Errand Day

This afternoon after I left class, I headed home. I took care of a few things around the house, and then sat and played bejeweled for a while before meeting up with my brother's girlfriend, as she has something for me, and I had to go to a store at the half-way point between my house and hers, so she came with me for the ride, and for my errands and then my brother picked her up to take here the rest of the way home.

I got a letter in the mail stating that my old college got my diploma in the mail from the government (took long enough! I graduated in May 2005!) and that I can come anytime to pick it up. I will go either tomorrow if I leave the house (day off) or Wednesday after my Wednesday morning class, since I'll be 2 blocks from my old school at my new school!

I'm going to go crawl into bed and watch some TV and fall asleep. I have a TON of stuff to do tomorrow on my TO DO list! I always write them out, or nothing ever gets done! I'm bad when it comes to that! I carry around a little book of my to do lists. And if something doesn't get done one day, it carries over to the next day. I write lists over and over again. I find it funny, but anyhow, it works.

Happy Hallowe'en. (I didnt even get 1 door bell ring for trick or treating).

MY FIRST PUBLISHED IMAGE!

My first published image! (And paid published image!) I am sooo proud of myself, and of my work. My parents are proud, my husband is proud, I want the whole world to be proud. It's pretty cool that my image is published in a magazine, Dogs in Canada Annual 2006, but what I would have loved, is my name to be with the image as a photo credit. The woman who called me to tell me that my image would be used, said that my name would be on there as a photo credit, but it's not. Oh well. I got my first foot into the door! An image published! AHHH! I think after I'm done writing this post, I'm going to email the page from the magazine to everyone I know! Issues have gone out to subscribers, but the magazine won't be on shelves until around November 21st, 2005. I am going to buy at least one copy for myself, if not more! I told my mother I'd autograph her copy for her, she laughed. If anyone wants it autographed, just let me know! It's page 345!

The funny thing is, I had to call today to find out what page my image was on. I don't have an issue, as I'm not a subscriber, I just pick up the magazine each fall, since it's just once a year... and I had borrowed my mother's copy for 3 hours on Saturday night, since my sister was in my area of town, but I had to return the magazine with my sister when she went back home that night. I had flipped through the magazine looking for my image of an irish setter, which I had taken pictures of, but this picture that they used of TanMan, isn't an irish setter. I'm not sure what kind of dog he is, but my mom assures me it's not an irish setter. I'm no dog expert, but anyhow! This image, I shot in 2003 in my 2nd year of the professional photography program that I graduated from May 2005, for a black and white dog portfolio I worked on. I absolutely love the time I spent on this project, as well as the photographs that I ended up with in the end. So the woman was sure she remember my name, when I called Dogs in Canada in Toronto this morning, and she called me back after researching my image, and got back to me with the page number and everything. So I rushed to call my mom, and she found the page in her magazine. I had to wait until my dad got home from work for the page to be scanned, since my mom has no idea how to use a scanner. (Kinda funny actually - she's learning slowly though!)

... But tada! Here she is! My first image in print! You like?

Meat Sauce & a Heavy Movie

I spent the afternoon at my in-laws place learning how to make my mother-in-law's famous meat sauce. It was a lot of fun. I made enough for dinner tonight (on top of pasta) and for 12 more portions of pasta. As well, I had some leftover, so I made 2 lasagnas, and I froze them in my bed freezer and all I have to do is cook them in the oven for about 30-40 minutes and voila - a meal for two! I am going to make another batch once I run out of sauces and lasagnas! :) Next time, she's going to teach me how to make her minestrone soup. While the sauce cooked on the stove, we watched Hotel Rwanda. What an INTENSE movie. I cried. My in-laws cried. I can't believe that, that sort of thing happened - when we thought it would never happen again after World War II and the Holocaust. I definitely recommend this movie, as rough as it is. It was a well done movie. I am curious to learn more about what happened between the two political tribes and read up more on the situation that happened, and that is still apparently happening in that country today. I was going to work on my mother-in-laws scarf during the movie, but I just didnt and couldn't because of the nature of the movie. Oh well - I promised her that I would finish it by Merlyn's 3rd birthday party on November 12th. Such a deadline! LOL. (Merlyn is my nephew, her grandson. The party is at Jamie's sister's place, which is 3 hours away from our place.

