Ugh.

I'm a bit stressed today. A few things have contributed to this, it appears that while our group looks for a replacement for a co-worker that's leaving, most of her stuff is going to be piled on to me.

Usually I'd be okay with taking on the additional work - the only problem is that in addition to this news, there's a big return that's due before the end of July that two of us has been assigned to - it's the first time either of us will attempt this return [it's an annual return and we're both new] - and based on the information needed it's going to take about a month to put the binder together for this - the last person that did this return started mid June and submitted it in August - the reason is that alot of subs are involved and a lot of explanations and definitions are usually required. We've asked for an extension to the end of July which is good, it's been granted, that basically gives us one month.

But back to the co-worker leaving, most of her returns are due in July - which means she'll start training and transferring her stuff over to me in July, which will leave very little time for anything else, including the big return. And this doesn't even include the upcoming quarter end.

I've told everyone my vacation is not negotiable, I'm taking a few days at the end of July and the latter part of August, I've sent my boss a detailed list of the days I plan to take off. Something tells me though that it's going to be a tough fight for August. :(

Fajitas followed by Fasting

Went out for some yummy food at Jack's last night with Ruth. It was great catching up on all the stuff going on with her, chatting about all the stuff going on with me, all while downing Jack's famous garlic pan bread.

Things are working out well with Dave's little mishap, but given the little curveballs they've had thrown at them this past year, they are definitely looking forward to their totally deserving cruise in the Caribbean.
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I went to the lab this morning to get the blood work done after a night of fasting, the guy took about ten vials... yes, ten... I was tempted to ask if he was *sure* he had taken enough, but he was friendly and cute and well he did do his best to make me relax, so I decided against it.

Busy weekend

Got to spend some time with Caty, and everyone else at her going away party last weekend. I'm so stoked for her, it's going to be a really awesome experience. The afternoon went pretty well, Leah's aunt made some to-die-for spring-roll type thingies which were beyond delicious, I got caught up on everything that's going on with the gang and just had a very relaxing time overall.

Next on the agenda was Gayner's birthday/housewarming party which we dropped by for a few minutes. Kevin had a close encounter with Dr. Love and I got to meet a few of her guests before we said our goodbyes.

Then on Sunday we finally got around to making a second trip out to Wonderland - this time we brought Kristel, Leah and my parents along. Stefan & Bruce came out too but Bunny had to work.

What can I say, the guys had a blast and they managed to convince me to get on two rollercoasters before I called it a day - which was a major improvement over my one rollercoaster ride last time - but that didn't quell the teasing from everyone. ;)

The first was Minebusterand the second the Italian Job. I was supposed to go on Drop Zone but I lost my nerve after the first two coasters. I'm just not big on heights, but I'll probably convince myself to try it next time. Probably. We didn't make it to the water park segment of the park so I told Stef that we'd try to get out to Wild Water Kingdom before the end of the summer.

Other stuff that's going on:

- Went to see my doctor yesterday, she's going to recheck my iron and run some other tests.
- Dave got into an accident [his car got tangled with a Crown Vic] but he's doing okay.
- Did some more packing and cleaning yesterday, cleaned out our entire washroom cupboard, packed what we needed, tossed the rest and wiped it out. So that's done.
- I'm currently tied for last in the Group of 16 world cup pool, if this keeps up I am very likely going to be stuck buying lunch for the winners again. But it's fun. This afternoon Spain plays France. It would be nice if Spain won, it would be even better if they won 2-1. *fingers crossed*

P is for Packing

Ok so I got a few emails asking for details on how things are progressing with the purchase of our new place so I thought I'd throw a post up to update everyone. Things have been coming along pretty well, there's really not been a single hiccup so far [which basically means I'm still bracing myself for something to go wrong - eternal pessimist, I know].

In a nutshell:

- we've changed the closing date to a week earlier [the difference in prices between moving mid-month as opposed to the month-end is ridiculous] so it means we'll be closing on 18th instead of the 25th.

- the sellers had the chimney swept by a certified WETT professional, so that's good, they've got that certificate, they've got the the property tax assessment notice and now we're just waiting on the warranty information for the roof.

- I've started packing, and packing, and labelling and shredding and packing again. I think I've got no less than about 20 boxes/totes all neatly packed and sitting in our foyer so far. Yet it seems like nothing much has been moved around the house, but it's been fun. It's going to be a struggle to get Kevin to part with all the crap/junk that he's managed to pack away and collect over the past decade or so here in Toronto but I refuse to bring any unnecessary junk to our new place - we just won't have the room to store it and I don't want car parts sitting around my house, I put up with it now but once we move, game over... so I'm basically bracing for a good fight. ;) And if he insists that a lot of it has to come, then the onus will be on him to store it in the garage, it's that simple, really. :)

- we got the letter from our lawyer, we just need to pin down an evening to go through it and provide him with everything that he needs - oh and we need to tell him we've changed the closing date.

- I've asked Leah [and Matt & Caty] for help with the choice of paint colours for our breakfast area/kitchen given that the family room is green. Now I'm wondering if I should repaint the family room as well. I'm very much a brown, cream, green kinda girl, preferring earthy colours for these two rooms. I guess I'm hesistant to use other colours because there's going to be such an abundance of blues in the basement and laundry room that I almost don't want it in any other common area - but we'll see as there's also the issue of the greenish/tealish carpet. Once we've moved and settled in, I'm going to have "LMC and Company" over to help me visualize just how things will look with the various options. :)

So that's where we're at folks. Packing is at the forefront of everything at this point but I'm TOTALLY looking forward to painting. ;)

Happy Father's Day!!

Just came back from a nice afternoon spent at my parent's home for father's day.

Dad's doing well, he looked well rested and he seemed very happy that he got to spend the day hanging out with all of his kids - joking around and watching soccer together... which in itself is interesting as dad is rooting for Portugal, Bunny is rooting for Brazil and well, I'm hoping Argentina wins the final - they've looked pretty good so far, and even though the eye candy is not as good as years gone Messi sure is easy on the eyes. ;)

Well we went and did this crazy, crazy thing...

... we bought a house! :)

Yay!!!

It's been in the works for just about a week or so, but we kept it on the down-low until everything got confirmed.

The inspection went smoothly, the financing went smoothly and they accepted our offer so we confirmed everything last night. Woohoo!

We're pretty stoked. And I can finally sleep well again. We close in three months, and I can hardly wait. :D

Here are some pics. Yay! Yay! Yay!

Front of Our Home


Master Bedroom

Living Room

Kitchen

Breakfast Area

Family Room

Dining Room

Basement

Basement 2