Christmas Up North

Hello from Timmins, land of little snow, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We are all up here, visiting the hub's family, and a bunch of friends are descending on the town and we are having a huge, blow-out party at G's sister Nancy's house on the 27th...apparently, fixins' are being gathered to make pomtinis, and I'm thinkin' that maybe we should get a pomagranate with which to embellishto decorate the cocktails.

In other news, I've had cramps and a myriad other aches and pains the last few days and just want to sleep. V has been sick, too, and threw up a bit yesterday and slept a lot. She seems fine today, though, and had a lot of fun opening presents (though she seems pretty ungrateful for all she's gotten). Gotta NOT spoil the girl, though it's impossible up here with her relatives constantly throwing presents her way.

Turkey time tonight!!! We've had some lovely food up here and it's been virtually impossible to eat properly here, keep on with my WW program. Oh, well...after the holidays, I'll resume the careful eating, but for now, I'll just try and limit gross intake.

Have a wonderful holiday and a great 2007, everybody!!!

x a

Blaaaaaaah!

I just found out I've gotten an A- in both the copyediting and content editing courses I just finished. There's some confusion about whether I need to have a combined A or an A- in those courses, plus the production editing course I'm taking in January, in order to be able to get an editing placement once I'm done my courses in April 2007. As I started my editing certificate program in January 2006, when the placement requirement was a mark of A-, I'm hoping that's the requirement and not the A they've decided on for those students starting the program in the fall of 2006. Whatev. I'm mighty pleased that I got an A- (though peeved I evaded that elusive A or A+) and can now rest and relax over Christmas. I have sent out a few resumes in the past week and have some friends working on getting me some contacts in the publishing industry so that I can take on a part-to-full-time job in the new year. I really want to really get my brain going again plus bring home some bacon so we can really get going with these house renos. We went and looked at a great house around the corner, in a cul-de-sac, and what I expected to be selling for $450K or so is actually selling for $644K...Oh, my God!!! Well, there go the plans of getting out of this olde-tyme house and into a newer one...I'll just have to live with these authentic but somewhat despised 6" floorboards and damned French windows. Blaaaaaah!!!! The next goal is to redo the bathroom but it's slow-going. We've dawdled all fall, but have gone so far as to decide what we want...now we just need to GIT 'ER DONE!!!! (Hub's least favourite saying) Well, enough rambling...off to git cleaned up for the main hombre's arrival...

x a

Little Finnish Christmas Pics

These little pics kill me b/c they're so cute. They're from the Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki's newspaper's) website. A-frickin-dorable!!!

I thought I'd just write a little more to add to my last post, since it was a bit of a downer. :-)

That is all.

December Doings

Well, I wrote a blog entry and it disappeared into the ether so I'll try again. Basically, here are the things that have happened now in December. Sadly, and I just found this out this morning, my godmother, Aino, died in Finland last Thursday, Dec. 14. I loved her...she was a very funny, kind lady and I hope she got my Christmas card with a picture of me, Hub and V so she remembered how much I loved her. Very sad. Otherwise, had our Finnish family Xmas at my mum's this past weekend. Tons of relatives and a good time. Now we're preparing for a trip up north to see hub's family over the holidays. Sure it'll be cold as a witch's T--, but that's to be expected when you're practically at the Arctic Circle. In other news, I've now lost almost 30 of my Hungarian pounds and I'm thrilled!!! About six more to go!!!



That's about it for me for now. Happy holidays, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, etc. to everyone!!!

x a

GLAMOUR QUEENS, ANNE & MARY!!!

Here's a pic of me and my best girl; I was trying to find this one to go with my last post but, instead, posted that last pic. This was taken on my 35th birthday, when I was with child and didn't know it. Good thing I drank a ton of red wine and smoked like a chimney that night. Anyhoo, these beautiful frocks were courtesy of either Goodwill or the Sally Anne...quite lovely, no?! The lipstick, which was supposed to be quite garish, actually looks pretty on us...I wonder what that says...once again, HAPPY BDAY, MARE!!!!

My Best Girl's Birthday

I forgot to mention that today's my best girl Mary's 40th birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Kukla! I love you and am so happy you're my best friend!

