Caribana Day!

Come le' we jump up an' wave we flag! Some re'l bacchanal goin' on!

Gift #3, July 30, 2005 

Gift #2, July 30, 2005 

Gift #1, July 30, 2005 

The Day After

Today I returned to the court to wait in line again. However, there was a change from yesterday, someone actually answered my questions. I spoke briefly to a criminal lawyer who explained the proceedings. Apparently I am only going for a hearing in a few weeks' time. At that point the Crown will determine if any further steps will be taken. Continuing on this note, apparently my stalker is still around looking out for me. *sigh* Seems like a lot of long and tedious nonsense to me, but onward-ho!

Other than that, I finished the two small cross-stitch projects and cooked dinner. The meal tonight: 4 bean salad with lemon juice and olive oil vinagrette and homemade dip with chicken strips. It all went perfectly with the cheese bread that my mother prepared. Anyhow, on to nurse my poor sore hands.

Book of choice today: The Essential McLuhan.

Business of the Day

Today's to do list:

1. Go to get legal assistance for my upcoming court date.
As usual, incomplete thus far. After being shuffled around for nearly 2 hours, still no success going through the process. Planning to head to the court building tomorrow morning to try again.

2. Switch Bank account.
Not completed, will attend to once finish with court matters tomorrow.

3. Get paper to make resume.
Picked up some nice off-white, legal-size paper to create my resume for bartending.

4. Work on cross-stitch projects.
Looking pretty good, on my way to finishing most of them, but still working on that one for the baby, which will be born shortly, I think.

Success level: 50% of today's tasks completed, will complete next 50% tomorrow. All in all, not too shabby.

The Gift, Now Completed, July 27, 2005 

After the long night

Yesterday evening my friend left after enjoying two days with us. Later that night, my mother, one of our friends and I went to see an older lady from our church. After spending nearly three hours there, we came back just after eleven.
Today I was up, bright and early at 7:30am. I headed out to help in a friend's bakery for two hours. In that time I packed nearly one hundred bags of ginger snap and chocolate chip cookies.
The rest of the day thus far has been spent checking with legal aid for assistance (my court date is approaching), finishing a gift for the friend who was visiting, and looking into switching one of my bank accounts. Other than that, I am getting quite tired, so I will probably take a nap soon.

Toonie Tuesday

Today is the second day that my friend has been over. Yesterday we spent the day at Wonderland. We got henna tattoos done, played games, and won some prizes.
We are planning to go and see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a little later on.
I will post more later today.

Smiling for the Camera 

Kamdyn's Mohawk 

Dave and I with our cake 

Dave and I (Tom in the background) 

All in the Family (Almost) 

Meeting the Family

Yesterday Dave, my mother and I went up to the big family party at the cottage. It was a great day, we had many people around us to share in our happiness. Other than a brief thunderstorm, the weather was great. We went swimming in the lake and fishing in the dam. Later on in the evening, we went to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith. All in all, a great day, and I will post pictures shortly.

Breaking the Silence

I realized, looking at my blog, that it has been nearly a full week since my last entry.
As usual it has been an eventful week and weekend, but nothing more strange than usual (or at least of late). I will post a bit more shortly.

I'm Blue TOO

What Color is Your Brain?
brought to you by Quizilla

Life Plods On

Sitting here contemplating an insightful, thought-provoking entry has resulted in nothing thus far. So, I have decided to write some idle chatter which may be found useful by someone (drat, my mistake, school is out for summer).
Today I received an email from York is U, inviting me to partake in some of their fall activites. There is apparently a sunshine team or something of that sort. Definitely not for me. I envision a sunshine team member as one of those bright, cheerful people who can subsist without coffee and still be giddy at 7am. Is that really possible? If there is someone out there who can explain it to me, please, do!
I am trying to plan the rest of my week, realizing that I have not accomplished half of the things on my to-do list for this week. The only semi-productive thing seems to be the tan I have been working on for the last two days.
Tomorrow is my dreaded doctor's appointment, which I know will be awful (bloodwork etc.). Then it looks as though me and my sweetie will get to spend a good bit of time together. I may also go for a rehearsal for my musical piece in the evening.
One more point of note, I have been linked on someone's website, but as a BP individual. LOL and Life Plods On.

