Sunday, January 24, 2010

GETTIN' OLD....

After I turned 30, I found myself dropping excuses like "Man, I am too old for this," "I can't do this like I did when I was younger," "I can tell I'm getting older, my body can't take this like it used to..." I've said all of those things several times, usually during physical activity, long plane rides or after indulging in too much Bacardi.
Today was no different. I woke up after the awesome night's sleep that followed a day of snowshoe adventure in the great outdoors and I still felt tired. Marty and I had planned to go snowboarding today, but I was still sooo tired after all that activity, and packing up my gear, driving the hour to the hill, buying a ticket, riding the gondola to the top, and all that carving down the slopes seemed like so much work. "It's not like I'm 19 anymore," I said to Marty, "I don't seem to have the endless energy I used to." He grinned, pulled the covers off of me and sent me to the dresser to dig out my long johns.
We drove to the hill excited to be living our version of the 19 year olds we once were. We left the house at 9am, not quite the 7am, must get there when the hill opens, start of our youths. We stopped for Egg Mcmuffins, not quite the Red Bull, our younger selves might have tried to fuel ourselves with. We blasted our pre ski tunes, a little quieter than we once would have and we paid for our lift tickets with big bills, not the loonies and toonies we both had histories of counting out for the lift operators.
We settled onto the bench seat in the gondola across from a delightful man, who definately appeared older than us. I noticed his mittens first, because I had been looking at purchasing new ones myself, thinking that mine were getting old. His looked old, really old, but I could tell by the way they fit, by the way the soft snot wipe part of them was almost all rubbed off, by how soft the leather looked, by how his jacket sleeves tucked into them perfectly, that they were his favorites and had skiied with him a long time. His poles were held by these mitts and they too looked like they had seen many mountains. The old man shifted in his seat and I noticed his hat. It was a cowboy hat, no tuque or ear warmer, just a really old cowboy hat with a hatband on it made of some kind of wild animal teeth. His name tag was velcroed to his lapel, he obviously had worked for the hill in his past. The tag read, Trapper Terry. I observed this man with awe. He definately looked old, my guess was seventy something, to be skiing out there by himself. I quietly hoped that I would be like him one day, doing something I was sooo passionate about well into my seventies.
We got to visiting with Trapper Terry and he told us his birthday was February 14th. He informed us he would be turning....93!!!!!!!!!! Marty and I both almost fell off our bench. That is awesome, I thought, awesome!!!!!! He told us he was born in 1917 and he has been skiing forever. He said he is a little slower than he used to be, but he can still ski every run at Sunshine. He said he has had his poles for almost 30 years, but he tries to update his skis as often as the technology changes.
I stepped out of the gondola at the top, feeling inspired. I will no longer be able to use getting older as an excuse for not doing things I used to. If Trapper Terry can still ski at 93 than I can still make a damn good effort to do everything forever too. I hope I am as lucky as him. I hope I get to be doing the things I love at 93. I have no reason to believe I won't be. I have genetics on my side! My Great Grandma Lily lived to be well over 100 years old! She lived in her own house, sharing stories and love with her grandchildren until the day she passed away. My Grandma Betty at 91, still has a strength and attitude that will give anyone a run for their money! And Grandma Mimi is living proof that there are adventures to be had well after 85! Here's to getting older, I hope we all do!!!!!!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

NACHO SNOB

I dont' get it. What is so hard about nachos? Take some chips, slap some cheese on 'em, sprinkle a few peppers, green ones, red ones, and banana ones, top it with some chicken and maybe, if you are Marty, throw some olives on there, add a little more cheese, toss the whole thing in the oven and bake, then broil, remove and serve hot with lots and lots of salsa. Sound hard to screw up? It should be. But tonight, the plate of nachos set infront of me, was...well, screwed up! Sub par! Brutal for pub food, brutal!!!
I love to indulge in a huge plate of nachos after a day of outdoor activity. I feel, after taking on Mother Nature, that I somehow deserve a big, greasy plate of chips and salsa. It was the thought of this steaming tray of grease and salt waiting for me like bait, that made forging through Kananaskis on my snowshoes, despite the ginormous blister I could feel developing on my heel, possible! So I am sure you can imagine my dissapointment when the plate I found myself staring at was nothing close to what I just described as perfect, simple nachos!
I guess I have become a bit of a "nacho snob." As a nacho snob, I would like to write a few tips with the hopes that the kitchen staff from the pub I ate at tonight, might somehow read them and improve their simplest dish. Please feel free to add to my list:

Choose a bag of good quality chips, cheap, shitty chips ruin nachos!!! Go for the Tostitos Hint of Lime or Multigrain..

