On the Other Hand...You Know You're From Vancity when...

You know you're in Vancouver when...

Your co-worker has 8 body piercings and none of them are visible.

You make over $400,000 a year and still can't afford a decent house.

You take a bus and are shocked at 2 people carrying on a conversation in English.

Your child's 3rd grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, & is named Breeze.

You can't remember... is pot illegal?

You've been to more than one baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.

You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown and can taste the difference between Sumatra and Ethiopian.

You also know which Yaletown restaurant serves the freshest arugula.

A really great parking space can move you to tears.

A man gets on the bus in full leather regalia and crotchless chaps; You don't even notice.

A woman gets on the bus with live poultry; You don't even notice.

The guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing the baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney IS George Clooney.

Your car insurance costs more than your house payment.

The gym is packed at 3:00pm ... on a work day.

Your hairdresser is straight, your plumber is gay, the woman who delivers your mail is into BDSM, and your Mary Kay rep is a guy in drag.

You watch the weather from a Seattle TV station because it's more accurate.

You pass an elementary school and the children are all busy with their cell phones or pagers while waiting for their personal rides home.

You're sure you're the only one on the road with a REAL driver's license.

The weather forecast calls for possible sunny periods, some cloudy periods, and a probability of rain showers... AND EVERY DAY IT'S THE SAME!

The more expensive the car, the worse the driver

You think anyone who drives a car to work is decadent.

You keep a list of companies to boycott.

You would never dream of crossing a picket line.

You realize that there are far more rainbow flags in the city than Canadian flags.

Old friends you haven't talked to in years suddenly call. "Do you have a spare bedroom for a weekend?"

You think anyone wearing a Preston Manning haircut is Preston Manning.

You go to your office manager's baby shower. The parents are named Judy & Becky.

You give a "thumbs up" gesture to a car with a FREE TIBET bumper sticker and you mean it.

You know that anyone wearing shorts in June is just visiting from Winnipeg.

You curse those damn tourists - but always stop to help anyone who is looking puzzled at a city map.

You haven't been to a BC Lions game since the first month you moved to Vancouver.

You are thinking about taking an adult education course, but you can't decide between a Yoga, Channeling or Building your Web Site class.

Your new neighbours go to temple, but you are still not sure if they're Jewish or Buddist.

Apparently, You Know if You're From NC If...

So I came across a blog that listed the top 16 signs that "you know you're from NC if..." and I thought that I would share it on my blog since it highlights some main things which I find interesting down here (versus BC) and have added my comments beside them below.

You know you’re from NC if:

1. You give directions using KFC and Waffle House as landmarks. (This happens a LOT actually. Before I came down here, I thought that the Waffle House was something that only existed in rap songs ;))

2. You can't imagine life without sweet tea. (They sure do love their sweet tea. I myself, still prefer the Nestle powdered version)

3. Your 'heavy winter clothing' consists of a sweater and a London Fog with lining. (Heavy winter clothing in NC??)

4. You get your carbs from biscuits, rolls, pancakes, and grits. (Have still resisted grits but biscuits are starting to grow on me.)

5. You own at least one t-shirt from Burt’s Surf Shop and The Sanitary Fishmarket. (No idea what those things are.)

6. In summer you have home-grown tomatoes with every meal. (Even if you don't grow them yourself, your co-workers will give you home grown produce in the summer)

7. You can recognize a copperhead and your heart drops when you see one. (Not yet, but I have heard lots of talk recently on snakes)

8. You have an opinion about UNC. You either went there and loved it or you hate everyone who did. And when you think of Duke, it’s mayonnaise. (School rivalry is huge here)

9. You sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts for a school or church fundraiser before those glazed doughnuts went global. (I actually found in a Paula Deen cookbook a recipe for Krispy Kreme cake which consisted of a dozen torn up Krispy Kreme donuts in a sort of bread pudding type thing, as if the donuts themselves weren't heavy enough in calories. I do have to admit that a Krispy Kreme donut fresh from the oven IS AMAZING)

10. You remember watching the ACC Tournament on television at school. (ACC?)

11. You know it's pronounced APPALACHIAN and not "App-a-lay-shun.” (App-a-lay-who?)

12. You can spell words such as Ocracoke, Fuquay-Varina and Chocowinity. I can spell the second one, the others, I'm not even sure how to pronounce.)

