My Weekly Adventures!

Sitting around looking back at the past week, its been consumed with my house, boyfriend, horror movie marathon, catching up on TV and writing posts and of course, work.  Time is really a scarce resource, my friends.

Still, I’ve learned a few thing this week even if its not even having to step out of my neighborhood 😉

Lets see what I’ve been up to, right?

1) Marathoning at the max!

October Halloween Horror month is what set off the blog in 2012 and its what motivates.  I know that a lot of you are interested in this genre so every year I try to up my game.  This weekend I had some crazy motivation and got through 4 films in the rundown.  I know, I know, a deserve a pat on the back.  Wait until you see what else I got done 😉

The movies were interesting to say the least.  I already posted up the Friday 13th Part 2 review this morning.  I pretty much have one more movie to watch to complete this week.  Although, I’m actually thinking about whether to do a few weekend reviews or just do a few double review days.  I usually try to avoid weekends since the posts never are popular because we’re all generally busy with our own lives.

2) TV time!

Who’d have thought after watching so many movies, I’d still have time for TV, right? Well, yeah, sacrificing sleep or just pure insomnia week is where I’m at.  So I’m finishing up Arrow Season 2. I only have maybe 5-7 episodes to go which should be land me right in time for Wednesday for Season 3.

 

Other than that, I started Vampire Diaries Season 6.  Its interesting to say the least.  From how Season 5 ended, I figured everyone would be yet again grieving in their own separate ways (and this time, its pretty literal). I’m not a hard audience to please when it comes to Vampire Diaries so I was relatively happy with it.  I do hope that things intensify gradually because I can see things getting a lot worse before they get better as is always the case with Vampire Diaries 😉

I do intend on eventually checking out How to Get Away With Murder and Gotham. Before that, I’m going to work on Arrow 😉

3) House: New Lights

One of the biggest successes this week is finally having the basement done. Its just having my two DVD shelves over and arranging all the stuff into it but in general, its painted, the new wall lights (from Rona) were installed, trimmings done, furniture arranged and even bought a floor lamp (from IKEA) to help with lighting up the room a little.  Its feels pretty good to know that almost everything is in place for the basement.  I even managed to rearrange the storage in shelves and started putting a video games away.  Its rewarding to look at the basement and be pleased that its finally coming around.

Only one more room to do and thats the kitchen.  Along with my furniture to come in and a bunch of organization but its definitely coming along nicely 🙂

4) House: Cabinet decoration

Things are slowly coming out of the boxes and my room is looking more and more empty as things are boxed up at my  new place.  The first floor is technically done safe for what I mentioned before, organization.  Now that the garden is all transplanted with a few little decisions left and a whole lot of leaves raking, I was indoors taking care of pulling things out.  IKEA had a lovely sale on a glass cabinet and we bought that a few weeks ago so I couldn’t leave it so sad and empty in its corner.  Here’s how it turned out:

Yup, thats a Yuna from Final Fantasy on the top and yes, those are the original My Little Ponies at the bottom. Nothing is extremely valuable as in I’ll be able to sell it off and get back a lot of money but its valuable because of the memories it holds whether from person who I got it from, the travels or just parts of my life 🙂 Its not exactly done but I think its 90% there.

5) Yummy Lamb Chops

The weather gets cooler and my mom loves to make lamb.  Sunday night, she made lamb chops and they were absolutely delicious.  🙂

6) Cat Napping Time

Let me introduce you to a Saturday morning at 8:30am (because we all wake up at 7am to feed my cat), especially after a few late evenings away from home during the week.  The result is not only being waken up brutally early on Saturday morning but that when I crawl back into bed, she’ll finish eating and then comes back for her morning nap and usually is her obstructing me from getting up.  Apparently my blanket covered legs are extremely comfortable to sleep on.

7) Music!

There’s really nothing else that happened other than those little things so how about to end things off with some music that I love this week 🙂

Daniel de Bourg is an independent artist and this new single is awesome! 🙂 Plus, when in doubt, Jason Mraz is a sure fire 😉

How was your past week? TV? Horror marathon also? Any Halloween traditions? Also going through home renovations?

Happy Monday, my lovelies! 🙂

My Weekly Adventures!

Life is an adventure so anything I do qualifies! So before you start talking about how watching TV isn’t, thats like saying reading a book isn’t. I can pretty much say that there’s a lot of readers who would disagree with you.  We are explorers and we travel to lots of fun places. Maybe you think I’m crazy but I’m not 😉 So to saythat this week is less actually going somewhere but just achieving little things.

