Video: Grandma Thwarts Car Theft

My boss sent me this video this morning. I got such a good laugh, I just have to post it here!


ST JOHN EYE – Grandma’s car - Seniorplanet

Bad Credit and Other Scary Stuff On Halloween

As I just mentioned in my last post, today is Halloween. I can't wait to take my Boston Terrier Stella Bella out there to see her reaction to all the scary ghosts and goblins!

Another scary thing going on this halloween is the crazy housing and mortgage market going on in the States right now! There is a lot of debt and bad credit loans swirling around out there! Luckily there is a new consumer resource out there that is helping consumers in (or not in trouble) that is helping people review and compare multiple credit offers for things like home loans.

Diet Day 10: Happy Halloween!

It is Halloween and for the first year of my existence I am doing pretty much nothing to celebrate it. And it is not the fault of the diet, Halloween just snuck up on me this year. Really, it just seemed to come out of nowhere! When did I get so old and boring?

I don't even have a costume for poor Stella Bella. Maybe I should stop on my way home and get one for her so that I can take her for a walk while all of the kids are out trick or treating. It is her first Halloween, afterall and she should get to be part of the fun! Regardless of whether I get the costume, I will definitely take her out to see what, if any, reaction she has to all of the little goblins and ghould running around.

My meeting went to late last night to catch all but the last two weigh-ins on Biggest Loser. If anyone knows how much weight the whiney girl from the red team who is now excersizing with the black team lost, please fill me in.

Oh and if you are wondering how badly I ended up cheating on my diet last night at dinner, I didn't. In fact, I did not end up eating dinner at all, which is also not good for the stupid diet. The whole premise of it is that I am supposed to be eating the proper things at the proper time. Ahh well, today is another day. A day filled with Apple sauce mixed in with cottage cheese and peaches. How wierd does that lunch sound?

Florida Vacation Plans

So as anyone who has ever read about two of my blog entries knows, I am anxiously awaiting my holiday in Florida this February. I have never been and I am just soooo excited! With all luck, I am going to make it a road trip and the boyfriend and I can bring Stella Bella, our Boston terrier princess with us. The poor kitty, however, will have to stay with my mother and her two weirdo cats, but it is her own fault for hating roadtrips!

Anyway, despite the fact that I am anxiously anticipating my impending holiday, I am totally bummed to find out that I am going in the wrong month! Apparently, the time to be going to Florida is NOW! See the last Saturdays of both October and November are very special in Florida, specifically in St. Augustine, Florida. Especially if you are into antiquing at all. St. Marco Avenue, which is the antique district there, goes crazy celebrating these Events in St. Augustine. There are workshops and sales and parties and, my personal passion, books and author signings. I go crazy for that sort of thing!
I would consider changing my Florida vacationing plans but the thing is that the point of our vacation is supposed to be to visit Mark’s parents and, well, Mark’s parents aren’t even in Florida yet. They are still here in Toronto so I suppose that would make our change of vacation plans a little difficult to explain!

Day 9 Update: ARGGGGHHHH!

Well, so much for my good diet day! One of the administrative girls here at work has not one, not two, but three...THREE bowls of Halloween treats at her desk. They have been here all week really but I was not even a little tempted until this afternoon when she dumped my favourite, super hard to find, molasses candies in there....grrr. Still, I have not strayed so far.



Oh, remember me mentioning that I have a client to meet tonight? Well she wants to meet over dinner. Now I am allowed one cheat per week but, after that whole nachos, cheese and beer fiasco at the Argo's game, I was not planning to use it this week.



Obviously, I will meet my client where she wants and I will simply have to do my best not to stray too far off the dieting track.

Online Poker Games, More Fun for Beginners?

With the new diet finally starting to seem manageable, I am thinking I have a few minutes to concentrate on something else. Has anyone reading this ever participated in online gambling? I know I have mentioned tryinf it out before but I just haven't had the time yet.

