harumph

the plan was to sell the wedding dress. what really happened was that we found the place, went in and had dress inspected, were turned down and left dejectedly, and then treated ourselves to pho.

not just any pho. pho nam. i would suggest none of you ever go there. it wasn't so bad inside, nice and roomy... and empty. that should have been the first indication. but there was music so we chatted away. until one of the guys came out from the back and got on the phone (they mustn't have a phone in the back) and started yelling and swearing about people dying and how this guy better get his *ss to the restaurant right now because somebody's gonna die tonight. you die, i die, i don't care. somebody's gonna die [all with a chinese accent... and throw in the usual swear words - j does a great impression]. so he finally hangs up and goes and sits by the window. we're stunned and agree that we run if someone shows up with a gun. but we stayed and ate our food. he comes and clears our dishes without a word about his outbursts, like this is usual for a restaurant.

so we decided that pho nam ranks 3rd out of 3 of the pho places we have been togther, but 1st in drama! i might have gone back but that was before i woke up feeling like crap and the feeling has stayed with me the entire day. no thank you.

i leave you with a picture because pictures are fun.

rolo plays hockey just like me:

new hair cut!

i did it. i chopped off my hair again:



i'm really happy with it, but i haven't showered yet and had to deal with it. i'm guessing it won't look half as good as it does right now. but j likes it and i'm happy it's shorter. it probably won't be great for volleyball but i'll figure it out.

oh we also went out to the house and saw that they've framed the second story:



it is so much more real now that there is something physical. but soon enough all the changes will be inside where we can't see them. that will pass more slowly i think. i could be wrong.

okay, i wasn't going to write about this but i posted some pictures on flickr that might have you guessing. i had j take pictures of me in my wedding dress. it felt wrong, BUT like i told you already, i'm taking the dress in to hopefully sell it and i wanted some better pictures. the pictures are for me.

here is my favourite picture of me, possibly ever:


(thanks to alan for helping me with my comment situation. i can now delete comments whenever i want.)

gaining momentum

i feel like i'm gaining momentum at work. i'm getting more and more submissions and am finally pretty busy with my own work. i still have to have someone QC my stuff (new acronym! qc = quality control) so i'm not independent by any means. soon. soooon!

other than that, i guess you could say my life is gaining some momentum as well. now that i've signed myself up for both volleyball and hockey, i have something to do at least two nights a week, and our scrapbooking club is meeting once a week. all i need to do is throw knitting in there and i'll be all set - and busy!

i'm getting my hair cut tonight. i actually made an appointment. this is a first. i haven't quite decided how short to go so i'll guess we'll see what happens. i'll post pictures tonight or tomorrow. i should also have more pictures of the house since we'll be heading out there tonight too.



tomorrow night i'm bringing my wedding dress to a shop in town (cedar closet) that sells second-hand dresses. i really hope they'll agree to sell it for me. i'm kinda ashamed for holding on to it for so long. i could have made more girls happy in the time that it sat in my closet. what matters, though, is that i do this now and that's what i'm doing.

i've been super lazy lately and not exercising as much as i should. i don't like how my body is looking so i've decided to start running at lunch at work. today is my first day. i'm going to run and then come back and eat lunch and continue working. wish me luck!

volleyball begins

get it? batman begins... the movie? get it? okay great!

i know i know. two posts in one day when i forget about you for a whole weekend. truth is i didn't forget about blogging this weekend, i just wasn't ready. i wasn't feeling it. cause you know, with the gems i churn out, it takes time. ha!

so we had our first volleyball game tonight. only it was cancelled. so we had a meeting instead. but it was good because i got to meet everyone (organizing 7 girls is much easier than 12. just sayin) and everyone got to try on our jerseys. i'm a small (useLESS info i know) but my belly might show a little if i have to block or stretch at all. oh well.

i'm feeling much better about it, less nervous, now that i've met everyone and they seem nice. i may still suck but i can only get better.

in other news (i'm amy poeller) tania has a blog. i'm not sure how i missed this but i did. but now i'm on board. i even commented. first one! welcome blogland and thanks for your comments.

donating vs giving money

you may have seen the signs around town or if you work for the government you definitely know that it is united way season. since i'm new at work i was volunteered to canvas for the united way. i grew up canvassing for a different charity every month (i think i've said this before) and learned that it has to be done but that i don't like doing it.

