A new McDonalds for Nanaimo

Okay, as much as I am against McDonalds and all it stands for (think ‘Supersize Me’) I confess that I am a tad bit excited to see the new resaurant they are unveiling here in town. 

They (the McDonalds people) had a large spread in the newspaper about the new design.  It’s going to have a double sided fireplace, two flat screen tv’s and also wifi access, how cool is that??  I found this article online about the new redesign.  Our McD’s is the first one like this in western Canada.  They completely tore down the old one and started from scratch.  I haven’t driven by that way in awhile but on Monday (and every day next week) they are featuring activities for the kids so I may have to go check it out.  I will admit that I’m a little sad that this McD’s isn’t going to feature a play place of any variety because our town is sorely lacking in that department.  But with Summer here (almost) it’s not that big of a deal.  The photo above is from the business weekly site, since I haven’t had a chance to do a drive by photo ’shooting’ of our new one yet.

Anyway, enough of my sick and twisted McDonalds excitment…

~jen

Missing a couple days…

I just realized that I have missed a couple days worth of blog postings.  Ooops!  Well life has been hectic in it’s bland usual way.  Nolan has forsaken his usual nap which has the rest of us in a tizzy.  This must be part of the very terrible twos that he’s putting us through right now.  I’m ALSO fully aware that it’s probably payback time for some stuff I did to my parents as a child (a two year old child to be exact).  Tonight was one of those nights when I was so exhausted I absolutely couldn’t scramble to bed fast enough.  Thank goodness the kids were easy to get down as well. 

Of course I’m not going to blame Nolan and his two-ness entirely, only for, let us say… 93.5% of my fatigue.

On the new camera front, I am still waiting.  There has never been a time when I have been more attentive to the comings and goings on in the street outside my window.  Anytime I think I hear a vehicle that could pass for the postal truck I run to the window to peak out.  A few times it has been the Canada Post truck!  BUT he was delivering parcels to Suzanne’s house next door.  Talk about deflating!  Unfortunately I am unable to track the parcel because my Sister in law sent it in some form of Insured way that can’t be tracked, just my luck.  They also told her that it could take more than two weeks to arrive so I’m hoping this bodes well for Monday.  On a positive note, I have everything I need to get my camera going as soon as it arrives as my 4GB compact flash card arrived this week!!  Yahoo!  One more lesson in patience.

Ebay has been a vice lately.  I bought a new flat iron, Hope upon hope that this one will be true ceramic ::Fingers crossed::  I’ll be sure to share the knowledge as soon as it arrives.  At this rate, I’m sure it will get here before the camera ::wink, wink::

I should go back to bed so I’m not a zombie again tomorrow. 
Later gaters,

~jen

Refried goodness and other things on the menu.

Can someone please explain my recent affinity for refried beans???  It’s like I just woke up one day (Easter Sunday to be exact) and thought, "Refried beans smeared on something would be really tasty right now.". 

And yes, they are.  I’ve been making dips with them, burritos, plain with chips and right out of the can.  They are tasty and healthy not too many snacks I like that I can say that about.

I’ve also been loving me some chicken nuggets (home made variety) and a big plate of veggies (from Costco, thanks SUZ!) sprinkled with garlic salt.  Doesn’t that look scrumptious? Well, maybe not to you but I’ve been enjoying it. 

Another product I must tell you all about is the new ‘Salad Spritzers’ by Hellman (or Wishbone in the US).  My favorite flavour is balsamic breeze but I also like the Zest italian flavour and the Rasperry Vinagrette is going to be my next purchase.  I’ve spritzed everything, my hamburgers, my rice, my Chicken and rice, some veggies- you name it- I’ve spritzed it.  The best part??  They are only 15 Calories for 10 Spritzels (ya, i just made up a new word, ‘Spritzels’ write it down.)!!  If you are a salad fan, and even if your not- try these on something, I know you’ll find ONE flavour you like!  They are like gravy but tastier and less fattening.

Okay and besides Chocolate which is a staple favorite in my books- that’s all I’ve got to share today.

What are you eating?

~jen 

A good laugh.

This made me laugh till tears glistened on my cheeks.  Farts are so funny.

Fun with your identity

Yesterday Paige picked out a new wallet from the dollar store. This morning she wanted her own ‘driver’s license’. Boy kids grow up fast these days! In an effort to try to do something to finally impress my daughter with my skills I went on the hunt to find a place to make an ID card on line. I came across this site where you can build a card right in their interface. Of course you can’t print it from there but I used the ‘print screen’ button and pasted it into Photoshop. After some cropping and resizing I printed it off on Glossy photo paper and it looked great!!  She’s so proud of it. 

And I’m proud of myself.

