...

Location of Zalau-Zalowsy... waaaaay far away!

So! I'm going to Istanbul! Yaaaaaay! We have some friends who are living there (volleyballers and family) and I'm meeting a friend who is coming from Cyprus, Angela Cardinal... and we're going to check out the city! I'm super excited... I'll get to see Steve for a few days when he gets back from this road trip from hell, and then it's my turn to take off. I was talking to Steve on skype tonight (love skype) - he was sitting in a stairwell - one of the only places in the hotel where there's a signal - and looked bored. His new name for dumpy Zalau is Zalowsy (love it) and besides a few practices here and there... they have a lot of free time. Today they practised in a small town 30kms outside of Zalau; the town was tiny and old and all of the villagers were coming out of their houses to look at their massive bus winding down the puny, narrow village streets... what a sight - for both the villagers and the volleyballers. Anyways... only a few more days and they're back. Yay.

I've been a victim of internet vortex tonight so am keeping this short - and sweet. I came across this really neat time-lapse video - set to some really nice music... it makes flying seem more beautiful than anything I've ever experienced on an airplane; maybe if my flight from Frankfurt to Toronto lasted as long as this video, I'd be more inclined to think about beauty than smelly neighbors and cramped legs and the short guy sitting in the emergency exit seat. And if the music replaced all of the plane-snoring? Perfect...

so far so good...

So, over the past few days some surprising things have happened. The team Tomis played on Saturday, Dinamo Bucharest, was surprisingly good. The home team was exhausted - they didn't get in until 3am on Thursday night/Friday morning so were not in top form... and barely squeaked by in the 4th set winning 27-25. The poor refs were horrible - they missed several out of rotation calls, and didn't have a clue what to do with the out-of-control-crazy libero who was taunting the crowd and, frankly, being a total jackass. Apparently everyone hates them (whether it's because it's a police team or not I'm not sure) and Constanta's fan club was continuously shushed by the announcer mid-rally - they were singing a song that apparently said all sorts of bad things but the jist of it was F@*# Dinamo. Classy. So anyways, it wasn't a total suprise that they won, but they just barely pulled it off.... phew. Saturday night we watched Anchorman... a classic in the realm of stupid movies. On Sunday night we watched Will Smith in Seven Pounds and liked it. Great acting and interesting but sad story line. And then Steve packed up his bags and left for a week! An entire week... boo. Their schedule is insane - they play Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and then drive home on Sunday night. They bussed to Busteni yesterday (six hours), the rest of the way to Zalau today (another six hours) and then bus to Dej after their game on Saturday (an hour) before making the entire trip back here (10 hours give or take) on Sunday afternoon. Blech.

Zalau is way up in the northwest corner of Romania - just north of the midpoint between Oradea and Cluj - it's far.


Okay! My surprise is exciting... A few weeks ago I talked to the people at the gym to see if they might be interesting in having a yoga class. I've done lots of yoga but never taught... but decided to see if I could convince them to hire me to give a class or two. They agreed to give it a try, but I kind of got the run-around for two weeks - yes we'll put it in the schedule (they didn't), yes we'll put up a sign (they didn't), yes it starts on Tuesday (it didn't) - and was wondering if it would happen or not... and it finally did!! I gave my first class this morning to all of five people and I think it went well. I can be better - but at least I've got that first class out of the way. Most people speak English well enough to understand, but I know there will be challenges in that department - language. But! Oh well! I'll give it a try and see what happens. If people come and it's a success they'll pay me... and if not? I'm getting some teaching experience and doing yoga. So there you go - that was a surprise!

I've missed all sorts of important days: Chinese New Year (26th), Burns Night (as in Robbie Burns; he was born on the 25th), National Compliment Day (US, 24th), and National Pie Day (eating or throwing? US - 23rd) , but today, January 27th is a multitude of days. It's Family Literacy Day (yay for reading) which, through ABC, is chaired by Robert Munsch, of the the best all-time children's authors. I remember so many of his books and the illustrations... fabulous. Paper Bag Princess, Love You Forever, Angela's Airplane, and Millicent and the Wind - oh so awesome. I can't wait to buy children's books and read aloud with my kids... yay.

