date night

j and i went and saw deep sea at the IMAX last night. we went to the 7pm show (not to early not too late).



i really enjoyed it. i had never been to a dome imax before and can't remember the two other times i had been to imax shows at all. it was really interesting and visual. i wouldn't mind going again and seeing something else (hint!hint!)

after the show we drove around downtown for a while. i wanted to get a picture of a stone angel for a flickr group i just joined. they have weekly contests for people to go out and take pictures of specific places or things. i'll have to go out again and get that picture.

it's been a long time since i've driven around downtown at night (except driving straight to the market or something) and the drive from portage to elgin is beautiful at night. i really wish we had had our good camera on us and didn't have to pee (oops!) and could have spent some time taking pictures. better do it before the snow.

did you hear about the snow? southern ontario got some snow but nothing compared to buffalo and other parts of new york who got upwards of two feet! welcome to winter, suckers.

anyways, last night, on top of seeing deep sea, we watched the movie click (check out my library for more details) and then i watched an episode of grey's anatomy and knit. i'm making myself a red scarf and will make a matching touque if i have enough wool left over. and then it's on to something pink.

bits and bobs

i've had pretty focused posts lately and i need a random post where i can throw everything out there. plus i have no more pictures to show you.

j and i are going to see deep sea at the imax tonight. i got the idea from tania's blog and am really excited to go. i have a feeling it's going to leave me wanting more though since a lot of my courses in university showed films that were very in depth about the species and the ecosystems. i just found out that it's narrated by johnny depp and kate winslet so that should be interesting.

i'm surprised it's not morgan freeman.

moving on. it's been really rainy and gray for the past couple of days (can you say we were spoiled with the weather last weekend?) so i've been sluggish. at least we made it into work today on time.

expect more house pictures because we've heard that they've started putting shingles on the roof. we'll probably head out this weekend. i will update you on all the goings-on of the weekend on monday.

i have this nice feeling about money and have this whole month. we decided to pay all of our october bills (minus the ones that get taken directly from our account) early on in the month and so have hardly anything money related to worry about. our last house cheque comes out early next week (the last of the $10,000 down payment) and then we will finally be told the actual price of the house. AND we can start buying the big things like appliances.

i can't wait until we're actually in the new house and we can see how our stuff fits and what it all looks like together (and start buying new things to finish the look... and eventually paint!) we're in a good situation of already living in a house so we have a lot of stuff (no more echoing for us!) but that will just make moving more expensive. i'm rambling.

check out the ViKaren pool on Flickr and email me if you want to join!

fun with the camera

when i got up monday morning (monday was a day off remember?) the sun was shining bright. this made me want to take pictures of the cats. i might be a little crazy. here are some of the best shots (more on flickr).

sandy


rolo


the both of them


the colours aren't as bright, but this is one of my favourite pictures of sandy

the rest of the thanksgiving weekend

(read friday's post and then saturday's post first)

i was really hoping to sleep in and not be disturbed by a vomiting-on-me cat. and my dreams came true! i slept and i slept some more. finally!

we really only had one thing to do sunday and that was go have our third turkey dinner with my parents and brother. so that's what we did. we spent a good 7 hours over there.





and when we got home i crashed. i poured myself onto the couch and slept. apparently i was a little tired. so we didn't end up going out. i slept and j played computer games.

monday was the bonus day off. we slept in because that's what days off are for and then i did laundry that i had been putting off for a long while and j helped a car guy fix some stuff on his car. i eventually gave up on laundry and went and read outside. again, it was bright and sunny and warmer than expected.

we spent the night watching grey's anatomy and playing computer games (guess who did what!) and finishing up the laundry. it was a nice end to a super long busy packed weekend.



if you know vik and took pictures on saturday, email me (myfirstnameATgmailDOTcom) and i will invite you to the group pool i set up (link here). otherwise you can just go take a look at the pictures so far.

catching up to saturday

(scroll down and read friday's post first)

remember that i was looking forward to sleeping in? all was going according to plan until 8am. i was sleeping away until i woke up to the sweet sounds of rolo puking on me. honestly, i opened my eyes as he was starting to puke. i hurled (hurled? get it?) myself into a sitting position and managed to escape actually getting puked on but the bed wasn't so lucky.

and you know that half-awake i-just-almost-got-puked-on feeling? well, i was a little dazed and knew one thing - that i didn't want to sleep in puke but that i was definitely going to sleep more. so j, the great guy that he is, went and cleaned up the puke on the floor (one just isn't enough for little rolo) and then put a towel down on the bed and took my side. my hero! so we slept all out of whack on the wrong sides of the bed until noon.

when i got up to pee i noticed all the dried puke on my sleeve. i hadn't been as quick as i thought. gross. needless to say everything got washed. at least we got clean bed out of the deal and my day could only get better.

activity #1: the arboretum
j and i acted like tourists and took the camera to the arboretum. i had never actually been so i was really happy to have the opportunity to walk around in the warmer-than-expected weather.



we saw tons of people and dogs and ducks and geese. there was even one wedding.

activity #2: the new house
we had some time before our next activity so we went to our new place. we now have windows.

view from the front


and back


we also walked to the edges of our lot in the back to get an idea of the property size and are happy with the bigness.

activity #3:
this activity was actually planned. we were all supposed to be at vik's parent's house at 4 because vik was going to propose to his girlfriend karen and wanted us all to be there when she said yes. it seemed kinda weird to me but it worked out well for them.

