2008-04-18T09:39:00.002-04:00

It was about watching Road to Avonlea. I don't think there are any re-runs on TV here. And the DVDs are crazy expensive. Sigh.

Challenge response

2008-04-16T14:03:00.003-04:00

In response to my challenge, Dustin asked me:

I often wonder what you think about living in America (USA) vs living back in Canada.

* Culture
* People
* Likes / Dislikes

Also, when you are able to get a job, will it be a shock?

I took my time to reply to this because it’s something I really had to think about. Honestly, I miss Canada. I pretty much miss everything... except the snow. I tend to get a bit of seasonal depression from the super short days and the grey “blahness” of the Canadian Winter. Florida winters are bloody awesome. And heck, I don’t even mind the summers that much.

I have to admit; when I came here I had a bit of a culture shock. And I was surprise because I was thinking Canada, USA, pretty much the same. Well they’re not. There are lots of little differences that you don’t really notice until you live here. I also suppose coming directly from a university where I stuck to the Science side of campus to a conservative, somewhat religious area was a bit of a shock. I'm trying to adjust, but a lot of the time I feel like I don't fit in.

Politically, well, umm, yeah. I suppose I should just get it out that I’m very liberal, which could be a whole discussion on its own. People seem to have differing ideas about what liberal means. I’d say I’m the Canadian version of liberal, which is apparently different than the American version. But… lets just say I have a few differences with the local majority. For the most part, I’m willing to agree to disagree. Not that I get a vote anyway. Actually, I tend to just keep my mouth shut.

I definitely do not like the health care system in the USA. I’m pretty paranoid about getting sick or injured here, since I’m pretty sure our insurance will try to find some way to not have to pay. I know the Canadian system isn't perfect, but at least I know there that I'm not going to lose my home (or worse) due to illness.

Food. Oh God I miss Tim Hortons! And Swiss Chalet! And poutine! Although, I made my own poutine. It wasn’t as good because the grocery store doesn’t carry cheese curds so I had to substitute. But it satisfied the craving. I’ve had some trouble finding good restaurants too. I have a couple favorites, but I really miss European style restaurants. On the likes side, I have tried a few new things. Restaurants are cheaper, but I think that stems from the fact that wait staff is paid slave wages.

Education here is pretty crappy, but that is a local thing. When Curt and I have kids we’ll be doing some extra home school stuff in addition to public school (because we feel public school is a benefit to social development). College... college is overpriced. Way to get people started off in ridiculous amounts of debt.

Shopping is awesome. Old Time Pottery is pure win. Although, Curt really hates that store, so I only get to go when we need something. Even then, he resists.

There is a serious lack or international news on TV. We do get BBC America, so I get a bit, but it's not my favorite channel. I miss CBC and CTV. I feel like I’m living in a bubble here. BUT, I do get some awesome TV that I didn’t get in Canada. Bravo (Top Chef) and SciFi (BSG) just to name a couple.

When I get a job, it may or may not be a shock. I'm not sure what you mean here. It will be nice, I think, to get out the house and meet people. Although, when that happens I'll probably have to give up WoW or at least cut back a lot. I need my sleep!

Been a while..

2008-04-16T13:19:00.002-04:00

since I posted an update.

Although, not much has happened.

Last week I had a friend visiting. She was down for a Christian conference in Orlando. It was nice too see her, we haven't really be able to visit each other since high school. I hope she had a nice time here.

When she was here, she and I went to check out the closest state park (there are 2 near by). I like this one better, it had nicer trails and a bigger swimming area. Although the alligator warning signs made me a bit nervous.

We had planned to go to Leu Gardens on Sunday, but naturally it rained the whole day. That put the idea out of the question, so we drove around Orlando a bit, then went back to our house and watched Stardust.

On Monday we had planned to go back to the park, but it was pretty cold out (for Florida) and was definitely too cold to swim. We ended up just walking around the neighborhood, and to the park that I think is on school property. We took the dog, who was very happy to come along.

