2003-08-04 - 2:11 p.m.

We had a lovely time in Boston. A great dinner at Mantra, lots of fun shopping on Charles Street (love the Fi-Dough bakery, Wish dress store and Black Ink, which reminded us of our store a little). My favorite stoe awas Rugg Road, an adorable papery, where the clerk was kind enough to give me contact info on a product I'd like to bring to our store.

Equally adorable was Aunt Saudie's, a store so close to our concept it was scary! Shock full of retro decor and funky baubles, they are stightly more upscale than we are, but we liked it so much, I have a feeling we'll be ordering their candles for our store soon.

Hubby went to see Bruce Springsteen on Sat night, while I headed over to the Colonial Theater for The Producers. I had the best time! I really wanted to by the t-shirt that said Keep it Gay!, but they only had large sizes, so instead I bought the Bielostock and Bloom shirt, in the large kid's size to I can wear it as a fitted tee. The guy didn't seem surprised, he said lots of women were doing that. I was wearing my chineese doll print skirt from Fresh Baked Goods and 3 different women remarqued on it!

I made 2 indulgent purchases on this trip. A second Kate Spade purse, wich was reduced to 100$. After coveting one for soooo long, it seems very indulgent to now own 2! My second purchase was a fall coat at Anthropologie. I had bought something at there NY store a few years ago but had no idea it was a chain. I love their stuff! So this coat I bought is kind of velvety, orangy shade of red, with brown leather trim and little brown leather bows to hold the buttons closed. With it's rounded collar, when I put it on, it made me feel like Annie in the musical! When I was little and the movie first came out, my mother bought the pattern for the coat and made me one. I remember wehn I outgrew that coat, how devastated I was. Well, now I've got a new one! Except it's super hot and humid outside, so it's gotta go in the closet for a few months until the weather cools down. But count on me to be praying for an early fall, so I can take it out and wear it!

When I re-read my past entries, I realize how much I enjoy clothes now. I mean, I always had an eye for fashion, but it's so much more pleasant now than when I wore size 22! So if you read this and start thinking I'm way too much into my clothes, that's the explanation....

Anything to add? 1

2003-08-01 - 10:12 a.m.

We are off to Boston for the weekend. It's a romantic weekend for hubby and I: He's going to Bruce Springsteen, I'm going to The Producers! That's how we keep our marriage working!!! Just kidding! I'm not that big a Springsteen fan, so rather than spend a lot of money on something I wouldn't really enjoy (turns out it's an outdoor concert) I figured I'd do something he wouldn't really enjoy. We hope to get together with some friends while we are there, do a little shopping on Newbury street and I need to find a scrapbooking store! We won't have a car, so I can't go driving to strip malls outside the city... I just don't know that I'll find anything I can get to with the train....

I used to live in Boston. Part time. I was splitting my work time between Montreal and Manchester NH, so I stayed in Boston 'cause it was more interesting than Manchester. I'd like to say I'll go visit some old haunts or visit with buddies, truth is, none of the people I worked with lived in the area and my old haunts were Payless and Boston Market!!!!

TAR4 comments Going into last night, I knew it was going to be non-elimination, so there was a little less excitement about the episode. But the under-water ice swimming! And eating live squids! WOW!!!! I also liked to see the teams struggling to communicate a little. So far, they always seemed to be able to find english-speaking taxi drivers, but the truth is, when you spend time in foreign countries, most of the time, you'll struggle with language. By going to Europe and India first, the teams had a bit of an advantage, but now in Korea, they truly had to work to communicate, which I personally enjoyed. Jon and Kelly still get on my nerves. While I a more and more convinced that they do in fact love each other and will probably go ahead and get married, I feel sorry for their kids. That is one rough way to talk to each other!

Anything to add? 2

2003-07-31 - 10:19 a.m.

This day should run a little smoother for me, I'm at work in the morning, not the afternoon.... Funny how a little switch like that can make such a huge difference.

I was going to talk about sucky TV again, but an envelope in the mail this morning changed all that.

I got invited to my ex-boyfriend's wedding. No, this is not a traumatic thing! It's just so sur-real....

Here is the story. We dated for a little over a year in my last year of University. He was doing graduate work. Really nice guy, I was his first girlfriend. It was never meant to be. After we broke up, it took me a really long time to get over it, not because of him in particular, I knew we weren't right, but because I thought I would never be in a serious relationship with an intelligent man again (I had a track record of dating large football players, not graduate students!)

Fast Forward 10 years (really, exactely 10 years next month since we broke up, spooky!) and we've remained very good friends. Really. Over the years, I've spend weekends at his place, I even borrowed is apartment in DC one weekend when he was away. When I met my hubby, it probably wasn't much more than a couple of months before I introduced the 2 of them. There was never any weirdness there. The ex was a great no-non-sense guy, there were no left over feelings.

I did invite him and his girlfriend to my wedding last year but they were in the process of relocating back to Canada and were unable to attend.

Why is it weird that I got invited? That's not really the part that's weird. The fact that he is getting married is weird. He was always dead set against marriage, always said he would never do it. Crazy thing is, I always knew he would! I told everyone. nobody believed me. But I knew. He's really such a good guy, he was meant to be a husband, and dare I say, a father. (not too sure where they stand on that one)

So in about 2 months time, I will be attending my ex's wedding. Dear hubby can't make it 'cause he's got a stag that same night (he's the best man, he can't miss it). But come hell or high water, I'm not gonna miss that guy walking down the aisle. And I will be whispering to myself "I told you so!"

