50th Anniversary

This week my son’s elementary school is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. I was actually a student there when the school celebrated it’s 25th, and I remember celebrating it. I graduated there 20 years ago this June. It’s nice being able to celebrate this with my son being a student there.

Today I got to volunteer to help with the Retired Teacher’s tea/coffee event. A bunch of my former teachers came! Above, I’m standing with my grade 5 French Teacher (next to me) and on the right, a teacher that I had I think for Science (in French), but looking through my report cards right now, I didn’t have her as a main teacher for homeroom. I was in French Immersion back in school.

And this was my Kindergarten teacher! She now (still!) teaches Art (as a specialty) at my son’s school. I only had her for half the year, as she went on maternity leave from January onward. She is retiring this June after 37 years teaching at the same school. My son doesn’t have her as she only teachers grade 2-6. Kindergarten & Grade 1 do a lot of art in class, that they don’t have art as a specialty.

I got a group shot of past & present Principals and Vice-Principals. The man on the right is a general director or something, he popped in to see how our event went this morning. The two gentlemen in the middle were my VP (blue shirt) and my Principal (stripped sweater) when I was a student there. The current VP is on the left hand of the photo and the current Principal is the lady with the long scarf. (Actually the current VP and Principal are both wearing matching scarves, the school green color). The other VPs and Principals I don’t know at all.

It was a huge trip down memory lane this morning and I am so glad to have been able to take part in this. It was nice reminiscing with my former teachers and showing them my little brag book of my family. They were all shocked that I had a child in Kindergarten at the school already and that I was a mom of 3. I’ll definitely never forget this experience. I am very fortunate that I have the opportunity to be so involved in my son’s school. Between volunteering my time in the library weekly and being on governing board (and next year Home & School) and the Parent Participation Organization, all as secretary, and sitting in on the allergy committee (since I am a mom with a child with an allergy at the school). Sean’s teacher also appointed me as Class Mother this past year and I have been helping her out in every way that I can. This past week and a half I was at the school almost every day helping out in Sean’s classroom for the 50th Anniversary. The school held an open house Wednesday and Thursday night this past week and half the classes had live exhibits one night but were open for visits and the other half was the 2nd night. (The school invited the parents of the live exhibits to come on their respective nights) as the school has somewhere between 525 and 550 students (I can’t remember the exact number) and the school cannot accommodate that many students + parents on one night. Sean’s class exhibit was last night, and I had been working hard with his teacher (and another mom on one of the days) to get the exhibit on display.

Sean’s class, worked on Abécédaire, which is French for The Alaphabet, and they displayed it over time. The kids made booklets with things starting with the letters of the alphabet, (which are the white booklets hanging from the wall in the image below). They made their own Alphabet Ebook (which works only in iBooks as it was made with Book Creator, an iPad app) and each kid did a letter or two of the alphabet, they took a picture with the iPad of their page, and said what it was (in French of course) and the class turned it into an ebook. The pages are the ones on the construction paper below hanging). Then, on the table, is displayed from every decade starting in the 1950’s, 16 different ABC books in both French & English. For the night that our class didn’t have a “live” exhibit, Sean’s teacher wanted to display the book covers and not the actual books, as she didn’t want them to go missing, since they belong to some of the students, or even to some the relatives of some of the students (for example, my mom sent in one book). So I went in two weeks ago, photographed each of the 16 books, sent them to Costco to print in 5x7 size and they are on the blue part of the wall, behind the books, as a timeline, which is pretty cool. The kids were impressed on how the images of the ABC books changed over time from the 1950’s to today. It’s really hard for children to understand time – but this was a great way to help them learn.

It’s been a long week and a half – making sure everything was done perfectly and set up just right. I’m so proud of all their hard work!

‘Twas the day before Kindergarten

‘Twas the day before kindergarten and fresh haircuts were done.

A certain 5 and a half year old looks handsome and ready to make new friends.

Last minute labeling was done.

And last minute pencil sharpening was exciting.

Homework was completed just in time.
(Poster board with pictures from his summer vacation).

School supplies were all loaded into his school bag (not pictured here).

I do have to tell you that the school supplies for kindergarten are insane!

o 1 school bag (easy to close, big enough to carry books, duotangs, pocket folders)
o 1 lunch box
o 1 good pair of running shoes with non-skid soles (for indoor use and gym)
o 1 smock with long sleeves for painting with elastic wrists
o 2 white erasers
o 1 box of sharpened coloring pencils ALL identified (minimum 24) (PLEASE Prismacolour, Laurentian or Crayola coloring pencils only)
o 12 sharpened HB2 lead pencils ALL identified
o 1 good metal sharpener with container
o 1 large zipped pencil case (no box please) - big enough for easy access to all coloring pencils, pencils, and erasers
o 3 glue sticks (40grams each) PRITT or LEPAGE only
o 1 big box of kleenex
o 1 box of medium Ziploc bags
o 1 box of large Ziploc bags
o 2 wallet size pictures of your child (birthday bulletin board)
o 2 packages of stickers - students love to see that we are using them for incentives
o 2 strong pocket folders with 2 pockets (top loading pockets are preferable and much easier when papers are longer)
o 1 regular sized binder (1" or 1 ½" for worksheets - no zips necessary)
o 1 package of dividers for the binder
o 1 bottle of antibacterial soap with pump
o 1 bottle of hand sanitizer
o 1 box of antibacterial wipes (ex Wet Ones, Clorox, Mr Clean, etc…)
o 1 small coloring book (nothing violent) for rainy days (lunch program and recess)
o 1 pillow case
o 1 big recyclable grocery bag for art projects
o 1 large ziploc bag with a change of clothes (underwear, pants, socks, shirt - does not have to be uniform colors)
o 1 $30.00 merchandise/gift card to cover the processing cost of digital pictures since regular films or disposable cameras are being discontinued. PLEASE WAIT TO BUY THE CARD UNTIL THE TEACHERS INDICATE THEIR CHOICE OF STORES WHERE THEY SEND THE PICTURES TO BE PROCESSED

Some of these items are ABSURD! The main one is the 30$ gift card for digital printing. There are 20 students in the class. That’s 600$!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 30$ divided by .08 cent prints (one of our local stores now has 8 cent prints ALL the time… that’s 375 pictures per kid. Is the teacher really going to be printing 7500 photos?? To me this is an unnecessary item. I can’t believe I have to supply Sean’s reward stickers for his work! And a coloring book for rainy days for recess & lunch.

