TGIF

Ahhhhh Friday!  

I'm so glad the weekend is finally here...

...And so is Carl!

This week hasn't been to abnormal but for some reason it just feels extra good that Friday has arrived!  This weekend, I plan on taking it easy, unlike last weekend and my little adventure to Vermont (see previous post)!  

This past week we decided it was time to break out the Christmas decorations as well as the Christmas music (ok, it may have come out a little earlier than last week...).  Instead of making a night of it like last year, I had the house decorated in about 57 seconds!  I grabbed everything from out of our TV cabinet, (including our pre decorated Christmas tree) and put it on the TV cabinet!  Viola!

This past week was also our annual "Best of the Best" awards nights for work where individuals from each branch get recognized as well as the top branch in the district get recognized.  Each year is a different theme (remember Mickey Mouse outfits from last year?), this year was "Prom".  I went with my old branch and we wore grad dresses with sashes that showed the year we each graduated in! 

  

Me and Julie on the bus ride to the celebrations!

During my last 2 days at my old branch, I spent most hours working on our limo!  I made it all by myself, complete with working head and tail lights!

Unfortunately, even after all my hard work, we didn't win for best costume!  But look who did...

Becky (on the left) and her whole branch went as "zombie prom".  They deserved first place after having to wear all that stuff on their face all night!  Overall, it was a fun night!

And now, it's Friday!  Time to sit back, relax and put my feet up!

Do you like my new slippers?

Road Trip!!!

Since Carl has been spending Saturdays studying and since last weekend was a long weekend, that meant I had 2 days (Friday and Saturday) all by myself!  On Friday, I got all my Saturday things done (like grocery shopping) so that I could go on my own little adventure on Saturday!  I decided I was going to go on a little road trip by myself, I just needed a destination!  So I pulled out a map, closed my eyes and pointed...Well, sort of...Next thing I knew, I was headed to...

 

I thought maybe it was a little far to drive in one day but then again, I did have all day!  I had heard of a few places that were neat to visit in Vermont so I decided to head to Burlington.  I headed to the border and the lady at the crossing asked me "Where ya headed?"

Leah: "Vermont"

Guard: "Why are you going there?"

Leah: "Ummm, just for a drive"

Guard: "Are you meeting someone there?"

Leah: "Nope"

Guard: "Are you going shopping?"

Leah: "Ummm, no"

Guard: "How long are you staying?"

Leah: "I'm not sure, I'll be back today"

Guard: Strange look, long pause..."Have you ever been refused entry to the US?"

Leah: "No???"

After four and a half hours of driving, I finally made it!  By the time I got there, I felt brain dead from driving, felt a little displaced and wasn't sure what to do with myself once I arrived!  Burlington was a little bit bigger than the sleepy town I imagined it to be, so after driving around for a bit, I finally found parking and went to stretch my legs.

    

I found this cool pedestrian street (which I have more appreciation for, being married to an Urban Planner), walked up and down it once and then decided I better get back to Kingston!  I hopped back in the car and spent another four and half hours driving home!  I think the highlight of my drive was seeing a man walking down the street in his black and red checkered flannel jacket holding a big rifle - only in the streets of America!  Oddly enough, I saw the same guy on my drive both to and from Burlington!  Other than that, the scenery wasn't anything to write home about!  As I crossed the border, I got the same weird treatment from another border crossing guard.  Can't a girl just go for a nine hour drive?  I'm glad I got the need for a drive out of my system, I don't think I'll be craving another one for awhile now! 

Mini Adventures

Ok so I'm a little lacking on the photos for this week but not on the news (seeing how it's been 2 weeks since I last posted!).  Let's start with...

Mini Adventure #1...
I mentioned in a previous blog that I had won tickets to the Ottawa Senators vs. Toronto Maple Leafs game in Ottawa for October 30th and due to the lack of pictures I'm sure you guessed it already, we sold the tickets!  It was a last minute decision (and a last minute purchase seeing how the people that bought them, literally picked up the tickets and headed straight to the game!).  We got a nice chunk of change (crazy how much people spend on hockey tickets!) and with our little profit, we have decided to splurge and get Carl a long awaited Canucks Jersey and are hoping to also get some cheap tickets to the Ottawa vs. Canucks game on December 10th in Ottawa!

Mini Adventure #2...
So one night during these past two weeks, we decided to get a little crazy and at 9pm the plan was to head to Wendy's for a frosty!  It took Carl a bit to convince me to go, but once my mouth started to water, I caved in and we ran out the door to the car!  I hopped in and noticed a note on the windshield.  Carl grabbed it and read "Hello, my wife hit your car..."  I promptly hopped out of the car ignoring the rest of the note and sure enough, someone had hit our parked car and left a nice dent above the rear tire on the passenger side.  Figuring it wasn't to bad and there wasn't much we could do about it right away, we hopped back in the car to go get our ice cream, except...The car wouldn't start!  The key wouldn't even turn in the ignition.  We tried jiggling the steering wheel to if it would unlock something but when that didn't work, we figured it was something to do with the alarm going off and the immobilizer being activated.  So much for our spontaneous act of getting ice cream!  After 2 hours of reading manuals, looking stuff up on the internet and trying random things, we figured we would have to resort to getting it towed the following morning!  Luckily I had the next morning off (to study for an exam) and was able to get the car looked after but not after my hero of a husband was finally able to get the car started!  After hours of trying to figure out what was wrong, Carl gave the steering wheel one more good jiggle and viola, the key turned!  Thank goodness we didn't call to have someone come look at it!  The car is now somewhat fixed (needs to go back for one more touch up) and we are so thankful that our neighbors who hit the car were honest and paid for repairs!

Mini Adventure #3...
As mentioned, I had a couple days off to study for an exam for another course I took through the bank.  This gets me one step closer to being a "Senior" Personal Banking Officer (basically just means a bit more money!).  I was happy to hear that I passed with 78%!  Also, I am now in my second week of work at my new branch.  I've figured out my new morning routine and how to catch a bus and am settling in!

Mini Adventure #4...
Carl is feeling the stress of the semester build up. He recently wrote an exam in statistics where he got an A+ (the teacher didn't actually give him the percent).  He figures with the bonus questions in this class, he is likey getting more than 100%, smarty pants!  He was excited today to get his proposal for his Final Report back with the "OK", meaning he can proceed with the topic he has chosen.  On top of classes this and next semester, he is required to write a 50 page report sort of like a thesis.  He is writing about parrots and their migrational patterns and how that relates to transit oriented development (thats what he said when I asked him!).  I think he is actually writing about how to improve accessibility around transit hubs.

Mini Adventure #5...
Ahhh Movember, the dreaded month for anyone that has a husband that decided to partake in the annual moustache growing competition.  Once again Carl started the month strong and I was unpleasantly surprised at the hair that actually grew on Carl's upper lip.  But once again he cut quit early and shaved this morning - he decided he'd rather be able to kiss his wife!