what are you doin' new year's eve?

even though i'm a notorious hater of new year's eve, i wanted to wish everyone a happy new year! i always start the year hoping that it will suck less than the previous year, so lets all keep our fingers crossed that 2011 actually WILL be better than last year.


my resolution for 2011:

- eat more nacho cheese chalupas.

i hope everyone has a happy new year and that your new year's eve doesn't blow.

it's beginning to look a lot like valentine's day

it's december 29th. they had valentines out at borders. thoughts?

how the grinch stole pizza hut

a few days before christmas bear and i went to pizza hut for dinner. unknown to us, it was kids night at this particular pizza hut which meant "christmas craft activities, balloons, and more!" what was the "more"? well, it may or MAY have been a very special guest whose heart is full of unwashed socks, whose soul is full of gunk - MR. GRINCH!

most people ignored the grinch as he skulked around pizza hut trying not to smash into anything, but bear and i thought it was pretty much the greatest thing ever.

here you'll see the grinch partaking of some festive crafts with the children:


greatest. thing. ever.

obviously i couldn't leave before i got my picture taken with him. what a sassy pink scarf you have mr. grinch!


and that's the day i met the grinch at pizza hut.

a canadian girl's christmas in america

this year bear and i had our first christmas together (some may recall the great christmas depression of '09) and i had my first american christmas. american christmas is a lot like canadian christmas only you get WAY more stuff.

bear and i opened our little present piles from each other before going upstairs to a stack of santa's best bounty!




guess which one is mine...


i hope everyone had a happy christmas no matter where you are and that you have enough christmas treats to last clear into the new year.


love pauvre

happy crimmas!

i'm not doing a very good job at being on blog vacation, but i couldn't let it be christmas eve and NOT post my favourite festive video as i have done on enchanted christmases of yore.



it never gets old.

happy crimmas everyone! i hope you get what you wanted this year and not a gift certificate for the seaway mall...

who wants bailey's?

love pauvre

happy birthday muz!

this is my mother. she has red hair. today is her birthday.

happy birthday muz - i hope all your wishes come true! (especially the one about me getting a stocking full of $100s on christmas morning...) love youuuuuuuuuu!

love your cherished first born

stick it

aimee fleck made a sticker of me! well, it's not TECHNICALLY me, but the resemblance is uncanny. i adore these and want to stick one on everything i own.

you can order one here and show your fattie pride!

you'll be smitten

i think i found the perfect gift for bear this christmas: SMITTENS!

as you can see, they're mittens that you can hold hands in. so precious and perfect for those icy winter walks with your sweetie pants.

come to think of it, mittens make a purrfect gift for everyone on your list:



have you started your christmas shoppin'/bakin'/merry makin'?

yummmmm

i wasn't going to blog about red robin. i really wasn't. but then it was awesome. by the time i decided i HAD to blog about it, bear and i were already in food comas. so, i don't have any pictures but that just means we have to go back SOON.

i feel like i should preface this love letter to burgers by catching everyone up to speed. i was a vegetarian for ten years and a full on vegan for one. after i had my gall bladder removed when i was 18 my body started rejecting complex proteins. i would get a stabby pain where my gall bladder was and just felt sick every time i would eat meat, especially beef. so i decided to say goodbye to cheeseburgers for a LONG time. gradually i started eating chicken again and then eventually i surrendered to the golden arches and got myself a big mac. then another. and another...

it pretty much spiraled out of control from there. i'm now a full on burger junkie likely in need of rehab. how HOW did i live without you for so many years my beloved burgers??? what's better than a burger and fries? nothing. NOTHING!!!

so this brings us to tonight at red robin. gourmet burgers? yes please! bear and i decided to go halvesies with our burgers because we couldn't decide on just one. we had an amazing waitress (we love you kimmy) who had the kitchen split the burgers and put one half bleu ribbon burger and one half whiskey river BBQ burger into our little baskets with a hand full of a crispy bottomless steak fries. that's right - all you can eat fries. ALL YOU CAN EAT FRIES. the burgers were A-MA-ZING. the whiskey river was my favourite and i immediately want another one. it was diabolical.

