when weeks fly....

today feels like friday because j and i are heading up to the cottage tonight (he gets every second friday off from working compressed work weeks - good deal), but only staying until either tomorrow night or early saturday. we have things to do in town saturday and sunday. so it feels like a friday and i'm sitting here asking myself where my last week off has gone. but really, i had a good time. i packed it full of sleeping and going to the gym and playing baseball and hanging out with friends. i couldn't be luckier.

last night after our slaughter-fest of a game (we won 20-2) we all went to grace o'malleys. i had the fajita chicken wrap and loved it! i like that we make it out together lots. i have a good time every time we go, despite the slow slow service we normally get.


also, i came downstairs to finish some laundry i was doing and found this:

that's right, sandy in the dryer, cause it isn't hot enough already. they both love the heat and will lie in little patches of sun around the house. anyone else have cats who do this?

where to start?

i promised a post sunday. i'm late, but better be late posting than late for something else....

i'm going to apologize right now for the lack of flow in this post. there's so much going on in my head and it seems like i'm just blurting out thought after thought, but really, a blog isn't about a two-sided conversation, it's about my thoughts and there you have it.

we bought our tent and set it up for the first time on saturday, in less than 5 minutes. it's a nice little tent. we're very happy with it. here's a picture:



it's a sierra designs antares 3-person 3-season. it came with some extras: a footprint, a ceiling-hangy-thingy, and two hangy-thingies for "coffee" (where coffee = our water bottles). it has two doors and an idiot-proof fly. it's amazing what they think of when it's not a canadian tire special. spend a little more money, get a LOT more.

we were so happy that we slept in it saturday night. it is almost all screen so we were able to look up at the stars (bright out at the cottage compared to in the city). now we're in the market for some camping accessories so we can actually go camping. any takers? sometime in august or september?

sunday was s's birthday. we had dinner with the grandparents that involved cake. lots and lots of cake.



she's been getting card after card in the mail (think i'm jealous? i'm lucky to get a card or two, not tens of them!) and present after present. good haul, s!

***

my yesterday was great. i woke up to an email from a friend asking if i wanted to go to the beach. of course i did so i went to the gym and then showered and headed out. we went to britannia beach for about 3 hours. it was beautiful! i had never been and i'm not sure why. there were lots of people there, but it was definitely not packed. it was hothothot (31 but felt like 41) and the water was warm. the sand went all the way out into the water. beautiful, i'm telling you. and now i'm hooked. i want to go again today, but i'm a tad burnt. i put on tons of sunscreen but you can't really help it if it's that hot and you're out in the hottest part of the day. it wasreally a scorcher.

***

my big plan, and i'm really not sure if this will work, is to start going to the gym before work. i haven't been going much lately (like twice in the past two months - i'm terrible) but really, i get home from work and have baseball or have to get groceries or have to do something else.. there doesn't seem to be anytime for the gym. so i'm going to make time. and that time just happens to be early in the morning. but i figure if i work from 9-5 i should have time in the morning without getting up before the sun. i can bike to the gym, work out and then bike to work. bike home obviously and only have to shower twice instead of three times. i know i'll feel good about it so i'm going to do it. keep asking me about it.

restless in canada

just my luck: the night before the only morning that i have to be up for, i can't sleep. it might have something to do with the hour+ nap i had this afternoon (lying in the sun really drains you) or the 5+ cans of diet coke i had tonight. either way, it's after 3am and i'm wired.

contrary to my last post, i heard back from my new boss today and am expected there at 8:30 tomorrow morning. i'm excited but 8:30?? how quickly you forget that such a time actually exists.

so i go in for an hour and then i pack all sorts of things into my day and hope that my ~4 hours of sleep will keep me going. i have to mail some things off and find a birthday present for s and possibly my brother as well, i want to get my hair cut (but this won't likely happen) and go see a friend. i'm sure there are tons of other things.. oh, buy a tent while the sale is still on (we're leaning towards the sierra designs antares 3-season 3-person, m). but who knows, i might get home from "work" and sleep the day away. wouldn't that be grand.

so heading up to the cottage tomorrow once j gets home from work. have you seen the weather forcast? hot and sunny. for reals. part of me wants to stay in town just so i can shower (sulfur-smelling water makes for a non-clean-feeling shower) whenever the need arises. did i mention that i don't get along well with lake water?

onto the next train of thought: tonight was p's birthday and we went out to le biftheque, which was much more upscale than i imagined. i ate lots and drank copious amounts of diet pop (4 can-sized glasses - gross). i even had some chocolately chocolate cake. then bowling. i'm terrible at bowling, but managed to win the second game. i took pictures when i was ahead after the first frame(?) but not again at the end showing me as the big winner. but really, the big winner was big T who beat her closest opponent by ~90 points. wow. i didn't even score 90 points in the first game.

well enjoy whatever weekend summery plans you have. i'll report back sunday.

quickly now

just a quick post to say that i heard back from my new manager and have a start date now: monday, july 24th. this is excellent. a forced two week holiday in the middle of the summer. i couldn't be happier. i'll go in monday or tuesday next week to sign everything and be shown around. other than that i will be at home soaking up the sun, going to the gym during the day, scrapbooking, knitting, watching tv or whatever else i choose to do. sweet deal!

speaking of scrapbooking, that's what i did yesterday between loads of laundry. i got three pages of my wedding album done and it's looking good. i've set up one of the bedrooms upstairs as my scrapbooking room. it's pretty nice.

to the backyard!

new job - on hold

i just realized that i haven't said anything about my new job yet and you all must be going crazy waiting for news. the news is this: i have not yet received my letter of offer so i'm sitting at home. i'm taking this as a forced couple of days/ a week off. i know that i have the job so i'm not worried, it's just a matter of HR coming through with the letter for me. as soon as i get the call i can go in and sign it and start the next day.

and i've heard from my buddy who also works there that they aren't starting training until i get there so he's bored out of his mind. sucker! but he's getting paid....

and so you have it. back to the couch, captain no-work!

happy anniversary! happy anniversary!

no joke, j and i sing this to each other. at least we did this year and last. so here it goes, in written form: happy anniversary! happy anniversary!

so we've been married two years and i finally get brought flowers... nevermind that it was only one flower and it was picked right outside our house.



it's the thought that counts.

and now, when i tell you what we did, please don't be expecting any super-romantic mushy expensive night because that's just not who we are. you should know us better than that.



we had every intention of buying a tent. yes, a tent for camping. on our anniversary we buy something that we can use together (last year it was sheets and that was because our cats essentially ruined our old ones) so this year a tent is the plan. we went into bell's corners where le baron is and had dinner at east side marios. j kept the surprises coming by ordering pasta with shrimp (and i thought i knew him well - philly steak sandwich is his usual) and caesar salad and eating just as much bread as i did. weird. we sat on the patio and had a good time.

once we were sufficiently stuffed we went over to le baron and found that it had been closed for 2 and a half hours. the best part is that we knew since s works there. oops! so we went to bayshore instead to get j some sandals. no luck.

we ended our night by watching derailed and eating jello and bananas. mmm mmmm mmmmm.

thanks to everyone who wished us a happy anniversary. and thanks to my ball team for playing without me last night.

oh, my parents came by sunday afternoon and brought us this:



4 funky placemats and napkins because 2nd anniversaries call for cotton. they will look really good in our new place.

HOPE

i have officially finished my job. my desk was a complete mess and i was scrambling to get everything done and i did. i was able to leave just after 2pm.

j and i went to the east end and finished designing our new place. we decided to not tell anyone what kinds of things we picked and then j went and told a couple of our friends that night so i don't know what to tell you. i think i'll wait and post pictures once we're there and all set up.

afterwards, we went out to dinner at montana's. if you know me then you know that i love their country cob salad and get it all the time and this time was no different. i was starving so i ate the whole thing and loved every piece of it.

and then we went out to see the new pirates movie, which was great. i wrote more about it on my other blog, batman's library. it was great and i can't wait for the third one.

yesterday we spent all day on the beach at the hope beach volleyball tournament. it was fun but i definitely was getting really frustrated with my team. i was hoping for a higher skill level (but really shouldn't have been) and also for guys who wouldn't run right in front of me to get a ball. yeah, thanks, i could have had that. and i didn't even play like crap for them to think i couldn't do it. but it was nice to be outside and to see lots of people i knew. i even ran into my two local cousins who i never ever see.



we got home and showered (oh, what a wonderful feeling) and slept. after eating we went out to see our new place. the only updates are that they moved the dumpster.



then we ate some more and went to bed. obviously we were pretty worn out from our long day.

wee wee while on the welephone

i never EVER thought i would see this... but wait for it, i have to set it up. i spend 8 hours or so at work a day and so have to urinate at least once. i consider this normal. what is not normal is for someone else in the office to come into the bathroom wearing a headset, talking on said headset, and proceed to pee WHILE TALKING!!

