This does not look steep, but it really is!
Again, very steep!
Can you see the Waterslides off to the right?
The athletes at the top of the "hill." It was a good hike to start out the season on. Thanks, ladies. Mt. Everest next, right? ;P
Sushi was a little too excited and wanted to run out into the road on the walk (even with her leash on), so I decided to carry her ... for her own safety and for those driving on the road.
We took shelter underneath Chad's trees outside his front lawn.
Then it started to rain harder so we needed to find bigger trees.
By the time we got home, we were all soaked. No one would let me take pictures of them looking like a drowned rat, so I decided to take one of Sushi. :)
People have been asking me lately how I "happen" to have all these encounters with celebrities. Well, it's because I'm pretty much a stalker. Rarely do I just RUN INTO a celebrity all willy nilly like. With Jann Arden and Rick Mercer, I bought tickets to go see them. With Phil Keoghan, I heard he was going to be signing books, so off we went. Chad Krueger happens to live in my town, so chances of seeing him are a bit better than other celebrities. Anyways, I don't have such good luck as to just hang out with celebrities. It's very much planned out by me ... which could be a tad bit scary. Here's to hoping to never getting a restraining order. :)
The rest of the week I was moving into my new house sitting place and cleaning up one or two last little "treats" left by Leroy and Tiffany at the old place. As much work as they were, there will be times where I'm sure I'll miss them fighting to both sit on my lap ... and occassionally winning.
Are these not the cutest things you've ever seen???? I could just SQUISH them (in a loving way, of course). There were 10 of them. How do I choose which one to hold? Too many options, so I just switched every few minutes. Don't you just LOVE puppy breath? Can you see the evidence of the sunburn? Yeah, a little too pink in the face. Oh well. :)
Jennie fell in love, too.
Hey little dude!
This is Keldy. If any of you are looking for a GREAT family dog or know someone who is, Keldy said she'll give me all of the commission, so ... ha ha, totally kidding. But if you really are looking for a dog, just let me know and I'll put you in touch with Keldy. She did say that I can come by ANY time and see the puppies, so I'm definitely going to take her up on that.
Back in the box you go, guys. Most of them had their eyes open already, but a few of them were still in the process. They were also just learning to take their first steps, so it was cute to watch them wobble around. Not so cute to watch Bailey eat their poo, but apparently that's normal. One of my friends (who's a Mom of 3) said, "Isn't it great that God put that natural instinct in them so they don't have to live in a sh*%)_hole?" To which I replied, "Yeah, but aren't you glad He didn't make you that way?"
We didn't have a lot of time before the concert, so we didn't want to search the city for a place to eat, so we ate at Jimmy's right next to The Center where Jann was playing (yes, we're on a first name basis). It was a little loud in there, but it was really good food. It was $3 off appetizer night, so of course being the good Mennonites that we are (wait, only 2 of us are Menno, but the other 2 are Dutch ...). Anyways, we had Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Dry Ribs and Nachos (which I forgot to take a picture of - I'm knew at taking pics of my food, alright) and they were all very good.
We were a tad bit late for the opening act and when we went inside to check out our seats, they were directly in the middle of the row that was full of people on either side, so we decided to wait outside until he was finished. This presented us with a great photo op and before you ask, yes, the dress code WAS black for the concert. :)
She started the concert by saying, "Thank you all for coming. We have 7 hours of music prepared for you, so let's get started. Sit back and let me take you on a journey. A journey through my pathetic existence which in the end should make you feel better about your lives." I had heard she was funny, but every story she told had just enough sarcasm and tone that made it a little better than just any old story.
Like I said, she was so funny. She told us that she didn't know what they'd told us when we came in, but to feel free to take as many pictures as we wanted and to feel free to video it and put it up on YouTube. She said, "By all means, get the word out." Being the camera freak that I am .. I love that!
The best story she told had one of us crying, one of us could barely breathe and I'm sure all of our cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. Warning: if there are any guys reading this post, there will be words like: period and pad coming up. If you keep reading and are uncomfortable, you can't say you weren't warned.