And this pic is for Mary on her birthday because, of everyone I know, I wish she could make this phone call. She deserves to win the Cash for Life a few times. :-)

Rainy Day

(Apropos to nothing, doesn't this patio look inviting? The lady in the red dress and hat (?) interests me. How old do you think she is?)

Hey all, It's a rainy day here in my small town and I'm feeling a bit out of sorts. Did some yelling this morning but am feeling antsy for the hub to come home from his business trip (day six today, and he'll be home in 1.5 hrs). I think I need a big break or at least a long soak in the hot tub (did I tell you we were getting our hot tub fixed? No? Well, the thing hasn't been working since before we went to Hungary and we finally got off our asses and did something about it. Now, if I did it right, it should be shocked and ready to go, a nice surprise for hub for when he gets home.). When hub goes on these long business trips, days are very long, esp. if he's away during the weekend. I really need to relax once he gets back b/c I rarely fully do b/c I'm solely responsible for looking after our little angel (who's tested my patience many, many times these past few days).

Blaaaaah! Picked up a Starbucks latte and am just doing this before I go get the girl and get her changed into a pretty dress for Daddy's arrival at the airport. Was subject to a colossal temper tantrum, btw, this morning when I refused to let her wear what is essentially a very fancy princess dress, which would not have been appropriate to wear to school on a rainy and coolish day. Don't exactly want to the reputation of the mother who doesn't know how to dress her kid for the weather.

In other news, I think I'm down (weight) and have seven more lbs to go until I get to my goal weight!!! Very exciting!



I'm trying not to buy any more clothes until I reach goal b/c they'll end up being big on me. Shoes are okay, though, and I forced myself to get two pairs of the most darling little decorated mules yesterday at the Nine West outlet mall in Toronto. I might have also bought an adorable pink purse, too, one that fits a book, wallet, phone, big bottle of water and some lipgloss. It's all a blur, I'm so tired from the past few days.

Meant to say that, in my blog below with the photos, the cute guy whose alter ego is Borat is Sasha Baron Cohen. He is sooooo adorable!!!! Sigh...

Well, off to get the hub and reunite our little family. Have a great weekend!

x A

Island Girl

Well, back from our Caribbean cruise and back to reality. The cruise was super super fun and we were both refreshed and relaxed once we came back. Basic cruise activities included sleeping inside, sleeping on sun loungers on the Lido deck, drinking, eating, laughing, talking, ordering more buckets of beer, sleeping on the beach, buying lots of duty-free stuff on the islands--Grand Turk, Tortola, St. Maarten and Half Moon Cay, in the Bahamas--getting dressed up for fancy dinner nights, eating, drinking, laughing, and more of all of the above. God, the group of people we went with were a riot and we all had fun making fun of each other. The girls on the trip went bananas on St. Maarten buying jewelery and the guys were pretty encouraging wanting their ladies to get sumthink niiiiice. Pretty amazing. Missed going to Orient Beach on the St. Martin (French) side of the island...not only is it supposed to be beautiful but clothing optional, too. I never like to miss a chance to see people unclothed who should be covered with a jute sack from head to toe.

Back to our little wee town and finishing the 5000 word article I'm writing about food safety. The job has actually been really fun and interesting, particularly getting the wording perfect. I hope to have some more writing jobs result because of this one...that'd be niiiiice.

My editing program will be done by May and then I have to decide with Hub if I'll take the summer off for travel and start working in the fall or start toiling immediately. And then I also need to decide if I want to be a cube rat in a company (sounds so tempting put that way) or work freelance from home (with people or alone, in other words...both so tempting). So much to decide, but thankfully not right at this moment. For now, I'll just continue to admire my fading tan and my gorgeous fire opal ring. Sigh...

Gettin' Smaller...

Well, I'm quite pleased that I've dropped a lot of my "Hungarian weight" since July. I don't think I'd ever been that heavy before...well, maybe after I had my girl. Anyhoo, feeling much better these days, and it's exciting getting dressed b/c I now have all these things I can fit into again and it's like getting a new wardrobe. Also gives me an excuse to update my wardrobe with smaller sizes, probably much to hubster's chagrin. Gotta keep the little lady happy, though...as he says, "happy wife = happy life." Heading out on a cruise on Sunday and we are very very excited. Child is going to grandma's and we are sailing around the isles of the Caribbean, where temps are 25-31C during the day and 21-25C at night, humidity hovering around 78F on average. Can't wait for the formal dress evenings and sitting out on our deck in the morning looking out at sea while drinking a nice cup of coffee with my lovely, kind, funny and smart hubster. Sigh. :-) Beautiful. Hope I don't scare too many people with my bod in my new bathing suit. Oh well, I'd never do anything if I let my crazy fears get in my way. Back to writing now for money. My first writing gig in a long time is finally underway and it's great having the ole brain workin' again. Bye!