In any case, Sean’s all ready for school tomorrow! He’s got his backpack packed, his school outfit laid out and ready to go, and he’s super excited. Mommy on the other hand is nervous, excited, emotional and will probably cry tomorrow. I can’t believe he’s starting Kindergarten. It’s a whole new chapter of our life starting.

Homework Day

Today I slept in a little, and when I got up, my nephew & sister-in-law were gone. It's too bad, I wanted to see them before they left, but that's okay. I'll at least get to see them tomorrow, even though it's not under the best of circumstances.

This afternoon I got A LOT of work done. I finished my IPOD project. Basically, I had to create an IPOD unit (MP3 Player) from scratch, using only photoshop tools. We had a tutorial on how to make one, and then we had to use our own buttons, etc, to personalize it

After finishing my work, I got ready for my cousin's bachelorette party. Dinner was supposed to be called for 8pm, but then I got a call from my Aunt saying that it was being pushed to 8:30pm, due to first call seating being behind on time. I had to pick up my grandmother, then drop off some videos at blockbusters, then pick up my cousin's other Aunt, and then head to the west island of Montreal. Dinner was at Baton Rouge. I haven't eaten there in years. I had a good time at the bachelorette, but the service was horrible (who has to ask 6 times for a glass of water?) and even though we were about 3 or 4 round tables pushed together, almost every table had their own waitor or waitress, and our waitress (for like 6 people) screwed up orders and bills (as it was all seperate bills) , was rude and I didn't like the service. Needless to say, I'll never go back there again. Maybe I'd try another location, but this one, never again. My cousin Jenn seemed to have a good time, and I'm happy for that! It was nice seeing all the girls in my family. I didn't take pics, but I'm hoping to get some from maybe my Aunt (who took tons!)

Long day tomorrow, I'm going to get some sleep.

Happy 27th Anniversary Mom & Dad.

I Don't Even Know Where To Begin.... (So Much To Say)

First off, I guess I will start with Jamie's grandmother. Turns out, that her status had changed from 6-8 months, to 1-2 weeks. I had no idea of this. I did know though, that they had changed her status to a different level (from testing her and giving her meds, to not even testing her to find things because she wasn't eating anymore, and if they give her meds to fix things, it would just affect other things, and it just wouldn't be a solution anymore, so they changed her status). Jamie and I had plans to go see her on Saturday, going along with his sister and Merlyn. It's too bad that it happened this way, but at least the memory that Jamie has of his grandmother is a better image than the one which could have been of her lying there as a vegetable pretty much, since her whole body was shutting down. The cycle of life... it's too bad that we live our life, and then have to end up at the end, as such. I am just happy though, that she was comfortable during her last stages and she didn't suffer too much, if anything at all. The funeral is Sunday at 12:15pm, which doesn't allow me to go to my cousin's grandmother's unveiling at 12:30pm. We may actually bump into them, because Jamie's grandmother is being burried at the same cemetary as where her husband is, but also at the same cemetary as my cousin's grandmother. So we may see each other there, perhaps.

Second thing to write (vent) about... is school... (I have a list in my head of things that I wanted to talk about today in my post)... I was at school yesterday from 11 am - midnight. Now, I was planning on being home for dinner. Well, I ended up having dinner at school, some crappy food from the cafeteria. I did my work, and got a LOT accomplished, and it was good because I have no AC at home in my office (just a fan) and with the heat that is going on outside, it's disgusting. So I stayed with Laura (the only other student who stayed on the night before some HUGE projects were due) and got a lot accomplished. I had asked Jamie last night when he called me about his grandmother if he wanted me to come home, but he told me to stay and finish my work. I am really glad that I did stay, in the end, but I only got home around 12:15am this morning, and then had MORE work to do to be prepared for class today. I finished my poster for my Illustrator class.

I also finished my 12 page brochure that I was doing on Bnai Brith Canada. Wow - that was a LOT of work, and I am really happy that it is now done. I had a lot of prints to do for that one, and a lot of things to take care of to hand it in, but I'm glad that it's over and done with and I don't have to really think about that project anymore (except for one part - a mock-up, that no one in the class finished, so she told us this morning, that if you hand in ABSOULTELY everything else, to her, that we could hand in the mock-up next Thursday with no penalization. If we hand in most of it, and don't have that done, then we lose 10%). I handed in EVERYTHING else, so I'll be okay. I just was stressing to get everything handed in, and didn't want to ruin my mock-up, so at least I have a couple of extra days to finish it). A mock-up is basically mocking how our brochure would print if it were going through a printing press. It's pretty cool, actually.

The third thing I want to talk about is my tenants, but I think I will save my energy on that one for later. It's a long story, that's been spanning since last month, but also for the last three days. I will save it for another post.....

After class, I came home, and picked up Jamie, his sister and Merlyn and we went for lunch. After lunch, I took an hour and a half nap, and then went with Jamie's sister and Merlyn for dinner with my mother-in-law and her wife. (Jamie's mom and her wife).

Me - 18 weeks pregnant

I absolutely love my little belly! I'm loving it more and more each day! Love it Love it Love it!! :)

This evening, after dinner, I was zonked. As soon as my head hit the pillow around 8:30pm, watching Wizard of Oz with my sister-in-law and Merlyn, I was out cold. Eventually I transfered to my bedroom. I just got up for a few, I wanted to check my email, and blog, and now I'm going back to sleep. I'm still very very tired. So I'll leave the story of my tenants for tomorrow perhaps, and I'll write more later!

- No knitting has been done since the one row at McDonald's and seaming of the charity blanket at Knitting Meet-up. Hopefully after I graduate I will have PLENTY of time to knit, as I won't have too much to do until the baby comes in January. (But I do have a HUGE to do list, of things I want to accomplish!)

Feeling Better!

This morning I had Merlyn a little bit entertained as I had work to do. So during this time, he coloured on his magna-doodle thingy.

I got a lot done this morning, and even finished off the rest of the assignment I was working on last night, so I that I could hand it in this afternoon in class, and be done with it. 2 assignments completely done, and only 4 more to go. (2 are almost done, and 1 is getting there, and the last one isn't even started yet, but I'm soooo not worried).