Before we move along with this, I’d like to remind or bring to your attention that my Halloween Movie Marathon Poll has been up.  If you haven’t seen it or having voted, please head on over HERE to help me out 🙂 With some earlier planning, I can get more movies seen in October and make it an amazing month, especially with all of your help/recommendations!

1) Dragon’s Den!

I absolutely love watching Dragon’s Den.  I skipped a few season in middle but when it first launched, it was one of my favorite shows.  Its really grown to be completely amazing.  Although some pitches are just completely out there, some are really awesome ideas.

The last episode where recapped some of the some deals are usually amazing.  Its all so amazing to see people’s dreams become a reality.

2) Splurging on TV *blush*

A little shameless selfie 🙂

I never intend to splurge and I pretty much don’t impulse buy anymore. And I didn’t because I fully planned to go out and get Season 2 of Arrow but then I was thinking, I have to catch up with Vampire Diaries also. Now I’m waiting for Grey’s Anatomy Season 10 to go on special too (but then I didn’t watch Season 9 yet so its not so rushed).  See, I’m still logical, right? 😉

I’m trying to not go too crazy over Arrow so I started watching Vampire Diaries on the weekend.

3) A Productive Weekend Starts….Harvesting Herbs

Lemongrass, Orange Thyme and Yellow Zucchini

The weather got cold really fast last week and somehow is supposed to get warmer this week again….gradually.  Either way, it was the kick in my butt to speed up the process and let my fatigue take the backseat.  Thursday night activity consisted of going to harvest everything I could while there was still a bit of light before sunset.  Orange Thyme and Lemongrass is currently in the drying process.

4) Bike Support for my Friends

Thanks to my friend who took the picture

Oasis Marathon is going to be happening this coming weekend so my friends who are going to do the half marathon along with one doing the 10km and 3 others in for the fun went out for a group jog.  My job was to be bike support for their 17km run.  It included making sure that they were hydrated and giving them directions and scouting out the route ahead.  There were heavy winds and then my bike support broke down near the end because of bike issues.  Note to self, next time make sure to bring tools.  I did manage to bike very slowly home after making sure everyone passed the intersection to head home.  It was a pretty fun day and I biked a whole lot of distance and I was so tired after but I couldn’t let my body slow down because the garden and my house needed me.

5) Transplanting in and out

Top Left are the transplanted flowers from pots for next year

Between early morning before bike support and coming back afterwards, I got the two flowers at the top left planted into soil.  They should be both perennials viable in my zone.  They were also paired with others so I needed to pot those right away and brought in a few plants as well.

Eucalyptus, Orange Thyme and Citronella Geranium inside

This is only partial because others are by the bay window or in the dining room. Still a lot of transplanting to do this week and then hopefully it will be done…for now. Next is the shopping for spring bulbs and getting those in the ground.

6) Workout room done!

On Saturday, after the run, I went to battle the anniversary sale in Walmart and aside from a bunch of household products, I also ended up getting on special the final touches to our workout room.

Hello workout flooring 😉

Oh right, my boyfriend’s weights.  Mine haven’t been moved yet.  I can’t possibly lift that.  All I can do is roll them across the floor when they are in my way.

7) Making Awesome Ribs

I know I’m backtracking, but on Friday night, I sat down after running errands at my place with more moving stuff around and came home to make my ribs.  Ended up eating at around 9:30pm or something but they were so worth it.  I don’t know the measurements but I used soy sauce, smoked paprika, ground pepper, honey, ground coriander, herbes de provence to marinate it.  I did marinate it in the morning and then just popped it in the oven for 1.5 hours in the evening.  They turned out amazingly delicious 🙂

8) Autumn Chrysanthemums

Nothing more to say on that.  So beautiful 🙂

9) Hot Pot (aka Chinese Fondue) with my girl friends

One of my girl friends came back from Western Canada to settle a few things so we got together for a hot pot hang out.  There was so much food and it was amazing to chat with the girls.  Its always filled with fun and laughter.  And we’re even going to go see The Maze Runner together this week.  Yay! 🙂

10) Favorite Quote this Week

It was a tad tiring and busy but it was pretty fun as well.  I’m looking forward to seeing The Maze Runner.  I can actually see the fuzzy finish line in this whole moving business where I’m trying to do it slow and by myself so I can save money, still, its almost there.

How was your week? Tell me about it!

Happy Monday! 🙂

Montreal Comiccon 2014!

The past weekend was Montreal Comiccon! I’ve never been to Comiccon in Montreal and although last year I wanted to go, I had to give it up because I had something more important in the form of TIFF for The Wind Rises and Rigor Mortis.  I totally do not regret making that trip. However, this year, I’m working on the Montreal events and this one was right on the list and I bought the ticket right when they were released.  I only got a 1 day pass.  However, after Saturday, I’m positive that I’m going to be going back and maybe even for 3 days if they have great guests..we’ll have to see for next year.

Lets not get ahead of myself: here’s how Saturday went!

Shortly after running into Day’s Lee, we saw Spiderman perched on the railings on top of the escalators leading to the hall looking awesome.

Spiderman

The line-up was super intense.  It was one line to get our tickets checked, then another line to get our tickets scanned and hands stamped then up the escalators and weaving all over the place to eventually get to the exhibition hall area.  Apparently, starting this year, Montreal Comiccon took over all of Palais des Congres (the convention centre in Montreal) so it covered all the floors.  We took a good look at the map to get to the first Q&A.  The lineup took longer than expected so I didn’t get to Billy Boyd’s Q&A so we went straight to Star Trek with three lovely ladies, Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden.

Star Trek Q&A panel: Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby, Gates McFadden

I haven’t watched a lot of Star Trek.  Only bits and pieces of it: a little bit of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine mostly.  However, these ladies was absolutely a joy to watch.  They were all extremely hilarious and entertaining!

Getting out of this one, we looked at the time and found it perfect timing to go straight to lineup for Sir Patrick Stewart’s Q&A in the main exhibition hall.  We sat down to eat lunch while waiting an hour in advance.  We chatted a little and before we knew it, we were moving inside. We managed to sit in the middle of the last row in the first section.  Still, my zoom wasn’t great so this was the best I could get.

Sir Patrick Stewart Q&A Panel

There is something amazing about seeing Sir Patrick Stewart.  It could be the whole crowd giving him a standing ovation as he entered the hall.  Or just how completely classy he is while bringing in lots of funny moments.  He is extremely charming to watch and so very much achieved.  It was really something to hear him talk about how he didn’t take himself getting a role in Star Trek serious as his family didn’t either and how even when he got he role, he didn’t unpack the whole time because he wholeheartedly believed that they would realize they made a terrible mistake and would kick him out.  When asked who was the best to work with in all of XMen, he thought for a second and said Ellen Page.  He even explained in a funny way how he should be called Sir Patrick (as opposed to Sir Stewart) and even joked with someone who said Good Evening although it was clearly the afternoon.  Regardless of the questions, he took each one and gave it his own twist and it made for an extremely lively and fun panel to listen to.

Plus, he gave us a quick 5 minutes update of what he is up to.  Aside from the next X-Men movie, he is part of this Seth McFarlane produced sitcom called Blunt Talk.  And he recited some Shakespeare which I didn’t record the whole thing.

After this panel, and finally finding our way to get back downstairs, we managed to get to the main area where there was tons of amazing costumes.

Warcraft (I think)

Silent Hill

Spaceballs

Frozen

There’s a whole bunch that I don’t know.  If its part of video games (newer ones) or anime, chances are I won’t know them.  However, the efforts are amazing.  So amazing that Day’s asked me if maybe we should do it next year.  I mean, I did a pretty quick version of Resident Evil before.  With a year to plan, I’m sure I could ressurect that or do something else.  Its always something to consider.

After a bit of shopping and photos, we had to get to Q&A panel for Danny Glover.

Danny Glover Q&A

Danny Glover is an actor that I’ve known more of his more recent roles.  I know what he has done before and I really should get around to see those roles.  You can tell that he’s a man with a lot of deep thoughts.  Plus, he took a lot of time to give detailed answers to the questions.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to stay for the whole thing and had to leave, and even that apparently wasn’t soon enough for the next Q&A.

The next Q&A panel was in the main exhibition hall again and this time, although arriving 45 minutes in advance, we ended up lining up right at the entrance of the waiting area.  That was pretty intense.  This Q&A was for Stephen Amell 🙂 Its also my last Q&A for the day.

