Hello to my loyal readers of a blog of which I am neglecting. I do have a big long story to tell here eventually but for now I have a quick update.

I am currently full-time temping in G-town (guaranteed until the end of May) and as of tomorrow will be employed at Chapters part-time. Guess who is going to be a tad busy? I'm doing this so I have somewhat of a secure income (at least a little bit of money) as well as I need to be making more money anyways to pay the bills.

Next Tuesday marks 4 months since I lost my job. That's a crazy long time and feels like a lifetime ago.

I pray that God keeps granting me patience and understanding as He leads me to where He wants me to be.

Hey all, I'm still alive. Lots of updating to do. Please forgive the absence lately but the last 3 months of my life have been....um, interesting. Also I just moved at the beginning of the week so I'm currently living in a massive mess of boxes and bags.

Thanks to my faithful readers! I will be back soon! :)

I haven't blogged for quite some time on here and with my return I am going to blog about software. Yup, that's right. Good ole office software.

Lotus Notes.

I have never used Lotus Notes until the last month and well, I have an opinion about this program.

First off, I had no concept of what Lotus Notes was or the functions of the program in an office. Now I know - it 's like Outlook but not in a good way. Lotus is bulky and not very efficient. Figuring out how to compose a new email took me a couple minutes! Actually the item that took me the longest to figure out was how to create a signature and automatically have it attach to each new "memo". That's another thing that bugs me - why do they have to label emails as memos? Is labelling it an email too cutting edge? Then there's the issue with each new "memo" opening in a new tab. Terribly annoying when you want to toggle between multiple emails and other documents. I'm also not fond of the contacts database because again it's not very easily organized compared to my experience with Outlook.

This brings me to my question, how retro is Lotus Notes? Is it relevant with today's fast paced technology? Is it a cheap alternative to Outlook? What convinces companies to go with this program?

Mind you the only bonus to learning about this program is that now I can list it under office software programs I am knowledgeable in! Will this add value to my resume? I have my doubts.

Now I know why I don't like using Lotus Notes - the version I've been using is seriously outdated - version 6.5: (no wonder!)

I like coffee! (Especially that of the flavoured nature) So when a friend of mine and my sister's introduced us to Java Moose, let's just say we started to drool.


For her birthday my sister received a couple sample packs of said coffee and it is delicious. The flavours currently in our possession:

English Toffee
Cocoa Mocha Nut
Chocolate Hazelnet





Other available flavours:

Macadamia Nut
Canadian Maple Cream
Cinnamon Sticky Bun
Caramel Chocolate Nut Crunch
Cinnamon Almond Macaroon
Mocha Mudslide
etc....

Sadly Java Moose General Stores only exist in New Brunswick :( But they do online orders!

Coffee never tasted soooo good! :)

I am dutch, therefore I love some certain dutch foods. Today I am focusing on a wonderful dish called "Nasi Goreng".


Nasi goreng (Indonesian for fried rice) literally nasi means rice and goreng means fried. The dish is often accompanied by additional items such as a fried egg, fried chicken, satay, or krupuk (fried crackers / chips made of shrimp or vegetables). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_goreng)

Why it fits into the dutch culture:
Because of the Dutch colonial past, there has been a considerable Asian influence on Dutch cuisine. From the 16th century onwards all sorts of spices mainly from the Dutch Indies were introduced into Dutch cuisine. Hence many traditional Dutch dishes are (heavily) flavoured with Southeast Asian herbs and spices. Later Indonesian dishes such as nasi goreng, rice with chicken or pork, became part of Dutch cuisine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_cuisine)

Why I like it:
It's super duper easy to make and you usually end up with oodles of leftovers! It's a good thing my mom taught me how to make it as the instructions are only in dutch of which I cannot read...




Nasi is made by taking that contents of the package - put in one cup container then add hot water to fill cup. Let sit for 15 minutes and add it to the beef mixture. Stir and combine with rice. Done.




End result:

and I'm now unemployed. It's been 2 seconds since I last thought about the fact that I'm jobless.

Please pray that I may find another job.

I left my office with a heavy heart on Monday morning, leaving behind co-workers who were are like family to me. I miss them all.

Right now I'm taking a short vacation and visiting my parents. I may be close to a beach right now but sadly, I'm not up for any polar dips. :)

(great lake pics coming soon tho!)

Dread Pirate Roberts:

           Really. [pause] In that case, I challenge you to a
           battle of wits.

Vizzini:    For the princess? <> To the death? <> I accept.

Dread Pirate Roberts:

           Good. Then pour the wine.

           [Roberts pulls out a small vial, and uncorks it]

           Inhale this, but do not touch.

Vizzini:    I smell nothing.

Dread Pirate Roberts:

           What you do not smell is called Iocane powder. It is
           odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid,
           and is among the more deadly poisons known to man.

Vizzini:    Hmmmm.

*Update* I brought my car back to the shop first thing Monday morning and they did discover it was the brakes and fixed it free of charge. (They sorta did still try to rip me off by machining a part instead of replacing it to begin with but ah well, moot point now). My car is fixed and I'm happy now.


I am super ticked right now. I went to my car dealership to get a noise checked out and it ended up being a brake problem. Okay, they fixed it and yes, I paid too much. (Already found a new shop to go to). This was Wednesday I think and today as I'm driving to a friends house guess what I hear? Yup, that's right the stupid moronic mechanics screwed me over and did not fix my brakes properly.

I'm stressed and annoyed so extremely much because I got screwed by a place that is already charging me too much. Now I have to drive my car until Monday morning with brakes that sound like a train's coming.

UGH! I've been worked up about this all day...I know it's just a car but I absolutely hate that I trusted the autoshop to fix my car and they failed to do so. They are getting an earful Monday morning!! I am not paying a darn cent for any more repairs needed and I'm not going back there for anything!

