Chris was on call this past weekend so as usual that meant sticking close to home. I really can't even remember what we did on Friday, if anything. Saturday was spent working around here, we were supposed to go to a friends house warming party but Chris ended up getting a call and most of our evening was spent doing that. Normally on the weekends when Chris is on call I will go with him. I don't mind cause I get free drinks at Starbucks and it gives me time to catch up on any reading I might be in the middle of. Sunday we were getting ready for church when Chris got another call that he couldn't put off as both of their machines were down. So I crawled back into bed and he was gone at that store for around 3 hours. Later in the evening we went to a BBQ at Jeff and Carolynne's. It was our "post season bbq" for all the softball folk. Good times, almost all the guys showed up that were on the team except one who moved and another who just couldn't make it. Chris was pleasantly surprised to find out that Jeff had blown up a team picture and had all the guys sign it and also gave him a softball signed by all the guys in one of those little cases. A thank you for getting the team together and dealing with it all. Fun times. That was our weekend, nothing too exciting.

Chris has his knee surgery tomorrow afternoon and he just found out this morning he is going to Seattle Sept 19-23 for training on some new machines. Fun for him cause he gets to spend some time with his fam and with Shawn and Celeste. I wish I could go but it's a little too short notice for us to fork up the money for a plane ticket for me. That and we aren't prepared to pay for boarding for the dog for a week.

I know I have been saying this a lot lately but the weeks are flying by right now. I cannot believe that tomorrow is September 1st. INSANE! And never mind the weeks flying by, this last year has gone by so fast. Our one year anniversary is coming up on September 12 and we have lived in Boston now for almost a year. I sit here trying to figure out where this last year has gone. For the most part it has been a great year for both Chris and myself. But how it has gone by this stinking fast is beyond me.

Just for fun

I was bored, so I made this little quiz about me on Bebo.com. So if you want click here and check it out and see how you do :)

Boy Was I MAD!!!

Last night Chris and I went grocery shopping. We got their around 7 and they don't close till 11. Now, All of their specials and sales go from Friday to Thursday every week. Chris and I made our way around the grocery store filling up our cart and being sure to take advantage of a lot of the deals. I love when there are good deals cause we end up getting much more than usual and for a much better price. Anyways we finally finish and get to the checkout only to find out that ALL the so called sale prices that we THOUGHT we were getting were in fact not in effect until today. WHAT!?!?!?!?? See, somehow they figured it would be ok to change ALL their tags at 7pm when they were open for FOUR more hours and somehow all of us shoppers were supposed to just know. Boy was I seeing red. When I worked at a grocery store they had 3 or 4 people work overnight once a week for the purpose of changing all the price tags. It really makes NO logical sense whatsoever to do that when they are still open and there are unsuspecting shoppers.

I cannot believe that it is Friday again already, I don't know where the time is going lately. Chris is on call this weekend so we won't be straying to far from home. Although we do have a housewarming party to go to tomorrow night and on Sunday evening we have a BBQ to go to.

That is all.....Have a great weekend!

We have a room that is quite small so we use it more as a closet. Anyways we started putting Belle in there with the light off when she was bad. At first she would bark and scratch at the door, but the more we put her in there the less we heard her. One day as Chris and I were doing things around the house we couldn't find her , we looked everywhere not thinking of the room where she goes when she is bad. Finally we looked there, and wouldn't you know it there she was all curled up sound asleep in the laundry basket. Little bugger, she freaking likes it in there! Ha! Needless to say she now goes in the bathroom with the light off when she is bad, and believe me she HATES it.

Friday Already????

Can someone tell me where this week went? Cause before I blinked last it was Monday and now it's Friday. Crazy!

I made the YUMMIEST asparagus beef stirfry last night, it was grub! Just thought you should all know that.

So Chris tore his Medial meniscus and is having arhtroscopic knee surgery on Sept 1st. I am not really sure it qualifies as "surgery" considering it takes all of 10 minutes and he gets to watch the whole thing.

Have I mentioned lately I am going to the Caribbean in only 9 1/2 months??? YAAAAAAAY!

One other thing, I REALLY want to see this March of the Penguins movie. Although I am sure Chris already knew due to the fact I get excited everytime I see the previews for it he laughed at me. He claimed he only laughed cause he thinks its "cute" that I get like that when I see it. Anyways he says there are a ton of other movies he would rather see. Well then POOP on him, I will go by myself. LOL. Cause I love animals and I love Penguins and I am going to go see it darnit.

So there ya have it, random rambling for a Friday. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Oh and I had to post this pic cause it totally made me laugh, Andrea sent it to me after she saw it on ebay...What will people think of next. Its a freaking water bowl in the shape of a toilet. LOL

Farewell to Lester....

