this is no toys 'r us...

In case you don't know, Bill loves warhammer...and every year his Christmas list has a few warhammer things on it (surprise, surprise!). I, being a loving wife, want to make him happy...so I buy something for his hobby every year. This is not a simple task...especially for someone like me, who doesn't know what they're really looking for. Yes, I have a list, but that doesn't really help...trust me! Whenever I walk into Games Workshop, I feel like I've just entered a foreign country where I don't know the language.

In case you are lucky, and have never had to enter this store, let me paint you a picture. Inside the store, there are models of great variety lining the walls...glass displays of painted models, and a couple of large playing tables. These tables are covered with "terrain", that is hills, walls, bunkers, trees, rocks...stuff like that...with lots of open space for opponents to place their precious models. Usually, standing around these tables, are two or more guys...rolling dice, measuring distances between models, and being very loud and talking in some strange language that I cannot understand ( I like to refer to it as "geek-speek"). They get so excited...I'm not sure why. Rolling dice to see if my guy can kill your guy, and measuring to see if he actually hit him...doesn't sound appealing to me, but you know, different strokes. Anyways, I never know where to look for the things on Bill's list. All the varieties look so similar to my un-trained eyes. This is one of the few stores where I actually enlist the help of an employee. I've given up actually looking around for an item on the list...I just go in, hand someone the list and ask if they have anything on it. It's sooooo much easier this way!

This year, Bill decided to try something different. Games Workshop online has a store where you can create a wish list and then send it to people. I guess he figured that it would save me from actually having to go into the scary store. I tried a few times to order from his list, but for some reason it wasn't working...and I was getting frustrated. When I told Bill about it, he suggested that I just print out the list and then go into the actual online store and do a search and order something that way. I tried. I suffered. I typed in an item, and it spit back a few dozen things that all sounded the same, and me being only about 2% warhammer geek, I couldn't figure out what it was that I needed! I was going to give up. I wanted to give up. Bill practically buys all the warhammer stuff he wants anyways...

I didn't give up. I took the list into the store. I suffered some more. (I'm sure you thing I'm exaggerating here, but you try it sometime and see!) Luckily there was a girl working there who said she could help me. (I was shocked to see a girl working there...she said that she's only one of about three girls working for games workshop in all of Canada) Anyways, I handed her my list and asked if they had any of that stuff in stock. Luckily, they had two models on the list, so I picked one and then got some paintbrushes to go with it...big sigh of relief...I did it, and Bill would be happy! (I hope he appreciates the sacrifices I make in order to even enter that store for him!)

Christmas morning...Bill opens his last gift...his box of toys. Even big kids need toys! There was a gamecube game, 2 computer games, and at the bottom, his warhammer model that I tried so long and hard to get for him. He opened it and got a strange look on his face...I could tell right away that he wasn't thrilled to see what I'd picked out...

me: "What's the matter? It was on your list..."

him: "It was??"

me: "Yeah, it was on the list."

him: "Are you sure?"

me: "I took your list into the store, and the girl gave that to me."

him: "She must've made a mistake, then."

me: "humpf...sorry...I have the receipt, you can just exchange it then."


I hope this is one of those times when "it's the thought that counts"...either that, or I tortured myself for nothing...

all in the family...

Christmas is a time for family.

One of the biggest challenges Bill and I faced when we were first married (and sometimes still do) is dividing holiday time between our families. No matter how much you like/love your in-laws, spending time with them at the holidays just isn't the same as being with your own family. Luckily for Bill and I, both of our families live close by us and each other. Only an hour separates us from "home" and there is only a 15 minute drive between the homes of our parents. How fortunate is that?! This year we will be with Bill's family Christmas Eve for the family dinner, then on to my parent's place for the night. Christmas Eve is my Mom's birthday so it's nice to be able to spend time with her on that day. Christmas day will be spent with my family. I guess we're extra lucky in that we each get along with both families. I know some people who can't stand their in-laws...or their own family for that matter.

We weren't always able to have this arrangement. For the first couple years that we were married, my parents lived in Calgary. This made it extra tough for me at Christmas...not seeing them all year, and then missing them so much at Christmas time. My in-laws were always welcoming to me, and I enjoyed spending time with them...it just wasn't the same. One year we were able to both fly out to Calgary for Christmas...that was great, at least for me. It was the first time Bill had been to Alberta and we had fun showing him some of the sites. I'm sure that even though I was ecstatic to be with my family that Christmas, it was tough for Bill since that was the first year he was without his family at Christmas.

Compromise. That's what it's all about. You want the person you love to be happy...so you do the best you can with the situation you have. I'm thankful that we will be able to spend time with both of our families again this year.


Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Holidays!