of the ten people on my list, 3 flat out said no, but the other 7 have either already donated or are filling in their forms as we speak.

i would much rather do something. take this past weekend for example. i played in a co-ed 3 pitch tournament. it was $200 per team (i paid my $20 share) and all proceeds go to the children's wish foundation. that makes me happy AND gets me out of the house being active.

bottom line - i like donating money, but i would rather pay and get something out of it, like a race or a tournament. okay, enough about that.

let's back it up to friday. friday afternoon we had to leave work early to meet with a lawyer. we chose a very italian man who seems nice. he charges the going rate for house stuff so we're happy. our appointment was at 2pm so we got home just after 3pm. j naps but i'm thinking that i would normally still be at work so i'm running all around the house getting all sorts of things done with my bonus time. we deicded to take friday night off and do things we needed to do and generally just sit. we were really busy all week and needed some down time. we watched slevin that night and i almost made it all the way though without falling asleep but i'm afraid i missed some keys parts right near the end.

most of my time saturday and sunday was spent at the tournament. saturday j went to deep river for the quasi-annual bbq with the car guys. there was some drama on the way there but i won't give details. just know that someone completely flipped out but it wasn't j. (i might tell the tale later on.. we will see.) saturday night, j went out and i stayed home. good thing too because i was exhausted. definitely in bed early.

after baseball sunday i napped hardcore. i went to k2's place for scrapbooking. i managed to complete 2 pages (not as many as i would have liked) but i sliced open my finger with one of my cutting tools. oops! at least it was a nice, deep cut that only bled oh about 10 pints.

and now it's a new week and i'm sneezing all over my cubicle - watch out, office mates! yes, i remember the freezer paper stencils and yes, we can get together and make a shirt sometime. i will decide on a date soon so keep checking back. anyone else who is interested, feel free to comment on here or email me.

sock knitting - am i ever glad this isn't a knitting blog... you would all be so disappointed in me

last night i knit and knit and knit some more. i'm knitting away on my first ever sock. i got the cheapest sock yarn they had since this is my see-if-i-actually-like-knitting-socks pair of socks and it's ug-mo! check it out:



from this picture you can also tell the following:
a) i wear comfy clothes at home (jogging pants and a sweatshirt)
b) i use blankets, yes, not one blanket, but two blankets, because i am cold-blooded
c) i sometimes wear pink
d) rolo (far left) was being good and let me knit; sandy (off camera, on the floor) had just fallen off the couch
e) i still have a long way to go on my ug-mo socks as they will now be known

anyone want socks for christmas? they're ugly! no? okay fine.

the biggest loser started last night, to my surprise. we had actually gotten home from work, i made a mazillion phone calls like planned, and then we went for dinner at j's grandparent's place. so when we got home and i bunkered down on the couch (with my jogging pants, kitties, knitting and blankets) i was happily surprised to find biggest loser on.

but it wasn't that great. and i found myself watching america's next top model more for that hour. it wasn't that great either(but it never is). what's happening to me? am i moving on in my likes for tv? i'm currently in love with grey's anatomy, which is on tonight conveniently, but i'm not even all that concerned that we missed prison break on monday and still have yet to see it. i'm evolving.

that's an interesting word. last night we watched a documentary (and then a discussion about the documentary) about religion and acts of terrorism (there was much more to it, but that gives you an idea). the studio audience had a lively discussion afterwards and both j and i love the show's host who acted as mediator. he was quick and witty but also very smart and asked provocative questions. in my opinion, the woman from the united church was very well-spoken BUT she, and everyone else who spoke more than once, repeated their arguments over and over.

you must know by now that i hate confrontation and dislike strongly discussing religion and/or politics because, while i generally have opinions (generally but not always), i don't like arguing and don't think i'm a stellar debator. that doesn't mean i don't like watching other people debate on the tv where i can yell at them all i want and tell them i think they're stupid and that they've said the same thing 6 times.

the next documentary and debate happens next wednesday and the topic is global warming. i was saddened to see that david attenborough had thrown his weight behing global warming. he was the cornerstone of every good documentary i saw in my four years of sciencey undergrad. he told me that fig trees are parasitic and showed me the variety of life in the canopy of rainforests and taught me about whale communication. he even took me way down to the darkest depths of the ocean and gave me nightmares about lantern fish (watch nemo - that scary guy actually exists!)

