Summer Dreaming
Close your eyes and imagine that you are off on the vacation of your dreams, picture yourself there enjoying the weather, the sights, the feel of the wind in your hair. Now open your eyes and look around you. Disappointing isn’t it. That was a pointless little exercise, but hopefully it got you motivated to do something about it. I love planning vacations, even though R and I haven’t been on a major trip for a couple of years. This year we are heading down to Tybee Island for a week. It is about 20 minutes east of Savannah and we have rented a beautiful cottage there. The owner is also a famous author of chick lit books, and her place looks FABULOUS! JC, RO and the puppies are all coming too. Ollie Bear, CoCo, and sweet little Chloe are all making the trip south of the border. While it’s not a dream vacation, I totally looking forward to unwinding and relaxing for the week – too bad we have to wait until September. At least I have LWWC (Long Weekend Wine Club) with JJ and T for the August long weekend to look forward too. The three of us are flying down to Myrtle Beach to stay with BA and EG for 5 days! YAY!! It’s my weekend away since R is away again this weekend racing for 4 days.
Canada Day is just around the corner, and as I just mentioned R is away at the track again this weekend, so it’s another girls weekend. JJ is going to stay up for the weekend and so far we don’t really have any plans beyond the deck and wine. Heaven! I even took tomorrow off (supposed to work our day off when we are closed on a Saturday) so that I could have a 4 day weekend. So – Happy Canada Day everyone, hope it’s a good one. 🙂
Boot Camp Aftermath
It’s been a while since I did a good old-fashioned weight training work out. After Thursday night’s boot camp I really thought I was in pretty good shape, considering I am still running 3-4x per week as well as Pilates a couple of times a week. I was wrong. I went through Friday feeling fine, maybe a touch sore through my quads but no biggie. This morning however is a whole different story, can you say STIFF? I have zero appreciation for stairs today, in fact I believe it’s time my office installed an elevator, or at the very least a lift you could hop on up the stairs. I feel like I am walking like a zombie with 2 very straight legs. I am trying to stretch at my desk, but really it’s kind of difficult to do with a showroom full of clients. Oh “Hey there Mr. Customer – just stretching my hammies and my quads. Can I answer any questions on that beautiful piece of German Engineering and Technology while I am it?”. Enjoy walking today people, I know I am not. 🙂
Day 5 – Chrysalis 30 day Challenge
What is Chrysalis you ask? Chrysalis is a challenge designed to increase your metabolism, set personal goals, and change the way you think about food and what you eat. It’s no secret that I have struggled with my sweet tooth for, hmmm, I don’t know – ALWAYS! And it’s also no secret that I have been out of control for months now. I need to learn how to break the cycle, so I signed up for a 30 day challenge through the Pilates Studio. I am on Day 5 and so far I am feeling and doing great, I thought that changing my eating would be a lot more difficult than it has been. You start with a pretty big breakfast, have a couple of protein shakes during the day as well as lunch and dinner. For the first 2 weeks I am not eating any wheat or dairy (except for cream in my coffee – I was allowed that). I haven’t had any extreme sugar cravings and I really do feel fantastic. R and I also started Boot camp last night, and this woman doesn’t mess around. R told me at one point that he thought he might puke, she had us doing crazy cardiointervals, mixed in with strength training. And…..R even got up at 5:00 this morning to run with us. In fact, JJ ran with us too, our little trio turned into an actually group.
The best part about this 30 day challenge is the infra-red sauna. I thought I wouldn’t like it with my low blood pressure, but it’s amazing. You sweat way more than you do in Hot Yoga and you don’t have to do anything! 🙂 Your skin feels fantastic after, and apparently you are burning a bunch of calories just sitting there while you body works to regulate your core temperate. Apparently there are multiple benefits to the infrared sauna, I just don’t know what they are to relay them.
Mini Vacay
R and I went away for a little R & R for our anniversary. We headed out to PEC (Prince Edward County), and spent 2 lovely nights at Suites on the Lake in Wellington. The couple who own the Bed and Breakfast had a 12 week old Portuguese Water Dog, so while we missed Ollie Bear like crazy we were able to play with sweet little Abe. During our stay there we had booked a great day with a woman who runs a business called From the Farm. It is a cooking school with a lot more built-in, she picked us up at the Bed and Breakfast around 9:00am and then we headed over a couple of local farms to buy fresh ingredients. At the first farm, Vicki’s Veggies, R and I had to pick fresh strawberries. I am just about the slowest strawberry picker around, not going to lie, it’s definitely not one of my strong suits. Here we are showing off our hard work, mine is the smallest pint on the left.
After we had some nice fresh ingredients we headed over to C’s house (C – owner of From the Farm), she runs her cooking classes out of her home – which is beautiful. We had requested a Southern Theme for our menu, so we made Skillet Corn Bread, Scallop Cakes with Sugar Snap Peas and toasted Almonds, and for dessert Pecan Pie (one of R’s favorites). Both R and I really enjoy cooking when we have the time to do it, but watching him roll out a pie crust was probably the highlight of the trip for me, he makes a cute little baker (he wasn’t too thrilled with the black mail photos I took though, notice him threatening to beat me with the rolling-pin).