On less of a celebratory note, the 27th is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and a national day of remembrance in many countries: in the UK it's Holocaust Memorial Day, in Poland, Memorial Day for Victims of Nazism, in Italy, Memorial Day, in Denmark, Auschwitz Day, and in Germany Commemoration Day for the Victims of National Socialism. On this day, in 1945, the largest Nazi death camp, Poland's Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated by Soviet troops. One of Romania's most famous Jews, Elie Wiesel (Nobel Prize-winning author of Night), was at Auschwitz-Birkenau for some time, and his legacy lives on here; the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania seems to be the foundation for research and education in this country so devastated by the policies and directives of that time. On an entirely different note, it's apparently also Thomas Crapper Day ("Happy Crapper Day!") which means what you think it does. Check out Crappers Quarterly for more information, if you like.

Okay, I can't leave on a crappy note (pah!) so I'm leaving you with a few pictures and one last interesting tidbit... On January 27th, in 1926, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of what he called a televisor. His first television program showed the heads of two ventriloquist dummies - and, though transmitted to less than 100 "televisors", it was the beginning of a massive revolution in communication and entertainment.

Horse and cart (and people) on our street... not much transportation revolution there...

Puzzle progress!
Some daffodils to brighten up our kitchen ")

victory!

Yaaaay another win! Tomis downed PhonyAsse 3-1 on Wednesday night in an exciting game. Well, much of the excitement (all of it?) happened in the first set; like I've said, they only needed to win one set to clinch a spot in the next round of Euro Cup and it was in the first set that it was going to happen. In their last series against I don't remember who, they were in the same situation and went down 2-0 before saving themselves by winning set number three. Anyways, set one was an on the edge of your seat set, and thankfully they won it 26-24... phew. So they play a team from Belarus in a few weeks and that's that. I've been sick sick sick - I blame the smoke for opening the doors for the gross raspy cough that's invaded my lungs... bleeech. I finally went to get some antibiotics, and when I was about to pay for them realized that I barely had any cash... no problem. Two boxes - two weeks worth of antibiotics - cost all of 10 lei - less than $4 Canadian. So anyways, I've been a sick useless blob all week, but have been reading a lot and spending too much time on the computer - and no time at the gym. Strange, as at least one or two hours of my day is spent there... the gym void. So, I finished Three Cups of Tea and really liked it. It's a story about Greg Mortenson, a mountaineer turned miracle worker who builds schools for children (mostly girls) in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan, and what a story. What I find so admirable is that he just did what he wanted to do... it sounds so simple, but that's about it. He didn't really know what he was doing, but he knew what he wanted to do... and in the process figured things out - something and someone to learn from. Especially since most of the aid promised to Afghanistan hasn't ever made it there, and whatever has, rarely makes it out of Kabul, or the coffers of government officials. I finally finished October's Economist and started one I bought over Christmas and read this in The World This Year section: "The first protons were circulated around the Large Hadron Collider. Designed to help physicists explain the existence of mass, some feared the experiment would create a gigantic black hole. Wall Street's collapse just a few days after the LHC was switched on was deemed a coincidence." Hmm... are they sure?

So, according to Steve (and his entire team, no doubt), Wizz airlines is also a black hole. They were delayed by more than 5 hours on their way to Brussels, and 6 hours on their way home. He has decided that if the team flies with this low-cost, low-quality, time-sucker airline he won't be going on the trip. Well... at least he had time to buy stuff in Duty Free: Gouda, chocolate and siropwaffles, and at least he didn't eat it all. We had some cheese for lunch and it was daaaaarn good. a. So the other night Tammy and Sherisa and I went for dinner at Champs, a sports bar with good food and a non-smoking section. After last Saturday night I need a serious break from the smoke and while I know that it will have to be short lived (otherwise I may never eat out or drink out or go out), for now, I need it. Anyways, the non-smoking section of this place is literally a glass box with a booth and a table in it... a little odd but no smoke! We watched the inauguration while we listened to blasting techno (didn't hear any of the speeches) and had a pretty decent meal... albeit an hour after our waiter took our order. Romanian citizens voiced their opinions on the news, but Romanian lip-reading is a task I cannot perform. By that point a few girls from the team had joined us to watch a volleyball game, and their opinions mirrored ours. They thought that it was great, but that there were still lots of hard-to-solve problems, with more hard work and less celebrating in the very near future. The headline of a Bucharest English language newspaper, The Bucharest Herald was this: "First black Earth leader to launch an era of peace and American leadership." While Obama is not the first black Earth leader, I do like the part about peace and leadership. Let's hope...

ron...

