Posts

Swerving right into the oncoming holiday season

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Plowed through most of of November already! I know lots of people like to hold off on holiday celebrating as long as possible, which is fine, but I’m already getting ready. I’ve done nearly all my Christmas shopping, we’re working on Advent music at choir, and we went to the local Santa Claus parade is this weekend!

Today is foggy and the sunlight looks thin and cold, though the temperature is going to be fairly mild. No notable snows yet, but those don’t usually come until the first bit of December.

Wesley and I both picked up a bit of a cold- He’s got snot from his nose to his ankles, and mine is more of a sore throat and desperate need for extra sleep so far. Hopefully we’re both all cleared up soon.

I’m getting used to the idea that I’m heading back to work soon. Nervous about the logistics and the transition, but excited to be working again. Lots of other things to look forward to in the new year as well- my parents are coming to visit in February, and we’re likely heading to Florida in March for a vacation with Trevor’s parents (as soon as dates and details are sorted out). I’ve never been to Florida (despite having been to most of the other states) so I’m excited about that.

October updates

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I can’t believe it’s already October! The leaves are all changed on the trees, the weather has cooled off and is beautiful, and we’re firmly in the season of pumpkin-flavoured-everything. The summer was nice, hot and fun but not too eventful for once. Here’s some updates about what has been going on over the past little while.

Photographer: Angela Clayfield

Theatre

The Horribly Horrifying Fun House of Death has closed, and it went super well! I was totally hands-off once the show opened, so I don’t know all the details, but everything I heard was that the show went awesome. It was so nice to be able to work on a show without basically giving up my whole life for 2 months, especially since I have a little dude and other obligations to take care of. I didn’t want to just stop doing theatre altogether, especially when it meant working with people who are super awesome.

And don’t they all look so nice in their costumes, and the set was awesome as well! Thanks to Ange for the lovely photo- I wanted to make sure I had a shot of everyone in costume. 🙂

Choir

I went to the Grand Philharmonic Choir’s Sing-in on September 29th, and it was pretty fun. They’re doing the Mozart Requiem this fall, which I haven’t done in quite a while, actually- so it was really fun to sing some bits from it again. It was fun to see all my GPC friends again as well! Their concert is October 20, and will no doubt be awesome.

Church choir has started up again, and that has been nice. We had our first Evensong service last week, and are already hurtling madly toward Advent.

Traveling

No, we’re not planning a big trip or anything, though we are going to the states in a couple weeks, because Wesley needs to have his NEXUS interview! Trevor and I both have NEXUS cards, because we cross the border enough that it was a good idea, but if we want to bring Wesley along, he needs to have one too. Next time we take a trip to or through the US (we often fly from there as it’s much cheaper), our border crossing will be faster!

So we’re planning to take him for his interview then, and do a little cross-border shopping as well (a good time to get Christmas shopping done!) I’m looking forward to it!

Running

I signed up for yet another 5k race- this one is called the Santa Pur-suit, and requires that runners wear SANTA SUITS. This is AWESOME, and I am totally excited about it. It’s December 1st, so a little while away yet, but I can hardly wait. The race is close to my neighborhood, and requires dorkiness, so it’s like it was created just for me. 😀

Value of time…

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Today, a boy of maybe 12 or 13 came to our door and asked if we’d like our driveway shoveled. I, of course, definitely did- shoveling is pretty much the last thing I want to do lately, and even though Trevor is home on the weekends, he was feeling pretty lazy too. So we jumped at the chance.

Here’s the interesting part though- he only wanted to charge us $3.

Now, our driveway is not huge, it’s maybe 20 feet by 40 feet or so tops. However, I think $3 is way too low for something like shoveling, even if it is a quick job- I totally would have paid $15 or $20. He wound up taking $10. I don’t like to see kids/teenagers undervaluing their time or their work- I think it just sets them up to let themselves be taken advantage of in the future.