we were all hiding in the house waiting and finally they pulled in and vik did his thing.


and then the party got started. there was lots of champagne and food and cake. but we couldn't stay too long.

activity #4:
we had to head back for thanksgiving dinner with j's family. it ended up just being j's grandparents, sj and us. the food was amazing and we ate lots. second turkey dinner done.

activity #5:
after a quick stop at home we went downtown for an apartment-warming party for chris and joe.



there were so many funny things that happened. richard ate a whole plate of celery, a girl showed up and was constantly thrusting her chest out (i said 'thrusting' for a reason), the elevator door wouldn't close... and lots of other things that i can't remember. it was a good night.

for some reason the party died down right when the bars were closing so there was a lot of traffic when we were leaving the parking garage. we got home in one piece and fell into bed. i was hoping that i would get an actual sleep in without being puked on.......

playing catch up - friday

we had an extremely busy weekend so i'm going to split my story up into a couple of posts, maybe even three. i'm telling you we did lots! here's my friday story complete with pictures.

j left work after lunch on friday so he could get home and cook the turkey. he ran home... like on his two feet. ran. home. anyways, he got home and was a cooking machine all afternoon.



tonight was the night for our third annual friends potluck thanksgiving dinner. three years ago this started because we wanted to use the stuff we got from the wedding. and now it's in its third year. this year was a little different though because one of j's coworkers brought his 2 year old girl. and she fell in love with me. she kept saying my name over and over. it was really cute.



so there was tons of food and a couple bottles of wine and three whole pies! we all ate until we couldn't eat anymore and then we ate some more. people started to leave around 9:30 and then we went out and saw the departed, a new movie with matt damon and leonardo dicaprio. i really liked the ending because it was not your typical good-guy-kills-bad-guy good-guy-gets-girl ending. watch it and you'll see what i mean.

i was painfully tired by the time we got home and fell into bed looking forward to sleeping in after a long week........

there's something in the way you move

the combination of nighttime and driving alone and the route i was taking made me think. i thought back a bunch of years to summers when i was still living in my little city and you were living in yours. i would finish up whatever activity i had (often sports, sometimes family obligations or other friends) and jump in my car and rush to you. we would spend our time together and eventually i would get back in my little car, with much less enthusiasm, and drive home.

i drove fast there so i could see you for longer, i drove fast on the way home because it was 4 am and i started work in two and a half hours.

i hated that you were twenty minutes away and i couldn't spend more time with you. and this is after being separated by ten times that distance. twenty minutes all summer and two hours the rest of the year.

and that's what we did for two school years and two summers. and then the magical night when you proposed. i was still living at home but we stayed together that night. about a month later i moved in. and two months after that we were once again apart.

i spent more time in my car those three years than i have since. i bonded with that car. there are songs that will bring me back to those late night drives (races more like) when i was lonely or upset or excited but i was flying home to be with you.

and, as i found out last night, that need-to-get-there feeling doesn't go away just because we are no longer separated by distance. the car might have changed and i might have grown up a little but that doesn't mean that i won't come flying home to you.

i woke up on the cranky side of the bed

you heard me: i'm cranky! i can't blame it on the weather, my time of the month.. nothing. i'm just cranky. and that's almost worse than having an excuse. i have no idea what's wrong with me. just don't talk to me.

i had an okay day yesterday. work dragged on and on and i got frustrated with my files, but that happens. j and i cleaned the house and i felt really good about that. and i watched grey's and i love grey's and was on the edge of the couch for the whole last episode. i went to bed around when i normally do.

and then i woke up on the cranky side of the bed.

i came to work and had to dive again into my crappy files that i'm really starting to dislike. at least this is a long weekend and i have lots of turkey to eat and lots of things to do. let's just hope i can find my happy pants and put those on.

i wasn't joking

in yesterday's post, i wasn't kidding when i said i was bruised. see:



you thought i was joking, right? it's weird though, the bruises are only on my right arm. both arms hurt though and i'm convinced the bruises just aren't visible everywhere else. what pain!

and to never again have cut up knees from volleyball i went out and bought knee pads. i've never had actual volleyball knee pads and was worried that they would be super expensive. not the case. they were under $20. i didn't even get air miles.

i'm figuring that the guy helping me must have thought i was a lesbian though. don't get me wrong, i know lots of lesbians and don't have a problem with them, i'm just not a lesbian. but anyways, i went in to the sports store wearing joggers and a sweatshirt with my skates. gave them to another guy to get them sharpened and then asked the first guy where the knee pads were. i think the only thing that could have made it worse was if i told him i played baseball too. or if my girlfriend was with me.

hey, it was like when sj and i used to go grocery shopping together, dressed in a similar way. i'm convinced the cashier thought we were a drunk lesbian couple. drunk because we were always laughing at something and maybe swaying... with hunger of course. we had a good laugh about that. every time.

remember how rolo plays hockey - and by plays hockey, i mean to say he likes to sit on my bag - well he was at it again last night only this time he was yelling at the rest of us the whole time. it was strange but funny.

did i get beat up?

we had our first volleyball game last night. my arms were red and ouchy after 10 minutes. now they're bruised and hurting. honestly. bruised.

i'm really impressed with the level of play. it's better than i've ever played so i'm a little out of my league but i am sure that i will get better. at least i can serve.