Shred LOTS of cheese over EACH layer of chips

Cut the peppers up small, don't put onions on, even if you are tempted.

Use Banana Peppers too, lots of 'em

Chicken or beef placed on every layer of chips makes sure those enjoying them, get some protein

If you are gonna go with olives, put them on HALF the plate so the picky people, like myself don't have to weird others out by picking them off and piling them on the side of our plates.

Add more cheese, so that cheese is the top layer.

Put in oven and bake slowly so that all of the cheese can melt. Hunks of half melted cheese is gross. Let the cheese melt.

Broil once all the cheese is melted, just to add a little crispiness.

Serve with lots and lots and lots of salsa, lots of it!

If your chips are cheap, your pepper chunks are too big or you decided to put huge hunks of onion on them, your nachos will suck.
If you don't let the cheese melt on all layers, your nachos will suck.
If you don't put cheese on all layers of chips, your nachos will suck.
If you forgo the meat, your nachos won't necessarily suck, but they will be sub par.
If you overdo the olives, your nachos will suck.
If you broil the shit out of them, your nachos will suck!

Now, go make some nachos and enjoy!!!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

GOODNIGHT I LOVE YOU SWEET DREAMS

The other night I was so tired when I finally hit the sac. Before dozing off I turned to tell my husband goodnight and that I loved him, but it came out exactly like this: "Goodnight, I love you, sweet dreams." He giggled . I knew exactly why he was giggling and it wasn't because he thought that what I had said was cheezy, though we all know it is.
He was giggling because he has heard the story about how my sisters and I used to say this to each other, to our parents, to our horses, dogs, cats and every other living thing at our farm before bed when we were little. We said this little phrase everynight and the words came from our innocent, childish hearts, but we also said it as our own way of procrastinating bed time.
I can still see Nic and I kneeling on the bed, our heads pressed against the window. We'd stare into the farmyard and said in unison, "Goodnight, Jake, we love you sweet dreams, Goodnight, Missy, we love you sweet dreams, Goodnight, Cinnamon, we love you sweet dreams, Goodnight, Bandit, we love you sweet dreams, Goodnight, DQ, we love you sweet dreams..." the list would go on forever, each Goodnight followed by a softly blown kiss in the direction of the barn. This is a happy, happy memory for me and it makes me grin to think that when I am really tired, my subconcsious defaults to such a comfortable happy place!
Goodnight friends, I love you, sweet dreams!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

MIA??

Ah, lazy Sunday. It's not often that I have lazy Sundays. I am usually too focused on soaking up every second of a day off to laze around doing nothing, but today, today I felt lazy. Marty and I are still in recovery mode from the hype of our awesome wedding week, so we figured we'd just sleep in and laze around today. Someone forgot to tell Scout our plan....she is not a fan at all of Lazy Sundays! She was up at 6am, ready to play! When I couldnt' take her horrible breath on my eyelids anymore, I got up, brought her downstairs, filled her bowl with kibble, put the baby gate up at the bottom of the stairs and headed back to bed, back to my plan of sleeping in!! We managed to squeeze in a couple more hours of sleep before Scout's whining at the bottom of the stairs became impossible to ignore. Begrudgingly, I got up, pulled on my sweats, hooked the long cable to Scout's collar and let her outside. Since we live in a condo with no yard of our own, we have rigged a cable up to our deck, so that Scout can hang out in the greenspace while safely attached to our porch. I headed back upstairs to the bathroom, where I turned the fan on and relaxed for a while. When I emerged from the"can" I walked into the bedroom and looked out the window, to check on Scout. What I saw freaked me out! There laying in the yard, was the cable and the collar, but NO DOG!!! OMG, I panicked! My mind raced with all possiblities..Scout could be in the street, she could have taken off down the paths that wind thier way behind our house, she could have seen a bunny and taken off to who knows where....certainly, she was gone! I bolted down the stairs to the back door, and there, sitting with her nose pressed against the window, was Scout. "Mom, my collar broke" she seemed to say. I flung open the door, wrapped my arms around her and kissed her all over! Thank God she hadn't gone anywhere!!!!
We did haul our butts off the lazy day couch and took Scout to the dog park this afternoon. Here are a couple pics. I am soooo glad Scout didn't end up MIA!!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

