Merry Christmas Everyone!!

So, I was mentally preparing myself to spend Christmas in Egypt this year, but the way things worked out has allowed me to be in Victoria and spend the holidays with my family and friends, for which I'm very grateful! This is also the first white Christmas in Victoria for as long as I can remember, and in addition to the snow, we have another visitor this year-- Topaz, the yellow lab!! Her owners are in Arizona, so she's spending the holidays with us, which we like- it's fun having a dog around (although judging by the picture...I'm not sure if she is having quite as much fun as we are ;)

It's been a great Christmas so far- santa was very good to me and in a few hours we're about to sit down to eat the turkey that has been cooking away all afternoon... mmmm.

Anyway, not much to report, just wanted to wish all you and your family a wonderful Christmas.
xoxo C

A recap of the week...

Back to reality...and snow :(

It's late and I should already be in bed, but thought I should do a quick post... I got back yesterday from a fab week of sun and catching up with friends to find Victoria covered in stupid snow--not a welcome sight at all! I don't mind it when I can snowboard on it, but when I have to go about daily life and try to drive and run in it (okay I haven't actually tried to run yet...I'm afraid I'll fall..) it really sucks!

But back to mexico...it was perfect-- the resort was great, it was sunny the whole time, the wedding was beautiful and I wish I was still there!!

For a full account, you should read Jen's post, she provides a lot more detail than I have the energy for at the moment.
Anyway here are a few pictures of the week... xoxo C

The last week has been sort of busy- mostly getting ready for the kids' xmas party at work- it was today and went pretty well. Since I was in charge of the volunteer list, I managed to avoid being an elf - sorry Glen and Kate! ;) It was sort of exhausting, but I think the kids had fun- AND the best part is it's over for another year! :)

So, I can't remember if I mentioned (which is weird, because I'm realllllllllllllly looking forward to it), but I'm off to Mexico on Tuesday morning. Sean and Michelle are getting married (finally-- it's only been 10 years) so we're all meeting in Puerto Vallarta!! It couldn't have come at a better time- Victoria's been so cold and miserable lately. I am sharing a room with Kate- we are very excited as it'll be our 3rd time to mexico together (first time was in 1998 when we were 19) AND it's our 3rd destination wedding together!

Look at the cool 3-D snowflake I learned how to make this week-- it's easy...you can do it too!

I'm bringing my macbook with me to PV, but am not sure if I'll have internet there, so if you don't hear from me for a while, I hope you have a great week! I'll have a margarita for you!

xoxo C :)

Catincairo is one year old!

My first entry was November 27th, 2007- one year ago today! It was funny re-reading some of those first entries- SO MUCH has changed since then- what an amazing and bizarre year I've had... I had forgotten how nervous I was before I left, when I was packing all my stuff and getting ready to leave for the next two years, and how lonely and homesick I felt when I first arrived in Cairo...and I never could have predicted that in the following months I would climb mountains, live in two apartments, live in a hotel for 2.5 months, swim in the Red Sea, dip my feet in the dead sea, travel to Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sri Lanka and India, touch an elephant, interview 1000 people in 5 weeks, eat some reallllly weird stuff, make some lifelong friends and get to spend 5 months with my friends and family in Victoria... although some of the times were hard and put me out of my "comfort zone" I wouldn't trade any of these expereinces for anything-- they have made me stronger and taught me so much. I'm not sure what the next year will bring, but I'm ready for it!

Roadtrip

Well, it's officially goretex and turtleneck weather around here; I like fall, but I can't believe a few months ago I said I missed the rain--I take that back!

This weekend Celeste and I took a roadtrip up island to visit Sarah who just moved there- she was an awsome hostess- we did a lot of my favourite activities: eating, going for walks, drinking wine, catching up and playing Rock Band!! We did NOT eat any nanaimo bars, but I think Cole and I do that enough at work! A few pics:

fall continues in Victoria...

Looks like I haven't written in a while....it would take a long time to re-cap the 10 days but they included: a swim-team baby shower for Trishy (and Ayelen); make-your-own pizza night at Cole and Kristinas and a trip to Vancouver which involved Kate, Tegan, Michael, Frank, Rock Band II and a lot of food. Here are a few pictures. Adam James, a misty sunset over the gulf islands, Michael the rock star and a crazy sky full of popcorn clouds from Mikey's window.

Oh deer...

I hope you all had a great halloween weekend. I was really sick and Topaz and I spent most of the weekend like this.


I got to watch Aidan's soccer for a bit, which was great, but it's cooolllllddd when you're standing there not moving.