we played 4 sets and i sat out the first. i had a hard time getting used to the rotation. we're playing 5-1 and i'm playing right side. this basically means that i'm opposite the setter and i get to hit offside when i'm in the front row. i hit left handed so this is perfect.

except i don't remember how to hit.

so after the game one of the girls showed me a couple of things that made complete sense so i'm going to try and hit like that. before my arms get better i'm going to practice the approach with the jump (watch out, kitties!) and then outside with a ball. once i get used to the rotation and can hit, i think i'll be set.

and on the family side of things, we finally sorted out all of our dinners and our schedule for thanksgiving weekend. i'm already looking forward to monday when we have the day off. is that bad?

grey's anatomy weekend

friday

j and i worked 9-5 friday and i spent all day miserable from pho nam (remember?) and right near the end of the day, after everyone had left, i found some pretty huge problems with two submissions of mine. yuck! i did everything i could but left without accomplishing anything. that's a great feeling.

so we got home and i went to work on having a nap on the couch. j needed protein so off he went and off i went. he came back with a huge tub of protein and GREY'S ANATOMY SECOND SEASON ON DVD!!! you must realize at this point that i'm in love with grey's anatomy and must suspect that i spent a lot of time this weekend watching my new favourite show. i had already rented the first season a couple of weeks ago and hunkered down and watched 6 episodes that night. j was out trying to see a movie.

saturday

saturday was nice. i slept in and when i woke up it was bright and sunny and i was warm and rested and covered in cats. heaven. we ended up doing things. things like going and seeing the cheo dreamhome - holy sh*t! it's enormous! i definitely would not want to live in a house that big though. we went out of curiosity.

and then we went to our little house and found this:



a red bike on the roof. sweet!

when we were poking around a mother and daughter pair were walking around some of the lots nearby. the daughter is apparently moving in just up the street, though we heard all this from the mom. the daughter seems lovely (i'm being sarcastic.. she was obviously in a cranky mood and didn't want to be there. hopefully that isn't her permanent mood).

and then i watched 8 and a bit episodes of grey's that night while j went out with the guys to a rock and roll show at barrymore's. sounds like they had fun.

sunday

the sleeping in trend continues but this time it was dark and gray when we woke up. we went and saw my parents. apparently my mom broke her wrist. she tripped over some wood (that will eventually be shelves) and could only use her right hand to break her fall because her arthritis is super bad in her left hand. this happened a week ago and i only found out now. yep, way to keep me in the loop, mom.

i was in desperate need of some retail therapy. my version of retail therapy involves being out in the stores and looking at price tags. i don't necessarily need to buy anything, though sunday i did. we went to the mall close to us and i bought two sweaters on the cheap, one black and one dark brown. i was a happy camper.

and then we made spaghetti. there's something so nice about making your own spaghetti sauce and chopping up all the veggies. and then stuffing yourself. mmm.

and to top off my weekend, i had a scrapbooking night with some girls. i got a page done in my wedding album. progress - slow but steady.

harumph

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

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

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

i leave you with a picture because pictures are fun.

rolo plays hockey just like me:

new hair cut!

i did it. i chopped off my hair again:



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

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



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

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

here is my favourite picture of me, possibly ever:


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

gaining momentum

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

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

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



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

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

volleyball begins

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

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

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

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

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

donating vs giving money

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and that is that.

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

the week is dragging its feet

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

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

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

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

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

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

final - final? - birthday post

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

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

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

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



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

random updates

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

2. our house now has walls:



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

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

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



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

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

j's weekend birthday bonanza

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



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

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



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

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

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

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

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

(welcome to blogland, special k!)

hockey, knitting, tee-shirt making and partying

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

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

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

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

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

sporty mcsporterson

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

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

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

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

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

can you tell i'm not political?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

eureka?

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

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

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

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

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

better picture

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


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

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

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

and that concludes my story house story for today.

where is the sun?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

notification: long weekend plans

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

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

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

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

rehashed a plan

dear blogger,

we've spent the past couple of days not communicating and i will admit that i miss you. more than i thought i would. i thought i could go on without you but i've come to realize that you are a huge part of my life, a part that i've come to need. i only hope you can forgive me.

i like how well we've come to know each other over the years and how familiar and comfortable our relationship is. you let me talk (incessantly sometimes), you let me vent, you let me hash out my problems and issues, but you also let me be joyous and happy and oftentimes blubbering. who else puts up with me to such an extreme extent?

the past two days i have had a hole in my soul. a hole that could only be filled by you. blogger, i beg of you to see past my indiscretions (and awful attempts at spelling words i don't always know), and take me back. i want to remain friends.

lovingly,

batman

thanks that was fun

dear blogger,

thank you so much for our time together. i regret to inform you that it must come to an end. i'm moving on to bigger and better things. don't worry, i'm not leaving without learning a thing or two. i will go forward an older and wiser girl and hopefully will not repeat my mistakes. and now, if you will forgive me, i will fade into the oblivion that is the internet.

thanks that was fun,

batman

you and me same energy

yesterday marked an anniversary in my life: 5 years of dating j. 5 years ago yesterday things finally fell into place and we were able to get really drunk and spend a night talking/sobering up/deciding that we liked each other.

well, i knew that i liked him and he knew that he liked me but we both never thought the other would like us. make sense? that's about how coherent we were at the beginning of our first night together - after all the drinking craziness - but by the time the sun came up we were not as hazy and apparently serious enough. i know the word "love" came out of my mouth once. good thing i wasn't facing j at the time.

