Two weeks in Atlanta

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Two weeks in Georgia
Internet is my life line
Doing this and that.

Instead of making 14 individual entries about my last two weeks here in Atlanta I have decided to make one huge one. So here goes…

Monday, September 12, 2005

Back in Atlanta
Puttering around the house
Went out for a walk.

Anita will be working during my two weeks here in Atlanta so I’ll have the days all to myself while she away working hard at work. I should be able to keep myself preoccupied. Hmm, what are some activities I can partake in…?
• Watching TV.
• Listening to music...even with the limited selection of cd’s on hand. 😊
• Test my baking skills.
• Eating.
• Napping.
• Watch DVD’s.
• Read my “Wicked” book.
• Organize my bag yet again.

The possibilities are endless! LOL

So I pretty much did a lot of what I listed during the day. Then I happened to be on Yahoo chat and started chatting with Jean and I ended up going for a walk in the local park with her and her dogs. There’s Candy and Britney who are Italian Greyhounds and also Petey who’s she’s fostering at the moment. Petey is a poodle. They’re all really great dogs…just as long as they don’t lick my face. lol

I got home just before dinner and about a half hour before Anita got home from work. Perfect timing!

Anita and I had some dinner, did some grocery shopping and went for a walk around the lake near her place. Always good to get some exercise in especially after slobbing all of last week!

After our walk and we got home I started to feel like I was coming down with something. Is that a sore throat? Or perhaps I’m just allergic to exercise. Aha! I knew it! I am allergic to exerting excessive energy! LOL So I popped a couple of cold and flu pills and slouched on the sofa for a bit before hitting the sack…

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Is that a sore throat?
Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. I am a slob!
Feeling lethargic.

So yes, I have to admit it. I have a cold. Sore throat. No energy. No appetite. Not feeling like doing much of anything. I only have energy to get up and blow my nose and get myself something to drink. I pretty much plopped myself in front of the TV and watched endless hours of sitcom TV. Well, sort of watched since I was drifting in and out of sleep all day and night.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Feeling much better
No more slobbing on the couch
Baking up a storm.

I must say it is like a new day today. Wait a sec…it is. Haha What I mean is that I am feeling so much better today especially after having a shower. Mind you I gave myself a bit of a head rush when I put my wet hair in a towel and then flipped my head back. So I had to sit down for a few minutes until I was normal again. Lol Thinking back on it, it is quite funny.

Well, I wanted to start working on that list of things that I can do around the house so I decided to get up off the couch and do a bit of baking. First up was to bake some chocolate cuppie cakes. Mmm, yum. Oh so moist and chocolately! Then I decided that we need some cookies in the house. So I whipped up some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I think I over baked them a little bit since they’re a bit hard. But nothing a little time in the microwave can’t fix! Lol

Then I had to get my fix of the Cosby Show and some Seinfeld and Friends before starting on making some dinner of lettuce wraps! Yum! Well, the filling was a tad salty but nothing a little hoisin sauce can’t cover up. LOL It was all good even though I didn’t have much of an appetite and my taste buds not the greatest because of my congestion.

We made a little trip out to REI just so that I could get out of the house. REI is an outdoor store similar to Mountain Equipment Co-op. It’s great! So many things that I’d love to buy but didn’t. I just walked away with one thing.

When we got back to Anita’s complex we walked to pick up the mail and then walked around to check out the tennis courts, swimming pool and little gym as well. We sat down by the pool for a bit but didn’t stay there long since Anita said it smelled like garbage. But with my olfactory system out of order I didn’t notice a thing. LOL

Thursday, September 15, 2005

‘Nother day at home
Surf the Net. Listen to tunes
Barenaked Ladies!

Another day at home. I think I could get used to this loafing about the house doing nothing in particular! Instead of watching a lot of TV in the morning I listened to lots of music today. I love the Barenaked Ladies! And I also listened to some Green Day…a sort of best of compilation. It really reminded me that I like Green Day too!

Hmm, what are some things that I did today. Updated the blog, sifted through some old email (do you think 700+ email in my inbox is excessive?) Did a bit of research on Canada. Found out Anita got promoted to Manager! Whoo hoo! Happy Dance…okay, so I didn’t do an actual happy dance but if I wasn’t so lazy I probably would have gotten up and done one. Haha

To celebrate Anita’s promotion we went out for a really nice dinner at J. Alexander’s. Now that is some good food that we had. We ordered the ribs and this yummy salad to share. The ribs came along with some honey beans and coleslaw that were also yummy. Plus, we ended up ordering some fries. These were super thin. Sort of like shoe strings I guess you could say. Oh so yummy! Well, considering I am currently taste challenged it tasted really, really good. LOL

After dinner we stopped off at Jaime’s house to drop off some mail and a dish. We ended up taking the dish back full of soup. It was sort of a weird visit BUT I don’t want to get into that on the blog. 😊


Friday, September 16, 2005

‘Nother baking binge
Peanut butter cookies. Yum!
Japanese dinner!