13. You know that barbecue is a food and not an occasion and it applies to pork, not hotdogs or hamburgers. (this was a shocker to me when I went to my first bbq. What? No hotdogs??)

14. You carry jumper cables in your car.

15. You have been skinny dipping. (yeah. Not a big skinny dipping kind of gal.)

16. One inch of snow closes school and shuts down the city. (This makes most imported folk laugh but I do have to say that it's because they're not equipped with handling even the smallest of snowfalls since it only happens once a year, maybe. It's not their fault)

Venting

I have a totally non-Caleb related story. Two days ago, I got a letter from the NC DMV saying that I needed to confirm my auto insurance carrier. Well, so that same day, I called my the insurance company to ask them to fax over the necessary form to the DMV and to also fax me a copy for my records. Yesterday, I noticed that the date they put on the form was wrong so I (nicely) called them back to correct their mistake. After being put on hold AND had their supervisor be totally rude to me, I was reduced to womanly emotional tears and hung up. The stated that I HAD a lapse in motor vehicle insurance which in the state of NC requires that you turn in your tags for 30 days. I was freaking out becuase then Jay and I would have to carpool, or rent a car,...I had no idea what to do.

I was so mad at this supervisor that the only recourse I figured I had was to ask her for the address of their customer care center and her full name. I had intended to write a 'strongly worded letter' and then realized that this would not help my predicament, just make me feel like I could do nothing effective in the face of poor customer service.

Well, after a few minutes of stewing at my desk (before the rest of my co-workers got into work), I decided that the insurance people must have made a mistake and I was right dammit!! So I called them back and this time got a different person. They were 'working' with the supervisor that I had spoken to before and since I was being so adamant about being right and they were wrong, they agreed to listen to the phone call that I made to them months ago which for some reason made them pause my insurance for a week. After 50 minutes of being on hold (by this time, my boss and the rest of my co-workers had arrived), the person came back on the line and said "I have good news".

They wanted to formally apologize at their mistake and that they were going to fix their error with the DMV and that I indeed DID NOT have a lapse in auto insurance (ergo I would not have the surrender my tags for 30 days) and that they would not ask me to pay the difference for the week that they forgot to charge me for.

What has happened to customer care? Shouldn't she have believed me when I told her what the rep had said months ago? And if it was THEIR fault, why be so rude? She didn't even come on the line to apologize herself. She had the other person apologize on behalf of the company.

So anyways, neither car nor house has been fixed yet. Things (paperwork I suppose) seem to take forever to get rolling. I've done all I can, so I'm just waiting patiently.

And we're living like nothing has happened. Caleb has been playing in this fancy blow up pool that we got him and he loves to pretend like he's mowing the grass. He also loves to help me water my little vegetable/herb garden since I always end up soaking him with the hose. (It's HOT here right now....triple digits is forcasted tomorrow)

As If The House Wasn't Enough??!!

As if the house accident wasn't enough.....yesterday when I was on Glenwood getting on to I-440, I was stopped and somebody came and clipped me on my back bumper on the right hand side. She was really nice though and by the time I had arrived home, she had already left me with a voicemessage giving me the number to her preferred car repair shop and I immediately got it estimated last night. She's offered to pay for all the damages so hopefully this will be a quick fix.

This has been a crazy week. On top of that, Jay's working nights from 5pm to 5am for the rest of the week so I'll hardly see him. He switched his schedule so there'll be somebody at the house pretty much at all times in case people have to come by to look at the damages.

If I wasn't laughing, I'd be crying...

so....

LOLOLOLOL!!!

Can Ya'll Believe This Happened???!!!!

So this past memorial day weekend, Jay, Caleb and I had just come back from grocery shopping and getting some plants at the Farmer's Market.....and as Jay was unloading the groceries from the car, and Caleb had JUST walked across the front yard and into the backyard, our neighbor's car comes careening out of his driveway (2 houses down) and comes crashing into our house.

