It's Vicki time!!!

JAZZ HANDS WITH VICKI!

LOVE FOR MAMA SHEILA

It's here it's here it's here. Our Vicki weekend in Smiths Falls is FINALLY here. We've been counting down for what seems like FOREVER.

I'm headed out early tomorrow morning and I'm going to make my way to Perth to visit Grandmaman Turpin and Uncle Gil. I haven't seen them since October when I went down to the last Vicki retreat!

After lunch I'm headed to Smiths Falls and I'm going to meet up with my girls Rach, Steph, Katie and Karen and Krista too (hopefully) and I'm sure I'm forgetting others but I'm just too darn excited to focus right now.

There is a downside unfortunately...

Going away means PACKING. i HATE packing more than you can imagine. You just can't fathom how much I LOATHE packing.

Fortunately I married a hunka hunka burning love who has generously offered to help me pack AND he's already doing laundry for me. Does it get any better? I have a good excuse - my back is out so I'm resting it after a long day so that I'm good to go for the weekend.

I just finished dinner and I'm going to have my first easter cream egg of the season and then it's SHOWTIME!!!

Pack, a hot bath and a good snuggle with my sweetie (hopefully while watching Grey's)

I'll try to check in Sunday night when I get home. I'm off on Monday so I can recover...PHEW.

Have a great weekend lovelies

Play Food and Wine

Ouf!
I've finally gotten around to posting about last Friday night...

We celebrated Denis' big promotion at my cousin Steve's new restaurant Play Food and Wine.

I honestly didn't know what to expect. I heard it was really "interactive" but had no clue what it meant. Now I do and I totally love the concept.

It's unlike traditional dining. You do not choose an appetizer, main course and desert. You basically sample several different items on the many. As many or as few as you choose. We decided to just share everything so we could try a variety of dishes. Everything was SO DELICIOUS. It was a fun way to dine and the place was packed. We will definitely be returning!!! I'd really like to try brunch!!!

Here are some pictures from the evening...

The first dish we tried came from "charcuterie" - apparently having something salty gets your tastebuds going. We had saucisson sec / tomato-ginger ketchup. The ketchup was INSANE!


The bread. We were hoping for a little of the carmelized butter they serve at Beckta - no such luck but it was still good!

Another shot of the saucisson sec

An artsy shot of the menu - they update it daily (you can see the date on the top right)...

We each had our own Beau's onion soup / rarebit crouton - SO GOOD...althought at first I thought it said "rabbit" crouton and thought EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

This was grilled flatbread / dipping sauces

The view outside - prime location in the market!

Digby scallops / bacon / mushroom consommé

onion fritters / tamarind dip (this is one of the side orders)

Arsty shot - Mom and I drank Angel's Gate Riesling. D and I visited Angel's Gate last year for Cawi's birthday in Niagara and LOVED IT!

This ironically was my fave dish of the night. Not something I would normally order but it came very highly recommended by the waitress...

Ontario pickerel / almond milk / lemon

curried shrimp / cashew butter / tropical fruit

Another side...frites / aioli

Shot of the menu with the wall colour in the background...

And the best course....DESSERT!

We had lattes with

doughnunts / coffee sauce

hazelnut crème brulee / biscotti

warm cookies / 3 varieties

chocolate pate / rosebuds / gelato

My cousin also sent over some yummy desert wine.

Bot the doughnuts and the chocolate pate were INSANE. OMG. The doughnuts were like timbits only 1000 times better. I'M STILL DREAMING ABOUT THEM!

A shot of the two of us. The best part of this picture is the lady's expression behind us. Must have been a great story! The red bag behind D's head is the bag they brought their wine in. It almost looks like a first aid bag!

And another...check out those dimples - *swoon*

A shot of the apron - took it for the logo

And finally a shot of mom!

So there you have it.

Our night at Play.

Well, just two more sleeps until our big weekend in Smiths Falls. I am SO LOOKING forward to it. I called Uncle Gil tonight to set up my big date to visit Grandmaman Turpin. Can't wait. I LOVE seeing her.

And I'm soooo looking forward to hanging with my girls, Steph, Katie and my roomie for the weekend Rach. I haven't seen Rach in FOREVER so I think we'll be talking eachother's ears off...AFTER her morning coffee of course! She's bringing the Tassimo so that'll be cool.

g'night lovelies

The Story of Us

Hi lovelies

Wow - I've been getting better and better with the updates. I just have a quick post for today. I stumbled upon this fun marriage quiz on Dooce and I thought I'd fill it out on here. Feel free to steal it and post it on your blog - leave me a comment if you do so I can head over and read it!

