Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Where did July go?

A few tidbits for your reading enjoyment:

We did have a lovely weekend in Montreal the weekend before last. We deliberately went with very little planned or on the "must see" list, we mostly just wanted to wander and be "somewhere other than here" for a couple of days. Not that there's anything wrong with "here," of course, but there are too many interesting places out there not to try and explore them all! We did do a couple of tourist-y things, including visit the Biodome and wander the old port. We also took a drive up the mountain for the obligatory photo op. And the nicest part was that we had some of the nicest weather we've had all summer -- very little rain, lots of sun and warm (without being too hot!) temperatures. There are some photos here.

The trip also gave me a chance to play with my birthday gift from Serdic (yes, a month early, but yay for birthday gifts) -- a new lens for my camera (which, you may recall, he gave me last year for my birthday ... I sense a theme). This lens has a much better zoom and is just in general that much sharper and more powerful. I love it, but I continue to be intimidated by this camera in general. I know I can get so much more out of it than I am currently managing. I am hoping to get some practice in over the summer and early fall so that I can take the best pictures on our honeymoon. I'd love to take a photography course at some point, but for obvious reasons that's not going to happen this fall!

Wedding planning continues. I've had a couple of fittings for my dress now, and I am happy to report that it is as beautiful as ever (perhaps even more so now that it actually, you know, fits me!). Both my and Serdic's wedding rings have arrived and are safely tucked away. I am hoping to get the invitations in the mail sometime next week, which will be a big job. I of course had to choose the ones that are "some assembly required," which makes it a little more daunting. Fortunately I have lots of lovely friends who have offered to help me with that task. The pre-wedding festivities are starting, too, with a shower scheduled for next weekend and another for two weeks after that. We are very blessed to have so many people who want to wish us well and be part of this happy time, so I am really looking forward to sharing the next little while with them.

I continue to love my car more than I have ever loved an inanimate object. And the 20 minute commute doesn't hurt, either.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Zoom zoom

So it's been just over a week since we picked up my new baby. I have to say I am absolutely delighted with her. She's a sweet, zippy little car, and a lot of fun. And I have shaved 30-40 minutes off my commute (for a total of over an hour each day), which means more time at home in the evenings and a lot less stress -- just not having to stand on a street corner downtown in the rain and exhaust fumes and crowds and noise for up to 20 minutes at a time, twice a day, is doing wonders for my mental health. It's taking me a little while to adjust my thinking, though -- I still find I tend to try to work out the logistics of stopping to run errands on the way home, or panicking when the clock hits that magic time when I have to leave or risk missing the bus, and I'm still in the middle of something. My brain still runs on bus schedule time a little bit, but I'm sure that will change soon enough.

So I'm zipping around the city in my shiny new car quite a lot these days. Keeping busy, as usual. It's been a nice mix lately of wedding related stuff, time with friends, and the usual day to day errands. Wedding planning continues to occupy most of my thoughts, if not my free time. I'm having a mild panic attack about being nearly three months from the big day (Serdic spent most of Saturday reminding me we have FIFTEEN WEEKS), but honestly it's for the most part under control. The big stuff is all in place, and now we need to buckle down on the smaller details.

And now I have something else to look forward to -- a spur of the moment road trip to Montreal this weekend. Toyota sent me an email survey last week and because I wanted to sing the praises of Hawkesbury Toyota, the dealership where I bought the car, I went ahead and filled it out. And at the end there was this "hey, here's a discount code for 20% off any Delta hotel in Canada!" message. We had been talking about getting out of the city for a couple of nights for awhile, and we recently had to admit that a more major trip we were tossing around for the August long weekend was not going to happen for a variety of reasons, so this is a little treat for ourselves. We got a good deal on a luxury hotel right down in the old part of the city and we're going away for a couple of days of R&R. Can't wait!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Happy Canada Day to all!

A little update on the car buying saga. I mentioned in my previous post that we got a really bad feeling from the first dealership we visited, and they didn't make it better by calling us five times in the last six days -- they never got ahold of me, so I just had a lot of messages on my machine (home and work!) full of really insincere "Just wanted to say hi" nonsense. I suppose I could have called the saleswoman back and put an end to it all, but, frankly, I've had more important things to do and I didn't feel like putting myself out. Also, I had told her we would make a decision "the end of next week" so I resented her being so pushy when I had given her a date when I would call her. But eventually she got ahold of me yesterday afternoon, and I thanked her for her time but said that we had decided to go in a different direction. She berated me for not trying to negotiate with her, and then hung up on me as I was in mid-sentence. So, you know, no second thoughts about going with the dealership we went with.

And on that note, I was approved for the financing, the car is here, and we're picking it up after work on Friday. So, so, so excited.