elligirl

We went over to Vancouver Island on the weekend to visit some family. It was really nice, being able to get away from 'it all' and just chill on the patio with loved ones. The weather even held out, although it was supposed to rain! We walked the little boardwalk at Cowichan Bay and enjoyed the car deck of the Coastal Inspiration and the Coastal Renaissance. Couldn't leave the car deck much, since we had the dog with us, but such is life. She did great in the car! I couldn't ask for a better dog, really.

On a disappointing dog note, it turns out our little girl might have a bit of puppy mange. She's been going a bit bald around her eyes and inside her ears she's got dark red spots. No itching or scratching, but patchy spots on her ears and forehead. :( :( So I found the recipe to kill the mites and give her immune system a chance to catch up. I'll give her a week or two to see if it helps. I'd hate to take her to the (horrendously overpriced) vet if a little hydrogen peroxide and borax does the same trick. We gave her the first dip on Sunday and will do another on Wednesday or Thursday, I think. She didn't mind it at all and now she's super white!

Elli's Non-Baked Baked Beans

I made my first ever batch of non-baked baked beans tonight. I threw together a bunch of the best ingredients from all the recipes I found online and they turned out pretty good! Here's a little review:

3 cups dried pinto beans
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
250g salt pork, diced
chicken stock
1/3 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
3 tbsp old fashioned grain mustard
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp bbq sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp brown sugar
coarse salt to taste

Pick through the beans to throw out any old and wrinkly ones, broken ones, and stones. Cover with cold water in a big bowl and set overnight. Minimum 12 hours, until they're bigger. You can add more water or change it out if needed.

Drain beans. Add to a big stock pot and just cover with mix of water and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer.

Sautee onion, garlic, pork in butter. When tasty, add to beans. Simmer with the lid on for oh just until the beans are soft. This could be 2 hours, could be 4. Mine took about 3. At that point you can add the tasty stuff. Mix in and give it a taste. Keep simmering. Leave the lid off if your beans are too soupy. Add more chicken stock if they're too dry. Add the sugar is you like more sweetness. Add more mustard if you want more tart. There you have it! Serve with fresh toast and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. YUM!!

I am! Today has been catch up on email and youtube and stuff day. I've been getting the most interesting questions on Formspring.me lately. Do I feel facials are degrading? Who would I sleep with? Am I disappointed with a smaller amount of cum than a larger one after a blowjob? These are the questions that are apparently keeping my adoring public awake at night. If you have a question to add to the mix, feel free! I'm quite curious to see what comes next! :)

The summer has been definitely waning. While not the rainy weekend it was forecast to be, the sun has lost most of its warmth and every day multiple flights of Canada geese have been honking their way overhead. It's as if they know what's coming...

Surprisingly, a house mover showed up in my yard today, measuring the house. He was quite surprised to see me, and even more surprised that I had not been warned in advance of his appointment. It turns out my property manager didn't even know. You know, I don't care how much money you have or how many properties you own -- treat your paying tenants with a little respect! I pay my goddamned rent on time. The least you could do is let me know what days to expect contractors wandering around my back yard and wanting to get under my deck to see the foundation! (all innuendo aside, it was pretty rude of them to just ASSUME!)

Yes class, there WILL be a test later :) :)

With the weather so hot lately, we've had to have a big fan in the bedroom in front of the window just to sleep. This hasn't been helping my super dry throat, and I've been spending more nighttime hours coughing than sleeping. Hopefully this nasty cold leaves me before the weather turns cold! *shakes fist at the airplane virus gods*

We put our deposit down on the place we're moving to. That was a big relief. It's a three bedroom with one and a half bathrooms, which is exciting! That means Grandma can actually stay over at my house when she visits from Victoria! I'm chuffed about that. Grandma has never, ever stayed overnight at my house, only my parents!

That said, I've been having occasional sad moments. To think that this sweet little house and garden is going to be brought down to framework to make it into something else is a bit heavy. The old couple who sold it last fall are still on Google Street View, painting their eaves and gardening. We're the only people who go to really enjoy and appreciate their home. They did a lovely job. If they were my grandparents or parents, I would be super proud of them. Surveyors already came in and trampled my seven foot tall mums and delphiniums. When we complained, they just shrugged their shoulders. There's not much else to do. We're here til the end of September and I'm determined to enjoy every last day. This house deserves that much, at least.