About two or three times per year, I find myself in a casino. In fact The last one I was at, the casino in Windsor, I won like $60!!! Woohoo!!!! That is a big amount for me because I seem to be the type a person who, given the opportunity, will lose anything but weight (and yet I am still plugging away at the diet). Still, I like the atmosphere of casinos and I like to play slots and roulette but the card tables are too imposing for me. I like poker and blackjack but I am too nervous to sit down among all these players that obviously know the game so much better than me. I bet that a lot of people turn to online casinos for that reason. There is something fun about keeping a certain level of anonymity, I suppose. I think I would be more likely to try online poker than to sit down with a bunch of hotshots in an actual casino.

Diet Day 9 - A good day!

Okay, with the exception of me spending most of my evening yesterday in varying degrees of semi-hungryness, the diet is going good and today so far has been pretty much uneventful. This, I believe is a good sign. Also, I think my wrist is finally going back to normal after my first squash lesson on Sunday. My boyfriend, however, is finally feeling the full effects of his overzealous playday. He is very stiff and grumpy. Of course my inane advice to "just drink more water" is probably not helping to brighten his mood any!

Stella, poor baby, is almost as miserable as the boyfriend. Her ear infection came back on Sunday so she is now on meds again. What is with this dog? This ear infection simply won't stay away! She tries very hard not to scratch her ear when we around so she just keeps wobbling her head back and forth as if she is trying to shake water out. From the looks the cat has been giving her, I can tell my Nellie cat thinks Stella is well on her way to going mental.

The Biggest Loser is on tonight and I am hoping to watch at least a part of it but I have a meeting with a client and I have no idea how long it will run so I am not going to hold my breath. I am sure someone can fill me in!

Wish me luck on having a completely uneventful rest of the day!

Diet Day 8 - That's Right, I am skipping right over days 5,6 &7

Okay. I won't actually skip the last 3 days, I will give a brief synopsis: We actually pretty close to on track (with the exception of the wedding dinner and wine) on day 5, but Saturday was awful!!!! We went to an Argo's game and ate (gasp) nachos AND fries with cheese. Mark the meat eater ate a hot dog too. Oh yeah, I also drank three beer. I was pressured. That is my excuse. That and the Argos kicked ass!!!! Sunday, day 7 we were very active. We played basketball for a couple of hours and then we had an impromptu squash lesson. But we skipped our morning and evening snacks because we weren't really home to have them. Plus I felt too full to eat my whole lunch so we did not do so great there.

So today is day 8 and we are back on track. Plus I reorganized and made some allowed substitutions (for example, melon instead of strawberries) so our grocery bill was much more reasonable this week. Another plus is that Mark did the grocery shopping all by himself which is a first in our relationship. That was awesome!

We also went out and bought a scale. After much procrastination, I even got on the scale. Twice. The second time I opened my eyes and looked at the numbers. I did not like what I saw....no more nachos and cheese for me!

Holiday Shopping Online

So the Canadian dollar is expected to reach a record breaking high against the American dollar. Sucks for us really, but on the plus side, I am well prepared to do most of my Christmas shopping online and in American dollars (Thank you Paypal account!!!). For additional savings, I will of course be using CouponChief.com for my online shopping

On our last trip to Buffalo, my mom saw a beautiful black dress with a crystal clasp at Macy's. For some unknown reason she did not buy it and has been reminiscing about it ever since.

My brother wants PlayStation 2 games, and a Nintendo Wii. Hmm, which of those two requests do you think will most likely be fulfilled by me? Maybe I should skip both those items on his list and just get him underwear and socks! Every ten year old wants underwear and socks, right? ;)

Actually, I have been looking at overstock.com lately. I might be able to pick up a few stray items for friends there. They have some cool stuff at seemingly reasonable prices.

