Olympic Fun and Valentine's Day Weekend

We sure had a busy and wonderful weekend! We kicked off Friday night with an Oh Canada! Olympic Opening Ceremonies party to commemorate the beginning of the Winter Olympics and to celebrate the "culture" of Canada with many theme food and drinks. My mom lived in Canada for four years during her childhood and during that time discovered all of the wonderful and unique food items that Canada has to offer such as potato chips in flavors like Ketchup, Dill Pickle, Salt & Vinegar and All Dressed (which tastes like a baked potato with all the toppings), and candy such as Smarties (like M&M's but taste totally different) and Coffee Crisp (coffee flavored wafers covered in chocolate). We ordered all of these yummy foods from Canada and had them ready to serve to our guests along with some Canadian Bacon pizza!

Yummy food at our Oh Canada! party

Yes, I'm a nerd and put tent card labels in front of everything so people know what it was. What can I say, I'm an event planner and I can't help myself! I also had some Canada Dry ginger ale and found some yummy Canada themed drinks (ok, I also made up the names for a couple of them) for our guests to try at the party.

 

  

  

  

Dave and I had a lot of fun planning the party and I think our guests had just as much fun enjoying the food and drinks and, of course, watching the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Olympics! Go USA!

 

 Gromit was patiently waiting for guests to arrive

  

Patience paid off and Gromit got a belly rub from Mark!

On Saturday Dave went skiing while I stayed home with Gromit and cleaned up from the party and attacked the huge pile of laundry that I had been neglecting due to party planning activities. Not the most enjoyable Saturday but it did feel good to get some things done around the house!

I also spent my day trying to make a Valentine's Day cake for Dave. Let me just say, baking is not my thing and as hard as I try, I usually manage to screw up anything that goes in the oven. I burn cookies, don't cook chicken thoroughly enough, etc. and Saturday was no exception for me. I mixed batter for a red velvet cake, poured it into the very cute heart-shaped pan that I bought and put it in the oven. 20 minutes later I looked in the oven to see how it was doing and to my surprise the batter had overflowed and was now on the bottom of the oven, hanging from the racks and in some places burnt on the pan. The cake was not a cake at all but bubbly and still mostly liquid so I pulled it out and took a trip to the grocery store to buy more mix and try again. The second cake went much better since I only used half of the batter in the cake pan and then used the other half to make cupcakes for my sister. They sure aren't Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss quality, but this is about as good as it gets with me.

 

Dave's cake

 

Cupcakes for my sister

When Dave came home from skiing I surprised him with a candlelight dinner on the table with crab, twice baked potatoes and stuffed mushrooms and presented him with the cake I had made. He was so surprised and appreciated the effort I went to in order to do something special for him.

On Sunday we exchanged cards, I got some beautiful flowers and then we went to a hockey game where there were cheerleaders - so weird for hockey! We finished off the evening with another candlelight dinner of steak and potatoes and spanakopita (all prepared by my loving husband). All in all a fabulous weekend!

Dilbert

 

Maybe I should try this...

Forget the tank, I just need to not own a vehicle

My bad luck with cars continues. Let's recap. There was the April 2008 accident, the July and August 2009 accidents and now the January 2010 vandalism. At least I wasn't in the car when it happened this time - I guess that's an improvement.

I went out to brush the snow off of my car before going to work and discovered that there was a HUGE dent in the frame between the passenger door and the front windshield. The windshield was shattered and the passenger window was scratched badly. After looking around the car I found a half empty beer can and a trailer hitch laying on the ground. I picked up the trailer hitch (with gloves on) and discovered yellow paint on the ball. It looked like someone had taken the trailer hitch and bashed it into the frame of my car causing the frame to bend in and put pressure on the windshield causing the shattering. This was not the way I wanted to start my work day.

 

I spent the rest of my morning on the phone with the insurance company and the police department. Eventually an officer came over to take the trailer hitch and see if they could get fingerprints off of it but I haven't heard back if they actually found anything.

I just got my car back and it is looking good. Too bad I had to pay the $500 deductible to get it repaired. Keep praying that this is the last issue that I/we have with our cars - I can't take much more of this!

Welcome 2010!

Whew! What a whirlwind holiday season! It comes and goes so fast that you hardly have time to realize it is happening - and then it's gone! And now we begin the year 2010 (that's twenty-ten according to AP Style).

There are so many things I am looking forward to this year:

• Friends' weddings
  
• The birth of friends' and family members' babies
• Seeing where my brother will land in his career path
• Getting to know another supervisor in my work role
• Watching Dave graduate with his PhD (finally)
• Seeing where we end up after Dave's graduation!

With a new year also comes the opportunity to try to do some things better in life. I know, you can make a change at any time, but it seems like a new year gives people that extra push in a better direction. At least that is how it seems to work for me! Here are a couple of things I am hoping to do better with this year:

• Saving money - Sure, we have a savings account and contribute to it each month, but then usually have to turn around and pull money out again to do things like replace broken electronics, fix cars, pay car insurance deductibles... you know, cover those unexpected expenses. So I'm going to make a better effort at clipping coupons, making our dinner menu based on what is on sale at the grocery stores that week and spending less at the grocery store on snacks and desserts. 
• Losing weight - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do this every year. I think my downfall is making a lot of huge changes all at once. So this year I am going to take tiny steps, one at a time, to gradually change my routine and lifestyle. I have also joined The Biggest Loser Pound for Pound Challenge along with some of my co-workers and now I have some support at work to help me make better food choices throughout the day. Let me tell you, it is a whole lot easier to not snack in the break room if everyone else isn't doing it either. In the last week I've already lost two pounds. Go me!
• Finding more joy at work - It may seem like a very rewarding job to help feed the hungry, but in reality it is not all beer and skittles. It is very draining to constantly see people in need; I mean, the waiting room is always full, people come in when we are closed for distribution telling us their sob story about how they don't have anything to eat and used their last bag of change to buy enough gas to get here etc., etc. and after doing this for over three years I have sort of become numb to it all. I need to refocus, reenergize and find that passion I once had for helping those in need. I know I can do it, I just need to try harder!
• Refocusing on MY family - And by my family, I mean the one Dave and I created when we got married. We don't spend enough time starting and maintaining our own traditions, especially during the holidays. While we love spending time with both of our families we need to really work harder at putting a priority on what we want/need to do for ourselves and then decide what the best way to spend time with our families is. It sounds kind of selfish but what I mean to say is that we need a better balance and I'm hoping we can figure out what that is this year.

Well, I guess that does it for now. I hope everyone out there has a very rewarding and fulfilling 2010. And stay tuned, who knows what will happen in our lives; whatever it is, it is usually entertaining. Happy 2010!

Pocahontas vs Avatar

Another great post from www.failblog.org.