Ice Cream for Breakfast!

Most of our staff were out of the office yesterday so we delayed my birthday celebration to today. Because a lot of them had afternoon meetings, we chose to have it before lunch. Therefore I had ice cream cake for breakfast. Yummy!
~Heidi

Happy Birthday to me!

Okay, I really need to go to bed but I also have to blog this now or it won't get done. I just had the most wonderful birthday. Between my co-workers, messages on Facebook, SS and HSS and various emails, I've been fielding "happy birthday" comments ALL day. It really makes a girl feel special when everyone remembers your birthday. I also got a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from Meredith and had a nice long leisurely dinner with friends this evening (and got some great gifts that I wasn't expecting, there too) Then I popped over to see my parents and hung out with them for a bit and now I'm home and ready for bed. I just feel so happy and loved though. It's awesome.
Happy Birthday to me!
~Heidi

Uggh

Well, the good news is that they can't find anything wrong with my car.
The bad news is that that they can't find anything wrong with my car.

There's obviously SOMETHING wrong with my car but it was a classic case of "won't act up for the mechanic". I got out of there with just a half hour labour bill but my back seat isn't installed (just in case it happens again, it will make for easier access). Now I'm driving with baited breath. Uggh!

~Heidi

It just stopped

As you can see I haven't blogged in a week. Life is going well. Nothing too exciting to report. The weather has been cool and rainy which is fine after the extreme heat we had two weeks ago. I was at the SSWA III.v Retreat last weekend and I had a great time. It was very relaxed. I didn't get a ton accomplished but I'm inspired to keep working on my albums and not "stuck" any more.

Today though, today I have stuff to blog about :( First off the sun is out. That's the good news. It's really nice outside...almost too nice. It's pretty warm out there.

The bad news is that I went out at lunch and my car stopped driving. I was coming out of the Tim Horton's drive thru and all of a sudden when I hit the gas nothing happened. It was the same feeling as when accidently put the car in neutral instead of drive (I have an automatic). I stopped (in the middle of a mostly empty parking lot), put the car in park and back in drive but nothing happened. I turned it off and turned it back on and when I did, the engine turned over but then nothing. I couldn't even shift it then.

My first call was to my ex-mechanic dad who talked to me and decided that he didn't know what it could be. The second call was to BCAA (AAA) which is roadside assistance. I signed up in April because my car is seven years old now and even though it hasn't given me trouble yet, you just never know. Plus with all the travelling I do to the States, I didn't want to get stuck down there. I also got their travel insurance mostly for my Texas trip but also because again, I'm down in Washington all the time.

Anyways, BCAA sent out a tow truck. He took an hour to arrive though so I just sat in the sun and read until he arrived. He looked under my hood and then under the car. Banged on it a few times and decided that it *might* be the fuel pump but a shop would have to determine that. We towed it to a mechanic that is right behind my office (very convenient) and one that Dad had suggested when we first talked.

So, now I am sitting here waiting for the mechanic to call. He's going to diagnose it and then call me with an estimate. At that point I'll probably call the shop Dad normally uses for a comparison. Either way I'm out way more $$ then I have available for this. Wish me luck!

~Heidi

MySpace vs. Facebook: It's a race!

LOL So, my profiles on MySpace and Facebook are racing each other. Currently I have 99 "friends" on MySpace and 94 on Facebook. The difference is that the Facebook ones are all people I actually know. Which do you think will hit 100 first?

BTW if anyone wants to be my "friend" my super secret email is agent713 at hotmail.com You can search me that way.

~Heidi

It's raining

You have no idea how happy that makes me. I am not a summer person. Oh, I enjoy the season as much as the next person. Late nights, warm days, fun stuff to do and more out door adventures but it was getting so smoggy here and with the record breaking temperatures (38.9oC last Wednesday) the rain is welcome. We need it to wash the air and the ground. Plus it just smells so good!
~Heidi...obviously a BC girl...

Seattle: boxty and oysters

We had the BEST time on Saturday!!! Meredith and I drove down to Seattle to meet up with Diane2 who was in town from Hawaii for the day. We had SO much fun walking around and eating our way through downtown Seattle

We met up at the original Starbucks on Pike Street (note that this was the second Starbucks that Mere and I had that day) Even though this was my first time meeting Diane and Starbucks was fairly busy, we recognized each other immediately and hugged like old friends. It was great :)

The Pike Place Market was busy and hot so we walked along the waterfront for awhile. When we realized that we were kind of headed no where we turned and went up the hill. I fell in love with the man hole covers there. They are maps of the waterfront and downtown!!!

