Retirement Ramblings Part II

Happy Hump Day!

I know I told you all last week that dad was going to be posting for my once a month, or every few weeks... but I really felt like this story needed to be shared sooner rather than later. This is a situation that happened to my dad in the Spring of 2010. He sent this EXACT e-mail to everyone in my family and I remember laughing so hard and forwarding it to a few of my colleagues immediately. Enjoy!

Take it away Daddy!

*P.S. Sorry for the ridiculous gif's dad, I thought they added a little pizzazz*

I thought I'd share a workplace adventure that took place in April 2012. Here is a post-adventure email that I sent to the facilities manager at my workplace.

..............................
Date: April, 2012
From: Peter Bowyer
To: Everyone

Subject: Washroom Debacle

While I had noticed the modifications that have been made to the men's washroom, I had never taken particular care to observe the subtle details of the workings of those changes.

As in dozens (hundred?) of times before, I entered the washroom and observed that my entering triggered the interior lights to come on. The purpose of my visit required the use of a stall. While involved in a spell of brief contemplation I observed that the main lights went out, clearly as a result of a timer. No worries as the emergency lighting was still on. This did not afford much lighting in the stall, however, much lightning was not required.

While engaged in contemplation someone else came into the washroom, thereby, enabling the full washroom lighting once again. His (I assume it was a male) sojourn was brief and he left. Within a brief period the main lightning extinguished, leaving me in the once-again dim glow of the emergency lighting.

Apparently, my "contemplation" period exceeded the scheduled tolerance because while I was still in-stalled, the emergency lights also timed out (unfortunately, I wasn't looking at my watch to know what the end of the tolerance window was). As well, since I chose to not take my blackberry with me in order to enjoy a purer form of contemplation, I was in pitch blackness … no blackberry light was available to come to my rescue.

Having been somewhat observant in the weeks leading up to today's adventure, I had noticed a device in the upper corner of the washroom, and had wondered if it was either a motion or sound detector. I clapped my hands; it was not a sound detector. Blackness prevailed.

Unfortunately, I was a particularly undignified stage of my business rendering me incapable of standing in order to wave my arms to test if the device was a motion detector. Waving my feet out of the stall door was ineffective and my conclusion was that perhaps motion needed to happen at a higher level. So, in the dark, I extracted a toilet paper roll from the newly installed dispenser (one which I had never closely examined … so the extraction was a non-trivial process in the dark). Once extracted, I tossed it in the air in such a way that it would trip the potential motion-detector, and then fall straight back into my awaiting arms (in the dark). Here's where the adventure occurred … it was the only roll in the stall … and my stage of business demanded that I not lose hold of this particular roll.

The story had a happy ending because, sure enough, the device was a motion detector. The ascending roll turned on the lights in time for me to see the descending roll so that I could confidently catch it. Happily, everything came out all right (pun intended).

Lessons learned?

Take your BB with you to the washroom even if you seek pure contemplation … you never know when a little light will come in handy.

Study the toilet paper dispenser carefully in the light in the event that you need to make a roll-extraction in the dark.

Practice throwing toilet paper rolls so that they go straight up and come straight back down.

Observe multiple sequences of the twin-lightning timers in order to know confidently what the windows of tolerance (opportunity) actually are.

Train yourself to complete all business within those windows of opportunity.

Work is never a dull place if you're open to adventure! But I do wonder if our search for efficiency has gone just a tad too far?

Why I Don't Run...

Hi lovelies - today I want to tell you about why I don't run...

My roommate is a crazy fitness junkie. She likes to challenge herself physically quite often, and last year she completed a 10k, a half marathon, and a super spartan race. She's kind of a machine. Quite often when mutual friends are talking to her about running, they'll ask me if I run - which usually causes me to laugh. You don't want to see my fat fluffy butt running anywhere.
I don't run.

There are only two reasons that I would ever run:
A: I'm being chased by a murderer and need to run for my life
B: I need to catch my bus.


