Picked up

As soon as my vacation was over and I let go all the frustrations and worries of the week......

things picked up!

Saturday was sunny with some lovely fog in the morning along the river.  I snapped a few shots on my way to Jazzercise and they turned out great!

I came home to a rushed breakfast of fresh baked croissants and then hit the road for a very busy 4 hours of work and conference prep, feeding roboteers and bringing caffeine to a friend.....in the midst of which I managed to have a pedicure......t'was luverly.

We headed downtown to meet friends to celebrate a 50th birthday at a trendy Japanese tapas place.   What we discovered was very interesting and some delicious food and....that we are rather old to sit on the floor cross legged for two hours....it was pretty hilarious how our end of the table managed to arrange our un-bendy bodies to be comfortable......but a fun time was had and a great man and friend was well toasted by all.

Sometime in the night Time fell back....... I don't like it....... I don't like coming home at 4pm and it being dusk.....I think this daylight saving gig needs a re-think.

Seeing as I wasn't consulted it fell back to standard time anyway.

Robot boys were up at the crack of dawn and headed to the first competition of the season.....so Lindsay and I made a break for it.....Starbucks in hand we bolted for the border and onwards to Bellingham.

We had our favourite brekkie and headed to the Mall........ about 2 hours before it opened..... #oops.

A couple of stores were open and we browsed around and downloaded every coupon we thought we could use from retailmenot.com.    Folks this is a real revelation to me......open the website or get the app and then screenshot the coupons and voila they scan them at the checkout.... awesome!  We saved over $16 just with the coupons at three stores today!

And.... drum roll....... wait for it....... I......Nicola Lesley Byres.......bought.......not 1...... not 2..... but.....................THREE pairs of shoes!

Allan had to be resuscitated when he got my text.

I actually managed to extend the golden half hour of retail for me  by getting a great chair massage in the mall as I was starting to fade..... $20 for 20 minutes and an excellent back and neck massage from a great masseuse while half of Vancouver and Bellingham walked on by...... felt awesome!

Revived and fortified with coffee we finished shopping including a gorgeous red dress for Lindsay's winter formal, boots for her 50% off and a sweater for me and a good start to my Christmas shopping and ......I repeat...... 3 pairs of shoes.  For me.

And then Trader Joes......as one must...... a quick sandwich at Avenue Bread and we turned for home as the rain came.

Easy-ish border although some concern we might have been in contact with Ebola??????

Boys arrived home and we had a Trader Joes appetizer buffet for dinner...... because we are cool like that.... and now everyone is pursing their relaxation of choice..... David is watching UTube videos on his phone, Allan is watching a new episode of "The 100" with Lindsay while she snap chats a mile a minute.....as soon as this blog posts I will sip the last of my chardonnay and head to bed with a new book I bought today......because it's been dark for hours already.

So if you were keeping account of how I did with vacation TO DO list I almost made it...... I am one defrosted chest freezer from complete but really seeing as I got 3 pairs of shoes its like, almost, the same.....right?

Back to work at work tomorrow and a very full 6 day week ahead.....but not to worry.....I have 3 days off after that....oh who am I kidding...... obviously you SHOULD worry!

Thanks for being on this "vacation" with me and for all the encouragement, chiding and love..... ya'll are good people.