Pick me doc

Done my christmas baking. Vanillekifpl, chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies, gingerbread lemon sammich cookies and (a new one this year) - jammy dodgers. Raspberry ones if ya must know.

I figure if the Doctor likes them so much I needed to find a real british recipe and give them a try. 

Turns out they're pretty dang tasty. I'm sure the TARDIS has a kitchen in it somewhere...I could whip these up no prob.

Ahem...Doctor?
Yeah, just putting it out there.
Cuz, y'know...pastry chef through time and space is a perfectly acceptable living for me instead of scientist :)

Now I need to go make some mint tea to calm my stomach after eating my weight in cookie dough...

Hooray! Friday!

So glad it's friday :)
This morning was spin and sculpt class. I love it when it's exam time - there's always room in the classes in the morning and the friday class is always sweaty and tough. And it was tough. I had sweaty cleavage (TMI??)...a sign that I'm working my ass off. And now lime pie yogurt and granola for breakfast. I could kiss whoever at iogo thought up lime pie yogurt...it's heavenly.

I'm sending good vibes to my friend Karen today. I am so proud of her - with the help of lapband surgery and totally changing her eating and exercise habits she's lost 110 Lbs in the last few years, and this weekend she is rewarding herself by having some surgery done to remove extra skin that hangs on her legs, butt and cleavagey areas. Depending on her mood she might get bumped up to a B-cup too (she's currently AA soaking wet, after being a DDD and she misses her girls!) She's having a tummy tuck later since there a lot of skin, and for now this is the first step. She's off work until January and has her boyfriend to keep an eye on her. I'm so glad for her. Having the extra skin really bothered her after all her hard work, and she is so excited. It's like a final closing of the door on her old unhealthy life. I'm excited for her and I hope it all goes well. I've always thought that if you need to do that to feel better, by all means go for it. I know it annoys me sometimes that my butt will never be pristine after my weight loss, but it's not enough to really make me feel bad since I didn't have as much to lose. It's not enough to let someone do surgery on me tho. I'm a wuss :).

Last night I took the time for a healthy awesome supper - oven roasted maple balsamic brussel sprouts with baked almond chicken. One of our favourites, but it takes about an hour and some days I'm just not in the mood. Soooo worth it though. Healthy and absolutely delicious. We've picked up the most recent Doctor Who episodes so after a bit of boring house stuff we settled in for some popcorn and Doctor Who. Nice. :)
Tonight is christmas movie night with friends and a relaxing weekend of christmas baking and a little work on my thesis papers (I've been tactfully ignoring them...he heh). Christmas shopping and all those sorts of things that usually make me crazy this time of year are done, and I gotta say - I'm doing this next year too if I can. What a total relaxing way to enjoy christmas. Maybe it's just the lack of school crazies, but I haven't felt this relaxed in years.

Ho ho ho, my lovelies :)

Canadian Tire awaits me

Quick post. Busy day.
Came in for spin class and it was sweaty and good.
Today is busy with a noon hour run out to buy my Dad's christmas present...the only gift left. Hooray! I absolutely love that he tells me exactly what tool he can use and needs, what the sale price is and where to get it (a 146 piece drill bit set with a case that is on 60% off if you must know). I love getting people things they can use. Bonus that the store is a quick bus ride form work so I can grab it now instead of after work when everyone is crazy...easy peasy.
:)
Lots to do.
Gotta go!

sweet cuppin cakes

Good morning. :)
Today has been fantastic so far. Sculpt class and a good night's sleep. Wearing some new duds...and I feel awesome for some reason. I'll take it! :).

The work meeting went OK. It seems our area is safe so far with no major needs being lost, and the only cuts being to people who have left who won't be renewed. So in a way it's sucky as some of us will have to do more, but at least, for now, we're all safe. A lot of other departments lost a lot of people, and a few departmental libraries will be closing, so it's a relief to know that, especially right before christmas.

Last night was both a bomb and prize-winner as far as the kitchen was concerned. I attempted to make something new for work potluck today - eggnog cream cheese balls rolled in nuts from a recipe I found online...which never set. So, in the end I have some tasty creamy cheese dessert spread instead. So, I pulled out my baker hat and made some delicious egg nog cupcakes from this site after a bit of hunting - I figured I'd use the failed cheesey balls as icing.
Score :)
I made minicupcakes. I prefer them to large ones...I don't have a big sweet tooth so they're just the right size. They turned out spectacularly and are totally bus totable, so today I have a few dozen minicupcakes for the lunch potluck. It's for my old department that I left last year, and I'm flattered they invited me back for a visit (although J thinks it's just so I'll bring them some dessert- I kinda have a rep to protect here...he hee!). It is a really multicultural department, so potlucks have curries and steamed dumplings and menonnite food all combined. I can't wait. :)
Must dash. Lots to do. Have a great day!

Whaaaaat

I can't stop giggling at this...