At the end of the month, my women's club is hosting the Art and Foliage Festival, and I'll be working there both days. I'm not sure exactly what to expect since I've never been before.

I joined a Bunkos group, but I'm pretty bad at the game. Hopefully I'll get better with practice.

A little late...

2008-04-06T16:45:00.002-04:00

Music

1. What song frequently gets stuck in your head?
Horrible cheesy 80s love songs from those "CD collection" commercials. This is why the cheesy love songs were banned at my wedding.

2. Choose one line from a song that sums up your life thus far.
I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger.

3. Do you have one all-time favorite song (if so, what is it?) or do you skip around?
All time? No not really.

4. How do you listen to music most often (pod, radio, etc)?
At the computer or in the car (iPod or radio).

5. American Idol: fantastic show or overrated?
Overrated. I have actually never seen an episode. I've seen Canadian Idol, which is almost as lame.

Mr Kittah

2008-04-01T23:46:00.004-04:00

Last night I heard a horrible noise, so I went downstairs to investigate. I found Parn cowering by the back door while a big black and white cat was getting in his face. As soon as I opened the door Evil Kitty darted away and Mira went out chasing after him. Parn ran inside and I picked him up to look for injuries. He was unharmed, but he spent the rest of the evening taking his frustrations out on Mira and Curt's jeans. Apparently having your ass kicked isn't an ego boost for kitties either. Sigh... If only he was content to stay inside.

Parn has also taken to leaving tail-less lizards at the front door for us. Today's gift was still alive until Parn squashed his head. Ew.

Getting Out

2008-03-31T00:06:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday night, our dog Mira had an adventure. We let her out in the back yard while we were in our raid on WoW. When we went to call her in, she was nowhere to be found. Somehow the gate had come open. Of course I panicked. Curt went out to the sidewalk calling her name, and she must have heard us calling because she was already running home. I think she wandered out and couldn't remember which house was hers (when she's had enough of a walk she attempts to pull us into random houses). She seemed pretty happy to be home and I let her cuddle with me on my lap, where she promptly fell asleep. I was very relieved to have her home. But now we need to make sure that gate stays closed!

Curt had Friday off (yay!) so we decide to go to the Science Center. It was a nice date type activity. Sadly, the Science Center was somewhat disappointing. There weren't very many exhibits, and a lot of the ones they had were out-of-order or under construction. It was also pretty small, and somewhat confusing on where to go. And there really wasn't any cool stuff to play with.

Afterwards, we went out for dinner. Unfortunately that was slightly disappointing too, as we found the food a bit bland. And coming from me (and I like bland food... like oatmeal with nothing added) it must be pretty bland.

On Saturday we had a day at home, but went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. Yum.

Curt had to work this morning but after he got home we went out to the Apopka Fair. It was pretty small but we had a nice time. And the guy on the lawn-chair in the parking lot gout our $5. I told Curt that right next to the park is a good place to own a business because you can charge for parking every time there's an event. Either that or some random guy was sitting in the lot charging people.

After we got home we did some yard work, and figured out how to get the front sprinklers to work on the timer. Then Curt had to go back into work (sigh).

We also bought season 3 of Battlestar Galactica last weekend, and watched the entire season over the week. Most excellent show!

Friday

2008-03-28T11:08:00.003-04:00

1. What have you sold?
Hmm, I haven't sold anything recently except stuff on the WoW AH. :P

2. What do you want to change?
Lots of things.

3. What does your answering machine / voice mail message say?
Default message says "Hello, please leave a message." or something like that.

4. Where did you go to school?
GS (Oakville, ON), QEP (Oakville, ON), UWO (London, ON)

5. Friday fill-in:
If you'd like to reach me, MSN me or email me.

Argh.

2008-03-25T12:21:00.002-04:00

If you remember where I left off in my immigration saga, I had to send my green card back because of my name being wrong on it.

Well I got a letter saying I had to go in for an appointment to show proof of my correct name.

