Where did January go?

Time just flies by and I can't even remember half of what I've done this month. It makes me wonder about things like how people are expected to testify in court months or even years after a crime has taken place and come up with accurate details from the past. "Where were you on the afternoon of Saturday, August 19th, 1972?" (okay I don't remember that one, but I'm sure my mom does!)

Work has been interesting as of late. We have learnt that our supposed co-worker who was hired in October is actually our supervisor. My boss has yet to directly inform me of this important little tid-bit.
It seems like our department is expected to be busy non-stop and any downtime is viewed as unproductive time that must be filled up by work-work-work. I don't know what it's like elsewhere but quality control gets all the flack and very rarely any praise at our company. Ah, such is life. I try not to think about it too much. Most of the time I leave work at night and can forget about it all until the next morning. It also helps when your boss gives you a brandy shot at 3:30 in the afternoon!

I made my vacation request this week and have been approved for the 2nd & 3rd weeks in May so Tim & I can now start planning our trip. We are going to Ireland. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what or what not to see there? Tim gave me the Lonely Planet book on Ireland for Christmas but first-hand experience from people we know is even better.
I can't wait to see how many pictures we end up taking during this trip. Tim will be bringing his "good" camera. Uh-oh!

I feel like the Pilsbury dough-girl lately...between Christmastime indulgences, not making it to the gym once last week because I was just too wiped out after work and last weekend's Pizza Party part 2 with leftover dough which turned into cinnamon buns, my pants are too tight! I hate all you people with fast metabolisms and self-restraint. :P

I got "shot" twice this week. Both times on Monday. First time was in the chest as I was being super careful while sampling some paprika oleoresin (basically reddish-orange sludge in a big bucket which is hard to pour.) So needless to say as I was being super careful, I indeed splashed some on myself and have a nice big orange stain on my lab coat now.
Second time was that evening. And that time it was actually real blood. In the arm. You see, I went to donate blood so I could get a free ticket for the car show. The donation went fine, smooth, no problem when giving for the 52nd time. It's after the donation. I was told it was okay to leave after a 5 minute waiting period. (it used to be 10.) So I went over to join Tim who was waiting for me at the food court in Complexe Desjardins. And as I was about to sit down, I had this warm, liquidy feeling in my forearm and looked down to see my shirt soaked in blood. Yay.
Thank goodness I was wearing a dark shirt I don't really care about.
So word to the wise: if you give blood, apply pressure for TEN minutes afterwards.
Oh, and I managed to get the blood out. Cold water did the trick.

That's enough sharing for now. Later.

How we rang in 2008

I can't believe I'm already used to writing 2008!

On Sat the 29th, after some more cleaning up from the pizza party, we did some running around town and then packed our bags and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour as we had to get up early on Sunday for our flight to DC.

In the morning, we picked up Ysabel, left our car off at my parents' place and then my dad drove us to pick up France and then dropped us off at the airport for our 9:20 flight.
We were helping Ysabel use up her last passes of the year. Luckily flying standby to Washington on the Sunday before New Year's was not a problem.

Jacquie and Matt were waiting for us when we landed at Reagan National and we got to their place in Greenbelt, MD at around 12:30, just in time for lunch!

We had a lazy afternoon followed by a trip to Corridor Wines, the most awesome liquor store ever! We couldn't resist stocking up on a few bottles to bring home which meant we would have to check our bags for the return trip. Going down we had only carry-on luggage to simplify the standby process.
That evening, France made one of her infamous (in a good way!) punch concoctions which I only tasted as I had already started drinking wine and didn't think it was a good idea to start mixing with hard liquor. Wise choice, I felt fine the next morning!

Monday was an absolute beautiful day. It probably got up to a good 10 degrees Celcius in the sun. We went for a drive to Annapolis and walked around the town, stopping in some shops and had lunch at the Rams Head Tavern.
I had their Classic Burger, yummy. Who can go wrong with bacon & cheese?! I was surprised though that my burger wasn't cooked to the super well-done level you would expect in an American (i.e. super paranoid about lawsuits) restaurant.

We brought in the New Year with a bunch of Matt & Jacquie's friends who dropped in for a house party. We had lots (too much!) of munchies, more punch (I stuck to wine again!) and some bubbly for midnight. The evening's entertainment consisted of ping-pong, pool, Monopoly, chatting, eating, drinking! And I made it til about 1:30 before hitting the hay!

Tuesday was again a beautiful day. It certainly was a nice break from the deep winter conditions back home.
We took advantage of the great weather and walked around Greenbelt Lake in Buddy Attic Park and also went for a long walk in the woods.

Canada Geese!



Ys, Tim & I had to say our goodbyes the following morning, sniff, sniff (France stayed on til Friday).
We tried to get on the earlier flight but there was only one seat available so instead of going thru the hassle of security all over again, we stayed in the terminal til the afternoon flight which we got on, no problem.
And it was back home to the deep-freeze winter wonderland!