San Francisco...

We're off to San Francisco on Monday... anybody have some "must visit sites" for us? We got some Easter gift moola from my folks, that will be good for an awesome seafood meal at the world renowned Tadich Grill. We're staying in Union Square West.

Photos coming soon!

We also have a little announcement to make when we get back. We went for my 18 week ultrasound yesterday! Everything's going well with Baby Chu, great heart rate and measurements and bones and everything. It was neat to see the little arms and legs moving and stretching, and even to get a close up of the 4 chambers of the heart. Our announcement is going to be our little secret until after the Babymoon... but stay tuned :) (hint, our announcement is not that it's twins... there is only one baby!).

Photos of that coming soon too!

It's Fresh... Exciting... (new attempt...)

Ever see that coffee commercial a couple of years back with the dancing nostril? ... Killer competition below:

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Celebrity Look-Alikes II

Apparently I get my good looks from my long-lost uncle, Tom Cruise, and my sense of humour from Mike Meyers? No offense mom. :) Also, I guess having dark rimmed glasses automatically makes me look like Nana Mouskouri... and Larry King (not shown below, but was in my original list)!?

Celebrity Look-Alikes I

Happy Birthday!

Happy 3rd Birthday
to...
Our BLOG!

Scott & Melissa first got us hooked back in March, 2004 with, "... so have you ever heard of a blog? It's short for "web log" and it's like an online diary of sorts. Right now mostly techies and programmers use it to share information." I remember thinking, "Why on earth would I ever use that?!" Which now reminds me of my step-dad confessing that he thought that when he first heard about the concept of a fax machine. I wonder what our kids will be thinking the same thoughts about?

10 of our archived posts:

1. Dayna's First Post
2. Karl's First Post
3. Baby Dream (2004)
4. Karl Feels Millennial
5. Dayna's New Job
6. Runner Up for Most Comments Award
7. Most Comments Award Winner
8. Slacker of the Year
   
9. One of Dayna's Favourite posts
10. Karl on Hong Kong trip
    

keeping it simple...

Thanks for the advice, Melissa. I am keeping things simple for the Easter Tea... I picked up some silk flowers to stick onto my cupcakes instead of icing them or trying these marshmallow daisies (but they're so cute too... maybe next time?!). I got some bread for pbj sandwiches for the kidlets, some bud vases for a few flowers, and I am going to put some jelly beans into fancy teacups that I had and spread them around.

I am going to do some veggie pinwheels (thanks for the recipe Kori!) and a couple of fruit trays as well; I think that will get everyone "fed up" :)

I made the cupcakes already and froze them because we are going to be in San Francisco the week before Easter...I also did some "for the guys" with oreo cookie crumbs on top (so it looks like dirt) and gummy worms sticking out.

...(Here's the one that I didn't make with the marshmallows; click for source)

For the record... Orange napkins and green utensils (bottom of this post)?! Good luck finding them! Easter napkins it is... plus pretty well everything will be finger foods :)

Happy First Day of Spring...

True to Calgary's style, we had rain and snow today, followed by completely clear blue skies and sunshine, followed by more snow and now wind. Welcome to Spring!So, the real question is, where the heck have I been? I can't believe that I didn't even blog to say Happy St. Patrick's Day... but my excuse is that I was in Atlanta... going through withdrawals with no computer. I was at an awesome Women's conference with 16 other women from my church... wow! All of us went all the way down there for the conference.

A few recent happenings: first, a product review from Karl... he is convinced that we can get rid of all other knives in our kitchen and stick with the Chinese Chopper. Here he is using it for the remainder of our valentine's ice cream cake, I missed the pizza cutting:Here is the crazy amount of snow that we got in the course of about 3 hours last weekend... the high that day was 16*C, so obviously it didn't last long!I should be sending pictures of crocuses and tulips blooming, but no such luck, ask me in July!

I can't believe we're 2/3 of the way through March already. All you out there with kids, does time go by faster when you have things like school holidays to mark off the calendar, or does it make things more manageable?

Do I have any Martha Stewart or Martin Stewarts out there? I am hosting an Easter Tea for the family (up to about 20 adults and 7 kids) on the Saturday of Easter weekend... I need some decorating ideas, and recipes for snacky things. I am thinking simple and bright... mostly have jelly beans in jars kind of scattered about so far as an idea... but I want to do something funky. With Baby Chu's arrival, we won't be in much of a position to host Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, so Easter it is. I guess I am kind of chickening out by not doing a full-on Easter dinner, but we will be away in San Francisco for the week before Easter, so I don't want to get too adventurous. Here's another idea that I will share with you for your Easter festivities, if you're having any (act surprised if you end up here on Easter Saturday!):

(click for source)

Weekly Awards

It's been a while since the weekly awards were given out... they have returned:

Conversation of the week:
D: "What kind of a name is that, 'the Ottawa Senators'? Could there be a more geeky name?"
K: "How about... 'the Ottawa Programmers?'"

