The Living Room

So, our Christmas present to each other this year was a new flatscreen TV. Found it at Memory Express of all places - it's a computer store, so I didn't even realize they sold TV's. It's a 37" LCD Sharp Aquos that you can buy at Future Shop for about $899 and M.E. sold it to us for below cost - $400! It was missing the part the connects the TV to the base so it has to be wall mounted, but hey - that's what we were going to do anyhoo.
Here's the first night we got it home:

J plugged it in right away to play some Mario Kart. It was too late at night to start dismantling the wall unit and put it up.
This is the living room after taking apart the huge wall unit we had created when first moving in - part of it went in this corner, the other shelf in the computer room. Feels so much more open now.
Yes, I did hang our Rock Band Fender up on the wall - with white pushpins no less!
So, I think the next thing on the list is going to be painting. We have a floor guy coming in the next little bit to take a look and make some recommendations on the process. As our building shifts a lot and the concrete needs to be re-leveled we want to make sure we do everything we can to have it last. But in the meantime, I think I'm going to paint. I'm thinking light cream walls, keep the dark grey in the kitchen, and glossy white trim. I plan to accent with light grey and red and black, and I think the cream and white paint will provide a warm fresh base. I also want this picture that's above our couch to continue to fit in, as it was painted by J's brother's girlfriend for us, but we'll see. It may have to move. I also took down the curtain rod above the window and am so far liking the clean crisp lines. Of course, being a girl, I'm sure I'll change my mind, but for now, it's good.

Look what I can do!

Bicycle Built For Two
Yup, that's me! The song reminds me of my dad, singing to us as kids and I just couldn't resist.

Get your original SUV now...

As the USA's Big 3 auto manufacturers face bankruptcy, we must go back to the old time basics. We will soon need to embrace the original SUV.

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.