Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, in our lovely neck of the woods, it's Thanksgiving today. We celebrated with my parents on Saturday, and spent today getting caught up on the essentials - couch time and laundry! It's been a pretty positive year, so hubs and I have a lot to be thankful for.

Now, it's time to get my ass in gear so that this time next year, I can be thankful that it's a bit smaller!! Last year at this time, we were packing and packing and packing to get John moved up here the next weekend. Crazy how time flies. Hopefully, when I look back at this time next year, I'm in a different place. Not a new home or new town, just physically. I'm getting winded from walking up the stairs, I notice I can't move as fast at work. It's bad. So, time for me and the treadclimber to get reacquainted. And maybe take Molly for a walk. Maybe that should be the first step. Better go and try to convince hubby that we need to go outside! Or, maybe I should check and see how cold out it is first!!

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and that you too have a lot to be thankful for!

Computer Systems Crash

Yup, computer system is down. And it's been down most of the week. It's driving me nuts! We should just close the freaking doors and go home. I have so much that I could be doing!!

Right now I'm thinking about switching out my stupid iPhone for a Blackberry. I am so sick of this stupid touch screen. One day, I should do a post and leave all of the autocorrect mistakes on it. I hate it! The touchscreen sucks (I just had to type touchscreen in 3 times to get it right and the last time autocorrect caught it so that it was spelled correctly) and honestly, I don't need all of the apps at my disposal. I want to call and text and check Facebook. That's all. So back to BB it is! I think I'll pick one up this weekend.

Other than that, nothing much is new. Our temperatures have dropped below zero at night and there was heavy frost on the truck this morning. So lame! But it's better than too hot, I think!

Anyways, I should probably get back to work. Not sure what I can do, but I'm sure that I can find something!

Have a good day all!!

October 1

October?!

I can't believe it's October 1st! Can you?? It seems nuts to me! I might have to finally turn on my furnace! It's not too chilly today, but there is a chance of snow, so you can tell that fall is very much here! It's very smoky again today. I really want it to snow so that the damn smoke goes away! It's bad! I think we might be sleeping in the basement again tonight!

Work was interesting this morning. Computers were down until after 10. And by computers, I mean our whole system including the phones. It was a long morning, and now we have so much to do to catch up! Absolutely crazy. Hopefully I'll have some energy after work to take Molly for a walk. If I do, I'll take some photos in the trees. It's amazing how many leaves have fallen already! They started to turn at the end of August, and most of the trees are already bare. Lame!

Anyways, back to work. Have a great day all!

Vegas 2012 - Paris

Back to blog again! I know, I know! A shock!! I told you I was going to try to get more regular about posting!!

So, like I mentioned in my last post, Hubs and I went to Vegas at the beginning of last month. What a fun place! It was much much much too hot, but that was something we apparently felt the need to find out the hard way. We stayed at the Paris resort (because I'm still obsessed with Paris!) and it was awesome! We were right next door to Planet Hollywood, and right across the strip from the Bellagio.

Wanna see some pictures??

 This is one of my favourite collages (all collage photos were taken on my iPhone). I LOVED the resort! Every morning, we got to see the Eiffel Tower! Yes, I do realize that it's a quarter of the size, but it's still pretty cool. We actually went up it the last night and got to see a Bellagio show from the top. Now that's cool! It was kinda scary up there - I have no idea how I did it when I was up the real one! The photo in the collage was actually from the pool, which was another place we spent a lot of time. With it being so damn hot, we had to! Otherwise we would have melted. Like literally, melted.

The was Gordon Ramsey's Steak, his new restaurant in our hotel. So worth it! Very expensive, but so worth it! It was amazingly decorated, and the service was amazing. I had his famous beef wellington, and holy crap! It was amazing. Just amazing! But, if you're going there expecting the menu to be the same as what you see on Hell's Kitchen, you're in for a disappointment. It's a steak house, so don't expect scallops or risotto. If you want that, go to Hell's Kitchen!!

Here are a couple of shots from our wanderings. The one on the left is New York New York. What a cool looking place! I wonder if you can actually go up the towers and the Statue of Liberty. That would be awesome! On the right is Planet Hollywood, our neighbour. I really enjoyed that hotel. The Paris was a very laid back and low key, where Planet Hollywood was upbeat and rockin' all the time! We saw "Peepshow" there, and went to a couple of restaurants. Also the Miracle Mile shops right there. So very cool!

And here's Caesar's Palace. What a neat place! We took these photos the first night on our way to the Ron White show. I was impressed by the size of the property that it was on. It's massive! Apparently the hotel itself isn't the largest around, but there are the Colosseum shops (very expensive shops like Coach) and lots of fountains and other things. Pretty sure that Wolfgang Puck has a restaurant in there. I definitely would like to wander around there a little bit more next time!

