Sunday, March 24, 2013

Blog Revival! These past three months in Sarahland

Before we close off winter and slosh into Spring, I thought that it was time for a long overdue blog update.
My blog title Adventures in Sarahland is feeling even more appropriate when I reflect on the past few months.  I started a new job, albeit a temporary one, in January.  I took this opportunity for the challenges it would present both career wise and I'mafraidofflyingwise....in case you missed it, I don't particularly like flying and a key component of this job is travel, by plane, in poor weather, to small communities...the other challenging part of the job is working independently and dealing with highly emotionalized people.  Kind of like me when I get off the plane.  But anyways....

Since January I have travelled to Smithers, Golden, Kelowna, and Victoria and I'm finding that the flying part doesn't bother me at all.  The emotional people are just people and so far, aside from buckets of tears there's been nothing I can't manage.

You'd think with all that travel, some of my other pursuits would have fallen by the wayside, but thankfully they haven't!  I was addicted to another season of The Bachelor, went to a Canucks game dressed appropriately, took a vacation to a sunny destination, had our regular January hockey weekend in Victoria, and have forged ahead with my baking endeavours.  In amongst all of that I'm still plugging along with my website westcoastdogs.com.

Our annual trip to Victoria was a bit of a whirlwind in that I arrived home from a work trip late on the Friday night and then was on the ferry with the dogs at 7am the next morning.  We stayed again at the super fantastic Laurel Point Inn (check out my review on my website), had some fun dinners with the team, visited my Mum, and tried to squeeze in some shopping.


Our trip to the sunny destination was especially nice because we WON the trip.  Technically it wasn't me who won it, but...it was a trip for two and I'm his 'two' so off we went.  The actual prize was to the Dominican Republic but we were allowed to choose something similar so I opted for beautiful Mexico instead.  We stayed at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort, located just south of Playa Del Carmen on the Yucatan peninsula.  Trip was great; weather was beautiful, resort was lovely and aside from a spill out of a hammock, a scrape on some coral and a head bonk in a cenote, it was a fabulous trip.  If you want to read about the resort, check out my review on Trip Advisor.  Whenever I travel I obsessively read reviews so I like to do my part and provide my own reviews as well. 

Next up is my baking.  I resolved in early January to take a bit of a break and try some healthier pursuits but the pull of the kitchenaid mixer is simply too strong.  I succumbed.  Below are some pictures of what I've made in the past three months.  I don't usually make cakes so the bridal shower cake for a work colleague was a challenge. 



After our trip to Mexico I had no choice but to try baking conchas, sweet buns with a baked on topping that look fab and taste great if only I had paid more attention and lowered the oven temp I wouldn't have had such crispy bottoms.  Did another batch of my favourite chocolate cupcakes, Martha Stewart's Devil's Food recipe, this time with an almond buttercream filling and a chocolate/vanilla swirl frosting with an attempted red swirl made out of candy melts.  Lastly, I've been into  yeast breads making a basic white loaf, a cinnamon swirl loaf, then most recently a 2
 different cinnamon loaf this time with raisins and a more perfected swirl.




I've been feeling particularly happy about westcoastdogs.com I still want to improve the format and a few details, but I've been blessed with the content I've been able to gather thanks to the great people and their dogs whom I've met via FaceBook.  I'm continuously surprised by people's willingness to participate in my little hobby.  My ongoing "Dogs of the World" feature just doesn't get tired, I love hearing about where people live and the details of their life that can be strikingly similar to mine or so incredibly different and interesting.  My favourite post this year has to be the story of Peggy, a woman in Texas whose dogs were stolen and then found a full 18 months later.  She was tenacious in her quest to find them and got huge media coverage in the United States.  I sent her an email, asked her a bunch of questions and didn't really expect to hear anything.  After all, she had her dogs back and I was a total stranger in another country.  But, she did respond and answered all my prying questions with genuine sincerity.  This is the good side of the Internet, strangers with common interests sharing stories and helping one another.

And in between all that?  Got a new mentee, attended several work training courses, had another round of short-lived eyelash extensions, cheered on my struggling Canucks, got my FitBit (which I love, but more on that another time), and um, may have done a bit of shopping and decluttering. 


I hope to get back to keeping this more current as we enter a new season.  That is all.

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