I am Oblivious!

Ok,

Either I am completely oblivious and pay no attention to what is happening around me or my friends and family are very very good at keeping secrets! Now, I'm sure that they are very good at keeping secrets, but I'm even more sure that I am oblivious.

Why do you ask? Because I had no idea that they were planning a birthday party for me last friday night. I thought Jamie was having a candle party, and since she's come to a couple for me I was going to hers. My first clue should have been that the party was scheduled to start pretty late - 8:30pm. My second clue was that neither Jamie or Terry talked much about it before hand. The third clue was that Terry was entirely too excited about the party on Friday after work. She kept saying that she was so excited, and when I asked her why she said it was because she wanted to show everyone her new partylite bag. Yeah...I thought that was weird, but I made no connection to my birthday! Sneaky, sneaky people! Clue # 4 - Pierre came with us - they said to check out Jamie and Todd's new computer and then go shopping. Why I didn't question that since the malls close at 9pm I have no idea - again Oblivious!

Then we get to Jamie's and there are a bunch of people there already hanging out in the dining room. My first thought you ask? I'm afraid that the anal retentive side of me came out in full force - I only asked if we were late! For Pete's sake!

Well, Todd got a little video of me being surprised - if you ask nicely I might show it to you since he made a Tammy's Birthday DVD for me - there is an incredibly long video of us waiting for the sparklers on the cake to go out as well. Then we just hung out, had some cake etc.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to me! I've never had a surprise party before!

Thanks Jamie and Terry! And Everyone who could make it :)

Finally!

Finally I have something interesting to Blog about :)

I got the phone call about my possession date late week - actually my sister got the call since I was out shopping at the time!

I get the keys to the condo on Nov 23rd at 1pm - yay! I'll do the walk through on the 15th and they'll have the next week to fix up everything that needs to be fixed up.

The only problem with the move in date is that I go on holidays for a week starting the very next day! So I'll have to wait until I get back to move in - oh well! Terry and Pierre are going to keep an eye on the place for me - it's a good thing that they're only a 5 minute walk away.

Oh well - I'll have a good time in Orlando any way.

Now I just need to get all of the deliveries and hookups organized for the first few days that I'm back. That's a lot of phone calls!

I'll try to post a picture of the kitchen soon - they installed the cabinets last week. Unfortunately trying to get a good picture through very dirty windows isn't easy :)

Ice Cream and strange things that cars do

Oh the disappointment! I went to DQ at lunch today to buy a bunch of blizzards for people at work (since it's Miracle Treat Day), but once I got back to work I realized that they made me a Skor instead of a Kit Kat. Ick! So I didn't get to have my blizzard yet, I'll have to go back after work and exchange it for the right kind. Oh well, I guess it'll just be dessert tonight!

Now onto the strange things that cars do - it seems like whenever I use the emergency brake in my car for the next week or two it seems to think that the emergency brake is on even when it isn't. And yes I have checked to make sure I don't have it on! I'm pretty sure I'd notice that :)

I guess I'll just have to have that checked out the next time I take my car in.

Ok, that's it for now - I really don't have a very interesting life do I?

More House Pictures

So, I got to go on a walk through of the condo 2 weeks ago and I just finally got around to putting the pictures on Facebook. Check them out if you like!

Basically they had drywalled the entire place. I might see if I can go through again this coming weekend to see what else they've gotten done. I'm hoping that they have finished the taping and mudding (sp?) and are possibly painting by now. I know that's probably wishful thinking, but hey I've got to be positive right?

One thing that I know they have done is poured the garage floor - so I'm hoping that they poured the basement floor at the same time. When I did my walk through there were a couple of inches on water in the basement - not surprising considering the basement window wasn't in yet and we had gotten a fair bit of rain in the week before I did the walk through.

More to come as I continue the condo stalking! :)

Furniture!