Merlyn came with me to school today, and coloured and watched some DVD's and played with some toys, while I got some work done.

He even got to draw on the board, the teacher gave him some eraser wiper markers:


And while he was doing that, I worked on my Illustrator project that is due on Thursday (or by Friday latest). Here is what I'm drawing in Adobe Illustrator. (The guitar has an actual picture of actual wood in it. We had to do one textured mask, and I chose to do the wood!):

I am in love with my drawing so far, it's coming along great. I'm just stuck on a font to create for it (we have to "design" our own font, and what to make it a poster of.... I have NO idea... ugh! I am soooo overtired, exhausted and pressured with soooo many assignments, that I feel like I have no energy for any creativity right now, whatsoever. And I have time still, and hopefully will sleep on it tonight, and figure something out tomorrow.. (which tomorrow is a long day in itself. Ugh). (Obgyn apt, bringing my car in (they said the first check up should only take an hour) and a pick up to do from my wedding photographer, and a return to do at a store near the car dealership (but it's not walkable from the dealership, so I'll have to figure out what to do with him for an hour.... Hmmm), what else! I am actually going to get out of the house tomorrow night and go knitting. I have my in-law's taking Merlyn to go watch Jamie's ball game, so that will give me a break. MUCH NEEDED!

Tonight we lost power for about an hour, and it really stormed. I hate stormy weather. But I love the rain, because it takes away the humidity, and it's been NASTY here today. Barely breathable outside. I am sooo happy that we have power back now, so that I can sleep tonight with my A/C. I'd die without it!

Today I am feeling sooo much better from yesterday. Even though I am still overtired, yesterday I was just in a VERY rotten mood. (Mood swings suck!)

Alright, must get sleep. Long day tomorrow.

Long Long Day

Today was a very long day. First off, I had a make-up class after our regular class, and so I was i in school from 9am-3pm instead of 9am-12pm. But, it's air conditioned at school, (I only have portable A/C units at home, no central air (which I'm DYING for!) so I didn't mind being at school. Also, with Merlyn at home, I have had no time to concentrate on my school work, except for when he's asleep, which is past my bedtime too - lol (as it is now, but it's Friday night, so I'm pushing my limits). I've been soooo tired lately, it's unreal.


I got a LOT accomplished today at school. I am very happy about that. I also, handed in my final assignment for my Estimation course, and have NOTHING left to do in that class. I await my mark on that final assignment, which actually will give me my final mark in that class. I am so positive that my teacher will give me back my mark next week, as she's a very fast marker, but I probably won't get to take home my assignment, because the others still have until Thursday, August 10th to hand it in, so I won't be able to get mine back, so that others can see it...etc..... Not that I'd show it to any of them, but still... I completely understand. I'm hoping for a 100% on that assignment, which will give me a very high mark in that class. I think if I get perfect on that assignment, I will have a 95% in that class. So hopefully that is my mark! I'm totally not worried, and that assignment was a breeze once I sat down and finished it, so I'm pretty happy about that. 1 of 6 assignments done, phew! 2 of those remaining 5 are almost done, and 2 are actually not even started, but they're not due til the week after next so I'm not even worried!
One last assignment that I have not started yet, is to do a die-cut, and re-design a box. Originally it was supposed to be a die-cut for a VHS casette box, but since this semester we already did a DVD cover, and who uses VHS anymore, she changed it to ANY box we want. So I think I'm going to do a travel size Q-tip box, it's really tiny and cute. It's about the length of a credit card. Should be easy. Not too sure yet what I'm going to do with it - but I'm either going to re-vamp it - or do something completely not Q-tip to go in the box. Not really too sure what the assignment is really about.

This evening Jamie had ball so I took Merlyn to McDonalds at Walmart for dinner (I had to return something to Walmart and pick up a few things there). He gave me a hard time because he was over tired and because he wanted to go to a McDonalds that has the playground there. Well, this McDonalds doesn't even have a full menu, so definitely no park there!

Quite the apetite this kid has, he wanted nuggets AND a burger!

Making faces at the camera.

French fry moustache!

After, while doing my errands in Walmart, had a few things to pick up, Merlyn wanted to go see the toys, so I don't know why, but I took him. Of course he wanted a toy that was 75$. This kid doesn't understand money..... and cried because he WANTED that specific toy. I tried explaining to him that it cost 75$ and that I don't have the money for that right now, and he bawled.... in the end, he settled for a .97 cent toy, which as you can see, he fell asleep 5 minutes after getting home, on the couch, with the toy in his hand...

Tomorrow Jamie's got a meeting in the morning, which I didn't realize, and was hoping he'd watch him so I could do some homework. But Nana & Zayda will eventually pick him up and take him to my step-sister-in-law's house for some swimming and we'll join up later, for some more swimming and a BBQ! Sunday Jamie's mom and her wife are coming over for lunch, and there goes my entire weekend, I shit you not!

Today, in this nasty nasty heat I'm feeling more fat than pregnant, and I don't like this feeling. Mood swings, I guess! It's been another long long day today, with no knitting to report. HOPEFULLY SOON - I'm dying to start Jamie's 2nd sock...

It's passed my bedtime. Goodnight.

Jamie's Socks

Today, I couldn't get out of bed before 10 am. At that point, I showered, did a few things in my office to prepare for school today, put together my lunch for today (thank goodness for leftover pasta from dinner last night - which I made a portion for Angela to take to work for lunch as well - I hope she enjoyed that!) and got my butt out of the door to get to the bank, then off to school.

School was long, and boring, but I got some work done on my session project in my Adobe Illustrator class, and then in my late afternoon class, I got my project back from last week (my estimation project that I worked on ALL of last Wednesday, and got 18.5/20 on that project. I'm very happy with this mark. There were a few errors that I wasn't happy with - that I made, but what can I do? In this class I so far have a mark of 65%/70%. Our final project is worth 30%, so that will hopefully get me a nice 30/30, since I know my mistakes from this project that I just did now, it's the same format for the final project, but we just have to do the work on our own, instead of the teacher helping us out. If I get 30/30 or close to it, my final mark out of 100, would be 95% (if I get 30/30) and if not, somewhere close to that! I hope to get that finished so that maybe I don't have to show up to the final class! Maybe get some time off to study for the exam the following day. We'll see. I don't think it will take me 3 weeks to do this project, I just want to get it over and done with - so that I don't have to think about it anymore, you know? Work on other things. So much to do in the final three weeks of school!