i don't personally know what to believe about global warming. i have learned that the earth's temperature is cyclical. that much i know for sure. whether humans are actually affecting the cycle, or speeding it towards the hot end, i don't know and i don't think anyone knows for sure. we weren't around for the last greenhouse age (ice age = cold, greenhouse age = hot). we don't know what it was like for certain.

either way, to have someone as important as david attenborough put himself so squarley behind something so not clearly factual is weird for me.

and that is that.

in non-philosophical news, we bought a joint birthday present for j's parents. we will be sending it off tomorrow so you can open it together (no peaking on the plane!) i hope you like it!

the week is dragging its feet

is anyone else having an excruciatingly long week? be over already! why isn't it friday yet? honestly.

let me tell you about my sad night last night. it started out well with a huge long nap (good). and then i missed hockey (bad). and then i had a cookie (good). and then i went to the walk-in clinic because i was positive i had an ear infection (bad). saw the doctor who told me to swallow more to clear up clogged, but not infected, ear (good, kinda). but it was the dopey doctor (bad). then i got myself mcdonalds because i didn't want to cook (yummy, but bad). j went to the gym (good) but i stayed home, ate my mcfood and watched my mctv on my mcfat ass (bad). my ear spontaneously stopped hurting (good). i went to bed early, despite napping (good).

and that about sums it up. i'm feeling better today though. maybe i won't need to sleep the whole evening and night away. i have things to do.

with all of our friends buying up houses and actually getting the keys and moving in, our still-ridiculously-far-away closing date seems silly but is very good for saving up money. now, if only we knew how much money we will need. and so my tasks for the night include many a call. call #1: bank lady, and if that doesn't work, call #2: house lady. call #3: lawyer, cause we need to finalize some papers we signed two weeks ago. three calls. okay, that's not too bad.

maybe we can squeeze some grocery-getting and some vegetable-cutting in there too. and, if i'm really lucky, some costco-patronizing. if the membership was in my name WE (aka me. just me. me alone.) would go more often. thankfully payday is today so we have cash... unless it's already been moved by the saving-nazi (aka j). it's one thing to have money and feel good about savings and all that, but it's quite another to squirrel away all of your dispensable income so you live paycheque-to-paycheque like hobos (because i am really that hard-done-by).

and there you have it: the post of impossible dashes and brackets.
*batman bowing for the applauding crowd*

final - final? - birthday post

i would like to say that this is the last post for j's birthday but i really can't be sure. there just might be something else brewing on the horizon. the birthday horizon.

we went straight to the airport last night to collect j's dad who is in town this week. j, being the organized soul that he is, got us there approximately one hour and 25 minutes early. we parked where planes flew right over us and i napped. oh did i nap!

and when i woke up, hungry and full of pee, we had to boot it to the terminal and made it there with about 30 seconds to spare. we like living on the edge. we then made our way to j's grandparents place after a quick stop off at home (our cats have needs too you know!)

the last birthday event was tonight: dinner at gramma's with the whole family. dinner was good and cake was better. j got to open all sorts of presents and was sung to in the best way.



i'm hoping that this is it. no more birthday events. no more birthday anything. at least not until it's my birthday. me me me! you understand.

random updates

1. i cancelled my gym membership. i'm sad to see it go, but i haven't been using it. and besides, i should be busy enough with volleyball and hockey and my other hobbies that are pilling up.

2. our house now has walls:



3. j's dad is coming to town. we have to pick him up from the airport tonight after work.

4. speaking of work, j is no longer working compressed hours - which is great for our carpooling situation considering we were working more hours than i was being paid for, but less than he was.. on a regular day. this way we both work exactly the number of hours we are paid for. and we're only at work for 8 hours a day.

5. j's birthday bonanza continued with a dinner at lone star. him and julie both had to stand on their chairs (the bench acutally since 6 of us were crammed into a booth) and wear these ridiculously big blue foam hats while everyone sang to them:



6. we get to collect money from the lottery tickets julie and matt got for j for his birthday. $14!

