Lululemon Warehouse Sale Haul

I never knew the cult following that Lululemon had before we moved to Montreal. Sure I had purchased a pair of the cropped workout pants when we first moved to Ohio and at the time thought I was crazy for spending the $50 or so on them, but after wearing them to workout in a few times, I realized how great they were. They washed well, held their shape, looked great on, didn't fade and even made it through me being pregnant with Arabella and then afterwards. And to this day, almost 6 years after purchasing them and wearing the heck out of them - they still look pretty darn good!

I remember being excited when we moved her to find out that our mall had a store in it. But then reality set in, how could I justify the $98 for a pair of yoga pants when I wasn't working. Or even the $50 for a sports bra...they are the best I have worn and when you are endowed like I am, you need something to keep them in place while running or working out...but still. So I would resort to buying items here and there when they would be on sale. At one point, Jay even looked into purchasing their stock since it seems like everyone here has their regular wardrobe and then their Lulu wardrobe! Literally, there is a Lululemon fashion show each day at our pool in the summer - I swear there is more Lulu on the pool deck than in the store at our mall, seriously! When Jay saw that he missed the IPO and what the stock is sitting at now, roughly $61 vs. the $10 IPO in 2007, http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/lulu - he knew he missed the boat!

But in all honesty, as much as Jay can't believe that I would spend that much money on workout clothes, I have to say they are worth every penny. So when I saw that Lulu was having their once yearly warehouse sale in Ottawa, I knew I had to go. And when I heard that the prices were amazing and that they would be restocking throughout the weekend, it made my decision to go even easier. So instead of getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, I left at 8 am with Emily, Arabella's babysitter, and we made the less than 2 hour drive to Ottawa. (A whole bunch of my friends were going to go, but we just couldn't all coordinate our schedules...some went Friday and stood in line for 3-4 hours just to get into the sale....and others went on Sunday when the selection wasn't as great but the prices were the lowest.) Emily and I wait about 2 hours to get into the sale - which was very well organized, they only let a few people in at a time and the clothes were all hung on rolling racks in size order - and then we spent about 1 1/2 hours browsing the selection. It was nice as they kept bringing out new stock throughout the time we were in the sale. We had to wait again to check out, but I think it was totally worth it. I was able to get some new pants and tops and a special edition hoodie that I have been drooling over for the longest time (it retailed for $148 but I get it for less than half price) and I also picked up a few cute things for Arabella from the girls line that Lulu just recently came out with - Ivivva - for her gymnastics. Needless to say, she loved them all and was super excited. (Jay on the other hand, rolled his eyes - like mother like daughter - but was happy with the price I paid for each piece - $9 for the pants, $24 for the hoodie!)

So here is my haul...

Arabella's haul!
She got right to monkeying around and loved doing a fashion show for Jay of everything I scored for her!
A also scored a new Sigg water bottle for $9, a free scarf, a hat for running and a great tote bag!
My special edition Scuba hoodie! I love it!
The rest of my haul!

I actually can't wait for the sale next January, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that they hold it here in Montreal. For those of you in the US, they are having the only US warehouse sale this weekend in Chicago! Now all I have to do is go through my old workout clothes to make room for the new...

Canada Post Strike

I haven't been following the Canada Post or Air Canada strikes to closely as of late. It seems silly to me that all of Canada's postal service is completely disrupted. We haven't received mail for the past 2 days and who knows when we will start to receive it again. FYI - Mom if you have a collection of my magazines there that you were going to send - can you mail them to Lori's since I will see her before it will probably get here! I mailed a bunch of mail to the States on Monday - thank you cards and Father's Day cards - and I hope that they were moved South of the Border before all of this took place. I just wanted to post this information for our family so they wouldn't think we had forgotten about them.

The following information was taken from: http://clients.infopost.ca/en/2011/06/lockout-at-canada-post-what-it-means-to-customers/

Lockout at Canada Post – What It Means To Customers
2011/6/15

Mail Deposit and Delivery
■All mail processing plants and letter carrier depots are closed and all facilities have been secured. No new mail will be accepted. Large volume mailers cannot deposit or receive mail.
■Mail Delivery is suspended to all addresses served by letter carriers represented by the CUPW (Urban). Some mail delivery will continue over the first few days of the lockout to clear mail remaining in the system in suburban and rural areas where delivery employees are represented by a different bargaining unit.
■Street Letter Boxes, mail slots on Community Mail Boxes, and other Canada Post mail-receiving equipment have been cleared and sealed to prevent mail from being deposited.
■Through a previous agreement, Canada Post and CUPW will ensure that a number of socio-economic cheques will be delivered on June 20. Please visit canadapost.ca/cheques for more information.
Post Offices
■All post offices staffed by CUPW members are closed.
■Post Offices located in suburban and rural areas staffed by members of the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants (CPAA) continue to be open but cannot accept new mail.
■Authorized Dealer Post Offices are also open but cannot accept new mail. Some Dealer Post Offices may be operating at reduced hours.
■Post Offices that remain open offer limited products such as MoneyGram and Money Orders but no new mail will be accepted. Many open Post Offices will also have parcels and other mail items delivered prior to the lockout available for customers to pick up.
Electronic Services
■Canada Post’s website, canadapost.ca, is fully operational and offers up-to-date information on the labour situation.
■The Electronic Shipping Tools and Online Business Centre are operational, but some functions may be limited.
■epost is fully operational and remains a recommended tool for consumers to use for important communications and to receive statements and effect payments to many financial institutions, utilities, and retailers.
Service Guarantees
■Effective immediately, all service guarantees are suspended, pending resolution of the labour situation. Check product terms and conditions on canadapost.ca for more information.
Duration
■Canada Post cannot predict how long the current labour situation will last.
■We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this situation is causing. We are making every attempt to reach a settlement and resume normal operations as soon as possible

As for Air Canada - I hope they get it figured out before Jay travel to Nova Scotia next week on them - or maybe better yet he should just rebook his flight on another carrier!

Please Don't Complain

I have been seeing a lot of my friends post on Facebook how expensive gas is. Now as we all know, this happens over time, the price of gas increases and then decreases depending on what is happening around the globe. We get sticker shock, so to speak, then we get over it. We pay the price of the gas because we have to get places and driving is the easiest way to get around. But, really if I hear anymore of my American friends complaining about paying $3.50 a gallon, I am going to scream!
Now you may look at this picture and say: "Wow, only $1.37 for gas"...but really that is $1.37 per liter. And in a gallon there are 3.78541178 liters, so we pay roughly $5.50 a gallon! With that said, the picture below shows how much it cost to ALMOST fill up my tank....

Yes, that is correct....$120.50! and it would have cost more and the car would have taken more gas, but they have this really neat feature on the pumps that only allows you to fill up to $120 when you use your debit card, nice right?!?!

Seriously, I know it is expensive in the States, but until you pay what we pay here in Montreal or other parts of Canada or even Europe, please stop complaining!

And thanks for listening to my rant for the day!

What A Name!

Last week Jay was out traveling to a branch of the local dealer and he came upon this sign. It is so funny that he actually turned the car around and pulled into the parking lot so that he could take a picture of it.

Yes, that says what you think, The Butt Hole! Nice name for a store right? Seriously, I want to meet the person who came up with the name and just in case you are wondering, it is a tobacco store.