Last day of freedom!

Well I officially start a new job tomorrow, so today was my last day of freedom until, um, Friday for Canada Day!

Speaking of Canada Day, check out these cute fireworks I made with bubble containers for the little boys (aged 1 and 3) that live in the front half of our duplex:

The boys really like bubbles and I saw this cute craft for a 4th of July celebration while I was stumbling on the internet today. I really do need to get back to some regular work just so I'll stop doing these time-killer crafts; you should see much progress I've been making with my knitting projects! 

Speaking of crafts, I added to our "Wall of Arrogance" today with one of those vinyl decals you can get. This one appropriately says "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." Lenny will be writing his thesis in here and we also keep our race bibs in this room too so it's appropriate on multiple fronts. The decal wasn't very difficult to put up and was fairly easy to center and everything too.

 I also came up with something to do with the tassels from the graduation hats: attach them to our frames of our grad photos. I'm not sure where Lenny's is but I was able to find my 2008 one to add to my 2011 grad print as well.

The final quasi-interesting story of the day is that my nail polish fell off two of my toes. I only had them done on Monday so I was happy that the salon retouched them for free. I guess if they don't clean all the lotion off of them the polish won't stick, but I've never had this happen before. 'Twas an interesting and odd discovery this morning.

Well that's it for excitement today. This evening I installed a new door knob offered to us by our landlord. She offered to put it on for us, but I figured it'd be something to entertain me while Lenny's at the gym tonight. It was really easy despite some terrible hand-drawn diagrams to accompany the instructions. Ah well -- another thing I can add to my list of home skillz!

Lenny to the Rescue!

Lenny solved the door predicament this afternoon by jamming the door handle into a permanent state of open. The actual lock and deadbolt still work just fine, so we're safe and sound here, but the knob still doesn't turn (so you have to lock it to keep the door closed). Our landlord stopped by for a visit this afternoon and it looks like we'll be getting a whole new door this Canada Day weekend! Celebration time!

Tonight I went out for my first swim with the triathlon club. I survived pretty well but am very very sleepy now. Lenny was a big support into getting me to start up again and I'm glad he did. Go Lenny!

Well that's it for news for today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some more news for you all!

Locked in

Today I got locked in... not locked into a mortgage or even a car... locked into my very own (rented) house! I'm not really sure what's going on, but I think some pins within the door handle have shifted not allowing the door to open. I hopped out a window to try it from the other side but alas, no open door. This story to be continued once my landlord and/or Lenny come home... :)

Happy Birthday Mom

With thanks to this superb  PCWorld article, I was able to create a very special video montage for my mother's birthday today. I'm so excited to share some pictures of my childhood with all of you and her!

Grad Gifts

Since all we did in Italy for 2-3 weeks was eat out, when my mom offered to pay for a fancy dinner out to celebrate my graduation, I opted to instead purchase some things for the house that I've been wanting instead (with her blessing of course!). Here's what I came up with today:

Now that we're having espresso every morning, I really wanted a sugar & milk holder set. Today I came across this really neat one from HomeSense. Awesome! It also has a butter holder to match; something else our house was lacking.

A close-up the sugar dish. It even comes with a matching spoon -- how cute!

Zee butter dish.

And zee milk dish.

Next up is some measuring spoons with engraved labels (the printed ones have warn off my current 5-yr old set and God only knows what's supposed to be on there). There's also a pizza cutter that has a blade that doesn't bend from side-to-side like our current one. And finally some decorative words to put above the degree's wall / wall of arrogance. It says "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." It's also applicable for our collection of race bibs and medals that are on a wall in the same room.

And finally, I found this multi picture frame at Walmart for only $14! It inspired me to go through one of my three photo albums, sort all the pictures, and pic some for display. The two black and white photos still need to be swapped out with some of Lenny, but the other ones include one of Lenny and his best friend Marcel at a winery (lower left); me on top of a mountain in Jasper, AB (second from left); the 1000 Islands (3rd from left); the Statue of Liberty (bottom right); Lenny & I in Venice (2nd in top row); and me in grade 3 (top right).

Still in the same sort of realm, these are the flowers that Lenny got me for my graduation. They're still doing really well and the rose has really opened up to reveal a lot of layers. I love flowers :)

It's here!

I'm quite happy and pleased to report that I am now in the proud possession of all of my degrees! Seven LONG years in the making! Now if only they will assist me in landing a job :)

To celebrate the completion of this long journey, Lenny got me some flowers and we went out for dinner. I'm so happy and warm and fuzzy on the inside right now. What a wonderful chapter of life to celebrate with such a great person.