- Think about portfolio (& correct mistakes on pieces that I want to include)
- Finish IPOD creation for Photoshop- Finish Poster for Adobe Illustrator
- Finish 12 page brochure for my imposition class
- Finish 16 page brochure for my Quark Class- Finish Die Cut project (and start it) for Montage Class
- Finish Estimation project for this class I had today
- Study for Illustrator Exam (which we were given the 10 questions and the 10 answers for it, today in class)
- Study for Imposition exam (we're reviewing it tomorrow)
- Study for Quark Exam (revision will be given hopefully next week, since I wont be there Monday). (If not, I hope to get it from someone).

Anyhow, I'm sure the next three weeks will go by with a breeze. Just a lot of things that need to accompany the actual final project, (research, thumbnails, sketches, etc) and just little details that I need to think about - so I hope to get things done properly and correctly.

This evening I made dinner for both Jamie and I, we had salmon, with some rice, and homemade salad, (I attempted and I think I did a good job at mimicking my mother-in-law's homemade salad dressing recipe), and it was a nice dinner.

We watched Big Brother tonight on TV, and other mindless TV, and I worked on closing the toes on Jamie's sock. It's done, except the grafting. Here's me modelling his sock (which is slightly loose on me!)

I love the way the sock turned out (pattern & all!) Can't wait to finish sock #2!

Those Damn Squirrels!

This morning I got woken up at 9:30 am by Videotron, who came to fix our internet. Our service has been intermitten since Friday, and we weren't sure why. Turns out that those damn squirrels have been eating our cable line and that is why the internet has been goofy. I was soooo happy that the guy came today (we were expecting him at 8am-11:30 am tomorrow morning, and Jamie was going to stay home from work tomorrow morning until our internet was fixed. (Cable TV was still working, but apparently cable can work bare, but the internet cable needs to be coated). DAMN THOSE SQUIRRELS. They really are no good! Useless animal!

After the guy left, (and waved his finger at us for splitting the cable to more than 1 TV - but he said people do it anyhow, but that if our CABLE TV signal is ever weak, to not call, because they'll investigate and probably back charge us for splitting to more than 1 tv (we're only paying for cable for 1 tv hook-up and it's being split to 3 tv's (bedroom, den & basement). But the guy didn't seem to care that our cable internet was being split between my PC and my laptop in the basement which Jamie uses - unless he just didn't notice the router... who knows..... so after the guy left, we went to Jamie's dad for breakfast and boy was it a feast! I wasn't that hungry at first, seeing as though dinner only came to us around 10:45 pm last night. (I never eat late! So this morning I was feeling blech!) Jamie's step-mom was in a cooking mood, so she baked and cooked up a storm. There were scrambled eggs, bagels, lox (mmm - they picked it up b/c they knew I loved it!) and apple cinnamon pancakes (and not apple flavored pancakes, there were actual CHUNKS of apple in the pancakes!) Everything was sooo delicious, and as soon as I started eating my appetite came. Jamie's dad also surprised me with this tub of raspberry sorbet that he picked up for me at the Market - I have been looking like crazy for it - and he found it! That was very nice of him.

Click on DVD COVER to open a new window to view it larger with all the beautiful yummy details I've been working SOOOO hard on all week!

Got home, and finished my DVD cover, which is due tomorrow at 8 am. I think I did a great job on it (the freaking thing is 60MB!) There are soooooo many layers, and EVERYTHING is from scratch. I think I did a very good job on it - and I hope to get an excellent mark on it. So far my average in Photoshop is 85% overall, and I'm hoping that this assignment will bring up my mark. Also, thre is only 1 more assignment left in this class, and that is for me to re-create my own "i-pod" machine from scratch. My own brand of the "i-pod". Should be interesting. There is also no exam in this class, so I should be able to pull off a good mark. Also -I think for the DVD cover that I'm handing in tomorrow, I think that I covered a lot of the techniques that we've learned this semester in his class, so that should count. I made my own brush (the stars that you see glowing off Ariel and the clam shell on the cover) and used it. I also, applied layer styles to a lot of my layers, playing around with Bevel & Emboss, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Gradient Styles, Colour Overlay, Satin Overlay, you name it.... I had fun with it. And all the characters were traced in Adobe Illustrator, and I think I did a mighty FINE job!

Been organizing my office to be the baby's room. If I don't start now, the baby's room will never be done by January, lol... There are some onesies hanging in the closet: (Yes, that's still my yarn in the background on the shelf! Gotta find another place for it!)

And finally moved my treasure chest of yarn from the little nook in the baby's future room, and placed the rocking chair there:

Doesn't it just look great where it is?? I love the little nook. Now, once we find out the sex of the baby in a month from now, (If the baby is not shy!) I can make blue or pink cushions for the rocking chair - for more comfort when breastfeeding.

Off shortly to my parents place to go swimming and for dinner, so I'll check ya later. (Gotta get out of this heat and into the pool!)

I Hate Mondays

I hate Mondays. I hate Mondays because of my 8 am - 4:30pm days at school. This particular Monday sucked because of my lack of sleep from last night, because upon getting in from the wedding, I just couldn't sleep!

In my photoshop morning class, barely awake, I have made some progress on my DVD cover that we have to produce. Please ignore the white writing for the title, I just plugged it in to see where it would go, I have not yet finished with it. I also added in the white title before adding in the clouds behind her, so I didn't think the white title would be faded out, but it is - so I will have to change it. I will show the work once I'm done.

In my afternoon class, I worked on my 16 page travel brochure. I scanned my 2nd passport (yes, I have two passports - duo citizenship - even though I was born in Canada), to be the cover page for my project.

I am making my 16 page brochure on an information packet for if you're traveling to Israel, and you need info on what to pack, the climate, what kind of money they have there, info on what kind of popular foods are in Israel, etc... It's a fun project to put together, I'm going to include coupons for museums and stuff like that, and I have to put a few ads into the brochure, so I'm going to create and invent some! I can't wait to be done with this project as well (due the 2nd to last week of school I believe! - Which is sneaking up fast on me!)