7. the birthday bonanza continues tonight with dinner with j's family. more prezzies!

j's weekend birthday bonanza

happy 25th birthday, j! now you can't make fun of me for being old... at least not until january.



here's what went down. friday, j's actual birthday, was also his compressed day off. being the nice girlfriend that i am i took the day off too (can you say selfish??) so we slept in like it was our job. then we did lots and lots of little things. i gave him his present (i actually left it in the bathroom where i knew he would see it so i wouldn't forget (see nice girlfriend above)), we went out and bought his other present, he got his hair cut, we saw his grandmother, and we went out for pho.

and then the night began. we met some friends out at the heart and crown.



and proceeded to consume 9 pitchers of keiths and one round of 50 (not me thankfully) and j was given two or three shots. the best quote from the night:

"i'm not focusing. there's no point."

needless to say there was some puking when we got home, but what birthday is complete without too much alcohol and a little puke? honestly.

saturday we again slept in like it was our job. j woke up still drunk. we were just hanging out when someone knocked on the door. it was my parents who came to give j his present. we also gave my mom her present while max tried to make friends with our cats through the screen door. it didn't go well.

j did yardwork and i cleaned the kitchen and then we went to get our license plate sticker. we ended up staying in that night just watching random tv and eating cake. but the birthday weekend continues with dinner tonight with the guys (for julie's birthday too - happy birthday, julie!) and dinner tomorrow night with his family. it never ends.

(welcome to blogland, special k!)

hockey, knitting, tee-shirt making and partying

so hockey was good. it felt kind of not good being back on my skates because they had some dull spots along the blades and almost made me wipe out a couple of times. the level of play in the league is definitely lower than i expected, though i should have had some clue when my team leader (manager essentially) said that we had a good team because everyone knew how to stop. it's slow and ugly, but that works to my advantage because everyone thinks i'm really good. i won't get any better but i'll be on the ice. overall i think it's worth it.

but now i'm thinking i should drop my gym membership. i have been approximately one times in the past two months. paying for something i'm not using. smart. maybe i'll do that tomorrow.

last night i picked up some wool and some needles and tried, over and over, to do the magic cast-on for a pair of toe-up socks. let me tell you why i love the idea of making socks toe-up: i have extremely loooong feet. making a pair of socks starting at the top with a limited amount of wool is flirting with disaster. they might not be long enough for my skis, errr, feet. toe-up will allow me to make them long enough in the feet and continue on until i have no yarn left. perfect. so i'm learning this very impressive method, though i've modified it a little (and that makes me sound like a knitter-extraordinaire, but alas, i am not. i am knitter-lazyous-and-cheaperdoo and do not have the required needles) and am quite pleased that i am able to achieve the same result using three double-pointed needles instead of the boggling four. i am inventive!

after playing with that while j napped on the couch "watching" spongebob, i scarfed down some chicken with rice (which sounds like a flavour of catfood, but i assure you was people food) and headed over to grace o'malleys. our coach from the summer signed himself up for the army and is off to boot camp tomorrow. we got him all liquored up (for free! thanks to our sponsorship deal with the bar) and said nice things. i was home by 11.

this has been a long week thanks to the wedding show last weekend. so i've decided to take tomorrow off. a present to me (time off work, duh) and a birthday present for j (i like to think). i just have to run it by the boss.

sporty mcsporterson

i got on a hockey team and i start tonight. tonight! my gear has been gathering dust and spiders in the basement for a year and a half and i'm supposed to play? tonight?

a girl from my ball team found this league and told me about it last week. it took until last night to get ahold of the league coordinator to find out that there are still spots available, but in order to play in playoffs i have to play tonight.

specs: it's an intramural league organized by the gloucester women's hockey association. there are games every tuesday night between 6:30 and 10:30pm at carleton university. it only runs until the new year so is kind of expensive but i am so excited. SO excited!

my team's leader contacted me today and i was able to ask her some questions by email. sounds like it's pretty laid back and fun and i should fit in skill-wise.

so it looks like my winter, at least until the new year (so shall we call it fall?), will have me playing volleyball monday nights, hockey tuesday night, knitting one night and scrapbooking at least one night. j is wondering when i will see him in all of this. j, the great part about living together is that you get to see me from the minute i get home until the minute i leave. if you really miss me you can even watch me sleep, unless that gets too creepy. i've said to much.