Finally, I leave you with a picture of what four degrees cannot teach you: the ability to consistently make espresso perfectly. This is what happens 50% of the time I make it...

Ah well... gives me something to clean! I've always had something to drink too because it has always left some in the machine instead of completely exploding out which sure is what it sounds like when it happens.

Well so far I've had two interviews this week. A record. There's one job that I'm more excited about than the other and some I'm even more excited about if I actually get an interview... Hmm. We'll see how that goes. Anyone that can help with this search should feel more than welcome to offer suggestions.

Grazie grazie grazie

Favourite Photos of the Vatican & Rome

This is the final post in the series of Favourite Photos Of Italy. What an amazing trip. Here are some of my favourite pictures of my favourite place: Rome & area.

Not surprisingly, this is the place to go if you want liturgical vestments or Christening gowns. It was kind of crazy how many there were in the Rome/Vatican area. They were more popular than any other type of shop or restaurant.

Lenny waiting to enter the Vatican. You can see the pillars that act as arms around the buildings in the background.

A very very expensive bathtub of porphyry marble inside the Vatican (not currently in use ;) ).

The Vatican was Full of beautiful ceilings. It was a pretty awe-inspiring place to visit.

This was a room filled with amazingly-detailed old tapestries.

This room had some amazing maps on the walls with beautiful gold leaf ceilings.

We saw some very famous artwork that we were surprisingly allowed to take photos of. This is a famous one by Raphael.

You weren't actually allowed to take photos of the Sistene Chapel, but Lenny grabbed this one really quickly. 

This is the Pieta, a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti housed in St. Peter's Cathedral.

I'm not sure why we didn't get a good picture of this, but this is the tomb of Pope John Paul II, currently in St. Peter's Basilica and available for public viewing.

There were so many nuns around. These ones were 4-feet tall; so cute!

Moving from the Vatican into Rome, this is one of many photos of the Trevi Fountain. We saw this landmark 7 times, so there are a lot of photos of it.

The Trevi Fountain on a very rainy day; our first visit to it seemed a little underwhelming but I think the rain and lack of umbrella had a lot to do with that.

In front of the Trevi Fountain.

The Trevi Fountain at night.

The Pantheon. An amazing piece of Roman architecture that has survived because it was declared as a church.

The ceiling of the Pantheon. An amazing feat to complete this open dome ceiling.

The water from the open ceiling hits the carefully slanted floor to drain into these tiny tiny holes.

A view of the inside of the Pantheon. There is a lot of worthwhile artwork worth looking at here and it was free!

I believe this is the Piazza Vecchia. The statue holding the obelisk was amazingly done. A closeup is next.

A close-up of the statue in the square.

The Colloseum: our first glimpse of this infamous landmark.

A couple-y picture in front of the Colloseum before a major storm set in.



The Colloseum was actually more interesting than I thought it'd be. It is very very large and going with an archaeology student tour guide was a superb idea as we learned a lot and noticed things we otherwise would've missed.

Another view of the Colloseum.

A celebratory arch in within the Roman Forum ruins.

Some more of the ruins at the Roman Forum.



Standing on the Road to Rome :)





This is the view from the top of the Spanish Steps after a very rainy climb up a million wet and slippery marble stairs.

A fountain near where we were staying. Also the location of a McDonalds.



Underneath this ground/bonzai tree is the most famous of the Roman Catacombs. We couldn't take pictures inside but it was totally worth a visit; lots of history here.

Us outside the entrance into the Catacombs.

The restaurant where one of the scenes from Eat, Pray, Love was shot. Maybe we'll eat there next time.

Another amazing amazing Italian pizza.

This was a "four seasons" pizza but it looked a lot more like a breakfast pizza!

A really good fast-food pizza place right outside the train station. Nummies!

This place also had pretty amazing rice balls.

We had this delicious gelato near the Trevi Fountain. It was expensive but it sure was delicious!



The train that you take from the airport to the city centre in Rome is called the Leonardo Express. This was the first picture we took on our trip so it's only proper to make it the last in this highlights reel.

Well that completes my "Favourite Pictures Of" series for our Italy trip. We were there for 21 days and it was phenomenal every one of those days. We saw a lot of famous and breathtaking views, ate some of the most marvelous food, wine, and coffee of our lives, and got to know some amazing people a lot better. We'd both go back in a heartbeat and cannot wait to return. Thank you to everyone who encouraged us to go and to those who gave us a little spending money for along the way. We often wished many of you could have joined us and hope to see your photos and read of your experiences on your trips to Italy in the future. 

Ciao ciao for now!