No holiday is complete...

Without a trip to the ER!

Yesterday Gerwyn fulfilled this requirement by falling down the stairs and cutting his head open. I had just left for work and arrived when I received a call from a very groggy Gerwyn saying he had fallen down (tripped over Kahlua,) and hit his head on the ceiling of our staircase. He was bleeding and he couldn't move. He had called his co-worker to drive him to the Emergency room and told me to meet him there.

I arrived at St. Mike's expecting to see him sitting in the waiting room with his friend but was shocked to see my poor husband strapped to a stretcher with a neck brace and blood dripping down his skull. Just as I was about to start the waterworks, the paramedic quickly reassured me "its looks worse than it is!". We were registered and admitted quickly and Gerwyn went for catscans and xrays to confirm nothing was broken. Luckily it was just mild concussion, they gave him a prescription and sent us home 5 hours later. The hospital staff were quite friendly and good natured and I have to admit, it helped to make the experience less stressful.

Today, the patient is resting on our air mattress in the basement, still hopped up on Tylenol 3's and tons of chocolate. Looks like our first new year's will be a quiet night in for 2. Pan pizza on the way, plenty of sweets and plenty of cozy blankets. Just what the doctor ordered!

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to 2010! (Let's hope its a little calmer than 2009...)

A good buy...

Years ago I bought a great pair of cords at the Gap. The were the perfect fit and I have yet to find another pair since. (I wished I had just bought two back then!) Since my weight loss over the summer, I've found that my fav cords (and all of my other pants for that matter,) are just too big. I have to wear my belt extra tight so that it bunches my pants up at the waist or else I end up with the dreaded "saggy butt". (Something I'm very familiar with being Asian.) During our boxing day shopping yesterday, I discovered a great find, new cords at Jacob. Not only were they a perfect fit (skinny leg with no saggy butt,) but they were on sale for $29.99! Woo hoo, not to make my mistake from long ago, I quickly grabbed two pairs and got outta there! Although I'm expecting those extra pounds to make their way back to my waistline any day now, its nice to wear pants that actually fit for a change. Not to mention, they are actually WARM in this freezing cold Toronto weather! Makes up for me not finding leg warmers.

After Christmas...

I'm happy to report that our family party was a great success! My mom arrived at 2pm in the afternoon (to find us still in our pjs - tsk tsk,) to start preparing and I just followed her orders. Thankfully, I have a mom who makes the best Korean food and is willing to transport all her tasty delicacies to my house!

We had kalbi (korean ribs), ginger chicken wings, sesame noodles (chap-jae), and of course, homemade kimchi courtest of Mad's mom. Gerwyn's mom also brought her homemade spring rolls which were a huge hit and also made cheesecakes. There was so much food left over that we had to have another get together with some of Gerwyn's friends the next day to finish everything! Its been nice to enjoy some really good Korean food these past few days. Unfortunately I have no pics to post as I am still without a camera. I think my sister took some photos though so I'll have to get them from her to post.

Today we headed to the mall to do some boxing day shopping and then went to a get together at our neighbour's house. Turns out the husband went to the same highschool as me (but was in the year below me,) so I sort of recognized many of his friends. It was nice to meet new people and we look forward to having many more get togethers with them in the future. I have to say, having great neighbours makes our house that much more special. I know that I can go over there whenever I need to borrow a cup of sugar.

Unfortunately tomorrow its back to work. But luckily its only for a few days and then its New Year's celebration time. We're still trying to figure out what we'll do this year but now that we're married, the one thing I know we will be doing, is the "official" New Year's bow to my family. Before I was married, I just did this with my siblings, now that Gerwyn and I have made it official, we'll be bowing together this year. Better start getting G to practise!!

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays everyone! This was my first Christmas being married and away from my family. At first I thought I would be sad not waking up with my family to open our Christmas stockings but being with my husband for Christmas turned out pretty good actually. Yesterday we went to my mom's for a family dinner. Kahlua and Charlotte got aquainted (by the end of the night they were both able to be on the floor at the same time) and we enjoyed a deleecious roast chicken dinner made by my sister before opening our presents together.