I came home earlier to find Zeus, our cat sitting like a human (It's the funniest thing I've ever seen!):

Forgot About The Time Change

I woke up just now, thinking that I was getting up late, as I have to be at my in-laws for 11 am, as I'm learning how to make meat sauce. (My mother-in-law's famous meat sauce). Delicious. I'm going to make a HUGE pot, and bring lots of it home in containers! I have to shower, and go to the grocery store before I go to her house, because I forgot to pick up the ingredients I need for the meat sauce yesterday when I went to pick up food for dinner last night. However, it's actually an hour earlier than I thought, because of Daylight Savings change last night in the middle of the night! An extra hour to putz around this morning! I won't say no to that!

Dinner last night was very nice. We had Jamie's step-cousin Melanie over with her boyfriend Maxime. They are very nice people, and they are around our age, so it's nice to have family like that. We had fondu, which was sooo good. Jamie and I hadn't had fondu in the longest time. I really enjoy having it with friends, because you can make your dinner, and chat and be all relaxed with some wine. It was perfect. I was very artsy with creating the plates of salad, meat, etc, last night. I have having fun. The presentation looked good. I should have taken a picture, oh well.

So my sister brought by a copy of Dogs Annual 2006, and MY PHOTO IS NOT IN THERE IN THE PLACE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE! It's supposed to be on page 381 for the Purina ad for Feeding Senior Dogs. Instead there is a picture of an ugly ass PUG. I'm going to call up Dogs Annual on Monday, I know exactly who I spoke to, and I'm going to ask her what page my image was published on, because she told me that they were using one of my images.

It's now around 10 a.m. and I should get into a shower and get my butt to the grocery store, and over to my in-laws. I think I'm going to bring the scarf I'm knitting for my mother-in-law so that I can work on it while the meat is cooking on the stove. We're going to watch the movie Hotel Rwanda while the meat sauce is cooking, as we've both been meaning to watch that movie. It's on my list of movies to watch. The list right now is:

1. Hotel Rwanda

2. The Sea Inside

3. Million Dollar Baby

4. Finding Neverland

5. Divided We Fall

6. Oldboy

7. Heartlands

8. The Woodsman

9. The Keeper

10. This Girl's Life

11. The boys & girl from Claire County

12. Childstar

13. Nobody Knows

14. Rosenstrasse

15. House of D

16. Me & You & Everyone we Know

17. Turtles Can Fly

18. Heights (comes out on Tuesday)

19. March of the Penguins (Comes out at the end of November)

20. Madagascar (comes out mid-November)

In no particular order!

I'm off to get my day started.

Knitting Stuff

I just started cleaning up my house as we're having guests in less than 4 hours and I still need to shower and get to the grocery store for the fondu meats for dinner. I kinda find it funny that I have a purse "trunk". I have a treasure chest that is FULL with purses. I'm dying to actually count how much I actually have. I think that will be a project for either later today or tomorrow. Anyhow, so when I was living at my apartment with my fiance, I had a purse "tree". A coat rack from Ikea, that looked like a tree because there was SOOOO many purses on it. When we moved, I cleaned it up, some went to our garage sale, and some that were really used, I donated. (Either out of fashion purses, broken purses, etc.) Can you tell I like pink?

When we moved to our house, I decided to use the coat rack for something else, (not even coats! LOL) and got a nice wood trunk with my Hbc points. Now it's full with purses!

So I want to show my progress of my 2 scarves that I'm currently knitting. The first one is for myself, a black simple scarf (probably with shitty wool):

I'm getting pretty far into my scarf, this is 2 small balls of yarn, I just picked up a MEGA ball (the hugest thing I've ever seen) of black yarn, to finish off my scarf, which I plan on making it REALLY long, because I love to wrap myself up in winter many times around - long scarves rock!

This is the scarf I started for my mother-in-law - since she says she doesn't own a scarf. Who doesn't own a scarf? Seriously. I own like 10 at least or more. I love being cozy in the winter. I'm making it in earth tones. (Red, brown, cream). I hope she likes it. And the wool is sooooo fuzzy. This is the fanciest wool I've knitted with so far, considering my yarn for my black scarf is just the simplest yarn you can find.

I'm dying to learn how to crochet an afghan.