...

They already have 3 copies or my birth certificate and 2 copies of my marriage certificate and more copies of my passport than they can count. They also have my forms where I filled out my name 478368246456 (exaggeration) times. Do they really need more copies? REALLY? Is it that hard to look at my file?

The return of the Friday Fiver

2008-03-21T16:52:00.003-04:00

Which was on hiatus for the past few weeks.

1. Are you a people watcher?
Yes, somewhat.

2. Who do you hang out with?
My husband. Because I don't know anyone else. :(

3. Did you work hard this week?
Not really.

4. How do you show a date a good time?
I dunno.

5. What's your favorite rule to break?
None really. I'm pretty boring. :(

1337

2008-03-21T12:12:00.001-04:00

Getting sick of stupid people.

2008-03-20T10:33:00.002-04:00

Yet another example of incompetence.

We had to file a homestead exemption so we don't get taxed out the wazoo on our home (basically you get taxed extra if you don't live there).

It asked for stuff I don't have because my immigration is pending.

Curt called them and asked them what to do about it, they said to just write a letter explaining why it's missing and include it when we file.

Apparently people can't read because today we got a letter requesting my "missing documents".

GRRRRRR.

What is wrong with people?

What is it with Beefaroni?

2008-03-19T20:31:00.002-04:00

Apparently I've been getting a few hits through google images for my macro/close up of Beefaroni. Why are so many people searching for pictures of Beefaroni??

Is there some web phenomenon that I don't know about?

LJ Syndication

2008-03-18T17:40:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Andrew for setting this up for me. If you have LJ and prefer to use your friends page to read entries, you can add my feed:

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/jensnewlife/

Blog Challenge

2008-03-17T21:14:00.002-04:00

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.

PS, Owned!

2008-03-17T20:07:00.001-04:00

A Week

2008-03-17T11:41:00.005-04:00

So I filled out the form I-90 to have my green card replaced, and sent that off. HOPEFULLY that will fix everything, but I'm not too confident.

Anyway, on Wednesday I took a beading (jewelry making) class. It was super fun, I can't wait to take another one! Unfortunately it's a bit expensive to buy the beads (I prefer the natural beads, which are a bit more expensive) so I won't get to make too many for a while. It would be easier if I could get a job... if only I had a green card... I'll put up some pictures later.

Anyhow, on Thursday I went with the Women's Club to paint nails at a nursing home. It was ok, but I'm not sure if I'd sign up for that again.

On Friday I was at a Women's Club meeting for the Educational Committee. We went through applications for the scholarship the club was giving out.

On the weekend we had planned to go to Cocoa Beach, but Curt's boss called. He had to stop in at work, so we didn't get out to the coast until after 4pm. We spent about 30 mins on the beach, but it was super crowded. Turns out it's Spring Break. Doh! We ended up just heading home.

When we got home we found the cat limping with a swollen back leg. We took him to the emergency vet's office (the closest one open after hours was 2 towns over). That wasn't cheap. But it looks like it's just a minor infection, and he's on antibiotics. The swelling has already gone down and he's able to walk on it again.

Today I'm taking the dog to the vet cuz she has crap coming out of her ear and it seems to be itching her.

Speaking of which, I guess I should stop playing WoW and get ready!

Update to the update.

2008-03-07T17:03:00.004-05:00

Naturally, it could not be that easy.

Checked the mailbox, guess what was in it!

My green card... with my wrong name.

Unfortunately, the mail truck comes by between 3pm and 5pm here, so it came WHILE I was talking to the other dude.

I called back. Got noob girl (possibly the girl I had before, but in a better mood). She's noob girl because she reads from a cue cards and is unable to deviate. She got flustered when I cut her off from reading me a block of text (and yes I could tell she was reading).

According to her (and the form she was reading) I have to return the green card with an application to replace it. And the filing fee is $300, unless it is shown to be the fault of the government.

Sigh.

