Someone call the doctors, because this weather is caaa-raaaazzy!

I would say we had a decent weekend, weather wise. It wasn't overly cold, but just a regular winter day in Toronto. At some points, it was actually nice outside with the sun out and the cool air...

and then there's today. I'm sure whoever reading this has been outside, or has watched the news to feel or see how cold it is outside. Not the coldest day today, but considering the weather was comfortable over the weekend, I would say the weather is pretty crazy.

On top of this, there's apparently a snow storm tomorrow with up to 30cm of the white stuff. I guess we'll have to wait and see if there really will be that much snow.

I don't mind the different seasons we have here in Toronto. Obviously it's a nice break to go somewhere in the Caribbean where it's always warm, but that's only because we have cold weather here. I wonder if we lived in the Caribbean all year round if I'd still like the constant heat. I really don't mind the weather here, because it gives it character with the different temperatures. At least we know when it's summer, or winter, compared to the Caribbean where it's hot the whole year. I know Devika doesn't mind hot weather. Maybe we should move there and see how we'd feel after a year :)

- Dennis.

Blog Less Monster

I've been at a stand still for something to blog about this entire week. I normally try to write something twice a week, but for some reason, I've only been able to do it once on Monday. This is more or less a forced entry, as I don't have much to rant about.

The week has gone by quick. Each evening so far has been eventful. Raptors game on Monday, class on Tuesday, worked late on Wednesday, and visited our "travel agent" on Thursday.

We found out that we'll probably be in the air flying for approximately 50hrs (round trip) on our trip in October, not including layover time, which is between 1-4 hours each layover. It's a lot of flying for a trip, but there's no other way of getting there, so it's just a small part that we have to get over. October is a long way to go before another vacation, especially when everyone around us is planning one soon.

On a side note; I finally got a smartphone! It's been a long time coming, but I finally pulled the trigger. I don't physically have it yet as it's being shipped to me, but I should have my hands on it by next week (I hope!). I'll probably have an entry for that after I get it!

Enjoy the weekend!

- Dennis.

Golden Years

This past weekend, we went out to dinner to celebrate my Aunt and Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary, and also my Uncle's 80th Birthday. 50 years of marriage is a huge milestone and great achievement!

They have three successful children, all sons, who are all married and have kids on their own. The best part is, my Aunt and Uncle still look like they're 40 years old! They're both still very active and take part in daily activities. They go on vacation and do gardening, walks, and still drives!

We're all happy for them and wish them many more years of happiness!

- DD

Cable

During the first few days we started living at the condo, we ordered our Internet/Cable package. Our cable is with Rogers, and they had five different packages available at the time, so we went with the middle package called "VIP". With the VIP package, you get 100+ channels! We loved it...Food Network all the time, multiple movie channels, I got to watch all the Raptors games now, plus many more things!

...that time is now over. We decided a couple of weeks ago that we would cancel our cable -- completely. We thought about downgrading to a lower package, but our final decision was just to cancel it in its entirety. This would mean we are probably going to get a few channels, like the very entertaining Global and CityTV.

Cancelling cable would mean $65 a month in savings, which isn't the main issue as we can afford to pay that amount, but at the same time, an extra $780 a year is a pretty chunk of change. The main issue for cancelling cable is so that we can be one with nature. Sort of. I had my first night class last night, which is once a week and will go until April. Devika also signed up to a course as well, which will start next week and go on for three months. Cancelling cable just means that we hope to focus our attention on other things that are going on in our lives. Don't get us wrong, TV is great and we love it, but we didn't think we'd be watching it much for the next little while so we weighed out the options and decided to go that route.

So from now until our cable is no more, we're going to watch tv until our eyes fall out! It's not a huge loss; we still have Internet and all the shows (which aren't many) that we watch is readily available to be downloaded within hours anyways.

Just wanted to warn everybody now, so 1) the next time you're over, you're not surprised when you see fuzzy snow on the tv 2) you can bring other things with you to entertain yourself and 3) we probably won't be good guests when we come over to your place, since we'll be watching YOUR tv the whole time!

- Dennis

Stationary

Here's a weird thing that you probably don't know about me -- I love stationary. For some reason, if I go to Staples, Grand and Toy, or any place that has a stationary section, I love looking at all the different stationary items available.

Key word; look. I love stationary, but at the same time, I don't really buy much of it, partly because it's overpriced. I'm not going to spend $5 on a pen because it glides better on paper, or $5 on a notepad of paper because it has animals on it.