I need to finish laundry, and clean my bathroom for our dinner guests, as well as go to the grocery store to pick up dinner, and take a shower! So I'm going to get moving, or I'll never be ready in time. My sister is going to be in town tonight, so she's going to bring over my mom's copy of Dogs Annual 2006, so I can flip through and find my published image. My mom still can't find it - although she has no idea what she's looking for. So when I get it, I'll scan it and post it up!

Cozy Friday

I just got up from a nap. I had to sleep. I got up even earlier than normal today, as I wanted good (free) parking at school today, and I wanted to make sure I was there on time, or even early (I was actually early) for my exam. It took me a while, but I did find parking today, and free as well! That's the way I like it! So by the time I got in from school, around 12:30p.m. I was zonked... I passed out right on my cozy couch.

My exam went pretty well, I am very happy with the way I worked on it. We had 5 logos that were given to us, and we had to recreate 4 of them. If we chose to do all 5, she would mark us on the best 4. Since I had time, I decided to work on all 5, why not try to maximize my mark, if I can, right? We had the Bank of Montreal logo, The Y for YMCA, the Toyota logo, as well as another logo that I'm not too sure what it was for, and another one with just circles, that I don't know who the logo belongs to, but at least I can describe it, as it was just a bunch of circles! I felt confident when handing in my exam, with time to spare afterwards.

I got myself a pair of really cozy slippers from Walmart. They were on sale, and they're my new great find! I absolutely love them, and they are PERFECT for this weather! I love it! Nice cup of tea, cozy slippers, cozy blanket, a good magazine! (Which I picked up, just haven't had time to sit cozily and read it!)

Not on Shelves Yet?

I went out after dinner to get Dogs Annual 2006... so far, it's not to be found anywhere. It's very possible that it's just not in stores yet, and that people who have a subscription, got a copy early. That is VERY possible. Anyhow, I am upset, cuz I checked out 3 places - (the pharmacy, a tabagie, and also a magazine store (Multimags)). My mom has gone through the magazine, she doesn't recognize my image, and I don't even know what image they used, but the woman who called me told me that it was for a Pedigree (or was is Purina ad) and it was my image of an irish setter. I would recognize my image in a second... I just need to see a copy of this magazine. So either I'll wait until it comes to shelves, or the next time I'm at my parents house... But it's bothering me - so I'm dying to know which image it was!

I just worked on my logos in illustrator, it's what I need to practice for my exam tomorrow morning. CSI is on in a few minutes, so I'm going to go watch that, and during commercials, come back and finish the last 3 logos I have left.

Check ya later.

Whole Wheat Pizza

I had a super lunch today - Delissio now makes a pizza called "Balance". Whole wheat dough and low fat cheese. And I was cursing in the grocery store like three weeks ago when Jamie and I went to Loblaws to do a huge grocery order, that there is never any "prepared" foods that I can just shove in the oven or in the microwave that are "G.I." friendly. (For the diet/lifestyle change I made). It was delicious! So glad that Delissio listened to my wishes! Too bad it's only a personal size pizza - it would be perfect to serve for dinner for both Jamie and I. Maybe they'll make a new size if the small size is a hit?

My weakness this week: Ketchup chips. Yes they are ZERO TRANS FAT, but they are potato. (Which is a NO-NO on the G.I. diet), but I am PMSing and that is what I'm craving, so I'm giving in - this one thing, and this one thing only. When the bag is finished, that's it. NO MORE.

This evening Jamie is going to his friend Adam's house to watch the hockey game, and I'm going to work in Adobe Illustrator all evening on my logos which is what my midterm is on tomorrow. I am a little frustrated, but anyhow! I've got pots on the stove waiting to boil (I'm making Jamie regular pasta and myself whole wheat), we're having a simple dinner tonight. Jamie would have whole wheat pasta too - but the box it comes in doesn't give that much, and I want for lunch tomorrow for school. I will make myself a pesto cold salad for school with the leftovers.

Off to finish making dinner and then to the Pharmacy to get the 2006 edition of Dogs Annual!

James Frey on Oprah!

