Cha-ching!

When I woke up this morning I had no idea I'd spend a chunk of change today...I had no intention of spending over $50. I wanted to get Neko a new puppy bed (didn't get one), a toilet brush (chucked out the old one but haven't picked up a new one yet), and a pair of walking shoes (Luckily I was able to find a pair of those). We ended up booking rail passes for Italy, grabbed a delicious brunch at the Urban Diner (initially I was upset that they wouldn't be serving lunch until 2 but was ecstatic with our order), bought a t-shirt and water bottle at MEC, then proceeded to Mexx where the swiping of the credit card hurt a little bit! Bruce laughed at me cuz I had troubles spending some money on clothes but last week I was talking about buying a Smart Car! Yeah ok...sometimes I don't completely make sense, but that's one of my quirks that makes me so loveable! I'm trying to practice for Italy and embrace the cha-ching!!!

Hell's Kitchen!

Saturday was fantastic! I pulled off all my surprises for Bruce's birthday! He woke up excited about finding out what I had planned for the day...I wouldn't tell him so he started guessing. He asked if I was taking him to look at bulldog puppies, which I had never thought of, so of course I went with that lie cuz it sounded soooo good! You shouldn't lie...he was disappointed. Sorry Bruce!

So we went snowshoeing! Needed something new for us to try and it totally fit the bill! We first tried Rundle Park and well, Saturday was pretty warm (+11C) so finding snow was a bit of an issue. We decided to trek out towards Elk Island Park and whadda ya know..SNOW! It was awesome...I'd totally do it again!


I told Bruce that I invited his parents over for dinner that night for barbequed steaks and baked potatoes. Yes, I even had the ingredients as not to raise suspicions! What I had actually planned and thank God I was able to pull it together in time, was a Hell's Kitchen kind of party. The object was that each couple were to bring four random ingredients and we had to create dinner out of whatever was on the counter. I topped it off with personalized aprons and chefs hats! I have to admit, I was a little worried but dinner was fabulous - no lies! Our ingredients included: fresh tomatoes, orzo, broccolini, garlic, shrimp, fire roasted salsa, buns, oatmeal cookies, refried black beans, steak, crab meat, fresh basil, bamboo shoots, coconut milk, herb & garlic cream cheese and balsamic vinegar. Pretty good haul of stuff! So we ended up making bruschetta for appetizers, steak neptune, broccolini with a cream cheese/salsa sauce, thai coconut shrimp over orzo, refried black beans on toasted buns with fresh basil and of course there was birthday cake for dessert! We finished the evening off by awarding the golden spoon to the most creative cook who also turned out to show the most initiative in the kitchen...Krista! So it was only a wooden spoon painted gold and wrapped with gold pipecleaners but an award nonetheless! And nobody can leave a party without a lootbag...it wasn't a $91,000 swag bag like at the Oscar's but it did have a water shooting sea horse, a chocolate bar, a chip clip and some kind of plastic animal!

To see some photos from the evening, visit Bruce's blog at - http://momentsindigital.com/blog/2010/03/birthday-moment-39-holding/

Gotta start planning for next year...it's the big 4-0!!!!

Lent

So it's Lent. What did I give up you ask? I gave up popcorn, Diet Dr. Pepper and ice cream. Now is that a sign of an overachiever or what?! You only have to give one thing up, but no...I want to challenge myself. There's three quarters of a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper in the pantry, a new container of popcorn on the shelf and a big box of 100 calorie ice cream treats in the freezer with one ice cream sandwich out of it. Temptations are all around me. And what do I decide to do today? Add one more thing to the list. I didn't give up something for Lent today, I gave up someone. I'm not going to let this person get the best of me like they usually do, ok I'll try not to let them get the best of me. I think this will be the most challenging! It's kinda like one of those zits that sits just below the surface and never really comes to a head. Yup, I like that analogy for how I am with this individual - spot on! There should be some kind of award at the end of Lent, not only popcorn, Diet Dr. Pepper and ice cream but I think I'll deserve a set of wings if I get through Lent with this last one!

My name is Sarah...

Hi There! Let me introduce myself, Sarah, Sarah Clarke. That was me being funny...you know, since I haven't blogged in a frog's life! Ha ha ha! I just made that one up, like it?! I have to tell you, writing that stupid sentence made me feel like me and I haven't felt like me for a long time. I have been so busy with work these past few weeks that I haven't really stopped to be Sarah very often. I like being Sarah.

You know what else I like being? Canadian! I have to be honest that the Olympics have never really been my thing, probably cuz I'm not athletic or that into sports. But in the last few weeks I have been totally addicted to them! I didn't expect to be at all but I think since it was so close to home that you couldn't help but get sucked in. I was so proud of our country, of our athletes...so proud!

Neko is making blogging very hard tonight. He keeps jumping up and nudging my elbows for me to play with him. Very need tonight. And he stinks like a**! Guess I gotta bathe the little stinker! Sorry this isn't the most interesting blog but I thought I should ease myself back into it! Felt good!

Lesson Learned

So I learned an important lesson yesterday, to keep yourself and your belongings in order and in check. We helped Mom and Dad clean out their basement and garage yesterday and while they are no where near those that are on the show, "Hoarders", there was a lesson learned for keeping an ever watchful eye on what you accumulate and how much. One lesson was not to hide things away, out of sight, out of mind. Never has that rung so true as when we started on the garage, emptying cabinets here and there. I think we unearthed about 12 or 14 bottles of window washer fluid! Dad didn't see it but Kathy and I kept running them out to our cars to clean them outta there. Besides, their car was smooshed in a hit and run accident so I don't think he's gonna need all that right away! In any event, Bruce and I came home and I started on the basement. We have the Cerebral Palsy Society coming next week to pick up donations and I have gathered about 10 garbage bags of old clothes and shoes. And I started going through old household items that we were storing in the basement...like I said earlier, out of sight, out of mind. Gotta keep on top of all this stuff or it's gonna take over one day. Even though I finished school some time ago now, I'm always learning.

Round Head

On my way to pick up coffees yesterday I noticed a bunny running down the street. There was lots of traffic passing him by. He stopped to assess where he was at and I noticed he had round head. Round head - it's not just for dogs anymore. But he wasn't getting in trouble for anything so I'm not quite sure why that bunny would have round head. I got to thinking - I bet little kids look like they have round head when they get in trouble too. Not that they can put their ears down but they kinda bow their head and have huge saucer eyes, which I'm sure is an attempt to make themselves look irrestibly adorable in hopes that you'll forget you're made at them. Then I started wondering, "What about cats?"

Black Balloon

I was waiting for the light to turn green just outside of the parkade at work. There were no cars going either way under the tunnel but there was something travelling through, taking it's own sweet time. It was a black balloon. That's it. Just a black balloon on a string meandering through the tunnel. It was heading west. It'd get really high, to the point that I thought it would lodge itself between the beams but just before it did, it'd make it's way down again. Slowly but surely it would get lower and lower, so low in fact had there been a car around (which is highly unusual after work for there not to be any) that it would have popped it as it run it over. If you get stuck at the red light just as it turns red, you have about 3.5 minutes to wait for a green light. It was almost a full 3 minutes before any cars appeared...just that black balloon. Wonder what it meant...