Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Getting ready for Las Vegas

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Speaking of Ugly Betty … I’ve kind of felt like her over the last two weeks as I’ve been busy buying new clothes for my trip and well, just because I really did need some new clothes!

Around home a t-shirt and sweat pants are just fine and since I’ve been quite the home body since I got really sick two years ago I haven’t been updating my wardrobe all that much. I really haven’t had to … until now.

I must say that it’s a little intimidating to go into a clothing store when you feel a little out of touch with what’s in fashion these days!

If I was just going to the blogging conventions in Vegas I wouldn’t worry about it all that much, but on Saturday night the Bl0ggers Ch0ice Awards are being held in the TAO nightclub which of course is a hot celebrity night spot and very trendy … so I’ve got to look the part.

I think I managed to do ok shopping and what I’ll be wearing should be acceptable. I think that’s the only place that we’ll be going that I’ve really got to worry about my appearance in any great way. You don’t have to really dress up for the casinos do you? It sure doesn’t look like it when I watch shows like CSI Las Vegas.

Oh and when I looked up what kind of temperature Las Vegas would be in November last month I read that it’s usually only about 65 F during the day and mid 50’s at night … well, I checked the weather there earlier today it was 78F and right now it’s 82F … so much for those nice sweaters I bought. I’ll have to be sure to pack some t-shirts now!

Anyone have any quick Vegas tips for me?

I’ve already been warned by a nurse that just came back from Vegas to NOT wear my contacts while I’m there since the air is so dry. Well that won’t happen! I’ll be wearing my contacts on Saturday at the very least.

BTW I’m still sick! More on that later!





My passport is fixed!

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On Tuesday my husband got off work a little bit early and we scooted downtown to the Passport Canada office to pick up my new passport.

You might remember a post a couple of weeks ago where I was pretty mad at Passport Canada because they’d made a mistake on my passport listing my birthplace wrong? Well, we had to rush to get it fixed!

I’m happy to report that all the information in my new passport is correct! Whew. That’s a huge relief. I was very worried that I wouldn’t get my passport fixed on time for my trip next week. All this worrying over my passport and I’ll bet that no one asks to see it. Yeah, I’m sure that will happen.

I guess I’m not the only one who had to get their passport fixed though. While I was in the Passport office waiting to get my new passport I started talking to the lady next to me and found out that she was also waiting to pick up her fixed passport. I asked her what mistake had been made on hers and she told me that they’d put down that she was a man!

A Man! LOL

Funny thing is .. upon receiving my first passport with the wrong birthplace listed I called the passport office and they had trouble figuring out why a mistake like that would have happened since all of the information is supposed to be typed in and not chosen from a drop down menu as I had though. But really … come on … They’ve got to be working with drop down menus. The city they mistakenly put down for my birthplace would have been very close to the correct city on a drop down list and in the gender category there’s pretty much really only two choices right? I think the lady I spoke to was wrong about they typing the information in. Had to be.

Anyway … I’m glad they didn’t put me down as a man!

Ok now I’m mad

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We got our passports yesterday.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see them until my husband came home from work today because he’d met our mailman, a friend, as he walked to work yesterday morning and ended up getting our passports from the mailman on the street.

He then brought our passports to work, left them in the bosses office and couldn’t bring them home last night because he boss left before he did – locking her office door and thus making it impossible for Chris to bring the passports home.

So I get the passports today at about 6:30 pm. What do I see when I open mine up? My place of birth information is listed wrong!

We’re leaving on November 8th! That doesn’t leave much time to get this fixed!

I immediately tried calling the 1-800 number for the passport office and I spoke with one of the Passport officers. I was told I’ll have to go to the main Passport office in Toronto to get this fixed and that yes, they’ll put a rush on it.

But what if it’s not done on time? I was so happy that our passports had arrived and now I’ve got a big problem!

My proper place of birth was written on my passport application, plus they also had a good photocopy of my birth certificate. What the heck are all the registration numbers on official I.D’s for anyway if they don’t check and then double check all this information?

I was told by the passport officer on the phone that the way I’d written my birthplace name it did sort of look like the wrong birthplace that they’d listed. Still … aren’t they also supposed to check the birth certificate? You know – the official documentation? WTF?

This makes me wonder how well they check everything else?

Grrrrrr!

If you could see me right now you’d see steam coming out of my ears! I’m so mad!

Should I go shopping while in Vegas?

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I can’t believe it’s the nineteenth of October already! Our trip to Las Vegas is coming up fast! Two and a half weeks from now we’ll be in that busy city! Good thing our passports arrived yesterday huh?

I know I’m going to be at blogging conventions and I probably won’t have a lot of time to do much other than attend the conventions and perhaps some of the places along the strip where we are staying, but if I can I’d like to do a little shopping.

With our Canadian dollar being higher than the US dollar I might be able to find some fantastic deals.

When I was searching for a hotel for us to stay in I noticed that only about 10 miles away from the strip there’s a big outlet mall. I wonder if any other bloggers that are going to the convention might be interested in a shopping excursion?

I need new clothes! Plus maybe I can get a few Christmas gifts out of the way too? Chris has always liked playing golf, perhaps I could find some Mizuno golf clubs for him at a discount? I’m also still looking for a macro and a telescopic lens for my SLR camera and I’m pretty sure that they are cheaper in the US than they are here in Canada … yeah, maybe I’ll come back with some new toys!

I think this winter is going to be a cold one!

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I’m not looking forward to winter this year. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long cold winter.

Why? Well, last winter was very mild here for the most part. Yes it was very cold here and there, but we didn’t get much snow and it was above freezing quite often. Then the summer wasn’t too bad either. We had a cool June for some reason, but then July and August were fairly normal temperature wise.

When the weather is fairly reasonable through three seasons I know from experience that the next winter is usually pretty bad. Perhaps I should start packing now and look for some Orlando real estate so I can be in a nice warm area when it’s freezing here.

If you’ve never lived in a cold climate you probably have no idea how appealing that idea really is right now.

Actually considering that I’ve been working from home for much of the last two years I have thought of moving to another area with a better climate. If I can get my husband to work on his websites perhaps I can talk him into working from home too? Then we’d be all set to live anywhere as we’d both be free agents.

Do you ever think about moving to another country?

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