I leave work early today so expect blogging to be very light (i.e. non-existant) over the holidays until I'm back at work on Jan 3rd. In the meantime, hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Quick side story: My maternal Grandmother immigrated to Canada after World War II (she was a war bride) from Ireland. Every year she insisted on saying Happy Christmas instead of Merry Christmas. She complained that someone who was merry was someone who was drunk, so using "merry" and "Christmas" together was just plain sacreligious. We always got a kick out of that.

Miss you Grannie. Happy Christmas.

I Can See Clearly Now!

My computer is getting upgraded at work in the new year and part of that is getting a new LCD screen. A 19inch ViewSonic LCD that is just freaking beautiful. Egads. I had to lower my screen res from 1600x1200 though, but I'm used to the 1280x1040 I had to settle on.

I plan to upgrade the home computer next summer to something blazing with a nice LCD screen like this one. Almost can't wait. :)

Sudoku...

Sudoku...it's the latest puzzle craze.

My mother-in-law is into playing it and when we were visiting on the weekend, she gave me a puzzle to try. It looked like fun, and I was curious. Well, yesterday I worked at it a bit at a time but figured I'd have better luck at it once the kids were gone home and I wasn't distracted. Nope. Bill got home and I told him that I was having problems with the puzzle...it's hard! He didn't believe me...you see, Bill is 'king of the puzzles' and he can usually figure out anything. Not this one. We worked on it together for at least half an hour, then after dinner we worked on it again for about another hour. We just couldn't get it! It seemed like there were just too many possibilities. Around 7pm I finally gave up and went into the kitchen to clean up from dinner. Bill continued to work on it for another half hour...when from the kitchen I hear a frustrated groan and the mad crumpling of paper...he too, had given up in defeat.

Quiet Weekend

A mostly relaxing weekend just past. Saturday we were in Brockville so Kim could help her father shop for her mother, and I took care of miscellaneous chores like finally getting batteries for our watches and Kim's stocking stuffers. Sunday I watched the Kids while Kim and Erin spent the day in Ottawa terrorizing the shop keepers. Overall a nice relazing weekend compared to some of the craziness we have endured during past weekends.

Next weekend is Christmas (yay!) and I can't wait for this week to end and have a nice week long rest! And play with my new toys!!

blue, pink....purple

A friend of mine has a cute way of refering to tasks around the house. If it's more of a 'guy thing'...she refers to it as a "blue job", and a 'girl thing'...she say's it's a "pink job". Her boyfriend isn't very much into helping out around the house, so there are many more pink jobs than blue ones...and I think he gets off way too easy! (but that's besides the point)

If Bill and I were to use this system, we'd have to add a color...purple. I figure that you would get purple if you mixed the other colors together...and since Bill and I share the responsibility of most jobs, this would make the most sense. This isn't the 1950's anymore...it's not just the woman's responsibility to take care of the house...and lucky for me, I have a husband who also believes this to be true.

The biggest purple job in our house is cooking. Neither Bill or I really love to cook...or even really like to...it's more of a thing that just needs to be done. We take turns cooking...sometimes I think Bill does more of the cooking than I do. Really. It all started when Bill was laid off for a few months (a few years ago)...he would cook dinner so I didn't have to after I got home from work. I think I got used to being spoiled! Bill got enough experience in the kitchen that he felt more comfortable in there and was more likely to just start cooking dinner even after going back to work. Many guys would come home and ask, "honey, what's for dinner?" Not Bill. He often asks, "so, honey, what am I making for dinner tonight?" What a sweetheart. I think it's made us more appreciative when dinner is made by the other person...we're thankful for two things: one, we didn't have to cook ourselves and two, we got to eat something other than toast and cereal!

you want me to try what???

Heinz, Mr.Christie, Kelloggs, Green Giant, Kraft, Mc Cain's. Brand names...these I know...these I trust. Bill and I are fairly intelligent people, but when it comes to smart shopping...we fall short. The closest we come to shopping smart is making a list before we go to the grocery store, although we never buy just what's on the list. Probably the first mistake. The second mistake is that we don't comparison shop...we brand shop. We are very apprehensive (to say the least) about trying new things...especially new brands. No Name...No Way...that's our motto. Well, not completely I guess...there are a couple of store brand items we buy regularly...but even these were tried with trepidation. Maybe it's that we're just not very adventurous...or maybe we just don't want to waste our money on crap...either way, when it comes to our food, we figure 'better safe than sorry'. Contrary to what many people may believe, we don't think "no name" products taste the same...we can always tell the difference...and it's not a good difference.

Victory Bacon

Cruising around looking for articles to read about the Amazing Race finish and found this little column that tickled my funny bone.