Decisions, Decisions. With only a couple of months left, I better start my online shopping now. Which of course means my family, with the exception of my brother, whom has given me about 12 revised copies, had better get a move on and send me their wishlists!

Diet Day Four - Everything Gone Wrong.

Well last night did not go so well. I have to go to night class tonight right after work so that means that, not only did I have to make dinner, I had to prepare morning snack, lunch, dinner and evening snack so I could take it all with me today. I also had to prep all of the vegetables for Mark to make breakfast in the morning.

Dinner, a mushroom-barley casserole thing that ended up being soup was amazing. Diet or not, I would definitely eat that again (and again, and possibly even again). The recipe called for too much water, though (hence the soup) and ended up taking over an hour to make. That totally threw off our schedule so I was too hungry for it to fill me up by the time I finally ate.

Everything for today took forever to prepare and Mark could not help since our toilet went kaputz. He spent the entire night runnning back and forth to Canadian Tire and fixing the toilet. We were both so frustrated and tired by the end of the night. I was still cutting cheese at 10pm!

After such an exausting night, we had trouble getting up this morning and breakfast, even though I had chopped all of the cheese an vegetables in advance took a long time to cook. We had such a high vegetable-to-eggwhite ratio in our scrambled eggs that I decided it simply could not be right. And it wasn't. We have been purchasing the eggwhites in a carton and Mark had just assumed that 1tablespoon = one eggwhite, when in actuality, it is two tablepoons. Mark ended up being way late for work.

Obviously we are still working out the kinks in our diet.

Tomorrow is my cousin's wedding and, thank goodness we are allowed on one cheat meal per week because we will definitely need to temproarily abandon the diet at her reception. We plan to stick to it for the rest of the meals, though.

Hopefully we will be able to make everything run a lot more smoothly after this first week.

Diet Day Three: Big Screw Up and Biggest Loser (not me)

Okay, big screw up on my part today. Today's breakfast called for 1 cup bran cereal, 1 cup milk, .75 tsp of olive oil (yes, in the cereal), and 2 0z of cheese (not in the cereal). Well typically I buy 2%, lactose free milk and on Friday of last week, I had to send Mark to the store to get some milk for my mac and cheese casserole. He bought way too much and I did not want to throw it all out so I decided we would simply have to substitute the 2% for the 1% called for in the recipe and omit the oil, hoping everything would work out in the wash.


Except I was so tired this morning that I forgot to omit the oil (it was actually very good in the cereal, that was a surprise) AND Mark did not buy 2%, he bought whole milk and I did not notice as I poured. Mark told me about two - thirds through the meal that we were eating whole.


"So you're telling me that we are eating fatty milk AND oil in our cereal like losers?" I asked. "Yep" was his answer. Disgusted, I fished the rest of my cereal out of the bowl and dumped the rest of the milk.


So that was my first screw up on this diet.



Oh, new topic, The Biggest Loser was on last night and the coniving blue team threw the weigh in, which really bugs me. To purposely gain weight is so counterproductive to the reasons for being on the show, I hope they do not get away with it. Also, the girl on the red team that I can't stand switched trainers last night, like it is all her trainer's fault that she only loses about two pounds per week, and she did not lose ANYTHING! Talk about egg on your face! Any way, unless you watch the show religioulsy as I do (and possibly even then) this all sounds like nonsense. It is such a good show, though, and becuase it is the only one that fits with my night class schedule, it is the only one I have been able to watch this season.

Diet Day Two

Well, yesterday was the first day of my diet. While food preparation is a lot of work, I am actually enjoying it so far. See the food is pretty much the food I eat anyway with the exception that it is put in the proper proportion of protein/carbs/fat, so it is not a huge adjustment for me. My boyfriend on the other hand, is having difficulty.

I am a vegetarian and he is not but since he is following my diet (with multiplied proportions), he is now inadvertantly following the vegetarian ways. He did not think it would be that big of a deal because he always eats the vegetarian meals that I cook for him but whenever we go out or for food or whenever I am not around he eats meat. I have been telling him, and until now he has not believed that that adds up to a lot of meat.