We finished the day with a visit to two of the local wineries in Prince Edward County. I didn’t realize that you aren’t obligated to drink all the wine they pour into your glass at the tasting, so I was a little tipsy at the end of the day. 🙂
My second favorite part of our mini vacay was eating at Buddha Dog in Picton. They serve Gourmet Organic Hotdogs and they are fabulous! All of the ingredients are fresh and local, including the buns and hotdogs. Even if you don’t like hotdogs, I highly recommend going there if you are ever in Picton.
Happy Anniversary R!
6 years already – Wow. Maybe this has something to do with my itchy feet, a pre symptom for the 7 year itch! 🙂
It is hard to believe that we have been married for 6 years already, and I am happy to say R, you are still one of my best friends and my biggest confidant. I feel truly blessed that we found each other and have been able to co-exist with one another for over 10 years now and I can still say that I love you. Traditional wedding gifts for 6 years are sugar and iron. I am happy to say we decided not to exchange gifts in lieu of our weekend away together.
Itchy Feet
I need to know that I am not the only one who suffers from this. It happens at the most random times and it seems impossible to find relief. The bottom, the very bottom, the soles of my little feet itch. Have you ever had this itch on your foot? The kind that you can scratch and scratch and scratch, but since your feet are bit tougher than say your leg no amount of scratching seem to offer any relief. I have even tried itchy foot powder that they make for athlete’s foot, but nothing. There is no physical evidence of anything on my foot, I even asked my doctor about it and she said “Sometimes we have itches”. I don’t have fungus or funguy (as I like to say it), no rashes, I don’t have super smelly sweaty feet. It is a deep-rooted, far under the skin itch that resonates outwards. You can identify the source and you feel it pulsing out expanding as it goes, like a sonar. What I really need to know is how to make it stop! Anyone? Bueller?
It’s finally done!
Well, it’s finished. The saga of the powder room and the wallpaper is complete. It was almost a full year journey from decision-making, to ordering, to starting installation and then stopping, ordering more wallpaper, being told they didn’t make it anymore – it’s FINALLY all over. For those of you who are not familiar with this little gem of a story you can refer back to an earlier blog of mine in mid January about the wallpaper I purchased for our powder room. I did receive the extra “magically appearing” roll of wallpaper back in January, but had not set a date with BA to complete what we started. Yesterday was that day. We got to work late morning and finished the job around 3:30 – it is so nice to have it all back together. The bathroom mirror has sat on our dining room floor for months, and the hand towel for the bathroom has been draped across the sink instead of on its little towel rack. Wall papering around the sink and toilet was a b’tch, I am not going to sugar coat it – I am so happy with result though it was all worth it!
Last night I also went to GLEE!!! YAY! It was so good, we even got to see most of the cast members up close when they performed on the back stage. The only disappointing thing was the lack of appealing shirts. We really wanted some fun Glee gear to show off our Gleeky spirit, instead we sang along to every song right along with the pre-pubescent girls that made up the majority of the audience. It was Gleeful. Happy Monday!
Work Lunches
Today, our financial rep came by the dealership and took me out for lunch. It was fabulous, not only is she really great and fun to be with, but it’s beautiful out and she ordered me the tastiest Bellini (shhhh, it’s a secret) I have ever had. We went to Earl’s which is the newest chain restaurant to open in this area, apparently they are big out West and are now making their way into the Eastern market. It has a very Moxie’s vibe to it, all the waitress and hostess’ are young and beautiful and wear really short skirts showing off their enviable legs. The waiters are nothing to shrug off either, most of them look like they just stepped out of an Abercrombie ad. I am not sure if it’s my Bellini talking, but the food was great too. I could really get used to this going for lunch thing – if you are ever in the area make sure you give me a call. Cheers!
Screaming Children
There are a few places that it’s probably not smart to take your young children too without coming fully prepared with snacks and activities. And yet, we get them here at the dealership all the time. Most of you have been through the car buying process, it’s not something that takes 20mins – unless you are an impulse buyer. Every week we have numerous clients in here with their offspring prepared to spend 3-4 hours here, but not prepared for their child’s boredom and lack of awe at a $100,000 sports car. Come on people, your kids are young they could care less that it comes in exotic colours. The only thing these kids want is something to do, and if you don’t have anything for them to do they are going to act out. It’s not their fault that you are an unprepared parent, but it is your fault that they are having a full on melt down in the show room!!! No one wants to hear that. Especially not me. I really like the parents who ask if we have a play area – what do we look like, McDonalds?? No we don’t have a play area, we have a waiting area with newspapers and magazines and wi fi. How would you like it if I came into your work and starting screaming and crying for 3 hours, and maybe running around and jumping on your furniture?
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