Lola's Friday....

Well not much new going on these days.  AA and Lola have been busy at work.  We are busy getting ready for our next vacation, in a couple of weeks.  We have been doing a little research, AA, has started creating a spreadsheet and we are trying to get our work done so we can enjoy our vacation!

Today didn't really happen like I was hoping. I was planning on going to Morden/winkler to watch the scotties, but turns out that the games are all sold out so I didn't end up going.  Instead I went for dinner with Adam and my MIL at original joes and they went to MTC, and I went home.  Caught up on some tv, drank some tea, worked on a sewing project and laundry and blogging.

I got an email from my sister a couple weeks ago, making me aware of a jewelry company that was going out of business that we both have ordered from before.  She told me I should take a look at the "Lola" necklace.  So of course I had to purchase it.  Everything was at least 75% off, so I had to get a couple more pieces.  But here is new blogging necklace!

Hope everyone is enjoying he abnormal weather in Manitoba, plus temperatures and snow melting in January...

Cheers Lola

Baby tron

That's what I'm going to call the screen at the MTS Center now. Compared to the screen at the Bell Center it definitely is mini version.

Whatever it is called, it struck again... This time in a dual Fan vs Fan dance off. Unfortunately, the duo of Arizona Adam and Lola did not come out on top this time. Nor did we win the 50-50...

Here are some pictures of us from one of my old coworkers who's boyfriend was at the game tonight:

Although the Jets didn't pull out a W tonight, the young guns did - way to go boys!  We managed to watch both games tonight although it was difficult to know which one to pay attention to:

Good night faithful followers, try to stay warm out there!

AA

The return home

AA here. Today's return trip has been anything but uneventful. 

Things started off with having to remove the 1/2" of ice from the car in the parking lot at the hotel. Good thing it snowed last night and the ice was then on top as a crust. If it was the other way around, I would probably still be trying to get into the car. 

Once at the airport we grabbed a bite to eat. We got here early so we could eat some lunch before we left. Good plan because our flight was delayed "at least two hours". Once the delay was announced we grabbed a seat in the boarding lounge, Lola went and got some steeped tea and coffee and we waited. 

We only waiting in the boarding area for an hour before getting on the plane. Once onboard the wait continue as the delay is due to the ground crew at the de ice facility not being able to keep up with the number of airplanes. 

This has provided some time to go through my phone to see what pictures are here that haven't been posted yet. If they have, oops (I can't see what has been uploaded with my phone on airplane mode). 

1. Lola in the rental car office waiting for someone who knew how to add a second driver for free (due to my corporate account). 

2. The beer menu at Pub St Alexandre. Too many to choose from so I elected for a "nouvelle arrivé". 

3. Clear blue skies at Mt Sainte-Anne

4. La Tour de Montreal, sans persons. 

5. The lineup at the Bell Centre to get into the Can vs US game on New Year's Eve. It took us about an hour to get in. 

6. Our view of the Can US game. Amazing!

7. Two of Lola's favourite things - Tim's steeped tea and the Metro. 

8. The Old Port on New Year's Eve - great bands, the fire works must have been cold, or expired in 2014. 

9. Lola all by herself in between periods at the RUS vs US game. 

10. Lola enjoying her new toque in the hotel room. 

11. Ice? What ice?  What the car looked like this morning. 

12. Onboard and ready to go!

13. It's not easy being green. Deice fluid on the wings. 

Overall it has been a great trip. We are not looking forward to going back to work but we have to remind ourselves - only 6 weeks until our next trip;)

Shopping Saturday

Today was a relatively easy day. We got up and ate breakfast at the hotel. After showering and watching some tv show called "extreme couponing” on TLC, we made our way to the park and ride for the metro to go downtown for some shopping.

We started off parking at the the usual park and ride that we have been using all week. 

 Got on the Metro at Namur station and headed to St. Catherine's street.  

Adam said he had never really experienced  this strip of shopping before... I was happy to show him around, like I have with all the others I showed around;).  We found a few things to buy and we hadn't made it down one side of the street by the time I got hungry for lunch.  

We back tracked a little bit to go to Reuben's for some smoked meat!

I suggested Adam get the smoked meat poutine as last time I took Eric and Jamie there , they really enjoyed it.  (The poutine was larger than Adam expected) Lunch was excellent but quiet.  We kind of ran out of things to talk about.

After lunch we headed back for a little more shopping, then off to the old port.  By the time we got there it had started to snow and blow.  

We made it to a few stores, and then headed back to the car using the metro.  We were tired, almost falling asleep on the metro.

Back to the car, back to the Hotel and had a little break.  Adam researched places to eat and I had a little FaceTime session with my mom.

Adam took me to Jack Astors for supper.  It was really good.  We were both happy to eat some rice!