Stephen Amell Q&A panel

Needless to say, although I was only 3 rows back from where I was for Sir Patrick Stewart earlier in the day, it was far enough that you can’t really see much.  Still, he had people lined up to ask him questions even before he entered the stage.  There were two rules as he entered with the Comiccon host: No marriage proposals (because he’s already married and he touched his wedding ring at that same time) and no asking him to take off his shirt (because then the host would do it). I wasn’t exactly sure on what to expect for Stephen Amell because I am a newer fan of his and I haven’t followed his social media much either.  However, everyone asks a lot about the stunts and asks him to recite lines like “You have failed this city”.

He talks about how he wants to get the chance to do all the stunts himself and sometimes he really works on a simpler but more realistic version to make it work.  He did that for one scene where he tells the stunt crew about how they were robbing him of the opportunity to slide over the hood of a car and he argues to get it shot both ways and eventually  his way works better and thats the one they used.  A charming and funny guy to listen to.  He makes a few jokes and talks about how he would love to have Arrow as part of the Justice League movie except with shooting schedules for TV series, it wouldn’t work for shooting a movie.

The best part was this part where they asked him to recite the lines for the opening of Season 2 or something (I couldn’t hear that question properly) but he gave it his own twist and decided to do the first opening of the pilot in Season 1 of Arrow instead.

After this last Q&A panel, we were ready to walk the exhibition hall and all the vendors and stalls. They had a few things for viewing and we took pictures here and there.

Indiana Jones

Ghostbusters

Doctor Who phone booth (100% of donations went to Montreal Children’s Hospital)

Piglet visiting the Comiccon

Little Big Planet 3 poster at PS4 booth

This may sound stupid but I’d totally get a PS4 JUST to play Little Big Planet 3.  Thats how much I love it.  Just to justify this picture a little.

Now, I was being extremely cheap and kept thinking about the photo op and eventually by the time I wanted to do it, it was full.  So to end this post off, its not Stephen Amell but this guy has a fantastic Arrow costume.

And that was my first Montreal Comiccon! It was so much fun and I’m definitely going again next year. Whether in costume or not, I’ll think about that a little first 😉 However, next year’s Montreal Comiccon is now pushed into early July, set for July 3-5, 2015.  If you are looking to check it out, jot that down on your calenders!

Also, please go check out Day’s post on the Montreal Comiccon right HERE!

Which costume up there do you find the most impressive?  Out of curiosity, would you like to see Arrow as part of  the Justice League movie? 

All in A Week(end)’s Work (plus some blogging help please)!

I have no idea how to title these things anymore.

My highlights of the week are so similar that they really don’t have any titles.  Maybe I’ll just give it a segment name, once I figure out something witty and fun 🙂

Moving right into  this past week..it was a short work week because of Labor Day weekend and the weekend came incredibly fast with a few little fun things!

1) Completing Nike Training Club program on Saturday night

Its been hard to get back on this whole working out routine.  The first was the hardest of the program where I felt my body didn’t belong to me.  I could barely do push-ups anymore and every move was a mega chore.  By this last week, I was able to pull off a good bit of burpees, push-ups, even figured out the whole plank row deal once and for all.  I’ve sweated buckets and buckets of sweat over the last few weeks and although I did the Getting Lean (Intermediate without running) program and I’m not sure I got that lean but it sure did make me feel absolutely fantastic 🙂

Now its back to one or two weeks of self-disciplined workouts.  If I can keep it up for a month thats great, if not, I’m jumping back into Nike Training Club for the Getting Toned program.

2) ARROW Season 1

Montreal Comiccon is this coming weekend and for that, I went on the mission to binge-watch Arrow Season 1. Arrow is amazing.  I love the main character but everyone else is fantastic.  Its absolutely fun to watch and I’m pretty sure I’ll be done in a night or two at the pace I’m going 🙂 I’m going to admit that I love watch Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen doing those crazy workouts (shirtless of course), I also love the rest of the cast. Everyone is just so awesome! 🙂

I think the CW dishes out the most series that I like. Its pretty amazing!

3) After Work Adventures: RedBall Project

“ Through the RedBall Project I utilize my opportunity as an artist to be a catalyst for new encounters within the everyday. Through the magnetic, playful, and charismatic nature of the RedBall the work is able to access the imagination embedded in all of us. On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it. It opens a doorway to imagine what if?…That invitation to engage, to collectively imagine, is the true essence of the RedBall Project. The larger arc of the project is how each city responds to that invitation and, over time, what the developing story reveals about our individual and cultural imagination.”– Kurt Perschke 

RedBall Project is travelling the world to spark imagination.  Has it landed in your city yet? You can check it out: HERE

4) After Work Adventures: Fountain House

Fountain House is a temporary exhibit on the streets on Montreal.  Its built on the concept of water flowing throughout and the idea to celebrate drinking water.