Chef Piperdown's Amazing Menu - Canada vs the US

If a greasy breakfast is your thing, then why not try some peameal bacon. That’s what you would call Canadian bacon, although I believe the US Congress might have changed the name to Victory Bacon since Canada wasn’t part of the coalition of the gullible.

Classic!

And another thing...

Frig its cold in the mornings right now! Just about froze my fingers taking the garbage out in the garage and bagging it for the curb. Looking forward to some warmer weather even if it does bring some snow.

must be nice...

Last night I went for my massage and left Bill home to do his gift wrapping. He put on some 'inspirational' music to get him in the mood...go figure, it was the star wars soundtrack ;) Anyways, I was gone for about 1 hour and 15 minutes...when I got home he was completely finished! Oh, how nice it must be to be completely finished all the wrapping you need to do...in less than an hour! ...well, I guess he's not totally finished yet...he still needs to get stocking stuffers :p

the "huggy" cult...

If you're sitting there wondering what the heck "the huggy cult" is...it's my family, according to Bill. You see, I am part of a wonderful, loving, close-knit family...and we are an affectionate bunch. We always hug and sometimes kiss each other upon greeting and when saying our goodbyes. I'm used to it...it's how I grew up so it's what I've always known...and I like it.

Bill's family is also a wonderful, loving, close-knit bunch. They just aren't the most affectionate family. They're definitely not "huggy". The only ones in his family that seem to hug on a fairly regular basis are his mother (who wasn't always like that) and his grandparents on his father's side. Needless to say, Bill didn't grow up being used to hugging people all the time...and he doesn't like it.

Naturally, this causes tension for Bill when we get together to visit my extended family, like we did this past weekend. It seems that when it's just my sister and mom looking for a hug it's uncomfortable but not unbearable for him. But when it comes to many aunts, cousins and grandmas...it is most definitely close to unbearable...especially when it comes to a select few. There is another member of my family, an aunt who married into the family, who is also not a "huggy" person. She's been in the family for so long that she's gotten used to us but still isn't all that comfortable with all the 'touchy feely' stuff...(although her husband and kids are). I wonder if Bill will ever get to that place???

We're not a cult...Bill was just joking about that yesterday with our friend Keri (who is also not a hugger). I think it's hard for each of us to see the other person's point of view on this. I talked to my mom about it and tried to explain how uncomfortable it makes Bill...and that maybe she cannot press for a hug too often. It's not that he doesn't like our family, hugging just isn't his way...we may come from a huggy family, but he does not. I keep hoping that he will grow accustomed to it, but he hasn't seemed to in 11 1/2 years...so maybe I'm just hoping and dreaming. At the same time, Bill doesn't understand why my family is so insistent on hugging him. It's because they love him and accept him as a part of our family...and that's what our family does.

"I Hate Mondays"

"I hate mondays..." - Garfield the cat after a piano drops on him from the sky in the middle of an open and empty field.

Saturday we travelled to Belleville for Kim's extended family dinner. We stayed late and didn't get into bed until almost 1am. I didn't sleep to well in the double size hotel room bed and woke up feeling really out of it all day.

Oh well I thought, I'll go to bed at 10 tonight and wake up refreshed on Monday morning. Heh, fat chance. Global in their infinite wisdom delayed the start of the Survivor finale until about 8:30, meaning we didn't know who won until 10:30. We didn't get lights out until after 11pm. So, once again, I'm tired on Monday morning. Gah.

Anyway, Danni won over my horse in the race, Steph, and I can't say I'm disappointed. It was a pretty good season this time around and I'm looking forward to next Jan-Feb when the next one starts.

Now for a nap...

Quiz on the Issues

Over at Calgary Grit I found a link to a neat CBC quiz that let's you agree or disagree (or abstain) on the issues of each party leader without knowing which leader is which. Really cool for evaluating at a glance where I stand in terms of the parties.

I agreed with Stephen Harper on 11 issues, Jack Layton on 8, Gilles Duceppe on 6, and Paul Martin on 5.

Well then. Go CPC!

I'm hoping Kim and Andrew take the quiz too.

peace of mind...

After the little scare Rexy (our panther gecko) gave us last week, Bill wanted to take in Hunter and Willow (our 2 leopard geckos) for a check-up. I didn't think it was necessary since they were fine, but I humored Bill. Turns out that the vet (reptile specialist) thought they were two of the finest specimens he'd seen in a long time. (woohoo!) Here is my take on the events...

Time spent traveling to the vet - 1 hour (one way)

Time spent in the waiting room - 10 minutes

Time for two gecko examinations - 1/2 an hour

Cost of visit - $116.00

Bill having peace of mind - Priceless

Car is Ready For Winter

Kim and I split many responsibilities so that we are more efficient. She takes care of laundry, I mow the grass in the summer and shovel the driveway in the winter. She handles vacuuming, I take care of the financial books. She does the majority of the wrapping, I take care of the car.

