We picked up the MIL at the airport on Saturday. She needed a bit of a break from work and decided to come out to see us. It’s always nice to see her – she’s a super sweet lady and a very “no maintenance” house guest. It also turns out that this is the most she’s seen of either Hubby and I over the last few years since the few other times she’s come out we’ve both been insanely busy.

On Remembrance Day, we spent a big chunk of the day cruising the malls. You see, MIL decided she wanted to buy us our Christmas gifts before heading back to Calgary this weekend. Anything you *really* want is what she said. I thought she was kidding but apparently not.

I’ve been pining for a DSLR for some time but until this point, they’ve been way out of my price range and even at the current prices of $600 for an entry level camera is higher than I’m willing to pay but she insisted. I held back the first time but the second time she offered, I didn’t look back. The result, I’m now the proud owner of a Pentax K200D. Pentax is not the first brand that comes to mind for most people when you talk about DSLR cameras but I picked this one because Hubby has two AF lenses from an old Pentax and talking to the super knowledgeable staff at Kerrisdale Cameras and finding out that one of our old lenses would cost about $400 to replace, we figured this was the camera to go with.

Of course, I got home and started playing with it immediately and wow, what an experience. I haven’t used an SLR since high-school but this baby has a completely automatic setting but the pictures it takes are awesome. In the process of experimenting, I took what is, to date, my favourite picture of hubby:


Needless to say, I love, love, LOVE my new camera. I can’t wait to make even more use of it this weekend though I must admit, if I’d known today was going to be this beautiful, I would have packed it and made my way down to Coal Harbour during lunch for a few shots. Who knows, maybe tomorrow will be as nice.

As for hubby, he decided that he didn’t want anything. Yeah, he’s a bit strange that one. Eventually, we did convince him to pick something out but not exactly what I’d expected. He decided he wanted a new TV stand. He’s wanted to mount the TV since we bought it but I refuse to put holes in the wall. The result is a TV stand with a built in mount. He spent the better part of Tuesday night putting the thing together.

I must admit, I love the finished product. Makes the room look even bigger and to boot, we have room for all of the electronics without having to double stack!




So yes, we’re feeling mighty spoiled. Now that we have toys and a new stand, I can use the Christmas money I was putting aside for the new stand to good use on something else. Maybe a new carpet…

Over the last few weeks, our place has been going through a few upgrades. A while back it was the appliances and we recently installed hardwood in the bedroom and on the docket for this weekend is hardwood install in the living room. It's all thanks to mom and dad the landlords who have decided that capet is a headache (Yey!) not to mention that this carpet is old.

With all the new goodies, hubby and I decided the time might be right up upgrade the dinette set. We had purchased one when we moved out but sold it when we moved to our current living space. I didn't like the other set and this cast off from the parents was much nicer.

This set is now going on 15 years old. My parents purchased it new when they built the house and it served them for 10 years until they upgraded it and moved into the basement at which point, when we moved in, we inherited it (along with the couches). It's served us well over the years but the time has come for a change and change we did.


Last week we went shopping, dragging mom and dad along for moral support. I decided to search for my dream set, the one I'd imagined I'd buy when I initially moved out: glass and iron. We started at Ashley Furniture where we spotted a set I loved but that we couldn't buy because hubby bumped his leg on the iron base. There were a few others in the shop that were gorgeous but again, the style caused hubby to hurt his knees. We finally spotted one at the far corner of the shop that looked like it might work. No knee bumping but I wasn't sold on the colour. I talked to a very unhelpful sales rep asking if the set came in another colour. She mentioned that it didn't but then she threw in that if I didn't like the colour, I could always spray paint it. The exchange went like this:

Me: Pardon?
Sales: You can spray paint it. They have metal paint at the Home Depot that will do nicely and it'll only cost you $5.
Me: So you want me to pay $999 for the set and still paint it myself? Why don't you paint it for me?
Sales: We don't do that sort of work.
Me: It's not worth the trouble! Can you drop the price of the set?
Sales: Sorry.

And then she walked away! WTF?

Obviously, I wasn't going to shop there. We walked next door to Sandy's Furniture and I'm glad we did. We weren't accosted by sales people when we walked in but when I needed one, he was right there. Almost immediately I spotted something I liked. Hubby tested it and it was safe on his knees. One glitch - I liked the table from one set but the chairs from another. I tried to talk the sales man into giving me the table and chairs I wanted but the chairs were going to cost me an extra $400 in the purchase and I wasn't willing to pay the difference.

We bought the set and arranged for the delivery. On Tuesday, I got a call from mom. Turns out they delivered the table I wanted and the chairs I wanted - the combination I was supposed to pay extra for. We've been trying to figure out what happened and we have a couple of ieads:

1. They made a mistake at the warehouse and shipped the wrong chairs.
2. The sales guy arranged to have the chairs I wanted shipped to me at no extra cost (unlikely but possible).
3. They have the sets displayed incorrectly in the show room.

Whatever the answer, I'm a *very* happy girl.

And after all of that, here is my new dinette set:



Now that's what I call dining in style!

One day, when I build my in-home movie theater, I want these chairs.