the next day we spent some time together, always with other people though, but finally at 2am we were able to have some one-on-one time at a tim horton's. we talked for hours and saw the papers being delivered. i had to leave early the next morning for k-town so we finally parted ways, happy but confused.

i moved into a new place (the booty shak) and so had all new housemates but was also super busy being a frosh leader (we call them gaels at queen's, in arts&science at least) and all that jazz. j and i managed to talk a couple of times and actually saw each other twice in person before thanksgiving.

thanksgiving was the weekend to meet the parents. there were no hilarious moments like in the movie, but i clearly remember telling my mom before j came over that she should be nice to him because he was going to be around for a long time.

so the time passed and in may 2003 j proposed. i will always remember the night because i was still living at home and my dad made me dinner. the dinner was so salty that my body was in a ton of pain. but we went down to the ottawa river anyways and j got down on one knee and said the words.

j's parents moved away that june and i moved in, but i went back to kingston in september. that last year of university was tough, mostly because planning a wedding and being really excited about a huge event that isn't studying for your exams is hard. i managed to get through school and even passed all my courses.

we were married july 10th, 2004. i was late. he was nervous. we had the ceremony, took some family group shots and then jumped in a car and headed to the experimental farm to take pictures. we unloaded from the car and it started raining. we headed back to the hall and took pictures inside. did i mention it was 30+ degrees?

since then we have acquired enough stuff so that our house doesn't echo anymore. we have added to our family - two little cats. we have bought a new car and a new house. we've gone on road trips and cottage trips and trips on planes. we're still growing and maturing, but we're doing it all together. the past 5 years have been the best 5 of my life.

carly's wedding

carly and kerry got married yesterday - congratulations to the happy couple!

we showed up at the reception a little late but still had to wait well over an hour for the speeches to be done so we sat in the bar downstairs:



and here's a picture of carly with the ball girls:



j pulled out all the stops and danced like a mad man:



he even convinced graham to go along with him. crazies. though i might have danced a little crazy too. and someone might have called us wedding crashers.

but this is my favourite picture from the night:



the boys mimicking that beer commercial (fake boy bands), you know the one.

cake!

i got home from work yesterday and promptly went out and bought a cake mix. got home, mixed up the cake, baked and ran over to alan and sylvia's place where we ate said cake and talked like 4 people who haven't seen each other in 4 months. oh right, that's because we hadn't seen each other in that long. sad. so sad.

but the cake was good.

and here's a picture of sylvia opening her present:



in other news, the big dodgeball tournament was today at lunch. yes, at work. it was a wonky double knockout format where we were out after winning our first game and losing our second. so really, we got two games, win or lose, but some teams got more. who knows. it was fun though. and j came over from his building and met some of my coworkers. they thought he was cute.

on cheap things

i've been thinking lately about cheap things: things that don't cost what they should, things that aren't constructed well or things that use crappy materials. why do we (and when i say "we" i mean "me") buy these things? i am, or was, the biggest culprit but here's my story.

growing up we never had a lot of money so i learned early on what it meant to save money and what it meant to eat grilled cheese sandwiches 5 nights out of 7. though this didn't much bother me since i love grilled cheese sandwiches, but you get my point. i knew what it meant to have to miss the class ski trip or not join a whole course in high school (outdoor ed) because of lack of money.

my parents are not to blame however. my brother and i turned out completely different. we both knew that money was tight yet i was more conscious of my choices while he went on all the ski trips and continues to ask my parents for money (he's 24). but i digress, my parents are not to blame. they put me in every organized sport/activity that i wanted to try including and in order: baseball, gymnastics, soccer, ballet, football, brownies and later beavers, and hockey. they let me play every sport in highschool knowing that i would incur extra costs due to travel and tournaments and uniforms and equipment. where the money came into play was the quality of my equipment which was always second-hand, and our accomodations, which were almost always second-class.

not having a lot of money growing up didn't affect me much. there was even one point where we didn't have cable tv because we couldn't afford it. did i mind? not so much. we still got enough channels to watch some tv. we weren't inside for long anyways.

back to cheap things. due to the lack of money growing up i am always searching for ways to save money. i cut coupons and buy things on sale or at the dollar store. i don't buy the fancy clothes or shoes that everyone else is wearing. i drove a beat up old car and ate kraft dinner through all of university. and then i met j. he was brought up much the same way i was, money was tight but it hardly affected his or his sister's lives. but he still has an eye for nice things. quality things.

let me give you an example: every year i would buy a backpack for school. why every year you ask? because the cheap one i bought for last year was already falling apart and could hardly carry my books. so slowly, with j's influence i have been buying not-so-cheap things. i bought a more expensive backpack a couple of years ago and have been using it ever since. i started getting my hair cut at a hairdresser. there are other things but i won't take up too much of your time.

slowly, my mindset has evolved. i now expect quality and will pay extra to get it. we drive a brand new car and expect it to start every time we turn the key. we are still compulsive savers and don't spend much. we stayed with another couple in the hotel at provincials to save costs and hardly turn on our air conditioning. we hardly buy stuff for ourselves and are even forced at some points (eh j? one shirt every month just to keep him in clothes without holes). i find myself less often in the dollar store and more often in regular-priced stores.

