Funny Quote

“When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.”  — Emo Philips

Wedding Bells!

Nope, not mine!

A while back I wrote about my friend, Tonya,  She called me the other night with the good news!  She’s engaged and plans to be married in June!

I’m so happy for her! 

Death of a Tomato

My sis called me earlier today.  The tomatoes we planted already died.    I was so sad to hear the news.  I couldn’t believe they didn’t last a week.

I went online to find out what might have gone wrong.  I concluded it was because of the way we added fertilizer to the soil.  I’m pretty sure the fertilizer touched the roots of the plants, which basically caused us to fry the roots of the plants.

The rest of the veggies are doing ok.  She said the jalepenos, eggplant, bell peppers and zucchini are looking good.  She’s going to get more tomato plants at the garden center later this weekend, so maybe we’ll still be able to add tomatoes to the harvest list this year.

Chicago, Daylight Savings Time, and Happy Birthday

I just celebrated another birthday.    It was a good one.  I went to Chicago for the weekend.  I didn’t bother taking any pics, so I have none to share.  You can knock yourself out with Chicago pics on Flickr, ‘tho.    I saw the funniest musical called, “Spelling Bee,” ate at a fancy, overrated restaurant called, “The Capital Grille,”  went to a few museums and missed my flight coming back to San Francisco.  Yes, I was one of those who screwed up due to daylight savings time.  Ironically, I remembered reminding myself to change the clocks on Friday and Saturday, but I woke up Sunday and didn’t even remember to do it.  Duuuh!!  Nevertheless, I blame Bush for this one.  What the heck is up with extending it, anyway?  The original purpose and intent for having daylight savings time no longer exists and it’s just one of those traditions that keep on keeping on without anyone stopping to question its purpose and relevancy as it applies to our current conditions and needs.  Ok, I digress.  I got a cool iPod shuffle. That thing is seriously cool.  It’s so tiny and cute.  I can’t wait to break it in on one of my runs.  Speaking of which, spring is just around the corner and I am so, so, SO looking forward to hiking, biking, sailing and all things outdoors!  I’m thinking about training for another run, too.  I probably won’t do another half marathon, ‘tho.  Those are too easy now.  ;) Ha ha…Just kidding!  I am thinking about a few 5K or 10Ks and then maybe, just maybe, the big FULL marathon later in the year.  The thought makes me anxious and nervous.  My eyes are set on Hawaii but I need to see if I’ve got it in me to commit to another training routine.  It takes so much discipline and time, both of which I have little or none of!   

Cheers, everyone!  Hope all is well!

Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello

Pics from the resort.

Pic of the boathouse at the resort.  You can see the dock for the boats and the entire lake is frozen over.  It was very strange to think that in a few months the body of water I walked across would be completely melted! 

Picture of the visitor building at Parc Omega.  All the antlers around the door was pretty impressive and the wood totem poles were cool too.

Grounds of the resort.  You can see one of the unusual branches on the tree in the center.  It looks like it created a circle.  It was very cool.

Pic of the resort shortly after twilight.  It had a very “winter wonderland” atmosphere to it.

Inside the entrance of the resort was this HUGE, four-sided fireplace.  It was pretty awesome.  We spent some time on the cozy couches playing cards and sipping hot chocolate.  Good times!

What winter vacation could be complete without a snow angel?

More Parc Omega Pics

Here are pics of the wild boar in the park.

These guys were actually fighting for the piece of meat that the one in front has in his mouth.  Here they are chasing him for it.

 

We watched the boars do this funny thing with their noses.  They wiggle it around in the snow and when they come up they look like this.  Voila – snow moustache!

Parc Omega

While I was up in Canada we took a drive through a wilderness park up there called Parc Omega.  It’s actually in the city of Montebello, which is about an hour away from Ottawa.  It’s one of those wildlife parks where you can drive your car through the park and feed the animals from your car.  There are some trails that you can stop at and walk along too.  We took a couple of those short hikes and it was totally worth it!  Deer walked right up to us and the scenery was just gorgeous!

It was really cool.  For any of you with kids or just looking for a fun experience, I suggest you check it out if you are in the area.

Here is a link of all the animals we saw in the park.

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Bison in the park.  They were less than 50 feet away!

I think this is called a “Wapiti”.  The pic is taken from inside the car!  They look so intimidating but they really were quite docile.

Two males “sparring” in the middle of the road we were driving on in the park.  I got some video clips of this too.  It was wild seeing them just yards away from the car!

One of the first animals we fed carrots to.  He stuck his head right into the window of the car!!  Needless to say, I learned my lesson – only crack the window open big enough to stick the carrot out of it!

A bunch of deer butts!  Ha ha. 

A pic of the wolves in the park.  These were the only animals (besides the bears) that are confined behind a fence.  This guy was really wanting to jump towards us – Yikes!  There was maybe 20 feet between us and a small valley between the wolf and the fence.  I wasn’t sure that was enough to keep this friendly-looking guy away from us!

These guys are called, ”Alpine Ibex”.  This guy walked right towards our car.  I could see him just eyeing our carrots! 

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!
“Gung Hay Fat Choy!”
“Nin Nin Fai Lok!” 

I hope you all went out and bought some chicken and oranges to eat.    And don’t forget those sticky sesame balls too!

