Snowy snowy Christmas

On Christmas Day, I had some fun clearing snow from the heavily-laden apple tree. It felt good to give the tree some help!

Yoga blooper

I went to a yoga class last night after about a year and a half without yoga. I had really been missing the peace and relaxation that yoga brings me, and I thought going to a class would be a nice way to relieve the stress of the impending holidays.

As soon as I sat on my mat and heard the measured cadence of the instructor's words, I felt like I was home. I did my best to focus on my breath and let any thoughts about my day just slip past. This is very difficult, however, and I continually found myself distracted. Probably the worst yoga faux pas was when I was in the final relaxation pose and I found myself thinking, "I'm enjoying this so much, I'll have to blog about it!" Maybe that means I need to go to more yoga classes in the new year. Or maybe I should write more blog posts?

Umbrella Karma

Way back in October I lost my red umbrella on the bus. Since then, I've broken our only remaining umbrella as well. I don't know what happened, the blue umbrella just exploded in a shower of plastic and metal bits and it made its way to the dumpster soon after. We've been living through the Vancouver fall umbrella-less. This is not the most practical thing to do in a city that is located in a rainforest zone.

My environmentalist frugal side was considering buying a long lasting but very expensive handmade (here in Vancouver!) umbrella from The Umbrella Shop. My lazy side nearly bought a $10 forest green umbrella at Safeway the other day. Fortunately, I couldn't quite face the idea of having a forest green umbrella and I put it back into the display case.

Tonight the great umbrella gods offered up a solution. As I sat down on the bus, I noticed that the door wouldn't close because someone's red umbrella was stuck in it. That someone didn't seem to be around and I quickly called dibs. I am beyond pleased to have a new red umbrella!

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

Dean's work had their annual Christmas party tonight and the theme was Monte Carlo Casino. They had roulette and poker and, my favourite, blackjack. At first, we had no idea what we were doing (I'd never stepped up to a blackjack table before), so we observed several hands without betting.

After a while, we cashed in our $10,000 tickets and started to bet with our fake money. It turned out to be lots of fun and I do have to say that I was raking in the chips. It's so much fun to play with poker chips and stack them into neat little piles! Dean's little piles got a bit decimated, but mine were growing strong when they announced the last two hands. I bet $3000 and first drew a queen, who was shortly met by a lovely ace, giving me 21 and a two to one payout! I put $3K on the table and took back a sweet nine thousand. Woo hoo! What a great way to end a fun night!

Tripping Hazard

I'm still sore from this escapade, so please don't laugh too hard at me. I squeezed into the kitchen past the open dishwasher door (when opened, our dishwasher prevents the fridge door from being opened and nearly blocks off entry to our tiny kitchen). I started helping Dean with some kitcheny task and then the phone rang. Completely forgetting that the dishwasher door was still blocking my exit from the kitchen, I ran for the phone, tripped over the dishwasher and went down like a gangly tree.

Fortunately, I seem to have hurt the dishwasher more than it hurt me. Our GE Potscrubber's door is nearly off its hinges and we were barely able to get our clean dishes out of it. As for me, I have a small bruise on my arm and some sore muscles. I feel lucky overall and plan to move a little more slowly and deliberately in future.

Objects in mirror may be dumber than they appear

I have an embarrassing story to relate. And then I have to write another post and tell you a second embarrassing story. Sheesh, this isn't how I expected my blog to look! (note to self: stop doing silly things, at least for a couple days!)

On Tuesday night, I booked a car from CAN (the Cooperative Auto Network) so I could drive to a Vancouver Craft Mafia "Make a Christmas Gift for Someone" night. I turned on the car, but the dashboard didn't light up and neither did the lights indicating which gear you're in. This had happened to me once before when I was driving Janet home at night and I'd driven with the interior light on the whole way.

This time, I called the CAN office to report the problem and told them that no amount of fiddling with the dimmer switch would cause the dashboard to light up. I spoke to a CAN employee for five minutes and he promised to email their mechanic about the problem. Just as I was about to hang up, he asked me, "You've got the headlights on, right?" and I replied, "Of course!" while double-checking. And at this moment I realized I did not have the headlights on and this possible fuse problem was actually a problem between the steering wheel and the driver's seat (link to geeky reference).

Etsy goodness

I'm having so much fun getting to know the online craft fair that is Etsy. So far, I've purchased some beautifully illustrated letter press cards, a cool t-shirt with collective nouns on it (fun ones include a parliament of owls and a crash of rhinos), a colourful new camera strap that makes me smile each time I look at it, and some supplies for crafting (project to remain secret until after the holidays). The creative people on Etsy are inspiring and they give this environmentalist non-shopaholic some serious urges to go wild with my PayPal account. Plus, you can list favourite items in your profile like your own personal wish list.

If you haven't seen Etsy yet I'd highly recommend it. Try it, I dare you!
Credits: card by sweetbeets
t-shirt by Xenotees
camera strap by Straps By Leslie

Perfectionism rears its ugly head

Welcome to Holly's Red Bike, my newly hatched blog. I've been wanting to start a blog for many months, but have been held back by wanting to create that perfect url, the blog title that would in two or three words encapsulate my whole personality, present and future. After much soul searching (and suggestions such as "mykingdomforagerund" from dear friends), I've settled on a title that represents something that makes me happy. My red bike gets me around town and unfailingly puts a smile on my face. Oh, and my name is Holly. Comment on this post or this blog runs the risk of being one of the hundreds of orphaned blogs that litter the internet.