Catch up...

It's been yet another busy weekend filled with friends, cocktails, entertainment and good food. George was gone from Thursday - Saturday eve. visiting his family on the island so I had to fill the time.
Here's a snapshot...
Thursday night I met some friends at the Penny Lane Pub for dinner and a much needed cold beer (or two). It was extremely hot out there! It was also 35cent perogy night:)
Friday night I was invited to join in on a party at my cuz's apartment. She's already blogged about it, so go have a read if you like. Amazing food, entertainment and quality hosts.

I always shy away from these kinds of things but it turned out to be quite fun. The host assigned numbers to everyone in the group and then you had to find the other guests who had your number. Once everyone was matched up to about 4 in each group, we each got a bag of words to put together into sentences. They all had to do with the 'flamenco' theme of the evening. It ended up being quite fun and a great way to meet each other.
Saturday morning came much too early but I had booked myself in to do the BeautiControl training starting at 8:00 am in Metrotown!!! It was a long day learning about all of their products but I came away with a pretty strong interest in selling this line (not that I'm a total beauty product expert but I do really love a lot of their products - especially the instant manicure and the warming green tea mask).
Saturday late aft. and evening were a bit of a write-off. Soooo hot and tired, I just layed on the couch and cheered on our Canadian Olympic team, waiting for my George to come home.
We had hoped to do some sailing on Sunday but decided to hang around the house instead. George spent several hours mowing, weeding, raking, etc. while I did a much overdue grocery shop. Enjoyed playing the loving spouse and prepared a yummy picnic lunch on the front yard for my hard-working, sweaty man - along with some chilled rose.
Dined al fresco (and some yummy sausage kabobs) in the evening while watching the Olympics.
Oh yeah...G. came home Saturday night with a new Wii game which I never thought I'd ever be interested in playing but...SOOOO MUCH FUN!!! Played bowling, boxing, tennis, baseball and golf. A surprisingly great workout and also hilariously funny!
Last night we walked over to the Nat Bailey Stadium and watched our Vancouver Canadians baseball team win an amazing game against Boise - lots of action, a few homeruns and some really lame between-inning entertainment. Once again, see my cuz's blog for more info...

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! What was the best part? I'd love to hear about it...

Honeysuckle

I can't believe our beautiful honeysuckle vine which covers our whole front porch is almost done blooming. Last year I think they bloomed twice so maybe there's more to come?

We had good news this week from our landlord. The original plan was that we would get to live in this great house for 4 years and then they (landlord and family) would move back in and we'd have to look for something else. That 4 year deadline would've been a year from now so I asked him if he could confirm their return date so we could start planning. They've now decided to stay put for one more year (kids in school...) so we have this place until July 2010!!! Great and happy news.

I've had some nice downtime after lots of social events last week. Saturday we went to the Trout Lake Farmer's Market and got some beautiful varieties of tomatoes, some yummy foccacia bread and new potatoes which we're cooking up right this moment with some steak. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

What did you have for dinner?

Updates - finally!

Wow! It's been an incredible several days. I'll try to make it interesting...

Saturday

George and I golfed in a tournament with some friends in Tsawwassen. It was intensely HOT but there was plenty of cold beer and adequate golfing (by me). I ended up with a 110 on a 69 par course. I know that doesn't sound great but for me...it rocked!

Sunday

BeautiControl Spa Party - which means six lovely ladies in my living room eating juicy cherries, grapes, strawberry shortcake and chocolate brownies while having mini-facials, manicures and foot moisturizers. I ended up signing up to be a distributor so stay tuned for more info on this really great product.

Monday

George had to work in the morning so I went for a swim at Kits Pool and then we ended up going out to the boat in the early afternoon for a sail. We managed to hide behind the sail for the first bit as the sun was pretty brutal but once again, the beer was cold (don't worry - we're very responsible sailors).

Check out my new beer holder!!! That cruise ship was pretty far away but still freaky - they're so HUGE (& we're so not)!

Tuesday - CANADA DAY!

We had our annual neighbourhood block party. It was pretty fun! We have a very multi-cultural street so there's always lots of great food. We had also applied for and received a community grant (they're very easy to get so I highly recommend you trying this in your area) and this year's community project was these pretty birdhouses. Everyone had a go at building and painting them and now they're adorning all of the trees on our block. I hope the birds enjoy them! The evening ended with a firepit in the street (we'd closed it off to traffic) and a good old-fashioned singalong.

Wednesday
True Colors Concert at Deer Lake Park
This - for me- was amazing!!!! I think I'll fill you in on the deets tomorrow. I saw Rosie O'Donnell!!!!!!!!! Pix to come...

You're so nice to come home to...

(this is last June but looks the same now)

I really like it here! Even though we don't own our home, it's a good place to be right now. Coming home from a trip is always exciting, especially in the spring when all of the rhodos are in bloom, the peonies are wide awake and the roses are just starting to burst. We have an amazing honeysuckle vine that's just starting to open up and smells oh-so-lovely. I think my sweet peas grew at least 2 inches while we were away as did the tomato plants. It's all a bit slower than last year but it's still lush and growing. I also love being in a neighbourhood. I know all of our neighbours and everyone is friendly and social. It's not unusual to have impromptu gatherings on the front lawn - and my friend across the street waters my plants while we're out of town. When the neighbours bake cookies, they usually drop off a sample. On Sunday night, our Phillipino neighbours had a roasted pig delivered. About 10 minutes later there was a knock on our door and a plate full of yummy pork product was being delivered! (sorry to any vegetarians out there but I guess it's no secret that we eat meat:) All of the kids say hello when they walk past the house. And if we want to get away from all the street chaos, we retreat onto our back deck. Perfection really!

It's a weird thing to not know what the future holds. We only have this house for a total of 4 years (possibly 4 1/2) and we're almost through our 3rd year. I wonder where we'll end up? The universe has always looked after me in a big way so I'll trust that there's something great out there. Fun to think of the possibilities.