Another reason he is having difficulty adjusting is that he typically had very unhealthy eating habits (so not fair since he is the fit one). He tends to go the whole day barely eating anything and then stuffing himself silly at dinner. On this diet, he is being forced to eat balanced meals starting with breakfast.

Now I will reveal the true reason I am enjoying this diet so much. Before we got the book and the shopping lists, my boyfriend did not help with the preparation of meals and his idea of helping with the grocery shopping consisted of him complaining about how much I spent while carrying the bags from the car. Now that we are on the diet together, we are shopping, preparing meals, and tidying up together. How awesome is that? Afterall, I work full time, run two businesses, and attend night school, not to mention the responsibility of my Stella, the world's cutest dog. It can sometimes be a bit overwhelming.

So day two conclusion: so good so far.

New Week, New Diet

Well, I have mentioned in more than a few posts that I plan to get healthier (and thinner). A few weeks ago, I decided to cut down on my whining a little bit and take some action. After much (well, some) research I signed up for a diet with a company called JoyZone. I waited a few weeks for my meal book thing to come back to me and on Friday, it arrived. Woohoo!

So, after a weekend of eating things like homemade mac & cheese casserole, Bits & Bites, a Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar, and potato rostie with sour cream from Marchellino's (I know, I know, all very counter productive to my impending weight loss success), I have started my week with this diet. I have a few complaints about it (like a $300 grocery bill for ONE WEEK's worth of groceries!!!!) but I will hold my tongue on most of those little issues for now because it seems to be going pretty well.

I will keep you all posted!

From Florida to India, My Aspirations are High

As my boyfriend’s parents start to prepare for their extended holiday in Florida, I am starting to look forward to visiting them this winter. I have never been to Florida and I am really looking forward to it, although I am trying not to get too excited.

I once had the opportunity to spend my holidays in India but the plans fell through just before my friend and I booked our flights to India. I was crushed, so even though Florida is not India and my world would not end if I did not make it out there this year, I still try very hard not to get too worked up about holidays before they happen. If you are reading this, Di, I am still bitter! J

DialAFlight offers some very Cheap flights to India, including Delhi flights, Goa flights, and Bombay flights. Maybe, a few vacations from now, I will be able to finally make my dream flight to India!

Jay Z's 99 Problems

Okay, this one is getting posted specifically for my good friend Bryan, my favourite Chuck Norris fanatic....or at least Chuck Norris Humour Fanatic!

I found it here: http://www.sheriff.oxyuk.net/99problems/. Go Check it out!

oh, now Bryan, this little chart does not neccessitate another flood of Chuck Norris jokes to my inbox....oh alright, cutie pie go ahead! And then I will email you ten pics of my dog.

Property Taxes, Mortgages, and Other Interesting Stuff

So the elections are over and we are all now waiting to see what is going to happen with the whole property tax issue here in Toronto. I am hearing that our property tax could be doubled and I would be lyin' if I did not say that that concerns me. In fact, saying that I am concerned would be a slight understatement. The boyfriend and I have not even owned our condo for a year yet. That means that we are still in that awkward flat-broke stage that many young couples are in the first year into their mortages. To put it simply, I would not be cool with a ginormous property tax bill right now. I am still trying to figure out my mortgage!



Actually, I think that there is so much info out there about mortgages, and even remortgages. A website, http://www.ukpersonalloanstore.co.uk/, can give a lot of info about mortgages UK, if you are looking.

Final Weekend at Farmers Markets

I am so glad it is Friday and I am feeling much better than yesterday!

As usual, I have a bunch of stuff to do this weekend and am going to be crazy busy BUT it is the last day of both of the farmers markets I am in. I am relieved at the thought of a temporary break but at the same time, I am sad. I met so many cool people, not only customers but vendors and, of course, dogs as well. Ah well, I am sure I will see everyone, if not over the winter than at least next summer.

