After having a nice hot shower and snuggling up on the couch after work last night I realized that I needed something. Thai food. I tried a place near us called "Simply Thai" and it was simply wonderful. I ordered take out so I wouldn't miss Friends and Survivor... yes... I've become a Thursday night TV slave. Ah well.. it's fun.

I had chicken in yellow curry with potatoes... I braved the spice and got "medium".. trust me, for little ol' white girl me, this is brave. And it was PERFECT. Delicious yellow curry with coconut mik, just-cooked potatoes and tender bite-sized pieces of chicken. Add just the right amount of lip tinglies afterwards and you have one Happy Heather. If any of you are ever in town and you like Thai.. that's where we should go. =) I insist. YUM!

Got a flat tire on the way in to work this morning. It was a moderately fast leak... I can always tell when it's going flat that way because as I'm riding along I can begin to feel my normally solid bike begin to get bouncy and springy with each stroke of the pedal. I don't have shocks. This is a dead giveaway that my rear tire has gone flat. Before I started riding my bike to work every day I had only had probably one flat tire in my whole life... and that was from the rubber of my tube degenerating due to lack of use!! So far, in about 4 or 5 months of riding I've had 3 flat tires. One I wasn't prepared for and had to be rescued from... (thanks DieharD and Cherry Poppins big brother the Talon) Next day I went to MEC and got a spare tube and some tire levers. Life savers.

Now to find an easier way to get the tire back on the rim... those last few centimetres are painful.

The weekend is here. Mmmmmmmmm..... Tomorrow I'm going to go and learn how to do the copper foil method of stained glass. I've always been interested in stained glass, but the price of some of the ugly ones you can buy out there is horrific. Don't even get me started on the price of good quality stained glass. This way I'll be able to make whatever I want to make, too. If it goes well... I may even make some personalized gifts. Wish I had a workshop. :-/ After the glass class DieharD and I are going to head out to a movie with McCow and BabyBlade and then go get some sushi.. at least I think that's the plan. I'll let him work out the nitty gritty while I break glass and make it into something cool and colourful.


Sunday will be a sleep in day. Sleep. In. Next week I don't have to leave the house until 8:00 in the morning! OMG!

Rain. Wet. Road-grit. Mud. Blind drivers. Cold. Tired muscles. Water dripping from my nose and chin.

Warm cozy home with a fuzzy warm loving wiggly dog bundle and a sweet sexy loving affectionate man.

The second truly outweighs the first. Hands down.

Hope it stops raining tomorrow.... but I think today was the first of a continuous string of rainy days until April. Only one week until Doug n' Ali love. =D

Work-a-day world. Work's not so bad, really. I actually love my job.. so it's easy to go in the morning and so hard to leave at night... okay maybe not that hard. ;-) I'm back to riding my bike in to work each day... I think I started about five months ago... missed a few weeks here and there, but overall I've reshaped the lower part of my body and lost some of my 'baby fat' look in the face. Weight hasn't come off like I thought it would, but perhaps that has something to do with me eating too much and not doing anything but the cardio that the riding to work gives me. That or it's the thighs of steel I've managed to build.

The ride is about 12.5 km each way and takes me about 40 minutes to do. That's One hour and 20 minutes of exercise and fresh air each day. Some days fresher than others. Stinky traffic. Roads are for bikes! ;-) I have all kinds of gear. A bike computer that tells me a lot of things about my ride.. how long it took me, my max speed and average speed and that I've ridden over 1400 km since I bought it about 2 months into my riding. A really good lighting set from Nite Hawk (made in Canada!) - I wish the battery would last a bit longer with the super bright bulb... but I just use that one for emergencies... on dark roads or when approaching a busy intersection to make sure the cars actually see me. I have a 3 layer Gore Tex jacket from Mountain Equipment Co-op as well as some of their rain pants and neoprene booties to keep my feet dry and toasty on those wet West Coast days. Two Serratus panniers to carry my lunch and a change of clothes with me and a spare tube, set of tire levers and a multi tool in case of emergencies.

Tire Levers. Don't leave home without them.

More later... I have to get ready for dinner at La Terazza!

Back to work tomorrow. Heather 1 - Illness 0.