BEFORE

After months and months of evading we THINK we got him. You see we strategically placed traps down here in our place and upstairs in our landlords kitchen. Somehow this mouse or mice were not getting caught in the traps but eating the food. Anyways Monday morning Alex calls downstairs to us saying she got one in one of the traps upstairs. It turned out NOT to be Lester as Lester was fat and this one was not. Hmmmmm. so we had more than one...Lovely. They tried to convince me to come see it but really a dead mouse is not the first thing I want to see in the morning. But don't worry both Alex and Chris were sure to tell me how the trap got the little guy right across the face and one of his eyes were bulging out. LOL. YUM!! We left all the other traps out and sure enough a few hours later Alex came home from the store and again yelled down to me that she got another and she was sure it was Lester. Again I did not go see it. But apparently the fat bugger got himself caught but somehow managed to get out of the trap and crawl a little away. Tough guy, but not tough enough as he was found dead with blood coming out of his head!

See you all missed me SO much, I bet you are wishing I hadn't shown up this morning to tell you this story in such great detail:) I figure if I had to hear about it then so did you. Alright so it's been two days and we have not seen or heard a thing. So my guess is it was only the two. Maybe they were boyfriend and girlfriend and they were shacking up. HA! Well whatever they were, they are no longer.

I should make a point of saying these pictures aren't actually Lester...just a representation of that fateful morning:)

AFTER

I Think We Will Name Him Lester....

So we checked all 3 mouse traps last night and all three had the peanut butter gone but NO mouse. That's right, he ate it and went on his merry little way. I really think we have the smartest mouse on the planet living here.

Chris and Evey's Caribbean Getaway

What are these pictures below you ask? They are pictures of the beautiful island of St Lucia.

Chris and I are taking a wonderful vacation next June to the Caribbean. The honeymoon we never had if you will. We fly out of Boston at 7:30 AM on June 24th and return on July 1st. We will be staying at one of the Sandals all-inclusive resorts. Most likely Halcyon Beach. The cool thing is that there are three Sandals resorts on St Lucia within close distance of each other. If you stay at one you get to "play at three." So we will have the choice of 14 or so restaurants as opposed to only the three at our resort. Also the use of all the other facilities at the other resorts. I am very excited about the all-inclusive thing and the idea of not having to worry about how much money we have left etc. Some of the things included in the all inclusive package are....

All meals, anytime snacks, fine dining
Unlimited premium drinks
Scuba diving
Golf
Sailing, water skiing, snorkeling & more
Land sports
Tips & gratuities

I could not be more excited about this trip. I have never really been anywhere outside of Canada or the United States. Well except of course the fact that I spent the first three years of my life in Scotland. I just have never really travelled anywhere. A lot of that might be due to the fact I am terrified of flying. But the thought of white sand, blue ocean and being able to sit on a stool in a pool drinking margaritas just may get me over my fear very quickly.

We really had NO plans to take a vacation like this until last Saturday. Last year Chris's sister Alicia and her husband Paul got some free vouchers through US Airways because the airline had screwed up their flights. The vouchers were good for roundtrip flights anywhere in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean. Alicia and Paul were heading to LAX on Saturday to cash in 2 of the vouchers for their vacation next summer. They offered the other 2 to us since they had to be used by Tuesday or they would become void. So we thought about it, talked about it and decided we would use the tickets. We quickly looked at places in the Caribbean and decided on St Lucia. Chris called Alicia and when they were at the airport booking their flights they also booked ours. So thank you to A and P for such a wonderful opportunity.


The first pic below is a map of the Island, if you click on it and enlarge it look to the top left of the map. Just north of the capital city of Castries is Choc Bay. Choc Bay is where Halcyon Beach is located.

IT LIVES!!!!

What does it take to kill a mouse?? I mean really...we have done EVERYTHING!! It evades traps, it apparently is immune to mouse and rat poison. After months of thinking we were rid of this creature we couldn't be more wrong. It is 3:30 AM and we have been kept up all night by this STUPID mouse squeaking and running around in our ceiling for ours. If I get my hands on this little bugger he will be begging for just a mouse trap.

The McClees Family

From left to right is Chris, Me, Grandpa McClees and his wife Char, John and Linda (Chris's parents), Trevor is standing in front of Linda, Alicia, Paul, Grandma and Grandpa Williams, Andrea, Bryan (Chris's bro) and Gavin in the front.


So this is a pic from Alicia's (Chris's sister) wedding June 27/04. She sent me this pic the other day and I think its awesome. It's rare you get a pic of this many people that actually looks good.

I have been getting the what for from some of ya'll as to why I have not been blogging much as of late. I really do not have a good excuse other than I simply don't always feel like blogging just for the sake of blogging, I sometimes would like to actually have something interesting to say. But exciting or not here I am and here I shall ramble for a bit:)

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. The guys had their last softball game Friday which they wussed out on cause the field was wet. They didn't want to "hurt" themselves for the upcoming playoffs. So we all headed out to "Wild Willie's" for some burgers. And good burgers they were. My allergies have been pretty bad lately so I felt like crap most of the weekend and we pretty much stayed home. Today I went to the church to help Amy paint what used to be the nursery and will soon be the new office. We went over to another friends for dinner and then we went and met Chris so he didn't have to come all the way to pick me up. And that's that, like I said...pretty uneventful.