Well, we finally found somewhere to live. It's not quite in the location we preferred, but the price is definitely right. We've decided to hang tight for a year or two, really really focus on saving, and just buy a place once the interest rates climb and prices start to slide a bit. They have to come down. There are brand new 3 bedroom houses with a coachhouse out back selling for $800,000!! What family can afford that? I read that a change in 1% on a $600,000 mortgage can affect your monthly payments by as much as $500 a month. I have a feeling there will be a lot of crying in Canada in the next couple of years as the rates creep back up.

The weather has been stinking hot. Not just hot, but completely still. Like we're stuck in the doldrums. The fans just move around the hot air and you feel like doing absolutely nothing. So today we went to a collector car Show & Shine and had some lunch and saw some pretty autos. I got pictures. Stay tuned for those :)

And tomorrow it's back to the grind... hooray!

That's the noise you get when you trip over the dog as she's racing you downstairs to get the mail. Luckily that did NOT happen to me today, but it was a close call.

Our search for a home is hopefully nearing its completion. We're hearing back from two possibles tomorrow. Hopefully both are accepted and then we get to choose our favourite. There have been two major apartment building fires in the area in the last month, so there are an extra 300 families looking for rentals right now in addition to the regular student population. This is making for interesting times.

Work has been hectic, as I've been trying to get back on top of things. My update is coming to ElliNude.com first thing in the morning! I'm working the photos now. :) These things take time, you know!

I hope your week is going well! Cheers!

I'm done my first ever challenge of co-ordinating a company retreat of 75 people. Only a few hiccups, none my fault, and all were smoothed well enough that noone really noticed them. Whew! Most people checked out today to go home, and all had big smiles on their faces. Woot woot! I can't take all the credit, as a few women in the office picked the menus, venues, and entertainment. I just was on site to make sure it all took place as planned (and hoped!)

If you want to see some of my "holiday" pictures from here at the Cove tower in the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, you can see them in my Picasa account:

Atlantis

They're not ALL uploaded yet, and there are a few duds in there, I know. My little HP Mini doesn't have the horsepower to edit photos and 720p video, so you'll have to wait until I get home for the full meal deal. :)

But, rest assured that Elli is feeling quite accomplished with herself and can't wait to get home to her man and her pooch tomorrow night! :)

I'm getting a bit burnt out on this Bahamas trip. The staff at the Atlantis hotel are excellent. But a few of the guests are being... unpredictable. I'm sure this happens with most groups, I've just never been in charge before. Being in charge and making judgement calls like "How many people should we seat for dinner tomorrow night?" is a bit overwhelming. That said, in a perverse way, I really enjoy the challenge and dealing with the people in my travels. I'm kind of mostly hoping I'm asked to do this again.

Tomorrow I am roping someone else into cabana babysitting duty so I can FINALLY go on the waterslides or at least the lazy river tube ride. I'm not going to sit there quietly any more, watching everyone else have so much fun!

Oh, and my restaurant review portion: If you're ever at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, please take a night to have dinner at the Fathoms restaurant. It's high class somewhat-Mediterranean food that's quite delicious, but the real treat is the fish tank. One entire wall of the room is the enormous tank called "The Dig." While you eat, you can watch huge manta rays, sharks, and entire schools of all kinds of tropical fish swim by. Definitely check it out if you get the chance!

Have a good night, all!

I have! After a little mixup in Toronto's Pearson Airport wherein the plane we were supposed to fly on had bathroom troubles, I arrived in the Bahamas. After reading the weather reports of "feels like" 46C, I was a little pleased and anti-climactic at the same time. It felt just like Puerto Vallarta in October: humid, stuffy, but not unpleasantly searing hot. Today has been mostly hazy, and is still not unpleasant.

I think I was expecting to be disappointed by the hotel/resort here on Paradise Island. So far though, the staff have been excellent and actually far more polite than pretty much any hotel staff I've dealt with in the States (except for the hotel in Phoenix that rocked so much.) The campus here is immense and not tacky at all (yet.) The schtick is very played down. Think the Paris or Bellagio hotels in Vegas, not Excalibur. Is it expensive? Heck, yes! My group is staying in "The Cove" which is the upper end tower as far as I can tell. The restaurants, even the buffet, automagically add a 15% tip to the bill before you sign off on it. The waterpark day pass for NON hotel guests is $110US. Drinks down at the poolside can run you $15 a hit, just like at the Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. I don't know what my room costs yet and I don't want to know. :)

Would I recommend the Atlantis? If you have the money, yes. There's TONS of activities for kids to do with little tours and such, and the pools and beach really is well done and super close by. The staff are very helpful and omnipresent, in a way. If you're going to be pinching your pennies though, save yourself the stress and stay somewhere else, just buy a day pass to the water stuff here for your kids. :)

K Elli out!