New Year's Meme

Taken from Kyriaki:

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Joined the Orthodox Church.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't think I made any, this year I think I might start making a budget.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No

5. What countries did you visit?
Canada

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Self-discipline.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
My baptism I guess.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I achieved something?

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not having loved my brother as myself.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really, a few colds.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A few icons?

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food, rent, loan payments

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The first Skype get-together I attended, and the possibility of having my friend Kris over so he wouldn't have to spend Christmas alone.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
I don’t know.

Compared to this time last year, are you:
18. Richer or poorer?
Probably poorer in money, richer in so many ways…

19. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Love.

20. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Wasting time on the internet at home.

21. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it at home in the country with family eating lots of good food :D

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Yes

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Almost anything on the food channel

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No

26. What was the best book you read?
I’ve read too many good ones

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
www.ancientfaith.com

28. What did you want and get?
I don't know

29. What did you want and not get?
I don't know

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Island


31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 25. I went to work as usual, and got a gift basket from my parents and another from my boss.


32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
No idea. It was a good year.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Comfort as usual.

34. What kept you sane?
My life wasn't that crazy this year.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
For this Kyriaki has the same opinion as me: Since when do I care exactly?

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
See previous response

37. Who did you miss?
A few of my friends that I don't see often

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I meet new people?

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
Don't try to make deals with God.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I can't think of anything, I don't listen to music often, but Kyriaki's reply fits well too: “Rich men have turned poor and gone away empty…but they that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good thing…”

Lol!

This looks pretty, but some say it doesn't work? lol maybe I'll try sometime :P

Tired

Oh my goodness I'm so tired. I had half a cup of coffee this morning, and half a can of pepsi at lunch. The thing about caffeine with me though is that it wakes me up in the morning, and it keeps me from going to sleep at night, but in the middle of the afternoon I feel dead. By 6pm this evening I'll be full of energy again. Why can't I have that energy now, when I need it??? I couldn't care less if I get sleepy AFTER work, but no, it's always in the middle of the afternoon. Ok I HAVE to get to bed by 9:30pm tonight!!!

A (nice) break from routine

Lol, God what are you up to?

Yesterday after church Vladimir offered me a lift home and we ended up spending the rest of the day together :D And we watched The Island, GREAT movie!!! I nearly cried! Lol I ended up taking Kris' advice, he told me a few days ago "well if I had the choice between playing a game with people online and hanging out with people in real life I'd hang out with people irl", and I had a great day yesterday :D Yesterday evening I felt much better than Saturday evening! We went to eat at Amir, visited a few little Russian stores, went to my place to fiddle with my laptop, then went to his place and had dinner and watched The Island :D And all that driving in a snowstorm! I took a few pictures that I'll upload tonight.

And it seems like I'll finally GET MY LAUNDRY DONE! The laundry saga is finally over. Although it's my own fault for procrastinating and forgetting to call the rental office for tokens.

...

I came across this when I came to post. That's just...wordless. And I'm so wretched that I can't even remember that for half an hour. I pray with time I'll learn.

Mat came over this evening, we watched Wall E, good movie :)

I just felt/feel like banging my head against a wall. It's been 2 years already. Has anything changed? Ok, I'm Orthodox now, but has anything CHANGED??? I've been praying that I'll be able to make some kind of decision about this soon. Or do I even have to make one? I don't even know.

Apparently I like picking at scabs on my heart as well as on my face.

T.T

[/emo]

Lunchtime

My noodles were too hot for Licorice to try sticking her nose in them lol:



Curry flavored rice noodles with smoked oysters, mmmmmm:



Spiced apple juice, put 2L apple juice, lots of sugar, 3 sticks of cinnamon, and a small handful of cloves in a pot and heat to just below boiling point, turn off heat and let steep for a while. Served cold or hot:



I swear they put crack in these, they're so addictive!:

Mele Kalikimaka

I'm sitting here with a cat purring in my lap listening to Christmas music enjoying the fact that I'm not outside in the -17 Celcius wind and snow! After I'm done writing here I'm going on a quest for laundry tokens. I'm praying I can find someone to unlock the rental office and sell me some laundry tokens, I have 2 loads of laundry to do and Christmas is next week, so no chance of buying them then methinks.