I started writing this blog a while ago and never got around to posting it - I know I'm a terrible blogger! So anyway - here's what I was writing about :)

I am way to excited about buying furniture! My mom and I went shopping a few weekends ago (actually a month ago now) while my parents were in town and I ended up buying a couch, chair, ottoman, coffee table and end table for the condo from Leon's. The good news is that they will hold them until I move in- so that's more furniture that I don't have to move! So, I think that takes care of all the major furniture pieces that I need. I'll have a spare bed if anyone wants to come visit! Actually I'll have 2 since my parents are giving me the bunkbed set that they had in Fort Mac (single bed on top and a double on the bottom).

Now all I have to figure out is whether or not I want to paint a few feature walls before I move in!

Pedicures - the best way to relax...

Ok - I have discovered that I love pedicures! Terry and I went to Spasation on Saturday for a little pampering - pedicures and manicures! She got a gift certificate for Christmas and I used by KWB $'s from work to get myselft one as well. I was a little leary of getting a pedicure since I'm very very ticklish, but it was so great! You get a foot and leg massage, they put paraffin wax on your feet and wrap them up, get them looking all nice and pretty and paint your toenails...I think I may be addicted!

Then we got manicures as well - which also included a hand massage and paraffin wax. All in all it took almost 3 hours - but it was so nice! I'm not sure I could do what these women do, I don't think I'd like touching other peoples feet so much even if they do wear gloves!

Jamie told me that you can sign up for pedicures and manicures at Marvel college as well - and since it's students doing them it's not as expensive. I might have to have another "spa day" later this summer! Anyone care to join me?

Look at that Face!

Isn't he just too cute for words! I went to visit my parents last weekend and their new puppy is just about the cutest thing ever - his name is Gizmo and in the picture he is 2 1/2 months old.

He is absolutely tiny - maybe 8 inches long and 7 inches high, we don't think he even weighs 1 pound yet - he'll probably only be about 4 pounds when he's fully grown. He's scared of people when they're standing up - he's very aware of how small he is, but if you lay down on the floor look out! he feels the need to lick every square inch of your face - and he has a particular fondness for noses, especially licking all the way up them - ewww!

Of course the birds have picked up on all of the new noises in the house. Kara can bark, whine and cry just like him - trust me I heard her at about 6am on Saturday morning. And she loves to make squeaky toy noises as well. My parents had Poppy out of her cage one night and she left the dog alone until he fell asleep behind the couch, then she went up to check him out and must have scared him because he yiped and bolted right away. They don't think she bit him or anything, just startled him. Can you imagine waking up to see a bird who is pretty much the same size as you right in your face?

So, now I can hardly wait until my condo is finished - as soon as I have a fenced backyard with sod I'm getting a puppy! I'm not sure if I want one quite as small as Gizmo or not though. Also, I'm not sure how my cats would take it! Cleo would just run away, but Jewel gets cranky sometimes.

Anyway, check out my facebook account for more pictures of Gizmo if you like!

Tax Season is over!!

Ok, yes I realize that it's been over for 9 days now, but I haven't had time to blog about it yet. Our firm did over 1400 personal tax returns this year (up about 86 from last year). I'm not sure how many I did, but it wasn't over 100. That's the nice thing about having so many people in the office now - the work gets spread out over a lot of people.

I did manage to snag some prizes though! I had the highest percentage of "clean" files which means that when they were reviewed there were no questions or changes made to them. Yay me!

On the 30th we had out annual end of tax season party which was a lot of fun. The firm rented a limo bus to pick us up at the office and drive us to the Brewsters downtown. I think we got there around 6pm and I didn't leave until after midnight.

It was a little bittersweet though - one of my good friends here at work, Elaine moved to another company and her last day was the 30th. It's a good thing that I'll see her at restaurant club each month! And our receptionist of a few years had left earlier that month as well. It created a bit of chaos towards the end of tax season but we got through it.

Stars on Ice 2007

So, my mom, sister and I went to Stars on Ice again this year. It's pretty much an annual bonding event for us. I don't think I've missed one for the past 6 or 7 years! This years tour was called Double Exposure since they included lots of tidbits about the skaters day to day lives.