The Fountain House is first and foremost a space open to the public, like a park. Inside, at the centre, there is a basin with water flowing in it. Why did we choose to celebrate drinking water, a public good that might seem rather mundane? Precisely because we take it for granted, and we tend to forget the previous generations that built the infrastructure that now allows us to benefit from this resource.- Quartier des Spectacles

Its open to the public till October 26th.  It has water flowing down the center, the plants on the side grow (I presume), and they have stairs to go up where you can look out into downtown around us.  I love water so this was a pretty sweet concept.

5) Getting out right in time

On Friday evening, the sky went dark shortly I left work.  Taking my time, I’m walking to the bus terminus, hoping that it doesn’t rain.  And then it does.  I feel the first drop and then the drops come a lot faster right when I spot where I am and dash up the stairs to the OACI building, which is part of the underground passages in Montreal.  As I went in, I got out of the rain right in time.  Another 10 seconds and I would’ve been completely soaked.  Yay to perfect timing or should I say, being at the right place at the right time 🙂

6) Saturday: Friend’s Birthday Brunch and Shopping Ventures

Saturday was one of my very good friend’s birthday.  He’s almost like my brother and we hang out quite a bit.  For his birthday, I usually offer to take him out for a meal, this year it was at this brunch place in Old Montreal that he’s been talking about forever called Le Cartet

Pastries to start!

Green Jasmine Tea

Cappuccino

Brunch des Cantons

That was possibly the best brunch I’ve had ever.  For one, the coming in the cast iron pan made it so delicious and a very unique experience.  Plus, everything was cooked in duck fat which just melts in your mouth.  Except it also means, I probably won’t eat this all the time, for my health’s sake.

After that, he wanted to go shopping so we went on a little venture around town and ended up in Mountain Equipment Coop out across town since that one is gigantic.  I managed to get my boyfriend and I a new hiking backpack and got myself a yoga brick because I’m not flexible and to avoid injuries. One of the few purchases that day, along with a few movies: The Shining, Moon, Weird Science.

A very fantastic day with good company and nice chats! Hanging out with friends is really quite awesome! 🙂

7) Sunday Gardening 1: Fern 

Everything deserves a chance.  With that in mind, I decided to give my fern a second chance.  It was looking monstrously huge and just totally out of control.  I gave it a little trimming and pruning.  Took some branches out (dead and alive), shrunk its size and gave it some structure and voila! I think its looking pretty nice! 🙂

8) Sunday Gardening: Autumn Flowers

I haven’t quite finished with fixing up the side area in the front yard but I pulled out the frustrating vine plant and now the area is completely clean after I cut a part of the tall stems that are done blooming.  Things are starting to look good.  This week, Rona had a fantastic sale on Autumn Chrysanthemums so I thought it’d look nice in that spot. After a lot of pulling and cutting and shovelling, these two got planted and ready.  The one on the right is coral and the left is orange chrysanthemums 🙂

I can’t wait to see them bloom!

Now to end this off, there are a few highlights which I’m going to give an update for some coming blogging stuff!

• I have drafted a general list of movies that I’d like to watch for Halloween marathon but I’d also like to give you all a chance to choose what you’d like to see so I’ll be putting together a small poll soon.
• The original plan to do recommendations month in September is not happening as I want to continue to put extra focus on books so BRING ON MORE INDEPENDENT WRITERS! 
• Pinterest Therapy session coming up!
• I owed you all a review showing my new movie crush. That did not happen last week unfortunately since I’m shifting my schedule a little, but it will go up in the next few days 🙂
• Following that, I’ve been thinking of making a new segment either for Crush of the Week (or something along those lines), highlighting an actor (or sometimes actresses). Maybe it’ll be a monthly basis.  It really depends how impressed I am with what I’m watching. Is that a yes or no for you?

To recap, a few questions this week:

Do you know where to find online yoga routines?  Have you seen Arrow? Have you started fall gardening yet and what are your favorite autumn flowers?

What do you think about a new segment for sexy actors or beautiful actresses? 

Thats all for today! Happy Monday! 🙂