Hey internet strangers!

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Oh hey there, internet strangers. I almost didn’t want to come back from my one month hiatus, but my iPhone sent me this stupid reminder saying I should probably post something. Boo. (just follow me on Instagram, it’s WAY easier 😉 )

But if you must know the goings-on over here the past few weeks, here’s a summary:

STAMPEDE: Oh my gosh, it was so fun this year. We went to the rodeo, the grandstand, AND I won VIP tickets to the chuckwagon tent where my friend Susie and I indulged in all you can eat/drink/pet (the horses, not each other). I wore boots and drank Bud and split a fried snickers with my mom at one point.

GUESTS: Tyler’s mom and my parents came to stay with us. It was a packed house for the week we were all together, so the staggered parts of the visits were a little bit more sane. Lots of food, wine, and sightseeing type things.

MY BIRTHDAY: I ate poutine.

MANICURE: Got my first shellac and now I’m sold. Only crappy part is that it’s $$. Still a nice little splurge, and I’ve figured out how to cut elsewhere to make this happen.

HONEYMOON: Meh, I guess a roadtrip 2.5 years after you get married isn’t really a honeymoon, but whatever. We took the Mustang on a 12 hours ride through BC to Seattle, then rounded back to Kelowna, BC before heading home. Highlights include:

Beer (holy crap, Seattle has a ton of breweries. And even more holy crap, they’re all so dang HOPPY. I got so many tummy aches from trying so many. Tip: Take the Road Dog Tour if you’re in town.
Seattle Aquarium. Best part: Fur seal scratching his ass for a good 20+ minutes. We watched the entire time. Worst part: not a single sting ray or shark or whale or dolphin.
Seattle Duck Tour: Learned a bit about the history of the city.
Mariners game: Can’t beat a baseball game with $11 tickets.
Public Market: we bought cherries and hot sauce, so….WINNING.
Wine tour via Uncorked in Kelowna: loved the wineries and the WINE, but the driver from the tour guide company was terrible. One of our stops was at a vineyard that won the award for the best white wine IN THE WORLD. So obviously we bought 2 bottles
RauDZ regional table. SO MUCH GOOD FOOD.
Okanagan Distillery: I BOUGHT ABSINTHE. The end.

WHOA. Too many couple pictures. But……#PROOF.We also managed to duck 2 fatal accidents on the BC roads, saw a bear and a bunch of baby Big Horn Sheep.

Hmmmm… what else? Oh yeah, discovered Calgary radio stations are crap and play the same 5 or 6 songs on repeat all the time and managed to finally throw together a new playlist:

Oh man, there is just so much to share now that I’m getting into it. I probably should’ve kept notes because I know I’m totally forgetting about 50% of the last month.

We bottled our wine! 60 bottles….and it’s like….half gone. Ok, ALMOST half gone. Sangria and pinot grigio. PS: everyone come to my house for a drink!

That’s it for now. See you next time (hopefully sooner than a month!)

Random

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I’ve found lately that I’ve been skipping over a ton of the new posts in my blogroll. All of them are starting to mesh together and just sound the same. What I *do* like are the random posts because they are funny and they keep me reading. So I figured I’d only write stuff that I’d actually want to read myself.

But first I just want to get something off my chest. The sucky part is that most all the people important in my life read this blog, so it might come off offensive. To those people: I apologize, but it’s my internet space and I just want to put it out there because otherwise, I’ll find myself on the train again tomorrow morning gritting my teeth thinking about it. So shh.

Here goes: I’ve spend a TON of my money (and Tyler’s money) to go back to various places in the states to visit my friends. In the 2.5 years I’ve lived here, I’ve only had one visitor. WAHH! Sure the excuses are valid, but damn it, I got over the guilt and pain and sadness of emptying my bank account on expedia. (Don’t worry, I’m already prepped to answer any incoming emails or Facebook messages about this. I’m not holding it against you guys! I’m just expressing my bummi-ness over it!! And if I DO get sad about it, I workout and/or drink.)

On to funner things. Remember, this is my internet space so I can use words like funner and bummi-ness and ERMAHGERD.

Another fun song in my playlist rotation:

Here’s where I DON’T talk about the status of our kitchen reno and the current state of our entire home because I’d get CRAZY

I have no new fitness news other than I’m now on week 2 of T25 (supplemented with about 3-4 additional workouts throughout the week, because…I’m crazy)

Apparently wearing sunglasses indoors after a workout is a thing now? No, no it isn’t.

We went to Five Guys for dinner Friday and for 2 burgers, one drink and one fry it was TWENTY FIVE FREAKING DOLLARS. It also took 21 minutes for our food to be ready. Consider this my official complaint.

I bought some cards at Papyrus today- because apparently the drug stores don’t carry them anymore and no one buys them so I have to go to the specialty card store where they come individually wrapped and I’m like WHAT- (deep breath after that quick rant) The cheapest ones I could find were $5.99. Since went did cards get so damn expensive? And it cost me $1.80 to send ONE to the States.

PS: I’m poor

And yes, I do get excited for every dollar I have in my possession.