I hope they can do it a little faster., I've been sitting and waiting my way through the immigration process for almost 2 years now. I'm sick and tired of my life being on hold.

Ooooooppppdaaaayyyyyiiiittttt! (Thats an update!)

2008-03-07T16:32:00.003-05:00

In the mailbox, I found an envelope from the US Government. I thought it was for my immigration appointment, where I had planned to get them to correct my name.

I had tried twice before to get them to correct my name. The first guy was helpful, but since they had already scheduled my fingerprinting at the time, there wasn't enough time to make the change, so he told me to wait for my interview.

After I got my work permit, I called back because I wanted that to have my right name. But the girl that I talked to was a total meanie to me and told me they don't do corrections over the phone, and I had to do it in person at the office where my interview would be. So I figured I'd wait for my interview like the first guy said.

So when I opened the letter and found that they were skipping my interview (I'm guessing because they are so back logged), and were just sending me a card, I was like "ummm eh?".

Curt called to see if he could get better results, but they only allow the applicant to call or an approved representative.

Sigh.

But, I gave it another shot and called yet again. And I got a super nice guy again and he took all my info, and sent in an error request to the office that is taking care of my file.

I was pretty certain the could fix it over the phone, and that the girl I talked to either didn't know how or just didn't want to do it.

Now HOPEFULLY everything is right! But we'll see.

So in theory, I'll be allowed to leave the country soon. But I don't plan on visiting Canada until it's nice and hot there.

Parn's Escape

2008-03-04T15:04:00.002-05:00

Bored

2008-03-01T15:52:00.004-05:00

Cuz Curt has to work this weekend. :(

Version Two

2008-03-01T12:30:00.002-05:00

Playing around.

2008-02-29T22:53:00.003-05:00

My First Portrait

2008-02-28T20:00:00.003-05:00

My new lens arrived, so I took a self portrait with it yesterday. I'm now using that as my profile pic, but I added some colour effects. Here's the result (which I am using as my facebook photo for now):

A real update...

2008-02-27T15:01:00.003-05:00

Because I think people are tired of looking at my photos.

Lets see.. I was accepted into the women's club. I like it so far, but I haven't really had a chance to go to any events. I signed up to participate in giving manicures to elderly women at a nursing home, so that ought to be fun.

My parents were here last week. It was really nice to see them, and I think they had a nice time. Too bad they couldn't stay longer, but I'm sure they'll be back soon enough. They helped me get my car set up so it's legal for me to drive it down here (needed a license plate). It had been so long since I used it that the battery was dead.

We got a DVR from the cable company and I used it to record Dr Phil last night. :D Pausing tv is pretty cool too.

I'm really getting into photography as a hobby. It's a pain in the butt though to lug around all my equipment. I just got a new lens of ebay; it's a 70-300mm so it's big and heavy. Plus I have extension tubes, and a flash gun.

Well I'm kinda boring, because I don't really have any other news. So back to photos for me. :P

Too much spare time.

2008-02-25T16:42:00.003-05:00

Because I've been playing with my camera too much.

An older one I took on my honeymoon.

Took this one at the park yesterday.

Also at the park.

Yet another photo.

2008-02-22T23:30:00.003-05:00

Not much to say. Just posting this cuz I think it turned out well.

In other news...

2008-02-15T09:04:00.001-05:00

My parents are visiting for the next week. They arrived last night. :D

I probably won't be online much.

Frrrriiiiddddaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy

2008-02-15T09:01:00.002-05:00

1. Favorite shoes?
Hmmmm, probably my black walking shoes.

2. What time does the sun set near you?
Somewhere between 6pm and 6:30pm.

3. Do you like spending time in the sun?
Yep.

4. Do you burn or tan?
Burnnnnn :(

5. Monopoly: yay! or no way!
Yay!

Happy Valentines Day!

2008-02-14T18:48:00.001-05:00

Photo Post

2008-02-08T13:36:00.000-05:00

Just cuz I was playing with my extension tubes again...