The Spirit of Boston

So the other night I had the privilege of going on a harbor dinner cruise with my Starbucks co-workers (or "partners" in Starbucks-speak.) We rode on the beautiful Spirit of Boston through the harbor and back. The ship departed at 7, and returned at 10. I'll try to rate everything we had--just because I want to.

Once we were all on the boat, we all got to relax on the top deck and take in the view of the city from the dock and have a drink. Quite nice. Once the ship departed, we went inside and were seated at our first-class tables which entailed waiter service, free appetizers, free drinks, pretty much free everything.

First off we were served this huge platter of lobster and shrimp with cocktail sauce....whoop-dee-do. As most of you know I am deathly allergic to all fish, so this wasn't the highlight of the night. There were other appetizers, however, so I partook of those to my heart's content. Beef Wellington wrapped in pastry dough, mini spring rolls, and all sorts of rolls and breads. Mmmmmm. 8 out of 10.

Now once the appetizers were finished, on came the salads. Nothing special here, just your basic garden salad with Italian dressing. 6 out of 10.

The buffet dinner was another thing. Roast beef, sesame teriyaki chicken, other lobster and fish, baby red potatoes, sauteed veggies, etc, etc. My first plate included beef, steamed rice, green beans, and two pieces of teriyaki chicken. Super good. I'd give the beef 7.5 out of 10, only because it didn't cut easily with a butter knife, which it should. The chicken was outstanding--10 out of 10. The veggies were very good, 8 out of 10. My second dish was mainly steamed rice with three pieces of the chicken (they weren't that big, although I am a fatty.)

Now throughout the salad and dinner, of course the drinks were flowing like water.
"I'm talkin' about a place where the beer flows like wine, where the women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano..." 11 out of 10.

Also, there was live entertainment, and it included three singers--two females and one guy. They were OK, but not great. 5 out of 10.

Finally came the dessert--we had a choice between chocolate mousse cake or creme brulee cheesecake. I went with the cheesecake. Good choice. 9 out of 10.

We continued to party and the dance floor opened up, but most of us went outside to relax. It was a beautiful night, warm enough to not need a jacket, but not too hot. We continued drinking and having a great time until we arrived back at the dock at 10 PM. After that, we boarded our shuttle bus back to the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, which Starbucks put us up in for one night. Very plush. Heck, I didn't mind at all. Now, it did suck not having Evey there, and my opinion is that Starbucks should include spouses in activities like that, but it wasn't my call.

I would rate the evening very nice overall--an 8.5 out of 10.

So as you can see the bogeyman did NOT get me the other night. I survived and am here to tell about it. I will let Chris post later about his night out the other night, I will say though that he had a good time.

Chris had an MRI today, he will find out the results on Tuesday. So until then he will continue to lay on the couch and ice it lots. Good thing he actually took some vacation time so he doesn't have to work till Wednesday. We were gonna go camping this weekend, but for the sake of Chris's knee we thought it would be better we don't go. The guys have their last softball game tonight (before the playoffs of course), Chris obviously is not playing. Of course he will still be there as he is the coach and all.

I have yet to decide if I will venture out to the game tonight, my allergies have gone mad and my acid reflux is doing a number on me right now. So in other words I feel like C-R-A-P!! That along with the fact benadryl is the only thing that even remotely helps my allergies and it just makes me feel like I am in a fog. Time to go back to the doctor and get something figured out.

Evey's Relaxing Evening

As stated in my previous post, my lovely hubby is off for the night staying at a fancy schmancy hotel with work. I am a little jealous about the dinner cruise he went on etc..HOWEVER..I have had a wonderful night to myself. A great bottle of wine, a great book and of course some yummy ice cream. It's been a very relaxing and refreshing night. Had some lovely phone calls with my dad and my big brother. And my sister in law and both of my nephews. Now if I could only get to sleep....hmmmm maybe I shouldn't have had that coke an hour ago. OOPS!

Evey+Big House+All Alone=SCARY!!!!

Well my hubby has left me for the day and night:( He has some meetings all day today and then this evening they are going on a dinner cruise and then he is staying at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. And where will I be you ask??? I will be here at home eating hot dogs for dinner!! Am I bitter...YES!

You see, at his work Christmas party spouses were not allowed to come. And now this, good grief you think if they can afford to put them up in that hotel that they can afford to splurge for 10 or so more people for dinner. On top of all of it I am fraidy cat and I don't want to spend the night here alone. Normally it wouldn't bother me but we live in the basement suite of a very large old house. Normally my landlords would be home but they are out of town this week. So they are gone, Chris will be gone and its just me and my dog:( And never mind the fact that the power has been going out a lot lately. That's all I need for the power to go out, I think I would actually pee my pants if that happened while I was here alone late at night.

On another note I am extremely excited cause it seems as though the Edmonton Oilers have acquired and signed Chris Pronger to a FIVE year deal. Yeah yeah I know, many of you don't know who he is or care for that matter, but I CARE...And he is arguably one of the best defenseman in the NHL!

That is all....Oh wait no it isn't. Chris has an appt tomorrow for an MRI so we can find out what he actually did to his knee. Our fingers are crossed it's nothing major and something that will just heal on its own. Ok now that is all!!