Side note: the housing market here is NUTS. We live in one of the more mature neighborhoods of the city (brief pause: my computer keeps autocorrecting ‘neighborhood’ because it’s freaking Canadian and wants to add a ‘u’ to the word. Not happening, Canadian Macbook, not happening) back to the story: so the neighborhood is desirable both in location, size of plots, and maturity, yadda yadda and the average price seems to be around $500k for something, say, 1300 sq ft, 3 bed, 2 bath. Well, I’m super nosey and went online to check a new listing on the street behind our and it’s listed for $730k! WTF. Also, I want $730k.

(ps the house isn’t pretty)

This week is super crazy at work because my coworker that I’m paired with is on vacation. So of course, I’m deflecting tons of extra emails *DUMB EMAILS* and just overall stressed. When someone asks me a question, I’ve basically given them the Dwight look for the past two days:

Ending on a high note: Tyler and I made a trip to the bottle return on Saturday and made a whopping $78. BOOM.

Sunnies!

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Me again.

I have been so busy that I forgot to talk about something I got in the mail recently: Nectar Sunglasses.

About the brand: Nectar sunglasses is in the business of enjoying life. The brand launched with the intention of capturing the essence of living life to the fullest. Promoting doing what you love and loving what you do. Daring to go where no else will. The concept is simple – connect a diverse network of individuals with a common thread – to enjoy life more. Nectar’s goal is to spread the sweet life with their unique mix of advertising, personalities, athletes and products. The culture stems from athletes, artists, musicians and other like minded people.

Cool, huh?

I visited their website and chose the desperado frames. They had a pinkish/orangish hue with an aviator look. SWEET. I was super excited to get them and rock them HARD around town. Especially since I had recently sat on my tried and true sunglasses.

Flash forward to mail day- I quickly whipped them out and 1.) they were slightly bent out of shape from being mailed. 2.) they weren’t dark enough to keep me front squinting! Ok, so burn for the bright-day wear. These are strictly (in my opinion) fashion glasses. Now someone just has to invite me to a party so I can show up wearing these bad boys.

I’ve had them a couple weeks now and I have tried them on with every outfit I’ve worn since. I only took them off because I can’t really wear them IN the office. That would just be weird.

If you’re in the market for some cool eyewear, I encourage you to check out their website to pick out a pair OR TWO to rock with your upcoming warm weather attire. Best part: if you DO want to purchase some of these neat sunnies, you can get 10% off when you click HERE and enter the promo code ‘lovenectar‘

You’re welcome in advance.

Oh Hey

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I’m having a hard time writing lately. There’s really not that much to say or that much I care to have a one sided conversation about. That said, bringing you up to speed:

I went to Chicago to visit my college roommate and we did a lot of drinking and eating and staying in our pjs and laughing.
We are STILL working on the kitchen. I think this is week 4(?) of no appliances.

See, that’s it. You’re up to speed.

I’m gonna word vom some stuff: I have been pretty good about my workouts- lots of variety. I’ve also been pretty good about my eats. And I feel great about my fitness, but I don’t feel great about how I actually FEEL. I see my muscles in the mirror and I can see what they do in my workouts (and lifting sheet rock) but all I can FEEL is large (not fat..I just feel big). Is that weird? To actually confess that I’m a-ok with my body and how I am taking care of it- but I just don’t like how big my legs feel or that I almost waddle because of my thighs or that I have about 7 rolls when I sit? Meh..not sure how to explain it.

I have been walking the dogs about 1.5-3 miles a day.

I have been working out 5-6 days/week.

Ok, shh time I can’t dwell on it. Oh, except for the # of dimples I counted (or lost count of) on the back of my legs. I don’t hate that they’re there, just hate that they’re almost as prevalent as they were at my heaviest and unhealthiest.

Yeah, yeah, I drink alcohol, but that’s my splurge and I’m not giving it up because I work hard to be able to have something I enjoy.

Oh, and I started T25.

MOVING ON.

I need girl time. Sometimes- at random times during the week- I rack my brain and my contact list- in attempts to reach out to people to hang out. A.) No one responds well to last minute plans B.) people have lives. This makes me sad because sometimes I just wanna hang. Not in my house. Not with Tyler. Not with the dogs. I wanna have a full social calendar! Then I get sad when I get stuck in a dead end.

STOP BEING SO DEPRESSING JEN.

I dunno, I think social media is just overwhelming with the amount of positive things that it makes me feel inadequate?

Combine all this emotional junk with a house turned upside down mid-reno and you’ve got yourself a complete train wreck.

It’ll get better (SEE: I’M POSITIVE! Just venting)

Chicago Bound Round 2

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi friends!

Ok, so remember a few weeks back when I predicted how my last trip to Chicago was going to go? If not, you can read about it here. And then you can read about what really went down here.

I thought I’d predict this weekend’s trip to Chicago as well. Last time was with Athena and Ashley, my gym besties from Boston. This trip, I’ll be staying with my college roommate. Aka: we were college boozebags/good times.

Word.

Here’s how it’ll go:

Friday, Katie will be picking me up on the Blue Line and immediately, we’ll be: