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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Rocky Mountain Adventure - Part 2

I have been pretty busy since we got back from our vacation. I didn't really have that much time to blog about the second half of our trip. Between managing chores and playing badminton two nights a week, blogging has taken a bit of a back seat. Since I have a few moments, I'll take this opportunity to pick up from where I left off.

Day 3 - Cranbrook, BC
Finally, the weather started getting better. The first half of our trip was pretty dreary but BC was nice. Our original plan was to stay in Fernie, BC but when we got there, it was small and well .. kinda boring. So we continued to drive to Cranbrook. With no hotel room booked, we called up the Best Western. Holy crap were they expensive! Were we going to be stuck without a room? Luckily, the Super 8 had a room and cheap too! It also came with a free breakfast. <rant>Sorry, but I have to go off on this tangent because I managed to witness stupidity at its finest in our previous Super 8 stay. At breakfast, they had hard boiled eggs and the eggs were shelled and cold. One of the guests took one of the eggs and I guess he wanted to warm it up. He put the egg in the microwave and proceeded to warm it up. You can imagine what happened a few seconds into it - BOOM. The egg exploded in the microwave leaving a huge mess. His wife says in her best smoker's voice "that's what you get for not reading the sign on the microwave" which had large red letters on it saying DO NOT PUT EGGS IN THE MICROWAVE. Like I said, stupidity at its finest.</rant>

Day 3 to 5 - Banff, Alta
For our anniversary and my birthday, we splurged a bit and stayed at the Fairmont Banff Springs for 3 nights. After staying at regular hotels for the first half of the trip, the second half was all about luxury. The hotel was so beautiful and the room was really nice. You know it's a good hotel when even the toilet paper was super soft! I know - TMI. There was one splurge that I did not indulge in - a massage at the hotel spa was $200. Yikes.
Banff itself is very commercialized. Lots of shops, a supermarket, lots of good restaurants, and a transit system. Oh yeah, they even have a Louis Vuitton store. No, we didn't buy anything from the LV store. :)
We took a side trip out to see Chateau Lake Louise. I've always wanted to stay at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise but it was beyond our budget. The property itself was gorgeous. The weather wasn't so great. It was quite cold and cloudy but that didn't stop us from taking tons of pictures.

Day 5 - Columbia Icefields
The Columbia Icefields tour is probably the biggest tourist rip off. It cost $38 for a 1.5 hr tour of the glaciers. In that 1.5 hour, only 15 mins was allocated for the tourists to see and stand on the glacier. We started off by taking a bus to the Ice Explorer - a special bus with big tires designed to drive on ice. This Ice Explorer had a maximum speed of 18 km/hr. Yes, that's right - 18 km/hr. So as you can see, most of the tour was spent in a vehicle. Despite my comment that it was a rip off, it was still something to see.

Day 5 to 7 - Jasper National Park, Alta
We met up with Jeff's parents at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge for Father's Day weekend. The resort concept was pretty cool. We received an upgraded cabin that had enough space for 6 people. Here is the view outside of our cabin. Isn't this gorgeous?!

Jasper is not as commercialized as Banff so instead of shopping, we went hiking around Maligne Canyon. Since Jeff's parents have never visited Maligne Canyon, we took them out to see the site. After our hike, we went back to our rooms to get ready for our dinner at the Edith Cavell dining room. Dinner was just "okay". The first time I ate there, the food was really good. This time it was just average. I must say though that there is something to be said about Alberta beef. It is way better than US Prime and Ontario AAA.

If any of you are thinking of going on a road trip, I highly recommend the route we took. Jeff and I survived a week long road trip and we didn't kill each other! Hehe .. although, he almost left me on the side of the road in Camrose when I couldn't navigate our way out of the smallest city in Alberta. It was probably one of our best trips. I know we will do it again one day. Oh yeah, what made the trip really fun? My new toy - Canon XSI. :)

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Unusual Day

Had to put a blog entry on this day. :) Thanks to my family for all of the cards. It made my day. I didn't go to badminton. Instead I just stayed home while Jeff went. Who says you have to spend your b-day with your significant other? Honestly, it was time well spent (apart). Had a 2 hour chat with my mother and then started this blog entry. Sorry, no pics yet on the second half of my trip. Maybe another day when I'm in a better mood.

My family is coming tomorrow night and staying for the weekend. I'm so excited. Drive safely everyone and I'll see you soon.

Toodles,
Pudgy

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