After getting home, Gerwyn and I added the final decorations to our tree (we were missing lights so I needed to borrow some from mom,) and then enjoyed hot chocolate and one gift each before going to bed. It was a nice way to spend Christmas Eve. This morning we slept in, I made pancakes for breakfast and we've spent the day being pretty leisurely. We're slowly getting prepared (aka cleaning) for our big family party tomorrow. Now, Gerwyn is making me one of my favourite meals, rosemary crusted rack of lamb. While he's slaving over the hot stove, I thought I'd take a minute to wish my fellow bloggers a very Merry Christmas, I hope Santa was good to you!

Give the dog a bone...

Recently Gerwyn and I inherited a beautiful holiday ham. It was honestly the most deeleecious ham I've ever tried and as we finally got to the end of it, we were left with a huge (like the size of a skull) ham bone. After boiling the crap out of it (for some future Superbowl baked beans,) I decided to let Kahlua have a go at it. It was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. I wish I had my camera so that I could show you the size relationship. The bone was larger than her entire body but she still knawed at it until it was sparkling clean.

Having Kahlua has been very fun for us, and makes us actually wonder if we should get our own dog. She's pretty good though, I wonder if a new dog would have her same personality. On second thought, maybe we should just skip it and head straight to the babies...

Thanks melandnorm!

Yet another reminder of how lucky I am to have such great friends.

G and I have been experiencing some issues with our house including some major conflict with our builder. Its been a stressful situation to say the least and one which has managed to consume much of my life and mind. Its been awhile since I've been in a negative situation like this and its definitely taking its toll. At a time when I'm supposed to be happy and not only celebrating the holidays but the beginning of our new life together, I find that I am slowly getting more and more gloomy.

Tonight I received an email from my friend Mel letting me know that she had baked some Christmas cookies for me and wanting to co-ordinate a time to drop them off. I suggested I stop by and pick them up on my way home but declined her offer to stay for dinner as I had Kahlua waiting for me at home and was generally not feeling in the best of spirits anyway. I arrive at Mel's and I can't help but start venting about our current situation and next thing you know, I'm sitting at their table with dinner and a glass of wine in front of me. Although I had told her I wouldn't stay for dinner (and they had ordered in,) Norm had gone to pick up the food and added some extra while he was there and then insisted that I stay. Just being able to tell Mel and Norm about what's been going on helped to relieve some of the stress and it didn't hurt that Mel's deeleecious cookies were sitting right in front of me ready to be devoured. Its amazing how much just a casual dinner with friends can be so enjoyable. I had forgotten momentarily what it was like to have fun and tonight, they reminded me.

So thanks Mel and Norm, for being such good friends and always being a positive influence in my life!

Cookie party!

Last night Susie and Sally came over for my first annual cookie party! We made ginger snaps which turned into Ginger pancakes (due to what I think was old baking soda), Toblerone Shortbread and Cinnamon buns. It was my first time trying the buns and I was very excited to make them from scratch. They turned out pretty good, not as gooey as I had hoped but when you know how much butter you've already put into it (an exorbetant amount!) its hard to add even more.

Besides the freshly baked goods, it was so great to have the girls over for a bake day. When Gerwyn and I were house shopping, I always judged a house by whether or not I could see myself having a cookie party in the kitchen. I'm very happy to say that this house passed with flying colours!

Ahhhh.... back to doing nothing again

Its not that I'm actually doing "nothing" but its just nice to have "nothing" to do. There's no immediate to-do list (other than Christmas presents, but that can wait until Dec 24th,). We are finally settling in to a "regular" routine. We get up (at 9 am no less, yes, we are lucky, and lazy,) have breakfast together and then usually I head off to work and G stays home to work. Then I come home, we have dinner together, do some house chores and then watch Conan before heading to bed.