This is something that you'd never see me partake in.

So let's backtrack a bit - last year I had an incident while running for the bus.

I was on my way home from work - I took bus #1, got off at the necessary stop and I was walking to stop #2 to catch the other bus that would take me home. As I'm casually walking towards the bus stop, I hear something behind me and turn just in time to see the bus coming towards me. I panic and start to run. My guess is that I looked a little something like this...



I don't have far to run, honestly. I only have to cross a main intersection (Broadway and Granville... it's pretty busy) and run about 3/4 of a block to the stop. I start running, casually, in the direction of the stop. The bus isn't there yet, so I figure that if I keep at a steady pace, I'll make it in time. I've got my purse slung over my shoulder, and a bag or two in my hands, and I'm on my way to catching the bus that will take me home after a long day at the office.

As I'm running across the intersection, I notice that my pants are feeling a bit loose. I basically shrug it off, and keep running. By the time I get across the intersection, I can tell that my pants have fallen down my butt quite a bit and I say a quick 'thank you' that I wore a long-ish shirt that day. I keep running, a little faster now, to make sure I can catch this bus and not have to wait for the next one - as I'm running, my pants are falling further and further down. I'm not kidding when I say that my pants were around my knees by the time I got to the bus. I would say at least 100 people saw me running down the street virtually pantless. I quickly threw my bags on the ground, pulled my pants up, picked everything up and boarded the bus.



I probably looked a little something like this.

When I got on the bus, I got a really interesting look from the driver and most of the bus patrons. I casually showed the driver my bus pass, and walked to the back of the bus and sat down. Surprisingly, nobody made any kind of snarky comment/remark about my pantless debacle, and for that: I am grateful.

So, friends, in case you're wondering: Unless I'm being chased by a murderer or late for the bus, I do not run.

Say hello, will ya?

Hi Friends!
I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Unfortunately, I ended up catching a cold this weekend - so I tried to lay low as much as possible. Since I had such a boring weekend, I don't really have too much to post about or anything to recap. Instead of boring you with my non-excitingness (it's totally a word), I decided to link up with Mrs. Laura:



Questions

1. What blogs do you visit daily? Please list 1-3 of your favorites.
Whitney - she's hilarious and I adore her.
Helene - she seriously cracks me up!
Staci - I only found her blog recently, but I already love her. Another funny/real blogger - I love it.

2. Are you on Instagram? If so, what is your user name?
Of course I am! faithalexandra

3. Can we find you on Pinterest? What's your Pinterest address, and what can we expect to see you pinning most? (recipes, DIY projects, home decor, etc.)
Of course I'm on Pinterest - you can find me right here!
I honestly pin a lot of different types of things. I love a good 'LOL' type picture, I love DIY projects, tattoos, fashion, and food porn. I'm also a photographer, so I get a lot of inspiration from Pinterest.

4. What are your favorite blog link-ups to participate in? (weekly link-ups other bloggers have...any number will do...please link us to them!)
I usually link-up with any link-ups that strike me as fun/entertaining.
The last few weeks I've been doing Sami Shenanigan's Weekly Blog Hop!



5. Why do you blog?
I started this blog back at the beginning of December to chronicle my 'Christmas picture advent calendar'
I had a blast doing it (this was my second year), and I enjoyed all of the funny remarks/comments I got from people all month about my jokes. These were my most popular days/posts:
One.
Two.
Three.

6. Tell us one random fact about yourself.
I was in a movie - The Little Kidnappers with Charlton Heston and Bruce Greenwood, when I was a baby. You'll see my name 'Faith Bowyer' at the bottom of the cast list on IMDB.
You can see a clip of me in the movie, here:


If you're new to my blog - please say hi. I love meeting new people.

why you should always bring back-ups...

Happy Friday, lovelies!

Sorry I wasn't around here yesterday - I wasn't feeling well and decided not to play on the interwebz.

Today I've decided to share another life story with you all, because... as you all know - I have no shame.

This week I had my annual review with my boss - I decided that I'd like to look nice for this meeting, and opted to wear a dress. {Side note about me, until this past year, I haven't owned nor have I worn a dress since my grade 12 prom, before that - grade 9 grad, grade 6 grad, etc.} Anyway... this past year I bought not only one dress, but two dresses... and a skirt. I don't know who I am these days - but I like feeling a bit 'girlier'. Okay, so I'm totally distracted... let's get back to the story:

So on Tuesday I had my review {at 12:30pm}. I wore a black dress, pink sweater, and black panty hose. I have three pairs of panty hose - one pair that I've worn about 7 or 8 times, and two brand new pairs. I debated wearing a new pair that morning, but ended up just wearing the ones that were already open. So I finish getting ready, leave the house, and head to work. Everything is going well - in fact it's dandy. I got some lovely compliments on my outfit, and everything seemed right in the world.

Here is said outfit:

At about 10:00am I needed to pee {sorry for sharing, but it's part of the story}. I head to the washroom, do my business, and that's that. As I'm pulling up my panty hose, my nail snagged on the front/inside of my left thigh. I curse under my breath and make a mental note to be careful not to snag it any further so I don't get a nasty run. As I'm heading out of the washroom, my clumsy self dropped the washroom key on the ground. I bent down to pick up the key and felt the little snag quickly become a hole. You see, I'm really not graceful... so I didn't bend down in a ladylike way {I clearly forgot I was wearing a dress}. I stand up, key in hand, and head back over to the mirror to check out the damage I had just done - I pulled up my dress {only just a little bit - don't get so excited} and saw that I did in fact have a hole.
Great. Aint nobody got time for that - right, Sweet Brown?



I head back to my desk and 'discreetly' sit down gently so that I don't make the hole worse. I glance at the clock and see that it's 10:05 - I still have 2.5 hours to go until my review and I need to make sure that this hole doesn't turn into a bad situation. After about 30 minutes of sitting at my desk in an awkward position so I wouldn't destroy the panty hose {yep, I'm weird, I know}, I completely forget that I have a hole and I cross my leg under me {side note: this is how I typically sit at my desk}. As soon as I do this, my heart stops, and I remember the little hole... which as you can now guess - is a massive gaping hole. I quickly get up, run to the washroom to examine the new damage. Friends, it was bad, like really bad. Like, I shouldn't even be admitting this, kind of bad. I don't know what to do at this point. I don't have any time to go shopping and buy a new pair of panty hose before my review, and to be honest - I didn't shave that morning {hey, I was wearing knee-high boots, and panty hose, so I pulled the lazy girl move and skipped the extra 5 minutes in the shower} so having bare legs wasn't an option.

At this point, I consult with my friend/colleague, Jennie. I explain the situation... she laughs... a lot, and then examines the damage. She assures me that nobody can see the run below my skirt line unless they are looking for it. I breathe a sigh of relief and remain seated for the next hour or so until my review.

As I'm getting up from my desk to head to my manager's office at review time, I smash my knee on the corner of my desk...I think you know where this is going. The hole got bigger yet again. I quickly pulled the hem of my dress down and headed into the meeting. I sat as still as a I could, and managed to not stretch the hole any further.

By this point, I didn't really care about replacing my panty hose since my meeting was over and I only had to get through a few more hours. I won't go into any more detail about the rest of my afternoon... but I will tell you that by the time I got home, the size of the hole was outrageous. I had to laugh. I don't know how I managed it, friends. Honestly, I got a lot of strange looks on the bus - and I know people were judging me... but I just didn't care. No embarrassment for this girl.

This is the end of my story and, friends, I learned a great lesson - always bring a back-up pair of panty hose when you have an important event.

* One last side note - I tried to google 'panty hose tear gif' - oh my word, I truly am naive to think that this would be an innocent gif... I got a lot of porn on my monitor that I didn't bargain for. Do yourself a favor and don't google it. *

Have a fantastic weekend!