I bought a new computer chair today. I wasn't planning on it. I didn't set out to do it. We went in to Staples to buy a World Map so my sweetie can track his travels.. We were over at Tusker and Roomie Guy's place last week and he saw Tusker's World Map with places she's been marked off with pins. He didin't get the map, but I got a chair just like my sweetie's only in blue. $200 with the taxes.. not bad. And if he hasn't been able to break his in 2 years... mine will last forever!

Microsoft has released a new optical mouse with 2x faster sampling than its' previous generation. a|citizen has one. DieharD had mouse envy, but not any more! We had to go to four different stores and finally found it at London Drugs. Amazing. Not Future Shop not A&B Sound, not Compusmart. LD kicks ass. A&B Sound did have Sennheiser headphones, though.. so George bought a pair - and he even got a discount. Last pair in the store. His old pair is getting really, really, really ratty.

Got a birthday present for him at the mall.. he was there. He wanted a One Nighter Ski Pass for Cypress Mountain -- so I got him one. =) They're under new ownership and just put in 2 new quad chairs this year (one is a high speed detatchable). Not too shabby for a local mountain. I got a ski card, cuz I don't go as often as he does, but I like to save money when I do.

Now I'm tired, even though I slept all day... I have tons of leftover turkey, but the thought of turkey today isn't all that appealing, so I think I'll just have pasta. I have to get up early again tomorrow to work at 6:30 -- so it's time for something simple, quick and easy. I'll eat turkey tomrrow for lunch. =).

Whew! I survived... and all went well. My parents loved my sweetie's parents. I think they liked mine, too. Cool. Everyone's gone, now and there's tons of Turkey and pie left! Meals for the next week. ;-) I am so tired and my feet are aching, but I feel good. It really makes this place feel homey to have your family around you. My sweetie's grandma came, too - she speaks very little english, but she loved the place and the food and was very happy to listen to us all laughing and talking... my sweetie and his parents translated for her from time to time, too... and I love the sound of Russian. =)

We left Rainy upstairs while we went to take the parking pass down to my parents' car... and she ate a whole whack of the crackers that I had put out on the coffee table! I didn't notice until my dad had eaten some and I went to put more out. I thought he had eaten them all!! Rotten dog. Can't really blame her when we leave it right at nose level...\

I made Chai yesterday. From scratch. It's GOOD. I gave my Dad my last cup of it tonight.. I'll have to make some more tomorrow... Now to fight the illness that's been taking everyone out at work. I think I'm going down... but Chai will speed my recovery. =)

My recipe for Chai (Oregon style)

3 darjeeling tea bags
2 cups boiling water
1 3" cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup honey
6 green cardamom pods
3 slices of fresh ginger (use a veggie peeler)
1/4 tsp vanilla

simmer for 5 minutes. All the recipes I found online said you should add the milk and cook it, too... but I like to froth mine up before I put it in, so I just refridgerate the unused portion of chai and heat up 1/2 cup of it in the microwave and add my frothed milk after that.

YUM. I'm addicted. The guy at Booster Juice gave me a free sample of thier Oregon Chai trying to get me to buy some. It tasted GOOD... but I was in a smoothie mood. I almost bought some but then thought I could make my own so I checked my glorious Google and found a whole whack of recipes. Chai to me is like hot pumpkin pie in a cup. The only hot drink I have ever tried that I can actually drink a whole cup of and want more. Neat! I'm an adult, now. Heheh.

It's so time for bed. G'nite y0.

One more thing... I'm so happy for DeeAy - she's working her sexy butt off and getting fit and healthy! She and Trillian are my inspiration. They are simply amazing.

Okay. I'm up. I'm ready to bake. Better start NOW.

Woohoo! Canucks *WHOOPED* the Avs... now that's what the playoffs should have been like last year! I'm sure Roi was a little upset that he had the flu. ;-) I never did get to pie makin'... but I did talk on the phone with Tusker - she'd be calling the penalties before the refs did... and I was SO impressed! Then she realized why I was so amazed by her Goddess-like reffing ability... her TV was 2 seconds ahead of mine! Unfortunately my portable phone battery died so I couldn't talk to her for the whole game... but WHEE! Cloutier is my hero.

At any rate. I'm beat... heading to bed... up early to bake pies tomorrow. =)

Note to self: Don't eat the entire bag of Kettle Chips Honey Dijon. No matter how good they taste. Just don't.