I forgot to mention this in my last post but on Saturday night when we got back from our late night/early morning, Ron, our apartment building's resident stray dog (as named by Steve) wasn't in his usual spot down one of the first floor doormats but on the third floor just down the hall from our apartment. He got up, looking all sleepy and old-dog-achey, and came over to say hi... He usually wags his tail and sits up, but rarely actually gets up to come and say hi, so we thought he needed something and got him a small tray of water - not interested. All Ron really wanted was some loving, and every time we motioned to get up and go inside he pawed and nudged us for some more doggie pats. He is such a sweetie - he seems well fed but is one dirty dog - as soon as we get inside it's wash your hands time... ick. There is another small black yapper dog that also roams the building but he belongs to a guy who lives on the first floor who just lets him out (into the building and outside) while he's gone - responsible.


Steve left for Belgium early early this morning - tomorrow night's big game will be broadcast live online at Netzone... it's on at 8:30pm which is 11:30am in Vancouver I believe... check it out if you're around. I'm sick - my smoker's cough turned into a chest cold and I'm feeling blech. I bought stuff to make soup today when I went out to restock on water so ... it's time for soup.

sick from the smoke...

Overnight I have developed a smoker's cough and I hate smoke and I hate smoking. A few years legislature for a pan-European smoking ban was considered, but followed up only with strong encouragement from the EU for member states to ban smoking in public places. When we were in Italy a few years ago a smoking ban was put into effect (in enclosed and public areas - Steve got ashed on in a club a few weekends later) and several other countries have also taken the step to axe smoke and smokers from public and private places. In favour of the European directive to ban smoking in public places (and much more - more thorough labelling, health warnings, advertising restrictions and more), Romania committed to follow suit in July 2008, with a full ban on smoking in public places coming into effect on January 1st of this year. Romanian legislature also obliges bars, restuarants and nightclubs to mark out smoking and non-smoking areas ("the smoking spaces will not exceed half of the bar’s or restaurant’s area") and ensure that ventillation is installed. Well... upon hearing this news we wondered if (and hoped that) we'd return to a more breathe-easy Romania after Christmas break... ya, right. While most/many restaurants have non-smoking areas, they are definitely NOT proportionate in size to the smoking section, and are only somewhat less smoky than the non-smoking section. Example: last week we went for a drink at a two-story cafe/bar and sat in the non-smoking section... upstairs - still extremely smoky. So anyways, last night after Tammy and Sherisa's team beat a strong third place team 3-0 (yay!), we met up with the rest of their team at a small club near the gym. The place was smoky, but not so smoky that I couldn't stand being in there. By around 2:00 the music was becoming horrible-terrible-unbearable and we decided to leave and check out another establishment for some more dancing and late night/early morning fun... bad decision. Not only was this club so packed that we could barely make our way throught the crowd (the high decibel gutter techno didn't help) but it was so smoky that after less than five minutes we decided to/had to leave; I left feeling as though I'd actually eaten cigarettes, as if I had physically eaten half a pack of smokes - it was so disgusting. I mean so so so super disgusting. And, instead of going home, we went to a all-nighter restaurant to have some food and water and oh! the non-smoking section is full? (who knows if they even had one) So sure we'll take a table upstairs and self-pollute a some more. The most fabulous thing that I could have ordered at that restaurant was an oxygen mask and some clean air - seriously. We came home and the first thing I did (okay second - first all of the clothes went in the washing machine) was shower and wash my hair... I was at the point of smoke-nausea, and haven't felt too hot all day. Smoke-hangover! Blech. I still have the I-just-ate-cigarettes feeling in my throat and I'm coughing. Gross. So, sadly, this new legislature that requires bars and restaurants to have non-smoking and ventilated areas is as empty and unfulfilled as my lungs are (feel) full of tar.

We finally went to Practikker and bought a table! A cheap but do-the-trick table so we don't have to put all of our stuff on the floor anymore. The store is on the other side of town, and I was snapping away, taking pics on our way home. So, voila, some of Constanta just for YOU.

Steve at the wheel
These are all different buildings - they are megalithic... and, ummm, ugly.

A Big WIN!