SO....angry.....ARGH!

Why is it that when everything takes off professionally, things seem to go to shit in your personal life? Or is this just a ridiculous phenomenom that only I experience. I don't mean to make my blog a personal sounding bored or avenue to vent about the screwiness of the people I deal with on a daily basis, I am simply in the need to yell "GRRRRRR" at the top of my lungs and, seeing as I am at the office right now, that may not be the best of ideas. Instead I will write"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!" right here.

Oooh that does feel better! Thanks, tiny but loyal reader base! You have been a huge help....unless you are one of the morons I am grrr-ing abou, but I am sure we both know that that is not the case.

Holiday Shopping Mode Begins Soon

Okay! As soon as my night classes are over, I am going into holiday shopping mode. The moment I have been waiting for all year is finally arriving! It is almost time to put my Coupon Codes into action - yay me!

Of course I am not going to let on exactly what I am buying my friends and family, on the off chance that they ever decide to read up on my blogging, but I can divulge where I plan to use my coupon codes to shop!

I am thinking Macy's for my mum. We were just over the border on a spending spree a couple of weeks ago and I believe that my mother now consider's Macy's to be the be all and end all of all shopping spots.

Also on the list is Sharper Image for the Boyfriend. I have no doubt that I will find what I am looking for there.

Of course for me, I think I will peruse Cooking.com....what? Like you don't buy yourself gifts?

I am not completely sure what I am getting Stella yet. I am still thinking on her gift; it has to be very special for my doggy's first Christmas.

Stop and Smell the Flowers

I know, I know, you don't have to tell me. I have been very remiss in by blogging duties. I am sure both of my readers are wondering what happened to me. Well, unfortunately nothing exciting has happened. I was not kidnapped by gypsies or whisked off to a romantic getaway by a beautiful movie star that I met by chance at Starbucks. The truth is that a couple of my night classes are coming to an end, so I have a lot of stuff due, and I have started to pick up business at Temple Treats. In fact, this time next week, I am going to make announcements on my company blog about exciting (for me, anyway and some of my customers) new developments with Temple Treats.

Stella is happy and healthy. I think she is loving the cooler weather that we have been having. She was sniffing the air like crazy last night. There are still flowers around for her to smell, which is nice. Stella has the odd and cute habit of stopping to smell flowers. Whenever she sees one, she runs over, stuffs her face into the flowers and starts snoting away. She even jumps into flower beds and, instead of digging, simply snorts and sniffs all of the flowers. I wonder if this is a habit unique to her or if there are any other flower sniffing dogs out there. Regardless, I will have to follow in the footsteps of my dog and take some time to stop and smell the flowers (as soon as my classes are over, of course).

Student Loans

I wish I had heard of the concept of student loan consolidation when I was a student. I was so worried about my debt, I worked my butt off at part time jobs and campus jobs. It did not even occur to me to look for a private loan. It was very difficult for me to work so hard and attend college at the same time.

If I was going to give advice to anyone considering becoming a student, I would say to start making decisions about how to pay for the education at the same time, if not before, you have started looking at colleges.

There are a lot of options when it comes to student loans for those of us who can not have parental financial support.

Crazy Cousin Hates House Pets

Something has just dawned on me; I may have to leave Stella at home this Thanksgiving Monday! The boyfriend and I are going to my cousin's house for dinner and she hates dogs! How on earth anyone can hate a cutie pie dog, Idon't know but she definitely does. She hates cats, too. She pretends she is allergic to dogs and cats but we all know she is not telling the truth. She simply has some weird mental disorder that causes her to intensely dislike adorable furry creatures.

So my poor Stella may have to stay home with the cat on Monday. The cat, Nellie, has been a lot easier on her this week becuase Stella has been looking pretty pathetic whilst recovering fromher surgery so maybe they will enjoy eachother's company.

