Girl's Night Out Part 2

Last night was our work Christmas party. I only work with two other girls, so it's nice and quiet. We decided this year to go to Saba's for supper then go bowling. It was a fun night (other than the fact it was -40C with the windchill last night! YUCK!)! I have never been to Saba's and it was quite a unique experience. It is Ethiopian food. I had no idea what to expect from it, but was delicious. Since Mieka was the only one of the three of us who had ever been there, we let her order for us. She recommended a meat and vegetable sample platter (it sort of looked like this, though not all the food looked the same, but I notice there is a hard boiled egg in the middle and ours had that!), so we were able to sample a good number of things. I don't know exactly what half of the stuff we ate was, but it did taste good! I was surprised that you are given rolled up crepe-like pancakes called 'injera' and you rip of small pieces of them and use it to pick up your food instead of a fork. The injera is a little spongier than a typical crepe and tastes like sourdough. It is quite filling. I loved the sauce on the chicken and beef. It is called berbere sauce and it is super yummy and spicy!

After supper we braved the cold and headed to the bowling alley. We played a couple of games of ten pin and let me tell you, Wii bowling is MUCH easier than real ten pin bowling. I can't remember the last time I actually bowled, and I pretty much sucked. I think I maybe got 60 or 70 points in both games. But it was fun and nice to hang out with the girls from work. Tomorrow we are doing our cookie exchange at work and I look forward to trying all the wonderful goodies!! I love food :)

Girl's Night Out

Last night was my evening out with my mom and sister. It was a very nice evening! We had a pretty fancy supper at the 2nd Ave Grill. I have learned though that when I go to that restaurant that it is best to stick with things like pizza, pasta, salads, appetizers. I have found that all three or four times I have tried to have a fancy entree that it has been somewhat disappointing. Last night I decided to try steak, filet mignon to be precise. I can't complain about the steak, it was delicious. The ceasar salad was quite good also. The lack of potato choices is annoying to me. All they offer is roasted potatoes. I don't mind roasted potatoes, but these ones were overcooked and dry. I almost asked for ketchup and one of them was even burnt. However, we decided to share a couple of appetizers to start with and they were very good!! One was baked brie and the other was a Mediterranean platter with hummus, olives and chevre with pita chips. Yum!

After supper we headed over to Persephone Theatre to see Little Women. I have not been in the new location and it is very nice! The play was excellent! Before it started I tried to remember how the story went and I was finding myself not even being able to remember the names of the four March sisters. But as the play started I was quickly reminded of the story. The actors in that play were well cast. I think that the girl who played Amy even looked like Kirsten Dunst, who played her in the movie version. It was a good bit longer in duration than I expected, but very enjoyable! I was shocked when I got into the car to go home and saw it was 10:45pm (it started at 8pm). I would recommend it, as tickets were a very reasonable $27 each! I think I will be going back to Persephone Theatre at some point!

Bring On Christmas!

I think I am pretty much entirely ready for it. This may be the earliest that I have been totally ready. I am done shopping, wrapping presents, baking, decorating. What is left? I guess just sit back and enjoy it.

Tomorrow evening I am going to see Little Women at Persephone Theatre with my mom and sister. I wanted to go see it when I heard about it and thought it would be a fun mother/daughter activity. I also figured since both my mom and my sister have birthdays in December that I would buy their tickets for them and call it their birthday presents. Easy shopping! We talked about it and figured it would be fun to do supper out before the play, since it doesn't start until 8pm. Mom had the bright idea to pay for supper out for Robin and I as birthday gifts because my birthday is at the beginning of January. We are going to the Second Avenue Grill! I am very much looking forward to it!!

This Tuesday, me and my two coworkers are going out for supper (Ethiopian food....should be interesting!) and then bowling. This will be the most elaborate 'Christmas party' we have had at work since I started working there. I am looking forward to it. The three of us get along well, so it should be a fun evening. Then on Friday of this week we are doing a cookie/baking exchange. Each of us is giving the other two, four dozen cookies or squares or whatnot. That will add a great variety to my goodies to share with others this holiday season!

Then I don't have any specific holiday related activities until the 21st. We are going to get together with my family that night to celebrate Christmas, since Jay and I will be in Swift Current on the actual day. We are having mom, dad, Robin, Lorne and the boys over to our house for Chinese food and our gift exchange. I love having an extra Christmas celebration. It helps to spread things out so it isn't all concentrated into one day.

