Go to bread? No, go to BED!

This past week has been such a friggin' blur. I haven't had more than 6 hours of sleep each night! Oye!

I'll try to recall:

While in Quebec, I couldn't get more than 6 hours of sleep what with Mel's kicking, Alex's hogging and Nam's snoring. On Tuesday night, I came home from Cuong's at about 1:30 am, worked the next morning, stayed up that night to upload the Quebec pictures, went to work the next morning, went to Poker that night, went to to work next morning.

The past 24 hours has really been a push for me to not just collapse from exhaustion. Last night I celebrated the last Friday night of 2006 in true Friday night fashion: partying at Distrikt, coincidentally for Corey's birthday. I don't remember much (not from alcohol, but just from lack of sleep) from last night, except for the brown guys that kept hounding me, the button that popped off my shirt (yeah, my boobs are always trying to escape my clothes somehow) and dancing hard into the wee hours of the morning. Oh and dancing with Corey's cute (but really young) school friends. Got home at about 4 am and then no less than five hours later, my parents woke me up and we drove down to Niagara.

My dad took us to this little town he used to work in and what would have been where we would be living right now if he hadn't taken a job at some paper mill when he was in university. Thank goodness he didn't. It was one of those factory towns (desolate area, yet with a higher crime rate than other rural areas). We drove through the town of teeny tiny run-down houses, but according to my dad, this is how a good chunk of Canadians live and that we should feel lucky we live where do now. I suppose he's right, and I guess am just a spoiled brat from the 'upper-middle class' suburbs. Although it is kind of amusing to see country bumpkins try to make their way around Toronto.

After that rather appreciative glimpse into a life without Mississauga, we went to The Keg, which happened to overlook the Falls. I never realized how much better Canada has it on this side of the Falls either, until I ate at the restaurant. Canada 1, USA 0. We went to Fallsview where I realized we didn't have to pay the $20 for parking that weekend we went to Fallsview in the summer because we could've gotten a Players Advantage Card for the free parking. Bah. Note to all: the next time we go, remind me to bring the card for the free parking.

Drove back and was going to go to Poker (oh, GOD) but I had to put my foot down for real. I am going to have a power-sleep tonight to make up for this brutal past week, especially knowing that I will most definitely be staying up all night tomorrow. It's strange how I manage to get less sleep when I'm not in school than when I have exams five days in a row.

Oh, Bed, how we must make up for lost times...

Tremblant 2006: Part II

The view from our suite was pretty damn awesome: In lieu of Christmas gifts, I chose to make everyone Christmas dinner. As much as I tried to, I just couldn't do it all by myself...

^High five!

^Alex gets a blow job and a hand job. Luckiest boy in the world.

Me: Alex, the mashed potatoes needs more rosemary.

Alex: No, it needs more milk.

Me: You always want to put more milk! If you had your way, the mashed potatoes would be nothing but milk and potato! It's my mashed potatoes, so I say MORE ROSEMARY!

^The Milk and Rosemary Cooking Show (the look on Alex's face is absolutely fantastic)

^HAHAHA! I'm still adding more rosemary!

^My Masterpiece

^Me and Kathy have the Itis ^The Aftermath

That night, I had... let's just say, 12too many shots and I ended up being the first to pass out and not a remember a fucking thing in the morning. Fucking great. Thanks to all who stripped me and put me to bed.

The next morning, I don't know how I did it, but I managed to snowboard whilst totally hungover and prevented myself from tossing chunks the entire day. I'm a trooper, I have to say. Snowboarding was awesome. I managed to improve some of my skills (YES!) and I've somewhat mastered carving (on more shallower slopes, though). The trails were great and the mountain was literally as high as the clouds. It was absolutely beautiful and I think next time I'll do the cross-country hiking at Tremblant because who knows how long these kind of things last?

^Aww, so cute: Selfless Big Brother helps out Selfish Little Brother ^The Russians ^Me and the boys ^Kathy learns to ski

For lunch, we ate at some over-priced (the cheapest over-priced) restaurant in the Village. That's when I came to the conclusion that the people who come up to Mont Tremblant are either uber rich or wannabe rich.

^Hmm, how many ways to kill Alex for all the gypsy jokes this weekend? ^Thanks, Nam ^Alex ogles the super hot male waiter ^Mmm, poutine ^Kathy and the Doubovs

After lunch, we went up the hill again, this time with Kathy who felt was prepared for the 'real thing' after spending the morning in ski school. Iljya took her down what was supposed to be an easy trail and long story short, he ended up slicing his finger pretty badly. Leaving Kathy to fend for herself and a trail of blood, Iljya had to ski down to the lift sans rods. I found him at the bottom of the hill and we went to the infirmary. He almost needed stitches, but luckily the wound was just superficial. An interestingly bloody end to a ski day.

We came home and the guys threw together a huge spaghetti dinner. Everyone was pretty exhausted from the day so we soaked in the hot tub and sauna for a good hour or so. I think we were going to play Manhunt in the woods, but we were too tired so we just did more chilling.

^Nam playing Boggle with the Melinator

^The Melinator will 'meliminate' you in Poker and now, Boggle

^Kathy in the "eagle's nest" ^Nam and Yuri build a romantic fire ^Doubov sandwich. Just how I like it. ^Guess what Alex is doing... ^"I'm making gypsies..." Damn you, Alex!

