Friday, March 31

preparations

run around mode

i got up very early to get j to the airport. i got home and got ready for work, hopped on the bus and got to work at 7:30. it was a crazy day and a crazy long day, but i survived. once i was on my way home on the bus, i knew i needed some sleep. i couldn't concentrate on my book the way i get when i'm tired, not just distracted.

recovery mode

i slept. i slept and slept and slept. i got home and checked my email and the phone for messages and then went to bed. i slept for two and a half hours. mmmmmm.

preparation mode

i filled myself with food and set out to prepare the house for sunday. i knew that since i was working all weekend i was going to be pressed to find time for this so tonight seemed like a good time. i did dishes and laundry and vacuumed and put stuff away. the house still looks messy, but the mess is in piles. there's something to be said for piles. plus i got rid of all the spiders.

me mode

i'm always in me mode. never am i not myself. and you know what.. i'm proud of that.

Thursday, March 30

silly cookie

i was so excited to get my pay cheque and then i forgot to cash it. money does not make you interest while sitting in your pocket. must remember to go to a bank tonight.

it's taken until now (well last saturday was the first time i noticed it) that when you google my first name this blog does not show up. after j's run in with identity theft, i did everything i could to take my personal information off this site and it finally worked. identity theft is more real than you think it is. get yourself a shredder!

well this week is coming to an end very soon. friday brings with it m's last day of work. i will definitely miss our lunches and our ~100 daily emails. friday also brings a pizza lunch for me and my team for a job well done. i have to get up mega early to get j to the airport so i'm sure i'll be grouchy and groggy most of the day, but hopefully i'm not a crank pot for my date friday night.

this weekend is going to be killer. i have to work full days both saturday and sunday and manage to get the house clean - and i mean clean enough for s to move in - by saturday night when they're expecting to get back. those two are crazy enough to try and make the 1800 kilometers in one go. good luck!

Wednesday, March 29

monay monay monayyyyy

i got my first government cheque today. sweeeeeet!

today's also a good day because i switched from winter jacket and tuke, mitts and scarf to light spring jacket. it's light green and fits well. it makes me happy.

this week is flying by, which is good. this is a heavy week with fiscal year-end and uncertainty of future due to a new government. but let's not talk politics. we don't even have to say we have. i hate talking politics.

last night j and i had a great dinner with a&s. they cooked us a wonderful meal. i'm looking forward to trying the dessert that i missed out on.

even though i had a great time, i'm looking forward to a night in tonight. i'll get home and we'll go to the gym, but then the night is mine. we have some chicken to cook and there are tons of little things to be done that you really need a whole night to tackle. things like laundry and cleaning. i'm sure there's tv to watch too.

speaking of tv and media and such, i'm still on my no-celebrity-gossip diet and i've lost 10 pounds! (diet - pounds... get it? i haven't actually lost any weight though.. not that i'm trying to lose weight....) i love that i no longer care about people i don't know and will never meet because their world is not the same as my world. my world has people who have to work 9-5 desk jobs to feed and house themselves. people who can shop in no matter what store and only be recognized by long-forgotten high school acquaintances. people who are so much more real than celebrities.

wedding show this weekend. don't forget to tell all your happily-engaged friends!

Tuesday, March 28

we're sick of waiting for an answer

on becoming a girl: i broke a nail last night. it was not pleasant.

on stupid drivers: generally, if a car and a bike collide, it's the car's fault. generally.

on work: it's nice to be alone in the swamp (my little office-for-four).

on babies: holy babies! is every woman pregnant?? shitdamn.

on books: i'm loving a short history of nearly everything. it makes me feel good knowing that i'm learning something. kinda like how it felt nice to be tested on biology stuff.

on friends and family: it's nice to have them even if you don't see them or speak to them in a while, it's nice to know that they are there and you will eventually see them again.

on cookies: cookies?! where have you been all my life?

on ridiculous posts: what? you have a problem with my posts?

Monday, March 27

on the theme of finishing projects, i also finished the scarf for jess. she sold the second most tickets for our comedy night. we went out and picked out some wool and i finally got it all put together and added the fringe last night. she's working with me this weekend at the wedding show so i'll give it to her then.

i wish i could say that i finished goliath - my scrapbook for 2005 - but when i got together with julie saturday night, i worked on my 2006 book. see, the pressure's off for finishing goliath because i'm so close and i'm still waiting on the last pictures (i ordered them from on online print store) so i couldn't have finished it even if i put the title on that one page. i think i'm maturing when it comes to my scrapbooking style. when i go back and look at the first pages i made you can see how far i've come. even j noticed and commented saturday night.. and this was after splitting two pitchers with two other people ("i'm not drunk, i'm just loud!")

j's dad was in town.. basically he flew in and out of here, but spent a couple of days in kingston. so we had dinner twice with j's family so that was nice. maybe i should go and see my family at some point.