We are heading to Swift Current from the 24th to the 27th. I imagine we will come home well spoiled and filled with amazing food. It is hard to believe that in only three weeks Christmas will be done for another year. Then I have a 29th birthday to look forward to. Oh and our trip to Hawaii Moose Jaw in January to celebrate our 5th anniversary. That will bring us up to nearly the end of January. Hopefully having a number of events to look forward to will help the winter pass quickly. Hopefully...

Ouch

I have wanted to try waxing for a few years. I really don't think I could do it to myself, but I was a little scared to get someone else to do it. When I booked my pedicure for this morning I thought, hey, I will be at the spa I might as well try it. Tons of people do it, and I have even heard them say it's not so bad. I would say that it isn't terrible, but it does feel a lot like having your hair ripped out by the root. I wonder if your skin toughens up if you keep doing it? Cause if it feels like that every time, I don't know that I will keep doing it. But if it gets better I could possibly consider it...

Christmas Tree 2009

After a LOT of frustration, a couple "For goodness sakes!", no swearing (thankfully), and a bit of fishing line, here is our 2009 Christmas tree. I decided that I would like some garland to put on the tree to help fill in some of the gaps. So I ventured out to Walmart (on a Saturday, four weeks before Christmas...I know I am a little crazy!) and got some pretty shiny silver garland. I am happy with how the tree looks. Here's hoping it stays upright!

Three Cups of Tea

That is the title of the next book club book. I have been working on it for a few weeks now and I would say it is very different than my usual choice for reading material. I would say I don't often choose to read non-fiction books. It is the story of Greg Mortenson who tried (and failed) to climb K2. When he came down the mountain he was in pretty rough shape and was nursed back to health by a remote village in Pakistan. He got to know the people in the village and realized they had need of a school, so he promised to return to build them a school. Over the next decade and beyond he built numerous schools as well as water wells and other practical things for the remote villages in Pakistan.

I found it very interesting tonight as I read and he recounted what it was like for him hearing about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. He was in a small village in Pakistan and one of the people heard about the attacks over a shortwave radio. He told Greg that "bombs have fallen on the village of New York in America". It went on to talk about how heartbroken people were in Pakistan (a mainly Muslim nation) to hear of such a terrible attack. I will be the first to admit that I am pretty ignorant when it comes to knowledge of the beliefs of Islam. Three Cups of Tea mentions how the Koran talks about the importance of looking after the less fortunate, widows, children, etc. Greg is repeatedly referred to as an infidel, even by the people who support what he is doing in Pakistan.

I also found it interesting (and a little disturbing) to read about how the extremist Muslims, from Saudi Arabia, with all their oil money started moving into Pakistan and building schools and mosques in communities who couldn't afford to do it themselves. Three Cups of Tea talks about how poor Pakistan is because the government does not provide proper schools or education to it's people. It said that a very small percentage of wealthy people in Pakistan send their children to privately run schools. Then the government does not provide public schools to the rest. So when the Saudi's showed up and offered to build schools (aka madrassas, where the Taliban do a lot of their recruiting) the people were receptive. They sent their children to these schools where more often than not the teachers were extremist Muslims with no training in math, science or literature. They were taught combat and recruited to the Taliban. That is so disturbing to me.....maybe you already knew this, but like I said I am quite ignorant about a lot of this.

Makes me so thankful to live in little ole Saskatchewan. I can't imagine the thought of bombs dropping from the skies over our province. When I was driving to work today I saw an army truck driving the opposite way down the freeway and I thought to myself how rarely we see things like that in Saskatoon. But you see footage from Afghanistan on the news and there are all sorts of vehicles or tanks patrolling. I am so thankful to live in a free and safe country!!

I heard on the radio this morning that we can expect our water bills to go up 7% in each of the next three years. The reason..... People are conserving water, so the city is not making as much money as they need to. What a kick in the butt! Makes me want to have 20 minute showers every day and run our dishwasher and do 20 loads of laundry. At least that way I would actually be paying for the water that I am using, not just paying for the lack of water use. Boo!

Hair Dilemma

I have been debating lately about cutting my hair short again. I had the same hairstyle (the one on the right) for about three years. I think it suits me, but I started to get bored with it, so I started growing it out. The pic on the left was taken a couple of weeks ago. My hair is just past my shoulders now and is sort of blah. Anyone have any suggestions what I should do with it? I don't know that I would be comfortable going much shorter than it was before, but I just don't think growing it out any longer would look good. I also am not minding having it a bit darker. The picture on the left was taken about two months after my last colour, and you can hardly see any roots. I think I look good blonder, but it definitely requires more upkeep. I have appreciated not having to get my hair cut every six weeks or so, like I did when it was shorter. I have a hair appointment booked for December 11th, so I will try to figure it out by then!