can you tell i'm not political?

i just erased a post that i had started. it had nothing to do with the date. today's date is important in so many ways to so many people. to me the big difference between today and any other day is that everyone else is thinking about the past. there was no music on the radio this morning. just talk.

can i remember what i was doing when everything went down five years ago? nope. can i remember what i was doing when princess diana died? or when the pope died? nope and nope.

is it a matter of me being forgetful, absent minded, plain dumb? i don't think so. i am one hundred percent positive that i would remember these things if i was personally affected. if i had lost someone that day there's no way i would forget. in my little bubble world, especially five years ago when i lived in "the queen's bubble", i bounce around and only notice the things that directly influence me and whether i will have food for my belly, a bed to sleep in and, 5 years ago, alcohol to drink.

i've changed a lot in the past 5 years but that doesn't mean i remember where i was when the tsumani hit last year or what i was doing when i learned australia's steve irwin was killed. i just don't work that way.

i try and remember the important-to-me things in my little self-centered world. i remember very clearly the night i was "asked out" by my first serious boyfriend. i remember the day we brought our cats home and how much they squeeked the whole way. i remember the day we paid off my student loan and how good it felt to finally be even. even if "even" meant i had no money to my name. at least i didn't have debt.

but i think part of getting older is having time speed up. you've been there done that for so many things that the days go by quicker. you have another birthday and hardly notice. you go to work day in and day out. sure little things change but it all blends into a summer or a year or a decade.

i've heard people say that their [fill in the year]st/nd/rd/th year was their best. i've never looked at my life that way. there are tons things i try to do: i try to stay active and healthy (which seems to get harder all the time), i try to stay busy and involved with things that are important to me, i try to stay in contact with people close to me who are far away.

one thing i never try to do is get more involved in politics. don't get me wrong: i read and watch the news every day and i listen to the radio. i am not sheltered (by choice or by chance) and i do vote every chance i get. however i do not write letters. i do not belong to any political party. i do not discuss world issues with my colleagues or friends. mostly, it is because i do not have an opinion. to tie it all together: it doesn't affect me, or i don't notice it's affect, so it doesn't bother me.

this is not a blase view of the world. this is a coping mechanism. if you let things bother you they will bother you. you can turn off your response to things by not noticing them or avoiding them completely. we have the ability, consider it a strength, to be able to focus on what's important to us and survive with our minds intact, free of unwarranted worry for souls unknown. we can then devote more of our worry-time to people we know and love. the people who hopefully don't want to talk politics over dinner. at least not with me.

eureka?

for a long time now i've wanted to be able to make designs for teeshirts. i like the idea of having unique clothing but if you know me you know that i'm not very good at shopping or spending money or finding clothes that fit. all together i don't have near as many clothes as most girls and when i do find something i like that fits, i usually buy two. different colours, but still two. honestly.

so i was looking at my knitting blogs and came to grumperina's blog. she's a crazy good knitter who's all about the process but her post today was all about stenciling images onto clothing. she has a link describing the process. doesn't sound hard at all and is much cheaper than buying one of those transfer machines. sounds like something i could do!

i already have plenty of ideas and am super excited about the whole prospect of making unique stuff (christmas presents, anyone?) so i'm going to be testing it out on some crappy shirts i have (definition, crappy: shirts that were acquired, ie. free, and are usually much too large for this girl) and see how it goes. there is even a group on flickr dedicated to this method of stenciling called the freezer paper method.

anyone local want to give it a try? i'm thinking sometime next weekend since i'm working all this weekend at the wedding show. that reminds me, if anyone is thinking of getting married and wants to come by the show it's open 10 till 5 and there is no admission charge. check out the website.

i'll leave you with a picture of rolo in a bin:

better picture

we went back to our new house yesterday while there was still daylight. here's the best picture of the trip:


it was neat to be able to see the foundation and try and guess at what models the other houses are. we figure the one attached to us is the same model but not the one on the other side. you can tell by the placement of the basement windows and whether the front porch part sticks out of not. i'm sure a builder could tell you based on a million other things.. just like certain scientists working in africa with elephants can tell them apart just by looking at them. obviously.

