Good grief, what a day

The big news of the day is that, as of today, Zoom Airlines has suspended service and all of its planes are grounded. Yeah, the thing is this - Dan & I are booked to fly with them to Paris in 3 weeks, and then back home on one of their flights in October ...

Needless to say, when I heard the news this morning I almost had a panic attack. I immediately phoned my sister, spoke with her for a few minutes and then got to work trying to sort everything out. Ack!

First up, try to see if there are any other airlines flying on the dates we need to fly. Check! However, one small setback - we can get to Paris on the date we want, but service from Paris on this particular airline stops before we fly home ... so basically, we now fly to Paris, but home from Amsterdam.

Next up, call the credit card company to see about getting our money refunded for our Zoom tickets - good news, they tell me what there shouldn't be a problem getting the entire amount refunded. Phew!!!

Next up is to go and actually book the Vancouver-to-Paris, Amsterdam-to-Vancouver flight. I was worried about waiting to book, as there are going to be an awful lot of Zoom passengers scrambling for flights ... however, all is well - check! We're now officially booked on a different airline.

There are a few other small issues, but I think for the most part, things should work out. First off, we had booked a room at the Hilton at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for our last night - to get the best rate, it was to be paid upon booking and is non-refundable. Ugh. Because we're now flying from Amsterdam, I'm not keen on staying in Paris and *hoping* that we can get to Amsterdam via train in time for our flight ... therefore, we're now going to have to book a room in Amsterdam for our last night. I'm going to do my best to see if I can get our money refunded from the Hilton in Paris, or at least get a credit voucher (that we could use at the Amsterdam airport!). If I can't get our money refunded or get a voucher, then we'll be out the money for the hotel room in Paris (works out to be about 200 bucks - ouch).

Now we just need to book the train from Paris to Amsterdam and get a room in Amsterdam for the last night of the trip, and then I guess we're all set.

On a positive note, we're actually saving a lot of $$ by booking the flight with the other airline. We had splurged with our Zoom flight and booked upgraded seats both ways ... but with the other airline we're in regular seats, so the price is way lower. So the bonus for us is that we're now saving a whopping $700 on airfare. So even if you factor in the $200 that we'll lose on the hotel room, we're still saving money because of this whole fiasco. :)

Phew. What a bloody day. The stress level was through the roof, I tell ya. My stomach is still churning! But, the motto I usually try to live by is "everything happens for a reason" and once again, I've been remind that it's oh-so-very-true.

PS: I should mention that I feel absolutely terrible for two of our friends ... they were booked to fly to Paris with Zoom TODAY. I think they've booked a flight to get to Amsterdam tomorrow now though, at least. Poor guys!

But I need a new jacket!

I saw this sweet little Volcom jacket in a store earlier today, and I want it!! Unfortunately, my budget as of late doesn't allow for such frivolous purchases. Sigh. :(

Too long?

Maybe the reason why I can't get you peeps to ever leave comments is because my posts are too long ... is that it?! Maybe they're so long that you lose interest before you finish reading the post ... hmmm, maybe that's it! Do I need to lure you out by having a little blog-giveaway or something?? ;)

Anyhoo, just a short post then. Today marks the 4-week countdown until our next Eurotrip! Woot, woot! Yep, 4 weeks from today we'll be on the plane, en route to Paris (we have more to look foward to this time, as we splurged and booked upgraded seats ... both ways!). Ahh, how I love that city, my home-away-from-home ... sigh ...

The first 10 pounds meal plan

For many months, I was busting my butt, trying to shed a bit of weight. It got to the point that I got extremely frustrated, as the scale simply would not budge. Now, keep in mind that I know how weight is lost - a couple of years ago I lost a fairly substantial amount ... diet and exercise, simple as that. Cause a calorie deficit and the weight will start to drop.

So the exercise has been there, as has been a fairly good diet (low on the bad carbs, very low sugar, etc - overall, pretty low calorie). Why won't the weight drop?! I spoke with the trainer/nutritionist from The Last 10 Pounds and she gave a few reasons why this was happening. It was recommended that I try a personalized meal plan that would basically kick-start the weight loss ... get me out of the slump.

I decided to do it, and Dan decided he would too (thank goodness, I don't know if I could have done it alone!). It was an 11-day meal plan, during which we were allowed 4 meals per day. We were able to choose the foods that we wanted incorporated into the plan, so all was good there (as I'm a bit of a fussy eater). The meals were, at times, a bit odd (like eating salmon and milk as a meal, or sole and peanuts) - but overall, the menu was totally do-able. It was basic common sense, really - a perfect balance of protein and good carbs. We weren't given any restrictions as to how much we could eat, we were simply told to eat until satisfied (not full).

Overall, what were my thoughts on this meal plan, you ask? It was GREAT! At times I would get a little bored with some of the foods but that's a small price to pay to kick-start the ol' metabolism! We both succeeded and dropped a substantial amount of weight. At times we would maybe get a little grumpy (while eating all green veggies, for example) but looking back on the 11 days, we both agree that we felt SO great. We went back to "regular" food/meals on Saturday, and by that night we had both agreed that we wanted to incorporate some of the meal plan into our regular, everyday diets. And I think we'll do the entire 11-day regimented meal plan again before we're off to Europe (which is in 4 weeks and 1 day, btw - LOL!)

Slots o' fun

Dan & I went on our Las Vegas getaway last weekend. We were there for 3 nights, and we had a lot of fun!

The trip got off to a great start when we got upgraded to a massive suite at our hotel (we were staying at the Hilton). We had booked a standard room but ended up in a huge suite that is at least as big as our apartment - crazy.

It was soooo hot - around 43 degrees for the most part. But it's such a different heat than we have here in BC - it's a super dry, desert heat. So it's really hot, but you really don't sweat much - so it seems way more bearable. The only thing is that my eyes aren't a fan of that level of intense heat - my contacts pretty much get glued to my eyes as soon as I step outside (and then they get all dry and icky inside too, from all the air conditioning).

But overall, we had a lot of fun. We found a great bar that had 2-for-1 martinis, all day ... so we had a *fair* share of those. Mmm, key lime martini ... drool, drool ... :)

We didn't check out any shows or anything, as we really didn't have much time. We got in late on Friday (after midnight) and then only had Saturday and Sunday (flew home mid-afternoon on Monday). Plus, the show we really want to see hasn't started yet - the new Criss Angel/Cirque du Soleil one (starts next month). We spent some time wandering around, checking out different hotels and stores. And of course we spent a bit of time in the casino (mostly at Planet Hollywood), and ... well, I think we spent the rest of the time drinking those yummy martinis! :P

We were supposed to meet one of Dan's coworkers for drinks on Saturday at 8pm. So we arrived at the destination nice and early (we don't like to be late) and started on some martinis. It ended up that his coworker was totally late, so by the time she got there I think we were about 6 martinis in (each) ... *hic!* It ended up that she didn't hang out with us (she had a stagette to attend) so we carried on - we wrangled up some 2-for-1 drink coupons and headed to Torrid Nightclub (Hawaiian Tropic Zone) - tee hee! And all I have to say about the rest of the night is this - oh my. ;)

We're not too big on gambling, but playing the slots a bit is fun, so that's what we did. I almost immediately spotted a slot machine that I was drawn to, so I mostly played that one - and get this, over the course of 2 days, I won decently on it TWO times!! I knew it was the slot for me. :)

All in all, it was a nice weekend getaway. It would be so fun to head back with some of our friends (the last time we were there with friends was waaaay back in 1997!) - maybe next time!