Yaaaay! Last night Tomis beat PhonyAsse Lennik in three straight, 25-12, 24-12, 25-23... with the first two being all about business and the third a bit too close for comfort. Winning in three was clutch - when they play in Belgium next week they only have to win one set to qualify for the next round. It was a great game (for Tomis, not at all for the Belgians) and the stands were almost full... so it seemed like a great crowd to play for. My camera isn't good enought to catch game shots and the team website is brutal - they haven't updated the team from last year, and there's hardly any news, no photos (even though I see photographers there snap snapping away) so... no soup for you! Or, er, photos. So the good game was followed by a mediocre meal at the president's restaurant (called The Temple - bleh) and some beers. I'm totally being sucked in to the puzzle vortex and feel the pull to puzzle whever I'm home (how lame does that sound... seriously) but not today. Plus... we have to do the puzzle on the floor because we only have one table in the house (kitchen) despite the fact that the team manager, who owns the apartment, assured us that he had ordered a table that would be arriving any time. Yup, that was two months ago. So... we've been meaning to go to the Practikker, a cheap home furnishing store, but haven't gotten around to it. Maybe this weekend...

I just saw that Slumdog Millionare won a few Golden Globes last week - we watched it last week and I really liked it... would definitely recommend. I would not recommend The Curious Life of Benjamin Button, though a few friends here have seen it and liked it so hmmm... I liked the idea of the story - aging backwards and the curiosities that kind of life would involve, but it seemed way too constructed, too long and they played up Brad Pitt and his swanky good looks waaaay too much. It also seemed like the filmmakers were trying to create a movie in the Forrest Gump realm (it was obvious) but to me they big time missed their mark. Meh. What else did we watch... Tropic Thunder, which was just dumb (again, obviously) and a movie I'd never heard of but liked with Demi Moore and Michael Caine, Flawless. We have a whole whack of movies to watch - but haven't really gotten into any TV shows; most people and couples we know that come over to Europe for volleyball get into shows at home and download like crazy, but we've only gotten attached to The Office, which I find hilarious 95% of the time. I started Three Cups of Tea a few days ago and I think it's time for tea and reading - it's a tough life!

january 13...

We have so many sweets in the house I don't know what to do with myself. For his birthday, Steve was given a bag of treats from Tammy and a box of Belgian chocolates from a teammate... so we've got those two hanging around, along with a lot of leftover cake. I made a vanilla cake and topped it off with vanilla icing and ooooh my... so yummy. Yesterday was pretty much business as usual - I made chicken fajitas for dinner and then beat Steve at backgammon as quickly as I could so we could eat the cake in all of its goodness... and then, since we are STILL jet lagged, we just blobbed around and worked on the puzzle. The puzzle is a giant... and I've have, ahem, come to the conclusion that it is the reason that I'm not blogging as much - blame the puzzle! Hehe... Anyways, here are a few pics from yesterday - I was up until 4am last night and am heading to bed soon... with fingers crossed that I'll fall asleep at a normal time. Ooh, also, I came across (actually stumbled upon) a neat food website - Taste Spotting - is definitely worth checking out... I think it's a collection of recipes from food blogs? Not sure, but it looks good. Oh, and Happy New Year again - tonight is New Year's Eve according to the Julian calendar (the "old" New Year), an event celebrated throughout most of the Slavic world. At this time last year we weren't yet in Russia, but still in... Puerto Rico? Or we'd just returned home from the Olympic qualifier there. I can't recall if I made any NY resolutions last year (bad sign?) but am thinking about it... does that count? Meh, whatever. I bought a yoga mat today so I resolve to do more yoga and eat cake - perfect combination, no? AND I resolve to get over this ridiculous jet lag this week. Also, I meant to remind any readers that might be interested in watching Steve's European cup game on Thursday night that it's on here at 5:00pm at www.netZone.ro (where you can also check out strange Romanian television). They're playing against Belgium's Euphony Asse Lennik, cordially known around here as "you phony ass Lennik" - pah! Not sure what kind of sponsor that is but... the name makes us snicker. Okay... bed (and hopefully sleep) time.

the year of ...

A guy with his horse and cart - pic taken out of our kitchen window

Winter in Constanta! A little snow and a little ice...