we also jumped down into the hole (gasp!) and walked around to the back of the house. the distance from the house to the back fence is not so far on the left side (garage side) but is super far on the other side. our lot is somewhat pie-shaped. our attached neighbours have a crappy lot but the ones on the other side have a ginormous lot BUT they back onto another house. tradeoffs my friends. we have no neighbours to the back. only the sweet sweet sound of cars going by.

when we went by the other night it was super dark and we got mud all over ourselves, or, maybe just on our shoes. either way, we were dragging our feet on the street to try and get rid of the mud when i spotted the newly-sodded front lawn of our new neighbours. grass! yesterday you could still see where we wiped our feet. oops! hopefully they a) don't notice, or b) don't care. you better believe i was giggling the whole time!

and that concludes my story house story for today.

where is the sun?

i would have been much less cranky had there been sun this weekend. as it was, i found myself feeling gloomy for no reason.

despite my downdedness i did have a good weekend. i got home from work friday to find j at home. he had gone windsurfing at britannia beach and expected to be out there much longer. so that was nice. we packed up the car and stopped by m&m before heading out of town. m&m is actually a tim horton's parking lot where people with cars gather every friday night. i kid you not. and now that we belong to a car club we go. not every friday, but a lot of fridays. we had to collect money as it were.

so we pull up, car fully loaded with cottage gear and windsurfer (the board is 8 feet long and on roofracks), and park beside that guy. you know the one with the black car with super dark black tint, green underglow lights with the stereo pumping out bass (which should be "base" in my opinion, just like "mic" should be "mike", anyways). at one point i went to the car to grab something and orlando or whatever his name was told me that he liked the setup. i wasn't sure if he was making fun of the fact that a car with roofracks dared park beside him or if he somehow knew that the car is actually turboed and has other stuff done to it. but no, he was talking about the windsurfer. i personally would be surprised if this guy could swim let alone windsurf but i am not one to judge.

so cottage. right. we got there just before midnight. i managed to screw up my knitting in the car so i only got a couple of rows done. we went to bed almost right away (i had a stressful day at work okay!)

and then we slept. i slept for a solid 12 hours. and that didn't even mean i couldn't nap during the day. oh no, i napped. for two hours. i am the sleep champion! so anyways, j went windsurfing and i sat on the beach:

does that look like a happy girl to you? it was cold. it wasn't sunny and it was windy. at least the cold weather means that that ginormous spider from earlier in the summer wasn't there.

we decided to head home that night because the crappy weather and the lack of things left to do. i left my cookies in the cupboard.

i rented the first season of grey's anatomy and watched 7 episodes while j was out doing something. why haven't i been following grey's anatomy? i love it! just what i need: another show to chain me to my television. but really, i like it. i just need to see last season and i'll be all caught up.

sunday was my family bbq party thingy. it was my dad's side and it was a good time. i even went to a barn and pet (patted?) a horse. it felt remarkably like our cats.

j and i went out to the house and found that the foundation has been poured! and there are fence posts up for the privacy fence (we back onto a road) so next time we're there (hopefully in daylight) we'll be able to see our whole lot and tell how big it is.


moday was our bonus day off. i went to see my parents and brother in kanata and then convinced j to try pho. there's a new pho place right near our house. we went. he was brave and tried a beef and shrimp spicey soup. he was sweating buckets by the end of it. i had my vermicelli and was happy as a clam. but i'm proud of him for branching out and trying it. he even drank some of the lemongrass tea. impressive!

i watched a bunch of stupid tv and started my sock. the needles are so puny and annoying, but i think i'm getting the hang of it. i screwed up in the ribbing (the very first bit) so i decided to try all the elements so i'm already at the heel but there's less than 3 inches of sock before the heel. get it? the cats were a big help. i had a hard time watching prison break because of the concentration required with such small everything.

notification: long weekend plans

this week has been a long one. stressful and tiring and full of things. but now it's the weekend. and a long weekend to boot.

this is what i've already accomplished:
- 1.5 hour nap
- ....

this is what we'll be doing:
- heading to m&m for car things, mainly to collect $10 pizza money
- heading to cottage, for windsurfing and closing
- back in town sunday, see our kitties and family bbq on k's side
- i'm sure there was something else sunday or monday but i can't remember

now it's food time before my stomach completely digests itself. grrowwwllllll! that was it so i better go. it's nice to be back.