This week has been more fun because we have Kahlua for 3 weeks. She is getting used to the big house. She's already fallen down the stairs but still chooses to follow me whereever I go (even if it up and down 3 flights.) Its a bit chilly for her outside, she can only make it about 100 feet before jumping up on my leg, but we still take the streetcar together and spend the day at work together. Its a good life. For both of us.

Unfortunately I still don't have my camera, so I have no pics to post. Instead, I've posted one of our photographer Freddie's shots. Freddie was my grade 6 boyfriend and lucky for me, he does wedding photography on the side. His shots are beautiful and I'm so glad he was able to do our wedding for us. More to come...

Married life

So far, being married means running errands. We are never short of errands to run and things to do. And we don't even have kids! We spent our first week as husband and wife completing errands every night of the week with this weekend being "super errand" weekend where we tried to knock off the rest of our list. It seems that we managed to add more errands to the list as the week ended but this was our schedule this weekend:

Saturday:
- meet saadia in the morning to go to One of a Kind Craft Show (always fun)
- pack up our car and stop at Mark and Meredith's to drop off borrowed items
- head straight to the cemetary to visit my dad, cemetary closed at 4:30 and we get there at 5
- go to Gerwyn's mom to pick her up and return all of our alcohol from the party
- have dinner with Gerwyn's mom, then head to the Bay to pick up gifts
- buy some more items at the bay, then head home and go to bed

Sunday:
- pack up our car and go back to cemetary to see dad
- get into cemetary this time, say hello, leave flowers and head to mom's
- get to mom's, have lunch, pack up more stuff to be brought home and head to visit Grams
- see Grams and my aunt and uncle, drop off flowers
- head to Carol's house to drop off Carol's borrowed items
- get to Carol's, drop everything off, then head home

Whew, it is a boring but time consuming list and had to be done. And of course, our Bay purchases need to be returned because they are not the right size/colour/pattern. Oh well.

So this is what its like to be married...

What's your favourite Christmas Cookie?

Now that I'm getting settled, I'm ready to start thinking about other things, like Christmas! One of my favourite Christmas past-times is baking cookies. Even at the condo, I would buy all of my ingredients and set aside an evening to bake.

This year, I have a brand new spacious kitchen to bring out the Betty Crocker (or Mrs. Fields') in me. Sally and I decided to plan a cookie baking day (all of my blogger buddies are welcome to join of course, next Saturday December 12th) where we will bake our favourites. Which brings me to my question, what is your favourite Christmas cookie recipe? You know, the ones you just can't wait for, the ones you look forward to baking. Mine are Ginger Snaps courtesy of my friend Janet. The recipe is super easy and it makes a ton (5 dozen) but honestly I can eat one dozen at a time. They are so good. Crispy on the outside and soft and gingery on the inside. I've made this recipe for Christmases past (see last year's post with "cupboardy" molasses) and every year they are deeeleecious! Recipe to come. (For photos, see last year's post. I am unfortunately without my camera until Gerwyn's sister in Florida mails it back to us.) Happy Baking!

Finally settled in!

What a whirlwind of a week! Next time I decide to plan a wedding and a move at the same time make sure someone gives my head a good shake. I don't wish that kind of stress of anyone but of course in the end it was all worth it. Here are some highlights:
- It took Gerwyn and 2 of his friends to squeeze our fridge into the very tight space (turns out 1/8" isn't enough space to squeeze in an appliance) The fridge is in but you can't even get a sheet of paper in between the wall
- my large (beautiful) brown couch was too big to fit in the basement so we now have a little "lounge" in our living room (a living room with 3 couches!)
- the city decided to shut off our water at 9am just as Gerwyn's family arrived at our house after a 9 hr drive from Chicago and full bladders (I had just placed a layer of bacon on our grill, mmmm bacon hands)
- Gerwyn and I scouring every department store for curtains to cover all the windows (we are two windows short so for now, I will pee in the dark)
- Waking up on my wedding day to find my mom sitting by herself at our kitchen table with a tissue and telling me I was officially an "adult" now (that was a difficult sight to see)
- Seeing my mom get her hair and makeup done for the first time in over 30 years in Canada
- walking down the aisle with my mom
- Watching Gerwyn try to bow at the waist (he still couldn't quite get it)
- Trying to force Gerwyn's wedding ring on during the ceremony (maybe we should've practised that before)
- Watching Gerwyn's eyes tear up while I was saying my vows
- Reminding Gerwyn during his speech while we were both standing at the podium that my mom was in the audience (I wasn't sure what he was going to say!)
- Seeing the hugest pile of shoes and jackets at our house party (Our guests had to scavenge to find their shoes, Carol ended up leaving without hers!)
- Dancing in the middle of our kitchen with my new husband to New Order
- Waking up the next morning to coffee and a recap of the previous night's events with Gerwyn's brother, sister and step mom
- Taking our time while we cleaned our brand new house together... maybe we should get a maid...

More wedding pics (in colour this time!)

Check out the Begonias...

We're getting married tomorrow!

We're homeowners!

After a week of running around with our heads cut off, we are finally homeowners. We officially received the call at 3:30 today from our lawyer telling us that the house had closed. I would have normally been more excited but I had so many things going through my mind at that moment it was just another item that could be checked off the to do list. I was in a Grand and Toy at that moment actually buying a new folder to hold all of my papers so I could organize myself. We spent last night doing our pre delivery inspection which I have to say after a long day's work, doing an inspection is not on the top of my wish list. So I went through pretty fast. It still look over 2 hours though.

Today we picked out our wedding bands and some more boxes from my office so that I could finish packing. We attempted to choose curtains at Sears but as soon as we walked in, we were overcome with extreme exhaustion and walked out after about half an hour.

Its definitely an exciting time but man, I am soooooooo tired...

Happy Birthday Mom and Charlotte!

Today we celebrated both my mom's and Charlotte's birthday's at my brother's house in Scarborough. It was also going to be the big "first" meeting of Gerwyn's mom and my family and I'm happy to report that everything went very well. Gerwyn's mom got to meet and chat with almost everyone and Char impressed us all with her icing scraping and licking skills as you can see by the lovely photo above. Carol made her an Elmo cake and used the brightest red dye possible (I think it was a whole bottle's worth,) and so Char's lips ended up looking very luscious afterwards. Luckily we stopped her before she got any on her pretty dress. As per our usual family parties, G's mom got to watch (and participate) in our pigging out and then my uncle passed out on the floor, this time joined by David. Like father, like son. Another fun family party with a special guest. We look forward to welcoming both G and his mom to many more family gatherings in the future.

Dinner at Sarah's

After recovering from the previous night's festivities, I headed to my friend Sarah's house for a highschool reunion with our friend Cybele who was in town from Germany. Sarah made a lovely dinner of roast chicken and vegetables and we also pigged out on Sandra's baklava that she brought from one of my fav Lebanese bakeries. It's been so long since we all caught up and it was great to have Cybele back. Later in the evening Dora joined us and it was just like highschool again. We were just missing the cards so we could play Scum. (I think I was always the Scum.) I'm glad that Cybele chose this particular time for a visit home since now she will be able to come to my wedding. Woo hoo!

Staggette Part 2

After a very filling and very inebriating dinner, the girls all piled into the car and headed to Staggette Central, aka: the time honoured tradition of the Strip Club. This one was called Klub Kave and was recommended to us by Saadia's husband who writes about new clubs opening in the city for the Star. I was hoping to get off easy with just dinner, but my bridesmaids wouldn't let me off without a little retribution for their own parties and so I was dragged up on stage, experienced my first "lap dance" and "hand fed" a very interesting shooter by a scantily clad waiter wearing only a bowtie. Although we weren't allowed to take any photos, Hanna managed to sneak one in and as you can see by the photo, I am desperately trying to distract myself with my $5 bill (I folded it over and over again, if only I knew origami!) while waiting to be "violated" by "Black Magic". All in all, it wasn't THAT bad, once the guys saw me cover my eyes and coil in fear, they usually took it pretty easy on me. Even my lap dance (which was also performed by Black Magic,) was pretty tame. A few slaps of his ass (which was rock hard by the way, Sally was trying to hand me a quarter so I could bounce it off his butt,) and a little gyrating, it was over and I was left relatively unscathed.