What a blah day today. I just didn't feel good from the start. I got to school early, and found free parking, which is always fun, because you can't always find free parking, and I don't want to waste money on the meter - but if you get to school early enough - you CAN find free parking. I found a spot that usually has good free parking. I didn't know of it before, but I discovered it the other day, and I am going to go there first to check for parking - and I'm going to leave early enough so that I can get the free spots. I don't care that I'll get to school early. I'd rather sit and wait at school or in my car - rather than sit on the dirty, smelly bus. And right now I'm boycotting the metro system (alone), because of attacks on girls at a metro station not too far from my stop.
Today we had an exam in class, and it went really well - didn't have to study for it - it was all graphic design layout. I think I'm going to get a really good mark, I really enjoyed working on it.

Cleaning the fridge. What a long project. Took me a couple of hours, with stopping to watch Oprah at 4pm, as James Frey was on as a guest. I just got James Frey's book, A Million Little Pieces, and I'm dying to read it - but I must finish the book I'm reading first, Callie's Tally - I'm still stuck on that one. I actually heard of James' second book - My Friend Leonard - and since my sister never got me a birthday present, because there was nothing at the time that I wanted, she's just ordered me My Friend Leonard as well as a book called Girls Poker Night by Jill A. Davis. I need more time to read - can I have more hours in the day??? LOL.

Law & Order time. Check ya later.

Font Crop Assignment

So I started and finished my front crop assignment today. What do you think? I like it. I basically had to work with fonts that she provided for us, and then crop them, so you're only using part of the font letter. Then after you're done, you need to inverse the colours on the second one, with the identical set-up. Not bad. Not too easy, but not hard either. I am sure there are people in my class that spent the entire week working on this. For me, I knew that it would only take me a couple of hours to work on it, so once I was motivated to start working on it - which was 2pm today, I devoted my entire attention to this assignment. Took me about an hour and a half, and I started with the ones with the white background, then I photocopied it at the pharmacy around the corner from my house, and then I came back home, and was able to trace it, so it was identical. I think I did a good job, I also think that both are balanced images, (we needed to show balance). I know that I used the letter G in both, as well as the letter i. I like both those letters, and they just fit. So I added the X in the last one, so that it would have variety. I also used 2 different sides of the same letter G, so that also is variety. And now I don't have to worry about this assignment anymore, it's over and done with, and I can go on with the rest of my day not worrying about it.

This morning I got up on time, when my alarm went off. I purposely set my alarm about 15 minutes before I actually wanted to get out of bed, so that I would hit snooze a couple of times like I usually do, and then still have time to get up at the right time. Ahh, the joy of the snooze button in the morning.

I have so much house cleaning to do - I didn't really even start any of it yet. Things that I want to take care of - like empying the fridge and cleaning it out (scrubbing it down), taking the blinds off the window by the kitchen sink and washing them (scrubbing them down), just chores that I've been meaning to do - but get distracted and need to take care of them. Tomorrow. Or Thursday latest. I MUST tackle these items. Force myself to do so.

I got in the mail today, Canada post delivered, the 1000 piece lego set that I ordered for my nephew for his 3rd birthday. It looks really cool - I hope that he likes it! 1000 pieces, I hope it doesn't make too much of a mess!

Well, we have dinner reservations in 10 minutes. Jamie's dad and step-mom are taking us out for dinner. It's to a restaurant we've never been to before - should be interesting, I hope! It's called Mesquite. I'll let you know how it is.

Beer Bottles = Money!

My exam this morning wasn't bad at all. I knew what I was doing, and we were allowed notes, so it wasn't too bad at all. I actually accomplished the exam before time was up, and with plenty of time to go over it. I'm expecting a good mark on it. Not perfect, but pretty damn close.
After class I had a ton of errands to run. I ran home first to see if the mail had come, but it hadn't. My mail was always punctial by 9 am.... then it became noon.... and now, it's some random time in the middle of the afternoon. I hope my mail carrier is just sick or on vacation - I want the old person back! I like the old schedule better!

Then I returned 3 bags of cans and bottles, and a case of beer to the grocery store and made $5.45. Not bad. When you buy a bottle of anything, or beer, etc, you are actually paying for the deposit, which is what I just got back when I brought the bottle back to the store. So if a store is advertising a bottle of coke for .97 cents, you're actually paying $1.02 (.05 cent deposit on bottles of soda and cans of soda). And what sucks is the fact that when you're buying the soda bottle, you're paying taxes on the .05 cent deposit, but when you drop them back off for reimbursement, you don't get the taxes back. What's up with that? Oh well... I had been meaning to take the bottles back for a long time now, when it was just 1 bag and 1 case of beer. Today it was 3 full garbage bags of soda bottles plus the case of beer.

