Moving…
22 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
Okay.. to further encourage myself to keep up with my blog, I have decided to take the plunge and start my own, self-hosted blog! 
I’m still using WordPress, but now it’s on my own website. I have owned the address www.moonbutterfly.com for MANY years (I’d have to check my register to see when I got it, but it was likely in the late 90′s) and up until today it had on it a personal website I’d created in 2001 and hadn’t updated since 2004. >_< Eep. It looked like the typical "geocities" type website, and if you don't know what that means you're too young! LOL! Kidding, but yeah.. it was bad.
So now.. this blog (cydonia1978.wordpress.com) is going to eventually be deleted. It has already been migrated to www.moonbutterfly.com so just go ahead and update your bookmarks and you’ll be fine! And I can even install pretty custom themes and everything now! My current one looks like a notebook. Very nice.
Picture of the Day: Typical January
21 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: January, potd, rain
It’s a dreary, rainy Friday in January. Some people love the rain. They’re well-suited for life in the rainforest of BC. Me, I’ve lived here long enough to tolerate it, but not love it. It’s too cold, and cold + wet doesn’t feel nice. A warm, light summer rain or a thunder storm… those are things I can enjoy!!
But it is good for some things. Such as cuddling under warm blankets, a hot drink in one hand and a book or tablet in the other. Oh, and a sleepy kitty is pretty good too.
Harrison Hot Springs
17 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in Family, Travel Tags: harrison hot springs, memories, pictures
When I was a kid I was taken to visit Harrison Hot Springs at least once or twice, but I don’t remember too much from those trips. I remember walking a really long way along a lake and finding a stinky, sulphuric, hot spring behind a tall fence. It didn’t seem that big a deal to me, but it was a nice place to visit. Oh, and there was the public pool fed by the hot springs. Again, it didn’t seem like a big deal. All I remember about going there was getting to eat ketchup chips just after swimming (which were my favorite as a kid.. not so sure about them anymore.. lol!)
As an adult though, I can finally truly enjoy the beauty of Harrison Hot Springs. The misty lake, the surrounding hills, the snow-capped mountains. Gorgeous! And also, I got to finally experience hot springs how they should be: in a beautiful hot tub and outdoor pool.
In 2008 Ryan and I decided to take a random trip to Harrison and stayed at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa. It’s a truly beautiful place, and when you don’t go for all the extras it’s kinda affordable. They have the most wonderful, hot, outdoor pools as well as an indoor pool and luxury hot tub. The room we stayed in on this visit was in the “main” hotel, which means it’s one of the old rooms from the original hotel. It’s well-maintained, but it was supposed to have air conditioning and it didn’t. Minor thing, but it sure was hot!
After that trip I received an email from them asking me to fill out a survey. We had such a great time, I decided to go ahead and do that. I was perfectly honest in it – saying how good everything is and how helpful the staff was. I also mentioned the minor thing about the air conditioning. I mean, the website had specifically said we were booking an air conditioned room and then we found out it didn’t have air conditioning installed when we got there. Worth mentioning, I thought. I was right! We later got in the mail a travel voucher for a free stay at the resort!
Later that same year my girlfriends and I decided to go to the same hotel for my bachelorette party! We got a mountain-side view in one of the newer towers, which was far better than the main building.
Next, in August 2009 Ryan and I decided to go back to celebrate our 1st Anniversary. This time we got a lake-side view in a tower with the bed & breakfast package. It was a perfect way to spend our first wedding anniversary. This was when we used our free stay from the survey, so I’d say it was well worth holding onto until then!
Now, you’d have thought that three visits over two years would have been plenty. But come on.. beautiful scenery and soaking in relaxing hot spring tubs? Who could get sick of that?? Ryan decided to really spoil me and booked us for another stay for a birthday present. We waited until we had time, then went in November. Crazy? Maybe. But Harrison in winter was just as wonderful as in the summer, but in different ways! It was so freaking cold outside.. but once you slipped into one of those outdoor pools, even in the icy rain.. it was heaven! And the way the mist and clouds hugged the ground and surrounding hills was so gorgeous…
In 2010 we had other plans and trips to concern ourselves with, so we didn’t really think we’d get to go back to Harrison. And while we didn’t stay at the resort again, we couldn’t resist spontaneously driving up there one night (in June), just to walk around! (of course, it was dark so the pictures didn’t really turn out well enough to post).
We’ve talked about doing another random drive up there recently, but it just hasn’t happened. Just the other day I was thinking how nice it would be to stay at the resort again… and when I asked Ryan tonight what we should do for Valentine’s Day he suggested a night in Harrison! Yay!! I couldn’t say no to that! So with a quick check of winter rates.. a few clicks later and we’re booked! We’ll being going up after I get off work on February 10th. Night swimming up there is very beautiful.. plus we learned last time we were there that after you check out in the morning, they’ll let you continue to use the pool. I can’t wait!
Oh, and don’t forget to click on the images above for the full albums! 
I’m Posting Every Week in 2011!
15 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in General Tags: postaweek2011
Okay.. right on the heels of my last post where I said my New Years Resolution was to post at least once a week to once a month in 2011, I find that there’s an actual WordPress challenge to that effect! Yay!
So here it goes. This is my entry post into this challenge. I will be posting once a week in 2011! A quote from the sample entry:
I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.
And I’m going one step further.. I’m going to link to this on Facebook and challenge my blog-writing friends to join me on this challenge! I know two in particular who currently attempt to keep updated blogs (Melanie & Selena) and another who did so when living abroad but hasn’t since (Tanya) so.. join the challenge!
Let’s see how this goes…
Happy New Year!
15 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
I don’t usually do these “New Year’s Resolutions” things.. I don’t like setting myself up for disappointment. I know myself too well! But this year I’ll try it.. with some provisions for myself so it might just work.
In 2011 I would like to keep a regularly updated blog. One that I will update between once a week to once a month. As long as I get one update in a month, I will have succeeded in my goal.
How’s that? I really love going back and reading my blog and private journal entries that I have made, but I suck at keeping them updated. If I can at least get one regular update a month, at least I shouldn’t lose any good memories and such!
And on top of that, I’m also going to make it a goal to get my pictures upon Flickr faster. lol! A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So check out my “Photo Album” page for my Flickr slideshow. Sometimes checking out my pictures will say a whole lot more than my once-a-month post will, I’m sure. 
So what’s going on with me so far in 2011? Let’s see.. I rang in the New Year with a home filled with friends, just how I like it. We had about 15 people crammed into our condo and it was GREAT! We also made some new friends, which was also wonderful. We have many great friends already and it’s awesome to meet new people who are into the same kinds of stuff that we are.
Before Christmas Ryan decided he wanted to get back into World of Warcraft. We had played it together years ago but drifted away from it for various reasons. For me, it was because I get REALLY bored in any game where I have to spend a lot of time doing boring, repetitive tasks to try to level up so I can do something more interesting. Well, they’ve fixed WOW up so that leveling doesn’t seem to take as long. I decided to get back into it with Ry and we upgraded our game with the latest expansions. Well, that was around the middle of December so it’s probably been about a month so far and we’re both still in it. He’s so good at it, his main character is nearly at level 85 (which is the current top level)! Me, I’m impressed enough with myself that my main is at 34. That’s a pretty big thing for me, because I don’t play half as much as Ry, and previously I didn’t get a character passed 15 or so. As for enjoyment? The fun areas are fun. There are still some boring things, but for the most part they have some interesting story lines that work your character into the full story of the game. That’s what I like in games – good stories to be a part of.
Now for the next best part of WOW.. new friends! We already had a couple friends who were into WOW before us and through them we met another couple who are also in WOW. And on top of that, we were invited to a potluck that involved a bunch of local people who are in a guild in WOW (a group of people who work together for common goals) so we got to meet even more people (and both of us are now in said guild). Good times!
Actually, that brings me to another story. The night of the guild potluck it snowed like crazy. We don’t get a lot of snow around here anymore, so this was pretty exciting to those of us who like snow. As the potluck wrapped up a bunch of us decided to go for a walk and go play in the snow. So awesome! I’m so happy to be able to be a responsible adult and still go play like this!
This week Ryan and I met up with some of our new WOW friends and tried out Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. To those who don’t know: D&D is a role playing game where people take on the roles of adventuring heroes and make their way through (usually) Lord of the Rings-type worlds to gain experience by fighting evil (again, usually.. sometimes they’re evil themselves and they’re fighting good! lol). So yeah, Ryan and I have played the 3rd edition version of the game lots and it was fun, but quite complicated. There are a TON of rules, stats, numbers, books, etc. It’s insane! 4th edition attempts to pull the very best out of the 3rd edition system while keeping it far less complicated. I think it works! We had a lot of fun. I’m still a very quiet player, but I’ll try to do better in that way.. ^^;
So that’s my January so far. Yay, so far my resolution is on track!
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