Okay - I have a guilty summer pleasure that started last year. I love to watch America's Got Talent. I am a sucker for stories that tug on my heart-strings. I also really enjoy being surprised by talent. Last summer, Cas Haley and Terry Fator blew me away. I also really enjoy a good laugh and there are plenty of those, especially when Jerry Springer opens his mouth. Troy actually refers to Springer along with judges Pierce Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff as the 4 horseriders of the apocolypse.
Well this season's premiere did not disappoint and this was my favorite of the evening. I was glad to stay up til midnight to hear Neal E. Boyd sing Nessun Dorma.
Maybe I'm the only one but I will gladly admit I love this show! Call me a dork. But watch the clip first!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Saturday, October 20, 2007
How the Other Half live....
Well as many of you know, I was the recipient of a fabulous trip that I got for being a challenge winner for the month of September with Discovery Toys. The trip was a trip on a private jet down to the Claremont Spa & Resort (http://www.claremontresort.com) in Berkeley, CA for 4 days. Here is a breakdown with all the fabulous details:
Day one - fly first class down to San Francisco with my friend Lori Nordquist (from Red Deer; a fellow challenge winner). We arrive around 9:30AM & our car is waiting to take us to the Claremont. We drop our bags & check into our room which has a beautiful view of San Francisco and we are off to San Fran for a day of shopping. We had a longer-than-expected walk to the train but got to see beautiful Berkeley and found a great little bakery where we stopped for lunch. We spent about 4 hours alone just in Macy's. Just when we thought we were finished, we would discover another whole floor of women's clothing!! It was crazy! We made a couple other stops & then headed back to the Claremont for dinner with Jane Leitch, President and Rich Newton, CEO of DT along with the other challenge earners - 4 other girls from the States. When we arrived at our room to get ready, there was champagne chilling on ice for us. We had dinner at the Paragon Restaurant (at the Claremont) - it was fabulous & their Butter Pecan Bread Pudding a la mode smothered in Bourbon Sauce is indescribably divine! I have to say, though, that one of the highlights of dinner for me was sitting next to our CEO & having him ask me what changes I would like to see in the company & then taking notes on what I said!!
Well, after dinner, we did a bit more socializing in our room and then it was off to bed. It had been a very long day (I was up at 4:30 my time to catch my flight and it was now about 1AM my time).
Day 2 - I slept in - unfortunately a bit too late to catch breakfast as I woke up at 9:30 & my first spa treatment was at 10. I grabbed a piece of fruit & off I went. My first treatment was an herbal "krauter" bath. This was fantastic - a very deep jet tub (there were even little jets that pulsed on my neck) and this wonderful 5 inch deep frothy foam - this was not your ordinary bubble bath! There was juice, water and ice by the side of my tub and an assistant to look after me when I needed it. After soaking for about 40 minutes, I headed to the waiting area (with juice or tea and herbal tonics of every kind) and visited with the other girls while waiting for my next treatment - a Moor mud wrap. I made a point of picking things I would never splurge for here and man, that mud wrap was heavenly! It included a mini-facial and a scalp massage to finish the experience off. After that, I spend some time in the steam room (I forgot to mention that when I arrived, I was very, very congested - after my day at the spa, I was not!) After that, we just hung out at the spa for a bit & then I went back to the room to grab a bite & just relax for a bit. As a group, we headed back into San Fran for the evening for a bit more shopping & a lovely dinner downtown. Again, we stayed up too late visiting.
Day 3 - Lori & I had ordered room service for breakfast which arrived at about 6:30AM as we had to head out early for our Napa Valley wine tour (http://www.winecountrytourshuttle.com/index.html). This was a 9-hour tour & was fantastic!! When we headed out, it was raining but as we left San Fran & headed north, it cleared up & was a beautiful day. We stopped at 4 wineries - Domain Chandon, V. Sattui (my favorite!), Rutherford and Andretti (as in Mario Andretti). V. Sattui (http://www.vsattui.com/) was definitely my favorite - we had lunch here as well as they have a deli where you can buy breads, cheeses and meats to go with your wine. There was a lovely picnic area outside where we ate. Andretti was beautiful to see as it has been redone to look like an Italian villa - very nice! This was also the only one where we got to walk around in the vineyards. This was an interesting time of year to go on a wine tour as the picking was all done & the leaves had started to change color - very beautiful! We met the girls back at Fisherman's Wharf (Pier 39) for dinner and then headed back to the spa for a late night soak in the hot tub.
Day 4 - time to go home already! But I was looking forward to this day as it was our turn to fly on the private jet! We had a sumptuous breakfast at Jordan's (at the resort) and were then picked up by our car & taken to the airfield. Our car pulled right up to the plane & we literally got out of the car & onto the plane. Lori & I had the whole jet to ourselves. Now I have to tell you, this is traveling as I have never experienced it! Very plush interior. Our meal was a platter of jumbo prawns with crostinis, a grilled chicken Caesar Salad (huge!), and cheesecake for dessert. In addition to that, there was fresh brewed Starbucks coffee, an entire drawer filled with candy & chocolate bars and another drawer filled with cold drinks (and of course booze!). The highlight of the flight for me was getting to sit in the pilot's seat! The co-pilot told me about all the controls and I got to see the view from the front - very cool! Apparently this plane is owned by one of the members of the board & it was offered to Jane & she offered it to us through the challenge.
This whole trip was an unbelievable experience for me and I am truly grateful to Discovery Toys for offering this challenge. They sure know how to treat their people!
Day one - fly first class down to San Francisco with my friend Lori Nordquist (from Red Deer; a fellow challenge winner). We arrive around 9:30AM & our car is waiting to take us to the Claremont. We drop our bags & check into our room which has a beautiful view of San Francisco and we are off to San Fran for a day of shopping. We had a longer-than-expected walk to the train but got to see beautiful Berkeley and found a great little bakery where we stopped for lunch. We spent about 4 hours alone just in Macy's. Just when we thought we were finished, we would discover another whole floor of women's clothing!! It was crazy! We made a couple other stops & then headed back to the Claremont for dinner with Jane Leitch, President and Rich Newton, CEO of DT along with the other challenge earners - 4 other girls from the States. When we arrived at our room to get ready, there was champagne chilling on ice for us. We had dinner at the Paragon Restaurant (at the Claremont) - it was fabulous & their Butter Pecan Bread Pudding a la mode smothered in Bourbon Sauce is indescribably divine! I have to say, though, that one of the highlights of dinner for me was sitting next to our CEO & having him ask me what changes I would like to see in the company & then taking notes on what I said!!
Well, after dinner, we did a bit more socializing in our room and then it was off to bed. It had been a very long day (I was up at 4:30 my time to catch my flight and it was now about 1AM my time).
Day 2 - I slept in - unfortunately a bit too late to catch breakfast as I woke up at 9:30 & my first spa treatment was at 10. I grabbed a piece of fruit & off I went. My first treatment was an herbal "krauter" bath. This was fantastic - a very deep jet tub (there were even little jets that pulsed on my neck) and this wonderful 5 inch deep frothy foam - this was not your ordinary bubble bath! There was juice, water and ice by the side of my tub and an assistant to look after me when I needed it. After soaking for about 40 minutes, I headed to the waiting area (with juice or tea and herbal tonics of every kind) and visited with the other girls while waiting for my next treatment - a Moor mud wrap. I made a point of picking things I would never splurge for here and man, that mud wrap was heavenly! It included a mini-facial and a scalp massage to finish the experience off. After that, I spend some time in the steam room (I forgot to mention that when I arrived, I was very, very congested - after my day at the spa, I was not!) After that, we just hung out at the spa for a bit & then I went back to the room to grab a bite & just relax for a bit. As a group, we headed back into San Fran for the evening for a bit more shopping & a lovely dinner downtown. Again, we stayed up too late visiting.
Day 3 - Lori & I had ordered room service for breakfast which arrived at about 6:30AM as we had to head out early for our Napa Valley wine tour (http://www.winecountrytourshuttle.com/index.html). This was a 9-hour tour & was fantastic!! When we headed out, it was raining but as we left San Fran & headed north, it cleared up & was a beautiful day. We stopped at 4 wineries - Domain Chandon, V. Sattui (my favorite!), Rutherford and Andretti (as in Mario Andretti). V. Sattui (http://www.vsattui.com/) was definitely my favorite - we had lunch here as well as they have a deli where you can buy breads, cheeses and meats to go with your wine. There was a lovely picnic area outside where we ate. Andretti was beautiful to see as it has been redone to look like an Italian villa - very nice! This was also the only one where we got to walk around in the vineyards. This was an interesting time of year to go on a wine tour as the picking was all done & the leaves had started to change color - very beautiful! We met the girls back at Fisherman's Wharf (Pier 39) for dinner and then headed back to the spa for a late night soak in the hot tub.
Day 4 - time to go home already! But I was looking forward to this day as it was our turn to fly on the private jet! We had a sumptuous breakfast at Jordan's (at the resort) and were then picked up by our car & taken to the airfield. Our car pulled right up to the plane & we literally got out of the car & onto the plane. Lori & I had the whole jet to ourselves. Now I have to tell you, this is traveling as I have never experienced it! Very plush interior. Our meal was a platter of jumbo prawns with crostinis, a grilled chicken Caesar Salad (huge!), and cheesecake for dessert. In addition to that, there was fresh brewed Starbucks coffee, an entire drawer filled with candy & chocolate bars and another drawer filled with cold drinks (and of course booze!). The highlight of the flight for me was getting to sit in the pilot's seat! The co-pilot told me about all the controls and I got to see the view from the front - very cool! Apparently this plane is owned by one of the members of the board & it was offered to Jane & she offered it to us through the challenge.
This whole trip was an unbelievable experience for me and I am truly grateful to Discovery Toys for offering this challenge. They sure know how to treat their people!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Falling from the Sky
So I have been doing this "abundance exercise" to help me not feel chest pains anytime I think about money. The idea is that I have a chequebook register & every day I write in a deposit that grows by $1000 every day. So on day one, I "deposited" $1000 & day 2 $2000 and so on. The other part of this is that I "spend" that money everyday (this is mental spending, not actual spending). This was pretty easy for the first couple of weeks. But now I am up to over $30,000 - it is, surprisingly, difficult to spend that much money, which is the point of the exercise. First of all, in the exercise, I have everything I need - I've renovated my entire house, gone on some really nice trips, bought new clothes and donated a whole pile to my favorite charities. That is actually what I have been doing all this week - giving money away to World Vision & Free the Children. What this causes you to do is to think bigger. If I had $30,000 to spend today, what would I spend it on? I spent $29,000 yesterday & will get to spend $31,000 tomorrow. It is a very neat exercise.
But here's the cool part - since I have started doing this exercise, I have had many things just given to me: a whole pile of new clothes, a Blackberry, 2 tickets to see Brian Tracey (worth $300 each), a new china cabinet, a slurpee, a coffee at Starbucks (this one was cool - I went to pay & the girl said, "Oh I can't take debit today - do you have any other way of paying?" I said sorry, no & she said "That's okay - it's on us today), and (drum-roll) a big screen tv. I just laugh now when it happens because it just keeps happening!
The whole point of this was to help me feel better about finances. Well it has certainly done that! Try it! It's fun & you will probably end up with some freebies out of it!
But here's the cool part - since I have started doing this exercise, I have had many things just given to me: a whole pile of new clothes, a Blackberry, 2 tickets to see Brian Tracey (worth $300 each), a new china cabinet, a slurpee, a coffee at Starbucks (this one was cool - I went to pay & the girl said, "Oh I can't take debit today - do you have any other way of paying?" I said sorry, no & she said "That's okay - it's on us today), and (drum-roll) a big screen tv. I just laugh now when it happens because it just keeps happening!
The whole point of this was to help me feel better about finances. Well it has certainly done that! Try it! It's fun & you will probably end up with some freebies out of it!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Off to the Coast
Well on Wednesday we are off to Vancouver & Salt Spring Island for my brother's wedding. We are quite excited as we have been talking for years about taking the kids to the coast. I've never been to Salt Spring but everyone who has says it's just beautiful! We are staying in a cabin there - saw pictures - looks great! I am looking forward to a break. We had our Discovery Toys leadership retreat a couple weekends ago and it was also in a cabin. We had someone come in to give us pedicures, somebody else to teach us bellydancing, we made gratitude journals & we were broken into groups so that we each only had to look after one meal for the whole weekend. But I think my favorite part was that once we got there, I didn't drive a car, answer a phone or touch a computer the entire time. It was a wonderful thing. I know there is a place in Edmonton that does spiritual retreats & I think I am going to look into it. I have been trying this exercise that I learned about for meditating & it is simply to count from one to ten without any other thoughts entering your head. You try it!! I couldn't believe how easily I got distracted. "One...two...think about your breathing...crap....One....two...." That went on for about 10 minutes & I don't think I ever got past two. It made me realize how used to chaos & noise & distraction I am and how difficult it is to just try to focus. I can see how important it is to make sure our children get quiet time too. So I will keep practicing & let you know when I get to ten. Until then, I am looking forward to a family vacation on the coast!
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
The Hard Truth
This came to me via email today & I just loved it. So much truth. Apparently Bill Gates (love him or hate him, his words are right on the mark) was speaking to a group of high schoolers & shared with them this list of things that you do not learn in school. We are so focused on political-correctness that we set kids up for an unrealistic picture of the "real world."
I don't have all the source information from this, just that it is from an address Bill Gates gave to a high school.
So, read & enjoy!
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity . Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
I don't have all the source information from this, just that it is from an address Bill Gates gave to a high school.
So, read & enjoy!
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity . Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Monday, April 30, 2007
A Big Surprise!
So Troy & I were having a conversation a few weeks ago about I'm not even sure what when I suddenly said, "You know if I was going to learn another instrument, I'd want to learn the Steel Guitar. And I'm not getting any younger....Maybe I should make that a goal for this next year."
Well, a few days later, Troy calls me from the guitar shop & says, "I wanted to surprise you with this but I realized you're going to have to come & pick out your own." I was totally blown away. So, here is a picture of my new Dobro Resophonic Square Neck Guitar! Now I need lessons! This is a finger-picking lap guitar. It is tuned differently than a regular guitar & it is played differently - with a slide & finger picks. I am very excited about this. And was so surprised.
So, thank-you Troy for a wonderful & unexpected birthday gift! You're the best!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Grace Like Rain
As I look out the window this morning, the ground is still covered in a blanket of white. The snow continues to fall - sigh... I thought it was April showers.... Everyone has been grumbling about the snow, myself included, but ultimately I realize that grumbling about something I can't control is a waste of energy.
I am longing for those summer thunder storms. You know the kind - you can feel them in the air for days, hanging there. The air is hot & humid, the sky dark with clouds. And then in an instance, the sky opens up and the rain pours down by the bucketful. The hot, sticky feeling disappears & a time of refreshing sets in.
Todd Agnew's "Grace Like Rain" song is one of my favorites these days. The verses are from Amazing Grace but the chorus is:
Halleluiah, Grace like rain falls down on me.
Halleluiah, All my stains are washed away, they're washed away.
So I can put up with the snow for another week or so because I know that when it melts, things will be green and full of life. I love spring, partially because it is the end to winter & the start of newness but also because it is so short, especially this year! It will give way to summer and summer to fall.
I hope that you all had a meaningful Easter. For now, I will be waiting for the rain.
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