all of this to say that this past weekend i bought a new pair of shower sandals. they cost ~$16 more than my previous pair (old pair: $2 from the dollar store, new pair: $18 from bushtakah). i am SO happy with them. they aren't moldy (though i will have to give them some time to be fair to my old pair), the fit my feet and i don't trip when walking through the kitchen in front of 6 people i don't know, and they're green. thank you j for changing my ways and thanks for buying my new sandals.

do i still shop at the dollar store? you bet i do. the dollar store still has a place in my life. where else can you get super cheap candles? where else can you get two chocolate bars for a dollar? and for my shower sandals, i actually bought them because i wanted to try the thong-style sandals. the $2 spent was well worth it. the dollar store allows you to try new things without committing all of your hard-earned money to them, but the dollar store is not the place to buy all your things. i guess that phase of my life has finally passed. i work for a living and am no longer a poor poor student. however, i will still frequent the dollar store when the need arises.

catching up

i posted so much last week that i gave you all weekend and yesterday to read it. i'm assuming you're all caught up now so i'm writing more.

first things first: happy birthday carla and sylvia!! i hope you both had great birthdays and ate tons of cake.

baseball season finally done
we had our last game of the season last night. the season should have been done two weeks ago at provincials but the league dragged things out for another while. at least we won, quite handily too, despite having 8 players. i played well but could have played better.

tv season commences
the new season of prison break started last night. we missed it because of the game and need to see it sometime this week, but i'm excited! michael scoffield is, in my opinion, the hottest guy on tv.

house
they dug the hole for our house. next the foundation gets poured.


we also got an update on matt and julie's house (they close in 2 months) - the outside of the house is pretty much finished and so the work will be moving to the interior. they have even picked out their appliances and some furniture.

also, both andi&graham and alan&sylvia have put offers on houses recently. i'm excited that my friends are getting on board with buying houses. next: getting married! you know you want to....

speaking of weddings, we have a wedding to go to saturday, though we were only officially invited to the reception. and it starts at 9pm. not your typical wedding. it's a girl from my ball team. i think i'll go to our street garage sale during the day.

(almost) forgotten tales from farm boy

i meant to tell these stories to j last night but that was before i knew he out was out seriously getting drunk and wouldn't be home until 8. on a school night. so instead i'm telling you all.

like i said in my last post, i went to farm boy yesterday. like i also said in my last post, i had gotten enough sleep the night before so i was less impatient than normal. i was actually surprised at my restraint when not one, not two, but three (!) men in work clothes got in my way over and over and over (cause there were three of them) at farm boy.

without one word of a lie the "leader" was walking in front of the other two, all three with those little metal hand-held baskets, pointing out the various sections.

leader: *stops directly in front of me and points* this is where all the vegetables are.
other 2: oh....
me: *going around, not yet annoyed*
leader: *hurries up and gets in my way again and points to the meat section* and this is where you get your meat.
other 2: *still seemingly not overly offended but captain obvious* oh...
me: *getting miffed. i decide to let them get ahead of me*
leader: *stops half-way through section and points* this part of the meat section is all chicken!
me: *wtf?* get out of my f***ing way!!! *shakes fist angrily**

* no fist shaking actually occured, no profanities were spoken out loud

this happens a couple more times. in the fruit section and the milk/eggs section. batman keeps her cool and her sanity by rolling her eyes and wondering about the odd threesome.

later...
leader: see, they even have a bread section!
me: *running down the leader with my cart, laughing hysterically* -- i wish.
me thinking: why the hell are these guys always in my way? why the hell are they shopping together like the other 2 have never seen the inside of a grocery store before? why is the leader pointing out all the sections? and why are they always in my way?

by this time i was beelining towards the cash hoping not to run into the three stooges again. it would have been much better if someone else had noticed, but i was left making faces and shaking my head at myself. but my restraint was in top form: i didn't even politely ask them to kindly not stop in the middle of the aisle. no. i just went about my own shopping.

and that concludes tale #1. there is a tale #2, but it has nothing to do with me showcasing any restraint. farm boy has this little idea that shopping carts must not enter the parking lot so they have geniously stopped this by placing huge steel barricades just outside the doors. i can fit through quite easily, my cart, not so much.

side story: i had the misfortune of finding this out on a solo shopping trip last october (i remember it was october because i bought two pumpkins - remember this for later) when i had a huge cart full of grocery goodness and i get outside trying to remember where i parked when i ran into the barricade with the cart. what? i can't take this to my car? okay, i'll just leave all my newly-bought food here unattended for anyone and everyone to take. i look in the cart and think to myself, hey, maybe i can carry it all, so i start grabbing plastic bags. then i saw the pumpkins. there's no way. so i ran with my hands full of bags, groceries banging against my legs, to the car, got everything in and raced back for my pumpkins. thankfully they were still there, but to this day, i still don't like the farm boy keep-all-the-carts-out-of-the-parking-lot nonsense. now, back to the real story.

so after i paid i pushed my cart towards the cart line-up area, stop, and am grabbing my plastic bags. an older man does the same thing but is heading to the door well before me. i say to him: wow, you're much faster than i am. he says: i've got less than you, and walks away. before he gets to the doors, he turns around, smiles at me, and says something to the effect that i'm smiling so he's sure that i've had a good day. i say something about the work day being done and that was enough to smile about (getting enough sleep does wonders, i'm telling you). then he thanks me for letting him see my smile because i have such a beautiful smile.