When we got to Pioneer Square we met a very friendly gentleman who gave us his take on Seattle. We talked to him for probably 15 minutes. Unfortunately we didn't get his name or a picture. We hoped we would run in to him again but of course we didn't. We were considering taking the Underground Tour and he encouraged us to do so. He also suggested Elliot's for dinner. More on that later.

We bought our tickets for the tour but we had an hour and a half before it started so we went for lunch at Fado. I didn't realize until just now when I googled it but apparently it's a bit of a chain. We liked it because the logo is very close to the tatto that Diana in MD just got :)
The menu had something called "boxty" listed a few times. Our waitress was MIA until Mere went and called her over but we did manage to see on the menu that boxty is basically an Irish potato pancake. (it took me awhile to see that though :P) Anyways, I decided to have it and it was pretty good. Definitely something different. Our section of the pub was kind of "dungeonish". Very Harry Potter LOL

From lunch we headed back to Pioneer Square and joined our tour group. It started with a talk on the history of Seattle. Very interesting stuff. I realized that I know basically nothing about who founded the city or how it was formed. We were sitting on the back bench though and giggling a bit and we got some nasty looks until we settled down. Ooops! LOL The tour itself was cool. You can read the website for more information. I think my favourite part was the "sky lights". The picture above is taken with the lights off and no flash so it shows how much light is let through these squares (left). Our tour guide "Jerome" is the one in the ball cap with the coffee.

We decided that if you've been to Seattle a few times and are looking for something interesting to do (and don't have any small children or people who have problems walking on rough ground, or for that matter people who are claustrophobic (Mere didn't enjoy it all that much for that reason)) then take this tour. It's not a "must do" on your first trip to the city but it is a fun attraction.
From there we wandered through some of the shops, posed with the pig statues and made our way back to Pike's Place. Note the "flying fish" in the picture below :)

We also had a drink at The Fishermans's Restaurant & Bar.

Later in the evening, as per our "friend's" suggestion, we hit Elliot's Oyster House. It was one of the most enjoyable meals I have had in a LONG time. We had SO much fun. When we arrived it was pretty busy so we had a seat at the oyster bar which was impressive in itself. There were over over two dozen different kinds!

We had asked for "first available" seating and were lucky enough to be seated outside on the deck. Our waitress was incredible. She put up with our giggling and oyster ignorance (well, mine and Mere's Diane's a bit more of a pro). She walked us through our first raw oysters (as shown above) and waited until AFTER we had chewed and swallowed to tell us that "raw means they're alive because a dead oyster is a bad oyster". Mere was NOT impressed to hear that LOL

I was brave and went with oysters as my entree. I can't find a description of them but they were COOKED (LOL) and topped with bread crumbs and blue cheese. They were good and I ate most of them but after awhile it became too much. Looking back I should have had something more to go with them. Salad or something but it was an adventure. I also wish I had taken a picture of them but it's okay.

With the dessert menu we got a kick out of all the accent's (ague and a grave) and the "circumflex" (that's the hat like one) The waitress came back for our selection and we had to confess that we hadn't actually read it yet because we were trying to come up with the names of the accents. LOL It was good though because she explained the dessert that we ended up going with and she made it sound SO much better then the words on the menu. It tasted delicious too.
It's kind of hard to explain the easy camradrie we expeirenced that night but it was awesome. So relaxed and so much fun. Good food, good conversation, great friends. What more can you ask for? How about that Diane lived closer :wub:

~Heidi

Concert in the Park

Tonight Mom, Dad and I went to a concert in the park. The group that performed is called "Pipers Down" and they are described as "Pipers Down takes you through a great 'Scottish' pub walk with a few countries added" Lots of fun Scottish and Irish flavoured stuff along with some "Canadiana" thrown in for good measure. I first saw them at the Agri-fair a few years back and I really wanted Dad to see them. The show was only an hour long and we all really enjoyed it.

Memories brought on by heat

I worked in the dark all day. No, the power wasn't out. We just didn’t bother using it. The Weather Network listed the temperature at 36oC. By keeping all the blinds closed, the over head lights off and fans blowing throughout the office we managed to keep it closer to about 20. Working in the dark was different though. I still had plenty of light and of course my computer monitor was illuminated.