We ended the evening just after midnight, which sounds like it was early but I wanted to get out of there before the boys got too aggressive and after all those drinks, I was ready to pass out. Unfortunately by the time I got home, there was no way I could lie down and spent the majority of the night sleeping upright on my couch. (I woke up at 3 am to move to my bed in my famous "pillow stack" position. One which my old roommate Saadia is very familiar with - she often saw me sleeping like that after a night out. You stack the pillows up on top of each other so that you are essentially sleeping in a sitting position and as you progressively feel less drunk, you remove a pillow one at a time until you are fully horizontal and can finally sleep in peace. That happened at about 8am.)

Thankfully no portion of the night was spent on the bathroom floor. Unfortunately I couldn't say the same for Gary. Per the photo above, you can see how I found him the next morning. Guess I wasn't the only one who had had too much.

It was a hilarious (once in a lifetime thank God,) night out and the perfect ending to my staggette. Now I'm ready to move onto the main event... the wedding!!

Staggette Part 1

Last night my bridesmaids threw me an amazing staggette. The night started with dinner and games at Bar Italia. After some "tough talk" by Sally, we ended up in their private room on the second floor and got started on a couple of games, the "penis ring toss" which Carol won and the "nude portrait" which Hanna won due to her very detailed, medically correct drawing. Somehow I ended up with one (or 5 ) too many shooters and by the end of dinner, I could barely make it out of there. I tried to convince our cute waiter to make the drinks weaker but apparently he didn't go for it since I was totally hammered by the end of the night.

Although I had picked out a special "staggette" outfit including sequin leggings, the girls insisted on a few improvements and added a blinking tiara, sash and dangly penis boa. What's a staggette without a few penises right? We also enjoyed the presence of "Gorgeous Gary", our anatomically correct latex blow up doll. Just like my shower, it was so different to be on the "other side" of the event. It was so much fun to celebrate with all of my best friends and family (but a little embarrassing for them to watch me in my downward spiral to Drunktown.) Thanks to my bridesmaids for throwing me the perfect staggette and to everyone who came out and made my evening so special.

Vitamins

I have never been a big fan of vitamins. There is something about them that seems so unnatural. When I was young I remember watching an episode of the Flintstones where Fred travels to the future (I think this was when they introduced the Jetsons) and he orders a meal in a restaurant only to find that a tiny pill arrives on a plate. Ever since then, seeing a vitamin, reminds me of this. A time in our future when our meals will become tiny pills to be swallowed whole. It just doesn't seem right. Food was meant to be enjoyed and you're supposed to be able to get all the vitamins you need from it. Not to mention that vitamins are better absorbed through food vs small concentrated pills. But I guess with pesticides, factory farming and mass production, our food has become less nutritious and the most important part of it (the vitamins) get depleted. And so, when I went to my doctor's appt today, I was not surprised when he said, "you need vitamins!".

So today I finally bit the bullet and purchased 3 bottles of Calcium, Vitamin D and Folic Acid. I took my first dose today, (I specifically requested small or chewable pills since I just can't seem to swallow the big horse pills that are the norm,) and as I suspected, it was rather unpleasant.

We'll see how long I can keep up with this new routine. I'm still not 100% sold on this whole "Vitamin" thing...

Packing!