Unfortunately, 2009 continues to be Year of the Jet Lag for both of us. I thought I was making progress a few nights ago when I almost slept through the night, but it's a one step forward (sleeping four or five hours straight), two steps back (up all night long) thing. What kills me is that I had No Jet Lag pills with me (Steve claims they're placebos but I say they work), and I forgot to take them! So it's my own fault. Anyways... in wider circles, 2009 is also International Year of Natural Fibers, International Year of Astronomy and the Year of the Ox as per les Chinois. A few years ago the UN's Food and Agriculture department decided that attention needed to be brought to the importance of natural fibers, as a large part of many struggling economies are fairly dependent on the industry. The International Year of Astronomy is pretty neat - 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei, and, well, space is just cool. Pretty much completely over my head (pah!) but... cool just the same. As for the year of the Ox, I don't have much to say other than that I read some superstitions during the New Year month (starting January 26th), and here are a few dos and don'ts...

It's considered good luck to... open windows and/or doors, eat sweets (for a sweet year - okay!), to have your house top-to-bottom clean (before the 26th) and to wear new slippers before (or for?) the new year.

It's considered bad luck to... buy a new pair of shoes (might be in trouble there), get a haircut (it "puts a curse on maternal uncles"), buy books (in Chinese, "book" and "lose" are homynyms), and to buy/offer anything in fours (the number four (四), pronounced sì, can sound like "death" in Chinese) - understood.

Who knows if this is the real deal - or if this information is genuine to the Chinese New Year and people's beliefs (if not, please excuse me - I really just regurgitated information from Wikipedia, but had to share - it was interessant) but... yup, interesting. Other interesting news (maybe) - Steve had two games this weekend - exhibition - in preparation for a Euro Cup game (against Belgium's Lennik) this Thursday, and Tomis won handily; the other teams in this Romanian league are no match for Constanta. However, some competition is better than none, and playing sure beats practising. What else... We just came back from an awesome dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, the Irish Pub, which, as I've said before, is NOT a pub but a restaurant. The calamari there is the best in town and I always get the same thing - cheese-stuffed chicken on a bed of spinach covered in a light white mushroom sauce... soooo good! It was a bit of a birthday dinner because tomorrow... is Steve's birthday! YAY! One of the best days ever, in my opinion. There were 11 of us, and people brought gifts - mostly clothing, which was very nice... but not quite as nice as (DRUM ROLL), a box of homemade chicken wings! In a KFC box. Strange but noteworthy touch there. Steve's trainer (the team's trainer), an American/Canadian guy, takes extreme pride in his chicken-wing-cooking-up-frying-up abilities - he even brought a four litre bottle of hot sauce (from home) and bought a moderately expensive deep fryer.... all for the wings. I'm not a big wing person so I can't attest to their yumminess but when Steve opened the gift bag at the restaurant and realized there was a box of warm chicken wings inside? Was he ever happy. I suggested sharing, which was clearly and emphatically (also quietly) nixed before I was even finished with the suggesting.

wings... thanks Jim!!

Okay... it's finally time for this blog to be over... I started writing this three days ago now? And have, each time, run out of time or brain power to finish it. I'll write again soon (birthday blog?), as the jet lag is (knock on wood) on it's way out. Cheers!!

jet-lagged...

Soooo we're back in Constanta and not much has changed since we left. Well... I suppose that's not entirely true. That crazy intersection now has traffic lights AND new street signs, and it's Winter; there is snow and ice on the ground and the temperature hovers around zero. Blech. I know I shouldn't complain but after all that talk at home that it wasn't cold here... well, it is. Anyways, we're both superduper jet-lagged, spending most of the night awake and most of the day wishing we were asleep. What a vicious cycle 'tis. Because I've been powered by a low-battery-brain I haven't been up to too much - these details of the past two days will probably paint a super boring picture of our life. For Christmas I got Steve a mammoth puzzle - 3000 pieces! And when we opened it Sunday morning I wondered if I had overestimated our puzzling skills... this thing is serious. Sifting through 3000 pieces to find the edges was enough of a challenge but now... egad. It's a historical map of the world and I'm pretty sure we can do it, it may just take us three months. I've forced myself to go to the gym as I'm pretty sure I won't/can't fall asleep on a treadmill, and in the apartment it's almost impossible to resist an afternoon nap. So anyways, I haven't mentioned this before but I've been going to some exercise classes, and this afternoon hit up Tae Bo/Abs. I've never really gone to fitness classes before and it's just interesting. First of all I feel like a giant - all the ladies in there are small (some only in the height dept) - and secondly, I do not have the proper clothes for such workouts. I kid you not, today there was a lady wearing a shiny black full-piece retro workout jumper a la high school wrestling. I couldn't help but stare as I left the room - and to top it off she had muffin top hair. I sound mean and horrible but I really couldn't believe the spandex shape of this number... I was thinking my clothes were bad (old OLD workout Ts) but this... wow. So that's about it... we've been warding off sleep, doing puzzles and warding off sleep for the past two days. I've read half of the magazines we brought back with us (at 4am) and, well, at this point I'm just hoping that I'll sleep tonight.