i will admit that i can understand if you're at home and talking to someone who you don't particularly want to be talking to and they're talkingtalkingtalking. you know that kind of person, everyone does. they just keep going and going and you can't even tell them "sorry i really have to pee. i'll call you back" (and then conveniently forget to call them back because you can't stand their hour-long rants) so you pee. and you cover the phone because honestly, who pees while they're talking to someone on the phone. in this instance, i say all is forgiven because you aren't actually talking.

what i can't forgive is doing this at work in a communal bathroom when there's someone else around while talking! that was a huge sentence but everything is in there and you can add punctuation as you see fit. has this ever happened to you? i was stunned. so i finished washing my hands, dried them, and promptly went and told my coworkers. we all laughed.

new fridge!

s stayed home yesterday morning and welcomed the fridge delivery guys. they unloaded our new fridge and brought it inside. when i got home from work it was already cold inside.

you better believe that i went out, and, $100 later, stocked the fridge. it still looks VERY bare, but it will until we've acquired 16 more jars of bbq sauce.

it's stainless steel with the freezer on the bottom. it's really nice and big and bright. you can see through into the crisper drawers so you know when your fruit is rotting. finally.

anyways, we're all really happy to have food in the house again. 5 days is too long to go without a fridge. i had cold water last night and orange juice and cheese and, like in the barenaked ladies song, i went upstairs and just opened the fridge.

flickr updated!

i (finally) updated my flickr page. there are new pictures from the cottage, canada day and other miscellaneous us pictures. enojy!

canada day long weekend

the canada day festivities started off with a bike ride in the rain over the richard's house where we watched the soccer game. i hadn't seen those guys in a long time and it was nice to see them and talk.

we managed to leave just in time to be caught in the rain again on the way home. we stopped at home before heading downtown. i was meeting with my university housemates but j went to the hill and met up with bananapants. i was at a bar called oz with lots of people i hadn't seen in over two years. it was lots of fun. here's a picture of triplek!



and keeping to our streak of rainy-luck, we biked home in a huge thunderstorm. we were completely soaked through when we got home. we got out of our second skin, aka our clothing, showered and ran to the car with all of our cottage stuff. two hours later we were at the cottage and exhausted.

the cottage was nice, but there were tons of people up and so it was loud, annoyingly so. plus, sunday morning, j and i went down to the beach to eat our breakfast (when i say 'morning' i really mean afternoon, and when i say 'breakfast' i really mean chicken burgers). we were sitting there minding our own business when i look down and see the biggest spider i've ever seen! it was easily the size of my palm (back me up here, j). being the nice guy he is, j squashed him with a rake, but the beach wasn't the same after that. i tanned and ate on the porch the rest of the time. i swear that spider snacked on birds. it was huge. *shudder*

we left pretty early today and got home to a disaster of a house. it surprises me how crazy things get when you remove a fridge. there is food everywhere, bottles of condiments and ice cube trays all over the counter. plus our regular crap. so i cleaned and did laundry while j washed the car.

and guess what? we went out to get some cash and pick up the pizza we ordered and got CAUGHT IN THE RAIN!! honestly. worst.luck.ever.

soccer madness

i had to bus downtown after work yesterday to pick something up. i managed to time my trip perfectly and get caught in the rain, sporadic but intense rain, and got drenched. i picked up the package - and even called j to say that i had the package - and jumped on a bus to get home.

said bus goes through little italy. i don't follow soccer but there was no doubt that italia had a game and that they won. i have never seen anything like this in person. preston street, the street that is little italy, was packed with flags and cars honking and people screaming. it took us almost half an hour to get through about a 10km stretch and at one point there were actually people pounding on the bus. it was insane.

and i was told that there were car loads full of people (waving flags and screaming of course) who were just going up and down preston. they would get to the end, u-turn, and do it all over again. insane.

the package was actually some coupons from the bank where we got our mortgage. we used them to get a new fridge last night. it's a sexy stainless stell, bottom-freezer type that we are super pleased with. and the brick was able to get it to us mid-week next week, which beats the bay by 2 weeks, at the earliest. so we got a super nice fridge for super cheap.

this morning's task: throwing out the rest of the food. why one fridge had about 17 bottles of bbq sauce is beyond me. but i have to say that it felt so good tossing all that stuff. all we have left is a couple bottles of mustard (yes, we have multiple bottles of mustard) and some pickles. i imagine that wednesday night we will go hog-wild buying all new food.

mr. fridge has made his exit by the way. he's standing outside right beside the house. j sprayed him off with the hose cause he smelled terrible and was covered in pink sticky stuff. just ask sandy who managed to get sticky all over her back and tail and had her first bath. now she's all fluffy and smells like baby shampoo.

the death of a refrigerator

the fridge we have was left to us by j's parents when they moved away. basically anything left in the house was now ours. we scored appliances and other random stuff (like old skis in the basement rafters for example) which has definitely helped us over the past 3 years saving money to put towards our house.

there has been talk recently about not buying new appliances for the new house but to move the old ones in and wait a bit and then get new ones. i'm totally against this idea. this is a brand new house.. well, it will be. they haven't even broken ground yet. the last thing i want is to bring older things in. maybe i'm being snotty or something but that's how i feel. i was okay with bringing the washer and dryer cause they're in the basement anyways, but would still rather get all new appliances.

yesterday morning our 22 year old fridge was smelling bad, like burning. we went to work like usual. silly. we got home and the fridge was warm inside. most of our food was unsalvageable and had to be thrown out. just our luck: garbage day was the day before. let's hope it isn't too hot this week! but really, we were lucky we didn't have a fire or something.

so mr. fridge got emptied, unplugged and had written on it DNR and a smiley face with X's for eyes. DNR is short form for do not resuscitate (i had to look that word up). j has found us a bar fridge we can use this weekend.

pros, yes there are some: we get to finally get rid of all the stuff that j's parents so generously left us in the fridge and freezer. i love you both, but i've been wanting to get rid of that creamer-that's-not-creamer stuff for three years!

last night we went out shopping for a new fridge. we should be getting some discounts from our mortgage (perks) so we have to wait until we have the "package" in hand before we can buy. and this is a long weekend so i'm guessing it will be tuesday at the earliest that we get a new fridge. more likely later in the week.

we seem to have weird luck when it comes to stuff like this. remember in january, for the coldest part of the year, we had no heat? we ran out of oil before the new natural gas furnace was installed. it was freezing! ah well. i'm hoping that buying a new house will allow about 10 years of no major problems. as will new appliances.

i'm your venus

this friday past i got home from work, showered, packed and we left for the cottage. at the cottage i managed to burn myself, most notably the front of my legs and the top of my feet. i showered after practice on sunday but didn't shave my legs cause they hurt too much.

so last night i finally shaved my legs and we were sitting at dinner - a bunch of us went to pub italia near the comedy club before the show - and i couldn't keep my hands off my legs. normally, even right after i shave my legs aren't super smooth. i make no bones about it: i don't have model legs, what with all the perma-bruises and indents from injuries past. i'm okay with that. and even though i wear pants at work i still shave my legs every day. i do it for me. i don't like shaving through lots of hair so i do it every day. honestly. for.me. but this is abnormal. my legs are silky smooth. i know you've seen the commercials for gillette or whatever shaving company where the model, who has probably had all of her body hair lasered off, runs a silk scarfy thing across her legs. that's what i feel like.

and so, i'm your venus.

ps. the show last night was hilarious!

i'm singing in the rain

is it possible to brainwash yourself? i was really hoping it was yesterday on my bike ride home. it was pouring and i was sopping wet. so i sang to myself. i sang over and over how happy i was and how nice it was to be out in the rain.

let me tell you this: i was NOT happy. all i wanted was to be home and dry. or just somewhere and dry. being dry was key.

i finally got home and i didn't even feel like showering because it was wet. and if i was warm i wouldn't have. but on top of being soaked, i was cold. so i hopped in the shower for a minute and then got dry.

and then we had to go out. we went to the design center and tried to sort out kitchen tiles and cupboards and counter tops. you wouldn't believe the selection - which just makes it harder to choose. we have a meeting with the designer next week.

absolute comedy is tonight. there are still tickets left so if you read this and live in the area and want to come and it's still wednesday, call me! that's a tall order.

new blogger

welcome big T to the world of blogging!

the bubblewrap escape will prove to be entertaining and writen well, much better than this piece of s blog that i call my own. i'm a science girl afterall, not some english major who can use grammar properly and who doesn't have to make up words because they know more than a couple hundred. but not to worry, i like my own messed up sense of style and hope that my ramblings are somewhat entertaining. believe me, they are an exact replication of the ramblings in my head. they just aren't as complete. that would be boring and too exposing.

obligatory weekend update

this weekend was beautiful - not a word i use often mind you. j and i went up to the cottage friday. i was able to get off work a little early and biked home as fast as my little legs would allow. he had gone out and bought groceries during the day - he gets every second friday off - and other stuff so all that i had to do was pack my bag and hop in the car.