Lazy day yesterday. The roads have been slickly icy lately, so the bus ride home took forever even after being 30 minutes late, so by the time I got home I was chilled to the bone. Had a nice supper and relaxed with J a bit before picking up my Dad at the airport. Got a nice little visit with him in before sleep. He's off this AM, but will be back for Christmas. It's good to see him. :)

This morning I came in on the cold bus to workout, and made it into the yelly lady's spin class. It was a good class though. Hard, but she was really hyper this morning and kept making us laugh and talked to distract us from some of the drills. I feel like it was a really solid workout. Today is another busy day, with a big meeting happening this morning that makes me nervous. There's a huge deficit at the university so they have to make cuts all over and today we learn what those are in our department. I'm OK, but I don't know what we might lose. It's worrisome that some of my friends may lose their jobs.
Crossing my fingers that our group, being the people that make this place work, will be relatively untouched and safe.
We shall see.
Have a great day. And if life gets to be too much today, just do the Whaaaaaat and it'll seem less scary :)

Monday already?

Busy full weekend. There was eggnog french toast.
Oh. Yeah.
Quick post. Must dash.
Came in for spin and sculpt class and killed it :)
Now it's time for craaaaazy work day!
Later taters...

shiny blinky yeah yeah yeah

Last night I got the tree up! Yay!
Oh sure I was up until midnight sorting through ornaments for some to give away first, and had to rearrange the living room to have somewhere to put it, but nana's old white tree is up!
:D
I love it...it's an old old fake plastic cedar from the 50s...I've never seen another one like it. J lived with his nana and mom until he was 5 and has so many fond memories of it, so she made sure to leave it to him and we both love it. Lots of blue lights and all our favourite ornaments. I even put some lights and a few old ornaments on the "regular" tree we have int eh living room, just for kicks. Some years I go all arty and try and coordinate the tree with colours or themes, but this year it's just all the ornaments I could find that made me smile up on there. We still have a whole whack of other ornaments for another little tree that we have, that I'm not going to set up this year, but they're all sorted and organized in a Rubbermaid bin, so they're ready for next year. I've also got a parcel to mail out to my sister's family. Went to bed all grinney and happy - I love christmas :)

(photo: courtesy of Natalee Dee)
This morning was hard to get up for...tired. But I got up and came in for spin and sculpt class and enjoyed it thoroughly. The students are starting exams so it's quieter in the gym. I brought in an old wreath and a set of lights to put up in my office, so I'm gonna go do that now and get to work.

Hope you all have a great evening.

Oh my giddy arms

Last night when I got home it had snowed again another 4 inches (grrr). Thankfully I was having one of those rare go go crazy energy PMS days, and so I spent another 40 minutes happily shovelling snow. I cleared out around the back area where we park the vehicles too which I hadn't gotten to last time I had to shovel...it took a while and after the heavy sculpt workout my arms were very tired by the time I was done, but I did it. When my dad gets home from Ottawa next week he'll actually be able to get his car out now to get home!
After I vegged a bit and had supper I got my christmas mailing together to send out today, as well as some household chores I've needed to get to. I'm trying to get a last few things finished up so I can get to the christmas decorations this weekend...hee hee. Can't wait. I love that we've put in some serious work to the home...we thought about having people over on the weekend after J's christmas work party and it didn't fill us with embarrassment and dread...cuz the house is getting organized! :)

This morning was spin class with the evil lady, and I'm in for a long day at work after a hard sweaty workout. Lots to do, and much to plan. My arms are achey stiff today and my back is a bit stiff, but overall, I'm good. Just enough to know I really worked hard yesterday.
I am strong.
I like that :)

If you all out there have any snacky ideas please pass them my way. I'm hunting for new nibbles. I'm thinking of making these as a holiday food for the family...whaddaya think? Olives, cream cheese and pickled carrots...cutified, and strawberries and devonshire cream santified :)

 We're doing snacks and nibbles instead of christmas supper this year to relax and play games so I have to find some things to bring. I'm thinking these, veggies and dip, guacamole and pita chips and and some baked meat buns will be on the menu.
Nom.

back to it

Whew! I'm all trained up and back at work today. It was a really good training seminar. It helped me with a lot of things I don't know much about being a new manager. Really practical stuff...I was worried it would be a crappy thing full of buzz words and personal empowerment lessons, but it was really good. Hopefully I can put it to use.

Thankfully there was no more snow. Everything looks gorgeous and christmassey and the city is digging out from under it all. Tuesday I could do my regular planned home workout and did the bodyrock.tv Girl on Fire workout with ab bonus and a few other random ab things before I was off to my training class. Yesterday was a long exhausting day, with errands and groceries and a late supper and I fell into bed exhausted at 10. This morning I was up and in to work and workout as usual. Today is the last day of classes for the students so it's a lot quieter and I could fit into the sculpt class and have a good all over body workout. My arms have that lovely ache they get when they've been pushed to work hard :)
Now it's to work to catch up on the last few days. Gotta run.
Later taters...

snow!

Manager training all day today, so home workout today before i headed out. Got up for morning workout to find a foot of snow.
Yeesh!
Soooo, my morning workout morphed into 40 minutes of snow shovelling instead!
Then off to training, bellydance and a long day.
Tomorrow I do it all again (well hopefully minus the shovelling bit)...