but just when i thought it couldn't get more diabolical...
GINGERBREAD MILKSHAKE.

again, i have to hand it to our waitress kimmy - i asked if we could share a shake and she was like "in two glasses right?" kimmy straight up brought us two full size shakes for the price of one. it was so good i wanted to weep. WEEP.

i wasn't going to blog about red robin...

babies

this week two of my darling friends spilled the beans that they're expecting! this makes three in total and they're all due between may and june - something's in the water.

even though i don't want any babies of my own i'm having fun following the development of my friends' fetuses via the bump. punch tracked her babies this way and i LOVE the idea of using fruits and vegetables to represent growing babies.

so this is what's happening inside my friends right now:

kelly - baby number three

Your adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys and spleen continue to develop. Lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over the body for warmth.

jenn - baby number one

Baby's skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone, and fat is finally accumulating around it. The umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger, and those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints.

seana - baby number one

Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby's skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.) You might actually get to see the vernix at birth, especially if baby is premature.

busy babies and inside my friends' bellies! i'm excited for the mommas-to-be, but for now i'm staying away from the water...

pauvre's picks: crimmas edition

i'm having a hard time getting into a christmasy mood this year. i had the same problem last year only paired with excruciating depression, so i guess how i feel this year is still an improvement.

when i worked at butterfield 8 and pulp i was SO into christmas. the stores were transformed into santa's workshop with sparkly things everywhere, all the best decorations, and a healthy supply of festive treats! ('member those spiced/candied nuts from dash??? sweet lord above.)

in an effort to get my christmas cheer on i've assembled all my favourite christmas things into pauvre picks: crimmas edition!

let's start by setting the mood with christmas music! i have an unnatural love of christmas music. i literally have hundreds of christmas songs in my itues, but these are some of my favourite christmas albums:








i've been singing the partridge family christmas song ("my christmas card to you") all day. i hope it's not driving bear too crazy. i love love LOVE this album because david cassidy sings blue christmas and it rules.

next up is christmas movies! everyone remembers being SO excited for christmas specials to come on tv, and now through the magic of DVDs you can watch them any damn time you want! these are just a few of my must watch holiday favourites:







it won't surprise you to learn that yukon cornelius is bear's favourite...


right now bear and his dad are outside hanging christmas lights. it's pretty adorable:


i'm starting to feel more festive already, but i can't forget my personal favourite of all my personal favourites - christmas treats! the christmas season is NOTHING without treats. my favourites include:








i'm so bummed that i'll be without my beloved candy cane chocolate fudge crackle ice cream this year. i hope that american ice creameries will have something similar because it's pretty much the greatest thing ever.

also, yes that is fruitcake up there. i'm aware that there are probably about four other people alive who like it, but i LOVE it. so feel free to send me any unwanted cakes.

in conclusion, christmas is a magical time of year filled with festive treats and traditions, so i'm i'm going to try and stop moping and get while the gettin's good!

fact: santa is american

'tis the season to be jolly and festive decorations have been multiplying over night in our neighbourhood. of all the light-up plastic santas, snowmen, nativity scenes, etc. ,which are all pretty great, this little situation is my favourite:


on this particular day santa's star spangled banner was waving majestically in the wind. i LOVE it.

i know christmas is over commercialized blah blah blah, but the delicious tackiness of a plastic light up baby jesus, or a giant inflatable santa warms my heart and soul.

back in the USA

bear's long awaited arrival to come and collect me couldn't come soon enough. when he finally got to momca's on friday afternoon i was ready to go, but first we stopped by gramma's for a visit and then we had pizza and wings with muz, brian, and drea. i wish i was eating that pizza right now...

anywho, we left EARLY saturday morning when it was still dark out with some tim hortons for the road and were on track to be back in PA by early afternoon. i couldn't wait for things to get back to normal in our cozy nest and get reacquainted with my beloved interwebs (and bear) and then we got to the border.