Let's see, who all was in the show you ask? Kurt Browning; Brian Orser; Jamie Sale & David Pelletier; Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon; Jeff Buttle; Joannie Rochette; Jennifer Robinson; Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman; Todd Eldredge; Special Gueses were: Miki Ando and Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo. I don't think I'm missing anyone!

This was Brian Orsers last tour - I almost cried when he skated his last solo! Now granted, I do cry easily but I wasn't the only teary one I'm sure. My mom was wondering who was going to do the backflips from now on!

I found out a couple of days after the show that Jamie Sale is pregnant (3 months I think is what the paper said) - which probably explains why they didn't do as many big tricks this year!

Let me know if you want to join us next year - the more the merrier!

OK - back to work I go....

House Update

I know, I know it's been almost a month - my only excuse was that I wanted to wait until I had pictures of the colours etc. that I picked out for the inside of the house. Oh, and a little something called tax season has kind of gotten in the way too. Oh well - only 2 more weeks of taxes to go!

So the picture shows the carpet, lino, countertops that I picked. The cupboard door shown isn't exactly what I picked - the one in the picture is oak, the one I picked is maple but the colour is the same (it's called Hazlenut - yum!). Let's see, what else - the roof has now been shingled and all of the windows are in. I'll probably take some more pictures after work today and I'll post them as soon as I can. I wanted to take some earlier this week, but I came down with the flu. Thank goodness I'm feeling better now!

What else is going on in my world...well Terry, Mom and I will be going to see Stars on Ice tomorrow night so I'll be sure and blog about that.

I've also been busy planning our end of tax season party - I decided on a rock and roll theme so I got all of the guys Blues Brothers sunglasses and ganster hats and the girls get black and silver feather boas! I think we're also going to make silver stars to put on everyone's office doors with their names written in them.

Anyway, that's all for now!

Potholes!

For anyone who lives in Edmonton right now you feel my pain! I cannot believe the number of potholes on the road! They say it would take 57 Million dollars to fix all the roads in the city.

Anyway, last week I went to meet some friends for supper and hit a huge pothole on 82nd Ave, when I got to the restaurant I looked at the front of my car to make sure nothing looked obviously wrong, but then I forgot about it. Then 2 days later at work a co-worker came into my office to tell me that my tire was completely flat - gah! Thank goodness he was nice enough to put the spare on for me! Have I mentioned that I have never changed a tire in my life? I almost made it to ** years of age without that knowledge too!

Then since it was a Saturday I couldn't get the tire fixed right away, I had to wake up early Sunday and get to Canadian Tire as soon as it opened. Then I walked to McDonalds to get breakfast while I waited and it turned out that their restaurant is being renovated so only the drive thru is open - and me without a car! I think it would be funny to walk through a drive thru but I'm just not brave enough to do it! So I walked to Tim Hortons instead - long story short there was a crack in the sidewall of the tire so I had to buy a new one.

Potholes!.....

I Bought a House!!

OK - technically, it's a townhouse condo (here is the first picture of it!!)- but I still bought it! I wanted to make sure everything was going to go through before I blogged about it so now I'll start from the beginning.

I've been looking at places online for a couple of months and recently I went to a show home right by my sisters place just to see the plans and the price. Then I decided to get a mortgage pre-approval so that I would know what I could afford. I ended up putting myself on the list of prospective buyers at this one condo townhouse development just so that I had the option of getting one of the units. Then the salesman called me last Monday to tell me that the deal on a unit with the exact floor plan that I wanted had fallen through and the unit was mine if I wanted it! I have never been more excited in my life! Then, the terror set in! I've been waiting since Thursday to see if I would get final mortgage approval, and it came through today!

My new place should be ready sometime in October of this year - Happy Birthday to Me! I will of course have a housewarming/birthday party/Halloween party? if the timing goes according to plan so keep some time open for a trip to Edmonton!