The extreme heat brought back interesting memories. Today around lunch time my boss pulled out some old promotional videos and we viewed them together. The videos hadn't been stored very well so the tape had faded to that weird red colour. It took me right back to stifling hot portables watching school approved reel-to-reel videos on "educational" subjects.

The heat also reminds me of the summer of 1996. My parents went on a trip and Aaron and I stayed with friends. I babysat Aaron and one other boy during the day and the parents were home in the evening. I had strict instructions on when to open which windows and which blinds at what part of the day in order to keep the townhouse as cool as possible. I know it was the summer of 1996 because I spent most of the time in the basement watching the Atlanta Olympics on tv.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was so hot that I just came home and slept. I didn't have any energy to do anything else. I was okay with that though. Today (Wednesday) I stopped at home briefly before heading downtown for our wrap up dinner for the Berrybeat Festival. All done until next year :)

~Heidi

Berrybeat Festival

Wow. What a weekend. It was non-stop! This weekend was the 26th Annual Berrybeat Festival downtown. I used to attend the festival when I was a kid, (in fact you'll note that it started the year I was born) and for the past five or six years I've participated in the organizing committee. My role there is to take minutes and provide input as necessary. I also help with set up and volunteer in the information centre during the actual festival.

Thursday was set up. We had lots of volunteers so it went quickly and smoothly. Probably the best set up we've ever had.

Friday my boss and I filed all. day. In fact we filed for most of last work. It's boring, dusty work but we got a LOT done. I basically went straight from work to the Festival. It had started at noon that day so it was in full swing by the time I got there. I manned the info centre for about an hour and then moved over to the main stage where I worked the merchandise table for the headliner Chris Janz. I've known about Chris but this was my first time seeing him perform. It was a great show. Chris' wife Feather is battling cancer and in the middle of his set he had a local hair dresser come up and shave his head!!! It was amazing. I know people often shave their head for charity or in support of someone who is under going treatement but this was the first time I had actually witnessed it. It was very moving. I do have pictures but I haven't downloaded them yet. Hopefully they turned out well.

During Chris' set Mom, Dad and Grandpa came down to say "hi". Grandpa and Aunty Liz went home on Saturday so it was the last time I got to see him. I made Mom take a quick picture of us because I hadn't gotten one yet!

The festival finished at nine and after hanging out with a few of the other volunteers and reviewing the day, I headed home and, after a nice shower went straight to bed. It should be noted that from my house to the festival site is about three blocks. It was so nice to just be able to walk there!

Saturday I was back at the info centre by 9:30ish. I got my pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream (a tradition!) and settled in to answer questions, give directions and act as a contact point for security and first aid. Our only first aid excitement was an adorable little girl who tripped and skinned her elbow. Security was basic stuff like don't ride your bike through the crowds. Around 3pm we had some excitement though. There are two large "airships". Helium ballons that are shaped like berries (a raspberry and a blueberry) and are about six feet in diameter. The raspberry had been losing helium but before we could take it down, it CAME down. The wind was blowing and it caught the balloon and sent it UNDER the power lines effectively cutting power to the whole downtown core. They had it restored in under an hour but in the meantime it was quiet with no sound coming from the main stage. The crowds thinned out some but most of the vendors were able to keep going without power so it wasn't too bad.

The festival wrapped up at 6pm on Saturday and we immediately started "undecorating". Somehow there were way less people around to help with clean up then there had been with set up but even still we managed to finish up in a fairly timely manner.

By all accounts it was a successful festival. I'm looking forward to next year already!

~Heidi

I promised you an update

I wish it was more exciting...or that I had pictures. Let's see. Monday I had a quiet morning at home and then Mom, Aunty Liz and Grandpa picked me up and we went out to visit Mom's cousin Marianne. She has a cabin not too far from where I work. We hung out there for awhile, visited and had lunch and then came back to Mom & Dad's at about five. We hung out there and played a game of Scrabble. I left at nine, picked up Seth (who had spent the weekend with Robert) and that was it.

Tuesday was back to work and I went and had dinner at Mom & Dad's. Mere got back from Arizona on Monday so we went out for drinks and a walk around the lake late on Tuesday.

Wednesday (today) was work again. I'm not sure if it was the heat or what to blame it on but I was SO tired all day. I came home and napped for about two hours before going to work. Of course now I'm not really tired so I'm catching up on blogging and watching "A Capital Fourth of July" on PBS. Dierks should be on in a bit. I'll go to bed after that ;)

Happy Independance Day to my US friends :)

~Heidi

Happy Birthday Canada!