After class, I crashed on my couch for a few hours, I needed much rest! Tonight I've been chilling on the couch, it's too freakin' hot to do anything. Jamie's baseball game got rained out tonight, he was caught in a NASTY downpour - a thunder storm that actually woke me up from my sleep (I had no idea there was a storm going on outside!)

Why Do I Hate The Colour Purple?

Last night, at 1 am, my new tenant called my cell phone. Jamie and I had already been fast asleep. Let's just say it was really hard getting back to sleep after that...
She "said" she was out of town, and couldn't get back in time, but that was not right of her to stand me up - as I was at home waiting for her.

This morning she finally showed up, I got my first month's rent from her (phew) and gave her the keys. She mentioned that she was going through a nasty custody battle for her children and was going to court on July 26th. She would be slowly moving her stuff into the apartment, but was not moving in right away. She mentioned that she needed the apartment to prove to the court that she had a place for her children. Anyhow, I just hope that I don't get screwed over in the future for rent...

Today in class, I started my 1 colour poster, and I'm doing a poster on a knitting store (could be real or fake store, doesn't matter). The girl below was drawn in Adobe Illustrator - I just love it (took me a couple of hours) and the reason it's in purple, is because our teacher wants us to use a colour that is not in our portfolio, to show potential future clients that we can do things in any colour. So since I've never really used much of the colour purple, this is the colour, I was pushed into using, because I hate the colour....

I am not even sure why I even hate the colour purple, it's just got to be a colour that I hate.... (But lately - since becoming pregnant, the colour has kind of grown on me, just a little... well some shades of the colour anyhow... no promises, but I'll try accepting the colour).

Tonight Jamie and I were supposed to go to the Jazz Fest to see a Paul Simon tribute with Sam Roberts (amongst others) but the rain kept us inside - at home. (Got some knitting done on the blanket for charity! - It's almost done, and coming along great!)

To those of my American friends - Happy July the 4th!

Bad Start For New Tenants

So, after all the trouble last night with my project, and staying up until almost 2 am working on it - and getting only about 4 1/2 hours of sleep, and still not finishing the assignment, I get to school this morning and I had project left at home on my desktop. I swear I had transfered it to my USB key, and witnessed the little green bars in the progress of the transfer, last night, before going to bed, but this morning, upon getting to school and plugging in my USB key to open the file and work on it - it wasn't there. No where to be found on my USB key.

I was not a happy camper..... (after spending 45 minutes trying to find free parking, since today a lot of people aren't working, as they took today off (as Canada day fell on a Saturday, they were entitled to 1 day off - some people took Friday, some people took today, so I knew that I would probably have troubles finding a spot, so I left extra early, so I wouldn't be late to class.

Almost no one showed up to school today. Those who did - the teacher helped us finish our quiz. That part that I got stuck at - was on purpose. I HAD marked down all the notes correctly, but he purposely left out a part, so that we'd try to solve it ourselves, but today, in class he was willing to help those who didn't figure it out. (Which was all of us - as we had not learned that part of Photoshop yet - even with his review beforehand). Even with the books, and references available, I was no able to solve it on my own, because I didn't know what I was looking for

Well, my file. It was still at home. Called Jamie - and woke him (poor guy). He was not able to send me my file - as I couldn't get onto MSN messenger at school (which can transfer large files) (I think messenger is blocked so we can't chat on it) and my file was 17MB so it wasn't emailable.

I was going to call my dad, and ask him how to use the FTP upload (and get a username/password) so I could use his database to transfer my file, but upon thinking about it - I decided (since I had already done it at home, and knew what all the beginning steps were) that it would be super simple to re-do it in class. So I re-did it. And, I like it better second time around. Items were more precise, etc... So here's the original version the teacher gave us as a flattened image - so that we can "re-create" what he did.

Once that was handed in, I felt soooooooooo much better. I then started working on my DVD cover, that we have to design in Photoshop, which is due in two weeks. I am doing the DVD box cover for The Little Mermaid. First, I needed a mermaid, so in Illustrator I traced Ariel in a "scene" and started to colour her in - but then class ended for today, so this is my progress:

The colours are not 100% finalized yet and there are colours missing, but so far, it's coming along great.

For lunch today had veggie sushi, which has fullfiled my craving for sushi for the time being. I can't eat raw fish while pregnant, so veggies will have to do. It was actually a vegetarian california roll, and it was delish!

This afternoon in class, I worked on gathering information for my travel brochure for my Quark class. It's not due until week 14 (we're in week 10 right now) so I'm not worried. Time will pass by very quickly I'm sure, so I need to make sure that gets done. I have all the text that I want to enter into the brochure (which is 16 pages long!) and I am sure it will all fit nicely together now.

After class, I went to Omer DeSerres for portfolio cases for my Graphic Design portfolio. I hope that I have enough good pieces to put into my portfolio, to actually get some work. I don't know what work is good enough to put into my portfolio, but we'll see what my teacher says. I do have some pieces of work that just need some corrections, so we'll see what happens. The portfolio cases that I bought were majorly on sale, so I picked up 3 different sizes, so we'll see which one works best, (they are returnable). (By the way, the link above for Omer, has some fun DIY projects on their site.

After Omer, I headed to Walmart in Montreal-Nord for that yarn! I also, while there, found the sweatpants that Jamie likes but that our Walmart near us was sold out of. (He needed a new pair for softball). I figured that since today people were off and there would be no rush hour traffic, that it was a GREAT opportunity to drive out to that area of Montreal at the hour that I did.

When I got home, Jamie made dinner (beef & brocoli) and it was delish!

My new tenant was supposed to show up to pick up her keys and drop off rent in cash for the month of July, and I her called at 6pm, left a message that I was on my way home, called at 7pm, left a message that I was waiting for her. I then called at 8pm and mentioned that if she doesn't show up and pay the cash that she wanted to, I will have to deposit the check that she gave me for first month's rent. (Now I'm starting to think that I should have gotten a post-dated check for last month's rent, which I will be doing from now on). Called a house number that I had (the other calls were to a cell phone for the person who's name is on the lease) and got someone who said she wasn't in, but "did she call me?" I said no, (confused) and told her to tell my tenant to call me as soon as possible. Just tried the cell again, at 9pm, no answer, and I did not leave a message. I will try again at 9:30. I will try again at 10 pm. If I don't hear from her by tomorrow morning I am calling the bank to see if the check she wrote me will be honoured (if there is enough money in the account) and if so, cashing it. After that I don't care when she will decide to move in.

