Holiday ADD (me rambling in other words..)

You know what is pretty fun? Going to stores this week and watching people absolutely freaking out trying to find suitable gifts for family and friends.

Even more fun? Watching Julie sample sweets from a gift basket we received from her ex-wife, ex-girlfriend and her ex-girlfriend's ex-girlfriend (did you follow that?) and seeing her face contort when she tries something she thought she'd like but actually doesn't at all. Heh.

Here's a pic of us with the basket:


Speaking of pictures, here's a pic of Julie's beloved couch now in our little office:


A rare sight - me sitting on said couch:



So now that all of the stuff in the office is crammed to one wall (Julie actually took two book cases out and has them sitting in our bedroom while the fate of the couch is in limbo) and she's made it all cosy, her co-worker has now shown serious interest in taking the couch. I have no idea how that couch is going to be physically removed from that room now...

Watching Better Off Ted right now... I think it gets better every week. I definitely have a crush on Portia now...

I'm really looking forward to my 3.5 day weekend starting tomorrow at noon but I'm not really looking forward to Friday. I enjoy the Christmas season but I'm not a huge fan of Christmas Day. I have this ridiculous anxiety about holidays spent with family... I think this year the key to it passing painlessly will be arriving to the family gathering later in the morning, going to a movie in the middle of the day and then leaving earlier in the evening. My sister has made Julie and I promise to go with her to see the Sherlock Holmes movie that opens on Friday. I'd rather go see It's Complicated but there was really no getting my way on this one. My sister has a huge crush on both Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law so that definitely trumps my need for a Meryl Streep fix! Anyway, I think I'll enjoy these kind of holidays once we have a child to subject them to.

I think there was a bunch of other things I was going to write about but this week has been pretty brutal work-wise and my brain is fried. I'll end with a pic of our kitchen which I don't think I've shown on here yet. It was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to move into this place - soooooooo much bigger than our last kitchen!!

Ginger Abuse

This is pretty amusing but only because my ginger girlfriend brought it to my attention and she herself found it highly amusing...

Tesco apologises for 'ginger joke' card

I honestly did not know red/ginger-haired human beings are ridiculed so badly in England until I met Julie and she told me about her childhood and even adulthood before she moved to Canada. It is absolutely horrible, the nasty things people yell at people in the street just because of the colour of their hair. And if you're a child in school? Yeah, good luck holding your own on the playground. The things Julie told me that she was called on a regular basis I cannot even put on here without squirming with embarrassment. No wonder she doesn't like visiting back home...

Her and I do joke about her 'ginger-ness' though and she has reassured me many times that she does not take any offense to it although that's probably because she was the one who taught me how to tease a ginger, she makes fun of it herself and because, quite frankly, her and I are damn funny...

Lesbians, lollypops and LED lights

Couch is now in the office... barely. Pictures to come once Julie finishes cramming everything in there.

The flu I had morphed into a cold so for the past three days I've had a wicked sore throat and chest congestion. Because of the annoying congestion, I also have a cough from attempting to clear my throat a thousand times a day. There's nothing like feeling like you're choking to death constantly...

I am so sick of sucking on Halls and the other usual suspects. I decided to pick up a pack of strawberry flavoured Rockhoppers Goodypops to try in an attempt to soothe my throat without gagging on the taste. It turns out they are awesome - they work really well (for this sore throat I have anyway) and they have a much milder flavour. The only issue is that I'm a grown-up looking like I'm eating a lollypop. They are also a bit expensive (8 for $2.99) but they don't dissolve very fast so I'm not going through a lot of them in a short period of time like Halls or the other kind I was using.

I'm watching the Nikon commercial with Avril Lavigne in it. I think she's rather pretty (I have to look at her a lot at work... my closest co-worker has his wallpaper, calendar and a couple of pictures of Avril) but only if she doesn't smile. Once she smiles, I have to turn away and shudder. I don't understand how some one's smile can be so scary (to me anyway)...

I am in love with our PVR and becoming so spoiled by being able to record things I want to watch and then watching them at my leisure. It's good for catching shows that I cannot remember when they actually air. A good example is Better Off Ted. I have no idea what day of the week it's actually on or even what station... it just shows up once a week in the queue and we watch it. Portia de Rossi is quite clever in it, I have to say... the rest of the cast is not bad either. The show never fails to make us laugh... so either we're lame or the show is half decent.