Don’t forget to tuck a few dollars into some red envelopes and pass them out to people you see, especially to your elders and to children!

Did you set off some firecrackers too?  Be careful setting those things off and cover your ears when they do! 
 

Let’s say good-bye to the year of the Dog and welcome in the year of the Boar!

I hope you all have a great one full of joy, love, prosperity and many blessings!

O, Canada!

I’m off to Ottawa, Canada tomorrow evening for some much needed r&r.  Monday is a holiday for me, so I’m taking Friday and Tuesday off and getting my arse out of this crazy place!  Although, I guess you could reasonably argue that leaving relatively mild and nice weather here in Northern California to brave the airports and the crazy winter wonderland up north would officially make the actual traveller the crazy one, but either way, I don’t care!  Ha ha! 

I purposely chose to fly through Toronto on my way there instead of Chicago.  I’m done with layovers in Chicago after my horrible experience being stranded there a few years back (and that was in good weather, too!), and it looks like that was a good idea given the new storm that just hit them today.  I might be speaking too soon, ‘tho, since my return flight does go through Chicago.  I did my best to avoid Chicago on the way back, but all the other flight schedules just didn’t work me.     Let’s pray the weather calms down a bit while I’m travelling and that I’m not stranded anywhere along the way!

I’m going up there to see the famous “Winterlude Festival“.  Yeah, I guess it’s really not so famous because I had never heard of it either until my friend told me about it.  Ha! 

There’s the Rideau Canal Skateway where I’ll be lacing up some ice skates and where I will awkardly attempt to recall the lessons I took a few years back.  I’ll be hearing Moira Kelly’s voice going, “toe pick!”, each time I land hard on the ice – ouch!  (think “The Cutting Edge“)  The Rideau Canal is this long body of water that freezes over in the winter and you can literally ice skate for miles down it. 

Then there’s also Jacques-Cartier Park where a really big international snow sculpture competition takes place each year.  I was looking at some pics from last year’s and this year’s competition and I was super impressed!  See them here.  I missed the actual days to view the sculptors in action, but their work should still be on display while I’m there. 

I’ll also make my way up to the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello for a couple of days.  The name of the resort is enough to make you go “oo” and “aah” and “oo la la”!  Ha!  While I’m there, I’ll be trying my hand at dogsledding and snowshoeing, two things I’ve never done before.  I’m looking forward to that!

I also have reservations to dine at their fru-fru ”dining salon” (NOT restaurant, mind you, but dining salon!) which, from their website, says is housed in the world’s largest log cabin!  It sounds scrumptious and a bit pretentious, but who cares!     I’m looking forward to that too!  

I’m also looking forward to a spa treatment or two while I’m there.  Mmm!!

I’ll post some pics when I return!

Another Weird Dream

I had another weird dream the other night.

I was seriously trying to pee but couldn’t.  There wasn’t much imagery in this dream.  I don’t remember being in a bathroom or sitting on a toilet.  I just remember having the sensation that my bladder was full but I couldn’t pee no matter how hard I tried.

I looked up some symbols in an online dream dictionary for this dream and for the previous dream.  This is what I found:

Bathroom (from my previous dream here, as well as this post): 

To dream that you are in the bathroom, relates to your instinctual urges. You may be experiencing some burdens/feelings and need to “relieve yourself”.  Alternatively, it may symbolize purification and self-renewal. You need to cleanse yourself, both emotionally and psychologically.

Drown(ing) (from my previous dream here): 

To see someone drowning in your dream, suggests that you are becoming too deeply involved in something that is beyond your control. Alternatively, it represents a sense of loss in your own identity. You are unable to differentiate who you are anymore.

To dream that you rescue someone from drowning, indicates that you have successfully acknowledged certain emotions and characteristics that is symbolized by the drowning victim. 

CPR/Resuscitate (from my previous dream):

To dream that you resuscitate another, denotes that new friendships will be formed giving you much pleasure.

 Protect (from my previous dream)

To dream that you are being protected or need protection, indicates that you are feeling helpless in some situation. Life’s difficulties has made you dependable on others. You need to start taking charge of the situation.

Defend (from my previous dream)
 
To dream that you are defending yourself, suggests an underlying hurt. It may parallel a waking life situation where you are being put on the defensive.

* I couldn’t figure out from my last dream whether I was defending myself or protecting myself.  But both interpretations for “protect” and for “defend” do fit my current situation, ‘tho.  Gotta love dream interpretation, ‘tho!  It’s so subjective! 

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Basically all of these dreams and symbols I am seeing are fairly accurate.  I am having a spiritual awakening and renewal, with a lot of emotions, feelings, thoughts and changes that are trying to be expressed, but are not quite there yet.  I do think that who I thought I was has truly been lost and I don’t know who I really am anymore.  I do feel like I’ve accurately acknowledged and see some of these feelings and areas for improvement and changes that I need to make.  I’m slowly starting to take charge of my situation and taking the necessary steps to face the fear and to go after what it is that I truly want.  I’m learning all about who I am and who I want to become and perhaps new friendships are forming that are going to support this ‘new’ me.

I won’t go into details on how I came up with this interpretation(s).  You can read my posts and figure it out yourself!