Retirement Ramblings Part I

Happy Hump Day lovelies!

My dad sent me an e-mail last week - now that he is newly retired, he has a little bit more time on his hands to do the things he never used to be able to do. He told me that he read all of my blog posts and loved everything that I had written so far (aww, thanks daddy) - he then asked if he could write a guest blog post. Of course I immediately said yes - and then we decided that he would do a guest blog post at least once a month. He's got a ton of funny stories to share from his 30+ years working for Environment Canada.

Without further adieu, here is dad's first ever blog post:

Spreadsheets Tell You the Ugly Truth

I love spreadsheets.

Seriously, I’m a spreadsheet guy. Call it what you will: quirkiness; misguided interest; signs of a misspent youth; character flaw; or just plain lame. I love spreadsheets. While others engage in hobbies like sports, gambling, knitting, reading, driving, and movie-going, I play with spreadsheets.
More on this later.

So at the beginning of each year the municipal tax office sends me my property tax assessment. This includes a statement of what they believe to be the retail value of my house as well as the assessed value for tax purposes. They swear (and have done for the 3 decades we have owned houses) that there is no link between property tax and house assessment. They seriously must think we’re idiots. OF COURSE there is a link. Duh!

Anyway, we just got our assessment and I was, well, shocked … in an ecstatic kind of way. I know what we paid for the house … and with some mental arithmetic (not math … just arithmetic) I determined that, if they were right, then our assets had increased by $145,300 in just 8½ years. Wahoo! That’s an impressive average gain of just over $17,000 per year. I imagined myself trying to build up a savings account at that rate. I imagined having a savings account at all.

Now I’m an optimist. Not a goofy Pollyanna kind of optimist, but a results-based optimist. The difference between the two is that a results-based optimist is one who believes that things can and will get better, but he believes that while accepting the stark reality of the world in which he lives. I don’t look at the world through rose-coloured glasses. My career as a science guy has bred into me a healthy respect for data … and data are neither positive nor negative … they are just data. And where there are data, there is a grand use for spreadsheets.

I decided to put my spreadsheet hobby to use and create an elegantly simple construction of a cells and formulae that would calculate for me the reality (the truth) of my newfound assets, after weighing in the not-so-hidden liabilities inevitable when choosing a house over an apartment. We begin with my mortgage payments, averaging about $1200/month since we bought our house … a price that is comparable to the rent of a decent 2/3-bedroom apartment with underground parking. With the monthly mortgage payments swapping out for the rent, I pondered what other costs there have been that were unique to owning my house … costs that would have never arisen had we been renting an apartment. Turns out there were a few, all of which I fired into the spreadsheet.

The first one that came to mind was the water heater which chose to burst on December 22 … yes 3 days before Christmas … which set us back $740 to replace. If we had been in an apartment we would have never seen that cost. Next I thought about the $4,169 that we spent 18 months earlier to replace the furnace when it had given out. And of course that quickly reminded me of the $8,263 and $9,335 that we spent only a year before that to replace the roof and windows, respectively. Now I was on a roll: there was the $5,647 for new appliances since moving in and $1,800 for replacing a couple of those already (they just don’t make stuff like they used to); there was the $12,000 to turn an unfinished basement into fully finished; and of course the $10,000 in other renovations and home improvements along the way (paint, flooring and counter-tops aren’t cheap).



Phew … my profits were vanishing before my eyes. That’s when I started thinking about the routine stuff that an apartment dweller would never see, such as the $4,800 on lawn care that I’ve coughed up in the 8.5 years, not to mention the $33,600 in property taxes that my municipal government dogmatically declares is unconnected to my property value. Then my wife Debbie said, “and don’t forget the extra costs for power, oil and water that we pay compared to those lucky apartment people!” Crap! Even if I guestimated a monthly utility for apartment dwellers to be $150, my total costs for just those 3 “amenities” EXCEEDS theirs by another $25,249. I was quickly becoming a lapsed optimist. That’s when the dark side got hold of me and I started nickel-and-diming my “good fortune” to the point where I estimated that I’ve likely spent $800 in additional gas because of the idling in my driveway each year while I clear the ice and snow from my car windshield … something that underground parking would negate.

