Whole Lotta Stuff!

Happy Birthday to Me! That cup to the left was a prezzie from my BFF - Does she know me or what?

I'll have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go please

In case you can't read it, it says "I'll have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go please"


This weekend was my birthday weekend. Yes I said birthday WEEKEND. We don’t do this birthday stuff half-assed in my family, well we didn’t use to anyways. The last few years have been a little stressed in the celebration department for obvious reasons. (Those who don’t see the obvious, just peek over at my profile and some older posts.)

My birthday was on the 31st, which for those who are calendar-challenged, was Sunday. But since it was my Birthday WEEKEND we begin our story on Friday. My dear sweet sister came from Toronto to the small town of Cobourg to take me for a day at the spa. A few hours, laughs, and a new cut and color later, we emerged as fresh women! See there below, that’s me with my new ‘do.

Nina' new 'do

After the spa, we all went to the city of Oshawa to indulge at the Mandarin. There were eight of us all together, and we had a blast. All you can eat crab legs, shrimp and salads, nomnomnom. There is Chinese food there too, since it is a Chinese food buffet and all, but who cares about that stuff when there is seafood on the menu? My loved ones embarrassed me 3 times by loudly singing Happy Birthday, twice in English, once in French and then once, which I am not counting, in a vain attempt at singing it in Chinese. (My BFF who was sitting beside me got a fortune cookie that explained how to say Happy Birthday in Chinese, hence the attempt). No photos of that fun time because my niece hasn’t posted them yet, she’s having a busy summer.

Saturday required lots of rest and didn’t see much in the way of Birthday celebrations. Sunday I went to lunch with my mommy who made me a fabulous new purse. She’s a genius when it comes to sewing. Between my mom, my niece and my brother-in-law I am more than topped off with enough gift certificates to load my bookshelves, but more on that later.

It’s a long weekend here in Canada, which adds an extra day to my birthday weekend. How cool is that? My honey and I decided to venture out to a far away Indian Reserve to buy our cheapy cigarettes. It just so happens that the Sandbanks Provincial Park is right near the reserve, so off we went. For those of you who don’t know what the Sandbanks are, allow me to explain. To steal from their website: “Giant sand dunes and golden beaches form two of the largest freshwater baymouth sandbars in the world here, on the shores of Lake Ontario.” What does that actually mean? You can walk for miles in the lake and still be only waste deep in water. The shifts in the sand cause constant flowing foaming waves. The sand gives the feeling of walking on shifting golden silk and stays that way far into the water. Here’s a couple of pictures to give you the idea, but doesn’t even begin to capture the glory of this place.

Sandbanks Provincial Park 1

Sandbanks Provincial Park 2

If you look closely at the 2nd picture, you can see to people in the lake, they are only up to their calves in water.



And now finally… on to the books. Ya know, because this is a site about writing and such.

So here’s what I bought with my lovely gift certificates!

Electronic versions:

I got The Great Lenore by JM Tohline

and Between by Cyndi Tefft.


I’m super stoked about reading each book, especially because both authors are in my social network.

As for the hard copy books, I got:




For these four, I'll have to wait until they arrive in the mail...

Have you read any of these? Any comments before I begin? Here’s hoping your weekend was as fun as mine!