Whirlwind !

Wow! this upcoming week is going to be super busy....I haven't beent his busy in ages..!

Friday night, a visit with a long-time girlfriend Dawn (we've been friends since Grade 2 )
Sunday night, Bard on the Beach "Comedy of Errors" with my friend Debbie and her girlfriends
Tuesday night, PNE Summer Nights Concert --- En Vogue with Izzy ( b-day fun!) - eeeee! can't wait!
Thursday night, the Opus Hotel's "Pool Party" with my friend Kerry
Friday night, hoping to see that movie "District 9" with Debbie (who is a bona-fide Sci-fi fan, i'm just on the bandwagon for this movie, everyone is saying it's very good)
Saturday night, AC/DC concert with my sister Caroline and her friend Tracey.

Then the following weekend Sept 3-6 i'll be in Las Vegas with Caroline and Tracey (woot!)

Izzy could I borrow your jet-pack for a few days ?? :)

Cabin Holiday 2009

Hey gang! I'm back from the Okanagan now from the "Cabin Holiday" with my sister Caroline and her DH Al. We were at Lawrence Beach which is on Westside Road on Okanagan Lake, about 20 km north of Fintry Provincial Park / Terrace Mountain where the 3rd forest fire broke out on Saturday the 18th. I'm so glad to hear that Glenrosa and Rose Valley are getting contained and now I hear they are working on Terrace Mtn.

On Saturday afternoon we were all playing a board game ("You Know You're a Redneck When...." $5 at Wal-Mart by the way, it was a hoot to play :) ) when the wind gusted up and blew our little Redneck board pieces around so we had to put the game away. The wind just would not stop and later we heard about the forest fires breaking out. I'm attaching pics of the smoke that I could see on Terrace Mountain from behind the cabin.

I'm also attaching a picture of the view from the deck, taken earlier in the week..fabulous!

So besides the fires, the big news at the Cabin was just basic relaxing, sunning and swimming a wee bit, reading, playing board games, doing crossword puzzles, eating great food created by my sister (she's a fantastic cook), and lots of cocktails, lol! Happy hour would start anywhere from noon to 5 pm, depending on how we felt or if we had visitors over. Lots of fun. ;)

And my drive home was long on Monday - I had to take a different/longer route because of highway closures, so I went via Kamloops and it took me almost 7 hours to get home, but then I make a few stops to rest and take my time.

Now I'm back and under piles of laundry! But hope to get out and enjoy these sunny days before I go back to work on Monday.

Hope everyone is fine and well, and enjoying the sunshine !

:) J.

missing in action

Hey everybody! how are you???

yep it's been awhile.... almost a month ! things got a little out of control busy for awhile there, then add in the "JT Laziness Factor" (trademarked) .....and this is what happens.

Late June and early July were pretty full.. on June 20th it was my mom's 80th birthday so we held a BBQ party for her. My BIL bbq'd salmon and we also had a roast beef, with a home-made potato salad,green salad, green beans, rolls, and of course a huge chocolate birthday cake. It was a great dinner for our mom. photo attached ! :)

For my Scrapaholic Friends, i'm hosting the button swap for August (for the august 16th crop)- i'm pretty excited!!

Other than that , it's been non-stop work, some baking, and beach volleyball (when the weather is nice), but now i'm on vacation so i'm happy to have some time off. I'll be heading up to Okanagan Lake area soon to hang out with my family.

thanks for stopping by!

J :)

T.G.I.F.

Happy Friday everyone!

hope you've had a great week. mine has been jam-packed with tonnes of stuff :) Highlights of my week were getting to to do the Grouse Grind on Tuesday night for the first time of the season. While I am climbing that thing, I ask myself "OMG Why am I doing this again?" ...but once I get to the top, it is an a-maz-ing feeling. Once I catch my breath that is !
And yesterday I was able to go play some beach volleyball, however our team lost our match which is too bad, but it was still a hoot.
I visited my friend Tracey in the hospital on Wednesday, she'll be there for a few more weeks as her poor feet heal up after surgery to fix her shattered heels. She's in great spirits though which is great to see.

Hope you all have a great Friday and an awesome weekend ! TGIF!!

:) J.

Happy Half-Way Point of 2009!

hey everybody, how's life been this week? Can you believe it's the first week of June already? Half of 2009 has already gone by....amazing!