CSI just started... just validated my lesbian membership a moment ago when the opening credits came on and a new shot of Marg Helgenberger looking mighty fine flashed by. Actually both Julie and I exclaimed involuntarily at the same time so I don't feel guilty or anything. Marg is a good example of a woman who just seems to get better looking with age.

I finally managed to bring home a string of LED lights. This after two previously failed attempts. I thought our new Christmas tree had LED lights on it but I misread the box. Then I purchased a string of indoor/outdoor lights having thought they were LED... I even remember standing there staring at the boxes making absolute sure I was buying LEDs... but nope, I must have hallucinated the description on the box. THIS time, I very nearly had a fellow shopper look over the box for me (because clearly I cannot read) but then decided to trust my choice one more time. Julie has strung them up on our bookcases and they look really cool. Add to that the fibre optic angel I received at our work holiday party today and our place is looking pretty festive.

Julie also received a little gift at work today - a $50 gift certificate for East Side Marios. That would be fantastic because the nearest location is less than five minutes away... however, just yesterday we drove by and were shocked to see that all the signage was taken down and it was closed down. WTF?! It's been open for at least five or six years... why the hell would it be closing in such a prime location? What a bummer...

Anyway, I'm off to take some medicine and hopefully sleep longer than three hours tonight.

Couch Closure? Not yet...

On Sunday, Julie put an ad on Kijiji offering the couch to a loving home for free as long as they came to pick it up. Within an hour she had about six people e-mailing about it. The person she chose was going to come pick it up the next evening (Monday).

Cue the mourning...

Julie insisted that she spend the night on the couch one last time. She fell asleep pretty early and I was still watching TV and surfing the 'net. Suddenly I see movement on the couch and hear a weird noise so I look over and she's laying there clapping her hands. I burst out laughing and she turned towards me and smiled. I asked what she was doing and she said "I'm clapping for Lady Gaga... she's performing right over there." she said, rolling over to point near the television. I'm like, "Um.. okay. Well, enjoy the concert." She thanked me and closed her eyes. Yeeeeeeeeah.... she was asleep the entire time. When I mentioned it 15 minutes later when she woke up for real, she had no idea that we had had that brief exchange. Heh. She ended up climbing into bed with me and abandoned the couch... too many crazy dreams, I guess.

Anyway, she was all sad yesterday while we waited for the woman to come pick up the couch. 6 pm went by, 7 pm... by 8 pm Julie was really cranky. "I'm emotionally ready to part with the couch and here we're not even sure she's going to show up!" Yeah, by 9:30 pm, I called an end to the wait and Julie flopped down on the couch in frustration and defeat. People suck sometimes... she didn't even call or e-mail to say she couldn't come by or didn't want it on second thought.

Either another person will be picked from Kijiji or one of Julie's co-workers might take it. I told Julie that if it meant that much to her, she could put it in the little office room but I think she decided against doing that. It might have something to do with the fact that we were watching Hoarders last night...

I finally, *finally* mailed out Christmas cards this evening. Not bad... it's only December 15th, haha...

Pictures

I got Julie to take some pictures this weekend...

Julie's beloved couch (not sure how long it took her to fluff it up like this - note how the arms aren't really shown so you can't see the cat claw shredding either):


Julie napping on her beloved couch last weekend (obviously taken on the sly by me):


Our new Christmas tree (looks better in person) that we've had up for three weeks now. You can see the arm of the chair I use in this one:


The gingerbread house we put together and decorated last weekend (ignore the pharmacy in the corner...):


This is what we have to look forward to when we go outside:

Christmas Gift Shopping 101: How It All Snowballs

Okay, so yesterday morning whilst driving Miss Julie to work, we acknowledged that our gift giving ban was probably not going to stick:

"Alright, I picked my mom this year and you picked Chantel (my sister)... we need to get them gifts this weekend."

"Yeah, but nobody else. That's the whole point of this 'picking one person in the family' thing that your family does."