Seen at the gym: same singlet, different person inside

Happy New Year!!!

Wow... what an amazing Christmas holidays! I can't believe that we're already back in Romania (and that it's 2009), but we had such an awesome time in Bowmanville and Toronto and did SO much! So so much. I started blogs a few times but never had time to finish them, so here we start afresh. It's afresh out here - after telling most people at home that the weather was around 10 degrees, sometimes getting down to zero at night (and Steve; "I don't even wear a jacket"), we arrived home to Constanta with -2 degree weather and SNOW. It snowed all day and people are bundled to the max, driving super super slowly (nice change) and, with all of maybe 1cm of snow on the ground, we saw people sledding (kiddie being pulled around) and doing donuts in an emtpy, oversized parking lot. Anyways...

Younger generation of the Fab Four...

fresh baclava anyone?

Where do I start? I wrote my last blog on the 24th (oh so long ago), so I'll take it from there. We had a delicious Greek feast on Christmas Eve and were almost too full to eat the delish dessert we made... but not too full to open presents! We were completely spoiled this year, and the tree was flooded with gifts. What did we get? My big hits were a new electric toothbrush, a SUPER cute mat&nat purse from Erin and Fred, earrings and a Mamma-made scarf sent from home... and the rest is fabulous flotsam: gift cards aplenty, Nintendo DS games and accessories, chocolate, and more. Steve got his OWN DS, a curling game, fishing stuff, a handy knife contraption, and ... drum roll ... Leafs tickets! Erin and Fred sent him and his dad on a treasure hunt around the house which led to a pair of hard-to-get seats for the game on the 30th. We were moderate in our gift-giving, even though I really do (I swear) enjoy giving gifts as much as I enjoy getting them. So anyways, we found room for coffee and dessert, and may have played another game of Canasta, probably beating all of our runners-up opponents. (!!) It was snowy outside, and cozy inside.... and I know we went to sleep that night happy, warm and full - fabulous.

Playing (and setting a record - 104 points) - Dutch shuffleboard (Sjoelbak)

On the hunt for Leafs tickets

With some fab presents!! Cute!

Christmas Day at the Brinkmans was busy - busy with eating and socializing... yay! Before heading to a morning church service, we opened stockings from none other than Santa Claus himself (no?) ... who spoiled us with more fabulous flotsam: chocolate, bath stuff, gift cards and more. I'm pretty sure that Christmas morning will always have a special feel to it - and not because of the stockings, but because... hm... because you're with family? and it's meant to feel special? Whatever the reason, I love it. After church a whole clan of people came over and we ate more goodies (I hit up the nanaimo bars all week long... soooo good) while we waited in anticipation of GGG'08: Gift Grab Game 2008. Complete with a convenor (Bob) and a lush set of rules and regulations, presents from all were piled in the middle of the room (the one time that food wasn't the central focus at a family gathering) and the participants circled around. We eyeballed and judged, and some shook and inspected - and then it was off to the races. After an intense 30 or 45 minutes, the dust settled and we were all left with a grabbed gift. Steve ended up with a kitchen gizmo thing (he brought a bag of Romanian beer - most grabbed gift) and I found myself with a sushi kit (I brought two bottles of Romanian wine, also a hit) - not so bad!! My first grab was a set of drill bits.... which I was lucky enough to get rid of.

the Convenor

some of his rules...

enforcing some of those rules? or taking questions... I'm not sure!

our grabs (and Bob's!)

The rest of the day was full of more eating and lots of family time. We moved the party to the Tukkers where we played family feud and had the most perfect Christmas dinner. Highlights: the food (yummy turkey, croissant rolls and salad were my faves), Steve's impersonation of one of the three kings and Justin's keyboard concert. Steve and I were still fighting jet lag, so at that point (after dinner) I don't remember much - there was a fire and ??? - it was an amazing Christmas... yay.