So, now some details...It's a 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhouse condo with a front attached 1 car garage. On the main floor there is a kitchen (with an island), dining room and living room (with fireplace) and a 1/2 bath. Then upstairs it is a 2 master bedroom concept with one room having walk in closets and an en suite and the other bedroom having 2 large closets. Then there is another bathroom and linen closet off the main hallway upstairs. It's also an end unit (the complex has 38 units in 6 sets of buildings that are either a 3-plex, 5-plex or 6-plex). I've put a link to the developers website so if you want to take a look at the floor plan go ahead! The plans also show the alternate main floor with a U shaped kitchen and the 3 bedroom upstairs.

So, given my obsessive tendencies I think we all know what I'll be driving myself crazy with over the next 7 months! Hmmm...now I get to pick out cabinets, carpet, lino, paint colours! Then comes the furniture! Oh my - it's a shoppers dream! This definitely makes up for my flat tire on Saturday (and subsequent purchase of a new tire on Sunday) - stupid pot holes - anyway that's another story which I should have blogged about yesterday, but now I'm too excited about the house!

OK - I think that's it, I'd better get to bed since I'm sure it will take me a while to fall asleep tonight!

Obsession

Well, I didn't think people would be that interested in my newest obsession! Sorry to disappoint you ladies, but it's not a boy. Actually, that's pretty disappointing me to as well! I'm afraid to say it's something much more mundane - but very very cute!

A few months ago my mom mentioned that she wanted to get another dog. Since then I've been faithfully looking online for a new Pomeranian friend for her and my Dad. By faithfully, I mean checking websites every other day if not every single day. Now you see why I call it my newest obsession! If I could, I'd be contacting the people with puppies for sale for her and arranging when she could pick it up! They are just so incredibly cute! As soon as I find an old picture of Prancer (my family's last Pom) I'll put add it to the blog. If you want to see some very cute puppies check out the "Meadowlark Pomeranians" link in my websites list!

I think the reason I'm so obsessed with the idea is that I would dearly love to have my own puppy, but that's going to have to wait until I have my own place and get settled etc.

Luckily, that day might not be too far off! This will be the topic of my next post so stay tuned....

Hmmm, I think I may have watched to many soap operas in my lifetime - I seem to like cliffhangers way to much! Oh well, fun for me and frustrating for you!

No more T4's!!!!

OK - I realize that this post is a few days late, but I did just set up the blog right?

Being in charge of getting all of our clients T4's done and filed with the CRA by Feb 28th isn't the most relaxing part of my job but it's done! It seems like it was a lot more stressful towards the end this year, I'm not entirely sure why though. It might have been because we had so many new staff this year, which meant a lot of errors on the T4's they prepared. Or maybe I'm just getting cranky in my old age? Oh well, either way it's over now so I can relax!

Now the fun of Personal Tax season can begin - actually we'll start preparing client tax returns tomorrow. I know that a lot of people think I'm very strange for liking to do tax returns, but honestly it's a nice break from the corporate work we do throughout the year. Some returns are pretty quick and easy, and even the more complicated ones aren't bad once you get organized. Although, I do find that if I don't get my tax return done in the first part of March it won't get done until the last week of April - hopefully the bank will send me the last couple of slips I need soon!

Anyway, enough boring tax stuff for now - I'll tell you all about my newest obsession in my next post...

My First Blog

OK - so this is actually the 2nd time I'm writing this post, I accidentally deleted the first one. What can I say, I don't really have a clue what I'm doing :)

I'm really really bad at keeping in contact with friends who are out of town so hopefully this blog will help solve that problem - at least you'll know what's going on in my world, although I'm not promising that you'll find it very interesting!

You'll notice from the name of my Blog and the one picture that I have posted so far that I really really like PT Cruisers. You might say I'm a bit obsessive about them. I know that everyone at work was very glad that I finally bought one a few years ago - then they didn't have to hear me talk about them anymore. I'm sure I'll be writing about other obsessions in later posts so don't be surprised if you see more!

Hmmm...I think that's it for now - I really better get back to work!