Transcending: Words on Women and Strength by Kelly Corrigan

The Weather Outside is Frightful

And to think we came to Quadra to get away from the snowy cold snap our city is having!

But hey, we've visited tons of people, had an amazing infrared sauna and then a steam shower followed by a 1/2 hour massage each and we're on our way to a fondue party with more friends. If only the snow/rain thing that's going on would finish...
Merry Christmas everyone!

Nailed it! ha ha...

What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
The Midland
Boston
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

It's Official!

I'm a student again! My next class starts Jan 8/09 for 16 weeks, just Thursday nights for 3 hours. Advanced Financial Accounting. That I will be taking with my good friend. Our exciting topics include:
"An in-depth study of six major areas of advanced financial accounting: standard setting in Canada and internationally, financial instruments, income tax allocation, long term intercorporate investments, consolidation, foreign currency translation and the translation and consolidation of foreign subsidiaries, and not-for-profit and public sector accounting."

Did your eyes glaze over a little? It sounds pretty complicated, but we're smart cookies and have lots of resources available at work.

Jeremiah's birthday was a few weeks ago, and as usual I hemmed and hawed over what to buy this incredible yet complicated man. For quite some time he's been pushing the idea of buying quality items for the house, and has wanted a kitchen knife. So, I let my fingers do the walking and ended up finding a really cool store in Inglewood specializing in hand crafted kitchen knives. Knifewear.
Of big interest to me was the long history of the family trade and the fact that they're from Japan (always a sell with J). The experience of bringing him to find the store, chatting with the owner and being in the presence of someone passionate about their items was a treat. We finished off the day with a superb latte, a visit to the Tea Trader for some organic loose tea and a stop at Nectar Desserts. Mmmmmmm. We had a raspberry mango tart topped with the most delicious fresh flavourful raspberries and a slice of layered chocolate heavenliness (otherwise known as cake).

The dark colour is exactly how it looks when it's taken out of the fire, the shinier bits happen when it's sharpened. Most knives are thouroughly polished up before selling, but we liked the unfinished look.

Check out the cool way he signs his art - I like the heart!
The blade is so fine you can cut tomatoes as fine as tissue paper with no effort. I think it was worth the $300 price tag.

Wil

So, last weekend we went to a concert in Cochrane - Wil. One of J's co-workers' brother in law. The guy has mad skillz with a guitar, just a crazy way of playing, it was amazing to watch. His style is pretty rough on the strings and so he ends up breaking a lot of them which is how he came up with his website name: ibreakstrings.com . Being "green" minded, his wife started making jewelry out of the broken strings which she sells and J bought me one of the coveted bracelets.Such a cool idea.
Here's a video for you, and there's a link to his jukebox on his website if you get the urge to check out more.
Wil-Honey Pie

Frugal Fanny

Just came across a fantastic article that I think we could all benefit from. It's about a lady who calls herself "Frugal Fanny" and how she saves / spends her monthly income. 6 of her tips are:
1. Money is for living, not spending.
2. Never go into debt if you don't have to.
3. Don't deprive yourself.
4. Steer clear of spending traps.
5. Beware of bulk buying.
6. Avoid comparisons.

For the full article with expansions on the 6 points see: Frugal Fanny . Although most of these thoughts I was raised on, it's good to have a reminder every once in a while. Anyone else have any good saving tips?

Peanut Butter

So guess why kids like peanut butter so much? Because it's made with ICING SUGAR. That's right - icing sugar. Yum. I still bought it. Even knowing I'm eating icing sugar.
So I'm still doing the P90X thing - pretty hard still. Going into week 7 and I've lost ZERO lbs, but 1-3 inches all over (not quite enough to go down a size or anything, things are just, less strained we'll say). I am more flexible and stronger and feel better, so I hope as I keep doing this I start to see results of the poundage droppage type.
Fall is here and it is sad. Morning walks (much fewer now thanks to J) are a little scary and dark and cold. I shall have to alter my route slightly to take advantage of more street lights - less scary dark tree areas where someone could be hiding to get me. I even turned my ipod off for that part so I could be more "aware" of my surroundings.
J and I are currently in the debate of do we reno now and be ready to sell when we find a super awesome deal, or do we focus on our debt pmts and get rid of that or do we hang on to what we've got at such an awesome interest rate compared to what's out there now (and having a way higher mortgage is not too thrilling. But having babies would be.) Hence, the continued debate. I suppose we'll start to reno small things and keep up our debt payment maximization thing and keep our eyes open for a super great deal. And not have babies quite yet.

Economics explained

SOCIALISM: You have 2 cows, and you give one to your neighbour

COMMUNISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk

FASCISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk

NAZISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you

BUREAUCRATISE: You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, then throws the milk away

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank,then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows is transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.Sell one cow to buy a new President of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public buys your bull

THE ANDERSEN MODEL: You have two cows. You shred them

A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows

A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'cowkimon' and market it worldwide

A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka

A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them

A CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported otherwise

AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship them

A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. Both are mad

IRAQI CORPORATION: Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them that you have none. No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out ofyou and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a democracy

AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate

WELSH CORPORATION: You have two cows. The one on the left looks very attractive

my $25 haircut

Yay! $25!! Normally it's only $35, but as a first timer to Red Bloom I got $10 off

Summer Vacation

Had a great time on our Quadra / Victoria trip - went sailing, to the lakes, ate lunch at the Bengal Lounge in the Empress Hotel, visited tons of people and soaked up the ocean. Here's a few pics:

J at the breakwater in Vic

Sailing

In the hammock on the sailboat

Carol on my friend Jenn's bike
The new wall hanging we bought and my new hats