He said that he was changing the break pads on his mini-van and they didn't work for some reason.....if I were him, there were many other places to hit that would have sustained less damage than my house. For example, he could have hit is OWN car....which is what he swerved to miss before he came careening over to my HOUSE!!! How often in one's lifetime does this happen?

If Caleb had been anywhere near the car when it had happened, I WOULD have gone to jail....

He plowed through the white railings, knocked down one of the beams (which the building assured me wasn't a structural support beam) and knocked the doorframe to our house askew. The interior wall is cracked up to the ceiling and the other wall is bent inwards with the floor moulding now cracked in a weird angle. The front door was open so it slammed itself into the railing and has split the moulding.

He begged me not to call the police (but we did anyways) but we have not filed a report as of yet since the cop that showed up said that there was no time limit to file the report. He told the police that he was going to pay for all the damages but it looks like it'll be expensive to fix. I'm waiting on my home insurance to call me back but of course they were closed all weekend for memorial day.

This makes all those State Farm commercials make sense. Perhaps after all this is said and done, I'll have to switch to State Farm.....

Daddy's Shoes

We TOLD you that he LOVES wearing other people's shoes around the house.....he favorite is Daddy's shoes....

Green Wagon

"I don't know why I'm sitting in my green wagon,....but it's so much fun!"

Lawn & Garden

We've been doing a LOT of work on our lawn and garden this past few weeks. I even have a small 'kitchen' garden started. So far, we've got Oregano, Rosemary, Lavender, Chili Peppers, Thyme and one cucumber plant that I hope will take. I've also got a few mystery plants that I started from seed a few months ago and can't remember exactly what they were supposed to be. I'm thinking that they're cherry tomatoes or something like that.

Caleb LOVES to be there outside with us. He especially likes to follow me around when I'm weeding so that I can throw the weeds into his little pull along wagon.

And we like it because it poops him out and he sleep really well the following evening.

He even has a little play lawn mower that he loves to push around all over the yard.

Of course, he's still a Daddy's boy. He'll come to me every now and again but if he was given a choice between Daddy or Mommy, we all know what his choice is. People tell me they do this in phases so I'm waiting for it to be "mommy time".

He's growing so tall now. I've postponed his 18 month appointment until after we get back from going to Vancouver for my Dad's 60th birthday since his 15-month shots gave him bad diapers for 5 days.

iPood

I've been slacking on the downloaded picture duty....these are still Aunti pics but I still think that they're so cute. The ones where he's scratching his chin makes me laugh. He LOVES the outdoors. He always cries when we have tell him to come inside from the garden.

And the 'iPood' shirt is compliments of Auntie Michelle of course....

And yay!! We'll be home for Vancouver for a VERY few days for my dad's 60th birthday....I'm so excited...I need a new dress!!!

Michelle Just Got a Doctoral Research Award!!!

My little sister just got a Doctoral Research Award!!!

Isn't that so amazing??!!! I'm ssooooo proud of her!!!

To see the details, go to http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/34078.html

Another Flirty Face and Daddy's Shoes

So here's another Caleb flirty face original. He makes that face when the camera comes out or when he's goofing around and wants to make you laugh.

He also LOVES shoes....anybody's shoes but especially daddy's. Those shoes look like Auntie Michelle's though....

More Auntie Pics.....

These are more pictures that Auntie Michelle took. We were in the car driving Auntie to the airport so that she could fly back to Vancouver...:(

And this picture is funny to me. Caleb must have been REALLY tired when he was eating his applesauce....

Crabtree Valley Mall 'Rides'

Here we all are at Crabtree Valley mall and Caleb loves the little 'rides' they have there. Not super exciting but enough to keep this 16-month old happy.

Whoa!...what's Auntie Michelle doing back there??!!

It'll be another 15 years before Caleb will be in the driver's seat and both of us in the back holding on for dear life and praying that he's shoulder checking properly. :)

This Is My Flirty Face

This here is my flirty face. It must be the mark of a little future player on our hands. We're already dreading the onslaught of feminine attention that Caleb is going to attract with this flirty face of his. I suppose that they all start somewhere but isn't this a LITTLE early?

Auntie Michelle's Visit

This is the day that we were all hanging out outside for our garage sale. It was a LOT of work and we suppose it was a semi success. We have a neighbor that is potentially going to buy the entire lot of baby furniture. Crib, changing table, baby swings, exersaucer. She's starting a home day care and she only lives about 5 houses down from us. So I guess we'll have a back up in case something happens with Portia's home day care.

Here's Auntie Michelle and Caleb have a great ol' laugh...over what, we can't remember.

Caleb LOVED Auntie. He doesn't take to many people immediately, but as soon as he saw her, he loved her. He really enjoyed her visit and she was chasing him all over the house and he was thriving with all the attention.

On a side note, Caleb's got 4 molars that have broken through....so now his food repertoire can expand to include chunkier bits of chicken etc. His favourite foods right now are Chef Boyardee's tomato pastas (lasagna, ravioli, beef a roni etc.) and these toddler cheesy puffs that are really baked corn snacks made for babies. He's also really loving thinly sliced apples that I keep in the fridge with a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent browning.

Heather and Me

Here's Heather and me at her birthday dinner last week! Isn't she the cutest?

Of all the people that I've met here in Raleigh, it was funny how we both didn't think that we'd be as close as we are now when we first met. We're so different in so many ways, but she's been an amazing friend and she's always there to listen to my funnies and my woes. Her and her husband Brandon are two of the most amazing, most down to earth, most sincere and geniunely nice people that I've met down here.

Auntie Michelle is Here!

Auntie Michelle flew in late last night and she's at home taking care of Caleb today. She's only here for a few days and I wish that I could have taken today and tomorrow off, but alas, having a kid means that all your days are alotted for their sick days and doctors visits so I need to save up since I don't have very many days for 2007 (and it's only April right now!!!).

We're having a garage sale on Saturday and I'm dreading it. 1) What if too many people show up and it's hard to handle since Jay will be a work all day? 2) What if NOBODY shows up and I have to put all the crap back into the garage?? 3) It's advertised to start at 7:30am and end at noon...that's super early!! And I heard that there are the 'early bird' garage sale customers that will show up before it's supposed to start to 'grab the deals'....anytime before 7:30am on a weekend is too early for me. Hopefully, it won't be too bad. It's mostly baby clothes, some toys, Caleb's changing table, baby swings etc.

Look At Me!! I'm Feeding Myself!!!

I just needed to post these pics to show you Caleb's first attempt at feeding himself. Right now, he's refusing to be fed and insists on attempting to feed everything to himself by himself. Look at that yogurt face!!!

The Impending Visits of the Michelles...

Good news,...after last week's really fun poopy episodes, Caleb has not lost any of his precious weight. In fact, it appears that he's gotten even taller! And his feet look enormous.

We are eagerly anticipating my bestest friend Michelle to come down next Friday. This will be her first trip to Raleigh, NC and I can't wait!! A week and a half after that, my sister Michelle will also be coming down for a visit for a few days. Both of my Michelles will be here in the same month....I'm so lucky.

Spring Cleaning

Caleb is such a trip. Everyday I look at him I feel blessed for having him. One of my good friends, Heather, is pregnant now and I can't wait until she feels the joy of motherhood. While I don't think that motherhood defines me, I think that Caleb is my purpose.

He's still a little 'runny' from having his 15-month shots last Monday so hopefully this will pass soon. It's been a week and everyday it's gradually been getting better. He's cheerful and it doesn't seem to bother him any but I've had enough with having to spot shamp0o the carpet to last me for awhile.

This past weekend, the house was spring-cleaned...furniture has been rearranged and LOTS of junk has been thrown away. My new resolution is to keep a more sane house. My mood is often reflected onto the cleanliness (er, should I say tidiness) of my house so I'm hoping that a clean house will aid in a sane mind. :)