I don't want this stress! I'm already having problems sleeping, my jerknut neighbours in this apartment have been freaking noisy all weekend. I'm tired of it.

I am getting so excited about season 4 of LOST! Today I stumbled across the poster for this season:





*Note the city reflected instead of the trees and the number also reflected.

Pic taken from here.

It's going to be an insane season!! Want to find me on Thursday evenings - I'll be glued to my tv.

I've been wanting to blog about my past year for a while, late but better than never.
This has been an intense year for me and I want to highlight a few points:

Job promotion - no picture for this but a huge change in my daily work life.

Voted in as a church Elder! It has been a learning experience and I'm looking forward to another great year being challenged and constantly growing.


Second ear piercing (that I wanted for years and finally did it)










Bought my first car! I absolutely love my car and having a car. It's been a great blessing for me and a whole other world of educating myself on car maintenance.















Disney World. This included my first plane ride ever and the first time in Florida. Best vacation EVER!
















Camping at a new place - Port Burwell Provincial Park. It was a really nice change and definitely plan on going back this coming summer. (Discovered that going after Labour Day weekend was smart - no one around!)
















First time bridesmaid! I had such a fun time being a part of Steph & Jerry's special day. It was also a mini-vacation for me at the same time (had a cottage to myself for a day). Oh and first road trip on my own - 4hrs was long enough!




















Parents moved out of my childhood home. What an experience! I do miss the old home but it was time for my parents to move on. (only pic I could find of the house at the moment)
















My sister moved to Tanzania, Africa and will be gone for the next 8-12 months. I miss her so much but I know this is a awesome opportunity for her. (I'm slightly jealous, she gets to miss a winter!)















It was a very challenging year but I came away changed and that is the best part.

Here's too a new year!

I talk about this book all the time, so why not blog about it? Read my review here.
--
"The Shack" by William P. Young is a phenomenal hit! I can't get over the amount of response this book is getting not to mention the word of mouth promotion!

Examples:

Ranked on Amazon.com today - #81 in books
Ranked on Amazon.ca today - #164 in books

I'm seriously excited about how well this book is selling/circulating! The book has an amazing message that the world needs to hear and be reminded of.

What's also fantastic is that according to William's website he will be visiting my area of the world in April! Talk about awesome!

If you have not read this book - please pick up a copy and read it!

...for this week:

1. Eating apple fritters fresh from the Farmer's Market (thanks Jolene!)

2. Finally getting more than 5 hrs of sleep at night (semi-insomnia probs lately)

3. Great convos over coffee with friends

And the best one...

4. Season 3 of LOST!

So this afternoon I was flipp'n thru channels trying to find something to watch and I stumbled across "Eve's Christmas" which of course ended up being a cute chick flick of course! BUT, it had a certain actor in it which brings me to the meaning for this post is to expose my long time crush for a very unknown actor - Sebastian Spence:









Oh goodness! I used to watch him on the weekly show called "First Wave" as Cade Foster, the alien hunter. And that is all I have to say. Ha, ha.

This should be an interesting...

I am a slob, well at least when it comes to my room.

I was so embarrassed today when I had guests over and someone needed some privacy and let them into my room. It's a disaster! I have books, papers and clothes all over the place!! Maybe this is my wake up call to getting a bit more organized?!? Ack! Why can't there be more hours in the day so I can accomplish such a monstrous task?

I guess you can tell a lot about a person by the messiness of their room? Yikes, that does not paint me in a very good picture.

Tomorrow nite, if you need me, I'll be cleaning my room....

Ugh, I still feel embarrassed...

I couldn't sleep last night.

I went to bed at midnight and did not crash until 4:30 this morning. I was so mad! I'm usually the type that when my head hits the pillow I'm sawing logs within 10 minutes. But no, I tossed and turned, tried to read a book, read my bible for a bit, drank water, walked around the apartment...I even tried crying myself to sleep but NOTHING worked! Stupid brain would not turn off.

Seriously, my number one annoyance in life - is not being able to sleep. Ugh. I'm going to be living off cafeine and sugar for entire day.

Wish me luck or help me get off the sugar high...

I'm feeling special today, the good special, not the my-mom-thinks-I'm-special kind of special.

I feel nerdy special.

At work I'm part of reading club where we submit the books that we have read each month and well, in less than 5 months I've won TWICE!

Yup, I'm a reading geek.

Now to take the gift certificate and go shopping! :)

Book stats:
45 books
13,457 pages

Today is a day I long to be a kid again.

The crisp snow under foot, the snow lightly falling from the sky…and I stick out my tongue to catch a few flakes. What it would be like to throw all cares away and make snow angels or build a snowman. Just a day with no pressure, responsibility or worry. To lay back on a pile of snow and just let your mind wander.

I am starting to educate myself...
















(Thanks to my sis who bought me the book)

That's right, I'm gonna become a grease monkey, or at least I can pretend :)

I wish I wasn't so car clueless. I love my car but it causes me much nervousness and worrying. I had to bring in "Zippy" for tire rotation and a squeaky belt issue this morning. I just got a call back from the shop and they need to replace my belts and 2 of the tires. I'm probably paying too much for the tires but because this is my first experience and I have no concept of how car repair works so this time I'm giving the go ahead. I need to be more car educated. I need to know who to trust and the best ways to save money when it comes to repairs. I really dislike not knowing what I am getting into and I honestly feel stupid - like turn-red-in-the-face-i'm-embrassed kinda stupid. Which in reality is so dumb because how am I expected to know such things if i have no experience?

I will get over this, I will educate myself and I will stop worrying so much! It's just a car! There are are more important things to focus on.