The main reason I don't usually buy stationary is because for the past four years, the place I work at has stationary readily available, as do most companies do. So whenever I need any pens or post it notes for my desk [or home ;)...I really mean my desk], I raid the stationary cabinet! And what a cabinet it is; pens of different colours, different sized post-it notes, markers, staples, tape, folders, binders...you name it!

Anyways...so by the time you're reading this paragraph, re-read my very first sentence again to remind yourself that I personally classified this as weird. I'm sure whoever is reading this has something weird that people don't know about either...it's up to you whether or not you want to share it with us!

- Dennis.

YIR 2010 - Devika

I’m a little late with my year in review but a lot of what Dennis has mentioned in his 2010 YIR are highlights for me as well but I’ll just add a few events that really made 2010 an amazing year.

The year started off with wedding planning and trying to wrap my head around the costs, the type of wedding we were envisioning, and how we were going to survive the challenges of wedding planning. This takes us into March which means our cruise was finally here and I got to celebrate my 27th birthday in St. Thomas with snorkeling, a snow cone and good friends.

In May I was surprised to be called for jury selection. After one day in court and three additional days sitting in the selection room, I was free to go. It’s not as bad as people say it is, I got connect to the internet, read, got some work done and was home by 4pm; I couldn’t complain.

In June while preparing our invitations in the comfort of if our home, parts of Toronto was being transformed because of the G20 summit. We decided to take a break from making invitations and ended up at Queen and Spadina; an area that is normally filled with shoppers was now swarmed with protesters and on lookers. This was something that I will never forget.

The rest of my summer consisted of two amazing bridal showers. One was hosted by my aunt and the other by my now sister in law, Debbie. It was really special to have a chance to see both sides of my family before the big day.

What’s a wedding without a fun bachelorette party? That event took place in September and I that’s all I want to say about that!

Then October rolled around and then the big day or should I say days. I always end up smiling thinking back to the days leading up the wedding, the ceremony and the reception. I could not have asked for more love or support and to me everything was perfect! After a quick but fun honeymoon in Chicago it was back to work which meant two and a half months of 60-70 hour work weeks, training over 70 people on a new database and of course a very exciting promotion.

What a great year to look back on! I’m exciting about 2011 and the year has started off with planning an amazing trip in October, knitting classes, and a little more free time for reading or going to the gym because there’s no more wedding planning (clapping and cheering).

~Devika

Work

I'll admit it; I sometimes have a little free time while I'm at work. It's not too hectic around here and my skills are not needed 7.5hrs of the day.

I work with a bunch of architects and majority of them have worked at the company for 10-20+ years, so they're not exactly the type of people I want run into at the water cooler to have a chat (no offense).

Luckily, I made friends with some of the younger, more hip people in the office (like me) so we often talk at least once a day about random things. One of the guys sent us a comic one day and I thought it was pretty funny. Turns out there a ton of other comics that are hilarious! The comics are based on things that we would encounter, which makes it that much more funny.

Here's the link to the main comics section: http://theoatmeal.com/comics

And here are some links to some of my favourite ones (in no particular order):

*warning* you may literally LOL, so if you're at work and you don't want want to seem crazy, either hold it in or wait until you get home

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_suck

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/minor_differences

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apple

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computers

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/customer_service

Enjoy!

- Dennis.

Broken Resolution

Devika and I had a joint resolution of not having any potato chips in the house, because when we do have them in the house, they're quickly consumed. We thought, it's a new year, lets not have any chips and stay healthy!...

10 days into the New Year and our resolution has been broken. We had chips yesterday. To be fair, it was only Lay's Lightly Salted chips. But really, who keeps their resolutions for the entire year, anyways?

Our other resolution was to consistently go to the gym, which so far has been kept. If we keep this resolution for the entire year, we're going to look like Heman and She-Ra come December:

...minus the Jersey tan and arange/blonde hair.

Hope everyone's New Year's resolutions are going strong!

- Dennis.

Twenty Eleven

Since it's the new year, we'd thought the blog could use a mini makeover.

Also, because of the new year, we created a list of items that we plan to do over the next year, which includes a trip, a wedding (not ours, of course!), and maybe a couple mini-vacations here and there. Luckily, a large chunk of these events are in the second half of the year, so we have time to plan for them. Most, or I should say, all of these events involves using money to pay for it, so we did a quick budget for the rest of the year which means we're now officially in saving mode! Our savings plan isn't too intricate, but it's a savings plan nonetheless. We like doing budgets and plans so it gives us an outlook of what's to come. At the same time, we're still going to have fun, but we're going to choose our social gatherings wisely, which means not going out each week and spending (not like we did that before, anyways).

Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and New Year's! We sure did!

Soon,

- Dennis.