Denis and I live in a basement apartment and to be honest, we don’t pay a lot of attention to what is going on the neighborhood. Our landlord is a somewhat nosy neighbor, but in the best way possible – he finds out what’s going on, but he’ll also do what he can to help you if you’re in a tough situation, give you a hand fixing your car, and he creates a detailed scavenger hunt for the kids at the annual neighborhood barbeque (that he hosts!). It was at this summer BBQ that this story really started to unfold.

We had noticed that there was a woman spending a lot of time with our next-door neighbor, Charlie (name changed to protect the innocent), over the summer. Charlie is a pretty quiet guy, living with his two teenagers in their modest duplex. Obviously we wondered if there was romance budding! Sure enough, they attended the summer BBQ as a couple – which is when we learned that she was the owner and occupant of the other side of Charlie’s duplex.

I was momentarily stunned.  The other side of the duplex? Neither of them were new to the neighborhood – they have both lived here for at least as long as we’ve been here – 3 years – how long had they slept on opposite sides of the same wall before meeting and realizing their connection?

Last week we spent some time with our landlord as he tried to convince us to buy a house across the street – keeping the neighborhood populated with the ‘right people’, as he says – and we learned that he bought Charlie’s half of the duplex. Charlie and his girlfriend are now Charlie and his fiance, and they’ve bought a house that is better suited to them and their 4 teenaged children. Her half has been sold to – get this – her ex-husband.

Stories like these make me realize that life is sometimes stranger than fiction!

But sometimes things just fall perfectly into place – after re-connecting with a friend from my childhood and getting to know her all over again, her husband contacted me to invite me to join the board of directors for a local film festival showcase. It has been a fantastic opportunity for me that I am very thankful for – I’m meeting new people, participating in the local film community, and tonight will be part of a gala event, the London Short Film Showcase.

After months of planning and preparation, as well as participating in events such as Park(ing) Day London (which Katelyn and Hailey also enjoyed!), the day of the Showcase has arrived. We’ll be showing local short films (short film = under 15 minutes) as well as films from as far away as South America and the UK, animated films, documentarys, and narratives. After the films play we’ll be celebrating and having a good time at Museum London.

If you are a Londoner, I hope you grab your tickets to the London Short Film Showcase soon as it’s selling out fast and is sure to be a great night for filmmakers and film fans alike!

Have you ever been to a film showcase or festival?

Yep, we bought our first home! It’s not the house we planned to buy but in the end it’s way better for us. The other one we were interested in needed so much work that it probably would have been stressful and not felt like home for a few years. This house was the only house we looked at that we sat down on the couch and said, “Let’s pretend that we live here!” We could already see ourselves living there.

It has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, which makes me laugh because that makes it sound like some huge mansion, but it’s so not, as you can see. Two bedrooms and a bathroom are upstairs, one bedroom and a bathroom on the main floor (which we will use as an office), and two bedrooms and a bathroom in the (finished!) basement, which we plan to rent out. The backyard is pretty big and Kent is already dreaming about campfires and the garden he’s going to have.

I really want to go back in and look at it now that I know it’s ours but I am going to have to patiently wait until November 2^nd.

Various groups participated by paying for a meter space for 2 hours and turned it into a friendly spot. We visited a drum circle, made a little film while dressed up, played frisbee golf (Laura’s new calling), hung out on ‘fatboy‘ bags and discussed visions for London, saw a museam and got a playmobile toy, played lego, sat and pulled up grass, learned tap dancing and visited a ‘Parc de Papillon.’  It was a great free outing in London. One that I think both Hailey and I enjoyed.

Also I must mention my new found love for photo collages.  I got this layout for free on mcp actions.  I also expressed my love for this on my photo blog, which some people may not have known I have.  Check it out! kateblonde

My mind isn’t really thinking straight tonight, and likely won’t until I get to the farm, so this is going to be in bullet form. Here are some of the things I am looking forward to while in Ontario for 10 days:

-Standing in front of the fireplace in the kitchen at the farm. Even in the summer when it is sweltering, that fireplace is always the “water cooler” of our home (it’s where all the good gossip happens)
-Tim’s parents 25th anniversary party and his Dad’s 50th birthday party on Saturday
-Going to a birthday party in Grand Bend on Friday with all of my friends from University
-Micaela’s bachelorette shot luck on Saturday
-Laura’s husband’s birthday party on Sunday
-Going to Toronto to finally (finally!) meet Reggy
-Rubbing Kate’s pregnant belly! And finally getting to meet the Razzlebaby that I already love so, so, so much
-Being Mom’s slave for a few days
-Hanging out with two women who I love dearly and I hear make excellent bartenders
-Learning the result of a Very Good interview I had today
-Eating food from the Pub where I worked through University. Also known as Heaven and where most all of my money went while in school.
-Taking a plane with Tim for the first time
-The Time Traveler’s Wife movie opening

And there’s something else too … I just can’t remember quite what it is. I know that it takes place in Saturday, August 15th … but I just can’t remember what it is.

Oh yea! I have a couple of things to do. I told my Oma that I would help her wash her dog, and I thought it would be a good day to pick out my eyeglasses. I have some socks that I need to mend, and I think I will finally get a start on a puzzle I have been wanting to do for awhile. If it’s nice out, I will lay out with my strappiest bikini and get lots and lots of tan lines. I think it will be a good opportunity to take that day to myself, as I will be very overwhelmed from all of the visiting I will be doing that week. Phewph! What a day I have planned for myself. Oh, and I think I’ll catch the Time Traveler’s Wife while I’m at it.