Rainy Sunday

Found this postcard on the internet. So anniversary number one is paper. What could be a good enough paper gift? Something that is for a man? Well, I have just under 11 months to think about this, but I found this postcard on the internet (can't remember where) earlier today, and I started thinking about our first anniversary. For our first anniversary, September 18th next year, we will most probably be away on our honeymoon. We weren't able to leave this year right after the wedding because I started a one year program in school 2 weeks before we got married. I couldn't leave for a 3 week vacation or even 1 week, smack at the beginning of a one year program, now could I? Anyhow, paper... I am going to do my research and see what I come up with. I am going to let Jamie know that the first anniversary is paper, otherwise he won't have a clue. Or maybe I won't tell him and let him just do whatever he wants, because if I tell him paper.... who knows what he'll get me! Hockey tickets are made out of paper, maybe I should get him tickets for the that season next year? The game isn't actually paper, but the tickets are made out of it! Well.. that's just an idea.

This afternoon I worked on my creativity journal, adding in some images that I liked, images that inspired me, images that I took myself, glueing in, and just having fun with it. I am really loving this project, and I love working on it.

This evening Jamie and I watched Apprentice from Thursday night, which we had on tape, and then Law & Order at 9pm. Now I'm shortly about to go into a shower, and get ready for bed.

Goodnight, Sweet Dreams. Wish me luck for my exam tomorrow in Quark Express!

Look What The Cat Brought Home...

This morning Jamie and I went to rent some movies (Jamie wanted an X-box game) and there was a bunch of movies that I was looking for, which I found at a video place near my house, so we stopped there on our way to breakfast, which actually turned out to be lunch. I absolutely love this bagel shop that we sometimes go to, and everytime I have the exact same thing: The traditional bagel (whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, lox and onions), with a green salad and an Ohh La La shake. I don't know what's in the shake, but it's absolutely wonderful! Jamie treated to breakfast.

Today, doing some work in my office, Jamie calls out to me "Honey, you have to come here, but please don't freak out!" I was curious as to what was going on, and in the hallway, there was a dead field mouse. (I thought that maybe one of my picture frames fell off the wall and smashed, or something else, but never did I imagine a DEAD MOUSE!) NOT sure how it got there, but one of our cats was kind of proudly owning up to it. He was sitting there and acting like he was the king. Both of our cats are indoor cats, so we're not too sure what happened, but our cats definitely didn't get it from outside, since there is no way for them to get outdoors. Jamie was PETRIFIED so guess who had to clean it up and toss it in the trash can outside? ME! Here are pictures that I took of the incident.

Pretty sick eh? I couldn't believe my eyes! Atleast my cat didn't eat it! That's what I'm really happy about!

Here's Zeus, king of his world:

I had to share these images! I can't just keep them to myself!

Just finished watching Batman Begins - what a good movie. I really enjoyed it. Too bad we kept getting phone calls during the movie - I hate that!

Well, I'm off to my brother's surprise 22nd birthday party.

What a day... it needed naptime!

This morning I decided to take my car again to school. There is free parking around downtown, IF you are willing to look for it, and leave early enough to circle around looking. I was able to find a spot, took me about 35 mintues though (I left my house at 7 am or so) and then helped my friend Laura find a spot, since we bumped into each other looking for parking. I am enjoying driving my new car - so why should I take the smelly city bus? I parked on a hill, and did a good job. I am very proud that I didn't bump into any cars, and I'm getting better at finding my friction point, and didn't stall once this morning.

Sat down infront of TLC & I worked a bit on my creativity journal (with some of the stuff I purchased yesterday), and then once I didn't feel like working on that anymore, I put my head down, and passed out for a few hours.

Then Jamie woke me up, as I had to run to the grocery store to pick up some sour cream and onion soup mix to make dip (it's soo good this mix combo) for the veggies that Jamie's dad and step-mom brought over this evening for our weekly poker game.

People started arriving, and now game one is still going on, but I was eliminated from the game, 4th out of 6 people. There are still 3 people left in the game.