This past week has been busy. I visited my friend Tracey in the hospital - she was in a car accident early last week and overall she will be fine, but she got pretty banged up the poor thing and has some broken bones, including both of her heels. S0, she will have to wait awhile before she is walking around again. Really wishing her all the best for a fast recovery.

I also played my first game of beach volleyball at work this week (um, yah we have a beach volleyball court at work - isn't that insane??) It was alot of fun but I was fairly rusty. I have signed up for a Beach Skills Training Clinic hosted by Volleyball BC - that starts June 18th for six weeks, so I am really looking forward to learning some new stuff. It's at Shaughnessy Park in South Vancouver - I don't even know where that is just yet but I'm sure I'll find my way :)

On Thursday night I went to an old friend's grand re-opening of her shop in Deep Cove. It used to be called San Pedro Imports, but now it's called La La Home Decor. (www.lalahomedecor.ca) My friend Kristina has some amazing gifts in there! Unique jewellery, handbags, greeting cards (the really funny ones), giftware, and tonnes of other great stuff. Be sure to check it out if you are in the Deep Cove area of North Van.

And last night I went out for cocktails with the girls that I travelled to LA with, Juli, Nicole and Kerry. We went to "Joey's" on Burrard Street, which was alot of fun to see everyone again for a mini-reunion, 2 weeks later! : ) Then we went to "Yew" at the Four Seasons Hotel to meet up with two friends of Nicole's. I've never been there, and yep it was definitely very posh and foo foo shee shee . fun times!

And lastly, I wanted to mention a cool blog that my friend Gina told me about: http://www.happiness-project.com/. This lady Gretchen Rubin has some really neat ideas on happiness, people skills, and life in general. Very interesting stuff.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping in!
:)

Ya-Ya back from La-La Land

hey gang!

how is everybody? it's been awhile since I've posted....I have been swamped at work (organized the most challenging Travel Plan ever - 5 travellers visiting 4 cities in Asia - 7 (yes, 7) drafts of the itinerary before we finally decided what to book - it was insane but I loved it!).

Then I went on a little trip of my own ( finally! ) down to Los Angeles with 3 girlfriends from work. I was down in La-La Land from May 22-26 and the weekend before (May Long) I was busily cleaning my apartment because I, like many people I think, like to come home to a clean house from a trip.

So yes - L.A. was great! 4 nights, 5 days of pool-time, sunshine, shopping down at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica - my fave store was called "Oxbow" a cute French-owned surfing-style store, which is just my style ( I also love Billabong and O'Neill and all that stuff) and I bought a few cute things there (on sale of course!), and the sales guy was quite cute himself! :) sigh. He told me my legs looked great in a skirt that I was trying on...needless to say, I bought the skirt. LOL!

We stayed at the "W" Hotel in Westwood which had an awesome pool area (photo attached) and we visited a few great restaurants and lounges . We had dinner at one placed called "One Sunset" on the Saturday night, then one friend and I went to the Chateau Marmont ( dark and smoky, paid $35 for 2 martinis - unbelievable!) then over to the Beverly Hills Hotel (gorgeous, gorgeous and I felt like I travelled back in time). Sunday night was dinner at "Dan Tana's" on Sunset as well, which apparently is a fave of George Clooney, but alas, George was not there that night. It's a tiny little restaurant with huge portions of pasta and more pasta. After that we went to the Mondrian Hotel's Sky Bar, which is an outdoor lounge around their pool, which was pretty great. Lots of very friendly people - once they overheard our group was from Canada, they would come over and introduce themselves, it was interesting to see.

Overall, it was a fun, outrageous, girls getaway which was just what I needed. I hadn't been on a plane or a real holiday in five years ( last trip was to Las Vegas in Sept 2004). Now I am happy to be home again, but already planning future trips .

Hope everyone is well and fine, thanks for stopping by!

: ) J.

Collector cars and the Canucks

Hi all !



yikes! I have to say how say how terrible I feel for the Canucks and us fans after last night's game! We had such high hopes. Well, hopefully next year. I'm now going to root for whichever team plays against the Hawks. I have nothing nice to say about them. Boo.



In other news though, just thought I'd post a piccie from this past Saturday...I went to "PoCo Days" with my friend Tracey & her hubby John, it was alot of fun! There was a community block party, mini street market, dance presentations, and a show & shine of collector-style vintage cars (some real beauties).




After the block party we found a local pub ( Samz Pub ) which had great food and great service. If you are ever in downtown PoCo and need a pint or good martini- that's the place to be.

Have a great day! See you at the Voting Booth ! ;0)