i smile again and walk to my car thinking that i'm glad to have made him happy, but at the same time i'm kinda creeped out because an older man was out shopping by himself and liked my smile. ick. i'm just going to tell myself that he wasn't creepy but nice.

and those are my two tales. have a great weekend!

maybe you didn't know?

last night, my friends, i was the ultimate housewife... minus the baking. so maybe not "ultimate" at all, maybe just "great" or "awesome" or "amazing".

get this: i got home from work and showered (i don't always shower after work because some nights i have baseball or go to the gym and showering three times a day can't be good for your skin) and then did all sorts of domestic things. i went to two grocery stores (farm boy has a much better selection of everything fresh) and bought all sorts of food. then i got home, started the laundry and cleaned up (including dishes and general tidying - oh! s! we have a pile of your stuff in the dining room), and started cooking. peppers were on sale at farm boy so i bought 12 (we really like peppers) and cut them all up all while frying ground turkey for spaghetti. i managed to keep the cats at bay and got all the peppers cut up, the ground turkey cooked and the sauce made, the pasta cooked, cheese shredded ("j's invention" - he didn't really come up with it but he likes it so much that he's claimed it as his own creation - shredded real cheese on pasta instead of stinky parmesan, try it), garlic bread heated, laundry done, dishes done, and s's pile made.

j gets home after being out all afternoon. no lie. all afternoon. they went out for lunch and never went back. their table went through 15 pitchers. anyways, he gets home a little drunk but was really good about helping me pull everything together and being really thankful that he has such a domesticated family (our cats wouldn't survive an afternoon in the wild). he said i was the best wifey ever.

and now we have 9 peppers all cut up ready to eat. this is our attempt at getting more veggies in our diet. i still have to chop up the broccoli i bought (broccoli tastes best with dip in my opinion) but there's no more laundry and the house is relatively clean.

see what i can do when i get enough sleep? i've been so peppy this week and adventurous and obviously industrious. i even had the best catch of my life at my game the other night. oh, and my batting slump is officially over - i went 2 for 3.

and the moral of the story is that this girl thrives on sleep and can be domestic when the mood hits.

picture update

here's a shot of the sock wool i bought and will be knitting up this fall:



and here's a shot of the silver medal we won at provincials:

me.me.ME!

i've known this about myself for a long time but i wanted to share. i would rather wait for someone than have them wait for me. i hate making people wait for me.

this came up this morning when i was walking down the hall towards the shower room and someone behind me caught my attention. it was another woman, don't know her name, who showers in the morning at work. i've seen her twice before, but this is the first time i've arrived at the same time as her, or anyone else for that matter. so we get in the shower room and we're both in front of the door leading to the shower part of the room when she asks, okay, who goes?

i'm thinking: well, i was in front of you so technically it should be me.
i say: it doesn't matter to me.

she goes in. i go and sit in the hallway. there was no point going back up to my office so i busted out my cellphone, ruby, and looked through my address book making changes where needed. after about 10 minutes she came out and i was able to go in. was i mad that i had to wait? absolutely not. i would much rather have waited those ten minutes than showered knowing she was outside pacing waiting for me to finish.

even though i know that all i have to do is lather up. some mornings i wash my hair as well but this was not one of those mornings. lather up and leave. and i would rather let her go in front of me.

and this extends to other areas of my life. another somewhat strange example is from baseball. when i was younger i wanted to pitch. i got half decent (i.e. stopped throwing the ball over the backstop at least once a game) but hated that the whole tempo of the game rode on me. how quickly it took me to throw the next pitch. there's no way in my mind it was okay for me to take my time. no way. people were waiting!

is this a sickness?

i have no more clearcut examples, nothing obvious that comes to mind. but i know there are so many things that i do just to not get in the way of other people. i go out of my way to not inconvenience other people.

this may be why i hate confrontations. i do. i hardly ever fight with people i know, and when i do it eats me up inside. it consumes me until i make it right.

also, i hate it when people get in your way because they don't know you're there. you know, the oblivious-to-the-world-around-them people. the people who cut you off and don't even see you giving them the finger (another thing i never do.. well, i did once but felt so bad about it i never did it again. for real.) or the people who let the door slam behind them. in.your.face. those people.

and sometimes i'm that oblivious person and i feel terrible! you know when you're walking in a crowd and the person/people in front of you stop dead or are looking at something and are walking incredibly slow but are still completely in your way? well, i do that sometimes. but i feel bad when i do.

the moral of this post? i think it's time for me to worry about me. i'm going to make a conscious effort to go against the grain (the grain that is me) and do things for me, not entirely without concern for others, but with not as much concern for others. i'm going to tell that woman that it's my turn to shower! i'm going to do something just for me (watch out waistline - that means double chocolate cake! a whole cake in one sitting!) i'm going to go out and spend some money on something that i want!

look at me all empowered. i'm going to come back to you in a week or a month or even a year and tell you how i failed. how this me-ness is so completely part of who i am, it's not only in my fibres, it IS my fibres, that i couldn't do it. i just couldn't do it.

i nap and then i nap some more

this weekend we spent a lot of time at home cleaning/organizing/throwing things out and out looking at things for the house. we went to rona and eq3 friday night and home depot saturday. we're most interested at this point in light fixtures (we went with all the standards and will be changing a few fixtures almost immediately), bathroom things (we had them not put in any mirrors or fixtures in all three bathrooms), appliances (stove and dishwasher are at the top of the list, but washer and dryer are still up there. we already have the fridge), and dining room table. we get a discount at the brick and the bay so if we can find everything we need at those two stores then we'll be set. if not, it's not the end of the world, just isn't ideal.