I had some yummy comfort food for breakfast, minute oats with vanilla soy milk and lots of cinnamon and sugar, eaten cold:



I offered some to Sambuca after much begging on her part, which she promptly spat out loll. I told her she wouldn't like cinnamon! Earlier she was asking to be let out on the balcony, only to turn tail and flee when she heard a tractor removing snow when I opened the door :P



Here's the lovely weather outside, although at the moment there's actually a feeble ray of sunshine poking out!



And I'm off to get some tokens come hell or high water!

And I think Bing Crosby makes great Christmas music :D

More cards and food

Not much to say about this week, worked, didn't sleep enough, and tonight I finally went out and bought a few gifts and cards.

I made this for dinner, it's calamari rings from the grocery store which I made in the oven, NEVER AGAIN! Normally I like calamari rings, but I had never had grocery store ones before. I made a bean dip for them from kidney beans, mediterranean dressing and ketchup, which was better on it's own than with the calamari dipped in it.





And here's all the new cards I got:



Here's the fruit stand at the reception hall where we had our office Christmas party last Saturday:



I'm finally listening to some Christmas music this evening, luckily I don't work in a place where I'm stuck listening it from the middle of November!

I have yet to send out my own cards, but I went and finally bought them tonight and will start writing this evening.

A different kind of fast

I just found this blog and find it really interesting. It's about a couple who decided to eat only $1 worth of food each per day for one month and blog about their budget, observations and thoughts about it.

Cards, cats, and SNOW!

I'm tired, but I want to get this post done.

So this week we had a lot of snow, and some freezing rain. And I got lovely Christmas cards from all my friends at Desert Calling :D (click for fullview!)



And here's my cats snoozing on Tuesday (one was on my lap):



We had freezing rain the night before:












Wednesday afternoon:



Wednesday evening:







And yesterday morning the street outside of Charlevoix metro:



And the guy it belongs to (my coworker "that's MY street" lol):



And here's today:

Giant tuned mass damper

Ok I have to watch this video when I get home!

This is way cool

Cake in a cup in 5 minutes

Snow

Today we had our first REAL snow of the year, much to the dissapointment of some, but not me! :P (I don't have a car lol)

Here's the view from my job this afternoon:



And some pretty snow-covered queen anne's lace I saw on the way to work:



It snowed all day, we must have at least 15cm by now. It's "supposed" to warm up to 2 Celcius overnight, but I don't think that's gonna happen, it's still -9 out.

Lolcat of the day

more animals

Surprise weekend and fast food from scratch

Last week I went to the doctor twice for bronchitis, then on Friday made a surprise visit to my parents for the weekend. They were really happy :) Spent the weekend watching tv, decorating the house, enjoying the snow and playing WoW. Montreal is still bleak and grey, it was so nice to see WHITE!

My dad changed car again, the old one broke down so he bought another used one. A 92 Nissan Maxima, has a bit more punch than the Dodge clunker he had! :P



Here's the view of the beautiful snow from the dining room window, and the rosemary tree I bought my mom lol:



And from the kitchen window:



My parents:





I had a really nice weekend. I can't wait to go back in 2 1/2 weeks!

Here's what I made for dinner, noodles and shrimp. First I caramelized some onions and added some cooked frozen shrimp:



Then made some noodles in the microwave:



Then put it all together and voila! Deliciousness!:



And Licorice kept begging for attention, or food, or both:



So I picked her up and stuck her in my vest for a few minutes while I cooked lol:



And now I'm off to bed!!!

DIY T-Shirts and Alternative Fruitcake

This froot-cake is so gonna be made this Christmas! I hate the traditional stuff.

And some really cool diy t-shirts from the same guy. I have to try this out too.

Play with paint