Canada Day. We missed the parade for the first time in a long time because we were at church. Afterwards, oh I haven't blogged this yet. My mom's dad and sister arrived on Saturday evening. They're here visiting for a week. After church we had lunch and then went for a walk around the lake. My camera batteries were dead which made me mad. I haven't seen Grandpa in two years and when I do and I'm in a beautiful park FULL of photo opportunities, I can't take any. :( Anyway, we had a nice walk but the u.l.t.r.a. slow pace was getting to me so I went home when we got back...or at least I intended to go home. Instead I went and hung out at Jenna's for a little while and THEN I went home...well, actually I didn't get home then either LOL
I called Amanda and joined their group for watching the fireworks. It was a lot of fun. It made for a late night but I can add another place to "where I've been to see Canada Day fireworks".

Happy 140th Birthday Canada :)

~Heidi

PS Today I'm enjoying the stat holiday. Mom is supposed to call when they decide what's going on today. As soon as I get dressed I may head over there but I'm not in a huge hurry. I'll let you know what we decide to do.

This is the pay off for making a pest of yourself

My loyal blog readers will remember me talking about "Steve" the morning show DJ on my local country station. I call him all the time and generally make a pest of myself, in a good way. Sometimes he plays our conversation on air, sometimes not. Anyways, this morning I called him to tell him that Doc Walker was coming to town and to ask if he'd heard anything about it yet. He told me that no, he hadn't (which wasn't a surprise). It progressed to "What are you doing this weekend". Standard question. For some reason whenever I call him I have nothing planned. It's rather funny. He asked if I was going to the Willie Nelson concert tonight in Vancouver. "No, because I'm too cheap to buy tickets and because no one would have gone with me anyways". He asked if I WANTED to go. "Of course!" Then he said, "Well, I have tickets here but there's one stipulation..you have to go with me." The promoter gave him tickets and he, like me, has no one to go with. He is NOT a country fan, but he does like Willie. None of his friends are country fans either and they don't even want to see Willie.

It was a lot of fun. Willie's getting old and you can tell. It was a small concert. Large enough venue but not a large turnout. Same place I saw Dierks in January but there were probably twice the people there for Dierks. We were seventh row up off the floor but still had a good view. Very interesting concert. He sang for quite awhile and did all his hits plus quite a few off the new album and a BUNCH of covers. Well, I don't know if you can call them covers but they were all big songs for other artists. He probably wrote half of them. I just don't know his catalogue well enough to be sure. He's a whiz on the guitar though (even if poor Trigger is falling apart) and his sister was brilliant on the piano. He had his two youngest sons on stage with him too. It was a an interesting experience. Once in a lifetime because I'll proably never go see him again but I am really glad I was able to.

~Heidi

Release It

One of my current favourite quotes is from fellow blogger Martha. It was a comment she made and I've adopted it.

"Take that conversation [the one in your head] and release it"

I think it's an awesome concept. Tonight I'm leaving blogger open and I'm going to note down my observations as they come. The things that I find interesting. This is me. This is the conversation in my head and I'm releasing it.

• 4:55 - My mouth is still frozen. I went to the dentist at 12:30. I left there at 1:30. It's now five and it's STILL frozen. This is pathetic.
• 5:35 - I love Ellen. I really do. She's just hilarious. She has such a talent for bringing out the best in her guests. I'm watching a re-run episode where she has Bon Jovi and Josh Duhmel on. It's hilarious.
• 6:00 - I have a ton of dishes to do. I don't want to do them.
• 6:25 - Edamame rocks. I bought eight little individual boxes from Costco for six dollars. I opened the first one tonight. That stuff is great. It's addictive.
• 7:15 - I just sliced my hand. I was washing a glass, it broke and I ran the broken part across my knuckle. I've finally staunched the flow of blood but I'm going to get a cool scar there.
• 8:30 - My mouth is now fully unfrozen but its still sore. Now that my tounge is unfrozen I can feel that my tooth is smooth. That's weird. The dentist wants me to get a crown. As soon as I can get $400 together that is. That's my portion of a crown since insurance only covers 50%.
• 9:10 - I just read the previous line. Tooth and smooth don't rhyme even though they're spelled the same. English is weird.
• 9:40 - DOC WALKER IS COMING TO BC!!! Woohoo!!! I am SO excited!!! They're coming to the town I work in too. When was this announced? I just found it on MySpace. Sweet!!!!!!
• 9:50 - %$#&! I broke a bowl. What is with me and breaking stuff today???
• 10:10 - I have another 7am conference call tomorrow. I'm going to bed.