The next day, everyone was so exhausted, noone got a chance to hit the slopes one last time before we had to check out. And as I predicted, it was a hell of a time getting everyone out the door and the cars packed. As much as I didn't really want to go home, I couldn't wait to go home to my own bed and a proper shower.

^Extreme driving ^When Nature calls, they surely answer

Oddly enough we encountered some crappy driving weather (but weather we would've preferred for skiing/boarding). Thus far, we embarked on another 7-hour car ride home to....

Tremblant 2006: Part I

I'm baaaaaack! Back in good ol' English-is-the-best Ontario. Not that I don't like Quebec, but it just feels good to be able to read a sign without looking for the English version. So here goes my uber long travel entry. Be prepared for lots of words, pictures, and even video!

Mont Tremblant was stupendous and I can't wait till we can go back. As mentioned before, we ended up leaving on Saturday. We stayed at Iljya's house in Richmond Hill and then set off. We drove in two cars, Nam's and Iljya's. We (me, Nam, Alex and Yuri) were supposed to be following Iljya, Kathy and Mel because Iljya's car had the GPS (and our car didn't even have a map. Stupid Road Trip Move #1). God cannot explain why the world is round. Nor can he explain why Nam does the things he does. While in search of a Tim Horton's, in true The Fast and the Furious fashion, Nam got a little impatient and suddenly drove onto a 401 off ramp between pylons (Stupid Road Trip Move #2). I have to say it was dumbest and the most dangerous move ever, yet the most thrilling. Props to Nam for not hitting any of those pylons while going 100 km/h.

Somewhere around Kingston, our cars finally met up at a Tim Horton's pit stop (P.S. We didn't end up finding a Tim Horton's earlier. That thrilling moment was for nothing).

^The Obligatory Pre-Road trip Tim Horton's Group Shot

^Yuri making a CD of Road Trippin' tunes

^My conventional cup holder

^Alex reads

^Comfy in my niche: pillow, headphones, window

For those who don't know about The Sandwiches, they are these fantastic sandwiches made primarily for our trips. Alex has been particularly keen on having The Sandwiches again, ever since our Algonquin trip. He missed The Sandwiches on the Montreal trip, so he actually volunteered to make the sandwiches this time, for prime sandwich enjoyment, I guess.

Just after we entered Quebec, we stopped, hungry and eager for The Sandwiches.

Alex: Guys, what car are The Sandwiches in?

Mel: Our car has our sandwiches, you should have your own in your car.

Alex searches both cars from top to the bottom and then calls Iljya's house.

Alex: FFFFUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKK

Stupid Road Trip Move #3: Leaving Alex in charge of anything. Needless to say, my car continued on the trip starving and pissed at Alex (who contends Iljya should have seen The Sandwiches on the porch when he checked the house, but the verdict is in: Alex, you're the worst).

We finally arrived at our condotel, Tremblant Residences. It was a quaint little hotel on the mountain. I guess the only word I can really use to describe the place is 'rustic' because that's what it essentially was. Plus, I soon learned why the maximum occupancy for the room was four. Sure, you could easily sleep seven people. Seven neat and tidy people, that is. Everyone was too lazy to cook, so we just popped a couple of pizzas in the oven and tried to settle down. We made use of the hot tub and then watched a movie. A 7-hour road trip can really take it out of you.

^Cheers!

^Hotness in the hot tub

^My friend. My enemy.

^The mess begins...

...and continues

The sleeping arrangement didn't seem too awful (one bed, one sofa bed, one mattress)... until the morning when we realized that the sofa bed was worse than sleeping on the floor or the mattress. Ugghhhhh. We also decided that morning it was not ideal weather for boarding/skiing that day so we opted to do what we could in the area.

Oddly enough, we managed to find a lot of things to do, even though we spent a good chunk of time together in our suite (and the trillions and trillions of Borat impressions). We brought DVDs, Boggle, cards, plenty of booze and five, yes, five people brought their laptops (Yuri probably would've brought his if it wasn't in repair and I am not a dork). Talk about preparing for a rainy day.

And although we guffawed at those who stayed home and went to Captain's Pool for Christmas, guess what we also did? We found our own Captain's. *sigh.

^Worst bed ever.

^You can take the boy out of Captain's, but can you take Captain's out of the boy?

While the guys chose to stay indoors, the girls set out to hike and browse the little village on the mountain. Honestly, I think we had a better time than the guys in that stuffy pool room. But whatever. The scenery was postcard-worthy and the weather was perfect for a walk. Leave it up to girls to find something productive to do. We even found firewood for the fireplace! As they call us in the Lem Si Ho Tong Society, we truly are 'The Dream Team'.

^Fuck the what?!

^Kathy breaks the ice

^Ooooh, we're sooo bad. We're walking on thin ice.

^Don't go chasing icy waterfalls, please stick to the semi-frozen lakes like you used to...

^Moonboots are made for moon-walking and breaking branches.

^The guys make perogies perogie ^Mel and I eating perogies dough and meat

^Iljya pulls dough from his pants. Tasty.