Friday!

2008-02-08T12:48:00.000-05:00

1. Do you like the thrill of a chase?
Depends on the chase. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

2. What winds you up?
Annoying people.

3. Are you a loud talker?
Sometimes, but usually not.

4. What comes easy to you?
Hmm, I'm not sure anymore.

5. What did you dream about recently?
Last night: doing homework for art class... which is weird since that class was more than 10 years ago.

Friday Fiver

2008-02-01T15:37:00.000-05:00

1. What are you set on?
I don't know.

2. What do you have to do right?
Everything!

3. Have any kids?
Nope.

4. Are you patient?
Sometimes...

5. Friday fill-in:
I know if I put my mind to it I can learn to sew things.

Awesome...

2008-01-29T13:08:00.000-05:00

Would you have gotten subtext?

It's Friday Again..

2008-01-25T11:35:00.000-05:00

1. What are you missing?
My family and friends up in Canada. And I miss Canada too.

2. How do you feel?
I'm a little sleepy.

3. What have you let go?
Lots of things.

4. Who have you hurt?
I've probably hurt a lot of people's feelings in my life. Not intentional.

5. What do you deserve?
I don't know.

Friday Fiver

2008-01-18T13:26:00.000-05:00

1. What do you need?
To win the lottery so I can fix everyone's problems.

2. What won't you share?
Hy husband! :P

3. What do you hurry through?
Cleaning sometimes.

4. Who is worth waiting for?
Curt.

5. Friday fill-in:
I can't bear to lose people.

Some photos

2008-01-17T20:50:00.001-05:00

Been playing with my camera some more. And editing.

Woof:

Meow:

Parn's new collar.

2008-01-12T18:53:00.000-05:00

Since the cat is intent on getting out the door, we wanted him to have a tag with our home phone number on it. He does have a microchip, but we wanted to have a way for someone to get a hold of us quickly he got lost.

He is not impressed.

Procrastinating.

2008-01-11T11:23:00.000-05:00

Well I've been putting off updating. Not really sure why, but probably because I've been working on other projects.

The two twin beds we bought for the downstairs guest room finally arrived. Yay! Now I have to wash a bunch of sheets. And we'll need to head to the store since we forgot mattress pads.

Curt and I cleaned out the hot tub over the holidays (came with the house, but was sitting stewing slimy, germy goodness). Curt figured out the workings, and now it's set up. We've used it a few times and it's pretty great!

I've decided to do the Friday Fiver, and hopefully I'll keep it up every week. So here goes:

1. Where do you like to walk?
I like forresty type trails.

2. What does your hair look like?
Right now it's a mess. I haven't had it cut in about 6 months. :o

3. What are you jealous of?
Ummmm can't really think of anything right now.

4. What kind of promises do you make?
Generally I only try to make ones I intend to keep.

5. What makes you stare?
Strange things people put on the internet.

And now for something completely different. Well not really. But it amused me.

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-25T19:02:00.001-05:00

Yay for Christmas!

Curt got me a Wii! Yay! I wuvs it!

Don't have time to post much here, but here's a couple WTF moments for you.

Fun With Photos

2007-12-07T16:17:00.002-05:00

I like taking pictures, but really, I have no idea what I'm doing. I have a photography CD that's supposed to be a tutorial/lesson on basically everything I need to know, BUT it's white sans-serif font on a blue background. I go cross-eyed after reading a few lines, so I haven't gotten very far in reading it.

But I went ahead and got myself some Kenko Extension Tubes. I splurged and got the ones that have the circuitry in the rings for auto-focus. Although, I could have save myself some money and gone with manual ones since the autofocus is pretty useless with the tubes on. But, since they have the circuitry, they're compatible with G lenses, which require the camera to control the settings electronically.

Anyhow, They came in the mail today, so decided to try them out. The only problem is, I have nothing to take pictures of! Usually I like to take photos of flowers, but nothing is in bloom on our property. I ran around the house trying to find interesting things to take photos of, and this is what i came up with:

The first things I could thing of were my wedding rings: I tried a couple placements but it was hard to keep them propped up.