Jann told a story about when she was 16 years old. Her and two of her friends decided to go to the school dance. She doesn't know why they went because there were only 42 people in her school, so nothing exciting ever happened at these dances, but they were going to go anyways. They pulled out their faux denim skirts that they made in home ec. and were proceeding out the door when their friend, Cathy, decided to tell them that she'd gotten her period. She'd only had it a couple of times, so she wasn't very good at "it" yet. Lucky for her, the old style of the belt was out because the adhesive strip had just been invented. Although the adhesive strip was very exciting, we now know that nothing beats the wings for keeping the pad in place. Jann went on to describe how big and bulky that pad could be and how after about an hour, it started riding up the back of your underwear (remember that, ladies?). She even went so far as to demonstrate how you could bend your knees, split your legs apart a little and shove the pad back in place from the back. She said sometimes she would even shove it a little extra farther, just to give herself a little leeway. By now the place is in an uproar because we can unfortunately remember exactly what she's talking about.
She said they went to the dance and of course were standing off to the side of the dance floor drinking the punch and all of a sudden they see the Captain of the football team walking towards them. Jann's words, "He couldn't be walking towards us, could he? I think he is! Who does he ask to dance? Period Cathy!" Here's where I started videoing:
Is that not hilarious? Oh man, my cheeks still hurt just thinking about it.
Jann lost a bunch of weight not too long ago and she looks GREAT! She was wearing the tightest jeans I've seen and she looked fantastic in them. Way to go, Jann!
During her first encore, she came out and one of her backup singers sang while she started painting a picture. She said it would be up for auction in the foyer after the concert and the money would go to World Vision and she asked everyone to consider sponsoring a child.
I could tell you a few more stories from the night because so many fun things happened, but I have to end the post sometime.
As we were standing in line (for an hour and 10 minutes), we looked over the application form for the TV show. The main points on the back of the book are:
This is me shaking his hand!!! How do, Phil. No, I didn't actually say that. I'm not THAT much of a nerd. I introduced myself and then Bren introduced herself and then we stood there with these HUGE grins on our faces. He looked up at us and said, "Man, with bubbly faces like that, you better be signing up for my show!" We told him we weren't signing up for the show and of course he asked why not. We told him that we didn't want to have to face our fear but that we'd rather do something nice. He said, "No,no. You get to choose!" What? Really? Well, that sounds more doable.
Can you see those silly grins I was talking about?
We continued to talk to him about things that people had done on the show already and then Bren asked him if he'd want to be involved in helping set up a kids home in Thailand. He said that if we could do it in 72 hours, then it's doable.
Phil was SUPER nice. He listened intently to what we were saying and made us feel like he actually cared, not like he couldn't wait for this to be over. We tried to listen to him talk to other people and I'm sure this is all in our heads (although I would like it not to be), but he seemed more interested in us and really wanted us to sign up for the show. As the lady in front of us walked away, Phil said, "That's a nice scarf," but as WE were walking away he said, "So, you girls are going to sign up for the show, right?" to which we answered, "Maybe," and then he said, "No, not maybe. You're going to sign up!" hee hee Ok, Phil. Anything you say, Phil. But I would like that part about getting to choose what you do in writing because I DO NOT want to end up scuba diving with sharks or something (that's my fear). But if Phil said it, it must be true. Yes, we were a little star struck, but not in a Brad Pitt kind of way. We would LOVE to go out for coffee with Phil and just pick his brain. He's done so many cool things and been so many great places that it would be fun to find out more about him (he's married and has kids .. I already checked, so it's not like that ... unfortunately). :)
Here's an excerpt from the Internet on why he wrote the book: The reason he's done so many of these things is because when he was 19 years old, he almost died while scuba diving. After the shock, Phil reflected on where he was at and on how precious life is. He sucked in the O2 and the next day went back to the wreck and repeated his nearly fatal dive. He also began to write a list of all the things he wanted to achieve before he died. As he worked through the initial list of 100 Things To Do, other lists evolved, which he did too. This has led to a life filled with adventure and few regrets.
Thanks Phil. If only I can figure out what my dream is.
Bren and I both weren't really feeling like driving into Vancouver for the second day in a row, but I'm glad we did. It was a pleasure to have met him. He seems like such a down to earth guy.