Then I wondered- maybe I over-value these type of manual-labour services because I totally don’t want to do them myself? So I thought I would look at babysitting rates (a non-manual-labour type of odd job)- I figured, people probably pay babysitters about $10 an hour, right? Well, it seems not, because lots of places online seem to mention rates around $5-$7 an hour for this area.

Am I crazy? Are kids/teenagers doing these odd jobs not worth as much as I think?

April 26, 2011 Updates

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Running

Over the weekend, I managed to run a whopping 13.3 miles (that’s a tiny bit longer than a half-marathon, or Pikermi, as some call it). It was definitely hard, but I did it! I ran a route that took me through town, so I was dealing with traffic, and a number of different surfaces- trails, asphalt, concrete.

Now that I know I can do it though, I’m going to think about when I’d like to do the half-marathon as a race. There’s a marathon and half-marathon in town coming up May 1, but The Odd Couple is closing the night before that, so the likelihood of me being properly rested for it is pretty well nil.

There’s several others coming up though that I can consider, and lots of shorter races- I’m already committed to doing a 5k Fun Run on May 29, and another 5k in July, and I can always do some 10k races here and there.

Speaking of The Odd Couple…

Theatre

I’ve been doing a little bit of running crew work for The Odd Couple, which is going into its final week of the run this week.

It’s a good show! I wish I could watch it properly, but I’ve been pleased to get to work on it in a backstage capacity. I’ve gotten to meet some great new people, and hang out with others I had already met but didn’t really know. Good stuff!

Choir

This past weekend, we sang Bach’s St. John Passion. The concert went really well. I don’t find myself enjoying St. John as much as I did St. Matthew, music or text-wise, but it was still quite good. Rufus Müller was fabulous as the Evangelist, as expected, and the turnout was pretty good.

Next up will be the Chamber cabaret concert on May 7, and then singing for Holst’s The Planets with the KW Symphony. Should be good.

Voting

I voted at my advance poll last Friday, because May 2 will be a little too busy for me to drive across town 2 extra times in order to get to my polling place. It is my first federal election as a Canadian! I was excited to finally get to vote in the country where I’ve lived for the past 6 years. We’ll see how the election turns out- the reports thusfar are quite varied.

Updates from the home front

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I’m behind in posting about things, so I’m going to do a few posts to catch up! First, a catchup on homelife!

The Fuzz: Fuzz seems to be settling in. The cats aren’t wrestling and fighting as much as they were (though they still get into it now and again). They’re still not quite friendly, but I don’t worry as much about them killing each other, so that’s good.

Bedroom: We bought a bunch of new furniture for the bedroom, from IKEA. We needed to replace our dressers, and wound up getting new nightstands and a new shelf as well, and a new tv to replace the huge monstrosity that was in there. It’s really nice! Eventually we’ll probably get a bigger bed as well, but that is still a while off.

Trevor took a couple photos! They’re phone pictures, so a little fuzzy, but you get the idea.

There’s already a lot more room to move around in the bedroom despite there being more furniture, which is nice! And the new dresser is a lot nicer than the old one.

Kijiji experiences: We were able to sell our old TV on Kijiji, which was actually really awesome. I hadn’t sold anything on there before, but it’s really great for when you just want to get rid of something- people will come and pick it up, which saves a lot of hassle! Our old TV was really heavy and large, and now, we won’t have to lift it anymore and instead we have a much lighter tv. Hooray!

Next, I’ll write some more about other things that have been going on. Stay tuned!


Approved!

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I got the letter yesterday. I passed the test! My application for Canadian Citizenship is approved!

My Citizenship Ceremony and oath are happening on October 7, at the Citizenship and Immigration office in Kitchener.  I’ll have to head back to work afterward, and then to a show in the evening, but I’m sure I’ll get a good chance to celebrate.

This does mean I’ll be allowed to vote in the upcoming Municipal election! I’m excited.