Then I found a perfume bottle, and tried a few more settings. These two turned out the best.

I had beefaroni for lunch. It was tasty.

An apple. I focused on the stem.

Noodles. I didn't cook them though, they're just dry from the package.

Mira's nose. It was REALLY hard to get her to stay still long enough to get a photo.

I made cookies yesterday, so I took a photo of what was left. Then I ate them.

That's it for now. I think I need to go buy flowers!

Update.

2007-12-05T13:51:00.000-05:00

Apparently today is the Day of the Ninja! http://dayoftheninja.com/

Anyhow, I'm just about finished my Christmas shopping. I'm just waiting for a few things I ordered online to arrive. I've wrapped most of what I have here, and hopefully the cat won't take it upon himself to unwrap everything.

Tonight we hope to put up the outdoor Christmas lights. I will take a picture when it's done.

We finally finished writing out Thank-You cards from the wedding, but I still have to address the envelopes. Blah, sore hand!

We still aren't sure if we'll be able to travel this Christmas. We don't have someone to take care of our pets and boarding seems to be pretty expensive here. And Curt doesn't have enough time off from work for us to drive (damn wedding sucked it up!). Sigh!

Anyhow, back to addressing envelopes for me!

Christmas!

2007-11-27T16:54:00.000-05:00

Well we've started getting ready for Christmas. We've put up the tree, and started our shopping. Last night we picked up gifts for my dad and brother. And I have something for my mom. We're trying to figure out what Curt's family would like for Christmas.

And now for a Christmas survey:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping. They just look nicer under the tree that way.

2. Real tree or artificial?
Artificial. I prefer not to participate in the annual Christmas Tree Massacre.

3. When do you put up the tree?
As soon as I can!

4. When do you take the tree down?
January sometime.

5. Do you like eggnog?
No.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
I can't answer that!

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
No.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
On my side, my dad.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
My mom or my brother.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I don't think I've ever gotten something bad.

11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards?
Mail, if I actually do it.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Hmmm, Love Actually (sorta Christmas).

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I start thinking about what to get people in October.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
No.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Cookies and treats my grandmother makes. And mlince. Which I missed at Thanksgiving. :(

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Hmm I dunno. Probably something sick and twisted.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
I prefer to stay home, but since I moved so far away from everyone, I'm sure I'll be traveling a lot.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers?
Yes, if I try.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
I like an angel, but Curt thought they were hideous, so we have a star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
My family always did it in the morning. But we got to open our special Christmas ornament on Christmas Eve (hence my large collection of Star Trek ornament, which I wish I had here but they are still in Canada with my stuff).

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Crowded malls/stores/parking lots. And grouchy people that have forgotten their holiday spirit.

23. What I love most about Christmas?
Seeing my family.

Our first Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T17:48:00.000-05:00

Which is really my first American Thanksgiving, since the Canadian Thanksgiving is in October. Anyway...

It was just me and Curt this year. We weren't able to go up to Curt's parent's this year, and we don't really know anyone down here. But we still made the most of it, and cooked up (way too much) Thanksgiving food.

Curt made Pumpkin Pie Last night, and Cranberry bread this morning. I made some Apricot cookies. Since it was just the two of us, we decided to try making cornish hens. That way we each could have our own mini "turkey" which was, of course, stuffed.

So here's our dinner:

Our table, set with our formal dinnerware and meal.

Another view of the table.

Table yet again.

Our Cornish Hens, stuffed with Curt's yummy stuffing.

Hens again.

Curt's yummy stuffing.

I made the potatoes.

And I made salad (actually I opened a package and put it in a bowl).

Curt's Cranberry Bread and my Apricot Cookies.

Curt's ridiculously yummy Pumkin pie.

And that's that. Now we're full. I need a nap!

A question.