and so i did. i made it to renfrew until i had to pee and eat. not bad. i can't remember what time we got there or what we did, but i didn't last long. i was asleep before 12 (maybe even 11). j woke me up and dragged me outside to see the crazy pictures he was taking. picture him, a huge smile on his face, running around in front of the tripod-ed camera with a flashlight waving his arms all over. i'll post the pictures on flickr tonight hopefully. anyways, it was bed early.

and no, i didn't wake up at the crack of dawn. i blissfully slept until 11. we got up and ate our bacon and eggs on the beach. then we realized we were out of water, well not exactly out. the water we had tasted like plastic so into town we went. we got water and strawberries and other fruit (who goes to a cottage without fruit anyways??) saturday was a weird day: we did a lot of stuff but really not much at the same time. we put the raft in the water and the dock out a bit farther. i raked the beach while j washed some boats. then we floated on the water for hours. we went out in the paddle boat looking for turtles. didn't find any. found a momma duck and three baby ducks though. at night we donned bug jackets and had a bonfire.

sunday morning was much the same thing, just started a little earlier. we left before noon and headed to the bonnechere caves, naturally-formed caves just outside eganville. it was really really neat. i highly recommend going. i will have pictures of that up on flickr soon too.

on the drive home i saw a huge turkey vulture and a hawk who almost flew right into the car ahead of us. crazy birds. we got back to town with just enough time for me to eat before my ball practice.

we could not have asked for better weather and the time alone was nice and relaxing. we are most likely heading up again this weekend after the canada day shenanigans that will no doubt take place.

ps. j bought catfood and by mistake brought it up to the cottage. there was some drama as to how we were going to get our cats fed, but thankfully, p stepped up and bought us some emergency catfood and the babies lived to see another day!

batman, the law-breaker

i have to admit that i break the law. daily. twice daily. when i bike i do not stop at every stop sign/intersection. i do what i please, as long as i'm alone on the road.

half of my daily commute is through residential neighbourhoods and you better believe i blow through every stop sign i come across. i treat them like yield signs. but i can tell you why i do this and why i think it's okay. first, let me say that if most of the traffic was bikes and not cars and the roads were proportionately smaller to accomodate bikes and not cars, i would obey all rules of the road. but in actuality, i believe that stop signs in residential areas are there for cars. if i blow through a stop sign and hit another car, i'm the only one who gets damaged.

plus, bikes can't move near as fast as cars and therefore, in my opinion, are much less threatening to pedestrians. that and the fact that they are much smaller and more nimble (depending on the driver of course).

by not obeying the laws, i do not believe i am putting myself at risk. i believe i am very safe on the roads and am only concerned for my safety when cars are around me. sadly, half of my commute is on busy roads, thankfully ones with bike lanes for the most part, but that doesn't help me feel safe near/around intersections. there is something about the way we drive these days - maybe distracted is the best word for it - that scares little me on my bike. i've been almost hit numerous times and i think for the most part it's been because drivers simply can't see me or don't see me. i've had one occasion when a driver almost drove into me while approaching me. i can understand if you're waiting to turn right and a bicycle comes up in your blind spot and you don't see them. she came up on me! she was in MY blind spot.

biking has made me much more aware or cyclists when i'm driving. i am much more sympathetic to them and aware that they are there and need their space. biking has also made me very aware of the speed at which cars travel. remember kids, speed kills.

batman's head spins

i just got offered a 12-month term position with health canada. my head is spinning! i haven't accepted yet or signed anything, but i will call my new boss back today sometime to let her know. and then i have to talk to my boss and let her know. how are you supposed to concentrate when your head is spinning?? more soon.

the revolution, baby

what you are reading, ie. this blog, is going through a mini revolution. the revolution is this: i am trying to be more thoughtful and hopefully more entertaining and thought-provoking with my posts. but why then do i feel the need to give you the run down from my weekend? because i actually did stuff and have funny stories and pictures. so i'm going to take a break from my new way of blogging and tell you allll about my weekend. the best weekend so far of summer 06.

let's go back to friday night. i badly wanted to leave work early on friday, but no such luck. i got home at regular time and spent the night doing what i wanted to do. i can't remember what i ate or really what i did other than that i was content and i got some knitting done. thankfully this isn't a knitting blog because other knitters are so prolific that they would be bored silly by my lack of knitting content they would have long ago taken me off their bloglines (i still have to figure out what the heck a blogline is and what it does, but you get my drift).

i had to take my blue and black blanket off my big circs and put them on smaller ones so i could start a fuzzy green baby blanket (same pattern as before) for my boss. the people in my group have paid for the wool, i just have to make the blanket. easier said than done in 30+ degree weather.

so anyways, friday night was nice and relaxing and felt good. saturday was a little strange. we were woken up by the sound of a car pulling into our driveway. a car guy needed to use our driveway to do his brakes and so he did. for 8 hours. ug. glad that wasn't me. so i kept sleeping while j got up to help and hang out. again, i can't remember the specifics of my day really, but i do remember that there were pancakes made for me when i finally did get up and then i went to see my parents with s to give my dad his father's day present - a gift card for canadian tire.. tacky but oh so useful. he seemed happy.

and then it was (insert suspense here) saturday night. big t's birthday was sunday so she decided saturday was our night out on the town. we got dropped off downtown and had dinner at the empire grill. very nice upscale place that i wouldn't normally enter let alone eat at, but i'm glad i had the opportunity. the food was good and the service was excellent. and thankfully i remembered to take a picture (i actually got the waiter to take a group shot - see batman's camera on the right). the best part about the place was the prices were whole numbers. i mean that the pasta dish was $14, not $13.99. this is the first time i've seen this. i've always thought restaurants should cut the crap and just use whole dollar amounts and this one does. nice.

after a quick stop at the grocery store and the liquor store we went to a's apartment. one word: Jar. jar is the nasty concoction of vodka, lemons, limes and sugar. it's disgusting. i was glad to have something other than that to drink. and apparently, jar makes boys crazy.. crazy sick and crazy aggressive, but i'll get to that in a minute. a's place is really nice, nice balcony and nice view. we had a good time there, but finally decided it was time to leave for the bar. some of us trekked to hooley's which came highly recommended. turns out to be the weird mismash of weirdness. not great. we decide to leave not so long after and this is where things start getting weird.

we can't find paul. he "needed some air" and was lost. j went to find him, called him and found him, and then puked. gross. in the meantime we get a call from the apartment from the girls saying one of the guys was out of control so one of the guys who was with us went back and sure enough a huge fight broke out. the cops were called and our night was quickly brought to a halt. having three cop cars with their lights flashing and knowing your friends are being asked questions and have just fought is very sobering. and then there's p being very sick.

we finally got everyone home. there are so many little funny things, but this post is long enough as it is. we documented a lot of the p-story on flickr. let's move on to sunday. sunday was hot. i woke up because the sun was on me and i couldn't sleep anymore. i was good to my belly at first, giving it lots of water and gatorade. j and p slept until 2 and 2:30 so i did what i wanted. i lay out in the sun, i took my time doing stuff. it was nice. then we took a cake i made over to t's for her birthday. didn't stay long but it was nice. then j and i finished off the day just the two of us cause s was out all afternoon and night. i went to bed super early and that was my weekend.

congratulations, you made it through my monster post. i think i'll wait until tomorrow to post again.

batman the adventurer

i was invited out for dinner last night and i went. i was told in the afternoon that we were going for sushi. in my head: eeek! in my response: sure! i'm up for that! i didn't think about it much all afternoon or i probably would have psyched myself out.

