Tonight, my 1990-ish self had her number one dream fulfilled. I saw Donnie Walberg's boxers. And...they had a maple leaf on them. And Danny has a tattoo.

The NKOTB concert fulfilled every expectation I had, and then some. There was some Step By Step, some Cover Girl and definitely some Hangin' Tough. There was some dancing, and some people wearing homemade shirts (complete with puffy paint, I might add). I don't think it gets much better. Wait...did I mention Grower's Cider in a plastic cup? Oh.

I have seen a lot of concerts. This one ranks in the top three, for sure. Effin' brilliant.

I'm wide awake and shouldn't be, since I was wide awake at 5:00 a.m. local time (my brain thought it was 9:00) and have had a FULL day.

Mom and I hit the ground running this morning and grabbed coffee/blueberry crisp for breakfast at my favorite little coffee nook, the Parsonage, and then headed to the mall to fill my glasses prescription. Or, that was the plan, until I found myself wanting to punch the salesgirl in the face and had to leave the store to prevent this from happening. I have never met a more annoying individual in my life...and that is saying a lot. I seriously hated her. HATE. I hardly ever use that word when not describing cockroaches on my counter, or an unexpected fingernail clipping showing up somewhere where they shouldn't be. Which, in my opinion, is anywhere.

Needless to say, glasses prescription remains an outstanding item on the to-do list.

From there we were supposed to find my wedding shoes. My requirements were as follows:

1) flat
2) not ugly

Unfortunately, we got sidetracked at another local favorite, Robinson's, and didn't find our way to our shoe shopping until later on...but there was some success in that department. I think my "vision" helped, in that I had no vision at all and so I had lots of choices. We'll see if the chosen ones work on Monday. I haven't seen the dress since November, so I really don't remember what it looks like well enough to match shoes to it.

After that, I had a somewhat religious experience at the mall. And this is a mall that would make other malls scoff and feel superior, but today it was on par with Dolphin Mall...the greatest place on Earth (if you happen to have 6 hours to kill in Miami). Lots of fun, spring clothes made their way into my shopping bag and I'm planning to head back for more this week. Yesssssss. I'd forgotten how great it is to have variety. OH, and size medium. Because the inventory on the Rock is limited, stores usually sell out of everything between size 0 and 16 before I get to the store. Very not helpful. It's a terrible place to be of average clothing or shoe size, which I am both.

The cherry on today's sundae was a lunch, put together by my sister (and Maid of Honour), with my wedding party, a favourite aunt and my Mom. It was awesome. It was the first time I've gotten together with my bridesmaids all together...ever...and I was thrilled to spend some time with my best ladies. I love them. They are all beautiful, funny and amazing. And my pictures are going to be GORGEOUS. Well played.

After lunch, Kathie and I joined the sister and her Swede for a walk downtown...which appears to be exactly as I left it in November. Which, in turn, is how I left it in 2002 and that is exactly what I love about home. A few new stores here and there, but mostly the same. The same is what I love. I found a couple of cute silkscreened tops (one of them has a blowfish on it...which will officially be the first blowfish depicted in my wardrobe, believe it or not) made by a local designer who I didn't know about until a few hours ago but I already covet her stuff. It's cute, light, and fun. I also found a great dress...same designer...that is perfect for throwing on after a day at the beach.

All in all, a good day.

Tomorrow, I have been informed, I am being picked up at 9:45 and whisked away to a spa with two lovely ladies, Lai and Heather. How great is that?

Better rest up. Night.

Many moons ago, I blogged about the awesome laptops that we bought shortly before moving to the Rock. They had everything that we were looking for and they were cheap and they were, we thought, perfect.

Until they died. Horrible, horrible deaths.

In the case of mine, the motherboard simply melted. Done. I came home one day and it was just dead. That sucked. Especially since it happened 4 days after the warranty expired.

And then, about a month ago, Kurt's started making a funny noise so he decided to jump the gun and order a new one and sell the HP before it died too. The saddest part of the story? The night that the new laptop arrived, the old one died. Done. Just like mine.

So yeah...we've moved on to a Dell for me and a Gateway for him. Second time is a charm, right?

In just four sleeps, I'll be landing somewhere near here...and I'm pretty happy about it. Despite the fact that the week is shaping up to be head-splittingly busy with final wedding preparations, I'm really looking forward to some ocean air (complete with eau de sewage), some decent coffee (until my naturopath bans it...I have not yet had this particular joy eradicated from my life), and some quality time with my furry friend. No, not Kurtis. He's staying here, enjoying the fact that SUMMER is here! Well...almost. But friends of mine were on the beach yesterday and so I'm taking that as a good sign. We were not on the beach with them because SOMEONE chose to go a little overboard on the Black Seal on Saturday night and couldn't leave the couch. And no, the someone was not me. Oh well...beach days will be here soon enough.

Speaking of Victoria, the other day, I was stalking around realtor.ca (as usual), and came across something that I haven't seen in about 25 years, but recognized immediately.

http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=7933122

This was the house my family lived in back in the early '80's and I would love love love to walk through it again, to see what kind of memories it stirs up. I was pretty young when I lived there, but not young enough to notice that the wallpaper in one of the rooms is the same as when we lived there. In NINETEEN EIGHTY FIVE. Hello...wallpaper has gone out AND come back in again during the time that stuff has been hanging on the walls. It's so old, it's new again. Awesome. Anyways...I think the price tag is a bit steep, since the house looks like it's had nothing done to it other than a few walls painted since we lived there. But then again, it's in Victoria...is an overpriced house any kind of a shock? No.