"Oh, I know. Definitely only my mom and Chantel. Good thing you and I aren't exchanging gifts, eh?"

"Yeah... That's not actually going to happen though, is it?"

"Nope. I guess this is where I can tell you that I've already got you a couple of gifts, eh?"

*******************************

So last night, when I went to pick up Julie from work (I had stayed home sick again yesterday - damn energy-sucking flu thing) I had just enough energy to make a trip to the grocery store for the absolute essentials (milk, bread and ginger ale for my nausea) so I asked Julie if she minded making the stop. I have to ask her because I find that she HATES shopping for food and I can't even get her to stay with me and the cart and/or basket for more than two seconds before she's off searching for books or something to distract her from the fact that she's in a grocery store. So, with me being sick, I'm walking down aisles looking for anything that looks appetizing. I figured that with the weather being so freakin' cold and my not feeling well, we'd be locking down for the weekend. $75 worth of junk later (and the milk and bread and case of Canada Dry), we were on our way home. That's when Julie declares that we should definitely go check out the crafts store for Chantel's gift. Next to Michaels (the crafts store) is Staples and Home Sense and she decided we had to look in those as well.

Here's where the snowballing really begins...

The first store we went into was Staples. In there Julie stumbled across Rock Band for the Xbox. Chantel has a Xbox 360 and has borrowed Rock Band 2 from one of her friends a few times. I know she likes it a lot but she'd never get it for herself. Because of all of the new Rock Band variations that have come out lately, the first Rock Band has been greatly reduced. The entire package (drums, guitar, mic, game) that used to cost over $200 was on sale for $29.99. Score! I'm 99% sure she'll be absolutely thrilled with it, even though it's the first one and not one of the new ones. As Julie said on our way to the car, "I think I'll be in the running for sister-in-law of the year with this gift."

One down, one to go...

Now that Julie had found a gift for Chantel, I was a little disappointed that she wouldn't be getting some art supplies. The original plan was to get her a couple of canvases and some new brushes because she loves to paint but has trouble funding her hobby. We went into Michaels anyway to look at stuff and what do I find but this awesome wooden case with a top that opens up into a table top easel. Inside are a ton of oil, acrylic and water paints with medium sized canvases, brushes as well as oil pastels, etc. Perfect for my sister because she usually uses the coffee table which now has more than one paint streak on it. So... $73 later, Julie asks me what we're going to get my other sister, Samantha, now that we've bought Chantel two gifts.

One down, two to go...

After sighing heavily, we were off to Home Sense next door to find some inspiration. There we found a really nice Sagittarius candle and a voodoo doll to use on her boss (Sam just started a new job and she HATES her boss...). She likes a certain kind of chocolate that they sell a ton of at Christmas (I'm too lazy to look up the name of the chocolates) so we made a mental note to go to Wal-mart at some point and buy a box.

Two down, one to go...

I had got my mom a Galaga Hallmark ornament about a month ago (she loves that game and used to play it arcade style with her best friend back in the day) but aside from that, I was drawing blank for ideas. There's some pressure when it comes to buying gifts for your mom, I think. It's like you don't want to disappoint her. Anyway, our next stop was the liquor store where I picked up a bottle of Bailey's. She loves Bailey's so I know that's a good gift. Of course while we were there, we also picked up two bottles of wine, some beer and some amaretto for us, so $$$$$ later, we were back in the car. We decided we best go home because the groceries were freezing in the trunk and the backseat was now filled with gifts but made it as far as across the parking lot to the Swiss Chalet (gotta have the Festive Special at least once during the holiday season!). By the time we got home and made multiple trips from the parking garage to our apartment, I was beyond exhausted. Julie apparently was too because she passed out on the couch not long after we got home. I sucked up my exhaustion and wrapped everything except the Rock Band box because I ran out of wrapping paper.

Two down, 1/2 of a person to go...

We were super lazy today, lounging around reading and napping. Partly because I am still regaining my energy and partly because it's -30 outside. Around 6:30 this evening (looking at the clock, I realize it's now 12:30 am... so yesterday evening I suppose) we decided to go out to buy another roll of wrapping paper to wrap up the Rock Band box. I suggested that we also stop at Bath & Body Works to pick up Samantha this (Julie bought her refills for it for her birthday earlier this month and she informed us that she couldn't use them because her diffuser was broken so Julie promised to buy her a new one). Off we went and of course when we got to B&BW, we couldn't just get that one thing. We ended up getting some hand soap and body wash and spray and $50 later...

Two down, 1/2 of a person to go...

We arrived at Wal-mart and decided to split up to get the things we needed (Julie announced that she needed new trouser socks and of course the wrapping paper). Holy frakkin' hell... an hour and a half later... $260 damage done between the two of us.

Christmas-Guilt-Chain-Reaction-Thought-Process:

"I bought my sisters stuff and I didn't even pick their names. Now I feel bad that I'm not buying grandma & grandpa anything. Ooooh, I know. I'll get them some chocolates. They like getting boxes of chocolates. What kind should I get? I know they like After Eights. But look at how small the box is. I can't just give them this. Oooh, I know they like these chocolate covered cherry chocolates. But that doesn't seem like enough either. Oooh, here's this tube of Bailey's chocolates. They like those. Okay, three boxes of chocolate should do it."

Four down, 1/2 of a person to go...

A few aisles later...

"Damn... now that I have chocolates for grandma & grandpa, now I feel bad about not getting auntie anything (she lives in their basement). What the *hell* can I get her? Oooh, there's this neck massage thingy for $20. She'd definitely use it because she complains of neck/back pain quite often. Okay, that's good."

Five down, 1/2 of a person to go...

"What the hell am I going to get mom? Ooooh, look, outdoor Christmas lights. They have the blue LED lights that I've wanted."

A few aisles later...

"Finally, a barbeque cover!"

A few aisles later...

"I think I need this Adam Lambert CD..."

I'm sure you get the picture (if you haven't already fallen asleep or moved on to another blog). We did end up also getting the wrapping paper we originally left the house for, as well as socks for Julie, and three gifts for my mom.

Why do we even bother picking names for Christmas? Sigh...

Happy Holidays

This update is for Stacey, who finally got me to bookmark the site and post...

I'm home sick today. I went home sick from work on Tuesday and Wednesday, so seeing as how I feel the same today, I decided to just stay home and rest. I'm feverish and achy and am very nauseated. I've finally found that I can eat toast without wanting to hurl and sipping some ginger ale is helping as well. This is totally not the time to get sick - December is the busiest, craziest time at work so I'm a little stressed about not being there. I was talking to Julie about it last night - she thinks I need to learn to let go, that everyone gets sick and that the job will still be there when I get back. I know that... I guess I'm just a bit of a control freak.

It is kind of nice to not have to go outside today... it's snowing *again* which means the already slippery, snow covered roads will be even worse. After the blizzard last week that caused us to be stranded until the plows came by (first time in my whole life, btw) the temperature dropped a lot and the weather has been pretty bad.

We bought a new Christmas tree this year and put it up on November 23rd. I realize that is earlier than the norm but I don't care. If I'm going to go through the trouble of decorating it and moving furniture around, I want the damn thing to be up for longer than a couple of weeks! Our old Christmas tree was only two feet tall and one of the legs was lost last year (at our old apartment it leaned against the wall and was pretty pathetic although quite cute) so we threw it out when we moved. The one we have now is 6.5 feet which is a decent size but when we eventually buy a house, I want a bigger one like the one I grew up with.

We have two presents under the tree right now that are from Julie's parents in England and that will probably be it. Julie suggested that since we buy each other little things throughout the year, we don't need to buy each other Christmas gifts. The reason being that both of us would end up spending a ton of money on gifts we can't really afford to show our love for each other - when really, picking up a chocolate bar at the gas station has the same effect. I agreed with her because a) we're trying to pay stuff off and save up money for future stuff, and b) we ordered a new couch and chair that is being delivered on Dec 31st that we've decided is our Christmas present. However, I have strayed from this plan and I have purchased a few things for Julie. I wrapped them and have them hidden and will put them under the tree after she's gone to bed on Christmas Eve. Hey, if Santa brought them, it's okay, isn't it? They are things I know she wants but won't dare buy them for herself so I know she'll like them.