Tomorrow she has a brief window in the morning to come pick up the keys, and a really brief window in the late afternoon to pick up the keys, or tomorrow will be gone (I'm going to Jazz Fest tomorrow night to see Sam Roberts and a bunch of other bands do a Paul Simon tribute) and Wednesday I've got my 2nd OBGYN appointment, and then I have plans with my mother and grandmother for lunch. Wednesday night I'm going knitting. So - this will definitely be interesting.... Off to a really bad start, and I'm not too happy about it at all.....

Yarn & Knitting & Homework

Today, I've fallen in love with the colours of this yarn, on La fabrique de Zézette's blog:

Aren't the colours just delicious? The yarn actually comes from Walmart. So where did I go today? To two different Walmart's in my area (Decarie (around the corner from me) and then to LaSalle) looking for this yarn. Neither store carries them. Decarie had some other colours but by the same packaging (so of course I had to purchase some) and LaSalle had none of the sort. Ugh! I emailed Stephanie to find out where she purchased it - and it was at the Montreal-Nord Walmart. I guess I'll have to find some time to go to Montreal North! (Mapquest says it's only 18 minutes away by car - not too bad - without traffic though!)

This afternoon I started working on my project (photoshop quiz) that is due tomorrow. Teacher gave us this example - as well as the file of the gun and the file of the bullet, and we had to re-create it:

I works on it during the afternoon, and then again when my guests left this evening - and well - got stuck on the background, and was having a huge problem finishing it. I'm really zonked, so I'm going to see if someone tomorrow morning in class can help me out - before handing it in. I took EXCELLENT notes, and have apparently somehow missed one teeny tiny step somewhere in the creation of how to do the background (teacher went over it in class before "assigning" it, and said that once it was handed out - we could ask him no questions and for no help on it - as it is an exam....) Anyhow, I don't know what step I've missed, but it certainly is something to affect me from not finishing. UGH! This is what I've come up with so far (Obviously not done):

I am frustrated since I can't finish, but at least if it was an image I liked, I'd keep trying and trying (even after Adobe Help has failed me and as well as Adobe Photoshop CS bible and as well Real World Photoshop CS (two really good books I own on photoshop)) however, I hate guns, and it just pains me to keep looking at my failed image. I am sure tomorrow, in class, someone will help me out - and I'll be like "shit" I should have known that! Even by looking it up and doing research to try to find the answer - it doesn't help me at all.

On a brighter note, my cousin Jenn came over late afternoon and we watched an episode of Knitty Gritty on the dish. To quote Jenn, so I don't have to re-type the same story: "What a cheesy show! It was the episode with Lily M. Chin and other than 1 cool technique I learned, everything else was so dumbed-down! It was like "Cosmo" for knitting. Lily ACTUALLY pronounced the knitting acronym "yo, k2tog" as "yo-ke-two-tog". Who says it as a word? People don't SPEAK in acryonyms! You don't tell your friends "brb" or "lol" or "roflmao", and if you DID you'd pronounce it sarcastically, like "el-oh-el"." Yeah.... I thought the show was cheesy the last time I watched it about a week ago - well I'm even more thrown off from it - I don't reall think I'll ever really want to watch another episode again. Maybe the sock knitting edition (If it ever re-airs). After the show was over, (to half quote Jenn again): "Jennie, Karine and Kadi got to my house and we gabbed, knit, gossiped, ate, watched a movie (Sideways, which is always great a 50th time watching it), tried to guess Jenn's riddles and just had a nice fun girl's night. I'd be up for that anytime, we laughed a hell of a lot and I had a great time."

Alright. I'm going to give one more "go" at this quiz due tomorrow, and if not, I'll deal with it. It's so frustrating though.

Yummy Yummy Brunch

Went out for a very yummy brunch around noon today with Jamie. We went to our favourite bagel place, and it just totally hit the spot. Exactly what I was craving. I always eat the same thing there - and it's just fantastic.

This afternoon I vegged, and Jamie worked a bit in the backyard. I worked on Jamie's sock some more, it's coming along nicely, this evening, Jamie had some friends over, so that I could work on my project due on Monday. It's coming along, but it's not done.

Jamie's friends have since left, and since I needed a break, we're about to sit down to watch the movie Control with Ray Liotta. I like Ray Liotta.

I can't wait for school to be over on August 11th. I have so many chores that I want to do around the house and art projects that I want to do before we leave on our honeymoon in September, and to Kansas with my mom for the dog show. Also August 17th is my first ultra-sound - so I can't wait to see what the baby looks like in my stomach!

Alright, movie time.

School Stuff, Long Day

Today was a really long day. I hate Mondays. I have 2 back to back classes from 8 am until 5:00pm. It's my only day like this, and I dread Mondays. I can't wait for school to be over. Monday, August 7th will be my LAST Monday in school forever. (Unless at some point I go back to school and do something else, but that won't happen until after my baby is born, and probably not for a long time after that!)
In my photoshop class this morning I got my project that is due next Monday done, but it took the entire 4 hours of class to do it. I traced the dubble bubble guy in Adobe Illustrator, as well as the sign for dubble bubble, and then imported it into Photoshop to do the lettering and the stylizing.

I am very happy with my results, and I learned some new tricks while working on this, and I'm very pleased. I wasn't really sure how this would turn out in the end, but I'm very very happy. Woohoo - one project done, just a few more to go! (And a huge exam on Friday (my bday) to study for - blech!)

In my afternoon class I worked on my Perspective project that is due on Thursday. I kind of freaked out in class as the project is really difficult and I wasn't sure what to do next. This project really has been stressing me out - but my teacher spent about 20 minutes to half an hour with me alone, helped me get going, showed me a few tricks that she had shown the class, but I guess she went to fast, because I wasn't sure what she had done, and didn't know I could apply those techniques to my project.

I've been knitting!

