How Cute is This!?

I have no idea who this little girl is, but I thought it was so cute that I had to post it.

Today on my way to work ...

someone was driving in front of me with the license plate 333 FTB. That would be the PERFECT license plate for me (if you've been following along, you should know why)! Granted, my middle initial isn't T, but it could stand for Fiona The Bold, or Fiona The Ballsy, or Fiona Talks Back, or Fiona's Three Bias ... well, you get the point.

I promised THREE posts this week, and this is #3. I meant to post about my trip to Whistler last weekend, but I need to get a few pics from a friend of mine that I think I'll want to add to my post, but she's gone for the weekend, so I'll try to post about that on Monday or Tuesday.

Hope y'all have a GREAT weekend. Did you notice it's only 41 days until I leave??? :)

Thanksgiving in Alberta

On Thanksgiving weekend, I was privileged to be able to fly out to Alberta and be with family. Usually I'm spending Christmas with them, so I don't get to go out there for T-giving, however, this year I'll be in Malaysia with my sister Jodi and her family, so I wanted to see my parents and my sister Carolyn and her family before year end.

I flew out on a Thursday night like any other night ... or was it? When I checked in they told me that my plane was about half an hour late arriving, so I got out my book and settled into reading about what Jason Bourne was up to in that chapter. When we finally boarded the plane, I sat down in my seat and heard the two girls beside me talking about bringing their dogs with them and how they've had to put their dogs underneath in the cargo area before. Then I realized they were pointing at something under one of the girls seats, and this is what I saw.

Isn't he cute? His name is Diesel and he's a toy Chihuahua. He had a studded collar on and he was quite quiet. I asked her if she was allowed to take him out and she said no. I told her that if everyone in your row is ok with him coming out of his case, they should let him because he would've been so fun to play with, but alas, he stayed in his case the whole trip.

Finally, we got underway. Engines revving and wheels turning. I was deep in my book because if you've seen one take off, you've seen 'em all, wouldn't you think? Not this time. You know how fast you're going when the plane is about to leave the ground? Imagine going that fast and then ... slamming on the breaks! Yup, that's what happened. In the 10 to 15 seconds it took us to stop, I had 4 thoughts, "Hang on Mr. Pilot!" "This could be bad." "I'm glad it hasn't rained lately because then the runway's not slippery" ... and ... "Did we hit a cow?" Seriously! What would make us slam on the breaks right before take off? Well, apparently a light came on saying that a door was ajar. Hmmm, not good. The pilot came out and said to us, "No worries, folks. It was just a faulty sensor. Sorry about the violent stop everyone. A technician will come and look at it and we'll be off and running in 10 minutes." I turned to the girl beside me and said, "Let's time him, shall we?" An hour later, we were on our way to Edmonton.

My sister met me in Edmonton at 12:45 am and we headed to our hotel. Her and I had decided that since I was getting in late on a Thursday and the kids would be in school the next day, why don't we just stay in a hotel and then go into Edmonton and do some shopping on Friday? We had a fun sister's day out, shopping, eating and chatting. I was too busy doing all of those things to take any pictures.

Friday evening we headed back to my sister's place and I got to hang out with my niece (Bailey) and nephew (Clay). They have Playstation 2 and Clay had the game Guitar Hero that I've heard so much about, so I had to try it out. I do have video of me playing it, but trust me, it's not pretty. You'll have to settle for the pictures.

I only played a few times on the Easy setting, therefore, I mastered nothing.

Now, Sing Star was another story. We stopped in at their friends house to see their new puppy, but while the kids were in their friends room, I sauntered in to see what they were doing. They were playing Sing Star and let me tell you, it looked like a lot of fun. It's pretty much Karaoke, but you sing against each other. You each have a bar on the screen where you should be singing and if you're too high or too low, you get less points and you have to hold the note for the whole bar. I stood and watched the kids for a bit and then they showed me that there was a U2 song as one of the options. Yeah, just try and get that microphone away from me after that. Too much fun! We went to the store the next day and I bought it for Clay and Bailey. Ok, I'm an adult so I know how to maybe hold a tune a bit better, but I kicked their butts!!! I was surprised they even let me play with them the second day because I won all the time. :) I tried to throw a few of the games, but when you have a mic in front of you and you're finally not embarrassed to sing (I would probably never play this game with friends because I'm really not very good), you can get quite competitive. But we had a lot of fun. Next time I'm buying the 80s version and I can challenge my sisters!

Bailey wanted to show me her Halloween costume. I'm not 100% sure what she is, but I think it has something to do with a princess and a pink wig ... or maybe a fairy with a wand. Either way, she's very cute.

Then she wanted to show me the easel she had gotten and wanted to draw me a picture. She asked me what I wanted her to draw and I said, "A dog." "No, not that, Auntie Fiona." "Ok, a horse." "No, not that, either." "Ok, how about you draw me something YOU want to draw?" "Ok."

Kids are funny.

So, she drew me a goalie which is now proudly displayed at my desk at work.

I just had to put in this picture of Bear because he's so cute!

Sunday after church the preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner began. My brother-in-law (Fred)'s family live nearby, and they came as well, so we had a FULL house. While the women were inside getting ready for the meal, the boys were outside quading ...

and playing Wing It (my Dad saw it somewhere and decided he could make his own rather then spend the $$$ - he's so Mennonite).

I've heard this game has a few other names as well, like Horse's Balls ... hmmm, I wonder where that name came from?

Sorry, too graphic? :)

Actually, not all of the guys were "horsing" around. One of Fred's brother's deep fried the turkey outside.

Let the feasting begin!

Although the turkey was yummy, my favorite was the ham. It melted in your mouth and was so moist and salty. Mmmm, Mmmm, MMMMMMMMM! I had a LOT of food that day. Yes, I went for seconds and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I also had a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert ... because I wanted to. :)

Afterwards, I saw the dogs doing this outside ...

and it pretty much summed up how we all felt. I think we all slept pretty good that night!

I had a wonderful time with my family even though you'd never know it by the lack of pictures of my Mom, Dad, Sis and Bro-in-law. Weird. I have no idea why I have no pictures of them. Too much chatting and not enough picture taking, I guess, but talking with the fam can never be a bad thing. I think my family is pretty honest with each other and I like that. No, we don't talk every day or share every single one of our feelings, but I know that at any given time if I need to talk, they're there for me. We love each other very much and on this Thanksgiving, it was a blessing to be with them.

Police Run

Ok, for those of you who have been bugging me for bugging Jennie because she hasn't been blogging and yet I don't seem to be blogging very often lately either ... yes, you are correct, HOWEVER, her and I do agree that I have blogged more than her lately. It's just a fun ribbing between friends. Jennie put it very well to me today when she said, "Living actual life is getting in the way of me blogging." Very true. Let me catch you up on my life. I will try to be more on top of things again. I PROMISE 3 new posts in the next week (this will be #1).

Waaaaaay back in September, Carmen and I ran the Police Run. Now, as much as I hate to admit this, I'd only run twice since the Sun Run in April and had only been on a dozen or so walks since then. I wasn't keeping up on my fitness regime like I had wanted to, but I signed up for the Police Run anyways. I toyed with the idea of not running because I thought it would practically kill me because I'm so out of shape, and who wants to die, right? The night before the run I was at Bren's place and her and Jennie and I were hanging out and at about midnight Jennie looks at me and says, "You're not getting up tomorrow." Oh, it's on! No one challenges me like that. Ha ha, ok, maybe my pride got in the way a little there and I felt like I had to prove something, but I'm actually glad that it did. I woke up the next morning and thought, "I can do this. If only to see how it goes, I can do this, and no, it won't kill me."

Off I went to pick up Carmen (who has a gym membership and goes a LOT more than I've gone over the last few months). My goal to myself was to try to run the whole thing (we opted for the 5 km version) and only walk if I absolutely had to and to try to get it done in 35 minutes.

At about minute 4, this was the view I had of Carmen.

She's the one in the green jacket and black pants in the middle of the picture. "Bye, Carmen! Have a good run!"

There were a few times when I thought I would stop. At minute 15 I thought, "Am I crazy?" When we turned the last corner out of Downes Bowl and onto Tretheway, I thought, "Ok, I can practically see the finish line. I can do this," and then I heard someone coming up behind me and I could hear them go from a run to a walk and it sounded SOOOOOO good, but I pressed on. When we were beside Mouat Secondary, I looked over beside me and there was a little girl with her Dad and she was honestly maaaaaaybe 4 or 5 years old and she was at the same spot as me! What the heck? I almost asked her if I could take her picture when we crossed the finish line to show her to you (see, even if I'm not blogging, I'm thinking about blogging), but I didn't want to be the creepy lady at the Police Run, so I didn't take her picture. If a 5 year old can do it, I can do it. I kept going, and here's a picture of me crossing the finish line.

Ok, it's not actually a picture of ME crossing the finish line because I'm taking the picture, but can you see what the time says? 35 minutes, 47 seconds! I was in the 35 minute range (the timer is always a bit off because depending where you are in the pack, you never cross the starting line when they start timing, so the finish line time isn't your real time).

I saw a few friends when I crossed the finish line so I forgot to stop my own timer until I had walked away from them, but when I did stop it, my timer said I was within the 35 minute mark, too!

Carmen had finished about 4 minutes ahead of me. Way to go, Carmen! Thanks again for running with me and getting me out there.