Guilty Pleasure of the week:

Cafe of the week:
The Boardwalk Cafe & Wine Bar (4, 15 Balsam Ave, Bragg Creek, AB)
(K recommends the Montreal smoked meat sandwich on rye, Baby Chu recommends the cranberry pecan square... oh my turkey sandwich on multigrain was good too!)

Pizza of the week: K&D's almost-famous BBQ Chicken Pizza with red pepper and green onion... YUM... (perfect for hockey night in Canada with a Shirley Temple [or spicy ginger beer for Karl] watching the Ottawa Programmers... uh... Senators... beating Toronto in the first period):

1. Grill chicken on the BBQ until barely cooked, nice and juicy, about 3 mins per side
2. Spread BBQ sauce on the pizza crust, about the same quantity as you would with tomato pizza sauce
3. Dice chicken and spread on sauce
4. Dice red pepper (about 1/2 of a large pepper for one 12" pizza) and sprinkle on top
5. Dice onion and add to top
6. Dice green onion and sprinkle on
7. Top with Mozzarella cheese (a friend of ours that was formerly a pizza joint owner told me once that the trick is to be sure to sprinkle the cheese from the middle all the way to the outer crust... that way it doesn't 'shrink in' when it melts and stays put when you slice it)
8. Bake for about 15-18 minutes... broil for the final 3 minutes for a bubbly top
9. Slice and ENJOY
   

Baby Chu update of the week: I'm almost 16 weeks now... Baby Chu is now 5.5 inches (supposedly?!). I haven't been measuring my waistline, but I have been wearing the good ol' stretchy pants for a couple weeks already. Doc says my weight gain is good; slow and steady... we get to see baby Chu by ultrasound at the end of the month!

Survey of the week: Do you give gifts at Easter? If so, what's the best gift to give?

More Than Fine...

If you had a word that was a pet peeve, what would it be? Mine is "fine." It's so... vanilla. ambiguous. lukewarm. I just don't strive for "fine."

I have quite an eclectic taste in music (brief list on my profile)... one of my favourites for a while was Switchfoot, especially when I was working at RMC (younger crowd influencing my tastes, I guess?). I love the song, "Meant to Live," but lyrically this one is close to my philosophy of striving for so much more than fine...

When I wake in the morning,
I want to blow into pieces.
I want more than just ok, more than just ok.
When I'm up with the sunrise
I want more than just blue skies.
I want more than just ok, more than just ok.

I'm not giving up, giving up, not giving up now.
I'm not giving up, giving up, not backing down.

More than fine, more than bent on getting by.
More than fine, more than just ok.

When I'm lit with the sunrise.
I want more than just a good time.
I want more than just ok, more than just ok.

I'm not giving up, giving up, not giving up now.
I'm not giving up, giving up, not selling out.

Baby Moses

I visited some friends in Kitchener when I was out that way, and M. asked her daughter (2.5 years old), "What should the new baby's name be?" Without skipping a beat, she replied, "Baby Moses." She stuck with it too, later M. asked her a couple more times and the answer didn't change.

So, I don't think Moses Chu quite suits us... but if you were to have a baby right now, what would you name him or her? We have a girl's name picked out, and a couple of boys names that we like, but I am curious to hear what you think...

Lion Schmion...

Okay, so these aren't exactly growing in my garden, but they sure do brighten up the living room (thanks mom)! And we've got a warm front coming through all week, so it may just be enough to fool me for a while.
My friend Clint had the unfortunate experience of having his luggage transported all over eastern Canada before it arrived to him in Toronto... they basically told him to go and find it near the luggage belts at around 2am when the flight was due in from Ottawa or Montreal... they weren't really sure (he had flown in the day before from Winnipeg). When I was leaving, I saw them pulling off dozens and dozens of bags, and setting them in groups wherever there was space; this is just one corner:Here's the view from my room of Niagara Falls... or should I say Niagara Fog?Just kidding, I did take that picture from my window, but also took the one below... but still pretty foggy with the cold weather...

Blog at ya later!
Over and out!
DC

In Like a Lion

Good grief, I can't believe how stormy it was here in southern Ontario today... even the big trucks and SUVs were driving slow on the 401. It was snowy, icy, rainy...

but I am warm in the living room of my suite at the 4Points Sheraton :) Yes, elite status again it seems. Soon I will have stories to compete with the Prairie gang, they always seem to get all the upgrades, hot tub rooms, convertible mustangs, and the like!
I didn't exactly get elite status from Air Canada on the way here. It was kind of a rotten day, and my first stop in Toronto was at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory store (right in the airport) for some sweet comfort (just one almond bear, top left).

Tomorrow: back to Toronto, thankfully not during rush hour. Then home sweet home on Saturday. I am home sick on this trip... probably because it is one of my last work trips... one road trip to Edmonton for YC, and that will pretty much wrap things up for me! The next time I see the CCUFairs crew, I will be bringing baby Chu to see them at the Calgary fair in the fall! Time flies!