2007-11-17T16:54:00.000-05:00

What is it about Florida drivers riding your bumper with their high beams on in heavy traffic?

Hah!

2007-11-14T12:58:00.000-05:00

After reading some forum posts about a certain courier company, I learned that they tend to avoid delivering. This would have been true for my package today had I not foiled the attempt. And I would not have been able to foil the attempt if it weren't for my lucky placement 4 feet from the front door when the doorbell rang.

I was actually on my way upstairs, but Mr Kitty (aka Parn) was trying to attack my skirt which made me stop at the bottom of the stairs. Just then the doorbell rang, so I turned around and opened the door. Less that 2 seconds had passed since the delivery guy had pressed the doorbell button, and he was already almost at his truck. He was sprinting to get away from the door. But I had seen him, and he knew it so he was forced to make the delivery of my rather large and heavy box.

And to that I say, hah!

Just stuff.

2007-11-13T14:43:00.000-05:00

Not much going on around here.

We decided to just order a small dinette set for the kitchen from target.com. It's supposed to arrive on the 19th. We got sick of eating dinner on the couch, but didn't want to eat in the dining room (plus our formal-ish table is under a bunch of crap). Unfortunately the courier they sent it with has a less than stellar reputation around here.

I was going to try the butter tarts recipe, but the grocery store doesn't have frozen tart shells. They have full size frozen pie crusts, and graham cracker tart shells, but no frozen pastry tart shells. I then decided to try to make the crust myself, but I can't find tart tins. Hopefully baking them in muffin tins will be ok.

I'll be putting up some wedding photos soon. I'm trying to decided if I should go to the trouble of setting up a page for them, or just use something like photobucket. Hmmm. There are a lot of photos to put up.

In other news, I found the toilet cleaning stuff.

Annoying...

2007-11-08T17:31:00.000-05:00

I keep forgetting to write in my labels. How annoying is that?

(Not very? o_O)

PS, the DVD of our wedding photos arrived in the mail. I'll put some up soon.

Missing things.

2007-11-08T17:11:00.000-05:00

Today I decided to be a useful wife and clean the toilets. The problem? My beloved toilet scrubber is missing! I searched high and low, but couldn't find it. And the box that it was in is now empty. Also missing, a bottle of Soft Scrub bathroom bleach. Something tells me we need to buy a new scrubber. :(

I also seem to be missing (in a different sense) Canadian things. You can't get butter tarts in Florida. I found a recipe, but will it be as good as the little tarts that my parents used to bring home from Sobey's?

I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Canadian weather too. I love autumn. My favourite part is the brightly coloured leaves. I also love the cool crisp air. I find is weird to be able to go outside in shorts in November.

Ok, well that's it for my post about nothing. I was really just procrastinating cleaning the toilets. ;]

Twenty-Seven

2007-10-23T12:36:00.000-04:00

Yep, I'm 27 today! I don't really feel much older than when I was 20. In fact, it feels like I just turned 20 yesterday. What happened to the past seven years? It was also Curt's birthday on Sunday. Yesterday I made us a joint birthday cake and we both blew out candles. It was fun!

Curt and I have moved into our new house. We still have a lot of unpacking to do, but it's coming along. Once I get rid of the huge mess I'll post some photos. We're getting our security deposit back from our old apartment. Which is nice, but I really wish we were getting something else back. We paid $600 to have our pets be allowed in. I thought that was a deposit, but in fact it was a fee. I think it's rediculous though. A $600 fee PLUS $40/month "pet rent". For what? Our pets did no damage, and we clean up after them. Not to mention that they forgot to clean/refill the doggy cleanup station for more than half the time we had our pets. Well that's just another reason why I'm glad to be out of there.

I gave our dog, Mira, a bath a couple days ago in the nice large downstairs shower. Turns out she's not grey. So yeah, she was pretty dirty. I don't know how she manages to get so dirty so fast.

That's all for now. I think I'll go enjoy doing nothing for a while before I attack the giant pile of dishes in the sink.