Thanksgiving Dinner (one week late) here tomorrow. My parents and my brother, my sweetie's parents and his brother... going to be a full house. I began preparations today... the potatoes, something called a "turnip puff" and the cranberry sauce are all done, so far... Now I'm starting to make a couple of pies... one Pumpkin Chiffon and one Apple (for those who don't like pumpkin pie <-- !??!!). My sweetie's family doesn't like it. I don't know why.

Got up at the ungodly hour of 8am this morning.... but hell.. that's sleeping in over THREE HOURS for me. ;-)

Went to my parents' house last night after work to try to find the missing place setting of china. No luck. I don't know what's happened to it. :-/ Mom's upset... but she'll get over it. We then went over to my aunt and uncle's house - who I haven't seen since my Dad was in the hospital last year - and my Grandmother on my Dad's side. Haven't seen her in a long time, either. She's 89. Lives on her own. Gets taken advantage of by nasty men who ask her if they can mow her lawn and then steal her lawn mower. I wish humans weren't like that. She doesn't look 89, more like 70. She wants me to write to her, and I'm going to...

I recently lost my Great Uncle... and it made me realize how old that generation of our family is getting... they won't be around much longer... and I'm going to miss my Great Uncle so much. He was such a sweet and wonderful man. Always a gentleman, an avid photographer, a loving husband, a veteran of the Armed Forces in WWII, born in Vancouver in 1916.. how things must have changed around here in his lifetime! My mother was exceptionally close to her Uncle, and to her Aunt -- and now they are support for each other in their time of loss. Losing my Great Uncle made me closer to my mom, too. Closer than I've ever felt. I love you mom, even though you'll never read this...

So much to do before tomorrow. After I bake the pies, I'm going to take a nap!!

Tell someone you love them. Show them how much.

Amazing. I can actually update this thing from work... or I'll find out if I can in the next few minutes...

Drove my car in to work today for the first time this week... been a good girl riding my bike. My excuse today is that I have to drive out to my parents' house (50 minutes away) and be there by 4:00PM. Wouldn't make it on time by bike. ;-) Don't think I'd make it at all by bike!

Hmmmm... what to tell y'all about lil' ol' me.... well. I work at a job I love -- doing remote administration of Radiology PACS systems that our company sells and services in hospitals all over Canada and the U.S. On my desk is a wee fish tank with way too many fish in it. I have to tell you, Marineland Eclipse System Six works *great*. I haven't lost a fish or frog, yet and I have been rather remiss in changing the water... must get to that next week. I have a bit of an algae problem, but I really can't afford to add yet another fish to the mix to clean it up any more.

Currently living in the tank: 2 male dwarf gouramis (who like to posture and mildly beat on each other), four lemon tetras, one Oto Catfish, one Bronze Corydoras Catfish and two hilarioius acquatic frogs. I'll get some pictures one day and show you the whole community.

I also have a really cool Spawn figurine on top of my compter to scare away anyone who is thinking about bugging me... problem is, the fish kind of counterbalance the evilness of the Spawn and I end up neutral and bugged. Ah well. Such is the price of having diverse interests. There is a horse calendar (of course) and the cover of a program from the Spruce Meadows Masters (Oooh! They redisgned their site! Very nice!) that DeeAy took me to! (Her site even has pictures!) That was a highlight of my summer, definitely.

There are a few miscellaneous comics and work-related phone lists and schedules... all in all it's a very rewarding place to work. I love the guys that I work with - they're all hard-working, fun and very supportive - and the manager is the same way. It's a high intensity, yet relaxed atmosphere that I enjoy coming to every day. I'll post more later... but for now I have to get back to work!

Introducing, the Long Awaited Debut of the Much Requested Epona BLOG! (For all 3 of you who may read this and the One person who actually requested it) ;-)

My first attempt didn't save correctly.... and so all that witty banter and lively literature is now lost and gone forever... relegated to the recesses of my sleep-deprived mind.

Someday, I'll resurrect it. And someday I'll confirm the spelling of that word.

At any rate... tis late... I love Trillian and DeeAy and maybe that Ed-biatch. Sup Biatch?

Epona for the Celtic Goddess of Horses -- and Rain for the rain of Vancouver where I love, live and work. My dog's name is also "Rain Dancer", so it fits in that way, too. That, and the name "Epona" was already taken. Biatch. Give me my name back.

It's late. I'm off to bed and crossing my fingers that this works, because if it doesn't, I'm not doing it until tomorrow! HAH!