Anything to add? 2

2003-07-30 - 2:18 p.m.

I didn't die of MIL food poisoning! I've just been so busy, I've hardly been on the computer!

A few days ago, an old college friend called me from California to tell me she was coming to visit her family in Ottawa and wondered if she could some spend one night in Montreal at my place, seems she had some mighty big news. She's already got 5 kids, so I knew it wasn't going to be pregnancy-related. Seems that after 4 years in California, including the last 9 months with her husband being unemployed, they are packing up all five of the kids (the oldest being 10) and moving to.... Romania! Romania?!?!?! Seems totally crazy. They did live in Africa for 2 years at the beginnning of their marriage with only 2 kids at the time, but Romania! I should mention her husband is originally from eastern europe and has family in a near-by country. Plus, he's got a job there, but still, Romania!?!?!?

So she landed at the airport yesterday afternoon, we had a nice visit and a lovely dinner, and this morning, I put her on the bus to Ottawa to go spend 2 weeks with her family before moving, to Romania... (obsessed much? seems to be....)

TV has been very disappointing this week. I was so looking forward to the big show-down on Last Comic Standing. honestly, nobody was funny. Ralphie stuttered, got nervous, and just screemed non-sense about the price of gas, Dat was OK, but I was expecting more from him. Tess, a couple of funny moments but all in all, nothing spectacular, Vos was a train-wreck (As I expected) and Cory had a couple of zingers. I must admit, she had the tightest set of all 5, but I don't think I'll bother voting.

The only tv moment that made me gasp this week was on Coronation Street. I'm not sure anyone in the US gets C.S. We get it in Canada thanks to the CBC. It's a long running 30 min soap from the BBC. Traditionally, nothing much has ever happened. When actors are written out, they move to London. Nothing shoking. Except yesterday... Richard murdered MAXINE! MAXINE! HE was going for Emily, but that old woman is still breathing and Maxine is dead! She was already gone for a few months last year, so I'm guessing she's working on some other show and needed to have more time. But Murdered? Total shocker! Now poor Ashley is left to raise a son that is not even his in the first place.....

Honestly, I don't ever admit to watching Coronation Street. It's such a show for old people. Know how I got hooked? I used to drink a lot. So Sunday mornings, I'd be very hung over. And the CBC would air the 4 weekday episodes in 2 hours from 10 to noon. It was such a slow show, it was perfect to watch in bed while nursing a hang-over and trying to make myself presentable for whatever Sunday activities were scheduled. I stopped partying, stopped drinking, never stopped watching. Also, if you go away and miss a week, or even a month, you can totally catch up in one day, 'cause nothing ever happens! Except now. Maxine! Murdered! I'm in shock.....

Anything to add? 1

2003-07-28 - 1:54 p.m.

I always have a hard time when I work the afternoon, it seems so late to be posting, I don't know whether to post about the weekend or what I did so far today.... oh, the dilemma.....

Compared to last weekend, this weekend was very low key. Hubby played golf Friday afternoon and came home very late, so it wasn't much of an evening. Plus the dog was going bananas (he hates when my hubby is not home....) Saturday night, he went to the baseball game while I went to see Charlies Angels. Not a cinematic masterpiece, but it was so campy, I really enjoyed myself.

It rained all day Sunday, but it was made quite sunny by the discovery of a scrapbooking store in Montreal! I've been doing my scrapbook shopping in Ontario or whenever I go to the states, but now, there is a cute store Bonnidee right in the West Island. I did manage to part with $200 on supplies.... so maybe it's not such a good thing that I found this place....

We grabbed a late lunch with a couple of J's friends (nothing like lunch with the boys!) and then went to see a fabulous movie: Spellbound.

It's a documentary about the National Spelling Bee. I know, doesn't sound too exciting, but I'm telling you, people were on the edge of their seats! some of the kids are quite stereotypical of what you imagine national spellers would be like, some were quite "normal". I do think this one kid, Harry, needs some professional help ASAP, he is one WEIRD kid.... It won't be at your local cineplex, but check our your repertory theater, it's well worth it (at the Parc in Montreal right now for fellow Montrealers).

TV Weekend Wrapup: No more new trading spaces, too bad. Whiel you were out was god, but it was made especially interesting by a recent article in my local tv listing about Andrew and his habit of doing his laundry at the home-owners place... seems this one particular man was really unhappy with his surprise and Andrew was worried he wouldn't have time to get his laundry done before the guy kicked them out!!!! The Restaurant was very good. Some of those employees are just too much. They are not interested in waiting tables, this is just a stepping stone to be discovered. But rather than demote Gideon, I would have fired that other guy (don't know his name), man, he sucked! The attitude he was giving people! OF course they are demanding, their family and friends! Oh and by the way, what was with that Sopranos-type customer dissing hte meatballs and then TOTALLY sucking up to Rocco's mother??? Man, his own mother looked like she was going to kill him (and Fran Dresher looked pretrified when he talked to her!)

Off to my mother-in-law's for dinner tonight. Please keep a bed for me at the emergency room and I'll be stoppin by the pharmacy for all manners of stomach medication on my way home. Think I'm exagerating? Read this.

Anything to add? 1

Last Entry ~ Next Entry

��