I missed one...

This gem was found in a shop window in Zagreb. Isn't she precious?

Random thoughts and images from my colossal brain

Here's a mismash of things that made me think.

This graffiti was on a wall in the Red Light district in Amsterdam.









This man, to the right, is one of my heroes (I didn't actually see him when I was in Europe, but as he's European, I think you can let this one go). Can you guess who it is? Isn't he handsome? His alter ego, BORAT, perhaps can't claim the same good looks, but is endearing in his own way. Can't wait for Borat's movie to come out. People went nuts when it was shown at the Toronto Int'l Film Festival. Sexy Time!

Isn't this just the best idea in the world? Imagine it's 37C, middle of summer, you just want to die b/c it's so hot and then someone hands you one of these chilly puppies from the freezer...you spend the rest of the afternoon wrapped in a thawing towel in a bathtub full of ice. Heaven or what?!
(can you see them? the towels in the freezer?)













And lastly, here's a sample of some direct marketing we encountered in Poland earlier this year. No dilly dallying with the message here.







Nighty night, all. Time for this princess to voyage to unconscious climes. x

V is for Vivacious!

Isn't she gorgeous? She's our "fashion girl." Lucky us!

Her newly created knock-knock joke (and the best I've ever heard):

Me: Knock, knock!

V: Who's there? The end.

Love it!

Hub, V and Me - Forever!

God, I love my little family so much! Here are hub, V and me...we have so much fun together: laughing, racing around after each other, hub and me trying to get V to eat, sleep, tone down el volumo with el voicio...a good thing about me and hub is that we like to travel together. we can literally sit for eight hours in a car and ramble on to each other the whole way and sing together to songs on the radio. V is just starting to get used to airplane travel, and hub is great at keeping her occupied while I swill wine and try to catch some zzzzs (is that selfish?). Hey, something I recently tried, when we went to England, was to order the Kosher meal (I read somewhere that these meals are consistently the best of the lot)...it was pretty good! I do NOT recommend ordering a low-fat meal for a flight...it'll ruin your travel experience and you'll probably booze it up, more than you intended anyway, to wash away the grossness from your mouth. I feel the need for speed and to travel again soon...going on a cruise next month (Caribbean) and can't wait!! I never before considered myself a cruise kind of girl, but there you go (and it's gratis). Will share, share, share the deets of the adventure when I'm back.

My God, am I colour-coordinated or what?! See how my eyes match the green in my blog? Me so purdy!

Lookie how happy I look! Photo taken in a pub in London, England, in September 2006. I think I was pretty tired but was also happy, kickin' it with a pint and my lovely hub (i.e. spouse). Sans child that weekend so we wandered and were freeeeeee! I now want to move to London and have a house in Notting Hill.

Happy October 2006!

Look! I look very insane, sitting here in a pub in London!

But, yahoo! Most of my lovely Hungarian weight is gone (thanks salami, beer, wine, cheese and poppy seed pastries), and I'm feelin' good! I'm going to try and get onto my blog more than just bi-annually (see first posting in this blog). It's raining here in old S.T.O (small town Ontario) today...actually, not just raining but torrenting (is that a verb?) down...can't get warm. Am going to crawl into bed right now with the new Philippa Gregory book entitled "The Queen's Fool." Have a great day!

Anne

Back in Canada

Here I am, back in Canada, having returned six months ago (I know, I'm up to date with this blogging thing, hey?)! Looooovely to be back, away from the pain and suffering we endured in Budapest (and that was just going to the Posta to pay bills!).

Will write more later, as I'm in the middle of an email to my other blogging friend, Kerry, whom I met in Budapest and who is a fantastic, nice and funny mother of three. Suffice it to say I'm happy, hubster's happy, our daughter is happy and friends and relatives are thrilled b/c we're back in the homeland and back to pouring them very generous glasses of wine.

Heh heh. Meh!

a