House hunting

So, Jamie and I are now starting our little journey into house hunting. We're easing ourselves into it, and taking our time. Our agent has been sending us listings that meet our (rather loose) criteria, and we're starting to go see some that look interesting on paper.

A couple weeks ago, we went to an open house for a place on Larchmount, which is in Leslieville. Pros: Lovely hardwood floors, nice design, lots of storage in the kitchen, close to the Purple Purl. Cons: Main floor was too much like a condo, no stairs to basement, almost no storage space outside the kitchen, would need lots of work to convert apartment basement back to a regular basement. It was also right next to a school, and when I say right next to, I mean sharing the chain link fence type of right next to.

Last weekend, we checked out two houses in the west end: one at Runnymede and Bloor, the other close to Keele and Bloor. Both of them were older houses, and would need some work. The one at Runnymede had some weirdness happening in the basement with the drains, and we didn't like the kitchen. Also, somehow their realtor had failed to mention to the owners that we'd be coming to see the house, so it was all awkward because they were still at home. Made it really hard to say much about the place. The other house was really nice -- liked the kitchen, loved the front and backyard, nice layout, super location. Except it had one really major thing against it. It was crooked. The house is built on a hill, and you could feel the incline of it in various rooms in the house. Crossing a room, it felt very much like walking on the deck of a ship. Our agent said he'd never seen anything like it. We all had a good laugh walking through the place, and boy was it a good thing that no one was home.

The listings keep coming though, so I'm sure you'll hear more about our house hunting adventures!

Dancing the nights away

So, I thought I'd write a little bit about some dance happenings going on for me right now. I suppose this is mainly for Carolyn so I can keep her up to date on what's going on with CDW. As some of you might already know, CDW (Chinese Dance Workshop) is planning to put on a show in the fall of 2009. Because our teacher is heading back to Hong Kong at the end of October, we have a lot of things we need to do before she leaves, most of which being LEARNING NEW DANCES!!

Last Friday, we already started a new dance, and I'm super excited about it. It's a Dai peacock dance done to music from the movie Kong Que Gong Zhou (The Peacock Princess). It turns out that Mme Fong choreographed the dances in that movie! She was even telling us a story of how she was the dance double for the lead actress during all the spinning required. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, we've only just started this dance, but I'm already loving it.

Mme Fong has also asked that we add a rehearsal on Saturday in order to pack a few more things in. Do you remember the Xing Jiang teens dance that opened the 2002 show? It was called Dance of the Flowers. Well, we're going to be re-vamping that one for the senior girls (though they're now called the youth class) and young adults. The other old dance that she's thinking of having the young adults do again is the cape one. Either that, or some Mongolian one - she hasn't decided yet. Anyway, after we're done practicing that Flowers dance, the other adults are going to come, and we're going to learn yet another new dance. I don't know what it is just yet, but I guess I'll find out!

Fastest cold ever

I think I must have caught the fastest clearing cold virus ever. Monday I woke up feeling rotten, so I decided that going to work wasn't happening. You know how a cold seems to migrate, and you have symptoms in different places over time? Well, I took naps on and off that day, and every time I woke up, it seemed like my cold had migrated to a different place. First it was sore throat, then headache and congestion, then runny nose and coughing, and then mild laryngitis. By the time I woke up on Tuesday, it seemed to have made the run though all the symptoms, and was feeling fine again.

Weird, huh?

Stressed

Work is stressful right now. In fact, this is possibly the first time I've felt that I may not actually finish what I need to in time. Actually, I take that back. When I was in school, I felt that way all the time, but it was okay because the only thing riding on it were my own marks. The fact that my work affects other people is what adds the stress factor. Oh well. I'm sure that with sufficient overtime, things'll pull through

In other news, another season of PushPULL is underway! Tonight was the first night of auditions, and it was lots of fun. I can't wait to go on Sunday. This weekend is really, really busy. I'm teaching a kids dance class, performing, then going to a bachelorette party on Saturday. On Sunday, I'm helping to clean out some CDW props at Cecil, going to Lorraine's baby shower, and then heading to auditions part II. Somewhere in there, I need to find time to do laundry and figure out what we're going to eat next week. Time to put on the productive hat!!