So it has been a week and a bit since I returned from my little excursion half way across the country. It is amazing just how much work and junk pile up on you when you've been away, hence why it has taken me this long to actually sit down at a computer for anything fun related.
For those of you who follow both the lovely Ms. Danica Dragonfly and myself, you have already heard from her over here . Let me just say for the record that she made me blush and tears welled maybe just a little when I read all of the really nice things she had to say about me. But of course she had nice things to say about me...she tried to kill me after all! More about that later..
Now it's time for my side of the story!!
I had to go to Ontario for a work conference, and the Cub was alright with me being away, however he asked that I take his bear Winston with me, so that I could take some pictures of him and all the places he had been. 
My conference was in Niagara Falls from Wednesday to Friday afternoon. Friday I was back off to Toronto to spend the weekend with DD!When time allowed, Winston and I took many pictures for the Cub.
Of course, the Cub wanted to take these pictures to school for show and tell the day after I got home, so I was up late printing and compiling a book for him to take to school!

Nice lady from England at the Canadian Falls

Canadian Falls- a closer look

American Falls- a closer look

Yes we did a winery tour and drank wine !

The conference was good and somewhat exhausting but I had trepidations as Friday approached. I mean here I was, going off to the airport to meet someone I had never met in person before and we were going to spend the weekend together in a city far away from my home.

As luck would have it, I arrived in time to meet DD's plane. Once she finally made it out of the baggage pick up and we found ourselves settled on the shuttle to the hotel. (read here for more on that which was honestly rather funny) the nerves I had quickly dissipated. From the second we sat on the shuttle, we talked and giggled like two long lost friends. Of course we sat at the back of the bus, yet were probably loud enough for the entire bus load to hear! I honestly didn't care! Who knew me here? 

We made it to our hotel, beaming like a bunch of Cheshire cats. The hotel was fabulous, the hotel key I had, had fish on it, and there was a picture of dragon flies in the bathroom! I took this as a good sign!

Once settled we headed out to walk the Queens Qway and forage up some more alcohol. Yes it is true that I brought a 60 with me, but I didn't anticipate that we would be running out for a mickey of Sour Puss and a bottle of Contreau so that we could make Martini's in the martini set Dani brought with her!

From our room

For the man I sleep with! I saw this and thought of you X!!

The walk along the harbour was beautiful! We had dinner on one of the boardwalks and talked, and talked and giggled!

( Side bar: I did take a fantastic picture of Dani, but she threatened me within an inch of my life if I were to post it, so take my word for it that she is absolutely lovely!)

We headed back to the hotel to settle in with our alcohol. It is at this point of the trip that things get a wee bit fuzzy.

I remember breaking out the chips and dip, I remember, laughing and crying and having one of the best sleep over nights of all time! At times I felt like a child again, giggling so hard I cried. This is also when Dani tried to kill me. You see she's from NOVA SCOTIA, and can apparently hold her alcohol like no other person I have ever met! I thought I was pretty damn good at it myself, but damn! The next morning, I was greener than green.I could barely move my head from the pillow. Really upon further examination of all the alcohol consumed it was a wonder that I was even breathing! Mother Nature must have decided to take pity on me, because it was pouring rain and this allowed me sufficient  time to recover enough to move. Thankfully Dani is also one of the nicest people (even though she tried to KILL ME with alcohol poisoning) and doesn't kick a girl when she's down.

This mirror rocked! But I also spent a lot of time in here making friends with the porcelain fixtures!

Once we ( ok I was able to stop hurling my cookies) we opted to go to Eaton Centre. For the record, the little map thingy made it look a lot closer than it really was! AND for the record, I was not the only one who's mind it didn't cross to hail one of the 100 cabs we saw on our walk in the pouring rain! I have honestly never ever been that sopping wet in my entire life.

We mushed around the mall, and headed back to the hotel ( in a cab!!) where we sat and packed up for our morning departure. I learned a lot this trip, a lot about myself, and a lot about DD.

Things I learned about Danica Dragonfly

1. She is funny, smart and sassy like she is on her blog!
2. If you are up against her in a drinking competition, concede.
3. Her laugh is infectious and her smile can brighten any room.
4. She's far too hard on herself!
5. Even though she's from NOVA SCOTIA, she really really doesn't like the rain.Or being wet.( who knew?)
6. She's beautiful and strong willed. ( You should see the face she makes when she's been out in the rain for an hour!)
7. Keep her the hell away from large crowds! (Especially if she's been in the rain)
8. She's the kind of friend that would lounge around waiting for you to feel better and not laugh at you once! (Even when you blame her for trying to kill you)
9. Her love for her family and her friends runs so deep within her.
10. She is an amazing story teller!
11. I'm happy to call her my friend and so very thankful she's in my life!