The time has finally come, I've bitten the bullet and started packing. Its been very sad and I hate coming home and seeing boxes everywhere but its something that has to be done. (Only 2 weeks left!) With the help of a few friends, I've gotten my packing face on and have accumulated a nice pile of boxes in my front foyer. Seeing all these boxes around me makes me feel like I am at an "inbetween" stage in my life. I feel like I don't have a "home" anymore and I think this was part of the reason I've put it off for so long. Slowly, this place that has been so cozy and comforting for the last 5 years is being emptied and becoming vacant. Although I am very much looking forward to starting a new chapter in my life, I will probably spend the next 2 weeks saying goodbye and mourning the end of this chapter.

Scrapbook!

Saturday I had the pleasure of going to a bridal shower thrown for me by my lovely bridesmaids. We played games, ate treats and had lots of laughs, it was everything a shower should be. And no spending hours watching me open presents, woo hoo! I've attached a few photos of the scrapbook so that my family who couldn't be there can see how it looked, Sally did a beautiful job. Thank you so much to my amazing bridesmaids and also a special thank you to my friend Kim who came all the way from Burford just to spend a couple of hours at my shower. Yet again, I am reminded how very blessed I am to have such wonderful friends.

Boo!

When I was in university, our friend Adrian always threw a Hallowe'en party at his mom's house. I think I only went to two of them but they were always packed with people and lots of fun and games. This year Age decided to throw another party at his own new townhouse (well, new to me anyway.) For some reason I expected to see all the same people from his old parties but to my suprise I barely knew anyone! (I guess my mind is still in university.) It was interesting to see the contrast actually, there was a ton of fancy food that people had brought (instead of just "chips and pizza") and Age even had real games prepared! (See "halloween pictionary" above.) It really was an "adult" party. The final tip was when people had to leave to take care of kids or get up early the next day. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised, it has been over 15 years since university. I guess the last time I was at one of Age's parties, I WAS in university so the contrast was interesting to say the least. However it was still a ton of fun, and nice to catch up with some friends you don't see very often and I'm pretty sure this time, there was no broken glass or destroyed furniture to clean up.

Grilled Cheese

There's nothing like grilled cheese. Especially when its the processed cheese and the bread is smothered in butter. Some people like to add bacon, or a tomato but I like it plain. And gooey. With a dab of ketchup. Sometimes you have those days where by the time you get home, you just don't feel like cooking. Tonight is one of those days. And for this occasion, my grilled cheese sandwich will be my perfect meal. Mmmmmm deeleecious!

On the wedding front, we met with our minister Glenn last night. He is a friend through my good friend Susie and luckily he agreed to married us. It means so much more when you know the person marrying you. He is very laid back and doesn't add any pressure at all. And its his first wedding too so it will be special for both of us. He said he was nervous but I know he will do a great job. He's so laid back, even if he is nervous on the big day, I know no one will be able to tell. And if he makes a mistake during the ceremony, it will make it just that much more memorable. We had a good time at dinner last night and I'm looking forward to seeing him in his "minister form" on my wedding day. (Still weird to say!)

Beef and Veg Pie

There's nothing on tv and I have no wedding/house items to do tonight so what's a girl to do but experiment in the kitchen! I decided to turn the last half of my frozen puff pastry into a meat and vegetable pie. I started by browning my onions and sweet potato cubes. Took those out when they were cooked and then added ground beef with garlic, thyme, paprika and salt and pepper. Then added shredded rapini. Mixed it all up and then threw it into a pie dish (one of my new ones,) and then topped it with my rolled out pastry.

Everything seemed to be going well until I decided my pastry wasn't browning and decided to turn on the broiler. I set the timer to 5 minutes and apparently it was 4 minutes too long because as you can see, the top is a little bit toasty. Hopefully the inside isn't a reflection of the outside.