When we got back to the hotel we repacked our suitcases.  Mine needed a lot of work...

We are ready to to home.  The weather has turned... This morning the wind shifted directions and the snow has started to fly.

Good night, Lola

Game day!

Thank you Neely for the awesome tickets!

There definitely are not as many people here today as there were when Canada was playing. However we are not complaining. The first game was really good (and fast). 

When we first arrived we went and bought some swag from the store at 50% off. I got a t shirt and Lola bought a long sleeve shirt, zip up sweater and eventually found one of the last Team Canada toques. 

The game started started off with us being on the jumbo tron... We wouldn't have won the craziest fan award. In fact, we didn't really know what to do... Lol. 

Unfortunately we were both so surprised that we didn't get a chance to get a picture. Oh well. 

Between the first and second period, the crew changed sponsor decals which we thought was really strange. I guess there is an option to only pay for a period of board sponsorship... They sure made fast work and didn't seem to have any air bubbles in their installation ;)

Second period was also good. A nice gentleman came and was talking to Lola, explaining that she won a $100 McDonalds McCafe gift card. We couldn't stop laughing about this. Lola swiftly passed me her camera and said "don't miss this". Well, I didn't disappoint:

Here are some other pics from the US vs Russia game:

Stairs entering the bell centre

Pre game media

One of the Russia goals

National anthem

After the first game, we went to La Cage Aux Sports at the Bell Centre and had a snack and a few beers. The cage was super busy and we were jammed downstairs with many (many) others. 

The second game was really good as well. There were no extravaganzas like the first game...  The game was noticeably different from the first game, the difference being a European style game with lots of speed and passing vs a North American bump and grind type of game. 

Here is Slovakia getting ready for the game:

And here is the celebration after the win!

After the game, we made our way to Baton Rouge near our car at the Namur metro station. There was a Habs game in the tv so we had to stream the Canada game on my iPhone while we had dinner. 

We are now sitting in the hotel room watching the Canada game and enjoying some tea after a busy day of hockey. 

Tomorrow will probably be spent downtown and in the old port. Should be a relatively relaxing last full day in Montreal. 

Hopefully it doesn't snow to much back home. Too bad it didn't snow more here for some more snowboarding...

AA

A day off the island...

Well after a late night out for New Years, a good sleep in was necessary!

This morning we did set an alarm to ensure we got the excellent breakfast at the hotel (ended at 10). So we got out of bed at 9:30, are breakfast then headed back to bed! I actually fell back asleep which is not usual for me, and didn't get up again till 11:30! 

Shortly after we woke up again, we got a phone call from Francois inviting us to their place for dinner and some possible skating. I really wanted to go see their house and see their daughter Ada, who I hadn't seen since she was a little baby. 

We continued to laze around for a while, watched part of the rose bowl parade, then decided we should get ready for the day. 

Finding lunch was not as easy as you would think on New Year's Day, so we took after Eric (Adams cousin), who we heard has been eating a lot of mcdonalds while in Montreal for the World Juniors, and ate there. I enjoyed a double Big Mac, while Adam just had a regular. 

After mcdonalds we headed off the island to a place called Vaudreuil. It was snowing a bit, which caused traffic to go quite slow at times, we passed one car turned sideways on an on ramp and got slowed down considerably but seems to be cleared up by the time we got to pick up speed again. 

Stuck in traffic...

We got to Francois' place (Adams coworker, and the family that went to the Phillipines). 

Their house

Christine and Ada (just over 2 years old) happily greeted is at the door. We brought Ada a jets touque, and she instantly had to get her hockey stick to show is her hockey skills. 

Ada opening the present.

Once she felt comfortable with me (in minutes) she handed me the frozen book, sat on the couch and told me to read. We read about 6 books while Francois, Christine and Adam made supper. 

I got a tour of their house and then we decided to go skating. It was still snowing, but we went to this little park, and skated on a flooded path. It was great fun, and not too cold, only about -3 and snowing. My glassss were drenched when we went inside to take our skates off! 

Adam shovelling the path:)

After skating we played a few games of spot it, Ada gave me a few pony tails, Adam read some nursery rhymes and then Ada ate supper and went to bed.

We followed with some supper (beef stew and rice).  It was an excellent meal, was nice to have a home cooked meal! After supper we had a game of Settles

Of Catan, where I dominated to the end, but ended up taking way longer to win, before pulling that last card I needed, not rolling a seven and building my last needed city! 

We had good conversation about traveling, friends, cultures and of course work. 

We are currently on our way back to the hotel, left at about midnight. We are almost there and I need to finish up my post!

Tomorrow will be an exciting day of quarter finals and hopefully some site seeing of the old port! 

Hope your first day of 2015 went well!

Cheers, Lola