Friday, March 24

the baby blanket

i finished the baby blanket i was knitting for landon and sheri. j used to work closely with landon while in his co-op, but now they just email back and forth with some other guys from the old group. they do this ALL DAY LONG. anyways, sheri is about to pop.

a close-up picture of the wool:



and a picture of the detail around the edges:



whoohooooo being done! and now for jess' scarf. it will finally get the attention it deserves.

shamelessness

i shamelessly plugged my mom's wedding show (link) on the whiteboard in the kitchen at work. this is what i wrote:

ottawa wedding show .com
April 1st and 2nd
Lansdowne
free to get in!

i walked by a couple hours later and someone else had written a smart comment underneath:

however, the marriage will cost you.

i laughed and then i laughed some more.

Thursday, March 23

no white flag above my door

last night i was a party animal. i got home from work, kinda late because the bus stopped but didn't open the doors and drove on. weird, eh? so i was a senior citizen and called to complain. anyways, i get home and have a quick nap standing in the kitchen. we ate food and i watched millionaire, jeopardy and deal or no deal. quite the tv marathon night. i also knit the baby blanket until i had no wool left, which, unfortunately, did not coincide with the blanket being complete. so i put it down and got back to work on the scarf for jess. i'm going to need to get more wool for both projects i think. and then i went to bed at 9:30. i warned you. i'm not the go-out kinda girl i used to be.

i'm also fighting off the cold that's going around. that's my excuse.

i'll post from home with pictures.

Tuesday, March 21

dear flickr, i love you

as you can see from my new flickr badge on the right, i have forayed* into the online picture world known to many. flickr is AMAZING. my only beef is the monthly upload limit that is, in my opinion, much much too smal. get it? smal? moving on.

we went to gatineau looking for a walk and some picture opportunities. apparently the ncc doesn't plow their roads in the winter and so the walk to the really scenic places was too long for ill-prepared us. instead, we went to hog's back falls and snapped away to our hearts' content. the falls:



j got some really good pictures of the cats. rolo is the brown one and sandy is the orange one:




i haven't been sleeping enough lately and that's not a good thing with all the sickness going around. so tonight's the night. i'm going to bed early, and since the boss lady isn't in tomorrow, i just might sleep in a little. just a wee bit.

* please note, this is definitely the first time i have used the word forayed

Sunday, March 19

weekend nothingness

friday night for me was a bust. i stayed in and talked on msn - a very strange occurrence for me - to a guy i hardly know. very odd night. i meant to knit and watch a movie. instead i sat at the computer and watched las vegas. does anyone actually watch that show. one of the female charaters irks me so much. she had fake lips and fake boobs. i find it hard to look at her because she is so out of proportion. there is something to be said for the correct proportions on a human body, especially in today's age of plastic surgerizing everything.

yesterday i got up and checked the messages on the phone. i had one from an alarm company saying my parents' place had a burgulary alarm. i couldn't be ahold of them so it was a weird ten minutes until i was able to contact the alarm people. guess i should get the password for that.

last night we went to lick's for the first time. talk about a themed restaurant. i had the best veggie burger i've ever had though. congratulations, lick's, you've really outdone yourselves.

we also bought a new camera. we realized that there are going to be multiple weekends this summer where we'll be apart and both want to have the camera. so we splurged and bought a digital slr. i can give you the specs if you're really curious, but it's basically an entry-level slr, but it's more than we need. it fun to take pictures with and we took ~100 yesterday alone including this gem of sandy:

Friday, March 17

the week's fun

instead of knitting last night we had a pizza potluck. m (captain pants) made the dough and everyone brought toppings. it was really good.

but i have been knitting. lots actually. i took pictures but none turned out very well. i'll leave you in suspense.

today is st. patty's day, but i'm not going out. my stomach has been bothering me lots today so i'm staying home and watching tv and knitting. yikes, i'm getting old.

i was checking out the race site (link) today and was pleased to learn that ottawa is hosting the first ever canadian wheelchair marathon. huge athletes will be coming from all over. i'm planning on volunteering again this year so hopefully i'll see the race. i also saw a news bit on the hour (link) about how the paralympics get so little coverage. i wonder if that will change.

so, happy drinking to everyone irish (which is every single person today). i'll be with my kitties on the couch watching tv.