And then there were the cool shops! Hubs and I spent most of one day at the south outlet mall (I definitely recommend that one in the summer, because it's more of a traditional mall, with 90% of the shops inside, where the north outlet mall is a long way north and is an outside shopping area) and on our way back, we stopped in at M&M World and the Coca-Cola Store. Both were super packed but cool! But, a word to the wise - don't bother buying any M&M's there. Or Coke, for that matter. It's super expensive! If you want souvenirs, then go for it, but Wallgreen's has M&M's for a quarter of the price!! I did really enjoy the experience though!

And, one of the other parts of the experience was the drinking of course! Good beer, wines, and of course, margarita's from Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville in the Flamingo. It was amazing to me that when we went to the little shop in our hotel, a 24 ounce beer, or a little bottle of wine, was the same price as water! We learned our lesson though - find a Wallgreen's and buy water there! Personally, I can't live on just beer and wine and tequila (because, let's face it, I pretty much just drank the tequila out of the bottom of that pitcher!).

And then there was the food! There was a burger place in the hotel, and it was so good - we went there twice, so you know it was good! I had this amazing turkey burger. Served on a parmesan cheese bun, with turkey bacon, white cheddar, lettuce and tomatoes. Oh, and I forgot - a over medium egg! So good! Hubs even had to have one the second time we were there! It was a bit weird when we had a regular hamburger there - Canadians aren't used to being asked if we want our hamburger rare, medium or well done! Then we had chicken and waffles over at the PBR in Planet Hollywood. So fricken good! I think I've found my new favourite meal! It's definitely a must try!

So, it's obvious that we enjoyed our time in Vegas! My words of advice on going to Vegas are: don't go in the summer unless you can deal with 40+ weather, don't go on a long weekend unless you LOVELOVELOVE crowds, and take your time while you're there. The best thing we did was relax a bit. Some people go to Vegas and never have a chance to relax. Hubs and I relaxed, but mostly it was because after about the second day we decided that we would definitely go back. Actually, we're already planning our next trip back - this time in February, and with some friends. We're planning on staying at the MGM Grand, so it'll be a whole new experience. Hopefully we'll be able to go to Freemont Street then too. I just couldn't bear the thought of going there the last time because it was just too hot! Next time though, I'm there!

Ok. I fought with Blogger to get this one perfect for way too long! Time to get going!!

Have a great day all!

Ok, a real one this time!

So, how about that last post?! My lovely sis got mad at me this evening because I hadn't posted since August 17. And she was bang on! It doesn't seem like it's been well over a month, but I guess it has! Seems weird. Like I've taken a vacation from my regular routine, and let me tell you, it hasn't been productive! Right now I'm in Edmonton on work related stuff (more later) and I'm not quite ready for bed yet, so I guess a quick blog post is appropriate!

So, since I've already told you that I've taken a vacation from routine, you can gather that I'm off of the weight loss train - if you could even say I've been on it at all! It hasn't turned out too badly, but it hasn't gotten any better! The training I was in for the past couple of days might help me out with this though.

So, what have I been up to since August 17? Not going to lie, it's been mostly nothing. Hubs and I went to Vegas for the first time at the beginning of the month - more on that in another post! Other than that, we bought a couple of new quads, have been working and working, met Trevor Linden (!!!) and just been coasting.

This week I came to Edmonton for training. As you know, I'm an inside sales and service representative. The training for the past 2 days was about becoming a better ISSR and learning more about the company. I do have a lot of "take-aways" from this experience, but I have one that I learned from the people around me that surprised me and made me more aware of how lucky I am.

All of the "trainees" are ISSRs like me. Of course, during our breaks, we chatted in general about life. I usually sit back and listen and observe at this point, and it was no different for the last 2 days. I was SHOCKED to find out that most people couldn't even afford the cab ride from the airport to the hotel and back, and that they had to get cab chits from head office. I understand that it's about $80 each way, but it amazed me how many people weren't able to even pay for that! I assumed that all employees of the company got paid well, at least competitively, and that having that extra cash (which we get back) wouldn't be a big deal - but it is! It seemed to me that I was 1 out if 12 who really didn't have to worry, and that was strange for me. Maybe I'm jaded now. But, I also have no idea what each of their situations is. But, it was still shocking to me. Does that seem weird? I know it wasn't long ago that I was in that same spot, but I'm young, and I'm sure I was one of the youngest by far. It just makes me think of how lucky I am that hubs wanted to take the opportunity to move farther north because it ended up giving us both great opportunities and the ability to not worry as much about the money involved.

I dunno. I feel pretty lucky. To be this young and have (most of) it together.

But, ok. Bath is getting cold, and iPad is dying. More another day. I'll try to make a conscious effort to blog more consistently - don't want the sis to tell at me more!

Good night all!

Blog for Ash

Here you go sista! More will come, promise!!