As for the couch and chair we purchased, there's a story to that (of course). The couch we have is sage green and looks like hell. Julie has had it for I don't know how long and the cats she used to have used the ends as scratch posts. The cushions are lumpy and do not hold shape anymore and it's very uncomfortable to sit on because it has no support in the seat or back. Julie LOVES the couch though - it is where she sits at night and where she sleeps half the time*. She clutches the back of the couch possessively whenever I mention that I hate it and I want to replace it. Needless to say, I rarely sit on the couch. We have a...um... what do you call an upholstered chair from the 70's that rocks and swivels but doesn't recline? Anyway, that's what I sit in because although it isn't the most comfortable, it has a lot more support than the damn couch. I have a foot stool in front of it and I push against it to rock the chair back a bit so I can have the laptop propped on my lap when I'm using it (otherwise I sit at the dinner table - our desk goes unused now that it's in a room away from television aka where Julie resides). This 'lounging' position strains my knees and gets uncomfortable after a while but I'm just not the type of person to sit upright in a chair with my feet on the ground. Even at work, my feet rest on the base of the chair (y'know, the leg things with the wheels) or on an ergo foot rest. Soooooooooooo... Julie decided one day that she wanted to buy me a new chair that reclined because she could see I was uncomfortable. I said no because I thought getting a new couch would be much more practical - if we got a couch we both liked, I could sit on the couch instead of the chair. She was adamant about it though so a couple of weeks back, we decided to go to a few places to take a look at reclining chairs. I had also wanted to stop at Sears because they had Christmas trees on sale. We decided to stop at Sears first to check out the trees and on the way to the seasonal section we passed the furniture section. For the hell of it, I tried out a few chairs but they were either too cushioned with no support (I want to sit in it, not be swallowed alive by it) or way too expensive. We decided to move on to the seasonal section at that point but then both of us saw this couch and chair set at the same time. I went and sat in the chair and she sat on the couch and we looked at each other and said "Nice!" at the same time. What are the odds that we'd find a couch and a chair that we BOTH liked that looked decent, had great support and would go with our other furniture/colour scheme - slim to none is the answer. I was praying to some unknown entity that the price wouldn't be ridiculously expensive and wouldn't you know it, they were both on sale. We were pretty disappointed that they are not being delivered until Dec 31st, but at least that gives us time to get rid of the couch and chair we have now. I can't wait - it'll be sooooooo nice to be able to relax in comfort!



(* Some may find it odd that Julie sleeps on the couch a lot but it is in no way a reflection of the state of our relationship. She goes through periods of talking in her sleep and twitching so on nights when I REALLY need to get a good night's sleep or if she's watching TV and I've already gone to bed, she'll just pass out on the couch. She likes to fall asleep to the television and I don't... so yeah, that's why she sleeps on the couch a lot :)

Since November, the relationship Julie and I have has gotten a lot stronger. I think the trip to Banff at the end of August had a lot to do with it. In early-mid September, I wasn't sure if we would still be together by the end of the year because we were at odds with some major issues (marriage, children, some other stuff...) and on some of them I felt I could not compromise on. The biggest one being children, followed closely by Julie wanting to move back to New Brunswick (where she first landed in Canada and lived for about five years - and where her ex wife, ex girlfriend and her/their two twin daughters live). I want a child and she changed her mind and said she didn't. She wanted to move and I did not (at least not in the near future). I thought about marriage and she did not want to get married again. Um... can you see why I didn't think we'd be together for much longer? Slowly though, things started to change... I can't explain how, it wasn't overly obvious... I guess it was just a feeling. We flew to New Brunswick to visit Julie's ex wife and ex girlfriend for the twins' 3rd birthday the week of Remembrance Day. During that week we both spent a lot of time with the twin girls and I think Julie changed her mind that week. She told me she was impressed by how good I was with the girls and how she could definitely see me as a mother. It was on the plane back home that she told me that she would like to have a child with me and eventually be married. I honestly think that since the trip to Banff, we've fallen in love with each other to a greater extent. It's hard to explain but what we have is much deeper now and it's awesome. :)

So... now there is a new, loose plan that involves a house first, then probably marriage and hopefully a child.

Alright, time for a nap... this update has worn me out.