This week the car had its overhaul to prepare it for winter. New brakes, new sparkplugs, new snow tires, and more. This year, we're ready for anything all at the cool price of a grand and a half. Ouch. Of course, the car was badly overdue for a tuneup and the brakes were close to metal on metal so its no surprise the cost was high. Afterall, in the 5 years we've owned the Corolla we've only had major repairs done once on the fuel injectors and the rest has been good. So I figure we're ahead of the game.

Maybe next year we can get a new car!

wrap, wrap, wrap...

I too am happy to be finished with our Christmas shopping. Of course, shopping is the easy part for me...the wrapping is the real chore. I've been getting a little done here and there, over the past couple of weeks, but yesterday was major wrap time for me...I spent somewhere between 2 and 3 hours at it.

Lucky for me, Bill offered to give me some help after he got home. Of course, I believe that was one of the offers he makes, trying to make himself look good, while hoping I'll say "no thanks". After he offered, he was like, "are you sure? I don't do a very good job..." SEE, definitely trying to get me to say no!!! It's not that he's not a good wrapper...he just doesn't like it! Bill's not one for adding trimmings, but that's no big deal to me...I like the gifts to look kinda fancy sometimes, but I will sacrifice that for some help. My neck was getting quite sore, so I was soooooooo grateful when he offered to help, I jumped for it! In all the years we've been together, that was the first time that we'd ever done wrapping together. Every year, Bill wraps the gifts that he buys for me and the rest is up to me...I don't know who made it that way, it's just one of those things that I take responsibility for...like doing the laundry.

Anyways, it was funny that after wrapping about only 3 things, he was acting like it was sooooo much work! I gave him a couple more to wrap and you would've thought that he'd been out working all morning instead of playing...too funny. Poor guy...now he has to wrap my things (no wonder he tries to fit as many gifts into one box as possible!) ;)

Weekend Review

We are officially completed major Christmas shopping for 2005! Woo hoo!

It took all of Saturday, but we did it. Crossed the names off the list as we visited the stores one after another. Bam bam bam. Stuck to the mission statement like white on rice.

Sunday, we put up the Christmas decorations and I even helped Kim with the wrapping a bit. I hate wrapping. Usually I make her do it all, but this year I felt guilty and decided to try and do a decent enough job to help. No ribbons or strings though. She can handle that aspect of it.

Putting up the artifical tree takes a surprisingly long time. Kim likes it decorated to the hilt and I'm always wilting by the time we get to the ornaments. "Can't we just put on a few and call it quits?" I ask in desperation. "NO!" is the emphathetic reply. I have to admit, though, the final result is almost worth the effort.

Worry

Wednesday evening I was checking out Rexy the Panther Gecko and noticed her throat was lumpy and swollen. Worried that the poor thing was sick, we made an appointment with the only decent lizard vet in Eastern Ontario and this morning I drove her out to Orleans.

"It could be just hormones," he said, adding that she was developing some eggs at the moment. "Or she may need some more heat." So we're to keep an eye on here and see how she fares once the eggs pass. So we are in watch and wait mode. If her swelling increases we may have to do a $300 procedure to have a biopsy done.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

the 'not-so-hidden' white bag...

Last night I went down to the laundry room/Bill's workshop to do a load of laundry. Actually, I went down to find a box to wrap a gift in, but got side-tracked once I saw the pile of clothes on the floor that I had meant to wash earlier. Anyways, as I walked into the room I couldn't help but notice this white 'La Senza' bag on the bottom shelf of the workbench...sitting in plain site. Obviously this was a Christmas gift for me from my honey. If I was a snooper, I would've taken a peek into that bag...but I hate knowing what I'm getting for Christmas until Christmas...so much so, that every year I get Bill to tell me where he has my gifts hidden, so I don't come across them by mistake. Now, since I hate having surprises ruined, I was a little disappointed to see that bag sitting there, taunting me. I contemplated not letting him know that I saw it, but he came home, came downstairs, and after a minute saw the bag. I saw the panic in his face and then told him, "it's ok, I didn't see that white bag under there." Doh!

I had to laugh. This happens every year, depite my trying to avoid it. I don't usually see the actual gift, only a bag or two...so I don't know what exactly I'm getting, I just know the stores he's shopping in. (lucky for me, they're good ones!) When I wrap his gifts I try to be so stealthy...ripping up tags and hiding them under other stuff to put in the garbage...hiding the empty bags in some deep, dark corner of a closet until after Christmas...
I know...next year I'll have to give him a bin to put stuff in!