Bon appetit!

Me and Pam
Is he a wise man or a priest? Or... ???

Justin's impromtu electro-keyboard performance was chart-topping

On the 26th we had another Christmas celebration with the Brinkman family out in Apsley - with more food and drink and goodies... and a hockey game! Despite the slippiness of the makeshift rink and even though I was roughed into the boards (snow banks) a few times it was awesome... so fun to be outside and moving around and exercising. When we headed home it was dark and snowing... and the Christmas gatherings had been fulfilled. Now, time for BUSYness.

Okay, we were busy but it was so fun... and one of the best nights of the entire trip happened on the 27th at Pam and Bob's... oooh man. We had a serious celebration, finishing the mini-keg by 9:00 and getting into the snow not too much later. We played Wii - and all of us (Pam, Bob, Erin, Fred, Steve and I) created little characters that eerily resembled us. (See pic below.) There was bowling and boxing and if there was anything else I don't remember... and then there was Cranium (always fun) and hot tubbing, snow angels and snowman, in that order. We partied until 5:00... and there's not too much else to tell - the pics speak for themselves... it was a super super fun night!!

Bob? Is that you?

Um, BRRRR!!!

SUPER FUN!

With Frosty the Beerman (after a carrot and some potatoes made him more lifelike, he was given a frosty beer)

Us with our Wii characters - some uncanny similarities

I haven't said anything yet about all that we accomplished in the wedding department. I FOUND A DRESS!! I am so so so SO excited about it... Erin and Marg and I went looking one day and I found a few that I liked... but wasn't crazy crazy about. Anyways, I'd had my eye on a ridiculously expensive dress and thought I'd just go and try it on to compare to what I'd picked out with the girls... to see if it even remotely measured up. Because we were going into the city to drop Erin and Fred off at the airport, I looked for (and found) an upscale bridal shop that not only sold but had THE dress I was looking for on sale - they were selling the sample at a drastically reduced price. I totally lucked out... while Steve napped in the car, I tried it on and ... it fit like a glove. After shopping with Erin and Marg for a dress a few days before, Steve's dad asked me where my parcel was, and all of us laughed at him: " Sheesh! You don't come out of a dress shop with a parcel!" But I did. I walked out of there with the dress that I wanted - and in my size... a miracle! So, that was definitely a highlight of the trip for me... The first thing I did the next morning was try it on - I love it!!!

I am definitely eyeing the Nanaimo bars!! Goodies galore on Friday morning - departure day

They taught him everything he knows: Hugh and Michelle Walters (with their son Riley) - Steve's club vball coaches from way back

Okay... other highlights - I'll do wedding related first. We finished our invites! It was a bit of work, but really nothing compared to the potential amount for do-it-yourself invites. Yay. Okay, that's the only other wedding related item on my last. (Ha!) Non wedding-related: WE WILL ROCK YOU! For Steve's upcoming birthday, his parents got him/us tickets to see the aforementioned show, and it was amazing. I mean, amazing. If this show is playing in your city, or playing in a city close to you... you must see it! It's a musical about ROCK... and about robot humans that, in the distant (I hope) future, are trying to keep instruments and creative music in the history books... With Queen-themed music and an incredible set, amazing solos, choreography and costumes, it was a hit - we loved it. Ummm... the Leafs game was a highlight for the guys... and we had a few nights out with friends that were also super fun. We met Steve's best man Dan and his fiancee Milka at The Spice Route for a fantashtic meal one night, and met up with them again on New Year's Eve. I have to say that I wasn't really in the New Year's party-party mood - I'd had my crazy party celebration a few nights before - but still had a good time. We went to a house party for the countdown and came home and ate pizza in the middle of the night - nothing wrong with that! So... this feels like the longest blog EVER. I'm sure I'm left things out but I know the most important stuff is here - DRESS! great Christmas with family... nanaimo bars! great food! And now, here we are back in Constanta... in the snow. We are so lucky to have such great family, in TO and in BC - and to have spent the holidays with the eastern arm in Bowmanville was awesome. So, on that note, I'm dragging my jet-lagged self off of this computer - Happy New Years and all the best in 2009!