Pics around the house

I've been meaning to post a few pics of the changes around our home. A while back, we had replace our temporary shades with real curtains. Here are some changes that have taken place in our house over the last few months.

This is our dining room. You can't really tell but the curtains are dark brown silk-like. I know you're laughing at our naked orchid. Trust me, it's still growing!

Our Christmas tree. It hasn't changed since we got it last year. I think we did a better job decorating it last year. Can you see our curtains behind it? :)

This is our front living room window. I chose to put sheers there. I think it looks really nice in the morning when the sun shines through.

This is our hallway table. We made it our picture table. Right now, there are more Hamilton photos than Ng photos. We need to balance it out more.

This is our latest purchase. Our new wine cabinet. It is in our dining room. We even put some of Jeff's Egyptian pics up on the wall. It makes the room more like a home now.

My apologies the photos aren't as bright as they could be. It took them at night .. :(

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Operation LCBO

It was a cold December morning. The plans were laid out, the alarm was set. At 8:30 am sharp, we got out of bed, got dressed, threw on a hat and coat, and we were off. We drove to our local LCBO in anticipation of the December 6th premium release. I have been waiting for this release for months. When the doors opened, I made a bee line to the vintages section in search of Brian, the vintages consultant. Over a month ago, he informed me that his LCBO location was going to get 1 case (6 bottles) of 2005 Don Melchor in December. He told me that if nobody asked for it, it was all mine. Sure enough, he went to the storage room and brought out their only case of Don Melchor. The wooden crate was still wrapped in thick plastic. A fellow behind me had asked if they had any more .. but all he could do was watch me pay for it at the front counter. Sorry, my friend - I've been waiting for this case for over a month.

Why did this wine mean so much to me? It was Puff's Christmas present. Well, part of his Christmas present. He'll get other stuff but wine is always something I give him. And no, he doesn't get the cheap stuff. :)

Anyway, the spree didn't stop there. While I was paying for my purchase, Puff had loaded up his cart with some interesting finds. An hour later, we put a serious dent on our credit cards.

We took our load of goodies home and the case of Don was too cool. We carefully cracked the wooden crate open and there was a certificate of authencity that went with the case.


Happy early Christmas, Puff. It's not Christmas yet and there was no element of surprise, but I know you will enjoy it. It was a fun shopping spree. Let's do it again next year!

Toodles,
Pudgy

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Puff's Birthday

Yesterday, we had a low key celebration for Jeff's birthday. Because my gums are still very tender, we weren't able to go out for a real birthday dinner. Instead, I brought home thai from Jeff's favorite Thai restaurant, followed by his favorite cake (he's VERY particular about his cake), and presents. This year, Jeff got gifts from me earlier than usual. He got a pair of cool badminton court shoes, a bottle of 2006 Zinfandel, and a bottle of 2006 Shiraz. The shiraz was finished a few days ago .. sigh. But hey, he really liked it.

Happy Birthday, Puff!

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Lacking Some Wisdom

I put off getting my wisdom teeth out for several months and yesterday the day had arrived to get them out. At first, I wasn't nervous but as soon as I sat in the chair and saw the needle for the IV, I tensed up. After the IV kicked in, I have to admit .. everything was a blur. I have no idea what happened between falling asleep in the chair and then getting home. I was so drugged up, it was something to see. At least that's what Jeff told me.

Jeff took care of me the entire day. He even told me what happened after I woke up in the chair. His narration was funny. Apparently the assistants in the room helped me put my jacket on. Jeff was given instructions on how to care for me for the next 48 hours and we were sent on our way. We (more like I) stumbled out of the dental office and proceeded through the mall to the parking garage (the dental office is located in a mall). Apparently a man opened the door for me while we left the dental office and I thanked him twice. Even in my drugged state, manners are important. Hehehe. My mobility varied between extra slow and speedy Gonzales. Jeff had to keep me balanced from time to time even though I insisted that I was okay on my own. To make things even more embarrassing, I kept talking even though I was supposed to bite down on the gauze in my mouth. I would talk and blood would flow around my lips, causing my teeth to be stained red. I drew a lot of unwanted attention from shoppers. Jeff had to stop me at one point and clean off the blood. When we got to the car, again I insisted I was okay. I fell into the passenger seat, re-adjusted myself, and put my seatbelt on. I told Jeff that I couldn't give him directions on how to get home. Not sure why that came out of my mouth but Jeff went with it and saracastically said he'd find a way. :)

The ride home was a complete fog. I rubbernecked most of the way home but when I was awake I said that I saw two yellow lines on the road - there was only 1 but I was seeing double. When we got home, Jeff told me to stay in the car while he went into the house to disengage the alarm and prop the door open. I obeyed and simply undid my seatbelt and waited. He took me inside the house and asked me to brace myself on the ledge - otherwise, I would have fallen over. Next thing I knew, I was on the couch.

