That really grinds my gears - #6 Learn to drive standard

J and decided to trade in the Mazda 3 for something more fuel efficient. We agreed on a Toyota Yaris and bought the last 2008 in Canada. It's a manual transmission. I had no choice but to learn how to drive it if I ever wanted to drive anywhere by myself.

After 3 weeks, I am comfortable going out on my own and know what to do in most situations. Phew!



A life skill I am happy to have.

A&S Get Hitched - #59 Be a bridesmaid

A&S got married in October. I was thrilled when they asked me to be a bridesmaid. I took my responsibility very seriously and did everything I thought I was supposed to do: we threw showers and got dresses and took S downtown and got her drunk. We walked the aisle, posed for pictures and danced the night away. It was a beautiful wedding and a great party.



Congratulations A&S and thanks for having me in the wedding party.

Running girl - #21 Run a half marathon

In September I joined almost 10,000 people and ran 21.1K in the Army Run. I made up a training program using multiple sources and actually stuck with it for 3 months. I got my distance up and only injured myself once along the way (a sprained ankle from falling off the sidewalk - I'm not even kidding!)

Race day was freezing and before the race I was covered in goosebumps and questioning my judgement.



I finally warmed up about 10K in and by the end I was a sweaty mess, but a happy sweaty mess. Here I am with a random guy who had a pace I liked. We ran together for the last 4K and finished strong.



I was SO happy and felt such a huge sense of accomplishment after crossing the finish line.

Boring - #89 Clean out freezer

Not much to say about this one except that J and I finally cleaned out the freezer in the basement and lugged it upstairs. It's in the garage waiting to be picked up.

My Mine - #73 See the abandoned mine in the winter

In September 2007 we went to the abandoned mine. It was beautiful but I really wanted to see what it was like in the winter. This past March I got to see it. I've blogged about it here and my pictures are here.

It was exhilarating and scary and fun all at the same time.

Ouch - #39 Go to the dentist

I went to the dentist. And then went again. They like my teeth and keep giving me free stuff. I have already scheduled my next appointment.

Tremblant Weekend - #20 Go skiing

In February, we went up to Tremblant with three other couples.



J and I arrived before everyone else and were actually on the hill Friday afternoon. I hadn't skied in 12 years but it was exhilarating.



We skied all day Saturday and then hit the bars. L proposed to S and we all celebrated. It was a great weekend.

Work Wise - #9, #37, #42, #47, and #88

All of the work-related items have been grouped into one post. You know, to be more efficient and stuff.

#9 Move up in my career

Okay, the work things. My work has this amazing-sounding development program where you apply for the program and move up the ranks without having to compete again. It's a great idea but is apparently really hard to implement. Either way, the got the program open for an intake in the fall. I applied and was accepted (so was everybody who applied, just to be clear) and through it I got bumped up to the next level. You could call that moving up in my career.

#47 Get a raise

And with that, I get a raise in pay.

#37 Stop wearing jeans to work and #88 Build up a more professional wardrobe

I can't remember when now, but a while ago, on a non-Friday work day, I got called into a meeting with the second-from-the-top guy and some important players in the pesticide game. I was wearing jeans. That day I vowed to stop wearing jeans to work, except on Fridays. So I did. And then I realized that I didn't have as many nice shirts as days in the work week. So I've been slowly acquiring nice clothing so I can not wear the same thing twice in one week.

#42 Buy back casual time

This is definitely a government thing. When you work as a student or a casual employee you do not pay into your pension. When you finally get hired on as a full time permanent employee, you do pay into your pension. But they let you "buy-back" the student / casual time essentially making your eventual retirement day that much closer.

Since I was a slacker and waited more than a year to start the process (I blame this partially on a very over-worked and cranky HR person) I had to have a full physical. I did that and sent in all the paperwork and voila, the money is coming off my paychecks and I can retire a measly three months before I could have before.

Went to Europe with Friends and Rode the Train - #3 Go to Europe, #45 Take a train, #74 Take a trip with friends

Thanks to a friend marrying an Italian girl, we spent 10 days in Germany and Italy this spring. We traveled with our friends M and R the whole time and took many glorious trains. I've blogged about it here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Blondes DO have more fun - #77 Dye my hair blonde

The Sunday night after returning from our Italy trip, we hunkered down in the bathroom with a box of hair dye and went nuts. It turned out more red than I expected but it's still considered blonde.

Ka-ching! - #100 Roll change and bring it to the bank

I'm crossing this one off the list even though it wasn't completed exactly as stated. See, we bank with an online bank so we don't have a physical bank really. So we drove around with all our spare change in the car for ages and finally I convinced J to go to a grocery store that has a change machine thingy. We had fun dumping in all the pennies, nickels and dimes that we'd collected for years. The machine couldn't keep up with our coinage. The machine keeps a little tally while it's sorting and counting the change. We ended up with somewhere around $40 but the machine charges $0.09 on every dollar. A rip off but it was better than never getting cash ever.

The worst part was that the machine pays out in a certificate that you have to use at the grocery store that day. Since we were far from home, in distance and in time, we couldn't very well buy milk and eggs like the practical people we wanted to be so we bought frivolous stuff, again because it was better than having no money at all.

Lots to Catch Up On

Since early January, I have completed the following:

3. Go to Europe
9. Move up in my career.
20. Go skiing.
37. Stop wearing jeans to work every day.
39. Go to the dentist.
42. Buy back casual time.
45. Take a train.
47. Get a raise.
73. See the abandoned mine in winter.
74. Take a trip with friends.
77. Dye my hair blond.
100. Roll change and bring to bank.

I will be making a separate post for each, don't worry, just not now.

Arrange Re-Arrange - #70 Rearrange Bedroom

Before:



After:





Ahh....

Hungry Birdies - #72 Bring Birdseed on a Nature Hike

We brought the seed to the Lime Kiln trail when we went with S&L and A yesterday. The chickadees seemed to like it.

Locked In - #69 Duvet Clips

I got the duvet clips for Christmas because I hate it when the duvet slips down inside the cover. I got the clips out after washing the sheets and cover. The cats were very interested.



After they played for a while, we got the clips on and everything seems to be working well.

Officially a Guitar HERO - #25 Play GH on Hard, #86 Play GH Leftie

These two are related and so I'm dealing with them in one post. I was able to play the first 4 songs of GH 2 on hard with the guitar. It was pretty - no 5 stars for me - but it happened. I also played bass on hard in co-op on GH 3. I'm getting to the point where I'm a solid medium player, but not yet a hard player.

I actually set up a new band for when I want to play leftie-flip. It was harder than I thought it would be. You get so used to the relative places of the colours, but I managed to get through a few songs and unlocked the Hendrix achievement.

Done and done.

Flickr Calendar 2007 - #35 Get a Picture Published

Whooo! I'm done another one... and not because of something I did, really. I had a picture published in a YouTube video. It's called Flickr Calendar 2007 made by a creative design company, Compelling Design. They seemed to pick pictures of people and other than that I can't tell why they chose the picture they did of mine, but I'm happy either way.

Google Reader - #58 Set up some sort of internet reader

Check #58 off the big old list - with J's help I set up Google Reader. If you look at lots of sites and don't use a reader, you should consider getting one. It basically goes to all the websites you would normally go to and tells you when there's something new. And then shows you all in one place.

I can even check it from work - what more could I ask for?