Thursday, March 16

do i really want to know?

my johari window (link). please take a minute and tell me what you think about me. i'm really curious.

my nohari window (link). same deal. tell me what you think.

and yes, i do really want to know.

Wednesday, March 15

it's cool to love your family

i listened to some music this afternoon from new music canada (link) by the stars and feist. they are both solid bands, but maybe not my favourite. or it could be that they're new to me and i'm tired and working. hmm. i will definitely give them both another honest try and report back.

let's talk about useless meetings. if you work in government you know what i'm talking about. i had two yesterday and one today. why? what is it about the government that makes people want to get together and talk about things that either don't matter, don't matter to everyone, or are just plain useless (like, you could have told me that by email instead of dragging my fat ass* up three flights of stairs!)

i was ultra productive today. i'm earning my keep. i can't wait to leave though so i can read my book.

oh, and by the way, i'm on my third day without celebrity gossip and i'm feeling good. honestly. who needs that crap anyways?

*the fact that i take the stairs should be indication enough, but just to clarify, i do not have a fat ass. in my opinion of course.

Tuesday, March 14

big relief

i had my test this afternoon. it was a three-hour long written test for a biology position with health canada. i smacked down the test in just over an hour. i am very pleased with my performance and can't wait for the next step. the next step is an interview. and i was double pleased to learn that there are only 12 of us writing the exam and that last time they ran a competition for these entry-level jobs, all 12 were hired within 6 months. i just have to dazzle them in the interview. SO.EXCITED!

okay, i was so windy today. i left my building at lunch and you know when it's so windy you can't breathe? well it was that windy. there were points when i was walking and not moving. i mean, i know my building creates weird wind tunnels (m, back me up here!), but it was super windy everywhere. i'm glad it wasn't garbage day. last time we lost our black box.

i'm making good progress on my baby blanket. i'm not quite half done, but it goes by really quickly and i can't put it down and now the guilt about not studying for the test is gone so hopefully i'll whip the blanket up in no time.

Monday, March 13

really?

so we're half way through march. anyone else find that a little crazy? it was so nice and sunny and warm saturday, but then the rain came.

my brother was in town this weekend, but when we went over to my parents place to see him, everyone was sick. we didn't stay long.

i'm trying to think of what else we did, but it really wasn't much. it was a relaxing weekend.

we did learn that our cats go crazy for cat nip. so crazy that rolo will actually follow you to the cupboard where it's kept. he's a little ocd like that. we have funny video of him trippin out.

and now for some knitting news: i started a baby blanket for our friends landon and sheri, who are very pregnant. it's really neat (link) because it's knit on the diagonal. i had to switch from two straight needles to some circulars to fit it all. it's excited for the blanket. i'm almost half done.

upcoming:

- i have a written test tomorrow afternoon for a job at health canada. this is a 6-12 month term biology position, so i'm really hoping for it, but you never know.

- my s&b group is having a pizza potluck dinner this thursday night. a little spin on our regular night.

- j's sister is moving here at the end of the month. i was going to fly out to thunder bay and drive back with her, but i can't.. because...

- my mom's wedding show (link) is the first weekend in april. like usual, i will be working all weekend and pocketing some mad cash.

and for those of you who didn't know, the government has renewed my contract, but has made me casual instead of agency. what this means for me: i get another $1 an hour, every hour. what this means for them: they get to pay less for my services. my contract now finishes july 19th. will i last that long? stay tuned.

eureka!

i've got it! i finally know what i'm giving up for lent. bear with me - i am not religious, i don't even know when lent started or when it will finish, but i've always wanted to give something up for lent. call me crazy and i'll be right there laughing with you.

all that aside, i've decided what it is i will live without for the duration (when does it end? easter?) drumroll please [pauses] [drumroll?] [who hired these people?? somebody get me a drumroll!] [DRUMROLL!] i am giving up celebrity gossip! no more reading the trashy part of metro every day. no more checking celebrity gossip blogs (they're already off my sidebar). no more channel hopping and stopping on e talk daily or whatever other crap show. i'm done!

i realized this is probably one of the best things i can do for myself and i'll tell you why. celebrities might as well be aliens. they are so unrealistic (reality shows can bite me!) and when i read that crap it doesn't make my life better. it doesn't make me feel better about myself. so i'm done. who's with me [jerry mcguire style]? who's with me [motions vigorously with fish in plastic baggie]?