Anyways, back to my trip, YES. More useless aeroplan points for me this coming weekend, but I can't wait to land. There's no place like home.

Over the past few months, I've been watching my mood very carefully. I'm really interested in how it is affected by weather, food and other factors in my life. So far, the only real correlation I have made is between a good mood and a tidy house. Maybe that seems obvious, but when our house is messy and the shutters are closed, I feel very blah. And when the shutters are open and all of the surfaces are clear and tidy, I'm bouncing off the walls. The problem is keeping it that way.

K and I are not inherently messy people, but we are lazy. Any visible surface becomes a dropping point for mail, my purse, our phones, my gigantic collection of pashminas...you name it. We walk in the door after work and leave a trail behind us of stuff, laying wherever we leave it. To our credit, we don't just drop it on the floor...that would be worse...but we do find ourselves eating off our laps on the couch more often than we should, simply because our table is covered in crap.

A few years ago, I made the huge mistake of joining a website dedicated to organising. I don't recall the name (or I have conveniently blocked it from my memory), but it was almost like a program that you followed to get your life in order. Every day, my inbox would have at least one tip or reminder from the site, telling me to organise my tax papers, or polish the silver (?), or some other task and the idea was that you do them, tick the box and collect points or something like that. While I usually respond well to reward systems, this one just made me feel like a slob because sometimes I wouldn't WANT to polish the silver (you know, that gigantic silver service that every 20-something has), and eventually I started feeling the urge to reply to those tips and tricks with a big EFF OFF and continue on with my life. I eventually did this, by cancelling my subscription (though, this didn't stop the site from spamming me for the next two years). While the concept, in theory, is a good one, it just didn't work for me at all. However, one thing stuck with me: the concept of Hot Spots.

Hot Spots are the places in the house where things get left. They can be a hall table, a kitchen table...pretty much any surface that is begging to be covered in crap that you don't feel like putting away at that particular time. Most houses have a few of these Hot Spots and once you identify them and focus on them, you should be able to overcome the urge to just drop whatever, and find the 30 seconds it would take to just put whatever it is away. Operative word: should. Our apartment is a Hot Spot haven. Between the door and our bedroom there are gigantic surfaces everywhere. The kitchen counter, the dining room table, various chairs that we never sit in...all just dying for us to drop something on them. And after you do this enough times, you start knowing to look there for items that technically belong somewhere else. For instance, I know that my favorite green scarf is NOT in my designated pile of scarves/wraps in my bedroom, but is draped over the back of a kitchen chair 95% of the time. My sunglasses are next to the phone, beside my other pair of sunglasses, because doesn't it make sense that I would at least stash them together if I'm not putting them away? My iPod is somewhere between my laptop and my purse (both the purse I'm using and the back-up purse, if the one I'm using doesn't match what I'm wearing), which is on the dining room table.

After a spring cleaning frenzy on Sunday morning, I sat on the couch and surveyed my work. The floor was swept, the bathrooms sparkled and the ongoing war of Kristin vs. Cockroach in the kitchen (a sad fact about life here: no matter how clean your kitchen is...cockroaches will still visit) seemed to have come to an end. For now. However, what stood out most was all of those clean, bare, shiny surfaces with not a thing on them. Sunglasses, scarves, purses and iPod were properly put away and you know what? It felt awesome. So awesome that I have committed to not letting those Hot Spots get the better of me again. Every night, after dinner, I'm going to spend a little bit of time putting things away. This might sound easy but for two busy people who basically come home from work exhausted and crash on the couch, this extra effort will take a bit of getting used to. I think it will pay off though...what's 2 minutes? That's less time than the opening credits for the show I would be watching on the couch, so I think I can handle it. In my quest to become a more organised person, I think that a consistently tidy house is at the top of my list of priorities. It was so nice to come home to after work yesterday and I noticed that I felt much calmer.

Here are my mini-goals, going forward:

- keep surfaces clear by picking up/tidying each night before bed.
- keep kitchen clean and tidy (we're already pretty good at this one)
- open all mail as soon as it arrives, separate bills and statements
- once bills are paid and statements checked, add them to the shredding bin (I shred almost everything except tax documents)
- make the bed every day and put all clothes away (the dresser top is a notorious Hot Spot)

I'm two days in and so far, the surfaces remain totally clear. Let's see how this goes...

I'm breathing new life into this blog, because I've missed it.

Plantiful is for food.
WINILI is my wishlist.
and On the Rocks? It's about life, man.

I need the separation.

Things I've done are bold, things I have not are left black.

1. Started your own blog - uh....yeah.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band - Uplands Elementary, circa 1989. We were hot.
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity - it was a typo, but yes. I meant $24 dollars...they added a zero.
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo - much to the dismay of many, I'm sure.
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning - the ultimate food poisoning...e-coli. It is just as fun as it sounds.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill - I mean...no....
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - I pay my bills and had dinner tonight...I'm satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie - "Mastermind" starring Patrick Stewart. I'm in it. I play Scared School Kid #43.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma - just yesterday, actually. There's a shortage here...and everywhere. If you can, you should.
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check - I'm assuming this means cheque.
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - back when the sea had "salmon".
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit - uh yeah...just a few....
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee