We miss our Men!

We miss our men! Good thing we have our Sniffle Kit!

Girls Getaway

Here we are at the First Starbucks EVER-- Pikes Place, Seattle


A sign mom fell in love with. We made her pose like that while we "lined up the shot"

Along one of our touring adventures we found this-- a wall of chewed gum. Yuck!

The view from a castle we visited-- at King's Estate wine company. We just finished our wine tour

In Cottage Grove, city of covered bridges

Crying Over Spilled Milk

Time to give you some insights into me. You must think-- wow Anna, you work with a lot of money! Have you ever been tempted to steal any?

The answer is a resounding NO! I learned my lesson way back in grade 7... come back with me to a different time, when Anna had one of her first and last lessons on stealing... (well... unless you call temporarily borrowing clothes from my sisters' closests in highschool without asking "stealing"...)

So there I was on hot dog day-- (From what I understand, the 2008 term is "hot lunch" day but when I was a kid, hot dog day it was). Hot dog Day. Honest and upfront Anna was entrusted with the enviable task of leaving the classroom early and collecting the lunch orders for my division. Off I went, unaware that I was about to leave a part of my childhood innocence behind...

We had options on hot dog day. You could get a hot dog (surprise!) but your other options were a bag of chips OR a donut OR a drink (milk or chocolate milk). If you wanted to pay extra you could get all three options, but us Thiele's want a good deal and just to get the hot dog and something else was the best deal out there. Who needs all those extras? Perhaps this is where childhood obesity begins but this is hardly the proper forum for an adequate discussion-- we'll have to table childhood obesity for now... I signed up for a hot dog and salt & vinegar chips. No donut. No drink. Just the basics.

I'm hardly complaining. In the privacy of my home when mom and I were deciding what to sign up for, I was utterly content with the basics. But temptation and envy grew in me when I began handing out my classmates's orders that had ALL the options. The donuts never looked so fresh! The drinks never seemed so refreshing!

I decided in my head that I had to have the extras. I didn't have any money. And even if I DID have the money, the orders had gone out weeks ago. Let's face it, this is Just-In-Time inventory we're dealing with here! There's no such thing as "extras".

But wouldn't you know it...

Looks like Joe Smith (**names have been changed to protect the innocent**) was absent on hot dog day and he had an outstanding order that was a) paid for; and b) going to go to waste. I justified it in my head that it's not really stealing if I take that chocolate milk....

So I took it. But those pangs of guilt hit me. I didn't feel right drinking it-- at least not in public where someone might catch on to my thieving scheme. So I stashed it away to enjoy at a later time when the dust had time to settle and no-one would bust me. It went into my bag. No-one even inquired about where the chocolate milk disappeared to... I was home free. Or so I thought.

Outta sight, outta mind. This container of chocolate milk sat in my bag. And sat. And sat.

A couple weeks passed and something in the coat room started to stink. No-one knew what it was but the smell was growing stronger and stronger, and more unbearable as the days went on. Nothing triggered in my mind that it might be MY bag that was the root of the problem. The teacher just suggested we go outside to do our learning activities to get respite from the smell.

Then one day it happened. The pressure growing inside the milk container was too strong. The curdling milk had nowhere to go but outward. The milk container expanded until it popped! Curdled, weeks old chocolate milk poured into my bag, soaking into the cloth fabrics, seeping into all my text books, all over my class notes, hair scrunchies, gym clothes... It was a certified mess. Disgusting both visually and nasally.

My bag was identified. The classroom was evacuated except for me... my sin was out in the open now and I had to pay the consequences. I cleaned everything I could but some of it just wasn't salvagable. I could have died of embarrassment right then and there. But as if matters couldn't have gotten worse for this 12 year old girl...

The stench was so bad that whenever you got a whiff your gag-reflexes would kick in. I was in a carpool at this time and you can imagine that the driver does not want a bunch of elementary kids puking their guts out in the car. So we had to devise a plan to keep the air fresh in the vehicle. This would have been virtually impossible with my bag in the car.

So we rolled down the windows and for the entire ride home (15 minutes), I had to hold my bag out the window.... I was weak with embarrassment.

So there you have it. Mortified. Humbled. Busted. I stole and suffered the consequences. I vowed I would NEVER EVER steal anything again! The irony of the story is I dearly paid the consequences but did not get to taste the fruit.... Like I said, never again. My conscience just wouldn't let me. And I'm no dummy... I've learned from this experience!!!

So no. To answer the original questions, I am never tempted by the money at work. And as a sidenote, if you would like to discuss the childhood obesity epidemic which is sweeping the nation, I welcome your comments.

Sick of Walking

Today was a delightful day. I had my grandma, mom, sister (Amy) and brother (Rafi) over. We had a nice lunch and then decided to go for a walk around the neighbourhood. Dan led the way.

Rafi did NOT want to come for the walk. Well, he did, but he wanted it to be a short walk. Like to the end of my street and back.

Democracy rules and we ventured out to the various streets, paths, and walkways that were about.

Near the end of the walk, Rafi, (always having a panache for dramatizing his feelings), starts pretending to vomit on the road. Dan asks, "Rafi, what's the matter"? To which Rafi replies, "I guess I'm just sick of walking".

Not to be manipulated, mom told him that if he's going to be sick of walking, be sick in the bushes instead. I love family dynamics.

After the walk, we played speed scrabble. Fun for all.

Newest Toy Recall from China

Satirical humour... Follow this link:
http://pranks.com/2007/10/10/newest-toy-recall-from-china/

Funny.

This evening

I am writing a take-home midterm tonight. It's an essay that analyzes the annual review, more specifically the financial review, of Broadview Press, a publishing company. Should be a riveting evening for sure.

We're having salmon for dinner tonight, on the BarBQ. I don't know how my new oven works and I am trying to figure out how to turn on the self-clean option before I use it.

Dan and I aren't the biggest rice people you've ever met so when we were doing our big shopping trip, we weren't sure what to get. What's the difference between Basmati rice and Jasmine rice? We didn't know so we purchased Basmati. And we wanted to be healthy and steer away from simple white rices however when we tried brown rice we didn't like it at all... ultimately a bad texture.

So this evening we will try a wild rice mix-- one from the Uncle Ben's collection which is new for us as well. Any comments on this?

Salmon and rice. Probably a salad and some baked zucchini too. Should be good.

Halloween Bust

This is my first Halloween at my own house, and I was so excited about giving away candy. When I lived at home my mom would count how many kids came to the door... Apparently Fort Langley is a hot spot for trick-or-treaters because she would have upwards of 150 kids coming to the door.

I was going to be prepared.

Dan and I were at Costco the other week and I saw the Halloween candies available for sale. I grabbed a box of 125 assorted treats including Glossettes (raisins), Caramilks, Wonderbars and Coffee Crisps. I thought it was a delightful mix.

Dan was not convinced at my choice of bars. He prefers Reese's, Oh Henry's, and Glossettes (peanuts) so he picked up a box of 125 containing an assortment of these as well.

Was 250 bars too much chocolate?... but truly, if we were expecting upwards of 150 kids we wanted to have a good selection and we certainly didn't want to run out!!! And besides, we were at Costco and if we have a little extra, what's the big deal? We're getting warehouse pricing here, people!

Anticipation was rising. Halloween. Kids in their little costumes. Candy. My own house. My own front door. October 31 was nearing but alas, the 250 bars of candy were calling our names. Staring us down. Begging to be eaten. Dan and I may have opened the boxes....

Leading up to the big night our candy supply was dwindling. Every day there seemed to be more empty wrappers in the garbage. Not mentioning any names here, but I only had a few that first day.... hmmmm...

I had to put the kybosh on this. I didn't have time to get more candy! I told Dan that he was cut-off the supply and now I was worried about running out. Truly, we still had probably about 200 left but...

The day finally arrived. I loaded up my candy basket and eagerly waited by the front door. Our first trick-or-treaters arrived promptly at 6:56. I wasn't sure how many candies to give out. Dan thought only 1, I thought at least 2 but I figured I would play it by ear.... Time passed...
yep, so now it is 8:55 and you'll never guess how many people I saw.... yep, that's right folks, a whopping 18 kids!! I should know, a created an Excel spreadsheet and had my computer by the front door. I am going to call it quits for the night. According to my spreadsheet the last batch of kids came at 7:40.

Anybody want some candy?

And a little update for your enjoyment... my neighbour girl came and I gave her handfuls of goodies...