Last night Patrick and I had our butts kicked by my friend Kacey at her new gym! We went with my "boss" June (she hates when I call her that) since Kacey is her daughter. It was really fun, albeit really hard! Kacey is an amazing person - she's an artist, personal trainer, power-lifter, and now an entrepreneur. She is super good at offering one-on-one help, and she has a lot of cool equipment that you wouldn't find in an ordinary, every-day gym, like kettle bells, foam rollers, agility latter, gymnastic rings, and so much more... she had us doing a really fun circuit last night and we are all super sore today! But in a good way, of course. Anyways, here is her website

And, Happy Birthday to June!

I brought my camera to work today and was fooling around. Not like I had that much time to be creative, because the kids always need your attention. But still, I managed to get a few. This is my favorite.

Also, Patrick's website is continually being updated. You should check it out!

I never posted images of what happened in my backyard last week during the huge storm that we had. Well, here's the damage. Luckily, Hydro came 2 days later to chop down the branch and tighten the wires, and miraculously, the wires held the entire time. We never even lost power.

It just so happens that the storm caused the power to be off at the school where I was supposed to sub last Wednesday... so I lost out on a whopping 179$ that day, too bad isn't it! Yes, subs get paid really well...

I'm in the process of making things for Patrick's birthday, which is on Thursday. I'm quite happy with the way that they've come out so far, I'll post them as soon as I can. But he reads my blog regularly, so I can't share quite yet.

Well, I should be back tomorrow to upload more photos from a shoot I did with Pat last week, but I'm going to go take a shower now and then relax, because I work early tomorrow.

Cheers!

Today is Father's Day. I feel like such a crappy daughter because I didn't officially get my dad anything. I made him a card, which was totally from the heart. I also invited him to an afternoon out and lunch at a restaurant of his choice, but still, I feel bad about the whole thing. Mostly because my mom made me feel shitty about it, by saying "you're only making his card now??" with a flabbergasted tone, followed by the question "what did you get my father", to which I responded "Nothing", which resulted in a very slight grimace, nonexistent to some, but highly detectable to me. It's not like I didn't WANT to get him anything. It's really because he has been showing very little interest in anything lately, so what are you supposed to get for a person when he's feeling that way? I also wanted to take him out for lunch yesterday, but he didn't want to go. So I'm at a loss... I also feel shitty because I have to work today, so I won' t be able to spend much time with him. So yeah, in general, I'm feeling pretty guilty about Father's Day. But probably not as guilty as my brother, who is still lying in bed and likely has failed to remember the occasion entirely.

In other news, I'm playing around with the layout of my blog, pretty unsuccessfully as you may have observed. I was sick of the dreary black background, and wanted to lighten things up. Well I like the whiteness of it now, but I haven't quite nailed the blog banner. So sorry for constantly changing things around. I will stop when I'm more satisfied.

Patrick and I went to our long-lost friend Mike's new condo last night. Wow, what a great space! It turns out that his fiance is into scrapbooking and has this amazing little scrapbooking nook on the upper level (which is an open concept) that overlooks the kitchen. Totally inspiring! And of course, she just happens to have these shelves from Ikea.

I sooooo want those shelves. But it will be a little weird since Julie and Alex also have them in their scrap spaces. Oh well! Anyways, we had a fun time - had a bar-b-q, played some Scene It on X-box, which is super fun. In general, we just did some catching up. Patrick was lucky enough to explain hypno-therapy to another friend, Ben, who was there with his girlfriend. He was so interested in learning about it and willing to try it that Pat actually put him in trance 3 times, and super quickly at that! He was so amazed by it, and it was really cool to watch. I'm so glad that Ben was there because it really inspired Pat and reminded him that he's really good at what he does. (You are amazing babe, don't let anyone tell you or make you feel otherwise).

Some serious self-pampering will take place shortly as I venture to the best scrapbooking store, and possibly to Winners. Yesterday I had one of those "I have absolutely no clothes" type of moments, which happens, oh I don't know, at least once a week or so...

Yesterday's event (Pat's dad's b-day) was fun, played some volleyball, lawn darts, even swam for a good hour at night. So it just goes to show that if you leave yourself open to it, you can have a good time. I will upload some pictures of the evening later on.

Don't be surprised if my blog changes color sometime soon. I am getting really tired of the black background. I'm thinking white, to freshen things up. We shall see!

I thought I would be a little Ali Edwards-ish and make it a Mosaic Monday... here's some eyecandy from Flickr. Have a splendid day, enjoy the heat while it lasts.

Is it ever hot out this weekend! We went from rainy and 15 ish, to sunny and 30 just overnight and it's a huge shock to my system. Today is even hotter, I think it's about 35 with the humidity. I can't complain too much because I adore summer and even the hottest of hot days. However, both our pool and air conditioner are out of order at the moment, so it's not quite as fun. At least I was able to swim in Pat's pool yesterday.

We are celebrating Pat's dad's birthday today, which means that a group of rowdy uncles will be over swimming, playing games, listening to extremely loud music, possibly singing karaoke, and drinking and eating a whole lot. Meanwhile, I am going to practice the much needed skill of being open to activities that don't necessarily tickle my fancy. At least I can hide behind the camera and try to get some good shots! No, seriously, his uncles can be a lot of fun, it's just that I tend to be anti-social, especially with the whole language barrier thing. But I will keep a positive outlook, and alas, there will be cake!

Pat and I went browsing garage sales yesterday morning. We found an exercise machine for 15$, so we couldn't resist. The woman had bought it from an Infomercial for over 100$. It's that one that "swooshes" from side to side, kind of similar to the StairMaster, except the motion is on a slant, sideways. My description is so great, I know... Anyways, it's kinda fun and it activates different muscle groups. Also, it doesn't take up much room at all. My parents were horrified that I had acquired another piece of exercise equipment, but I found a compact little spot for it in the basement, so it's all good.

Well, I'm off to scrap.

Patrick and I are currently watching The Office (American version). We were hesitant to start this series, since we were under the impression that nothing could compare to the beloved Ricky Gervais. But we finally bit the bullet, and were more than pleasantly surprised! We are on season 3 already and wow, that's entertainment!

My favorite character is Dwight, but then again, they are all so special in their own ways. Here are some memorable quotes:

Dwight Schrute:
When my mother was pregnant with me, they did an ultrasound and found she was having twins, and they did another ultrasound a few weeks later, they discovered that I had resorbed the other fetus. Do I regret this? No. I believe his tissues made me stronger. I now have the strength of a grown man and a little baby.

Michael Scott: You don't call retarded people retards. It's bad taste. You call your friends retards when they're acting retarded.

Dwight Schrute:
I think one of the greatest things about modern America is the computerization of medical records. As a volunteer sheriff, I can look up anyone's psychiatric records or surgical histories. Yeast infections... there are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we''re downriver... from that old bread factory.

Michael Scott:
Presents are the best way to show someone how much you care. It is like this tangible thing that you can point to and say 'Hey man, I love you this many dollars worth.'

Creed:
In the sixties, I made love to many, many women. Often outdoors. In the mud and the rain. And it's possible a man slipped in. There would be no way of knowing.

Michael Scott:
Business is like a jungle. And I am like a tiger. And Dwight is like a monkey that stabs the tiger in the back with a stick. Does the tiger fire the monkey? Does the tiger transfer the monkey to another branch? Pun. There is no way of knowing what goes on inside the tiger's head. We don't have the technology.

Michael Scott:
Okay. This is it. This is exactly what Michael Moore does. Famous documentor. He goes up to people with a camera and he's like 'Why did you do this? Why did you pollute? You are bad. Bad person.' It's very dramatic. Oh I can't say I was a big fan of 'Bowling for Columbine', because I thought it was going to be a bowling movie like Kingpin. And it wasn't. It was something else.

Dwight Schrute:
When I die, I want to be frozen. And if they have to freeze me in pieces, so be it. I will wake up stronger than ever because I will have used that time to figure out exactly why I died, and what moves I could've used to defend myself better now that I know what hold he had me in.

Michael Scott:
Did you know that gay used to mean 'happy?' When I was growing up, it meant 'lame.' And now, it means a man who makes love to other men. We're all homos. Homo sapiens.

Well, it's June believe it or not! School's out until the fall, I'm subbing a little here and there, and working at the same old: library and daycare, but not very many hours per week.

Patrick's parents are out of town until Friday, wooohooo, that NEVER happens! So we have the house to ourselves and I'm sleeping over tonight. His cat is going nutso though without her mommy being there. She'll never very affectionate, but she's even worse now, and she's been nervously hiding under chairs and in corners all day. She won't let us touch her.

Well, I've been scrapping a little lately (will upload some layouts in the next few days), and fixing up Patrick's website. Basically I've only got the first page made so far, so it's not much, but we just wanted the most important info to be there for the time being. I have to fix the links - I'm learning the program slowly but surely. Anyways, it's pretty exciting, and he's starting to get more and more clients, so I'm happy about that. One of his clients is a very boisterous mechanic, and he asked for a huge stack of his business cards, so word of mouth will be getting around.

My scrapping friend Jessica has tagged me. I have to report 3 random things. Well, here they are:

1. I've been having a lot of back pain lately and it's because I have terrible posture. I've been wearing a brace around the house to force my shoulders into the correct position.

2. I've straigthened my "side-burns" (straggly hair that doesn't seem to grow out properly in the place where men have side-burns) twice today already. They get all curly and pouffy if I don't, and look really bad.

3. My next scrapbooking page may be based on my favorite TV shows.

Alright, enough for now. Here are some garden shots that I played around with on picnik. The first one is my favorite.