Paying off the credit card

As everyone knows, I went on a slight shopping vendor last weekend. I started at the Macy's and ended at the Burberry outlet. Oh my. Luckily (and strategically) I have been working shifts at my part time job so I would be able to pay off my overextended credit card in record time. Had I gone even a tad more overboard than I did, though, I would likely bo looking for a personal loan about now to pay off the mastercard.

If you are looking for a cash advance or payday advance, there is a payday loan company that offers flexible payday cash loans. Click on any of the preceding links to get to it.

Thanksgiving weekend begins

This weekend is going to be a crazy one filled with family and food and booze! It is Thanksgiving!!! Actually, it is Stella's first Thanksgiving but the significance of the weekend will likely be lost on her due to the fact that she is an eight month old puppy dog.

Stella seems to have recovered from her surgery quite nicely. She is laying beside me, happily chewing on her plush squeaky snake toy (not made in China). The poor snake has already lost his pupils, although the eyeballs themselves are still hanging on my about three threds. She is working on the tongue at the moment. It is officially the second sorriest looking snake I have ever seen.

I have a crazy busy day today. I need to bake treats, go shopping with Mark for a new suit, and go to the St. Lawrence Market. Yet here I sit at my laptop writing a pointless blog. Hmm. I need to work on my time management skills. I wonder what time I should pencil that in.

Paintball Wars, Season 2?

Things have been picking up at work lately and we are all ready for a break. In my office, though, our idea of a break is not a leisurely company picnic or dinner. Our philosophy at my work place is “work hard, play hard”.

I had the privilege of organizing our fall season company outing last autumn and, I say this without a hint of egotism, we all had an amazing time. I organized outdoor paintball wars. It went over really well with the high energy, extremely competitive nature of pretty much everyone here at work. Even our slightly older receptionist wanted in on the fun (although she backed out last minute).

So everyone is waiting with baited breath to find out if we are planning to make the autumn outdoor paintball wars an annual tradition. Some of the employees are already talking about buying their own paintball guns. They think that it will give them a leg up on the competition but as soon as one guy gets one, all of us will want a better one.

A great source for things like spyder paintball guns, paintball gear, and Smart Parts is Ultimate Paintball. There shipping is free and there prices are said to be awesome.

Hopefully I will get the go ahead to start planning our “Second Annual Paintball War” soon and I will get tons of pics to post on the blog this year.

Dog recovering nicely and hopefully the cat is too

Well Stella seems to be recovering quite nicely from her surgery. I am still being cautious though so I have asked her lovely dog walker to give her a private and leisurely walk session today. Also, I am going to skip her weekly Saturday morning playtime at the park. Poor Stella Bella. First she undergoes surgery and now she isn't even allowed to play with the other dogs!

Hopefully, now that she is fixed, she will stop trying to hump the cat. Honestly, it is so odd. She's a girl, right, so why was she trying to hump the cat? It was the most embarrassing thing. I had a slew of guest over two weeks ago to watch the Simpson premier, which we were supposed to watch in the theatre room downstairs but the network wasn't connecting properly so we all had to cram into our tiny suite and watch it there, and right in front of everyone the dog mounted the cat and attempted to hump her. Boy was the cat pissed! Especially when everyone started laughing. That pissed the cat off even more. She bit Stella and stomped off.

Anyway, hopefully Stella will be back to her normal nonhumping self now that this whole ordeal is over.

Cranky Boyfriend Needs Friends With Better Equipped Shops

As some of you know, my boyfriend is a mechanic. I would be lying if I said that it isn’t handy to have a boyfriend in such a useful profession. Of course, a lot of friends and family find his profession quite useful as well.