6:30 comes around and my ride shows up - big T. we pick up k and head out. thankfully this little sushi place isn't far from home.. i like going downtown but it just takes longer. so we pore over the menu for about an hour trying to decide what the hell we were doing. k had been there before i pointed us in the right direction. t and i fumbled until we had chosen 6 types of sushi.

our food came and then the fumbling with chopsticks began! i'm proud to say that i didn't fling a single piece of sushi across the room which i was totally anticipating doing. i definitely was not all kung-fu with my chopsticks, but i wasn't so terrible either. i've decided to stick with my left-hand (for those keeping score from my last post).

dinner was delicious. we had crab and spicy tuna and shrimp and tofu and cucumber.. hmm, and one more to make 6. i can't remember what it was though. i never thought sushi was a meal, i thought it was an appetizer, but we filled ourselves up.

all in all a very adventurous and interesting dinner. big t gets the bill and we get up to go and i, Klutzy girl with a capital K, knock over my chair backwards! who does that? i do. apparently.

then we walked over to dick's drive-in and dairy dip. no joke, that's the actual name of this place. t has always wanted to go and it just so happens her mouth and nose were on fire after a run-in with some wasabi. we sat down outside at a picnic table and ordered. after a while i noticed that i was stuck to the bench. that's right - i sat in ice cream. i was pissed, but not as pissed as when i got up and t and k laughed at me cause it was CHOCOLATE ice cream. all over my ass. right, me the night's entertainment.

we left there and stopped in at an adult store and looked around at all the weird and crazy things they have and laughed at some of the more ridiculous items. i mean honestly, some of those things, who uses them? i made it home without tripping or falling or spilling anything else on myself. i ran downstairs and put my bum in s's face and she laughed at me.

definitely a good night. definitely me being super adventurous (sushi?) and super klutzy.

damn it feels good to be a gangster

damn it feels good to be a gangster.. office space, anyone? anyone?

i was reminded of that song when i was thinking to myself that i'm so glad to be left-handed. i got hit by a pitch last night on the hand and thankfully nothing is broken and i have almost full use of it. my right hand i mean. and then i was thinking that being left-handed has so many perks. it is my belief that lefties are more capable at adapting to using their off hand than right-handed people.

and this isn't that we are more talented or gifted or able to use more of our brains, though i'm sure some lefties would say that is so. it is because the majority of society is right-handed. why? i'm not sure. but as a result, so many things are tailored to the righties. let me give you an example you probably have never EVER noticed: the writing on pens and toothbrushes and other hand-tools is all facing the correct way if held in the right hand. go check. i'm not lying. also, things like zippers on pants and coats and even how your workstation is set up - the mouse for example - all set up for right-handed people. i could go on.

i'm just fortunate that i wasn't born about 50 years before i was. my uncle is left-handed but he would get hit with a stick in school if he ever used his left hand. he is now very ambidextrous. so while this kind of punishment and narrow-mindedness is almost gone from people and society as a whole, there is still the residual ease for the right-handed people and the general lack of alternatives for those who are left-handed. ever try to find a left-handed baseball glove (i.e. one that goes on your right hand)? you'll find a hundred right-handed ones for every left-handed one. i'm talking from experience here.

being left-handed has also taught me to be more open to differences i see in people. it's not only about the physical handedness, it's also how people handle things, how they think and process events and problems. don't they say that we have two sides to our brains and that left-handed people are more artsy while right-handed people are more mathematical? i could have that reversed, but i don't think it's true anyways. i agree that different people approach problems (and life for that matter) using different methods but i do not think that it is one hundred percent related to what hand we prefer. i, for one, can be very vague and out there or i can see only black and white. sometimes i like that there are grey areas and sometimes they make me want to scream.

so while there are many things that i do exclusively with my right hand, i do them by choice and not because i can't do them with my left. you just get used to doing things a certain way and that happens to be things like brushing my teeth. i always use my right hand. does it mean i'm slower with my left? certainly. does it mean i can get by using my left? absolutely. this applies to everything i can think of except when it comes to cutting with scissors. i am completely useless with my left hand... ask my kindergarden teacher who would only let me use the green-handled scissors. i'm sure i got "plays well with others. needs work on her cutting skills. can stay in the lines while colouring" comments on my report cards. that's an example of the narrow-mindedness i was talking about.

i was also fortunate to have one right-handed parent and one left-handed parent. they let me decide which hand i prefered by placing all my tools (fork, spoon, crayon, whatever) in the middle. never on one side or the other. they did this with my brother as well. i became left-handed and he became right-handed. we are definitely different people but it stems from other things i'm sure.

jenga

you know what i would like to do? i would like to convince every single canadian who is working for the government through an agency or on casual - any kind of non-permanent employment - to quit. just walk out. see ya, government!

and i would love to see how badly the whole government would deal with having all these holes. and the best part would be that since most of the temp help is in support roles (admins, it, other support) the government would crumble pretty quickly is my bet. and if a group could deal without their temporary employees they would certainly run out of pens soon enough and not know how to deal.

it's never going to happen and it's not because i couldn't convince everyone. it's because for every temp employee, there are 5 more waiting, without employment, for a job to open up. if i convinced everyone to walk out, the government would find more people to fill the spots. it's a nasty and endless circle. kind of like the no experience no job, no job no experience rut.

the government makes due with temporary employees because they are quick to get in, cheap and plentiful. the temporary employees work contract because they can't afford to not work and they can't find a permanent position. who will break this trend?? it has to be the government. the government is a huge body capable of surviving temporary losses in income/capital whereas your regular temp employee has to feed themselves and possible others.

government, if you're listening, i'm asking, nay pleading, that you look at the situation you have created with temporary help and HIRE ME!

baby kleenex

we went to costco last week and bought new laundry detergent. it smells a lot more than our regular tide and i think i just might be allergic to it because when my head hits the pillow at night i get so stuffed up. i had to have this pointed out to me - i didn't put two and two together.

so i'm sitting here at work sneezing away and all stuffy and runny at the same time. all the clothes i'm wearing were washed using the same detergent! i'm an idiot!

i went to grab a kleenex from a coworker's desk. i took the last one. she's going to be mad but i couldn't care less (she's a crank pot to say the least) but now i'm out of kleenex and still sneezing runny dripping (fun!) snot everywhere. i remember seeing kleenex boxes down in the caf a while back so i grab my pass and my wallet and head downstairs. i wasn't too busy anyway.

i get downstairs and get side tracked by my grumbling belly so i choose a sweet-smelling cinnamon bun - haven't had one in a loooong time and got so distracted that i forgot why i was down there in the first place. finally at the cash i remember and find kleenex. but they don't have boxes of kleenex, not even one. they only have those little packages, you know the ones, the ones that i never would ever be caught dead with.

well i walked out of there with a cinnamon bun and a flowery little rip-off package of kleenex. here, let me tell you the contents of my little pouch: 15 (15??? holy cow! that's SO many!) 2-ply tissues. have i ever mentioned that i don't like the word "tissues" either? ug!

but what is a girl to do? i needed kleenex and now i have some. 14 tissues left to be exact.

new evidence suggests batman a hippy

in light of new evidence discovered today, experts are calling batman a hippy. in a distasteful showing of proper work attire, batman sported a free-styled lack of boobal support. in her defense, batman has this to say: "friday it was my shirt, monday it's my bra - what IS a girl to do??" sources say that batman's choice of clothing are smartly hiding this wardrobe malfunction and that coworkers have not yet noticed. she continues: "i'm clutzy AND forgetful. i haven't fallen yet today, but i sure did forget something important!"

let's just hope that this week continues on a better note and that all clothing is remembered and worn throughout the work day.

-- this has been some top notch reporting by blogger

sick weekend

i wanted this to be a big weekend for going out and doing stuff but it was almost completely the opposite. j is really sick and i'm still getting over my cold/allergies so we stayed in both friday and saturday nights. here's the rundown:

we met my parents saturday at the model home and took them through it. it's amazing how many kids-references they could throw in to an hour long visit. apparently they've been thinking lots about us having kids. thanks, but no thanks. not yet at least. the house was just like we remember it and we still love it. we have another meeting on tuesday to talk about stuff. i'm not very informed but i'll report back later.

big T and bananapants came over last night. we were going to watch a movie but ended up looking at pictures and talking instead. they couldn't stay long, but i'm sure we weren't the best company anyways.

i hate to say that i didn't take part in the WWKNIP day yesterday. it just wasn't in the cards. i really like the idea and hopefully will be able to take part next year. until then, i will knit alone in my basement.. well maybe not always alone. maybe that should read "in the privacy of my basement" - better.

today i managed to go out and get a fender for my bike (i hate the wet-ass you get in the rain without one) and some wool for another baby blanket, this time for my boss. she's expecting at the end of july so i have some time. at least three weeks until she's off work. plus, my coworkers are paying me to make it. it's a good deal.

naked

when i got out of the shower this morning i realized that i had forgotten to bring a teeshirt to work. i had a sweatshirt that i had left upstairs but that was no help getting me from the shower room in the basement to the 16th floor.

i sucked it up and put my stinky biking shirt back on.

as soon as i got to my cubicle i ripped it off and put on my sweatshirt.

thankfully today is cold enough that i shouldn't boil. so far i've been fine.

it's definitely chilly and raining outside. i care so much more about the weather now that i bike (have i mentioned that i'm starting to see some effects in my legs and butt?) i have limited space for what i can bring with me to and from work so i don't want to bring my jacket if it's not going to rain, but can you ever really trust the forecasts? they change by the hour (probably more but they can't update the websites quickly enough).

hmm, i also forgot my lip stuff. this spring has been really harsh to my skin. i've never had dry skin like i do now. my lips and ears are especially dry and usually i use my blistex at least 400 times a day. and now i'm without. i'm coping but i'm licking my lips all the time which will only dry them out more. woe is me.

jobs and laughs

i (finally) heard back about that job i interviewed for early april. i didn't get the job but i got put on a list meaning that i will hopefully get a job within the next 6 months. this is good: no more waiting and a potential job. i'm happy.

that's what i found out at work today. also at work i organized another fundraiser at absolute comedy for my baseball team. june 28th. it's a wednesday night but we did it before. please email me if you're interested in coming.