What are your middle names?My middle name is Anne with an "e" and D's full name is Joseph Phillipe Patrick Denis so I'm not sure if his middle name is considered "Joseph Phillipe Patrick" or "Phillipe Patrick Denis" - funny tidbit - I am usually great with names but for some reason I ALWAYS stumble on his full name - there are so many to remember and I can never remember if the Phillipe comes before the Patrick!

How long have you been together? We've been together six years and married for three.

How long did you know each other before you started dating? We started talking online in early September 2001 and our first date was October 19.

Who asked whom out? It was basically a mutual thing. I FOUND him on the dating site and we kept trying to set up a date but one of us was always busy.

How old are each of you? I'm 33, and he's 34.

Whose siblings do you see the most? Denis is an only child and my sister lives in Winnipeg so she wins by default but we don't see her very often either.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? I can't say we really have any big ones. Maybe money although now that we've created a budget it has elminated a lot of stress. I think our miscarriage was the hardest thing to get through as a couple but ultimately it brought us closer together. It was a tough time in our lives...

Did you go to the same school? Not even close. Denis went to a French Catholic high school and I went to an all-girls catholic school. I'm glad we didn't go to the same school b/c that would make him a girl!!!

Are you from the same home town? Not even close. He grew up in the National Capital Region (Ottawa, Constance Bay, Quebec side) and I grew up in Winnipeg.

Who is smarter? I think overall he's much smarter. He can learn to do pretty much ANYTHING whether it be electronics or plumbing or woodworking or even sewing. He's VERY handy. I think we are both smarter in different ways. I'm smarter when it comes to language and culture I'd say. It just goes to show you that education isn't everything! I have two university degrees and he's still smarter!

Who is the most sensitive? Yikes - this is a tough question. We're both pretty sensitive in our own ways.

Where do you eat out most as a couple? We have a few favourites - Moxies, Mexicala Rosas, the Works

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Spain

Who has the worst temper? Me -- hands down. But even I'm not the crazy shouting throwing type.

Who does the cooking? We both do. Depending on who is home from work first. Some nights we cook together. I believe in an equal opportunity household. We have equal opportunity to get the work done!!!

Who is the neat-freak? That would be me. hands down.

Who is more stubborn? See previous question!!!

Who hogs the bed? I hog the physical space on the bed - I'm a bit of a crazy sleeper. He definitely hogs to "noise space" in the bed.

Who wakes up earlier? Lately it's been D because he's been working the early shift. On the weekends I'm generally the first one up.

Where was your first date? It was at O'Connor's in Kanata. We played pool and had a few drinks.

Who is more jealous? I'm a Scorpio...'nuf said!

How long did it take to get serious? Probably about an hour or two into our first date! I pretty much never left D's house after our second date. We both knew it was right immediately.

Who eats more? I would say D.

Who does the laundry? Once again - equal opportunity household. We both do.

Who's better with the computer? Considering D works in high tech, he is, hands down.

Who drives when you are together? D does. I have a very long commute to work and right now I'm totally sick of driving so I love when he drives.

Well. I think it's time for bed for me. I just got home from Katie's place. I spent the evening with her and her sweet little girls and we had such a wicked time!

Hopefully tomorrow is creativity day!!!

'night lovelies

3 cheers for Denis

Good evening lovelies

I am snuggled warmly on the couch catching up on the 40 or so hours of tv we have saved on our PVR. It's been a very long, very rough day.

I headed into work early this morning to beat the traffic because of Obamamania and because I had planned to meet Janet for an early movie.

The roads were slippery. Very slippery. As I pulled into the parking lot at work and went to turn the corner, I totally lost control, slid into the back of a car and that car went sliding into the car beside it. BAM. Too much crunching for my liking.

The good news: nobody was hurt. That's the very very good news. The other good news was although the car went sliding right into the SUV beside it the SUV only ended up with the tiniest of scratches. PHEW. The other good news was that both of the people I hit were very nice and had a "these things happen" attitude. You never know how people are going to react. Fortunately I was going very slowly - it could have been much worse.

The bad news: both my Jeep and the car I hit have at least a few thousand dollars in dammage. Fortunately I have a very clean record so we just have to pay our deductible and it doesn't affect our insurance prices. Thank goodness.

I have to say the whole thing left me quite shaken. I just felt "off" all day. I was terrified for the drive home but it was just fine...thankfully.

We had a super fast supper and Denis hit the road for his poker game. He's found a great group of guys to play poker with every once in a while and I think it's fantastic!

He definitely deserves a night out. He's been working hard - so hard in fact that we got some fantastic news this week...he got a promotion! He's now a team lead. His team members will now be reporting to him along with a few other DBAs. It's so very exciting because he's been working very hard the past few years and have finally been getting recognized for it!