Since we took the Barenaked Ladies CD into the car, it was a Green Day sort of day. Did I mention I love Green Day. Lol To mix it up a bit I took a break from doing nothing in particular and did a bit of baking. Today I started with some Old Fashion Sour Cream Sugar Cookies. They turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. They are not your typical crisp and crunch sugar cookies but sort of cake like. Hmm, almost like a muffin top! Well, almost…

I also whipped up some of my favourite cookies…peanut butter! It would have been even better if there were chocolate chips in there but I had used up the chocolate chips on the oatmeal cookies I made a couple of days ago. Oh well, the Peanut Butter Cookies were still scrumpidilicious!

Surprise, surprise, but Ms. Manager (aka M&M) had to work late today. But that’s okay I have lots of stuff to keep me preoccupied. Hmm, should I organize Anita’s CD’s alphabetically or by genre? Haha Kidding of course. It’s not that bad to be at home since I seem to be able to entertain myself quite easily.

Once Anita did make it home we decided to go out for Japanese for dinner. We used to go to this all-you-can-eat place called Minnado’s that is really good. Lots of selection. It is still the same restaurant but they have been renamed Bayadori…or something like that. Anita and I had just finished sitting down with our first plate full of food when Anita says…hey, that’s her friend Suzan and points to her left. I look. Hmm, I only see this other girl talking on the phone. I know it’s been a year but that doesn’t look like Suzan to me! Then it turns out that was Suzan’s sister I was looking at and I couldn’t see Suzan from where I was sitting because she was hidden behind a bush. Lol

Suzan, her sister and her mom were all there to have dinner as well. Suzan’s sister was in town for the weekend from Washington where she is studying. What a pleasant surprise to be able to see Suzan again and to finally meet her sister and mom. Suzan’s mom was super excited to meet me and was excited to talk to me about my travels of the past 9 months. So over the course of dinner we were able to catch up a bit which was nice.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Spur of the moment
New York City here I come!
I am excited!

Anita and I have been talking about travelling around the Canadian Maritimes together for quite some time now especially since it didn’t work out for her to meet me in NZ, Australia or Europe. I have my ticket with Air Canada set to depart Atlanta for Halifax on the 25th…that’s only about a week away!

Well, not sure how we got onto the topic but I’m guessing I must have been talking about the great time I had there and how I love the City and how there is great shopping there etc. And then Anita was talking about treating herself to a new outfit or two for her big promotion/Manager “coming out” party and then we put two and two together and started looking into cheap flights to NYC.

Anita actually still wanted to do both the trip around the Maritimes and NYC but I said that would be too rushed for her to do both and that it would have to be one or the other and I’d just adjust my plans accordingly since I have the more flexible travel schedule. Anyhoo, after sleeping on it last night she said she had come to a decision. Let’s go to NYC! Whoo hoo! I can’t believe I’ll be heading back to NYC! Did I mention how I love it there???

So we found ourselves some cheap flights to NYC from Atlanta with Airtran pretty easily. Then we had to rush off to Anita’s facial appointment. I didn’t want to shell out the big bucks for a facial but I went along for the ride because I wanted to use Antia’s cell phone to make some calls. 1) Dana - to let her know that I’ll be going to Montreal in October. 2) Maria - to let her know that I’ll be coming back to NYC and if it is possible to stay with them again. 😊 3) Air Canada to get my ticket changed. Well, I got voicemail for the first two calls. Then the number I had written down for Air Canada was not working. So I went to the salon Anita where Anita was getting her facial done and asked to use the phone book. Would you believe that Air Canada is not listed in their phone book! So now I had a whole bunch of time on my hands and I already did a small walk around the neighbourhood…not much to see. So I browsed around the store for a bit and then sat in the air conditioned waiting area for Anita.

