Odds and Ends

On Meeting Internet Friends

When you were meeting your internet friends for the first time in real life were you apprehensive? worried? wondered if this was a mistake?  would she/he/they be like they were on the internet or something completely different?  Well that basically sums up  the feeling my friend Cheryl and I had before meeting for the first time.

We'd become acquainted back in the late 90's via an internet scrapbooking group we both belonged to.  In early 2000, John and I decided we'd take a trip down to Las Vegas for a much needed break. Of course seeing as Cheryl and I shared everything I told her about it. I didn't know it but the wheels started working at her house (in the Sierra Nevadas of California) and soon she was asking what I thought of them coming down to Las Vegas to meet us. Now remember - this was early 2000 and we had never met or even met people who had met each other. I wanted to but.... and John was real leery of meeting total strangers from the internet. Finally though it was decided - we would meet but and this was a big but in the middle of Caesars Palace casino - how much more public than that could you get. I think both the guys were really antsy about this as they thought that was a good idea if we insisted on meeting each other.

Finally we were in Las Vegas and very nervous about this meeting but pictures of each other in hand we headed for the meeting place.  All our worries went away immediately as they turned out to be exactly as they came across on the computer and the 4 of us have been friends ever since, seeing each other as often as we can. That meeting went so well that we've now met up with lots of other friends I've made through that scrapbooking group.

Do you remember your first meeting of someone you'd met on the internet?   Were you nervous?   Did you take any precautions just in case they were weird?    I'd love to hear how you felt about it or were Cheryl and I both being super-cautious?

This was my March contribution to Storytelling Sunday that started over at Sian's blog last year. She's changed it a tiny bit this year which she tells you about here.  March's stories can be found here. So why don't you grab a nice beverage and enjoy the stories?

Been a Busy, Busy Week

I bet you thought I dropped off the edge of the earth.  Nope!  Just been busy and had limited computer time for other than classwork and organization (more about that later).

June is my sister & my birthday month with me first and her 6 days later.  It's a very special one this year for me  -  the government now officially sees me as old (in other words I now qualify for Old Age Pension, lol) and as it's a special one I've been celebrating for almost a week now.  

The celebrating started out with some Veuve Cliquot (sp?) champagne in the late afternoon followed by a wonderful dinner made by J (barbequed of course).   Lobster tails and filet mignon - absolutely yummy and mouth watering.  (Sorry no pictures)   Of course when J barbeques I end up having to do the veg/salad prep.   :)   So the caesar salad and cole slaw were my part of the dinner.   After dinner we headed next door where the annual street party was being held.  That was actually the first time in the 25 years we've lived here that we went to one - probably because it was right next door this time of course not being golfers is also a good reason but this year you didn't need to be a golfer to go.   I always thought it was a bit much having a so-called street party that was only for those who went to the golf but what do I know.  :)

Sunday was a day off from celebrating - stuff needed doing in both the house and the gardens plus I needed to catch up on my photography class.   The past 2 weeks we've been working on manual settings and I'm definitely needing more practice but here is one shot where I think I got it.  I was working on blurring out the background so I'm happy with that but just realized the flower needs to be more centred.   Hmmm, that will be difficult to do now as the peonies seem to be on their way out.

 
 

 

Another thing that was optional was to take a picture of a colour that symbolized an emotion to you.  I decided on yellow as that makes me think of happiness.  Ok, no flowers at this time of year that are yellow - what to do.  Then I remembered I have a yellow beach bag and thought it would be the perfect thing.   But what a lame picture - a beach bag hanging on a fence post.  :)

 See I told you it was lame - I need to come up with something more creative than that plus the yellow isn't quite right - the bag is more a really bright yellow.  Heck anything would be more creative so I haven't posted this on the class gallery.  :)

The big day arrived on Monday and it was a wonderful day - Mother Nature even co-operated.  I remember growing up my Mum used to plan picnic birthday parties for me out in the yard and every year it would rain.  It got to be a running joke.  But it didn't this year, it almost did but decided to wait till nighttime.  :)   J has been wanting me to go with him to pick out something for my birthday - he knows what but wants me to choose so we're going to do that on the weekend.  The evening ended up with lots of calls from my family on the east coast - can't wait to see them (especially little Miss K) later this month.

I've spent a lot of the week working on my photography class stuff and trying to get all my digital supplies organized so that I know whose stuff I'm using and can give proper credit when I share.  That seems to be taking forever.  I had no idea I had so much digi stuff - a lot of it as "freebies" from taking digi courses.  Right now I'm only up to the J's.  :)  Tuesday and Wednesday though I did take time out to visit with my 2 best friends.  My friend from work days and I have a little tradition that when it's one of our birthdays we go out for lunch - so that was Tuesday and it was really nice even if our favourite restaurant has closed down.    My friend from high school days (everyone should have at least one of them)  and I met up on Wednesday and had a great time talking about upcoming vacations and would you believe going over my school yearbook from the year we graduated (40+ years ago).  It was amazing both who we remembered and who we didn't.  :)

 

 

Lesson 2 Bonus Assignment Layout

 

So glad to have got this done today. I've been working at it off and on it seems like all week. The only things we had to do with this layout was use more than one picture - check, use a neutral paper - check and use something from the date brush set that was provided - check. The rest was up to me.

In the bonus assignment handout a link to a tutorial on photo collages was included. After watching it I decided that it would be the perfect way to include more than the 2 pictures I had wanted to include. I had fun looking for the perfect papers and embellishments and my collection of digital supplies most definitely increased this week. :)

 

Credits: Worn Paper (beige) – Crystal Wilkerson’s Neutral Paper Pack June 2009 Collection, Aqua Solid Paper – Jessica Sprague HAFH Kit, Word Art – ScrapGirls Happy Summer Kit, Date Stamp from iKari Designs, Title Font – Brush Script MT, Journaling Font – Cambria

 

 
 
And now we’re off to enjoy the long Victoria Day (explanation of what that is in the comment section) weekend. Hopefully the weather will stay like this for the whole thing but it looks like we’re going to have rain or thunderstorms for the fireworks on Monday night. Keeping fingers crossed.

Day 7 of Cruise - At Sea

Partly Coudy   82 Fahrenheit

The final at sea day means another formal night and that the cruise is rapidly coming to an end.

The roses that were delivered on the first day of the cruise are still doing great.

We enjoyed a very relaxing day - a bit of miniature golf, lunch in Tides, time on the balcony, quiet time in the Solarium before getting together in "the office" in the late afternoon where we all exchanged email addesses and in some cases home addresses.   Then it was time to go upstairs and get ready for formal night.   We thought about getting pictures taken bu the lineup was soooooooo long and we hadn't been happy with the other ones from the first formal night so decided we'll get some done in June on the Scandinavian cruise - hopefully by then there will be a lot less of me.  :)

John got a really good picture of Sandi and Paul but the ones Paul took with my little camera didn't turn out - guess we should have had the Rebel with us instead.

Embarkation Day

Scattred Thunderstorms (never did get them but they did threaten), 81 Fahreheit

The day of the start of the cruise finally arrived and I actually slept in (well for me it was sleeping in ) till 5:30.   I got up and watched Grand Princess dock, then our ship Jewel of the Seas, followed by Zuiderdam and Enchantment of the Seas - Costa's Meditteranea (sp?) was already docked by the time I looked out.  Talk about a busy port - hate to think what it's going to be like once the RCCL's Genesis class starts making Port Everglades their home port.

It was a quick trip from the hotel to the dock and by 12:15 we were onboard and instead of lugging our carry-ons up to the Windjammer for lunch we decided to wait in the Centrum on Deck 4 till the staterooms were ready at 1.   Turned out to be a great decision as we met a nice couple from BC who currently live in Brussels (he works for NATO) who were also waiting there.   John was busy taking pictures & Paul noticed his camera, came over and within a few minutes they wre deep in conversation about cameras and comparing their Canons.  Sandi joined us shortly after and the 4 of us hit it off immediately.

At 1 we headed up to our stateroom.   WOW - it was great - it's going to be hard going back to a D1 (balcony room) after being spoiled by the roominess of a Junior Suite and the new bedding looked really nice.   The roses, chocolate covered strawberries & Mumms we'd ordered were there as well as a gift of a bottle of wine from our travel agent.   After going down to Chops & Portofino to make dinner reservations (Tuesday & Thursday nights) and checking where our dinner table was, we were off to the Pool Bar - looking for the gang from Cruise Critic.   Before we knew it, it was getting time for the Muster Drill and we headed back up to Deck 10 to get ready.  We saw some luggage out in the hallway but not ours (:  but when we opened the door we discovered Perfecto (our stateroom attendant) had brought them in for us.   We quickly unpacked our formal clothes & a few other things & got them hung up before heading down to Chops  (our muster station).

After the drill we headed for a favourtie place of ours on Jewel for ocean viewing - the Champagne Bar - to view sailaway through its beautiful floor to ceiling windows and by doing that we managed to escape the crush of of passengers waiting for elevators.

Dinner was definitely interesting - we were seated with 2 other couples who were traveling together.  All we heard was hunting and fishing stories and how one of the men had killed moose, bear, elk, caribou, etc. etc.   Oh Great!  Definitely not our cup of tea.

We paid a little trip to the Casino later in the evening and I actually won $63.  Pretty good for putting in $20.   John however lost his $20. :)

 

Catch Up on John & The Past Week

Last week I posted that John was going to see a specialist about his foot and how it is affecting his walking.   Well she did all sorts of test and was able to say that there is no nerve damage that is causing it and that he does not have drop foot.   Other than that there were no conclusions so she is sending  him for an MRI in January.   In the meantime he's not to go to Physio until it is determined exactly what is wrong so they will no how to treat it and to continue wearing the ankle/foot brace that our GP prescribed for him.

I wasn't able to take the car in last week as originally scheduled as we had our first winter storm of the season and John wanted to drive that car as it's the one with the winter tires.   It's truly amazing how many people totally forget how to drive in winter - you'd think they had never experienced it before.     But to get back to what I started to say - I took it in yesterday instead and Jean was so great to offer to pick me up there at 8 AM & spend the day with me while the car was having a few hours of work done on it.   We went over to Mapleview Shopping Centre where we enjoyed teas from Second Cup and doing our NY Times Crossword Puzzles (we make a great team at doing those - what one doesn't know the other usually does) while we waited for the stores to open at 10.   First 2 stores were Baby Gap & Roots where I got gifts for Parker, then we were off to other stores - I managed to get calendars for next year, our Christmas Cards - yep no handmade ones this year - and some stuff for the trip next week.   As neither of us had any other stuff on our lists to get & I didn't want to take Jean's time to look for an outfit for onboard ship we decided to load our stuff into her wagon and head down to the Pearl Street Cafe for our Christmas lunch (a little early this year because of our vacation coming up next week).   We had a great time and the Bruschetta and dessert were fantastic.   The Tortellini though I wasn't quite taken with although Jean really enjoyed hers - guess I should have done what John always says - go with your first choice.   :)   It wasn't bad just so-so.   I was even able to our little gift for our Cruise Critic group at their little shop.   Afterwards we headed over to another Second Cup & enjoyed more tea & crosswords while overlooking Lake Ontario - guess it's actually Burlington Bay at that point.   Boy did it look rough - it was really windy & nippy out.   Soon it was time to go pick up the car and we headed up there - we left the sunshine down at the lake & ran into a snow squall on the short drive up to our mechanic's.   Within a few minutes though we were back in the sunshine - totally weird but not as bad as Tuesday.

Ah yes Tuesday, another really windy day - what's with that?    I went & got a pedicure done before leaving on vacation next Saturday.   When I left the wind had picked up more & I noticed as I drove along the Service Road that the QEW was practically at a dead stop in both directions.    I wondered about it but......   As I rounded the curve by where the old 4th LIne bridge had been (demolished on Nov 11th) I thought where is all that dust coming from - HEH - it was SNOW like you wouldn't believe.   You could barely see in front of you - sure made the guy behind me back off.   A little bit further along after I had turned onto 4th Line I got glimpses of flashing lights a bit further ahead but couldn't make out what it was - thought maybe a salter/sander maybe.   NOPE - when I was just barely 2 car lengths away from it I realized it was a stopped school bus.  I don't think I've ever driven in snow that blinding before.  It was so weird  - shortly after I turned onto the street leading to ours it started to ease up & by the time I pulled into our garage the sun was out.

Trying to Catch Up

It's been a busy few weeks - trying to get everything done before we leave (17 days to go)   We've both been going to physio and Dr's.   John is having walking problems - don't know how he's going to manage at WDW - and my back has been acting up unbelievaby (spent most of this past weekend lying down - on the floor, couch or bed - because of it)- what a pair we're going to be.  :)    He goes to see another Dr about that tomorrow and then they'll hopefully come up with a plan for treating it.   Got some good news from my eye Dr that my eye, even though it's been acting up again, so far has not affected the retina - hope it stays that way.    Other things we've been busy with are - getting ready to go away, getting the cars worked on - taking John's in again tomorrow (hopeing that snow storm predicted is not going to be as bad as they're predicting) for a few hours scheduled maintenance.   Jean's going to meet me there & we'll go out for the morning (shopping & lunch).   Just realized yesterday I haven't even thought of Christmas cards yet this year - guess they'll be store-bought ones.

We've been looking into new window coverings for all the windows now that they've all been replaced but I think that is going to have to wait till we get back from Florida.  My to do list just seems to get longer & longer - you'd think I'd be able to cross some things off - maybe tomorrow I'll be able to chop a few off.   Meanwhile I just arranged all the insurance for the trip we're taking next year.   YIKES!   Speaking of next year we might be taking a short trip to San Diego in April for John to attend a conference.   If we do, hopefully I'll be able to meet up with some of the S. California gals on my Scrapbooking group.

Weight Watchers has been going good (knock on wood) and I'm happy to say I've lost 9.4 pounds in the past 8 weeks.  Although a couple of weeks there it was a miracle I lost anything.   :)

Over the Remembrance Day weekend we journeyed up to Ken & Marion's to spend it with them.   Had a great time visiting, eating, drinking & playing games.   Reminds me to go check out Wal-Mart or Zellers for a couple of them.  We went up early Saturday and came home Monday taking the 407 & 400 this time.   The weather coming home was horrendous - fog!   And it got thicker & thicker the closer we got to Toronto - yet there was none at their place.    I've never seen people driving so well on the 400 - no idiots (save 1) cutting in or out - everyone just basically taking their time.

Fun Girl Time

Yesterday,  Jean & I went to the creativfestival (used to be the Creative Sewing & Needlework Festival but they've added so many other things to it that they had to change the name and no that's not a typo in the name) down at the Metro Convention Centre.   It was so much better than the last one in content but the layout was awful - half aisles all over the place, very confusing - you didn't know if you were missing things or not.   

Once again it was heavy on quilting but there was way more knitting/crocheting this year than in the past couple of years.   I was disappointed though that one of the scrapbooking vendors wasn't there - it was supposed to be according to the guide but we couldn't find it anywhere.   I had hoped to check some things out.   The other scrapbooking vendors were pretty basic.   Creative Memories & Stampin' Up had big booths but I have my own consultants so I didn't check them out.  We both made some purchases (I got some beautiful alpaca - from the farmers who raise them - for a scarf and some nice material that I plan on making into a top) after checking everything out and were able to catch the 1:43 GO train home .

I should have worn my Pedometer - I'm sure we must have walked at least 10,000 steps waht with all the back and forthing.   :)

We're Home

Took us a little bit longer coming home because we tried a different way - note to self - don't take Heart Lake Road again.    :)

Managed to fit in a bit of teaching Marion how to use Microsoft Picture It - she didn't know they had it on their machine and asked me how she could crop a picture.   When I looked at their machine I realized it was installed so now she is all set.

Had another delicious meal last night - Shrimps & Pasta in a yogurt sauce.   Also tried to learn a new game  - I think it's called Farkel (sp?)   Lots of laughs .   Then we headed back out to the deck to enjoy the rest of the evening and before we knew it it was past midnight.   It was absolutely gorgeous weather the whole time we were up there but the heat & himidity came back with a vengeance today. 

After saying our goodbyes & thanks for the weekend we were on the road by 10:23 - we wanted to be ahead of returning traffic later this afternoon and we were.    We made a short stop to buy some fresh corn on the cob from a famer up the street from K&M.   We'd had some on Saturday night and it was soooooo delicious we wanted to bring some home.   Guess it's corn and something for dinner tonight.    :)

Well off to unpack and water our outdoor plants.   Oh yeah, did not go down to the beach - it was just too packed to bother so no pictures of it.   We took both cameras up & barely used them.

Day Two

The other day I talked about surprises - well I got a doozey in the frittata that Ken made.   I was nicely enjoying my slice of it when all of a sudden I bit down on something crunchy - there wasn't supposed to be anything crunchy in it but I thought oh the edge is a bit burnt - maybe that's what it was.   No it definitely wasn't, on the next bite I again got something extremely crunchy.   Excusing myself I went to see what it was - a piece of hard clear plastic - originally we thought it was glass - we found lots more of it too - one over an inch long with a dagger shaped end to it - really sharp.   Needless to say I didn't finish my frittata and we through out what was left.   A few mintes later I said that my tongue hurt a bit - sure enough I had cut it with one of the plastic pieces.   That kind of surprise I don't need.   Needless to say on Tuesday we'll be contacting the spinach company.  Everything is ok today but sure put a damper on things for a bit.

The rest of yesterday was great though - we sat outside enjoying the beautiful weather, went to the Quarterdeck in Victoria Harbour for lunch, did some grocery shopping and returned to Ken & Marions for more enjoying the deck before John & I made dinner.

Today, we all petty well slept in - well as much as I do.   :)   After a much less surprising breakfast, and an attempt at fixing their bedroom ceiling fan (discovered the wires were fried - good thing it didn't set the place on fire) we all adjourned to the front deck to watch all the beach goers who didn't have places near the beach try & find parking places  -right now in front of K&M's there are at least 3 illegally parked cars - oops now there's 4.   It's a hoot.   There's a lot just up the street but they all want to be right down at the beach.   Ken & Marion are away at a birthday party right now and we're sitting out front - me doing crossword puzzles and John reading Harry.  I can only imagine what the beach looks like - think we'll walk down there in a bit - I 'll take the camera to get a shot of the masses.   :)