saturday i broke down and went to a yarn store. i went to yarn forward in the glebe and bought enough yarn for a pair of socks and some teeny needles. the pattern was free and has some things in it that i don't understand and my knitting bible doesn't explain. i'm going to charge through it and hope for the best. there will be pictures!

saturday night we went out for dinner with richard in westboro at a little pub. the food wasn't awesome but it wasn't bad. afterwards, we picked up vlatko and hung out like old times (ie. in our basement watching snl and mad tv and laughing about times past).

sunday, we made it to the gym. i ran about 4k, half of it on a very steep incline, which felt a lot like running in dreams (you know, when you're being chased and you can't seem to run fast at all.. or is it just me with that as my recurring-nightmare theme?) and then i worked out my arms and legs and abs. now that baseball is (almost) done i'll be at the gym more often. i really miss my tai chi/ pilates/ yoga class, aka body flow.

oh, in the spirit of all of our house cleaning we will have lots of stuff that we no longer want. j is not a fan of garage sales and i'm not a big fan of throwing away perfectly good stuff so i'll be posting pictures here and there of things that we'll be giving away/ selling. sarah gets first dibs, but after it clears her you'll get a shot at it too.

more work info, because it's my life

i've been having these killer headaches all week and what better to add to my troubles than being hit by a car?? yep, that would have sucked. i bring it up because it was close: i was almost creamed by an old-man car - you know, a big buick - in a parking lot we cruise through between home and work. that's the second time i can remember since i started biking to work that i've almost been hit. i guess that's not a terrible record.

i've had some questions about my new job so i thought i would describe some of the things i'm doing so you get a better idea of how i spend 8 hours a day. every day. all week long. does it ever bother you that you spend more time working every day than doing everything else. the only thing that comes close is sleeping, on a good night that is.

okay work. so my group is called the pesticide management regulatory agency, or pmra for short, and is part of health canada. it's one of the very few government departments that actually hire biologists and i got this job through the whole competition process. on my own. the only other jobs i've gotten on my own are pizza pizza and subway, and well, you can tell why. hello fast food.

my actual title is assistant screening officer. i work for the screening group and we screen applications for pesticides. when i say pesticides that can be anything from a brand new active ingredient (poison) and new end-use product (what you buy in the store), an amendment to an existing product, a change to the label on a product, and tons of other stuff. my group takes all these submissions and checks that they will be able to move on through the process. that means they have to have all the correct forms filled out properly, the correct fees, and the relevant data.

one of the great things is that every submission is different and almost all submissions have some sort of issue (wrong fee, wrong data, whatever) so i foresee myself not getting bored with the job for a while. don't get me wrong though, a lot of the work is the same for every submission: the same things have to be checked and the same forms have to be created and filled.

on the personal side of work, the screening group has about a dozen people and everyone seems really nice. no one is super old - i would be surprised if my boss was already in her 30s. the building is an older building, not a tower like i'm used to, but close to home, close to j and has lots of green space around it with tons of picnic tables and trees. there is a huge parking lot across the street with cheapcheapcheap parking that i will be taking advantage of during the winter months (starting in october or november) that will be especially nice once we move. for right now, there are bike racks right outside the front door and one shower room, surprisingly underused, with lockers and everything. i use the hand dryer to dry my hair.

i'm here until next july on this term but am hoping that either i get extended or they make me indeterminant. i can see myself working here for the long term. so far everything is good and if i hadn't spent two years looking for a job like this it would be perfect, but two years really isn't all that long when i was employed for all but 4 months of that time, and that was by choice. it's nice to have the security (and sick/vacation pay) that a term position allows for the next year. i would still call this job ideal. i don't know what would make it better.

mild migraines

is there such a thing as a mild migraine or does the word "migraine" imply that what you're experiencing is in no way mild?

maybe i should change the title of my post to "huge headaches". since thursday i have been having mild migraines/huge headaches. i have also been trying to ignore a very sore throat for the past week. maybe the headaches are related... or maybe they are related to the fact that it's almost my "time of the month" (definite over-share).

to those people who do suffer full-on migraines, i am SO sorry. and i'm not talking about the self-inflicted head-pounding after a night of one too many bottles of wine (from what i've been told anyway...), i'm talking about the un-provoked, seering pain that is your head. how long do migraines normally last? do drugs help (advil? tylenol? extra-strength-all-of-the-above cocktail?)

i'm lucky that i'm still functioning, not that the drugs seem to be helping much. i've always said that i would take more sick days as soon as i got a job with paid sick leave. well, now i have one, and i'm scared to take my sick days because you have to accumulate them. i get my first 1.25 days sometime this week. yippee. i like to think i have a pretty high tolerance for pain so i'll tough it out and complain to everyone who reads this blog.

in other news - yes, i have news - j and i have the house to ourselves again. s moved out yesterday, cat and all. the cat i will not miss. i still can't believe that she never warmed up to me. i'm a cat person! cats like me without me having to do anything. this cat, not so much. i could simply look in her general direction and she would growl. but enough about her, s, if you're reading this, please don't take it the wrong way, but i'm very glad to have my house back to normal. i didn't realize how [difficult/hard/weird/pick something] it would be having another person in the house after having lived alone for so long. thankfully you didn't act like a guest because that would have been a whole nother situation.