Drip... drip...drip

Today I had the whole day to myself. Since Gerwyn's mom is going on a pilgrammage for 2 weeks, he wanted to spend some time with her this weekend so I had the entire day alone. First I went to visit Grams and chatted with my aunts and uncles about my wedding. (Two sets dropped by while I was there so it was convenient to be able to discuss details with them.) Last night I got started on putting together my invites (thanks to Sally,) and was able to start handing them out to family. When I told my Grams that I was getting married (finally,) she was so happy. She asked me many questions about Gerwyn (she doesn't remember meeting him,) and then told me how beautiful I was because I was getting married. I said "so when I wasn't getting married I wasn't beautiful?" and she replied "yes". Then she asked when the wedding was and to my surprise when I told her it was in a month, she said "why so long?". When I asked her when she thought I should get married, she said "next week". At least one person wasn't surprised by my timeline.

After I got back I took a little nap and then decided to do some cooking. I made a chicken stew and pear tart. For the stew, I carmelized onions, garlic and kale and then removed it to brown some chicken drumsticks that I had dredged in flour. Then I took the meat out, poured stock and a can of plum tomatoes into the pot to scrape up the browned bits and added some italian seasoning and dried chilies. Then I threw the veggies and chicken back into the pot and put it in the oven for an hour until the meat was soft enough to fall off the bone.

For the tart, I thawed a square of frozen puff pastry and then rolled it out into a rectangle. I peeled and sliced pears and mixed them with brown sugar, cinnamon, honey and nutmeg. I tried to nicely arrange the pears back on the pastry and then baked it for about half an hour.

So far everything seems to have turned out except for my pot of rice which I accidentally burned on the stove. 2 out of 3 ain't bad though, right?

Oh yes, as for the title of my post, I'm getting over a cold and my nose has been dripping all night. I blow and blow and blow but 5 minutes later its dripping again.

Tea for four

Today I met my friends Saadia, Kim and Trish at Langdon Hall in Cambridge for some spa time and tea. Its so rare that the four of us are able to get together since we all live so far away but when we do manage to see each other, its like no time has passed and we're back in university. I know these ladies read my blog regularly, and will be looking for my post on today's activities, so girls, this is for you. I made the "bad" photo the smallest, ok? Maybe you'll finally get your acts together and start your own blog. Just because you have 3 kids, doesn't mean you don't have time to blog!! Hop to it!

A Quick Peek

A few weekends ago, Sally and I went to try on some wedding dresses. Here's are a few (of the dozen) I tried on. Each of them had a flaw and so none of them ended up making the cut. (What you don't see are the million clips stuck on the back since almost all of the dresses were too big.)

Weekend Fun

This weekend Gerwyn and I had a couple of get togethers to attend, first a "Games Night" at Sarita and Tom's and then a house warming the next night at his friend Ed and Aleyda's new place. It was nice to see everyone again since being engaged and of course everyone was shocked to find out our wedding was next month. Its interesting to see people's reactions, they always assume its 2010 and then wonder what the rush is all about. Why wait a year when you can squeeze it all into a month I say. Plus, I get the added benefit of avoiding eternal damnation from my mom for living in sin. Who could say no to that?

Both nights we ended up staying out quite late and I didn't even notice! Friday night we got hooked on Taboo (and won!) so we didn't notice when the clock said 2:30 am (yikes!). The next night again we managed to stay out til midnight. I guess time flies when you're in good company.

As for the wedding update, I officially have my venue booked, my dress bought and invitations underway (courtesy of Sally). All in all, I think a pretty good start. Now I just have to start packing...

A rush of blood to the head...

Every Monday night, Mel and I go to our weekly "Gentle Hatha" yoga class. Unlike regular yoga, this one is a bit slower and really focusses on stretching. During my short lived running days, I found that yoga helped tremendously with sore muscles. Most of the stretches target muscles you didn't even know were sore. There is only one thing I don't like about yoga. The downward dog. This is a very popular pose and after many stretches, you often end up in downward dog. Every single time I do it, I find all the blood just rushes to my forehead and my head feels like its going to explode. Sometimes (like today) I even end up with a headache after. I try to get it over with as quickly as possible or else just tilt my head up so that the blood doesn't go right to it, but then the teacher will walk by and I'm nervous I'll get in "trouble" for not doing it correctly. So I have no choice but to fill my little brain with all the blood from my entire body. No wonder it hurts after.