When they posted the times online, this is what mine said (I'm in the middle of the page. Sorry for the blurriness).

Do you see that? 35 minutes EXACTLY!!! That was the time I was aiming for, and I hit it! I was quite happy with myself. I remembered that it's not as hard as I always tell myself it is when I'm sitting on the couch. Yes, it's a tad bit harder now that the rains have set in, but I have gotten out there a few times and hope to keep it up better than I did after the Sun Run. I don't know if you've noticed my countdown to Malaysia or not, but I have to be in a bathing suit in 47 days, so it would be nice to drop a few pounds before I leave. Here's to hoping!

Hockey Season has begun!

Back in September, Jennie and I got to go to the 1st preseason Canucks game. Now, hockey is more Jennie's thing, so I was going to let her blog about it first, but since she's a little "off" on the blogging thing, I guess I'll have to do it (yeah, that's right, Jennie. I just dissed you in blogland! Whatcha gonna do about it?) :P Just a little friendly nudging to get blogging again ... please!

Anyways, we had a great time. We both had the day off, so we decided to beat traffic and head in a little early ... ok, a lot early. Then we wanted to get a good parking spot without paying a million dollars, so we parked near Tinseltown. For those of you who know the Tinseltown area, that mall leaves a little to be desired, so we sat in Starbucks for awhile and had some good friendly banter.

Doesn't Jennie look cute sipping her London Fog? At least I think that's what it was. When it was finally time to head over to GM Place, we waited at Gate 3, my favorite number, so of course I had to take a picture of it. When all the waiting was over and we got inside, the excitement was in the air. Did you know that if you get there half an hour before the game starts, you are allowed to go right down to the ice and watch their preskate? Yes, yes you are ... so that's precisely what we did.

We picked this game against the Ducks because Jennie's favorite ex-Canuck is on this team ... none other than Todd Bertuzzi. Most everyone was over on the side where the Canucks would come out of the dressing room, but not us! We were over on the Ducks side and close enough to touch them if ever there was a chance. Well, out they came and we watched and waited and waited and watched ... and ... there ... was ... no ... Todd. I told Jennie to lean through the glass and ask the water boy if Todd was coming. He looked at her like she was crazy, shook his head and said, "No." With her hopes crushed and her dreams shattered, we got a few pics of the Ducks (that's Brad May #24) and went over to the Canucks side.

Isn't this the cutest picture? My friend Mark and his son Dillon were there watching the preskate as well, and I snapped this picture of him that I just love.

After the preskate, Jennie and I sat down in the seats where we had been waiting and decided to see how long we could sit there before we would get kicked out. First we started off in the 3rd row, then the owners of those seats came so we moved to the 5th row. When the owners of those seats came, Jennie was watching them pretty closely and said to me, "I think we have to move." I said, "Just don't look at them. Pretend we belong here until we get the boot," which we eventually did and then we moved to the 4th row and then when the owners of THOSE seats came we moved down the row and ended up staying there until almost the end of the 1st period.

I had fun with it, but when I suggested to Jennie that we move again into some empty seats, she said, "Can we just go to our own seats now? My heart can't take it anymore." She's so cute. But before we left, we took about a bizillion pictures to capture how close we were. Sometimes I wish we could capture smell because we could honestly smell their sweat. Ok, yes, I know that might be gross to some of you, but 1) it just made us feel like we were really part of the action and 2) it's been a long time since I've had a boyfriend, so it brought me back to those days where I'd got watch him play hockey and we'd have to carry his stinky gear back to the truck afterwards. Aaaah, good times. :)

Another disappointing factor of this game was that Naslund, Linden, Morrison and Luongo didn't show. I thought maybe they would at least come and sit in the box dressed in a nice suit and tie or something to make an appearance for their fans, but NO! So I had to settle for Bieksa, Mitchell and the Sedin twins.

These were my favorite pics.

And here are a few more of our bizillion pics. Now when I watch a game on TV, I feel just that much closer to these guys. :)

After our photo op and at the end of the 1st period, we headed up ... WAAAAAAYYY up, to our actual seats.

And looked down upon where we had been. Despite the few disappointments of the evening, I still had a very fun evening. I thought Jennie did, too, but then she would have already blogged about it, so maybe it wasn't as good of an evening as I thought. Wink, wink, Jennie. I'm totally buggin' ya. I love you and I'm so glad we got to go and have this night out together.

Remember everyone ...