Finally Getting Around to that Summer Reading...

Yes, it has been quite some time since I have mentioned my summer reading list, but these last two and a half months have been nothing short of chaotic.
Now that the whirlwind is finally settling down (or so I hope!), I am starting into my summer reading. Right now I am in the middle of Beautiful Losers and finding it quite an interesting read. Now of course, using "interesting" to describe a Cohen book is most likely a dangerous word, and apt to get me shot. However, from a personal standpoint, I cannot really say anything else. It reminds me so much of other books, but then again, not. Now I know there has been a lot said and written about this book, but I rather have my own read-through before I venture on to reading other peoples' critiques.

Blinking

Now that I am almost finished reading Blink, I invite you to try one of the Implicit Association Tests (IAT) provided at the following website. I particularly invite you to try the Race IAT. The results may be surprising.

Pre-programmed responses

Here we are again with another weekend almost gone. Over the next week there will be several things that I have to accomplish.

1. Rehearse my piece for the seniors' centre visit.
2. Study to write my Wine Council of Ontario test.
3. Make more engagement cards for the family.
4. Work on those various cross-stitch projects that are in progress.
5. Go for a physical at the doctor's (yikes!).
6. Go for my Martini Madness class.

7. Get myself a lawyer.

8. Make a new resume.

And now in reference to my post title, my little blurb on pre-programmed responses. The question is: How fast do you Blink?

In The News

By now pretty much everyone knows about the tragedy that happened in London, England this morning. Sad as it is, life will move on, as it did in New York, Bali, and Madrid. I believe the scariest possibility about terrorism is that it is no longer necessary an "other" outsider source. What does a terrorist really look like? Somehow these days there seems to be enough scapegoating of various peoples to go around. Perhaps it is time for world leaders to pay attention and leave Afghanistan and Iraq to solve their own problems. Pull the troops out and let those men and women return to their families alive rather than maimed or in a box.

In my own realm today, my stalker has been seen around several times today, and also in the last few days. My brother even approached his car today, which resulted in him leaving rather abruptly. At this rate I am starting to wonder whether or not he will ever leave me ALONE.

July 5, 2005 

Picture 6 

Picture 4 

Picture 3 

Picture 2 

Done Like Dinner

Although I should have updated my blog last night, I was too tired and headed to bed early. Perhaps now I can fully I update on the helter-skelter activities of yesterday.

After heading out for a doctor's appointment in the morning, I got home just in time for Dave to show up with ice cream (drumsticks), books (The Gutenberg Galaxy & Complete Bartending Guide), and a smile. Shortly thereafter, Dave, my mother, brother, and I headed over to my aunt and uncle's house. After about 2.5 hours of primping and preparing, we were already late for our photo session, which should have happened at 3pm. After rushing in at 3:35pm, we were done with the photos in about ten minutes' time. I have provided one of the studio pictures below and will put up the rest of them later.

The next phase of the journey was dinner. At about 6:45pm, Dave and I pulled into the restaurant parking lot to be greeted by my future niece with, "welcome to our family" and a big hug. Dinner went well, my mother and my future mother-in-law talked most of the night, and I have never seen Dave eat so much or drink wine that quickly. The night was great all in all, and if you check Dave's blog, you will see some of the pictures that were taken by his mother.

Dave and Viv's Engagement Picture 2005 

A Big Day

After waking up at 9am and watching a bit of Live8, I set to work making something for our church potluck. After making the platter of bread, cheese, veggies and dip for church, my father and went to pick up Dave. We made it back just in time to pick up my mom and brother and headed off to church.
Today we finally announced the good news in church and we had non-stop congratulations from everyone. Dave and I and some of the young adults escaped outside to eat in peace. When we were done church, we dropped Dave off at Chapters and then headed home.