And the winner is...

Maureen! Sorry I didn't get a chance to post this on Saturday, but life has been insanely busy lately. So Maureen, if you will Facebook me your address I will mail you your very own bag bag.

Good News!

Well yesterday was certainly an eventful day! You know that job that I posted about earlier? The Junior Office Services Supervisor position? I got it! My boss pulled me aside yesterday morning to tell me. I'm rather excited, because it means I've finally moved beyond 'entry-level'. Woo hoo! We went out to a little restaurant just down the street called D-Ganz that has the best steak I've ever eaten in my life to celebrate.

The other major event was that Cousin P has finally arrived and is settling in. We borrowed a friend's car to pick her up at the airport, and got home essentially in time to go to bed, but she's here and in one piece, so we're happy. Now we just need to get used to having a roommate :)

Swan Diving 101

My entire left side is a little sore today as the result of a beautifully excecuted fall I had on the subway yesterday. It was one of those slow-motion, flying through the air kind of falls - the kind you see in movies when the character carrying the cream pie trips on something, except I went sideways instead of face-first - and I had no pie. I wish I could have seen it. From the collective gasp that went up from all the other passengers it must have been quite something. The fall was the culmination of four separate events. First, I sat in a seat where there was nothing within arm's reach to grab onto. Second, the lady who ended up standing directly in front of me, blocking me in, was so engrossed in her own little world that she didn't respond to my polite requests and taps on the shoulder asking her to move so that I could exit at my stop, forcing me to try and move around her. Third, the 2 teenage boys sitting next to me had long legs, large feet and full backpacks. And finally, the subway train lurched to a stop just as I started to lose my balance, giving me the momentum necessary to launch into the air, making a graceful arc, before landing at (or on, I can't really remember) the feet of some unsuspecting gentleman standing by the door. I then gathered what remained of my dignity, got up and walked off the subway car, and wavered between laughing and crying the rest of the way home.

Christmas clean-up

Our apartment is now de-Christmased. It's always a little depressing to see all the decorations come down - everything looks so empty until we readjust. I think we waited a little long to take down the tree, as you can see by the sheer amount of needleage carpeting the floor:

I was thinking that I was going to have to vacuum all the way down the stairs to the door, but then TC had this great idea:

He sawed our tree into several pieces, and viola! Tree in a bag (or bags)!

A Surfeit of Bag Dispensers

Inspired by the messy pile of bags that has been accumulating in one corner of our pantry, I made it my project this weekend to find a crochet pattern for a plastic bag dispenser. I finally found one here, and after making some alterations to the pattern they were so much fun to make that I went a little overboard. I therefore need to find a home for an extra that I made, which is where you, o loyal blog readers, come in. If you find yourself overrun by the plastic bags that your environmental conscience won't let you throw away, or you know someone on your gift-giving list who is, post a comment with an idea on how to reuse those plastic bags and on Saturday morning I'll put all the names in a hat (or bowl, or something) and pick a winner, to whom I will send the bag dispenser pictured above :)

Resolving...

I'm not a big believer in making New Year's resolutions, but I am a believer in constantly trying to challenge yourself to become a better person. So along those lines, there are some areas in my life that I will be trying to improve either myself or the world around me in tangible ways in the coming year:

1. Finances: We have been so blessed with resources in this area, and I don't think it's because we're supposed to have lots of things. To that end, we are going to be actively budgeting and trying to live wisely and simply so that we can share a greater proportion of those resources with people who need them more than we do.


2. Food:This is an area that we have been working on since we started fending for ourselves, and while there has been some improvement, there is always room for more! For me this is going to take the form of having no more than one serving of sweets and/or baked goods each day. For his part TC has sworn off pop, except for an occasional diet version.


3. Fun: I want to cross one of the things off of my 'to-do-before-I-die' list this year, whether it's going on a ride in a hot-air balloon, having a glass of wine at an outdoor cafe in Paris, or one of the many other things on the list (which I shall have to post by-and-by).


4. Fellowship: I have finally come to the realization that friendships do not just happen here in TO. I know that sounds like a bit of a no-brainer, but the reality is that in every other community where we have lived, we were able to form significant friendships without really trying too hard. That has not been our experience here, for whatever reason (and I have several theories). So, I shall be going out of my way to get to know people this year. I'm not talking about strangers, but the people that I already 'know' but don't really 'know', you know? Stepping up my efforts to crack through the Toronto-shell that everyone has developed.

I had better stop there, before I start sounding too ambitious - if I haven't crossed that line already. It will be interesting to look back next year and see how I've done :)

Happy New Year!

I woke up this morning, looked out my window and saw this:

Isn't that a beautiful way to start a brand new year? I love snow that sticks to the trees like that! We went to a party at some friends of our last night to do the countdown thing, but I don't have any pictures yet, so I'll post about it later. We had a great time, although we missed having to run for our lives to avoid being hit by fireworks, which has become sort of a tradition for us :)