Anita eventually came out and then we were on our way to Perimeter Mall to check out the What Not to Wear promotion that was going on in the Mall this weekend. I love watching that show. Stacey and Clinton can be over the top sometimes but it is fun to watch that transformations on the show. The two hosts weren’t going to actually be at the mall but as they put it, their style assistants would be on hand. We wanted to check it out for ourselves and see what sort of freebies we could pick up along the way. Lol

So we arrived at the mall, passed by the DQ and got ourselves some ice cream…a dip cone for me please! And then proceeded to look for the What Not to Wear staging area. They were about to call out one of the people that they made over and they did a pretty good job. Especially when you started to look at what the “style assistant” was wearing! This girl had this skirt hiked up past her waist and then a t-shirt type tank on that was pulled over it and it was sort of form fitting so it just emphasized the hiked up skirt more. How can I take fashion advice from someone dressed like that? Lol Then the male “host” up on stage wasn’t really dressed that well either. It actually looked like he was trying too hard and you could totally tell that he waxes his brows…hmm, is this a metrosexual man? Haha We lined up to check out the 360 degree mirror anyway. Just to see. It’s pretty much like a three way mirror but you don’t have to crane your neck so much. Lol We also did the interactive video thing where you pick out some outfits according to your body type and then Stacey and Clinton give their praise or critique of your choices. Then you can get a print out of the “good” choices. Was quite fun but not really worth the long wait in line if you ask me. BUT we did get a bag full of goodies - some coupons, a compact mirror, a photo magnetic frame and some moisturizer. While in line, Anita and I picked up some plastic drinking cups from Comcast and they are awesome! We didn’t do too much more shopping in the Mall and went to Chipolte for some lunch and then pretty much headed home since we were feeling a bit tired at this point. Actually Anita was feeling a bit on the ill side and even a bit nauseous so she took a nap once we got home.

I had made plans to meet up with Jean and some of her friends to go out for dinner at a Lebanese Restaurant. Anita wasn’t feeling well so she dropped me off at Jean’s and then proceeded home to get some rest. So I hung out at Jean’s for a bit and got to see the dogs again, had a little something to drink, chatted a bit and then we were on our way to Nicola’s, the restaurant.

Jean’s friend’s Jeff & Michelle and Roy were already there. They didn’t sit down yet because they weren’t really sure how many of us were going to show up. In total it would be seven of us. We were just waiting for Mary Beth and her boyfriend Romul to show up. It was a really great evening. I got to chat with Jeff, Michelle and Roy a bit before the food started to come. Then the food just kept on coming and coming since we ordered a set menu and ate “family style”. There were lots of appetizers and then quite a few entrée dishes as well. Then a little while after the entrees came out the belly dancers came out to perform. There were three of them in total plus Nicola himself. Now this guy is just amazing…just look at the photos. The belly dancers were okay. It was Nicola that stole the show! Words are hard to describe and I really regret that I had forgotten to bring my camera with me cuz only a video could have done Nicola’s performance justice! Thank goodness Jean brought her camera with her so we were at least able to capture a few moments on “film.”

After the belly dancing was pretty much done we said goodbye to Jeff & Michelle and the rest of us went over to Jean’s place for some wine (me water!) and hung out on the back patio with Jean’s dogs. It was nice to just sit around chatting and sharing stories and what not. One of my favourite moments was when Petey the poodle, instead of walking through the double doors that were wide open to get outside, he walked through the little doggie door. It was so cute. Quite a priceless moment…

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Walk ‘round Stone Mountain
Oh no! We’ve been rear ended!
Really hot, hot day.

Anita started off the day with a bit of cleaning while I started off the morning pretty slowly. We both had a nice breakfast before heading over to Stone Mountain for a bit of walking. By the time we got to Stone Mountain it was close to 11AM so we decided it was not the wisest of things to climb up the big rock where there is little protection from the sun. So we opted to walk around the rock. For the most part I’d say we had some sort of shade…about 70%!o(MISSING)f the time so it was quite a pleasant jaunt. It was nice to see lots of others walking, running and biking in the park as well. We were walking for almost two hours. Near the end of our little adventure I was really losing steam but I made it back to the car without collapsing.

On the drive back home we stopped off at a bike shop since Anita is interested in looking for a new bike since the last one she had was stolen from her second floor balcony! Yikes! At the bike shop Anita tried out a few bikes and took down some specs so that she could ask her co-worker for some advice. Apparently he is an avid biker.

From the bike shop we started to head back home. Anita was yielding to oncoming traffic when…BANG! She’s been hit. Luckily the hit was not very hard but it did wreck her bumper and the driver side tail/brake light. Bummer! So we had to pull over. So Anita pulled into a nearby car park. The guy that hit her was so apologetic. He was looking at something and trying sort of trying to pass on the left at the same time and then before he knew it, was right on Anita’s bumper. He had his little 7 year old daughter Maria in the vehicle with him as well. Luckily they were also wearing seatbelts so we were all fine. Anita couldn’t get a hold of the police on the first try so she called her insurance company first. Anita was on the phone forever with a not so intelligent insurance agent giving her details of the accident. No joke, she was probably on the phone for about 20 minutes! Once she finally got off the phone with the insurance girl she immediately tried calling the police so that a report could be filed. In the heat, it seemed to be forever before the police officer showed up. Thank goodness there was a bit of shade that we could stand under.