Thank you D from all of my heart for one of the best weekends I have ever had. Your friendship means the world to me and I can only hope that we will get to do this again. I look forward to the day when our families can meet!

You just knew I'd post one picture!

Leaving on Sunday was bittersweet. I had to say goodbye to my friend and I may have cried just a little about that over breakfast as her flight took off. 

I was happy to be heading home to my guys though, and I made sure to bring Winston on the plane for the trip home.

Turns out, he is quite the bear. One of the flight attendants took to him and when I explained what I was doing with him, well, she let us into the cockpit to complete the album for the Cub.

Flying the plane home!

All in all, I got to do a cool thing for my Cub. I got to meet one hell of a woman and have a girls weekend away (which I have never done in my entire life!) and I got to come home to the man I love beyond a shadow of a doubt.

I will never forget this weekend! 

Never!

But I do know when I will be back again.. Sunday!
Yup, I am off tomorrow to board a plane and fly to the other side of my rather large country for a conference. While I am away and in the lovely place called Niagara Falls, I will be doing worky type things and probably drinking too much. I did mention the open bars at this conference did I not? Oh. My. Word. How could I possibly NOT mention free booze. Of course the free booze is not why I go, it just helps me sleep. Shush you!
THEN.. and here's the bestest part!!! After the worky conference thingy with free booze, I will be going back to Toronto where I will get to spend the weekend with the lovely and wonderful Danica Dragonfly!!!
*does a little dance* Of course I am super excited to get to meet her in real life, face to face, hanging out and chilling!! But (how did you know there was a but here??) I am also a little nervous? I mean, what if we cause some sort of cosmic nuclear reaction that we could dub, "When good bloggers go bad." Maybe we should do a video blog while we are together causing mayhem, I mean, um, being good and not doing anything fun related AT ALL!!
*Snort*


Of course if you are my mother, you have already thought of all the worst case scenarios and what ifs. 
"What do you mean you've never met her? And you are going to spend the weekend with her? Do you think this is a good idea? What if this...? What if that....?Well dear, as long as you are careful."
OK, MOM...good thing I've made it to almost 40.. I mean 30 something something! MAH GOD.. like I couldn't go if she didn't tell me to be careful? Last time I checked I also wasn't asking her permission either!! Sheesh!!
*kicks dirt*
It's OK, I don't expect her to understand just how excited I am to go, or how many wonderful people I have met out here in cyber space that I consider friends! She doesn't get it and that's OK with me. What is hard though, is when she who doesn't get it, tries to explain it to her mother. You know my almost 90 year old Grandmother??
Last night my grandmother left me the following voice mail.
" Hi AA, grandma here. Sorry I missed your call. Your mother tells me you are off to your conference thing again and then you will be spending some time with your friend you met on the computer. Well be safe dear."
I now have this little image of all of you, being around an inch tall and sitting here on my little screen.
Way to go Mom, way to go!


So this trip will be the longest I have ever been away from the man I married and the Cub. I of course think this is a big deal. Cub, not so much apparently. While I am happy that he is excited for his week alone with Dad, I however would like him to miss me, just a little. I was feeling pretty mopey about it last night and he and I were joking around, I kept asking him if he was going to miss me, and he kept saying Nope, NUH UH, with the biggest of grins. So in the nature of the joke, I kidded that if he wasn't going to miss me then I sure didn't need to bring anything back for him. Well of course I will miss you MOM! But just a little!
Then the man I married, pipes in and says,"Well if you don't miss her, maybe she won't come home!" "HA!" says Cub.
And that's when I did it. That's right at the point that I reduced my poor 7 year old Cub to alligator tears that made my heart melt. It was at this point that I jokingly said, "Well maybe I'll just stay there!" I have never heard him say NO with quite that much fear in his voice.
Yeah, I lost my Mom button. I cried , I hugged him and I explained that I was just trying to be funny like he was, but that it was very mean of me.
Bad, Bad, Mom.
Hopefully he won't think of that particular moment at any point this week and that he and Dad have the best week without Mom EVER!
(Of course the poor man I married is slightly freaking out about the whole 'cooking and lunches' idea, so if you see him lurking around the internet looking and asking for recipes and easy dishes to make, please be gentle.)
Hopefully I will be checking in periodically ( if the hotel has free wifi I will be for sure!!)
Have a great week! But don't have too much fun! Oh and BE SAFE!!


Smooches!