~jen

Commentary on comments

I wanted to post a note to everyone that comments on my blog posts.  First of all, Thank you so much.  It’s nice to know people are reading!  Secondly, I wanted to let you know that I try to go and return the favour on your blog (if you have one) but lately my computer has got a glitch and won’t let me comment anywhere!!  I can’t figure it out.  I’ve actually got two computers and both of them are doing the same thing so I’m guessing it’s a virus, or my ISP is experiencing some kind of burp in the system.  No matter, I want you to know that I do read you and I am TRYING to comment- every once in awhile one does manage to stick~ go figure.

Also I wanted to ask you if you guys ever come back to read my ‘courtesy comments’.  You know, the comments I post in my comment section in reply to one or all of the questions you guys may have asked.  Would you prefer that I sent out a personal email?  What is the proper ettiquette?  I’ve never really thought about it before but i recently read a rant about it and wanted to make sure I am doing it right.  I always try to respond in a timely matter when I can (my comments always appear in bold) but I have no idea if anyone goes back to read my responses.

Anyway-  That is my blurb for the day (i know I missed yesterday- oops!)

Today it’s off to the dentist, how convenient that I lost a chunk of my tooth while flossing like a villan last night.  Then groceries, dog to the vet and then dog off to the groomer.  Busy day.

Wish me luck!

~jen

Renos, Paint, and Paint on hair.

It’s been a busy day, hubby had the day off so we tackled the last bit of our mantle project. It involved sanding of the joints and painting. The paint on the mantle is a satin deep base paint. It’s like trying to paint with a thick syrup, jello like syrup. It’s gross and difficult to manuever. I will apply another coat tomorrow and it should be looking awesome. We also have some trim to put up around the component hole… yes I’m calling it the component hole (you know, where the DVD player goes.)

Anyway It’s looking snazzy and the TV is also a joy with the new HD cable coming down the pipe. I am seeing things I haven’t noticed before like, Randy Jacksons hair is painted/sprayed on. Yes, I swear it is, I’ve never noticed before. And while watching ‘House’ afterward the operation scene had a really fake feeling to it that I noticed right away. Then I realized that in HD I’m seeing a lot more detail than I was before. It’s crazy!

Anyway, go and check out Randy’s hair it’s funny as heck.

I need to hit the sack,

~jen

Off colour commentating

Ken and I are watching the playoffs the other night and I over heard the commentator say,

"He didn’t get enough wood on the rim around."

What the hell does that mean???  I mean, I knew what he was talking about but jeez what with the strange lingo?  If they keep that up, hockey night in Canada is going to require more than a G rating.

~jen

Elbows

When you place your elbow on the table to you get a twinge of pain in your ‘funny bone’???  Why does this happen to me?   It only happens in my left arm and I only notice when I am putting my elbow on the computer desk… it’s got to have something to do with my position at the computer.

don’t mind me, I’m just investigating out loud.  In print.

Paige went to a wonderful Birthday party today, she made a tie dyed T-shirt, a photo frame, decorated a cookie, climbed in a tree house and her favourite activity of all was jump on their trampoline.  It was really fun and the family is very friendly and made Nolan and I feel right at home.  I didn’t bring my camera but there were many cameras at the party so I hope to be able to get some photos of the festivities.

The weather was nice today and the kids bopped around until dark and then played at neighbour Laurie’s place until past their bedtimes.  The fell asleep like stones, Nolan was a bouncing stone but he finally was able to relax. 

This is the last of my ‘Mom’ time and then I have to hit the hay or I’ll be a zombie in the morning.  I know this is a jumbled post, but it’s late and tomorrow is Sunday- when nobody reads my blog anyway, and rightly so.  It’s sunday for heaven’s sake, go outside, or do something that involves friends and family, you know, the important things.

Take care, blog to ya later.

~jen

Rebuild, rebuild.

This is what happens when you send your hubby out unchaperoned on a Wednesday afternoon. You end up with a 43 inch Plasma screen TV. After the initial shock of it, I have become quite pleased. We had to reconstruct the hole above our fireplace mantle to accommodate the new screen. Ken did I fine job of framing it in and today he helped me gyp-rock and then I did the mudding. The joint compound job is not that great, It started out nice but by the time I had reached the end I’d managed to muck it all up. After a conversation with my dad (the carpenter) I realized that in my excitement I forgot to tape my joints… oops. He said it’s nothing that a lot of sanding, elbow grease and tape won’t fix though (thank goodness!!). Now we need new cables to hook up our components and the Hi-def cable box to arrive on Sunday and we’ll be couch potatoes in HIGH style!! 
The photo above is a The job half complete.  Tomorrow, we take the TV back down, I sand and mud again, add moulding around the bottom opening and then hopefully paint too. Also, ignore my green coloured mantle… the green is only a primer coat!!  So many projects and so few days I feel like doing them… 

Hopefully hubby won’t mind waiting until after I get home from taking the kids to a birthday party tomorrow… but something tells me I’m dreaming.

anyway, that’s my post for Friday…  it’s late I know.  But genius can’t be rushed.

~jen