Thank goodness little Maria was there since that helped to “ease the tension”. Me and Anita talked with her and she told us about her little brother and her cousins. She sometimes fights with her little cousin but gets along really well with her older cousin. For a 7 year old, she is a pretty good translator for her dad…Maria was really cute. She was telling us all of the collections that she has like globes and nuts too. There were some small acorns in the parking lot that we were waiting in so the two of us at one point were looking for acorns for her collection. Sort of reminded me of my nephew and his chestnut collection! Lol

I think we didn’t get home til close to 3PM. By that time I was getting a little hungry but was also feeling a little tired and had a really bad headache. Now that’s not normal…I hardly ever get headaches. I wonder if I got too much sun today?? After a bit more water and a bit of rest I was feeling better but the headache was still there but not quite as bad as before lunch.

We thought it’d be nice to make a picnic dinner so we went to the local Farmer’s Market to pick up some veggies and stuff so that we could make some spinach dip. But I guess because of the unscheduled time spent standing around because of the accident we sort of run out of time to actually get out there and go for a picnic. At least we were able to enjoy the spinach dip that I made…delish!

Sun setting earlier…fall is around the corner…

Monday, September 19, 2005

Salty Bear is booked!
Going across Canada
Leaving in two weeks!

Another lazy day spent at home. Basically I’ve been working on updating the blog, a little bit of catch up in the email department and surfing the web for some information on my upcoming trips to New York City and Halifax. I’ve also watched quite a bit of television. I am now a fan of the new Martha Stewart show and have also been enjoying old reruns of the Cosby Show, Seinfeld, Friends and Yes Dear.

First major accomplishment of the day was to book my tour with Salty Bear. Basically I’ll be going on a six day tour around Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. I’m super excited! I can’t believe that the final leg of my journey is just around the corner…

To take a break from watching reruns, I decided to pop in a DVD to “mix it up” a bit. I should have stuck to the reruns because Mulan II wasn’t that great of a movie. lol

Anita told me she had to work late tonight so I wasn’t in much of a hurry to do anything today. There really isn’t too much in the fridge to make anything for us to eat dinner so we decided to go out for a quick bite of pizza.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Typing up a storm
Want to get caught up on blog
Fingers on fire!

It was another mediocre day at home for me. Basically did more blogging and TV watching. Yes, I am addicted to the Today Show, Martha and reruns! Lol

Today’s DVD was “Good Will Hunting.” I have to watch the second half again since I seemed to have spent quite a bit of time on MSN chat today!

Not much else to report….

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

More blogging today
Seven blogs to be published
Chat gets in the way!

Today seems to be pretty much the same as yesterday…blogging, emailing, surfing, chatting and TV watching…Same, same but different! Haha

Thursday, Septmber 22, 2005

Same as yesterday
Vietnamese for dinner
Rita weather watch.

Same same but different
Chilling and relaxing day
All days seem the same.

Well, yet another day of puttering around the house. Amazingly I am not bored out of my gourd. I guess because I’ve been busy either trying to update my blog, chatting or watching mindless TV…gotta love it!

I did get out of the house when we went out for some Vietnamese for dinner. Gotta love a big bowl of pho!

Friday, September 23, 2005

Domesticity
Don’t have cabin fever yet
Agorophobic??

I seemed to have spent quite a bit of my day just chatting online. Nice to catch up with what’s happening at home especially since Anita does not have a land line at home so it is not easy to just pick up a phone and call someone. Lol

Anita had to work late yet again. She wanted to tie up a few loose ends before taking off for vacation. So I said I’d make us some lasagna rolls for dinner. It’ll give me something new to do. Lol

We also made a little trip out to Barnes & Noble after dinner. I just love browsing big bookstores! We checked out all of the new calendars for 2006, the kids section for a little something to give to Truman and Justin (Anita’s cousin Rosa’s kids), the stationary (I seemed to be obsessed with looking at stationary…), the magazines, and of course the bargain books. We were in the car ready to leave when we realized that we didn’t even go over to the travel section to check out the books for NYC as we had planned. LOL Oh well!

Before going to bed we did some final packing and a bit of surfing on the net for information on NYC.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Catch a plane up North
Going back to NYC
I love that City!

Well, Hurricane Rita hit the coast of Texas early this morning. We spent the time before having to catch a taxi to the Marta station watching some of the coverage on TV. From the Marta Station it’ll take about 40 minutes to get to the airport. I can’t believe it…I’m going back to New York City!

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Photos

Who is that masked woman?
Haha. Just having a bit of a "spa" day at home.

A bit of a fender bender
Anita's car gets rear ended...

Now that's a bigass watermelon!
Especially when you consider there's only the two of us to consume it. lol