Mmmm, Mmmm, Good ... Answer Revealed

And the answer is .... ANTON'S PASTA BAR in Burnaby. I was waiting for my friend Leana to put up a comment on my last post because she and I had the funniest experience going to Anton's in the winter one year. It was just after Christmas and we dropped a friend off at the airport and then decided to pick up Anton's and take it home. Now, if you know where Anton's is (just up the street from the PNE grounds on Hastings - East of Hwy #1, but before Willingdon), the airport is NOT a hop, skip and a jump from Anton's, but that's how good this food is. It's worth the trip on a cold, blustery, snowy night. So, after dropping off our friend, we went to I.Ke.a and made a few purchases ... ok, more than a few. I couldn't even see out the back window of my Jeep there was so much stuff in there (I believe one was a chair if that makes it any better). Then we proceed to pick up our Anton's take out (be warned, the take out portion is never as big as when you eat in) and drive home. Well, just before the Mt. Lehman exit, I hit an icy patch of road and spin around a few times and we end up in the ditch. Leana was holding the Anton's and the first thing she says to me is, "The Anton's is ok!" Who cares about all the purchases we made a I.K.ea ... as long as the Anton's is ok. Again, that's how good this pasta is.

They pretty much give you about 3 pounds of pasta so you have leftovers for days to come. I have a group of guy friends who have bets who can eat it all and keep it down ... but most of them can't do it or pull over on the way home because they can't keep it down. Ok, I know that's gross, but they're guys. What can I say?

So, who's in for a trip to Anton's? If you go on a Friday or Saturday night, be prepared to stand in line outside for at least 20 - 30 minutes (I've stood in line for as long as 50 minutes). Bring an umbrella if it's raining and dress warm ... but it's worth the wait. ENJOY!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm off to Alberta to spend some time with family and get my first turkey dinner in years! Whoo Hoo! Have a great weekend.

Mmmm, Mmmm, Gooooood!

Does anyone know which restaurant I visited lately? Their portions are HUGE and you'll have leftovers for days. Mmmm, love the creamy sauce. Goes straight to your hips!!!

The Greater Vancouver Zoo

A couple of weeks ago when the weather was still nice, my friends Rachel and Mark invited me to go along with them and their boys to the Greater Vancouver Zoo. We had a WONDERFUL day. I hadn't been to this zoo in about 15 years (I think). It hasn't changed much, but it's always fun to see "wild" animals up close and personal. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

I have never seen kids so excited to see a train. It was very cute to watch them every time the train came by us.

We took a little time out to go play at the playground.

My co-worker (top right) volunteers at the zoo and made sure we stopped by to see the Birds of Prey show. We were pleasantly surprised. I didn't think it would be as cool as it was.

Afterwards, my co-worker took some pictures of us holding the falcon ... or hawk ... not quite sure what it was, but it was cool. Dillon held the bird no problem, then Aiden had to flex his right arm to keep the bird up and then poor Jake had to have Mom help because the bird was a little too heavy. Very cute.

This next picture was my FAVORITE picture of the day.

I think she needs a new dentist and maybe some conditioner for her hair. I found out later that her name is Lips. Funny!

Justin Timberlake - Brought Sexy Back!

Let me take you on a musical journey. On January 31, 1981 at 6:30 pm, Justin Randall Timberlake was born. In 1992, at the age of 11, he appeared on Star Search ... and lost (can you believe that?). A year later, he became a member of the Mickey Mouse club. His big break came in 1995, when, at the age of 14, he and 4 other boys (literally) launched the band called N'Sync. The rest, as they say, is history. Those other 4 boys were probably quite sad when in 2002, Justin went solo. He is now on tour with his 2nd solo album.

On Sept. 5, Bren and I went and saw this young man in concert. Yes, we admit it and we're not embarrassed. At least I'm not. You'll have to ask Bren yourself. :)

Anyways, shputzing aside, JT put on a great show. Much dancing ... by himself as well as his back up dancers ... as well as some really great singing. Yes, he can actually sing! Again, I took quite a few pictures, so I had to make them all into collages. He's always dancing, that guy, so most of my pictures turned out a little blurry.



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As great as the concert was, I did have one complaint (ok, maybe 2). The first one you can see in this next picture. He had this screen that came down that had it's cool moments, but mostly it was just in the way! I wouldn't have minded if it came down for his slower songs, but when he was dancing around, I want to be able to see him! Anyways, that and the fact that Timbaland did a 20 minute concert in the middle of JT's concert were my only complaints.

These next pictures are what the screen was good for. Our seats were pretty far away ... 8th row in the balcony to be exact, and so when they projected Justin close up on the screens, I was happy they were there. Cute smile, hey? :) Yes, I know he's only 26. I'm just admiring, alright? :P

For those of you who don't follow his music, the title of this post is because one of his more popular songs is called "Bringin' Sexy Back." :)

So, after 2 and a half hours (that's quite long for a concert ... although Timbaland took 20 of those minutes) and after his encore, he took one final bow ...

Jumped up on the piano, gave a wave to the crowd ... and he was gone.

Come back soon, Justin!