Friday, March 10

moderate this!

last night was a nice, full evening, especially for a school night. i got home and almost immediately we left for somerset. we had dinner with some of j's car friends at the cleanest, brightest, nicest chinese restaurant i have ever been to. we bought a whole bunch of different plates and spun them around the centre of the table, grabbing whatever we wanted. we were the only ones in the whole place so the chef made us deepfried banana and ice cream for dessert. it was nice.

i left before everyone else to grab s and head to m's for some knitting madness. it was nice and calm and interesting and hardly madness at all. we talked about so many neat topics. i managed to get some work done on my last charity scarf, but nothing on my wavy scarf. i forgot the pattern at home anyways. so we were gabbing on about anything and everything and i look over at the clock and it's almost 11 (10:58pm to be exact) so we decide to start packing up.

i had parked on the street in the glebe in a huge and very deep puddle. so i climbed in through the passenger side, which was much easier with lumi who didn't have a centre console. i love the mazda, but it is a small car.

i get home and j was asleep. not unusual - it was late and we had a long day. but the funny part is that he didn't wake up even for a second with me stomping around the place (i try to be quiet, i really do!) not even when i had to rescue him from near strangulation from his ear phones.

so i wake up this morning and go into the bathroom. i look at the back of the door and there's a bug. ladies, when you live with a guy, it's the guy's job to deal with bugs. it's not that i can't handle them, it's that i don't want to. so i go downstairs and tell jon there's a bug in the bathroom. i'm glad you can't see my impression, because i stood in the kitchen and showed him what the bug looked like. this produced a lot of laughter from him and maybe some pouting from me. don't make fun of me! go and kill the damn bug!

so, any plans this weekend? i don't have any yet and i would like some. well, actually, my brother is coming to town so i guess i have some sort of plan in that i have to be at my parent's place for part of the weekend. and i have to crank out a scarf for the girl on my ball team who sold the most tickets.

Wednesday, March 8

comedy night a huge success!

it's finally over. it was such a good night. everything went pretty smoothly and the actual entertainment was funny.. sometimes crude, but funny. we managed to raise a chunk of cash for our team and had a great time doing it.

thank you to everyone who came out and supported me and my team.

i have to say, i'm surprised there weren't more lesbian softball player jokes....

let me tell you

i want to tell you about the germophobe in my office. let's call her germie. i see germie in the bathroom. there is one female bathroom on my floor so i tend to see a lot of the women in this office day-to-day in the bathroom. this is normal.

germie is so obviously terrified of germs. she goes to the bathroom, but not before she pulls some papertowels down. she leaves the papertowels hanging from the dispenser. then she pees. then she turns on the water. then she grabs the paper towels and wipes the handle she just used. then she washes her hands. then she grabs more papertowels. then she washes her hands again and uses to papertowels to turn off the faucet and get more papertowels. then she uses the final papertowel bunch to open the door and finish drying her hands. and then she's gone.

wow. maybe i should tell her about purrell. then should could just carry around a bottle and douse her hands whenever she got the creeping feeling that a single germ had entered her life. i'm glad i'm not her child. *rubs dirty hands in eyes*

Tuesday, March 7

you know it's spring when...

you know it's spring when you can smell the fresh dog shit.

i love how i wake up and the sun is already shining, and it's not because i've slept way in. i love how i've been able to not wear my track pants over my pants home from work twice in the last two weeks. i love seeing the snow melt, just before it uncovers all the brown crap underneath.

but, with the arrival of spring, we can expect to see a glaring lack of new snowmen. including ones like this little gem j and i came across not too long ago.



note the boobs and the contrasting neanderthal eyebrows. lovely really.

Monday, March 6

busses, yes, city busses

busses. i love them and i hate them. i hate how it takes more than 20 minutes for a bus that comes every ten. i hate how there is usually this drunk 40-ish gross disgusting man who insists on sitting near me. i hate how sometimes i have to stand. i hate how sometimes they break down. i hate waiting out in the cold.

but you know what i love. i love that i don't have to drive in rush-hour traffic. i love the randomness of talking to the strange people, or just observing them. i love that the bus gives me 25 minutes in the morning to just sit. i usually read my book, but sometimes i listen to my music and sometimes i listen to conversations going on around me. sometimes i watch people. sometimes i zone out and stare out the window at nothing and everything passing by.

most of all, i love that the bus takes away the sense of urgency. it takes away to rush in the morning. sure i run to the bus stop every morning, and sometimes i run home at night. i don't mind. i like that i have that time to not think, to just sit. so thank you busses, for every morning you give me 25 minutes of me time.