NOW I'm tired :(

I couldn't fall asleep last night. I went to bed at my regular time and read for a bit but when I turned off the light my mind wouldn't shut off. Around midnight I finally got up and took a hot shower (I usually shower in the mornings), made some hot chocolate, read some more, did my nails, finished my book and close to 2 I finally fell asleep. I'm not sure what was wrong. It could be that I lulled myself by mindlessly surfing the internet while watching stupid sitcoms before bed so I was too relaxed. Or that my book was too exciting. Whatever it was, I hope I don't repeat it because I don't feel all that bright eyed and bushy tailed today and I hate this groggy feeling.
~Heidi

One year, one month and two days

That's how long it's been since I broke my tooth. Guess what happened again today? Yep. It's a different tooth, further back and thankfully, again, the root isn't exposed. It still feels gross though. Like I have a hole in my head. This time I wasn't eating a Starbucks sandwhich (which, I haven't had since I broke my last tooth) but the sensation was exactly the same. I called the dentist immediately. The receptionist said "Well, we're going on vacation..." (and this is my problem because???) "But I had a cancellation for Thursday" Me: "I'll take it!!!" So, Thursday at 12:50 will find me BACK in the dentist chair getting ANOTHER tooth fixed. Hopefully my sinuses will be fully cleared by then so I can actually BREATHE.
~Heidi

I am exhausted but I got a compliment

I am exhausted right now. My boss and I moved and re-packed eight boxes stuffed full of dusty old files today. I am so tired now.

I want to share a big compliment I got last week though. As you know I work very closely with our board of directors. I coordinate all the meetings, in person and the zillions of conference calls we hold (I swear, if you ask me what I'm doing at work each day, 85% of the time I'm working on minutes).

One director in particular can be quite demanding. He's a nice man but he works for a big company and expects to get what he asks for. One of my co-workers had a run in with him a a few years back and every time his name is mentioned she gets her back up. Because I haven't had the same experience, I happen to think that her reaction is funny.

Another thing you should know is that the board strikes committees as they see fit. The goal is to NOT be on any new committee. It's almost like a game to them LOL In fact they typically nominate anyone who is NOT at the meeting to sit on the committee.

So, back to the compliment. Last week we were participating in a conference call and they decided to strike another committee. Someone nominated this director as chair. His response? "I'll chair the committee if Heidi organizes it. She does such a great job of making sure that we all know about it and sending us reminders. If she does that, I'll chair the committee and make sure it accomplishes what it needs to."

Wow

My boss was *VERY* impressed. In fact she was looking at me and motioning to the phone and mouthing "that is a HUGE compliment"!

It makes me feel good and now I don't mind nagging them about calls so much LOL

~Heidi

Update

Well, today I am feeling much better. My fever broke and I have been able to keep food down. I skipped church this morning because I wasn't feeling well enough to drive. I'm glad I did because by resting I was able to regain my strength. I actually did some scrapbooking today too so it doesn't feel like a total waste of a weekend.

This evening I went over to Mom and Dad's for dinner. (Mom put a chicken in before church but she forgot to turn the stove on so it wasn't ready until about 5.) Afterwards Mom and I played Scrabble and then I came home. Now I'm relaxing before heading to bed.

~Heidi

No luck on being coherant :(

I spent yesterday moving between my bed and the couch. Mostly just my bed though. I had a splitting headache caused by sinus pressure and the rest of my body just aches. It's not fun. I decided around 1pm that I had enough energy to make some lunch. I had a sandwhich and some chips and an hour or two later I threw it all back up :( This morning I'm feeling a bit better. Still very sore and weak. I had some weatabix and an orange for breakfast. Hopefully I can keep it down. I was drinking neo-citron yesterday but I think that was contributing to my loopiness so I'm going to lay off it today.

My scrapbooking/card making stuff is mocking me. I want to work on it but I just don't have the energy :(

~Heidi

Okay this is NOT what I had in mind

When I said I wanted to stay home for the weekend I meant that I wanted the weather to be my excuse. Not being sick :( I realize now that it's been coming on for a few days and it's not really that bad but I have itchy watery eyes, a sore throat, stuffy nose and a bit of fever. I'm still going to try to scrapbook. Hopefully I'll be coherent enough to make sense!
~Heidi