So...a new employee came into the office the other day and I asked how he was liking victoria (he'd just moved from alberta) and he said that it was great but he was upset because he'd hit a deer the day before-- apparently he got out of the car and called the RCMP and sat down beside the deer--- the poor deer was pretty badly injured, but he lifted up his head, looked Jake in the eye and lay his head in his lap...that's how the RCMP officer found them-- he said he'd never seen anything like it before-- usually if they're alive enough to move they don't stick around. But we do work hard to hire friendly, approachable people, so I guess bambi felt comfortable with him. Unfortunately, the RCMP guy had to shoot him later, but I thought it was a nice story.
On an unrelated note, there was an amazing sunrise this morning- I caught it though a willow tree. Also unrelated, that's great about Obama, eh? It will be interesting to see what the next few years hold- I think the world is ready for a change. Okay time for bed, tonight's swim workout wore me out. xoxo C

With Grandma

I love this picture of Mariah with her Grandma, Madeline (Nicky's mum!). SO cute!

A weekend in photos

In no particular order--- my "roommate", Topaz; dinner with Celeste and Sarah; Nicky, Dave and I having Korean BBQ for lunch (with a funny menu picture) and Nicky's little niece, Mariah :)

(Yes, I know I'm wearing the same shirt, but I don't have that many clothes here, and I washed it in between wearings.. honest!)

Fall...

The weekend already- that was fast- actually I can't beleive how quickly this year is going! Fall in Victoria is such a nice time of year so I'm glad I'm still here!
Anyway.........we had a bake sale yesterday to raise money for the United Way; Kate and I baked some of our world-famous M&M cupcakes. Dad helped with a little "quality control". They were a huge hit. Obviously.

























I'm house/dog sitting again for the next few weeks- my new roommate, Topaz, is an adorable yellow lab- I'll see if I can get her to sit still long enough for a picture later.
Lately, I've been trying to be more disciplined about exercise, I ran a few times this week I made it to 2 swim practices- next week I'm shooting for all three! It feels great to be back in the pool again, even if John says my backstroke has regressed. (I hate backstroke anyway, John! ;) SO THERE!

Hope you're all having a great weekend. Hugs from me and licks from Topaz :)

How have I never had photoshop before?

Till now, I have been using picasa for photo-editing- which is okay for what it is (a free program from Google), but I discovered yesterday that my parents have photoshop on their computer! It's a little complicated at first and has a lot of features that I don't understand and probably will never use, but I've been using a few self-tutorial videos online and have been able to scratch the surface a little-- here are a couple of pics of Aidan and Caley at the park yesterday- (as you can see, right now I'm in my "partial black and white period")- also, here's one of dad at Thanksgiving, looking sketchy! (okay and one of the Bard & Banker - not edited using PS)

a thousand words...

So I've been posting a lot of pictures but not writing much lately-- I think I told you I got a new camera a few weeks ago, so I guess I've been a little snap happy (wow, did I really use that word) and thought most of the pictures spoke for themselves..but I guess maybe I should give a bit of an update too...

Where to start? Wellll, I'm still in BC- which meant I was here for Thanksgiving which is one of my favourite holidays! As usual, we had lots of friends for dinner- but with the added excitement this year of a power outage just as the turkey was coming out of the oven- the whole south island was out for about an hour and a half - the veggies and gravy had to be finished on the BBQ!! Since everyone was in the same boat, it made for some interesting watercooler chats on Tuesday.

On the weekend, Kate and I ran the 8K- I was about 6 min slower than last year, but it was still fun- I was particularly happy to see Nicky cheering about 800m from the finish line (thanks Nick!!)

I can't remember if I said that I've been going to physio to fix my hip... I was a little skeptical at first when they hooked me up to suction cups with an electrical current running through them, but after about 2 weeks of that, as well as some exercise, I'm really noticing an improvement...hopefully it keeps getting better :)

That's pretty much all from me... I have to post at least one picture, so here's one of Arthur (Cole and Kristina's dog and my roommate this week)- I caught him checking his email on my laptop yesterday...

Okay, gotta go, it's a new Grey's Anatomy tonight... hope you're all doing well!

xo C

The other thing that happens when the power goes out...

Bri, Steph, Michael and I somehow started taking pictures for our 'album cover' and the dust jacket shots for our 'books'. These are some of my personal favs: (especially the 'totally unimpressed rock band' shot.... as well as the creepy ones of mike!) I hope you had as much fun at your dinners as we did! :)