as previously mentioned there was a moderate to major snag at said border. crossing the american border in a car filled with one canadian and one american is apparently the worst offense anyone can commit. fortunately luck was on our side and after an hour and a half of convincing the border officer that i wasn't trying to illegally move to the states (if only he could have seen the STACK of paperwork i just filled out) we were allowed to cross. i was pretty much in a state of ruin for the rest of the afternoon. thankfully an old rasputin was waiting for me when i got home...

the GPS took us home through the snowy back roads of new york where rest stops are scarce but amazing down-home diners are plentiful! we couldn't resist stopping at brian's USA diner for a well deserved breakfast.


it was pretty much the best thing ever.


bear ordered something called the "belt buster" and i had the eggs benny. they were served on american flag plates about 30 seconds after we ordered it and cost less than $15 for both of us.


i'm so happy to be back with my bear but i already miss my friends. it's tricky business being an alien fiancée.

that concludes my adventure in the frosty north. it's pretty hideously frosty down here too, which blows, but at least i have my bear to keep me warm.

the return of the teen fashion doll torso

the final two days of my canadaian adventure were spent in the rose city aka welland aka my home town. i was ready to lose my shit by the time i got there because i felt like i hadn't seen bear in 100 years and i was really disgruntled about having to be interrogated by momca for two days.

luckily kelly and melissa were around to rescue me for a few hours. trisha had a volleyball game that night, but she and brad were able to stop by for a few minutes just to say hi (and hide from MT bellies roaming magician)...


after dinner kelly surprised me with A TEEN FASHION DOLL CAKE! can you believe it??? i guess i bitched about wanting one to a lot more people than i thought. who is lucky enough to get TWO beautiful barbie cakes for one birthday? and also who gets to stretch their birthday from november 11th to december 2nd? ME! i have the best friends anyone could ever have. seriously, they're way better than yours. unless i'm one of yours, then it balances out.




the wandering MT bellies magician saw my cake and asked if it was my birthday. when i said "it was at one time" he proceeded to make me a birthday crown out of twisty balloons. what he didn't realize was that my star headpiece is covered in german glass glitter - pretty much shards of glass. so you can imagine what happened to that poor birthday crown when it made contact with my head.

after "the incident" he decided to go with a much safer birthday wrist corsage:


thanks to kelly and melissa for saving me from momca for a few hours, for making my birthday span two months, and for being part of my amazing friend syndicate. now that we're all 30 i can safely say none of us have/will ever change.


i'm also happy to report that the teen fashion doll cake safely made it across the border without a passport.

"what do you have in the vehicle?"

"oh just some clothes, toiletries, a birthday cake..."

me n' curly dre

after arriving in the hammer from london EARLY wednesday morning my favourite red-headed sister treated me to some much needed starbucks inside a beautiful ceramic jonathan adler mug. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

we spent the afternoon eating sushi and shopping - it's what sisters do best.


later that night we met handy andy for his birthday dinner before he shuttled me back to the rose city for the final leg of my northern tour.

by this point i was starting to get really tired of lugging my crap all over southern ontario and was REALLY missing bear. i only had two days to go and they would be at momca's. sometimes the universe is a bitch.

bellini me

not having interwebs for three days felt like an eternity and the last two weeks in general felt even longer. i'm EXTREMELY happy to report that bear and i are back in PA after an hour and a half of intense questioning at the border that almost ruined me... more on that later, but for now it's time rewind the last couple days of my time in the great white north.

whilst in london i stayed with peenie and bella. here you'll see bella getting a manicure for the occasion:


i wish you could hear the purring. bella purrs getting her nails trimmed - usually this task involves moderate to extreme bloodshed from the trimmer brought upon by the trimee. i wanted to steal her, but she was ready to come willingly in apple's case:


tuesday was half price bellini night at milestones so i had two. don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same.


star joined us for dinner and bellinis which made it acceptable for us to order more bellinis...


i was so happy i was able to see my london triple crown in two short days but also super bummed i don't have a bellini machine in my house.


i left london dark and early on wednesday morning and peenie was sweet/crazy enough to wait with me for my 7am bus to hamilton. thanks peenie! do you still feel like a 6 inch sub?