This picture of the purple flower I took in my backyard. Since we just moved to our new house in May, it's the first time we had seen these flowers. We didn't even know that they existed, since we purchased our home in February when it was snowing, and the backyard was nowhere to be seen. These flowers didn't last very long, but they were really nice. This picture is the background on my desktop. And the funny thing is - I hate the colour purple.

The picture of the monkey I took at the zoo this past July when I baby-sat my nephew for 2 weeks. I absolutely love this shot.

Our second game of poker is about to begin, so I'm off for the evening.

Scrapbooking for school?

So I actually get to scrapbook for school. This is actually something that I love to do. Well, it's more of a journal - a 'creativity' journal that we have to do. The class is actually called 'Creativity'. It's part of my requirements for the 1 year Graphic Design program am I taking. I gradate on Aug 11/06, and so far, one month and a bit into school - I am loving it. All my projects are cool. The only thing that sucks - is that I have to be up really early as I have classes (4 classes only) 4 days a week at 8 am. Tuesdays are my day off. So, this creativity journal. We're supposed to make 1, and it can be small enough to fit in our purse/backpack, and carry it around with us, so when we have ideas, or something is inspiring, we can draw it in, write it in, paste it in, etc. Well, I fell in love with this project, and I'm currently working on journal number 2. I finished the other one in half a semester, and my teacher is actually really excited to see my final project, which will be 2 journals. I absolutely love it so much, that I plan on keeping them - forever and forever. That's the first time I can actually say that I'm keeping a school project... most of the time, projects get thrown out.... Oh well.
Today after class, I headed in my new car, to the West Island (of Montreal) and went to this dollar store that my aunt told me about (Dollar Zone) and checked out their entire scrapbooking section. I absolutely love the fact that I can get stuff for my project at the dollar store. They have an incredible scrapbooking section. They actually sell some of the same stuff that my fave scrapbooking store, Scrapbook Centrale, sells. (And for a few bucks cheaper). But of course since I headed out West this afternoon, I had to check out Scrapbook Centrale, or it just wouldn't have been fair.

I still have only the pictures from friends and the disposable cameras from the tables.... I have yet to get a phone call from my professional photographer, who promised me it would only be 3-4 weeks for my pictures. I'll give it until the end of next week, which will bring us into November, and I'll see then, if she hasn't called - I'll call her, and find out what's going on with my proofs!

Ok, bed time. I've got to get up at 6:25 am to get ready to go to class. Thank goodness I found time this evening to make myself some food for break (we get a 30-40 minute break in each class, smack in the middle, and it's always nice) and I'm always hungry. I'm on a strike right now, I refuse to spend money in the school cafe. I find that it's expensive and I can make a better pasta salad for cheaper. And especially since I'm on a diet (since March - and I've reached my goal) and not eating white flour nor sugar (Glycemic Index Diet), I make my pasta salads with whole wheat pasta, which I'm allowed! I've lost 25 lbs since March 22nd, 2005, which was my goal. And I want to keep it off!

Anyhow, off to bed. More tomorrow.

I need to learn how to drive on hills!

So I got my new car last night, a 2005 Acura EL, and she's beautiful. She's standard, my first standard car ever (my last car, a 2001 Honda Civic Sedan was automatic), however my husband decided that since I was getting a new car - that an automatic car was out of the question as it's "not really driving" (quoting him!). This morning, I decided, after seeing her sitting in front of my house, that she couldn't sit there all day, and instead of taking the bus, I decided to take her downtown with me to school. Getting to school was a piece of cake (Jamie has taken me driving before in his standard jetta), but when circling around for parking near school, I had to access a street that was nothing but a hill... Well, let's just say, that was my first experience on a hill in a standard car.... I burned some rubber... Later today, my dad gave me a lesson on what to do on a hill. I hope to get out to this area of town near my house (Westmount) to go driving on their streets (all hills), and get some practice. Hopefully there won't be too many cars on the road - maybe I should try to go out early morning, if I can. (May be hard to go Saturday morning, because I believe we're having people over for poker tomorrow night, so that will be a late night Friday night, for sure.)

CSI is on, Jamie's at a hockey pool with his brother-in-law and so I am going to go watch it, and come back online after.

I love my new car!! Woohoo! It's EXACTLY what I wanted!!!!!