Happy Birthday Bella!

Today-ish is my niece Bella's 5th birthday (She was born on February 29th). I can't believe she is already 5 years old. I remember the day she was born and how excited I was. I also remember going to see my sister in the hospital and ending up staying there for 4 hours to keep her company. For the first 3 years of her life, I pretty much saw her every day and took care of her quite a bit. Then I moved to Boston and then to Ottawa and I haven't seen her nearly as much. I miss her quite a bit. She's a smart little girl and doesn't let much get past her. She also uses ridiculously large words for a girl her age. Hopefully, she will get over her fear of flying and come to see me sometime soon. Anyway, Happy Birthday Bella!

Dripping water, Take 2

Today was the perfect mixture of melting snow and non-freezing rain. Perfect. It is that combination of events that has a tendency to make the window above my bed leak. So like I said, perfect! It was actually a bit better this time because: a) I wasn't trying to sleep because it leaked at noon; b) I had some idea of what to do; and c) all of my stuff was not scattered all over the floor after last time. I am not saying it was good just that it was better. I was just glad that I was in a state where I could actually deal with it rather than whimpering while looking longingly at my pillow just wanting to get some darn sleep. So today's favourite thing, while it may seem a bit odd, is having annoying things happen when you can actually deal with it rather than at a time when you have other priorities (such as sleep, beautiful sleep).

Perogies!

I really enjoy perogies. Today we didn't really know what to have for supper, so my sister just decided to cook the perogies she made a few weeks ago. You can find the recipe here. Living in Saskatchewan, perogies were quite the common food to be found at many different potlucks or community events. I don't know how common they are in other places. I know I had a difficult time finding them when I was living in Boston. I enjoy a few different types of perogies but my favourite type are the homemade perogies filled with cheesy mashed potatoes. So good. Some bought brands are definitely better than others and I enjoy the "Cheemo" brand ones. You can usually find perogies in the frozen sections of your local supermarkets or European grocers. There are a number of different ways to prepare them but I tend to just boil them and/or fry them in butter with onions. People eat them with sour cream and bacon bits as well. I tend just eat mine quite plainly.

Still exercising!

I have written in the past about doing different group exercise classes at the gym I go to. I tend to really enjoy them but some I enjoy more than others. There is something to be said for having an instructor that you enjoy. It makes the workout seem less like a workout. None of the instructors I have had have been bad per se, but some of them have definitely been better than others. There are certain days and times that I go to classes just for the fact that I enjoy the instructor for that class. For example, I go to Zumba on Mondays at 4:30 simply because I like the instructor. I also enjoy the instructor for BodyPump on Wednesdays at 6:30 and Mondays at 5pm and for BodyCombat on Thursday nights (sadly, I can't go to the Thursday night class until my French class is over). Those are definitely the classes I enjoy the most just because of the instructor. So today's favourite thing is Group Exercise class with an instructor I enjoy.

"If love was a plane, nobody'd get on!"

Way back in 2007, I came here to Ottawa to visit my sister. She had recently gotten a CD by Brad Paisley and was playing it pretty much incessantly in the car. We both loved it. Pretty much everytime I came back to visit her after that, it was in the car as well. She claims that she listened to other CDs between visits but I am not entirely sure that I believe her. Anyway, we haven't really listened to that CD since I moved in with her but last week we put it back in the car radio. I still really enjoy the CD. Brad Paisley is the sort of singer that gets away with singing about odd things simply because he is Brad Paisley. Any other singer that sang about wanting to check someone for ticks would ....well, I don't know but it wouldn't be good. The first time I heard that song, I was like "Did he just say 'I want to check you for ticks'? That's pretty creepy." Then I actually caught the rest of the words and it turns out that the aforementioned line is the least creepy part of the song. Yet, somehow, I still enjoy the song with all its creepy innuendos and such. I really enjoy Brad Paisley because he doesn't take himself too seriously. In fact, generally speaking, I tend to enjoy his sillier songs more than his more serious songs.
Probably my favourite songs of his are "Little Moments" and "With you, Without you." "Little Moments" is from a previous CD. It's a pretty sweet song and has one of my favourite lines of pretty much any song just because it's so darn specific:"When she's layin' on my shoulder on the sofa in the dark/ And about the time she falls asleep so does my right arm/ And I want so bad to move it 'cause it's tinglin' and it's numb/ But she looks so much like an angel that I don't wanna wake her up". I don't know why I like "With you, Without you" so much but I can't just listen to it once. My hand goes to the repeat button 2 or 3 times everytime the CD gets to that song.

Comfy!

I was having a difficult time coming up with my subject for today's post when I realized that I love the bunnyhug I am wearing today. The fact that it is my only bunnyhug may have something to do with it. For those of you who are not from Saskatchewan, bunnyhugs are what we Saskatchewanians call hoodies. I don't really know why. Anyway, back to my bunnyhug....It was actually a hand-me-down from my sister about 10 years ago. I believe it is actually 20 years old by now as it is for 'Radville Regional High School" and we left Radville, SK in 1989. Pretty impressive, don't you think? The bunnyhug is still in pretty good shape. It's very comfortable which is pretty much the purpose of a bunnyhug. The more I type the word bunnyhug, the stranger I think it is but I prefer the term "bunnyhug" to the more common word "hoodie" if only because it identifies me as someone from Saskatchewan.

Let it snow!

Today I went for a walk with my sister (technically, I walked while she skied). As much as I didn't really want to go (because I just wanted to veg), I really enjoyed myself. I really like walking through fresh snow. I see what my tracks look like and just mark up otherwise pristine snow. It helps that it was really nice out today, sunny and warmer than it has been the past few days. It was really good to actually get out of the house and just go for a walk. I went for walks all the time when I lived in Boston, but I got out of the habit when I moved here. Perhaps because here, I am not really limited to a one room apartment. There is more stuff to do in the house than there was in my tiny apartment. It was really good to get some fresh air.