ATTACK TRUCK

I don't think I mentioned this yet, but back in October, I bought a truck. I sold my little jetta and got me a big, bad ass 4X4 truck!! The guy I bought it from was a hard core dirt biker and he had really "pimped out" this truck, giving it huge tires and fancy mags. He also put two very sharp, very pointy prongs on the front bumper I didn't know if they served a purpose, or if they were just put there to look "bad ass." But they did look "bad ass" and I liked it. He left those spikes on the truck when he sold it to me and I pointed them out to my friends with pride. This week those spikes turned on me!!



It's no secret, I have been stupid tired this week. I am still trying to recover from the awesome whirl wind that was wedding week. In fact, I still have yet to catch up on my sleep and several chores are still waiting to be tackled. I still have 2 suitcases to unpack, though yesterday, I managed to find the time and energy to pull my wedding dress out of the front zipper of my suitcase. The morning of Jan.4th, just before we left Sunny Akumal, Marty and I put on our wedding outfits one last time and frolicked on the beach and in the ocean while Mom and Nic did one last, fun, free spirited photo shoot. I then stripped out of my wedding dress, balled it up, tossed it in a plastic bag, zipped it into my suitcase and forgot about it.
Anyway, I still have yet to unpack the suitcases, my overnight bag from my weekend adventures and my truck, from a week of scrambling to get organized. I still have piles and piles of laundry to do and my Christmas decorations are still up!!!! The point is, I have been tired and not really functioning at normal Jeanne/Tazmanian Devil speed. My focus has been clouded my memories of hot sun, sandy beaches and romantic nights.....
So, I parked my truck, after work, in the driveway right infront of the garage doors (it is too big to fit in the garage.) I stumbled out of the driver's seat, slammed the door shut and groggily dragged my exhausted Fun French Teacher Self around the front of the truck. All I could think about was how good collapsing on the couch was gonna feel. I was imagining turning on the fire place (can you believe people actually say "turn on the fire place," oops, that should be another blog...), plopping down on the soft leather, pulling a fuzzy blanket up to my chin and and closing my heavy, heavy eyes, when I was ripped from peaceful thoughts by a sharp pain. The pain was so sharp, I almost cried which took my by surprise. I was in my driveway, how could I be suddenly hurting so badly??? I looked down at my leg, the pain was intense there and noticed my lulu lemon pants, my favorite lulu pants were ripped and blood was running out of the hole. Upon further investigation, I realized that I had walked too closely to my bad ass truck and the sharp prongs (now referred to as "weapons") had snagged my pants and a good chunk of skin!!! The lump that developped over the next few hours could be felt through jeans and the color of the whole area turned to a blueish purple. I ended up having to get a tetnus shot, all because of my own truck!!!!!!
HEY, JEANNE, WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!



Thursday, January 7, 2010

MR. AND MRS. WRIGHT

I am writing to you as the new, Mrs. Wright or Mme Dooble-Vay, as my kids are trying to remember to call me (dooble-vay, is French for W.) We tied the knot, December 30th at our beautiful beach resort in the Akumal, Mexico.
I have been sitting here typing and erasing, trying to put into words all the details and things to tell about the day. There is nothing I can write that does it justice. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect!!!

Thanks, Nic, for being persistant enough to secure this coveted location for us!

Aim and Nic made beautiful bridesmaids.

Adam and Nathan were Marty's
sexy groomsmen.

Check out the backdrop. Can
you say Paradise???

LOVE

LOVE

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

BACK IN THE NORTH!

We're back!!! I have sooo much I want to write about and share, but since we got home at 5am (result of some airline delays) and since I had to leave the house at 7am in order to have enough time to snag Starbucks before teaching a full day, I am exhuasted!! 1 hour and 40 minutes of sleep a night, is NOT enough. Marty, who did not work today, is sending me to bed.

I will tell ya this though...I am sooo excited, too excited to sleep! The entire week was so much fun. The wedding was perfect, exactly as I had dreamed. I feel like the luckiest girl in the whole world!!!