This morning in class I found out that I will be having an exam on my birthday. I am really quite not happy with this - and made a few jokes with the teacher asking her to postpone it for a week - but she won't. Oh well - I guess I will have to deal with it. It just sucks. It's 20% of my final mark and it's a super hard test. I've had this teacher before and she's super tough. I'm going to have to sit down and write out notes for everything that is on the test - which is pretty much everything that she's gone over in class since the beginning of the semester, and it's not exactly the easiest stuff in the world to remember. Also - it's useless shit - that I'll never need to know in the future, because I don't exactly plan on working at the printing press, I want to be a graphic designer, but we need to know everything - and that includes what happens "after" we hand off our files to a printing press. Ugh!

So, my friend ditched me for lunch. She made plans for me to meet her for lunch, and then 30 minutes before I was supposed to meet her, she calls me - while I'm in class, and tells me that her apointment got cancelled until later and she can go for coffee at 3pm, but not lunch at noon. I was starving, so upon leaving school I headed straight to the deli around the corner from my house and got these amazing Thai Noodle dishes that I was totally craving. It was delicious.

My friend Mindy ended up coming over and we were going to go for a walk, but I was just too tired, so instead we watched a movie. We started with Match Point, but it was too slow and we didn't get into it (I may try it later before returning it to the video store) and so we watched Transamerica instead. As different as Transamerica was - I really enjoyed it. I think I recall hearing that it won a bunch of awards. I thought it was really good.

She stayed for a while longer, we watched Oprah, and just chatted, it was quite nice.

For dinner, Jamie's dad and step-mom came over & they brought over a homemade lasagna for dinner. Boy was it delicious! I will NEVER say no to my mother-in-law's cooking! It totally hit the spot - it was exactly what I was craving.

This evening I did not play poker, but instead, I sat on the couch, knit and watched Last Comic Standing - they re-ran the season premier with all the auditions. There was one comedian, Nikki Payne, whom I've seen live at Just For Laughs last year - she actually made it onto Last Comic Standing - which is great for her! She's really funny - and I think I'm going to root for her! And she's Canadian!! Nikki hails from Sackville, Nova Scotia.

I am progressing on my Clapotis. It's coming out different than I was thinking in my mind - but I like it. Which is a good thing, actually, because it would be a shame to have knitted this much and then to not like it. You know?

Today, I am still coughing and I finished my medication this morning. If this cough does not go away by Monday I think I'm going to go back to see the doctor.

I'm going to go lie down in bed. I'm beyond exhausted.

BRING ON THE RAIN!

Today it was soooo hot and mainly humid - I just had to do the dance to bring on the rain. (Which finally came around 5pm). Thank you rain - I hate humidity!

Today I worked on my project that was due yesterday. I have to hand it in tomorrow when I go back to school. I have 95% of it done, so I think, but I will just have to see about a few things once I get to school - and Laura is going to help me out with the logo - seeing as though I've actually done some of her homework for her in full before. But, something is corrupted with my file, and apparently I'm not the first person in the class to have this (according to Laura who didn't miss yesterday's class) so she's going to help me out on that one.

At about 3pm I was finally ready with my homework (and also got a little bit of laundry done AND baked 3 different kinds of muffins {blueberry, chocolate chip & apple/cinnamon} as well as organic brownies) and jumped into a shower as I had to meet up with Angela around 3:15pm around the corner from my house.

Met up with Angela and did a few errands (picked up juice and soda, went to the bank, did a return at Walmart and returned some movies back to the videostore). We got home, and chilled a bit (and folded more laundry) until Jenn showed up for dinner.

I made some whole wheat pasta for dinner and we got finished just before people started showing up for our little Montreal Knits chez moi.

Here are pictures from this evening:

Left to Right (Above): Isabel, Jennie, Angela, Sharon.

Left to Right (Above): Kadi & Jenn.

AND ME!!! (A very goofy picture of myself!)

At one point, the doorbell rang, and I thought it was someone for our group - but instead it was CANADA POST delivering to me my very first SP8 Package from my SP8 Pal! THANK YOU PAL - I LOVE IT!

I got some Fortissima PINK sock yarn (LOVE IT!) and some Patons Sock yarn (LOVE IT!) and some Moda Dea sock yarn (LOVE IT!) and some beads (LOVE IT!) and some needle protectors (LOVE THEM!) and some bamboo DPN's (LOVE THEM!) and some stickers for scrapbooking/collage (LOVE IT!) - Thanks a million SP8 Pal - you rock! It totally made my day (especially since my bronchitis has turned into a cold now, I can't breathe - the humidity is NASTY NASTY NASTY and well it just brightened up my day!)

This evening, while knitting (I got advanced another entire repeat on Clapotis - I need to photograph the progress - I will soon) we watched TV and spent from 8-9pm making fun of B-list celebrities playing The Price is Right on Gameshow Marathon, and then 9-10pm making fun of wanna-be dancers on So You Think You Can Dance? It was fun, and I had a really good time. I hope that everyone who came over had a good time too. I am very excited that there is an official meeting next week at 2nd Cup.

The package came complete with this birthday card, HOW CUTE!

LOVE IT!

Anyhow, everyone just left and I need to go clean up and head to bed (I am back at school tomorrow - after almost a week off from being sick!)

I HEART ALPACA BOUCLÉ!

Today in class, I WAS able to finish my Cinema poster that was due by 2:30pm. Here she is, finished:

basically had to take a children's movie (cartoon character) and turn it into a movie poster. After deciding to do it on Donald & Daisy Duck, I found a title that would be appropriate for the image I was going to draw in Adobe Illustrator, and that happened to be Donald's Lucky Day - a 1939 Disney Movie. I threw on some "movie credits" and voila - an awesome poster that turned out VERY WELL. I love it! I can't wait to see what marks I get on it. I certainly put a LOT of time into drawing the ducks... let me tell you!

After my last class which ended at about 5:30pm, I met Angela in the lobby of my school. She was coming over to my house this evening for the series finale of Will & Grace - which I will talk about shortly. But first - we stopped over at Mouline - a LYS near me. It was litterally a 2 minute drive from my school - 0nly because there was traffic! And school is an 8 minute drive from my house.

I found these hat & glove double pointed knitting needle holders, which I had been loolking for EVERYWHERE! My cousin Jenn has them, and I thought they were the cutest things in the world. Had to have them! Finally found some at Mouline! I only got 1 package (which inclues 1 hat, 1 glove). I love them! Can't wait to start another project with DPN's! Actually I can throw them onto the pair of socks that I have going with the vintage sock yarn I have!