The final bit of reality hit when it occurred to me that in order to realize any of these “assets” I would need to sell my house in order to liberate said-equity. MLS listing fees are 6% (sure, you can do better, but experience says that the quickest and best sales come with the benefits of those fees). I intentionally withheld my assessed “retail value” until now: $400,100. The 6% fees on a full-price sale would be $24,006.

If you have taken the trouble to use even an abacus (you don’t need a fancy spreadsheet for this) you already know that my net profit on the house sits not at $145,300 … but rather, at an incredibly depressing $4,931!

Are you kidding me? That’s what I get for the 510 hours of renovations that I have personally put into the house … and the 300 hours of lawn care (35 hrs/year) … and the 120 hours of snow shoveling (15 hrs/year) … and the 52 hrs of windshield snow/ice clearing (30 min/week during the winter months) … and the 442 hrs of additional cleaning that a 4000+ sq.ft. house required over an apartment?

My wicked spreadsheet taunted me with the ridiculous reality that we put 1424 of extra house-only hours into a house that has netted us $4,931, for an effective wage of $3.46/hour. My final salary before retirement was 15x that … and my consulting fees are already coming in at more than 40x that.

I told Deb that my daughter is a genius because she lives in an apartment and that we need to do the same. ASAP!!!!!! (superfluous exclamation marks for effect) She said, “you’ve been playing on your spreadsheets again, haven’t you? Why don’t you take a break from that for a while because the snow’s really coming down and you need to go out and start shoveling?”

Before putting on my boots and gloves I went and deleted Excel from my computer and punched the monitor.



I hate spreadsheets.

The Facts of Me

Hi Lovelies! Today I'm linking up with the fabulous Whitney for "The Facts of Me"



I have no idea how many random facts I'm going to share with you today - but here we go:


I'm clumsy. Very clumsy (but you all already know this).

I'm lactose intolerant - which sucks because cheese is one of my favorite foods.

I have a dance party (by myself) everyday.

I sing in the shower.

I don't like lemon or lime. It's annoying when bartenders put a lime on the side of my glass.

I've never broken a bone (despite being so clumsy).

I'm extremely close with my family.

I'm from Nova Scotia and I've never tried lobster.

I'm really sensitive to hot and cold beverages. If it's too cold, I can't drink it and if it's too hot, I can't drink it.

I love animals and sometimes I feel like Dr. Doolittle - I'll talk to dogs like a crazy woman.

I've never been to Paris, and I'm absolutely dying to go.

I've never had chapped lips - weird, I know.

I bite my nails - until recently, I had stopped for about 2 years and I somehow picked it up again.

I was in a movie - The Little Kidnappers - when I was a baby.

I have an extremely good memory.

Well, that's it friends - now you know a little bit more about me : )

Weekend Blog Hop!

HAPPY MONDAY, friends!

It's time for the weekend blog hop again. I'm far too tired from a busy weekend to really write too much this morning, so I'm going to leave it all to pictures.

Friday Night Looked a little something like this:

I picked Amanda up from work and we headed out for an appetizer and a drink - calamari and vodka/diet, yes please. Then we headed home to wait for Amanda's brother to get into town, he was driving over to Vancouver from Calgary for a weekend getaway. Once he arrived, we headed out to Tap & Barrel for some drinks and dinner.

Saturday: We took Matt on a tour of our favourite places in Vancouver and in BC. This meant one thing - road trip. We showed him the awesome places in Vancouver and then headed up the coast to Squamish. We grabbed a bite to eat and a pint of beer at the Howe Sound Brewery and headed back to the city. We stopped a few times to take some pictures of the gorgeous B.C. scenery.

Amanda & Matt

We had the most amazing sunset in Vancouver on Saturday night... seriously, this is straight from my iPhone - no editing. It's blurred because we were driving.

We ended the night at The Alibi Room in Gastown to enjoy some delicious beer (they have 50+ beer on tap).

Sunday, we started the day by taking Matt to our favourite brunch spot - Jethro's. We each had an amazing meal, as always - our three breakfasts:

After brunch, we ran some errands and then I came home and spent the afternoon cooking... literally all afternoon. Amanda went out to show Matt some more Vancouver sights, and I cooked/prepped our meals for the week. Let me just say, I'm excited for lunch every day this week.

Well that's it kids - that's my weekend. Hope you all had a great weekend with your friends/families, and I hope your Monday isn't too Monday-esque.

25 Before I'm 25

After my last birthday (October 1st), I realized that I had one year left until I was 25. Twenty-five. I know that isn't an 'old' age, but I feel as though it's pretty significant. I'll be a quarter of a century old! Whoa.

Anyway, I decided to create a list of 25 things to do before I'm 25. Some things were big, some were small - but I honestly think that all of the items are do-able. I'm not huge on making lists public, so I won't be posting those 25 things here today, but I've decided that as I check items off my list, I'm going to make a blog post about what I've completed.

So far I've only checked off one thing - but it's one of my most exciting/fun items:

Take dad on a helicopter ride

This is something that my dad has literally wanted to do, his entire life. Last summer, Amanda and I were fortunate enough to go on a quick helicopter ride around Vancouver and it was absolutely amazing. I promised myself that the next time my dad came out to Vancouver for business, I would find a way to get him up in a helicopter. Low and behold, dad found out that he got to have one last business trip (last of his career - since he's now retired) to Vancouver in November - so Amanda and I started planning this trip.

Luckily, the Friday that he was here, I was able to take a vacation day and this is when we made it happen. I convinced dad to postpone his flight one extra day and I told him I just wanted to have a nice day with him before he headed back to Halifax.

So, I picked him up first thing in the morning, went for breakfast and then we headed to the helipad downtown. Once dad realized what was happening, he started freaking out. I honestly don't think that I've ever seen my dad so excited about anything in my entire life. Seriously.

Unlike the little 'trip around Vancouver' flight that Amanda and I did, Dad and I went to Victoria and back. We had the most gorgeous, uncharacteristically beautiful, Vancouver day. We landed in Victoria, where Dad had never been, walked around downtown and hung out for a couple of hours, and then hopped on another helicopter to head back to Vancouver.

It seriously was one of the most amazing days I've ever had. I love my dad and I miss being able to see him (and my mom) every day, but I feel so fortunate that I got to share this and have this moment with him. Here are a few pictures that I took that day:

Our helicopter

Look at how excited he is!!

Downtown Vancouver

The gorgeous Empress hotel in downtown Victoria.

So there we have it, the first thing off my 25 Before 25 List: Take Dad on a helicopter ride.

Have a great weekend everyone - see you Monday!

that awkward time on the bus

It's time for a little hump-day story, friends.

Let me start by saying... I'm probably the clumsiest person that anyone will ever meet. This honestly isn't a dramatic statement or a hyperbole in the slightest - I legitimately walk into at least one thing every single day, but usually it's more like 5-10 things (walls, tables, doors/door frames/door ways, people, etc). It is a normal occurrence for me to come home from work and tell Amanda (my roommate) about the amount of times I fell/tripped/walked into something that day. Okay okay, so now that you understand where I'm coming from - let's get this story started.

So while I'm clumsy, I'm usually pretty solid and able to hold my ground while I'm on the bus. Every day I typically sit in the same seat, or the same general area. As a rule to myself - I don't sit in the top section of the bus. Stairs + Faith = not friends, especially not on a moving vehicle.



Well, one day, I decided to be 'adventurous' (honestly, I don't even know why I went up there - but I did)... so I ventured up into the back part of the bus - up the stairs.

No big deal.

I chilled in the back, listening to some music and watching out the windows as we drove down the busy downtown streets of Vancouver. I mentally made note that my stop was the next one, so after we left the last stop before mine, I pulled the cord and stood up. I held onto the bar and took a step forward.

Just at that EXACT moment, some idiot ran across the street - in front of my bus - and the bus driver SLAMMED on the brakes. People in their seats shifted quite a bit, but remember how I was standing? Yeah... thaaaaat happened. So the brakes get slammed, and I lurch forward. There's literally nothing graceful about me, so it wasn't like I just slid a little bit... Nope, that's not how I roll.

I didn't know what to do, and I refused to fall on my face, so I just ran forward. I don't know how else to explain it. To keep from falling, I just prolonged my trip by 'running' it out, so I ran forward, tripped down the stairs, and ran... all the way to the front of the bus. Want to know how I stopped? I literally ran into the pay station at the front of the bus next to the driver. After I smashed into the machine, I kind of lost it - laughing hysterically. I glanced over at the bus driver and he looked at me like this:



He was seriously concerned for my well-being, along with all of the other bus patrons. He asked me if I was okay, and I assured him - a few times - that I was definitely okay and he could continue driving since the next stop was mine (and Lord knows I needed to get off that bus).



That's when it happened - as the driver was pulling away, somebody in the back of the bus clapped. I turned around (this being the part where I should be mortified), chuckled and nodded my head as if I were taking a bow. The bus stopped, and I literally tore those doors open, jumped off the bus, and ran to the office.

There you have it friends, my not so awkward bus moment.

I should probably be embarrassed by this kind of thing by now, but really - if I were normal, my life would probably be boring.

Outfit Versatility

Happy Tuesday!

One thing that I like to do (as often as possible) is wear an outfit that is versatile. Versatility is probably my favorite quality that I look for when purchasing new clothes... second only to comfort.

Yesterday I wore an outfit that worked perfectly for this whole 'versatility' thing that I'm talking about, so I thought that I'd show you:

Exhibit A: Work Outfit

I wore a navy blue lace shirt, with a white tank top and grey dress pants. Accessories - scarf and earrings.

Amanda and I had plans to go out last night, almost as soon as we got home from work, so here was my outfit for the night..

Exhibit B: Out with friends outfit

I kept the navy blue lace shirt and white tank top. I swapped out my grey dress pants for black jeans, I threw my hair up and put on some bangles & a watch - BAM, I'm ready to head out with some friends.

This might not be the BEST example of what I mean, but that's okay... you get my point.

Versatility is key.

That's all I've got today, sorry for the lame post. I'll try and have something super excitingawesomeOMGZfabulous for you all tomorrow...until then, stay classy.

Weekend Update Blog Hop

Hi Friends!

Happy Monday. I hope you all had a FABULOUS weekend.

I thought that I would do something different this week and link-up with Sami's Shenanigans for the weekend update blog hop.



Here's a quick overview of what my weekend looked like:

Friday Night:

Drinks at Ceili's Pub with some friends, and then we saw Silver Linings Playbook.

Saturday:

Road trip to Seattle with my roommate Amanda. We left early in the morning and got back into Vancouver around 9:00pm or 10:00pm and had a chill night in. I totally forgot to take pictures in Seattle - oops. But here are a couple of quick snapshots that I grabbed before we left:

Relaxing night-in looked a little something like this:

Sunday:

Started off with a delicious omelet for breakfast, followed by running errands and hanging out at Starbucks for awhile with Amanda while we each got some work done. Okay - I read blogs, but I pretended to work. We came home and cooked and prepped meals for the week. I wasn't smart enough to take pictures of our end products... but I promise that everything we made was delicious (we had to sample it all).

In case you're wondering, the only things I'll be eating this week are peppers. I bought an obscene amount of them because they were on sale and looked so delicious. Oopsy.

That's it for my weekend - nothing too exciting to announce.

Happy Monday!