We are off to have dinner at my cousin Steve's new restaurant PLAY tomorrow night to celebrate. Mom Turpin is going to join us too.

I think the weekend is going to be pretty low-key. We have lots of odds and ends to do and I need to get ready for my weekend away next week!

Well lovelies
That's it for me.
I think I need a shower and some sleep...

'night

A very Valentine's weekend...

Hellooooooooooo lovelies!
Are you feeling the love? Oh wow...all I can say is I sure am. We have had one of the best weekends in a while. SUCH A GREAT WEEKEND. I can't believe it's already nearly over...

Where to begin? I guess Friday would be a good start!

Denis had a work party to attend so I picked him up on my way home from work and we ran a few errands. After supper and a bit of decompression time, we both went into our respective rooms (D to his office and me to my studio) to work on Valentine's projects!

Can I just say that work right now for both of us is COMPLETELY INSANE. Oy! I hope things slow down shortly...

So there we were Friday night madly working on our presents. The coolest part was we were both in our glory and would every once in a while call out "I love this - I'm so excited to give it to you." We did a VERY LATE NIGHT cleaning blitz to the house as well so that we could enjoy V-day in a clean house!

Saturday we slept in and then got up to make our heart shaped pancakes. I loved making them but boy oh boy was it time consuming! I think it took us about an hour and a half to make the pancakes and bacon. Yes, that long. It took us a few tries to get into a good groove with making the hearts without them sticking to the cookie cutters.

The last few pancakes I gave up and made circles! Ha ha.

We kept everything in the warming drawer but by the time we ate they were sort of rubbery!!! That'll show us for making fancy pancakes. Despite the "texture" the taste was great.

Here are some shots from our adventure. I couldn't decide which shots to put in so I just added a bunch of them!

Breakfast table setting!

Once our bellies were sufficiently stuffed we spent some time playing Monopoly on Wii - we so love that game. We also made one of our favourite drinks...several times over!

And we exchanged presents.

I gave Denis a Petro Canada Olympic glass (he mentioned he remembered having the old ones and liking them), I filled a picture frame that I got him Christmas 2008 with pictures of our trip to Paris, I made him a CD of songs with "love" in the title and a love card/mini book.

Denis wrote me a little poem/page about his love and then "doctored" up some pictures. They are SO COOL. You have to look really hard to see what he did to them. I LOVE THEM! I want to frame the three pictures and the note he wrote. It was so nice to exchange meaningful gifts. He also got me Nights of Rondanthe (sp?) on Blue Ray and we watched it. What a great BUT VERY SAD movie...

Dinner was some of this...

Some of this...

Note - fresh basil from our basil plant!

COOL REFLECTION IN THE GLASS - I just noticed this...

Our main course was heart shaped spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli

After supper we watched our movie and had chocolate fondu for desert. Next it was more Monopoly with a roaring fire in the background.

We both kept saying how it was probably the best V-day we've ever spent together. It was nice to hide out from the world just the two of us and enjoy!

Here are some pictures of the presents once unwrapped.

The CD and a few fun love coupons I printed!

This is what D wrote to me...

I'll have to upload the pictures he did later this week - he's having issues with Photoshop tonight so he can't put them on our server...

Today has been a bit of a whirlwind for both of us. D had to head into work early this morning for his monthly overtime Sunday. I took had several hours of overtime to do. I did manage to pop out quickly this afternoon though. Shoppers Drug Mart was having an Optimum points bonus day. I managed to get $200 in free stuff when I cashed in our points. I stocked up on lots and lots of makeup and won't need to buy any for a while now. I also popped into Michaels to pick up a few things for a sewing project I want to work on.

One final stop at Home Sense hoping to find V-day stuff on clearance but no such luck. I was really struck today with how evident it is in the stores that we are in a recession. Michaels has a few clearance aisles and a new "bargain basement" type aisle. Winners and Homesense both had so many different "clearance" sections. Far more than usual. Hopefully this economy will turn around sometime soon...

So there you have it lovelies. Our busy, LOVEly weekend. I'm counting down the days until Vicki Boutin in Smiths Falls - just 2 weeks to go! The great thing about working overtime this weekend is now I can take both the Friday AND Monday off for that weekend...nothing like a four-day weekend to beat the winter blahs...

I hope you all had a great weekend however you chose to spend it.

Here are a few pictures of a card I made for my boss - she is such a sweetheart and recently lost her Father...

I picked up this Umbra stand at Chapters and I just love it - perfect way to display my stuff...

Off to watch the new season of the Amazing Race with my Valentine...

'night lovelies