I also splurged a little more on myself and purchased this Alpaca Boucle yarn - in Fuscia - LOVE THE COLOUR! I bought the 7 balls she had left, and am NOT sure what I'm going to make with it - but I will come up with something - I'm sure of it!

It actually looks a little variegated with different shades of pinks..... Which is hard to tell in this picture below, as it's soooo close in... but I am in love with the feel of this yarn. I saw it - had to have it - and even better - it was on sale!

Angela and I picked up some food for dinner, and we came to my place to watch The finale of That 70's show, as well as Will & Grace. We were both disappointed on the way they ended Will & Grace. They kept flipping back time, and well, it was just odd. Then again- I haven't seen Will & Grace in a couple of seasons, so I am not sure if maybe the way the ended it was normal for regular show watchers.

We knitted while watching TV and that was nice. I got some rows done, and as well - dropped another row of stitches in my lovely Clapotis. I love the way it's coming along - but it's still not even half way done! Crazy! It's an awesome project though. Let me tell you!

I just brought Angela to the metro station and I'm beyond ZONKED. I've been more tired than ever lately... time for bed.

3 Done, 3 to go + 5 Exams

This morning I slept in as much as I could. I was zonked, had to sleep in.

At 1pm, I showed my apartment upstairs to this guy named Carl who seemed to be interested in the place. He said he would call me back by tomorrow or Sunday with an answer if he was going to apply or not for the apartment.

After Carl left, I went to go meet Laura at Tim Horton's not too far from my house. There, I ran into Jimmy and Denise, who are Jamie's step-aunt and step-uncle, it was nice chatting with them for a bit, before they left, and it was good timing with when Laura showed up!

While at Tim Horton's working on my assignment, I had a very good bagel; 12 grain bagel from Tim Horton's are very good.

We worked on the poster until it got so cold in Tim Horton's, I think they made it that cold in there on purpose, so that you'd get cold and then want to leave, so you don't loiter. So after we were done working on the poster we moved to my backyard to finish the typed portion of the assignment (brainstorming process, etc.) We finally finished but as Laura was leaving, it was when Daniel (Jamie's friend) showed up - Jamie now has people over now for poker.

So that's 3 assignments done (Visual Communications, Illustration (Adobe Illustrator class) and Web Site Design) and 3 more to finish (Photoshop II, Editions II (Quark Xpress class), and Typography assignment) and 5 exams to study for next week. (Two on Tuesday, Two on Thursday and One on Friday!) FUN FUN FUN FUN!

Tonight I watched Lost from Wednesday night and The OC from Thursday night on my computer as I forgot to tape them while we went to the Passover Seder's and so I downloaded them yesterday/today. Lost was just okay, and I find the OC is going downhill... I am not enjoying it much like I used to.

For dinner tonight, I ate leftover passover food that my mother sent us home with last night. Usually it's Jamie's dad and step-mom whom send us home with food - but this time of the year, my mom has extra food - it was still tasty and delicious.

I chilled out in the den after cleaning my office and watched the movie, Flightplan. Eh, it was just okay. Wasn't really impressed. Jodie Foster did a good job, but the story was just far fetched.

Going to bed early, Jamie still has people over playing poker, our usual Friday night gang and I just am zonked, so I'm going to lie in bed and watch TV or a movie or something, haven't decided yet. Tomorrow I have to get up early to take my car to get a new windshield installed as there is a crack in the one on my car now. What a bummer.

Geisha Progress

As promised, a progress report on my Geisha drawing for my Adobe Illustrator Class.

This is the image we have to "trace" - too bad we can't use live trace! Ha ha - Wouldn't that be easy - but the teacher would know. Live trace uses WAY TOO MANY POINTS - and we have to stay within the range of points that she accomplished the image in. I think the teacher did it in 1346 points.

This is my progress - so far:

Getting there- but not quite done yet. That's what my day off tomorrow is for. I have Peter coming to finish my bathroom floor (finally!) at 8:30 am and then I'm showing the apartment at 10:30 am to some housing agent and some guy's mother - the guy is being transfered from another country and his mom and this agent are trying to find him a place - so maybe that will go great - and I keep getting calls and emails - I just want to get a lease signed already - and not have to worry about having tenants for July 1st anymore! I need that stress off my shoulders.

More later about my day.

Lack of Sleep. Need Sleep Now.

So Angela just left, she came over tonight to knit with me. I don't know how my eyes are still open? Not after that almost all nighter I pulled last night. I was up until almost 4 am working on my HTML project that was due today and I still dont think that I did it 100% right. Oh well - at least I did it. The final project seems a lot harder, but Angela said she can help me - thank goodness! I hope she wants to help me - and it's not a drag for her or anything. Maybe I'll offer her dinner and yarn or something - for helping me! LOL.. (Interested Angela?)
This morning I got up by 10 am - still tired though - and worked on my project until the very last minute before having to leave. I got downtown and got parking right away, so I had some time to kill so I did a few errands.

After going to my class, handing in my assignment, the teacher decided to let the class be a workshop for said assignment, since there was only 2 of us who handed in that project. What a waste of 3 hours.

After class, I came home and watched Desperate Housewives from Sunday night which I downloaded and worked on my sock. Today, I've turned the heel of my second sock (between this afternoon and tonight knitting with Angela over while watching half of the movie Finding Neverland - it stopped working half way through - SUCKY DEAL - it was scratched bad), and I'm now just about to start working on the body of the foot part of the sock.

Well, I'm going to go to bed. It's late and I'm tired. (Lack of sleep from yesterday). I should have gone to the gym yesterday. I didn't so I should have gone today. I didn't so I am going to work twice as hard tomorrow and I'm also going to work out on Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday of this week.

Tomorrow is my day off, so I am going to sleep in like you wouldn't believe. Gaz Met is coming to do some servicing on their machines (part of their contract) in my garage, and I got an automated message on my machine today, confirming my appointment tomorrow and telling me they will be there sometime between 7 am and 9 pm. A 14 hour window? I don't understand? Well - I do plan on getting to the gym tomorrow DURING THE DAY and I plan on going Knitting tomorrow night with the Montreal Knits - so they can go f-themselves if they don't show up before I leave to either. Apparently they have my cell number, to call me 3o minutes before they are showing up. But if they are inconvenient to me, - then I'll take another appointment on another day. That's that.

Goodnight.