Time for an update.

2007-10-03T16:31:00.000-04:00

So I've been procrastinating a bit...

Anyhow, Curt and I close on our new (to us) house on Friday! Yay! Hopefully it will all go well. I'm NOT looking forward to the moving part. I hate moving! Packing and unpacking just sucks. But not as much as lugging huge boxes around. That said, I can't we to be moved in! Yay!

The apartment complex were we are now has gone downhill since the new management took over. The worst part is when their sprinkler system turns on randomly and sprays our entrance. We can't get in or out of our apartment without getting drenched when it's on.

But enough of that.

Lately I've been addicted to WeffRiddles. So far I've completed batches 1-4, and I'm working on 5.

And finally: Rumour has it that it's Girl Guide (Girl Scout in the USA) cookie season. I require some of these.

The Wedding - Part Deux

2007-09-18T13:13:00.000-04:00

If anyone is interested, our Wedding Planner and Photographer have both written about our wedding in their blogs.

Eventfully Yours Blog Entry
Root Photography Blog Entry

Curt and I are extremely happy with our planner and photographer. We'd highly recommend them to anyone getting married in the Orlando area!

The Wedding

2007-09-18T12:33:00.000-04:00

Curt and I were married August 4th, 2007.

Since I am Canadian, in order to be able to marry my husband and move to the USA I had to apply for a K-1 visa. Curt and I deciphered the paperwork and filed for the visa, and used the time frame they gave me in their reply to plan our wedding. As time went on, I learned the letter they sent back was a standard form and the time frame given there (2-4 months) was horribly out of date. As June came to an end and we moved into July, we accepted that my visa would not be ready before the wedding and we'd just have the ceremony (it was impossible to change the date of the wedding since we had about 70 people flying to Florida who could not change their plans). We decided to go ahead with the ceremony and started to let everyone know that the wedding would not be legal, but we'd make it legal once I got my visa. It wasn't ideal but it was the best we could do.

About 2 weeks before the wedding date I got a notice from the consulate in Montreal for my visa interview date. The letter told me my interview was scheduled for August 1st! That would have been great except they wanted to keep my passport until the following Tuesday. Was I going to miss my own wedding? I called them up and they told me they couldn't promise anything, but to ask at the interview. I had a shred of hope from that and from the line in the letter that said "unless you need your passport for travel." So Curt and I booked flights, and planned to return Friday night before the wedding (although we'd miss the rehearsal).

I got to the task of finding a hotel for us close to the consulate. I had a little bit of trouble finding a room that wasn't ridiculously expensive, it turned out that there were 2 festivals going on in Montreal that week and a lot of the hotels were booked up. But I found a hotel within walking distance of the consulate and booked a room.

We got to the consulate really early the morning of my interview (it's a take-a-number system) and waited about 2 - 3 hours. The interview was the easiest part of the whole process. The people there were really nice and when we told them about our problem, showing our invitations, some RSVPs and our flight info, they agreed to make a one-time exception and would let me pick up my visa the next morning.

Curt and I were so happy, we went back to the hotel and used my laptop to find an earlier flight to Florida. Unfortunately it was cheaper to not cancel our Friday flight than it was to try to change the flight. So whoever was sitting next to us on Friday night got the whole row to themselves (unless the airline overbooked).

We made it back really late Thursday night (or really early Friday morning?) and were able to attend our rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. Since we had already had enough stress to last a year the week before the wedding, we were both very calm come wedding day. There were a few hiccups, but we really didn't care. We just wanted to get married!

So we were married... legally!, and we had a wonderful time. We are so glad everyone who made it was there, and we missed the ones who couldn't make it.

What a sigh of relief!

My new blog!

2007-09-16T20:49:00.000-04:00

Well, I decided to start a new blog! I'm still trying to get it set up. I can't decide if I want to make a template for myself or use one that's already on blogger. I guess it will depend on how creative I feel! Anyway, I'll have my first real entry soon!