i am so ready for the weekend i can't even tell you. i want to sleep in so badly and i really need to give my ass a rest from biking. no ms tour for me. i'll settle for sponsoring my teammate.

dry post. interesting, not.

i know what i want for christmas!

this is earth week (didn't know, didja?) and so there are tons of information booths in my building during lunch time. yesterday there was a canadian geographic booth with tons of free magazines and a free map. you better believe i grabbed everything free they had and ran upstairs to start reading. it felt SO good to be reading about sciency-naturey stuff. so that's what i want for christmas - a subscription to the magazine.

it's never too early to talk about christmas present ideas. especially when they're for me. but you know, the older i get, the more and more i want things that i can use. i don't want something that will just sit somewhere. get me some tupperware or something else that i can use! is that so wrong?

so i haven't been feeling so hot since going to port perry. i think it has something to do with being wet and cold for a solid 24 hours. i haven't missed work but i missed my baseball game and in doing so i missed a pretty big spat between the girl we don't like and another player. girl-we-don't-like was trying to give relationship advice, and her only relationship experience is from the "romance with her cousin on the back of a tractor in the country" (not my words, believe me). i laughed real hard and wished i had been there.

tournament a bust: team home early

the forecast said rain and rain it did. it poured. in fact it poured so hard that we never even made it on the diamond. the tournament coordinators had to cancel almost all saturday games and were trying to make a valid schedule cramming all games in on sunday. yeah, no thanks. i want to get home at a reasonable time. plus, it still might have rained sunday.

so we left. we were in port perry less than 24 hours. thankfully. our hotel (the roachhouse motel) was Disgusting with a capital "D". i didn't feel clean for one minute in that place, plus we were soaked the whole time so we all smelled like damp baseball gear. mmmmmm.

we got back to town after some detours - apparently a dam was about to bust and flood the highway so we had to take another route - and then we went out. out on the town. this is unusual for me and it made me feel like i was back in school. we drank at a girl's house and then walked to the bar with "road rockets" and then drank more and danced and got silly all night. we closed down the place and didn't make it home until almost 4am, after some late night puking in the park (not me thank god) and climbing trees (again not me).

after all that i slept like a log and now i'm up and i've been productive today and will be more productive at a practice and then it's chill time with dinner made for us and hopefully some vegging out in front of the tv. oh summer weekends, how i've missed you.

more (slightly less serious) injuries

again with the baseball last night. the players on the team we were playing are a couple of years (10 in some cases) younger than us and so the game was very one-sided in our favour. i had to slide into third at one point and banged up my knee. it wasn't as bad as it has been but it's definitely hurting. i'm letting it breathe though. i'll bandage it this weekend most likely but for now it's out in the open.

i took the day off yesterday. it was not exactly the most honest thing i've ever done. i had an appointment in the afternoon and decided to stay home all day. i called my boss and told her what i decided and she told the big boss that i was sick. not true, but it doesn't really matter since i don't get paid no matter what my reason is for not being here.

so i slept in and then lay in the sun in my bikini for an hour. i went shopping for a bit and stopped by to see my parents. i completely forgot to buy a fender for my bike, but them's the breaks.

my doctor told me that since i no longer eat red meat i was probably missing b12 from my diet so i picked up some pills and started taking them. i've been told they will give me lots of energy. maybe i will even be good at getting out of bed in the morning... wouldn't that be fun. i drag my ass for hours in the morning. there are so many things that i would like to do before work, but i settle for brushing my teeth and getting dressed. those are the only two things i can cram in before i'm late for work. sad.

we're heading to port perry this weekend for a tournament. this is a very competitive tournament with some of the best senior teams from ontario. my team is very optimistic about our games, but i'm more realistic and just hoping that we don't get mercied in all 4. it's one thing to beat a bunch of 16 year olds, it's quite another to play on the same field as these teams we will be facing. i'll report back on monday.

broken bones

we had a game last night. a local one, which is always nice. but one of our players broke her wrist (and sprained the other one) while trying to go through the catcher. i don't get it really because it was a force play - no tag required - but there was still a collision. it's sad really. we play in a very non-competitive league and then this happens.

anyways, that means that we're down one players while she heals, which will likely take her out for the whole season. i feel for her: having a cast when it's hot out is awful. it's weird how you set up a team and think that you have more than enough players and all of a sudden you're not so sure. you have an injury here and some family troubles there and you're close to needing to call up players.

but such is life. you can plan all you want but i don't think you can ever be fully prepared, with contingency plans for every possible outcome. shit happens.

volunteering day - done

yesterday, my alarm went off at 5AM. there still exists a time that early in the morning. incredible.

i managed to get out of bed at 5:15 and was just about ready when jess rang the doorbell. we made it to our station underneath the bronson bridge on queen elizabeth before 6. we had bagels and muffins and started mixing gatorade.

gatorade is a nice little sports drink, but is very very sticky when you are covered in it. we were a little short-staffed and so very busy when the 13,000 runners came by. the half-marathon is the most popular race with something like 9,000 runners. incredible. and they mostly all came in one huge pack that lasted about an hour. that's a lot of gatorade.

i saw a girl i went to highschool with and my gym teacher who also coached field hockey (i played left-handed, yes, it IS possible with a right-handed stick. i also got very efficient at walking on the sticks. i would show you sometime but i don't have one field hockey stick let alone two). both were running the half.

the day went by much faster than last year.. somehow. it was still 8 hours. we were in the shade thankfully. i've seen the burns other people got.

oh, and did you hear about the big scandal where some elite runners went off course for a while and were disqualified? these runners come in from africa and other places and depend on the prize money to support their families. it's an ugly part of having such a big event run by volunteers, who are often high school students with mandatory community service hours to fill. one article i read even pointed out that the volunteers at the post were students, which i don't think is appropriate. anyone could have made the same mistake. i could go on but i won't. just read the papers or the internet and check it out.

my body is still recovering from the physical activity and my mind is still recovering from the lack of sleep and home time. i'm thinking i might need some time off. soon. but we'll see. i don't get paid if i'm not here.

i won!

so i ran in my second race. this year i did the 10K (last year the 5K, remember?) and was happy with my effort.

i had some goals going into this race, and i know i've written these before but i can't find the post so here they are again:
1) finish the race
2) run the whole thing - no walking
3) i'm sure i had a third goal but i can't remember it

i definitely finished the race and i only stopped once to tie my shoelace. when i went across the finish line 1:03:?? was showing. that's the time since the start start, but it took me some time to get to the start line so when the results come out in the paper monday i'll check my chip time (which is the actual time it took me to complete the race - my guess: an hour even).

here's a picture of me right near the end:



j and i had set up a meeting place (definitely key when there are 7000 runners in your race) so i had no trouble finding him. and then we went home. kind of anticlimatic, but i feel good. i'm sore in all sorts of new places. i even have blisters where i never get blisters.

but i'm on that runner's high (could be the alcohol i've consumed) and am looking forward to my next race. can she do a half-marathon? stay tuned.....

oh, and tomorrow i'm volunteering all day at the marathon, just like last year. i'm looking forward to it, but not to the early start. i'm sure i'll post tomorrow of monday and tell you all about it.

i did it!

last night i went to the gym with tina after work. my goal was to runrunrun (remember?) and that's exactly what i did. i ran 10K in an hour and 3 minutes. i was spent afterwards, but I DID IT!!! and then i stretched for about an hour - ten minutes at the gym and another long while at home.

let me tell you: i am SO proud of myself.

today is my day off meaning i didn't bike into work, i won't be running after work and i won't be feeling bad about it.

when i was in school i would make myself plans for which chapters to read and which lecture notes to study on what days.. i never stuck with it. NEVER. not once. but i made myself a plan for training for this race and i've stuck with it. this week at least.

i also beat j at chess last night. i was way down just fending off his attacks and then i got a pawn to his end and was given a castle (the technical term for that piece) and got his queen. it was all downhill for him after that. finally i check-mated him and he knocked down his king. victory was mine!

i put some more pictures up on flickr (batmans camera) last night. i started in january of 2005 and am working my way forward since i have all of 2006 up there. once i'm done with 2005 i'll go back to 2004. we got our first digital camera early early january of that year so we don't have many pictures from before then.

i'm trying

i'm trying to do many things. i'm very intrigued by the second annual world wide knit in public day happening around the world june 10th. i am going to try and take part. there is already something set up for ottawa. it's a neat idea.

i'm also trying to train for my race saturday. i have tonight left. i'm going to the gym and i'm going to own that treadmill! then saturday morning i'm going to run outside. and just so you know, when i say "morning" i really mean "when i get up" which, most likely, will not be in the AM at all.

i'm trying to get work done while i'm at work. this happens in spurts. seems my attention isn't cut out for solid work. i think the only job i've ever had where i actually worked the whole time i was at work was subway. i worked damn hard at that minimum-wage job. i still don't like the smell of subway.