24 hrs later, there is still no pain but the swelling is a bit uncomfortable. I had two teeth from the top and the bottom right tooth taken out. So the right side of my face and lips are numb. I look a little bit like a chipmunk but it will go away soon. I'm glad it's over and I'll never have to do it again. My diet has been limited to scrambled eggs, soft pasta, apple sauce, and pudding. I'm not allowed to have rice yet and of course, nothing crunchy. When you can't eat potato chips, you crave potato chips. Sigh .. I'll wait a week or two.

Thanks Puff for taking care of me.

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September is here

Sigh .. summer is over. It wasn't much of a summer for us - I'm sure it was the same everywhere else too. The weather was one rainy story after another. Well, the good news is that I didn't have to use the garden hose to water our backyard.

I haven't been blogging much because we've been busily trying to replace our temporary shades with real window treatments. I has taken us several weeks to get it right. Not because we don't know how to hang curtains but choosing the right curtains themselves took a while. We've been going room by room, trying not to make the house look the same from top to bottom. Our planning sort of changed along the way as well. At first, we only wanted certain rooms to have curtains and then the rest would be horizontal blinds. After practicing with a few windows, Jeff got the hang of it (no pun intended) and with a big sale at Bouclair - we felt it was a sign. We changed our minds about the blinds and decided to do as many windows with curtains as possible. It was quick and relatively inexpensive. We have completed about 90% of the house - some windows in the house cannot be done with curtains.

Other than doing curtains, we've been playing badminton twice a week for the entire summer. Last time I blogged, I mentioned that Jeff and I were going to participate in the club tournament. We ended up with two medals each. It was a fun tournament but even though everyone says it's all for fun, you can tell that there are those take it fairly seriously. We will be joining the Capital Badminton Club for regular season play. Our old club was for true beginners and only one court was reserved for the "good" players. The club organizer was a super nice guy but we just didn't have much fun playing.

Anyway .. we'll see what's in store in October.

Toodles,
Pudgy

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August Update

It’s August and I haven’t posted anything yet. Time is starting to fly and soon summer will be over. This summer hasn’t been anything great. It has rained almost every single day here. Sigh. After a long and snowy winter, I was looking forward to a great summer. Oh well. Not like we had any grand summer plans.

Over the Civic Holiday weekend, Jeff and I went to Montebello for two days. We stayed at the Fairmont Chateau Montebello. I think I have been spoiled a bit but this resort did not seem very “Fairmont” to me. I’ve heard that a G8 Summit was held there last year and maybe I had higher expectations but after seeing it for myself, I didn’t think it was that impressive. The room we had felt damp as soon as we walked in. The room was fairly small but it had a nice flat screen tv. That was about it. I didn’t take very many pictures of the place. It was dark even during the day. The one interesting thing was their nightly barbeque buffet. The cost? A whopping $51 a person. Jeff and I like to eat but $51 per person?! Ouch. We passed on the BBQ and went to Louis St. Joseph for dinner instead.

We are getting started on decorating our house now. Now that most of the major expenses have been dealt with, we have a budget left over for our next big project – window treatments! When we moved in, we probably spent around $100 to put up temporary shades on most of our windows. A year and some months later, they are beginning to lose their adhesiveness and fall off one by one. It’s a sign.

Once we’ve made some progress, I’ll post some pictures.

This week is the last week for Jeff and I to practice for our upcoming badminton tournament. We decided to participate in the club tournament. It will be my first tournament with Jeff as my partner. We’ve played together for a few years so we kinda know how the other plays. At the club, I get pointers from an older fellow by the name of Ignatius. I credit my improvement to his pointers and the club itself. The skill level here is higher than the club we played at last year and it forces you to play better. No more slacking off. :-) Wish us luck.

We are in Toronto this coming weekend. It’s yet another errand-running weekend. Hair cuts, dental, and doctor’s appointments. I really wish there was a weekend where I can just enjoy it with family. It seems like every time I go home, there’s something to do that takes me away from family. I hope everyone is doing well. I read your blogs whenever I have the chance. The government has just started blocking blogspot so there goes my entertainment of the day. :)

Toodles,
Pudgy

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The Ng Family Visit to Ottawa

My family came to visit us the weekend before July 1st. Despite the wet weather, a good time was still had by all. It was the first time my sister Joyce and her family (Samuel and baby Anson) came to see the house. Anson managed to survive the 4.5 hour drive without any tears - he's just 8 months old and you can imagine being stuck in a car seat for several hours is not comfortable.

We made the most of our two days together. I was happy to see my mom and my youngest sister Karen. Karen called in "sick" just to be here. We spent some mother/daughter time together while the boys went to Canadian Tire and Loblaws for some groceries. It has been a long time since we got together and just chatted so it was nice to have that private time. When I'm in Toronto, I usually have errands to run so there is never any time to visit friends or stop to breathe. One of the activities I enjoyed was playing with my nephew. I made him the subject of my photography session that day and I captured some really cute shots of him. The toy is a slammer that a friend of mine gave me many years ago.

When the boys came back, I felt like they were not themselves. Did something happen during their outing? Well ... after dinner, I got a chocolate-y surprise.

Special thanks Puff - for the yummy chocolate cake. :D And I love the candles!!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.

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