Maybe next week I'll just sit down when the downward dog makes an appearance in our class.

WND makes a comeback!

Tonight I am preparing for a long awaited Wednesday Night Dinner. We've all been busy since Spring and so we held off on our usual WND's until what was supposed to be the fall. With our continuing busy schedules (and new babies!), fall has been passing us by and especially now with my move, it looked like WNDinners would be a thing of the past.

So this week, in honour of Thanksgiving, I decided to throw possibly my last WND at my place tomorrow. On the menu, a not so big looking turkey (it looked big in the store!), mashed potatoes, butternut squash, roasted brussel sprouts and green beans, crab and mushroom stuffing and garlic bread. Its sure to be another big pig out fest. Hopefull everyone isn't turkey'd out already.

I've made a few dishes tonight and now I'm resting. I forgot how much work these dinners can be but its worth every bit of effort to spend some quality time with great friends over good food. Plus, I'm definitely enjoying the distraction from the usual wedding/house stuff that has engulfed my life and every waking thought lately. Can't wait for tomorrow night!

A chocoholics dream...

This is the gift and Mae and Glenn gave us for our engagement. I was shocked to even receive any gifts for our engagement actually but this one seemed to get the most attention. It was as if Gerwyn's dream came true. Its difficult to see but that vase is about 2.5 feet tall and FILLED with full size chocolate bars.... Toblerone, Ferrero Rocher, Mr. Big, all of our favourites. Everytime I look at it, I can't help but smile. Its like a party in a vase.

I've been trying my hardest not to go postal on that thing but I have a feeling tonight's the night we will get very well aquainted.

Here's a toast to great friends...

Thursday night my good friend (and now bridesmaid,) Saadia and her husband Raju held an Engagement Party at their place in honour of my new status. Our entire Wednesday Night Dinner crew plus a few others (including my friend Mae and her husband Glenn who came all the way from Markham on a weeknight!) joined in on the celebration and the food preparation. Everyone pitched in and made fabulous contributions. From Sally's favourite Chinese, Susie's salads, Mel's mmmmarvelous cupcakes (and caramel crunch cake) and of course Saadia's everything else. I am so honoured and blessed to have such wonderful friends. I've always known how great they were (afterall, we've been friends for so long!) but its times like these when I'm reminded how lucky we are to have such thoughtful and caring friends who always seem to go the extra mile to make us feel special.

I'm starting to realize why people love to have big weddings, nothing beats being surrounded by the people that love you. Well everybody, we love you back!

We are so happy to be able to celebrate this milestone with each and every one of you. Thanks for being such amazing friends.

Being alone

Tonight is a very rare night where I have nothing to do. Actually I have plenty to do. But tonight I decided to take a break. In selling the condo, buying a house and planning a wedding, I thought I was being a great multi-tasker, getting everything done in one shot. Now I realize why these are called "big milestones". They involve a lot of work. I never have a shortage of things to think about or decisions to make or things to research. These last couple of weeks, it was a bit exciting but now I'm ready to think about something else for a change. Its like playing with a new toy. Eventually you get tired of it and you want something else.

So tonight, I'm taking a break, enjoying my solitude and my condo... alone. My instinct is to find something to do, call a friend or run an errand but I have to fight it because I know these evenings will be very rare in the weeks to come and even rarer when I move and am married.

I remember when I first moved into my own place. I thought I would be so lonely, and even scared to be by myself. In the 5 years of being here, I've realized that I love being alone. Its become something I need to do, every so often, just to maintain my sanity. Who knows when my next opportunity will be to do "nothing", so for tonight... there'll be dirty dishes in the sink, laundry in the hamper and just me, myself and I.

Lee vs. Kim

Here are pics of my brother's family and my cousin Mark's family. Notice anything similar between the two? Cute babies? Check. Happy Ladies? Check. Now what is wrong with these husbands? Is this what happens during fatherhood?