Wonderful weekend

I'm back! My extended vacation with my mom is finally coming to an end. It's been totally terrific and I have been unbelievably spoiled. Especially once I returned to work last week and she took over cleaning the apartment and making us dinner. As she says, "Every woman needs a wife!" So true. Coming home tomorrow night, after she has washed all the sheets and taken flight en route to Vancouver, will be a sad affair. Who's going to enjoy the rest of SATC with me? Who's going to make me delicious meals and baked goods? Who's going to give me a good reason to put all thoughts of budgeting aside?

Ah, but budgeting must once again enter the picture. Even though my next house guest is arriving on Wednesday morning, I will have to start counting the coin and confessing all to the likes of you guys. Because I've gotten a little off-track during this month of excess.

We just had a weekend FULL of events. Events that cost money... But sometimes that's how life goes. Here's what we did:

Friday
The weekend dawned with a mother-daughter trip to Winners, where my mom bought the DP and I some early Christmas gifts. Namely a beautiful tall vase (for gladiolas), a proper muffin pan (because my flexible ones caused a major Yorkshire pudding spill) and an awesome new frying pan with a lid (because we're trying to live without Teflon for fear of ingesting carcinogens). We carried all of our purchases across the street to my favourite diner and met an old friend of mine for dinner. Or, in my case, the Big Breakfast. (If I can get away with eating syrup for supper, I do it.) Apres my syrup-soaked sausages, we headed over to see the inimitable Sharron Matthews. I have been a fan of this woman since I saw her do Falsettos at The Tarragon Theatre in the mid-90s. Her show was hysterical and she was gorgeous and remembered my mom, which made my mom's night.

Saturday
The DP and I dragged our slightly atrophied bodies to the gym first thing and did something approximating a workout, just so we could say we'd done it. (We've been too busy eating pies baked by my mom to go to the gym. Sad, but true. And yummy.) Then all of us took the new car (Did I mention the DP got a Honda CRV? I love it!) to Alliston.Why Alliston? you ask. Well, one of the DP's university pals and his lovely wife own an incredible bed and breakfast in that area. A bed and breakfast that was once a homestead of T.P. Loblaw - the man that revolutionized grocery shopping to the experience we know today. (Loblaw is a distant relative of the DP's friend.) Anyway, the Ontario Heritage folks were there to erect a plaque in honour of Mr. Loblaw, so there was a lovely ceremony and then lots of time in the late September sunshine with excellent folks and their gorgeous babies. Oh, and then we went for sushi.

Sunday
We all got up bright and early for a wee road trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls. The weather wasn't really cooperating, but at least there weren't torrential downpours. We enjoyed the incredible landscaping in NOTL, but only stopped for a little lunch and a bunch of fudge before heading on to the falls. Having listened a little too closely to the Weather Network, which promised sunshine and high temperatures, Mom and I found ourselves purchasing souvenir Niagara sweatshirts just so we wouldn't be shivering all afternoon. (So much for my vow to NEVER purchase any sort of souvenir outerwear!) Our ride on The Maid of the Mist was awesome! And our trip to the Butterfly Conservatory blew me away. All in all, a fantastic time.

But I'll admit it - I'm broke. I need to put a stop to all outgoing cash until I get caught up at the end of the week. So once my budget resets on Friday, I will once again post all of my expenditures. Until then, I'm hanging on to the few pennies in my purse.

Total debt: $3545 and a bit