Mic – what are you doing on the 15th? Wanna hang out?

(Je blague, je blague)

I am excited for this:

To become:

I have a whole itinerary planned, and I am excited to go to Thorndale, London, Guelph and Ottawa! My two week long vacation started today, I had to go to work for two hours and get some of my stuff organized and was supposed to see some clients, but it was too cold (minus 37 degrees celsius!) so I cancelled them. I took the day to spend with myself and do fun things alone – like pack, and laundry, and get Tim’s Christmas present, and get my eyebrows waxed. Then Tim made me honey and sage duck for dinner and I am leaving in three hours for the airport! Mom, don’t forget to pick me up in London at 6:12am.

SEE YOU SOON GIRLS!

Yup, that’s Nicole holding a timbit. Also, you can see the edge of my Scrabulous game. I’m winning. Anyway, I like clever marketing like this. It’s possible that she’s seen this ad because she does indeed have a Facebook profile. Not much on it but she has written a few posts on her wall and joined her own support group. Not to be rude but she may want to spellcheck everything she writes as it is nearly illegible.

Everyone and their timbit-eating-toddler has been weighing in on this issue so I might as well put in my $0.02 worth. Hey, look! My opinions are worth less than a Timbit.

Do I think she should have been fired? Hard to answer without knowing her performance history at this job. Also hard to answer as I don’t know Tim Horton employee policies. I truly can’t answer this question.

Do I think that Tim Horton’s customers should be rude to the employees? Heck, no! I understand that this has been an unfortunate reality at many TH locations in London. The people behind the counter have nothing to do with the decisions that are made in the manager’s office! Why take your anger out on people that have nothing to do with what happened? Contact the store manager or, better yet, the corporate office. Customer service can be emailed at: customer_service@timhortons.com.

Snow has been melting like CRAZY for the last couple of days. The photo above was taken from the end of my backyard – as you can see, it WAS a soccer field. Now, it’s a lake. Just last week there were deer prancing in that field! OK, maybe they weren’t prancing, but they did prance when there was snow. They wandered right up to our living room window one morning just 3 weeks ago. Can you believe that there is a developer that wants to plow down all those trees and build a housing development right there? Right where you’re looking? He thinks that he’ll be able to fill in that entire area with clean fill. Personally, I would say that the area is better suited for a beach than a apartment complex.

Reading the paper today, it turns out that a lot of the flooding has happened because the Fanshawe dam has been opened in anticipation of heavy rain tomorrow and Friday. In short…things will get worse before they get better. I’m planning an alternate bus route for tomorrow morning because this morning my bus stop was completely under water.

Credits for these last two photos go to Jesse James Taylor (yes, that’s his real name!).

Here are two pictures of the Thames River in St. Mary’s. Keep in mind that this is actually *before* the dam – this is all melted snow (I think)!! These were taken by Lauren’s friend Jacky. Micaela and Kent recently moved to St. Mary’s – their house is just along the river, but happily their apartment is upstairs! How are your neighbors, anyway?

UPDATE:

The Freeps (London Free Press) has another article up about my neighborhood today.  Also, the front page of the paper has a great aerial shot of downtown.  There’s a park under all that water…

Scott and I went furniture shopping last night to browse and get an idea of what’s out there and how much it will cost. We went to 5 stores (!!) in 1.5 hours. We call it speed furniture shopping, see how much you can see in a small amount of time. We hit up Bad Boy, Leons, The Brick, Sears Home Store and Teppermans.

We learned that we don’t like any couches out there and that couches are actually pretty expensive. For couches we found the best deals at Teppermans, and found some pretty reasonable prices in the clearance section. Sadly this was our last store and we did not have enough time to look at everything and they even started turning lights off while we were there.

We learned that we both like dark coloured wood for furniture. For example see this kitchen table that we liked, which is on sale for $498 for the table (including a leaf you can add in, ) and I think 4 chairs.

For bedroom furniture we also found a few that we could tolerate, which were dark wood. We also don’t like bulky sets, which is good because it is not practical for us, as we are renting a house for the first bit of married life, and we will expect to move a few times until we settle down. The set below costs $1299 for 6 pieces (headboard, footboard, rails, nightstand, mirror and dresser). The price is in the lower price range, basically the only one we could afford if we bought a full set.

Don’t even get me started on mattresses. We got nowhere with those. I seriously have no idea how to decide what to get, because I know I will have no idea if I will like it or not, unless I am sleeping on it.

Lucky for us the house we are renting has a fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer and dryer. If we had to buy those we would be so poor. Oh wait, we already are..

Joy! Bliss! Weight will soon be lost – from the wallet, at least.

I’ve been anticipating Lululemon coming to London for some time now. The brand can be seen all over the Western campus on clothing, book bags, and sometimes – sometimes! – even yoga wear.

Lululemon was once available from downtown Moksha Yoga in London, however last year sometime they stopped carrying it (although they continue to say they do on their website). I’m not sure of the exact reason, although I heard a rumor that it may be related to Lululemon moving their manufacturing off-shore. I emailed the store and Annette tells me that they “have a limited supply of Lululemon clothing still in stock”.

Regardless of where their clothing is manufactured and despite the fact that I don’t go to regular yoga classes, I love Lululemon – it’s great for biking, and they make the coziest sweatshirts I’ve ever worn!

You can sign up for weekly product notifications specific to individual Lululemon stores – my name is already on the list. See you at the Grand Opening!