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Originally uploaded by Marlee McConnell

No Longer Here

I didn't realize that when you came to my blogspot blog it didn't carry over to my new one. Please check it out, I've moved everything over.

www.smellydanielly.com

3.6.5.

The boss just called and said we can leave early tonight. She also said I don't have to come in on Friday if I don't want to. Thank God! I would have been the only one here and that just would not have been fun.

I usually dread New Years Eve because I always get dragged to some big party I don't want to be at and there ends up being a million people I don't know and then the people I do know disappear. The last few New Years Eve parties have left a sour taste in my mouth.

New Years Eve as a kid was always fun. Darios family and our family always got together. We switched houses each year and we would bring over all these board games. Our moms made food for us and we would eat and drink (non-alcoholic beverages of course!) and play games until it was 11:59. Then we would rush and grab every pot and pan that we could find and go out side and run around banging them to ring in the New Year!

I have very fond memories of those times and often wish I could go back and spend New Years like that again. Staying up until 5 in the morning getting drunk and passing out on someones floor is not my idea of a good time.

Tonight we will somewhat we reenacting my childhood memories. With our plans being left to the last minute and a few ideas falling through a handful of us are heading over to Darios empty compound for some appys, drinks, Guitar Hero and more. I am so excited! It's a 5 minute drive from home. Everyone who will be there are good friends and I'm sure we will have an over abundance of food to eat!

It just makes sense to ring in the New Year with a group of friends I love in a relaxed and cozy environment.

2008 was a pretty sweet year with the majority of it being enveloped by the wedding and everything surrounding it. I am looking forward to 2009 being much quieter. Hopefully Chad and I can go on some weekend get-aways. My Mom and Dad got us a gift certificate for a weekend away of our choice which we are really excited about! I can't wait for trips! 2009 will be the calm before the 2010 storm and 5 million things we have planned.

So the next time you hear from me things will be a little different around here so have a safe and happy new years! I shall see you soon!

Ready? Rant.

1. The City of Burnaby / Garbage Men

Alright so our garbage gets picked up at the beginning of the week. I can't remember exactly which day but for argument sake lets say Monday. So the garbage men come in their big truck to pick up all of our garbage on Monday and then all of our recycling on Thursday. Since last week was Christmas the garbage schedule got shifted and we went from having our garbage picked up on Monday to it being picked up on Friday. But wait!

Both Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday we had huge snow storms which piled our streets and ally ways with dumps of snow, which meant that there was NO way any sort of city vehicle would be able to get around our apartment building. This meant that our already 2 week late garbage pick up did not happen. Ok, not the biggest deal in the world, I was still able to dispose of the things I needed to dispose of. But wait!

Christmas usually produces a large amount of garbage with paper and packaging from toys and gifts getting chucked in the garbage. Not to mention the waste from food. Now because we were not home very much during those few days I was not able to really clean up all the garbage and papers until Sunday. When I went to take my two bags of trash to the shoot for disposal what do I see? A large sign informing me that the garbage bin was over flowing with garbage and that all shoots had been locked shut preventing anyone from getting rid of their garbage until the bin was to be emptied. And when might you ask, will this bin be emptied. Oh, well, not until the following FRIDAY!

So this means that our garbage will not have been picked up for 3 weeks, and all the garbage and boxes and papers that I need to throw out and recycle basically gets to accumulate in my hall closet until the garbage men decided to come get the damn trash.

I understand not being able to pick up garbage because of snow build up in ally ways, but now are ally is basically clear. They could come at ANY time! But no, we have to wait until Friday and I get to fume and explode every time I see this large pile of crap growing in my closet because I have to hoard my own garbage.

The frustration this causes me is ridiculous.

Someone give me the number to Tony Soprano's Waste Management Company. I need to take matters into my own hands.

Ugh.

Anyways, I was going to rant about 3 other things and then just realized the cause of frustration in all of them leads to one main factor. SNOW.

I need a shovel and a blow torch.

Christmas is Ova

Its so hard to blog after Christmas because there are so many things that happened and so many stories to tell. I just never know where to start other then to ignore that it happened and to carry on with my daily business.



This year was quite successful. Even though there was really only a few things we wanted for Christmas we got an amazing compilation of gifts. So many gifts I don't even know what to do with myself.

It snowed tons every day. We got stuck numerous times trying to get out to White Rock for boxing day dinner at Chads Uncle and Aunts house.



Christmas Eve we went out to Midnight Mass as planned. The choir sounded amazing and I was so glad I went through with it. It started snowing during the Mass so Chad and I basically left right after. The weather looked bad and we had to drive to White Rock so there was no point in staying and drinking with everyone at my Uncle house. Not to mention I slipped on some ice and fell on my ass in front of everyone.

So we drove out to WR at 1:30 in the morning. We got to the house around 2:30 and instead of going to bed right away Chad decided to go through all his old Football cards that he found in his room. I didn't fall asleep until way passed 3 because I had Christmas songs stuck in my head. Not to mention my eyes were itching like I mofo and I couldn't figure it out, until I realized that we were most likely sleeping in a bed infested with Tractors fur. I always forget that I am allergic to Cats because I am never around them and they don't always bother me. That night I had a bad case of red puffy itchy eyes. Not good.



Christmas morning was good, though I was so tired from lack of sleep. We had a big breakfast and then opened a million gifts. I helped hand them all out which was fun. I'm efficient.

We hung around for a bit and watched The Song Remains the Same on Blue Ray. It was Chads Dads gift. I got bored with it rather quickly though because I don't do guitar solos and you basically have to be high to watch this movie. It doesn't make any sense. I did, however, realized why so many girls wanted to sleep with Robert Plant. He seduced me through the TV Screen.



We left in the afternoon and headed home where I passed out for a while and Chad showered. We went to my parents house at about 4:30 and opened gifts and had a small dinner with a handful of people. Mom served Lamb which I don't eat so I had potato's. They were good and I had a huge headache so I really didn't want to eat anything else.

Boxing Day I got up super early and walked to Metrotown to go to two stores and walked in and out. That is the ONLY way to do Boxing Day at Metrotown. People are nuts and stand in hour long line ups to get 10 bucks off yoga pants. The rest of the day I was feeling pretty lazy and watched 4 episodes of What Not To Wear. That was fun. In the evening we went to Chads uncles as I mentioned. Everyone cancelled expect us and Chads parents, so it was good that we did make it out there.



Saturday we just hung out. I did some laundry and then we headed downtown in the afternoon. We went to the Vancity Theaters to watch The Godfather on the big screen. I read about it on Miss 604 and so we bought tickets and headed down there. It was an awesome experience so I am so glad Rebecca blogged about it otherwise I would have never known! I loved every minute of it even though I've seen it a thousand times. I can't wait for #2 to come out!

Sunday I did a bit of shopping with the Parentals and then headed home and got ready for the annual Rossi Boxing Day Dinner, which wasn't held on boxing day this year but that doesn't matter. I will post those pictures tomorrow.



I'm not as exhausted as I was last year but maybe that's because I was pretty lazy this year. The fun hasn't ended though. Mikey is arriving tomorrow so we will have a week of adventures with him. I wonder if I could get Mikey and Patz to fight in a jello match. Humm...


Winter Pictures

Christmas Day & Presents Pictures