Saturday 29 December 2012

Christmas With the Penners

Ah! Christmas. Egg nog and presents and snow. Lots of snow in our case. Now, Christmas might be technically over, but this weekend Christmas continues for us. Derek and I are spending the weekend with his side of our family. We left yesterday after Derek got off work (and after we ate a lunch of pancakes, of course!) and drove the six hours in Boris, our... temporary car. It was a bit of a nerve wracking drive, with bad tires and bad headlights and snow coming at us the whole way. But we made it there around 11:00, and got to eat a bit of leftover chicken fettucini alfredo before we crashed (not with the car, I promise). I had planned on writing a quick post after we arrived, but we were both exhausted and bed was seriously the best thing we'd ever heard of.

In the morning, Carolyn made us a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs, and just got to hang out with the family until Jeremy and Adrienne (newly engaged! What? Fantastic.) arrived from Killarney, at 2:30. Then we snacked and laughed and were generally crazy. Both of our sides seem to want to compete for the "loudest in-laws" prize! And we love it.


There's not a lot else to write, we went on a fantastic sleigh ride, and have friends over for supper, but I won't go into all the details. In general, it's just been warm, and love-filled, like Christmas ought to be. And plus, look at all those presents under the tree! Can't wait to open them, and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. And with these great folks, opening the presents will be a riot. And really, really loud. Merry Christmas, everyone, and a happy New Year. 

Thursday 27 December 2012

Work and Cars

So, did I say last time that it had been two weeks since my last post? Well, this time it's been more than three. Oops. And knowing me, it probably would have ended up being more, except last night Derek and I went to Winnipeg to have a Boxing Day dinner with our aunt and uncle, Heather and Miles (and their two kids, Grayson and Olivia, and of course, Aunt Wendy). While we were there, Heather expressed how much she missed reading my blog, saying that she had loved it when I posted every day, and Aunt Wendy expressed similar sentiments. With their charge, I concluded that I had better get back into blogging, because goodness knows I enjoy it, and apparently I have fans! (So say all my relatives....)

Well, I have plenty to write about (a new bed, Christmas presents, table makeover, etc.) but today, I'm actually going to announce to anyone who hasn't heard it yet, that I have a new job! After six months of being unemployed, I'm working again. I work at Superstore, here in Steinbach, and let me say, the job is fantastic. I'm in the bulk food department, and I work around twenty hours a week (all mornings, and one eight hour shift that goes into the afternoon). I get to work by myself (I have a manager, but he spends most of his time in the dairy department). The job is fairly relaxing, though there is a lot of heavy lifting... but that's gotta be good for my non-existant muscles, right?

This isn't my first time working for the Real Canadian Superstore. In fact, many, many years ago I was in their cold deli section, back at the Georgetown branch. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) there seems to be no photographic evidence of me in the ugly yellow shirt and visor that was the uniform back in the day, but I did manage to find this picture of my fifteen year old self.


The current uniform is much nicer than what I remember of the past. Best of all, though, is that I get paid to do this work, and believe me, Derek and I need that right now. Just over a month ago, I was driving home from Winnipeg, and I noticed that the car was no longer heating up. When I slowed down to pull off the highway, the car started to make really weird noises, which finally ended with the engine shutting off and I had to roll off to the side of the road, and then wait twenty minutes before Derek could get out to get me. What we thought was just the car overheating turned out to be a blown gasket (whatever that is), meaning that the engine and probably the radiator would need to be replaced.

RIP Maverick:


Okay, well, we actually haven't decided that he's dead for good. We really did like him as a car, and we're still figuring out if we can get the necessary work done for less than it would cost to buy a new car of the same quality as him. But still. What is with Derek and me? We have the worst car luck... I swear (read about our first car's death, here). Anyone else got a car story to make me feel like we're not the only ones who suffer constant car death?

Monday 3 December 2012

Name That Thing

*ahem. That's the noise of an embarrassed Chana nervous of admitting that she's missed two whole weeks of blogging. After going for so long with steady posts! I actually got a couple months in there, guys, of steady, non-stop blogging. Man. It was a nice feeling. I'm going to blame the fact that winter hit Manitoba on my lack of posting, I mean, seriously, when you have a foot of snow outside, and it's -20, and it's only mid-November, you gotta get some blues. Not even Christmas music could make that better... Well, Christmas music makes almost everything better, so maybe... *hums jingle bells softly.

A lot has happened here in the past two weeks, and yet, at the same time, so much hasn't. The whole not-blogging-thing wasn't the only symptom of winter blues. I also managed to accomplish pretty much nothing in the home-fixing-up department. But, despite the lack of motivation with the snow pressing down on more than just my front lawn (I'm referring to my heart there... in case ya missed it. The snow presses down on my heart? Makes me sad? No? I'm still alone on this? Oh.) Derek and I have managed to get a thing or two done, like purchasing our new entry "table"!


Ta da! It's great. This is a shot I took of it the day we bought it (I sent it to Lana, because, you know, I tell her everything). We found it on Kijiji and picked it up from Winnipeg. It's real, solid wood, and it's a bit narrower than a normal dresser, though it still has TONS of storage (yay!) so it fits well in our entry. And no, it really doesn't look any better now. Actually. It kinda looks worse. It has, unfortunately, turned into a bit of "counter space storage" for the moment, mostly as we try to figure out what we're doing with everything. Since I'm currently working on my kitchen table (hopefully I'll finish that soon, so deets will be coming. Promise), everything that was on my kitchen table is no longer on my kitchen table. And also, Lana claimed our her coffee table, so we don't have that storage space. So... now everything ends up on our dresser.

But, we love that we actually have a piece of furniture that we bought as a "forever" piece. Sure, we have plans to sand her down and stain her a nice, dark colour (mocha, anyone?) but when we met her we fell in love, and we won't be parting with her any time soon. Maybe she needs a name, though. Sue? Lily? Suggestions, anyone?