i'm trying to go out more. out with friends, out with j, over to see my parents.. whatever. i'm trying to do it. but i really like lazing around in my jogging pants watching tv. good thing for me most of the shows i like to watch had their season finales and i have been released from my tv's grasp.

i'm sure there are more things i'm trying to do, but that's all i've got for now.

bad news

my bad news is that we have to cancel our australia trip. we hadn't booked anything so this isn't a costly decision, but a tough one either way. we looked at our money situation and decided that, since we just bought a house and will need money in the next 8 months to cover those costs, that we would have to cut our trip short. if i go all the way to australia i want to see most of the country. or at least more than only one city.

this doesn't mean that we won't be going anywhere or doing anything in the next 8 months, it just means we have to find more bang-for-your-buck kind of things. so really, our lifestyles won't really be effected. we already live like that... mostly.

steeeping

i have to admit i'm in a bit of a funk. i'm not the happiest camper i've ever been and i can't seem to shake it. i would really like to go to bed until this passes, but obviously that's not an option. so i come to work and i'll go to baseball like i always do and hope that i can get through without my mood affecting too many of the people around me. that's the hardest part.

i also feel like i have so many things to do and not enough time to get them done. and i'm not even leaving for anywhere, like m is. this week i'm focusing on my training, if you can call it that. my race is this saturday night and i am so ill-prepared. i would like to think that i would be in better shape if i hadn't gotten sick, but you never know.

so here's my plan, partially for you, my readers, partially to keep myself motivated.
today, tuesday: go to the gym and run run run. wednesday: bike to and from work, no running. thursday: go to the gym after work and run run run. friday: off. no biking and no running. saturday: little run in the morning. race at night. think i can stick to that? here's hoping.

dear flickr, i love you. - batman

i broke down and bought a flickr account. i was sick of only being able to upload 5 pictures a month on my free account. and now i am in love (picture me jumping on the couch tom cruise style shouting "flickr, i LOVE youuuuuuuu!"). in.love.

you can see all my pictures so far - and believe me, there will be more - using the link on the right, batman's camera. i'm just delighted with all the features: the tags, the sets, the groups, the friends... everything.

all pictures can be labelled with things called tags and then you can search my pictures (or anyone else's pictures) using their tags. if you were particularly interested in my cats for example, you could click on the kitties tag and see all the pictures with cats in them.

all pictures can also be assigned to one or multiple sets, which is just a different name for album. these are shown on the right-hand side of the page and make searching for events really quick.

and then, the greatest sharing aspect of flickr is the groups part. you can share your pictures with a group. a group is full of pictures from tons of different flickr people who all share something in common. so far, i only belong to one group, the devon rex group. it's the kind of cats we have. but there are so many different kinds of groups, it's unbelievable. i have so much more investigating to do.

but for now, i will continue to upload my pictures so you should, if you're interested, keep checking back to batman's camera.

another new blogger

i have introduced another new blogger to the internet land - meet bananapants. he's one of j's car friends. he's a crazy one, believe me.

anyways, i finally caught up on prison break and 24 last night. i can't believe prison break is leaving us with that. it was intense. very intense. and 24, well 24 is always intense. it was good, except we had to watch the episodes on the computer and our computer chairs suck! we definitely need a new computer chair. maybe this weekend i will indulge myself (i don't think it would come to this: me thinking that a new chair is indulging... maybe i need to get some icecream and indulge in that.)

i am sososososoSO happy it's friday. i really thought yesterday was friday. this has definitely been a long week for me. the weather has been gray and rainy which never helps, and i've been biking to work wearing myself out and then having late baseball games. honestly, my body isn't used to this anymore.

and shit, my race is in one week and a day. i REALLY have to get running. i didn't bike in today so maybe i'll go to the gym (hi gym, remember me? i used to come in all the time but i haven't been much at all in the past couple of months. what's that? you'll take my money anyways? yeah, that's what i thought) and run. runrunrun. a whole 10 kilometers. who was the idiot who thought a 10K race was a good idea anyways? the longest i've ever run is 8K and that was by mistake while i was training for my 5K last spring. i won't make the the-treadmills-are-actually-in-miles mistake again.

what else? what else? this is a long weekend and i have nothing planned. my grandparents are moving again. they are in holland and are stopping in ottawa to pick up a car before driving and eventually arriving in bc, where they will hopefully rest. it's really too bad for my parents who were looking forward to the year's first long weekend and now they have to put all their plans on hold to cater to my grandparents. all this has really impressed on my parents that they will never do this to either me or my brother, which is the silver lining for me.

and back to weekend plans. i have a vague plan that i'm going to have some people over. this will force me to clean the house, which hasn't happened in too long, and see my friends, which also feels like it hasn't happened in a while. maybe i'll squeeze some knitting and/or scrapbooking in there too. i could only be so lucky.

oh, and i've figured out (thanks j!) how to resize pictures and will be uploading WAY more to my flickr account (see link on right) so check there soon!

our lives on holiday

today is one of those gray days when you really don't want to get out of bed. i actually said "what if we just stayed home today?" out loud this morning. i was still in bed two minutes before we are supposed to leave.

and now i'm just hoping the looming thunderstorm will hold off until i get my sorry ass home. that would be nice.

we were pretty luck last night. our game wasn't rained out, even though it sounds like everywhere but nepean had huge storms. we had a bit of rain but it was okay. i can't say we won and i can't say i played all that well (i didn't get one ball in the field so that doesn't count) but we had fun and our coach-prospect seems really nice. i just have to start hitting the ball and i'll be happy.

i am happy that j has come out to two of my games (i've only played in three so far). this is a much different boy than last season. i like it.

just a little thought: it was weird coming home yesterday to an empty house. s is in kingston with a friend. she's been with us for a month and a half and i've gotten used to having her around. i think her cat was lonely last night without her around.

biking

there is something so completely satisfying about biking into work. i think it has to do with the fact that i am powering myself the distance between my house and my building. the only reason i am moving towards my goal is my legs are constantly going round and round in circles which moves the pedals which move the gears which move my tires and propel me to work or to home.

i fly past cars when they're lined up waiting at an intersection. i fly past the busses picking people up. and i'm doing it all myself. and the only waste i'm producing is some minimal carbon dioxide that i exhale every breath.

i feel like an old pro, sitting here at my desk talking about biking, but then i get up and my oh-so-sore muscles remind me that i am still very new to biking and that i shouldn't get so cocky. every trip i learn something about my body or about my bike. i know that i really want a fender for the back. i know that i really want another long-sleeved shirt so i can wash mine every so often. i know that i really should have another pair of shoes at work.

i also know that i really like biking. i like that i am once less car on the road. i like that i'm not on the bus (though the bus, when it treats me well, usually leaves me with the same sort of i'm-doing-good-for-the-environment-by-using-public-transport feeling). i like that i'm getting exercise. and soon i will like my legs, because you know with all this exercise i should have a sexy pair of legs real soon.

mother's day

like sarah, i would like to tell you some things about my mom for mother's day. she doesn't read this, but, as we all know, this blog is for me.

this isn't a memory of mine, i've only been told about it. my brother and i are 18 months apart and when we were really young (i'm talking young here) my mom was still home with us. my dad would get home from work and we would want to tell him all about our day. i would tell him something and my dad would look at my mom who would translate. then scott would tell him something and my dad would look at my mom. my mom would look at me. i would translate and my dad was still lost so my mom would translate.

my dad always worked for the government so it was up to my mom, who worked locally, to be the one to get us from school if we were sick/broken and do whatever other parental duties were required. i think the best parental duty was to pick us up every wednesday and take us to mcdonalds for lunch. we were spoiled. when dad had to work late mom always made us grilled cheese sandwiches and let us eat in front of the tv.

i was also allowed to try all sorts of activities. like most girls my age, i was put in brownies and ballet. unlike most girls my age i hated these "girl" things and my mom was always very supportive when, instead of learning to sew and cook in brownies, i wanted to play dodgeball and go swimming in beavers. i quit ballet and started football. my mom always told me that there was nothing i could not do, especially those things that are typically "boy" things.

going back even farther, mom used to coach our tee-ball and 5-pitch teams. dad took over when we got older, but mom was there when we first started out. 22 years later i'm still playing (scott played until he left for university). also, mom was always the one who drove us to our ridiculously early practices. she also stayed with me all night in the hospital when i hurt my neck. more than once. and the one who helped me wash my hair when i sprained both my elbows in a nasty hockey hit.

somehow, my parents together, kept me and my brother extremely active and healthy. the kept us entertained and happy. the instilled good morals and values and let us make our own choices and decisions and mistakes. they saw us grow and fall and succeed and fail, but they saw us grow up. they still remain in our lives, as interested as ever.

and so for my mom, my brother and i painted our hands and put our colourful hand prints on a white tee shirt that read "World's Best Mom - Hands Down" and it made me think of being in preschool and painting with pudding, except with much less pudding eating. i also gave her a picture frame with some pictures of me and her and me and both my parents.

greg's wedding

thank you to all those who posted last week about what i should wear to the wedding. and, what you've all been waiting for... i ended up wearing... some navy blue pants and a button-up shirt that, unfortunately, stretched a little over my mammoth boobs (if you know me, you know that i do not have anywhere near mammoth boobs) and i ended up losing a button. oops! sorry s, i will find you another one, but thanks for letting me borrow your shirt and your jacket. i can no longer dress myself.

the wedding was nice. the lone star ranch is very ranch-y. the drive way way not paved and was mega pot-hole-y (not good for a lowered car), the parking lot was muddy, and the hall was a nice barn. not where i would choose (or chose in fact) to have my wedding, but it seemed perfect for theirs.

it was really nice to see my family again. they're all local yet i only see them twice a year (the obvious christmas get together and then an annual cottage party in the summer. sad really.) greg and rebecca both looked happy.

i should point out that they actually got married april 18th in cuba (wish i could have been there!) and this was just the reception since not everyone could make it down south.

now, some observations:
1) my little cousing rebecca is getting older and is super pretty and not-awkward for a 15 year old. she does NOT take after me.
2) bride rebecca is a very nice person and i'm glad that her and greg found each other. they seem perfect together.
3) bride rebecca's mom is the meanest person in the world. she actually told my mom that she was "dirty dancing". my mom took offence and was upset a lot of the night.
4) boom boom with the bridesmaids actually does happen, especially when the wedding is in cuba and drinks are plentiful.
5) my grandmother can be pleasant when her dosage of drugs is doubled.
6) i still think j is the best guy for me and feel very fortunate that we found each other.

anyways, congratulations greg and rebecca!

arachnophobia

i, thankfully, do not have arachnophobia. but some days i think i'm very close.

this morning, i had two close encounters with spiders. the first was there was a spider on the ceiling in the bathroom. not a huge deal. so i head downstairs to check my email. i almost walked into a dangling spider on my way to the computer. i managed to kill that one by knocking it on the floor, but not before my heart was racing at almost walking into it. yuck! so that was the second.. little did i know that the first encounter wasn't done.

i go back into the bathroom and was content to see the spider near the ceiling and the wall and not moving. i look up again and he's making a break for my bathrobe, which i will be putting on after i shower. i couldn't stand for that so i get him with a kleenex, but when i pulled the kleenex away he fell INTO MY BATHROBE!!! the horror!

needless to say i didn't use my bathrobe and spent most of my shower calming myself down.

i never used to be like this, but i also never used to have to deal with so many spiders. i tell you, cracks in the foundation of your house lets all sorts of nasty things in. i can't wait to have a brand spanking new house where the only bugs will be the ones that live on our bodies. at least for the first couple of years.

ouch!

my bum is really hurting from the biking. i went out to get a gel seat last night but they didn't have any and i still had to eat and get ready for my ball game.

getting to arnprior isn't really that difficult, but we managed to go to carleton place and were well on our way to perth before we realized we were on the wrong highway. we were 40kms south of arnprior. it took us an hour and a half to get to the diamond. we missed the first inning of the game.

i didn't play defensively but i batted. i didn't think me going on the diamond for the first time in 8 months after the winter and being sick was a good idea. i probably would have hurt myself.

so i got home and i was absolutely exhausted but i had to eat and i had to do laundry (i'm so exciting) so i did that and went to bed. this morning came way too fast and now here i am, at work, with a sore ass. j talked me into biking again even though i was hurting. i'm just hoping it doesn't rain for the ride home.

tonight is s&b and i'm definitely going, but i'm definitely not staying late. good thing i don't have anything to do this weekend that involves me getting up super early. though it is mother's day on sunday and we have that wedding to go to saturday night and my brother is in town and i have a practice on sunday. it will still be a pretty full weekend.

new blogger!

s has joined the blogging world! check it out: the adventures of sj . her blog will get bigger and better but you get the idea. go on over and say hi. don't be shy.

i finally did it. i biked to work today. now that i'm not feeling nauseous anymore, i'm happy i did it. it'll be nice to not have to pay to get to work anymore. i might invest in one of those gel seats though. holy my bum is sore! (i toned that down for you.) i don't think i've ever biked on super busy streets before and even though i had a bike lane (except in the traffic circle - what the eff?) i still felt kinda small at some points. but i'm alive, just more hungry than i would be normally.

did i mention that my new office looks out over dow's lake? it's so nice to be able to look over and see sunlight and the sparkling water and all the people walking around. and then i wish i was one of those people - outside during the day not working. but then i think that they probably have a crappy-paying night job that they hate. i just have an okay-paying day job that i dislike. i win.

j and i played chess last night. we have one of those fancy glass sets (thank you wedding presents). i lost but it was a good game. rolo only managed to knock over one piece so that's not bad.

advice

i have a wedding to go to this saturday evening. it's casual but it's still a wedding. it's a barbeque held at the lone star ranch.

WHAT SHOULD I WEAR???? answer in the comments. seriously.

back to work nanannanananananannaa

me: back to work nanananannananananannanaaaa
j: back to sleep nanananannananaaananananaaaaa

i'm back at work and j has the day off. ironic.

i have changed positions and am finding myself very lost. i don't know what to do. i have so much to do from my old position and the woman who's in that position now isn't here so i really should be picking up the slack. and then there's lots to do in my new position but i still don't know exactly what that means.

i'll figure it out.

friday night j and i went to matt's place to watch the hockey game with matt and julie. it was nice to be out of the house. they even fed us, which was unexpected but super good. i haven't had a hamburger in months! mmmmmmmm.

saturday was my lazy day. j was gone all day doing car stuff so i slept in and went shopping and didn't play baseball. my team did though. they won and they lost and now it looks like our game tonight may be cancelled. i can't say that would bother me any.

sunday was a weird day. our house was on edge and not really talking to each other and i actually left at one point and slammed the door. i was mad. more frustrated than mad, but it was a weird feeling all the same. i don't normally do anything like that and i can't even say it felt good. but then i settled down and the house sorted itself out and we had great chicken burgers for dinner and watched prime time tv and knit.

knitting news: i organized my stash and took everything off the needles and started a new project - a blue and black blanket of my own design. i'm using 10mm circs so i'm doing it all at once, no sewing for me. it's looking good. my only beef with it is that a single row takes 15-20 minutes. that's a long time to not be able to move / keep the cats away.

i'm off to fight my dizziness and try to get some work done.

pub night extraordinaire

pub night was last night. it went really well. seemed like everyone was having a good time and the team made some money.

i went to bed with a very sore throat and a very grumbly stomach and woke up hardly able to talk.

enough whining? okay.

i have no idea what i'm doing tonight. maybe finding my ball stuff seeing as how we have our first tournament tomorrow. games at 8:30 and 3:30. let me just say that 8:30 is early for a ball game. especially this early in the season. let's just hope that the weather is nice (where nice = not raining and warm enough).

maybe i'll mail off the last 6 of my warming grace squares. that's something. and maybe get j, after his much-needed and much-deserved nap, to put my bike together. i'm hoping to make a trial run to and from work sunday. good thing work isn't far.

the couch is calling!

it's not you, it's me

last night, we bought a house! big news! whoooohoooooo! it's exactly what we want and we're super happy. i'm sure when i see you in person i will talk your ear off so i won't say too much here.

we move in at the end of january, so that gives us time to save and buy stuff and go to australia and for me to maybe get a permanent job... though i do also have news about my job.

i'm getting a raise. starting monday, i will be making significantly more money. i will also be expected to work significantly harder in this new position, but who cares! i'm making more money! and the gap between me and j is reduced. and one day it will be gone. i'm the only one who cares and it's funny, because i totally wouldn't care if i was the one making more money. erg.

i went into work today for three and a half hours, which was enough to wear myself out. i'm home now and soon i will be lying on the couch watching tv, saving up my energy for tonight. my baseball team's pub night is tonight. if you live near me you should come. it will be fun.

in knitting news.. yes, i have knitting news, i made a leg warmer for sandy. just one. i wanted to see if it fit before making another and i'm glad i waited. she hates it. but it was so much fun seeing her with it on (that should probably say "with her trying to get it off"), but rolo was even better. he would jump on three paws! i wish i had the camera with me. i'll just have to put it on them again.

tomorrow's friday. friday friday friday. more posting this weekend i'm sure.

i've been sick

i haven't biked to work yet cause i haven't been back to work. i took yesterday off and didn't have a great day. and this morning i just couldn't do it. but tomorrow is the day. i'll go back tomorrow. and when i get there, i will be greeted by a newly renovated little office and a paycheque. at least i think this week is pay week. i prefer getting paid every week. that way you always know when pay week is - it's every week!

the meeting monday night went well. we found the place okay and were told that we have enough money to do what we want with this house and then the traffic wasn't terrible on the way home. and now we're preapproved for a mortgage. tonight we're going out and buying the house. that's right. we're buying a freaking house! this is HUGE!

and then we have to rush home to see the second half of house. it must be the season finale. i'm a little sad that prison break and 24 are close to being done. holy crap what good shows! i'm going to miss them, but it'll be nice to not be controlled by tv as much. just baseball.

baseball starts up this weekend. we have a "tournament". i put the thingys around the word because we only have two games and the rules are very lax - everybody bats and there are unlimited substitutions. it's really just to get out on the diamond and play games. i haven't been on the field yet and am not even sure where my stuff is. i should go and look into that. i think it's going to be a weird season because we don't really have a coach and everybody is trying to be friends. it's somewhat of a mess.

last trip

i took my last bus ride this morning. j and i have a meeting downtown after work so it made sense for him to leave work a little early and then grab me on his way downtown. me biking didn't make sense. so i start tomorrow. i have all new brake pads and all new biking gear (shorts and a peach shirt). i just have to figure out all my shower stuff and whatever else i'm going to need.

and if i'm feeling well enough i'll be biking tomorrow. otherwise i will spending the whole day on the couch in my jogging pants with my kitties. i have my priorities.

i've finished another 6 squares for warming grace. i will send them off soon, but not before i find out if any of the s&b girls have any to send along with them.

s is a certifiable knitting machine. the girl can now knit and purl and cast on and bind off and even went to the store by herself. she bought wool and kneedles and has started a blanket. amazing!

i'm getting excited. excited for a bunch of things. in a couple of hours we're meetnig with a bank dude about mortgages. if all goes well we will most likely be buying a house this week (eek!). i'm on a team for HOPE finally. i've wanted to play in this tournament for years, but it just never happened. and then there's my race. it's sneaking up pretty fast. there's baseball starting this weekend and our pub night this thursday night. and then greg's wedding reception (he's my cousin. the wedding was last month in cuba) in two weeks. throw mother's day in there and everyone leaving for their trips (m and r to australia, a and s just left for holland and greece) and my brother coming to town. SO MUCH STUFF! ooh, and planning our australia trip.

overwhelmed yet? i am some times.

oh, and did i mention that work might be changing? they've asked me to move into a higher position. i didn't quite say yes or no but i know it's expected of me. now if only higher pay was expected of them. and i should hear about that health canada job this month. my fingers are crossed.

how's that for a random, all-over-the-place post? i'm a little crazy.

i almost forgot

i almost forgot. i was at the gym last night and had just run my 5K on the treadmill. i went to get a papertowel to wipe down the machine and read a poster on the wall. it was for the new learn-to-run club at the gym.

the poster first described the club and then listed off the reasons to join. it went something like this:
"perfect for people who want to:
- make new friends
- lose weight
- suffer an injury
- get outside"

i promptly ripped the posted off the wall and brought it down to the front desk with me. i didn't think the club would want to be advertising this way: perfect for people who want to suffer an injury!

i think i know why it was there, but it still didn't sound right. umm, no thanks, i don't need any injuries. how badly are your personal trainers paid anyways?

apparently

so apparently i got sick. i went to bed last night thinking my allergies were finally kicking in, but really i was coming down with something. i could hardly swallow when i woke up and after drowning myself in orange juice i can definitely say that i am feeling better but that i am for sure sick.

some blog news: i got the comments working and got the navigation bar back along the top of the page, which i again removed because of the aesthetic. i've never used that word, but it really was perfect for what i was trying to say. oh yeah, tell me what you think about the little home link above the posts. i still don't know what i think about it, except it's kind of useful after you've left a comment to get back to the blog. but i don't know.

hey! now that i'm blogging from home i can post a picture. hmmmm. how about:


this is a great picture of the cats. they're finally getting along well enough to all be on the perch at the same time. we've decided that s NEEDS a perch when she moves out. she also might just need a little kitten to keep hers entertained.

anyways, the sens are playing so i'm going to go lie on the couch with some kitties and a blanket and some orange juice. i'm lovely.

i'm playing around

i'm just playing around with the template a little. i was sick of the black already. i still have lots of work to do, but you get the idea.

comments are now the little number that appears beside the title of the post.

what do you think about the little home and post links under the top bar? comments? i'm not sure if i like them.

tee minus one month until race day

it's exactly one month until my 10K race. i have not been training as i should have for various reasons, but last night i kicked my ass into top gear. we went to the gym and i ran. oh how i ran. i got on that treadmill and went for 5K in just over 30 minutes.

that said, here are my goals for this year's race:
1) finish the race - a pretty general and hopefully easy goal, nice for goal #1;
2) run the whole 10K - you know, no having to stop to walk;
3) finish in under 60 minutes - now we're getting into my more loftier goals; and,
4) raise $200 in pledges for the Canadian Athletes NOW Fund - their goal was to have 2008 participants each raise $2008 (for the olympics in 2008.. get it?) and perhaps i will get that much, but my goal remains modest.

if you would like to sponsor me please visit my page (here). i appreciate any and all support, but please do not feel obligated.

national volunteer week

this week is national volunteer week, which is great, but let me tell you my beef about volunteering.

i'll start this off by saying that i do volunteer. i was brought up canvassing for a different charity every month, with parents coaching our sports teams and sitting on boards at the local sports centre, and helping out with local politics. and now that i'm older i still volunteer, though in different capacities, but that is to be expected.

my beef with volunteering is that so often it costs you not only your time but your money AND so often they turn people away for lack of skills or knowledge. while i understand volunteering and charities are entities in themselves and need funding and the support of many many people, this just doesn't seem right. has it always been this way?

i suppose you could argue that the people who donate to causes are volunteering some of their money when they can't afford to volunteer their time. but the fact is that to volunteer often requires some money from the volunteer. you have to pay money in order to miss work and take a cut on your paycheque (unless you are fortunate enough to work for an organization who will allow you one day a year to volunteer) in order to volunteer your services.

let's go back to those employees who are allowed a full day every year for volunteering. i wonder how many of those people actually volunteer that day. i'm sure most take the day as a day off. their employer is NOT allowed to ask.

they say that people take a lot away from volunteering experiences, at least that's what the email i received today at work told me.

"Volunteers share their dedication, energy and skills, and, in return, they benefit from shared cultural and social experiences. Many volunteers gain important interpersonal, communication and employment-related skills from their volunteer experience, as well as personal reward from making a difference in the lives of fellow citizens."

in conclusion, i will continue to volunteer in ways that are tangible for me and don't cost too much money. i hope you too can find something that you can do to help someone else, but if you have to stick to holding doors open for people and picking up the random piece of litter GOOD ON YOU. every little bit helps.

the car: she runs

after more than three hours with 6 guys helping, the car finally runs. that's 18 man-hours. but i'll let you in on a little secret: those guys do more standing around than any group of people i have ever known. great guys, don't get me wrong, but lots of standing around. lots of talking about cars. lots of telling of dirty jokes.

this is a picture of j after the car would start and not stall when the gas pedal was pushed:



so he gets in the house after everyone leaves, lies down on the couch, and tells us he's tired. he's spent. this has been weighing heavy on his head for over 2 weeks. i'm guessing he will sleep well tonight. that's my call at least.

obviously. i'm not stupid.

you want more details. i can give you some.

the house we want is in a community 10-15 minutes south of downtown. it's a relatively new community and a brand new development. the house is what they call a "supertown", which really means a semi-detached. but only attached at the garage so we wouldn't share a wall with our direct neighbour. it's right on a corner so the lot is much bigger than the rest of the street and backs onto a road so we wouldn't have any back neighbours.

now for timing. timing is key. we were going to wait for the next phase of development. they do a little chunk of land at a time. the next phase will be a couple of streets over/across from the current phase. as soon as they are done selling the current phase they open up the new one. then they start builing, starting with the model homes and working their way up the street. because we want a supertown, which is located on the corners, it would be a while before one became available, and even longer before they got to building it. while we could theoretically purchase it in the fall - more likely late fall/early winter - chances of them having it built when we need to move out - this time next year - are slim to none. we would need to figure out temporary accomodations = huge hassle.

timing on this phase: we buy now and they delay the construction of the home as long as they can and we move in late december, early january at the latest. which puts us a couple of months earlier than planned. not the end of the world. and actually much better than trying to figure out some temporary accomodation if we bought and couldn't move in until months after we get kicked out of our house now. make sense?

and money: the cost for the house will be higher in the next phase. how much higher? no one knows. is this significant? possibly, but possibly not. but add that on to the timing and the choice seems easy.

the house is exactly what we want. we fell in love with it the minute we walked in. and we've been back and still love it. we've made some large purchases together (the most obvious and biggest being the car) and it was the same thing. we test drove tons of cars but as soon as we got in the 3 we knew it was the car for us. well this is the house for us. you just know. and if you don't just know, you don't just know. and if you just know, you just know what i mean. you just know.

monday we meet with the mortgage guy.