1. Gold-Chris Cleave
2. The Art of Fielding-Chad Harbach
3. The Headmaster's Wager-Vincent Lam
4. Gone Girl-Gillian Flynn
Wednesday 19 September 2012
Tuesday 11 September 2012
Monday 10 September 2012
Adventures abound
So August was not only my birthday month, but also the official start to my goal of crossing off my 30 "must do" items. One of the points on my list is to go on an adventure at least once a month with Charlie. When we first met we were practically tripping over each other to come up with fun dates and exiting things to share with one another. Fast forward 5 years and the rush to impress and delight has slowed to a moderately paced jog. Keeping things fresh and exciting takes real work...and by striving to do one out of the box thing together each month I'm hoping to recapture some of that fresh faced excitement we once held so dear. August was full of adventure: a picnic in the park with the local ducks, a tubing adventure at the Elora Gorge (which resulted in major bodily injury to yours truly), a family outing to Stratford, and getting to meet Canadian superstar Chantal Kreviatzuk in my hometown of little old Amherstburg. I'm not sure how September will measure up, but if you have some ideas on how to put a little adventure into our lives, I'm all ears! 
Monday 6 August 2012
Ch-ch-ch-changes!!
Whew, sorry guys! After a hiatus from my blogging for the month of July I'm back. With my 29th birthday fast approaching (T-minus 13 days) I'm ready to dig my heels in and get to some serious crossing off of my 30 before 30 list. So where have I been you ask? Where have I NOT been is more like it! It's been a jam packed July as we've packed in an emotional major move from one school to another, a bachelorette extravaganza in Chicago, a trip to California, my best friends wedding and some much needed family time! Have a look...
Sunday 17 June 2012
Wednesday 13 June 2012
Ready for Pick Up
In keeping with my goal of cleaning out my closet and making a donation once per season ( I'm aiming for 4 donations in the coming year) I've gone through my stuff and managed to fill a heavy duty, extra large garbage bag with clothes. I actually had another large bag full of dresses to donate, but brought them into the school where I teach for the child & youth worker to distribute to a few girls who might need them more than me. I always struggle with where to bring my stuff, but this time, in a twist of fate, the Canadian Diabetes Association called a few days ago wondering if I had any clothes to donate to their Clothesline Program. Yes, as I matter of fact I do! This bag is waiting patiently to be picked up sometime between 9-6pm today.
Thursday 7 June 2012
A Month Without Meat-CHECK!
2 down, 29 more to go! I am very excited to cross a month without meat
off of my 30 before 30 list. This month has most definitely been
challenging, but also so very rewarding as I managed (with the help of so many of
my friends and family) to create for myself a lifestyle where the beef wasn't
the first thing my eyes went to on a menu.
After a few days of reflection I've put together some pros and cons that I found in my short stint adopting a vegetarian lifestyle:
Pros
-4 llb weight loss (awe yeah)!!
-The options for cooking vegetarian at home are endless, and for the most part totally delicious. I was able to try so many new dishes that will be forever incorporated into our weekly menu.
-Better body functions. Everything just seemed to be more regular. I found I slept better, had more energy, and woke up feeling far more rested than normal.
-Less guilt about what I put in my body. I found that in choosing not to eat meat, I was also more aware of the choices I was making. This month I ate better than I ever have before.
Cons
-Vegetarian food at weddings/showers suck. Most of the time fish is the second option, which isn't exactly conducive to a meatless diet; thus I resorted to claiming the relish tray as my own and eating everyone else's salad and every last green bean with almond available to me.
-Eating out was not easy. At most restaurants the vegetarian choices consisted of pasta, pasta and more pasta.
-Everyone's a critic. I found myself defending my choices to a surprising number of people.
To celebrate the end of the month, Charlie and I had dinner with his brother and sister-in-law at the Keg. Despite words of warning from my mother to "take it slow"-I decided to go for broke and order the Dungeness Crab/Sirloin special; two birds, one stone style. This was a disaster. I have never had a weak stomach, and hardly ever have negative reactions to food (surprised?) ...until now. I made it through most of my crab and half of my steak before my vision began to blur. I don't know if there is such a thing as being "meat stoned" but if there is, I imagine this is what it felt like. I managed to make it home before I lost my lunch in the worst way, as Charlie stood by laughing and wondered if he should take some photos "for the blog". Needless to say, it was back to veggies for the rest of the week.
So, have I decided to go vegetarian from here on in? No, not exactly. I am definitely not willing to lose out on all of the fantastic pros that I feel have come out of this experience, but I also missed eating meat a lot of the time. We've committed to going meatless for most of our meals, and with the stock pile of recipes I wasn't able to get to, that's not going to be difficult. I'm also going to cut way back on the amount of red meat I eat, and since I don't really care for chicken, that leaves me with lots of great fish options to try. Since May ended we haven't yet made one meal with meat...so, there's that ;)
After a few days of reflection I've put together some pros and cons that I found in my short stint adopting a vegetarian lifestyle:
Pros
-4 llb weight loss (awe yeah)!!
-The options for cooking vegetarian at home are endless, and for the most part totally delicious. I was able to try so many new dishes that will be forever incorporated into our weekly menu.
-Better body functions. Everything just seemed to be more regular. I found I slept better, had more energy, and woke up feeling far more rested than normal.
-Less guilt about what I put in my body. I found that in choosing not to eat meat, I was also more aware of the choices I was making. This month I ate better than I ever have before.
Cons
-Vegetarian food at weddings/showers suck. Most of the time fish is the second option, which isn't exactly conducive to a meatless diet; thus I resorted to claiming the relish tray as my own and eating everyone else's salad and every last green bean with almond available to me.
-Eating out was not easy. At most restaurants the vegetarian choices consisted of pasta, pasta and more pasta.
-Everyone's a critic. I found myself defending my choices to a surprising number of people.
To celebrate the end of the month, Charlie and I had dinner with his brother and sister-in-law at the Keg. Despite words of warning from my mother to "take it slow"-I decided to go for broke and order the Dungeness Crab/Sirloin special; two birds, one stone style. This was a disaster. I have never had a weak stomach, and hardly ever have negative reactions to food (surprised?) ...until now. I made it through most of my crab and half of my steak before my vision began to blur. I don't know if there is such a thing as being "meat stoned" but if there is, I imagine this is what it felt like. I managed to make it home before I lost my lunch in the worst way, as Charlie stood by laughing and wondered if he should take some photos "for the blog". Needless to say, it was back to veggies for the rest of the week.
So, have I decided to go vegetarian from here on in? No, not exactly. I am definitely not willing to lose out on all of the fantastic pros that I feel have come out of this experience, but I also missed eating meat a lot of the time. We've committed to going meatless for most of our meals, and with the stock pile of recipes I wasn't able to get to, that's not going to be difficult. I'm also going to cut way back on the amount of red meat I eat, and since I don't really care for chicken, that leaves me with lots of great fish options to try. Since May ended we haven't yet made one meal with meat...so, there's that ;)
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| The offending crab/steak combo... |
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| Should have went with the pasta... |
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