Sunday, March 5

i'm just a girl in the world. that's all that you'll let me beeeeeeee

friday felt like monday all day, so the weekend was a nice surprise. i didn't feel all worn out from work - that's what happens when you take three days off - so it was nice. i went to julie's friday night and almost finished my 2005 scrapbook. i'm still missing a couple of baseball pictures and need to put a title on the last page i made. i put the spine back in the album. it's huge. in fact, i named it "goliath". goliath the scrapbook. i'm weird.

because i trust you, i will admit that i wasn't looking forward to saturday night. i was invited to a slumber party. i was picturing girls in pj's doing each other's nails and hair and make-up, giggling about boys. instead it was a bunch of fun girls, sitting around eating good food and drinking sangria and wine. it was a good time and i'm glad i went. though if anyone had come at me with nail polish or hair spray, i would have walked right out that door. yuck. but it was fun.

today was so warm out and so nice and sunny. we finally got quicktax and went through it tonight. we couldn't figure out where to put my tuition or where to put the rent we paid, and we're still getting a huge refund. sweet! there's our australia trip paid for.

i just want to say that our little cats are so cute. they're fun and talkative and cuddly. they love attention. picture? okay. this is from about a week ago. i'm going to start putting more pictures up.



here's one of the car. for the car's birthday, we got it tinted:



such a sexy car.

Friday, March 3

annonnnnnnyyyymosity

i've been told that some people read this blog and i really had no idea. hmm. not sure what i think about that and not sure if it will affect my writing style (do i even have a writing style?) i'm going to say no - to the 'will it affect me' question. i'm not going to change anything. this blog is for me. if i say something a little too personal and it offends you - suck it up or don't come back. fair? good, i'm glad we understand each other.

this week has been a whirlwind complete with job-hunting, candy and chocolate, working and not working, and lots of family dinners. the job hunting was for s who is moving here. four weeks! four weeks! i'm so glad that we get along so well. i remember calling her a night in may two years ago now.. make that almost three years ago now - oops! - to tell her that j and i were engaged. i remember her words: you're shitting me! you've gotta be shitting me! i have to call mom and dad." and off she went. her dad was in bc and her mom was in cornwall. she called them both and called back 6 hours later (around 4 in the morning) to say she finally believed us and that she was happy for us. gee thanks. nice vote of confidence. to her defense, i had only met her once (maybe twice) (back off! lots has happened over the years. i remember the important things) and so she didn't know what we were like together.

so she was j's best man and my brother, s funnily enough, was my maid of honour. we really threw most traditions out the window. there is no one else i would have had in those two positions. there are just some things that are right. and having s & s there was right.

kind of like, but not like at all, how when we were test-driving cars, we would get back in one of our little cars (lumi the off-white beast who would turn off while driving down the street or the saturn who is still trucking amazingly enough) and talk about the car we were just in. what we liked about it and what we didn't like. with the mazda 3 we could only say good things. we were in love. it was right. it was perfect.

i'm glad that we agree on the big things. all the major things that we've gone through so far, getting engaged and married obviously being the biggest and most .. big.. hmph!, we've agreed on. we're very similar when it comes to the big things. big big big!

i think i'm losing it! good thing s left all her chocolate in ottawa and i can go home and prolong the gluttony-fest another day. until j hides it all on me. though i did find his chocolate hiding spot!

wow, check out the amazingly abundant use of adverbs in this post. definitely not my usual writing style.

and finally, from captain pants, my horoscope from crazyauntpurl.com for march:
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 - Feb. 18)
The two-step may have been fine for Fred and Ginger, but who wants to be taking two steps forward and two steps back every time they hit the ground? Not me. And not ya'll, I'm just guessing. March is all about breaking out of the box step and break dancing instead ... or maybe a spicy mambo? A tango to work, a rumba to bed? Dare to do something buckwild crazy this spring, and release all the built-up tension of the winter months. Until the new moon at the very end of the month, the only expectations you have to live up to are your own. The most important thing I can tell you right now: Don't spend your life taking instructions on how to live from people that aren't even qualified to give you street directions. Or dance instructions.

hmmm, i have lots of dances. i make them up all the time.

Thursday, March 2

SO.BUSY.

j's sister is in town and so we've been very busy. i will update later.