Last night he was doing a side job for a friend. Even though he doesn’t mind helping friends out, he complains a lot about having to work in people’s personal shops. Last night, the guy who he was helping out had pretty much no lighting in his garage and when Mark insisted he needed light to work, the guy ended up shining a glaring bulb right in my boyfriend’s face. Poor Mark cam e home with a pounding headache and was still cranky when he woke up this morning.

Maybe he should stipulate that in order to help out friends and family with their car trouble, they need to have proper garage lighting installed.

Time to Start Practicing for the Company Holiday Party

Unlike absolutely everyone that I work with, I am not a huge gambler. At last year's holiday party I was introduced to roulette which is a lot of fun, though. And I do like to play the slots. Ooh and poker, I have been known to play that once in a while too. Hmm, maybe I enjoy gambling a little more than I gave myself credit for. Which is good because our holiday party this year is going to be very heavily gambling focused again.

A lot of people are not bothering to travel all of the way to casinos (or waiting for the company Christmas party) any more. A lot of people are gambling online. I hear that it has gotten to the point that online gambling sites can be pretty social and interactive. There is an online casino called Bet365 that is said to be pretty cool. They have a bunch of interactive games and a whole section dedicated to online poker. All you have to do is sign up for an account and then you can play all kinds of games. It is all said to be very safe and secure.

Maybe I should give this site a try. I can get some practice time in before the company holiday party!

Stella Back From the Vets

My poor Stella Bella is recouperating after what was probably a very traumatic vet experience. She got fixed yesterday. She was pretty groggy and whiney last night and this morning. She seems to have recovered somewhat, though. She is alternating between attemping to torture, the cat, trying to get me to play with her and her new chew toy, and taking impromptu naps.

Even though she is felling better, I feel like such a big meanie! I also keep feelling a twinge of regret that there will not be any baby Stellas running around. I think she is recovering faster than me.

New Digital Camera on the Horizon?

I have decided it is time to get my own personal digital camera. Last year my boyfriend and I bought a Sony camera and we both love it. We should, we spent like three months researching digital cameras before finally deciding which one to purchase.

The problem is that the boyfriend and I have very different views on the use and care of our digital camera. I want the thing in my purse at all times so I can snap a million and three photos, mostly of my dog as anyone who reads my blog knows. My boyfriend, on the other hand, wants to bring it along only on certain excursions. For example, we have no photos at all from the retro dance Halloween party we went to last year because he was afraid the camera would get stolen while we were on the dance floor.

He seems to be relaxing a little bit on the issue but I still think it is time for me to buy my own digital camera. And use t to take about 3000 pictures of whatever. And maybe even buy one or two of those digital picture frames to put my favourite pet pics in; like the pic of my Stella sniffing the flowers.

Back From Buffalo

As evidenced by this post, we all made it back from Buffalo in one piece. I say Buffalo but really it was Cheektawaga that we stayed in. It was an amazing shopping experience. I spent way too much but I now have a dress, shoes, purse, and coat for my cousin's wedding that is coming up in late October...on a friday evening which I think is crazy and now I have to take a day off work to get my hair and nails done, but I digress...

There were a tonne of great deals in the States and I took advantage, that's for sure! I bought a lot of stuff for about half of what I would've paid here. Unfortunatley I did not find anything for my Stella. I wanted to get her the most adorable dog collar from Coach but it was $70 and Mark would have thrown a fit. I did not see any dog boutiques even though I was keeping my eye out for one. I am sure they have them all over in the US, just not in the malls I went to. I did find a dog dish in the Burberry outlet that was a reasonable price but it did not match my kitchen.

We were all very nervous crossing the border because we had bought so much stuff. Fortunately, and I think it had everything to do with Stella's cuteness, the Border officer just wavved us through when we said we had only spent about $500 each.

Stella was sleeping on my lap when we arrived at the border. The Border patrol officer said "Awh, she's zonked." and little Stella Bella raised up her head, looked at her with her big googly eyes, tilted her head to the side and then sat up straight as if she were on display for inspection. We all laughed and the officer waved us through.