We had saved so much time in the mall that she had time to go for a quick supper afterwards, so we headed over to Earls and had a nice dinner and a chat. Thanks for trusting my opinion, Pam. Here's to hoping you and your Size 4 jeans live a long and happy life together. :)
That was my week, my friends. I hope you all had a good one and that you enjoy your long weekend!
You may be thinking, isn't this a Mother's Day post? Why is there a picture of Ketchup, Mayonnaise, Cheese, Wieners and Bread on a Mother's Day post. Well, let me tell you. This is one of my favorite after school snacks that my Mom used to make for me. We would come running in the house and I remember asking, "Can I have a wiener pizza? Pleeeeeeease, Mom." And of course, my Mom would stop whatever she was doing and make me a pizza. Unfortunately, I didn't learn how to cook from my Mom (because she did make more nutritious things than wiener pizzas). That would've been a very smart thing to do because she is a great cook, but instead, I decided to be involved in basketball, volleyball, track and field, piano lessons etc after school ... and if it wasn't a planned activity, then I would run in, throw my backpack on the ground, grab a snack, run back outside, grab my bike and go meet my friends at the park. I would gladly come back inside when suppertime came around, but rarely was I around for the making of the supper. Sometimes I would make it back inside in time to set the table, but the interest to learn how to cook was never there for me. However, I did learn to make a mean wiener pizza. Here's how it goes:
Put the mayonnaise on the bread, squeeze some ketchup on, slice up the wiener and grate some cheese. I only have cheddar cheese in this picture, but my Mom was so great that she would give us cheddar AAAAAND mozzarella on ours. Aren't I lucky? Stick the bread/wiener in the microwave for about 25 seconds just to get it warm.
Take it out of the microwave and put the cheese on. If you're a good Mom, you'll make sure there's so much cheese that you won't see any wieners (ok, some people might look at that as a bad Mom, but check this out .. )Cheese, along with milk and yogurt, provides a unique combination of nutrients that, studies show, offers many health benefits including improving bone health, reducing high blood pressure and managing weight.
Voila!! Oooey, gooey goodness!
Now, this may sound gross to you and as I've grown up, I've found out that a lot of the things I ate as a kid, not everyone else ate. Doesn't everyone put ketchup on their mashed potatoes, peas and EVERY kind of meat, not just hamburgers and hot dogs? My Mom has bugged me that if I get married she's going to put a big ol' bottle of Heinz Ketchup up at the head table because I love it so much. We should've been stockholders. :)
P.S. I also want to send a special shout out to all the women in my life who are wonderful Moms and who I know read my blog. You have all taught me to appreciate my mother SO much more because I see that it's not always easy, yet you give of yourselves so freely. They are:A funky restaurant popular with the 30 something and over crowd that has an all day brunch menu including several different types of eggs benedict.
And it totally was! It was very trendy and hip and I felt a little too uncool to be there, but it was very fun to people watch. I had an omelette and Bren had the Cob Salad (btw - I'm pretty sure this is my first food picture I've blogged ... a new day for me!) Next time you're in Vancouver, check it out (but bring either cash or credit ... they don't take debit).
After that fun experience, we went test drivin'. Bren is looking to buy a new car, so after test driving a Nissan, a Mazda, a Mustang and an Infinity, the next logical step of course is to test drive a BMW. Oh, what fun! I don't know if words can describe it, so I'll just tell the story with pictures. Enjoy!
Ok, I changed my mind. I'll try to describe it. We took the car down 4th Ave towards UBC and then turned down by Jericho Beach and Spanish Banks. Beautiful day and many people out enjoying the wonderful weather. We decided to stop and take a few pictures. Oh, did I mention that it's a convertible. Niiiiiice, right? And a HARD TOP convertible. So great. When I had my Jeep, I was always worried when I'd park it somewhere that I'd come back and my soft top would be slashed or ripped or something. Not with this baby. HARD TOP convertible.
Bren's a little shy and didn't want to look at the camera.
Goodbye, sweet BMW. It was fun while it lasted. Thanks for a fun ride. I hope you go to a good home. Sniff!