s, we're happy you found a place and won't be giving out your new phone number (but will tell some key annoying people that you have moved) or anything silly like that. don't be a stranger.

oh boy...

one of my favourite pictures ever:

big baseball bonanza

this weekend was our provincials in st. catharines. i feel like i've posted a lot about it so i'll get down to the details. we left friday morning, me, j, big t and p, all in our little car. we were packed full, but not uncomfortably so. after a quick stop at the toronto airport we made it to our hotel, checked in, and walked over to a restaurant and then to the diamonds to watch the night games.

almost the whole team was out that night and we had a good time making fun of one of the coaches from another team. everyone seemed pretty relaxed.

saturday morning we played at 9 and beat the team 4-0, townsend maybe. and with that win we secured a medal - the great thing about a double-knockout tournament with only 6 teams when you have a by. we were very excited. food and napping followed before we took the field again and again beat our opponents, but only because they made costly errors. we were off to the gold medal game undefeated!

saturday night was team dinner and gossip-fest. the sleep saturday night was much better than friday night because the air was left on a much warmer setting.

sunday morning we were up earlier than needed to pack everything up and get to the diamonds early. the two teams we had played saturday were playing to decide who got to play us for the gold medal. belleville won. and then belleville pounded us two games in a row to take the gold. we were left with the silver.



i think everyone was happy with how we played and happy with the silver. note the shark fins in the picture.. that's what those are.

our fun didn't end there though. 8 of us made our way to niagara falls and spent about 5 hours exploring the falls and the vegas-like strip. everything is overpriced there and we ended up spending way more money in those 5 hours than the rest of the weekend.



we left niagara falls just before 8pm and made it home just before 2am. poor t had to work the next morning. the rest of us were able to sleep in and recover from an exhausting weekend.

j and i made our way to my parents place to see my brother and his girlfriend for a bit. the rest of the day was spent doing laundry and cleaning. we got groceries and went to check on our new house (still nothing, but in the past month they have started the block of 6 townhouses beside us and now have the frames up). the cats were super happy to have us home.

a word of advice

i have some advice for all you out there reading my blog, especially those who know me in person, this is for you:

~ live and let live ~

i'm tired of being caught in the middle of senseless, useless, seemingly endless fights. i hate having to listen to your sometimes unkind words and your frustrations and then having to lend a sympathetic ear to your nemesis (pl = nemesii?). i'm in the middle and i don't like it!

why can't you all just be happy with who you are and be happy with who everyone else is? just live your own life and try not to concern yourself with what other people are doing/thinking/whatever.

i would much rather you talk to me about celebrity gossip, which i gave up for lent let me remind you, than listen to you bad-talk the people you love. so stop it!

recovery possible?

two nights ago during the storm the power went off long enough to reset all of our clocks. i woke up yesterday morning without an alarm and was fine. last night i set my alarm and go to bed. apparently when your clock gets reset the time the alarm is to go off gets reset too - and i probably should have known this. i was all alone last night and ended up going to bed around 11:30. i fell asleep pretty quickly only to be jolted awake at midnight by my alarm.

in a panic - my alarm makes me panic and that's why normally j wakes me up - i turned off my alarm. i didn't just hit the snooze button, i flat out turned it off.

fast forward to about 5 am. rolo decides it's high time to digdigdig. this is a good way for me to lose a bunch of sleep and when i was just about to get up and lock him out, sandy too based on precedent, her being a cat and all, he fell asleep on my head. better than having him dig.

i was wondering if i would ever fall back to sleep when i woke up. i looked over at my alarm clock, which was simply a clock at this point, me having turned off the alarm function about 8 hours ago. that's right, it was 8 am. i'm normally at work at 8 or just after.

so i get up and concede to being late on my second week of work. hey, i've already asked for a day off, is being late really going to rock the boat? i make it into work for 8:30, showered and settled in by 9. not terrible and no one noticed. not bad.

but my question for you is this: after having a pretty lousy sleep can you recover enough to have a good day? or are you doomed to being a cranky snot-face all day? how do you feel after you haven't slept well? does your lack of sleep make its way into every aspect of your day?

i personally feel fine. my mood today wasn't affected, but i find that my body is much less tolerant to those nights that i don't get enough sleep than it used to be, possibly because i was a much better napper in university. also, when you're in university you might not have classes in the afternoon or you might not go to your afternoon classes.

all that to say that i'm tired but not cranky today. and i have lots of work to do so the day should go by quickly. i just wish i had kevin here. he's my ipod and keeps me from going crazy from lack of music.

posting from work, how i've missed you

like the title says, i can post from work. i tried logging in last week some time and it wouldn't let me but i'm guessing that was the time when the internet was down and i couldn't access even google.

-- this is batman at work. this is batman posting from work. --

funny story: this morning when s and i were leaving the house we noticed the garbage can had been knocked over and opened. there were a couple of pieces of old banana bread on the driveway. i'm picking them up when s says "i guess the critter didn't much like that" and i asked her how she could tell thinking that the fact that it wasn't all eaten was a good indication. oh no, there was puke on the driveway just out of my field of view. puke! whatever had gotten into the garbage really didn't like my banana bread. i'm not that bad of a cook, honest!

update from work: i got some work to do on my own and i'm loving it (badabababaaaa... mcdonalds theme song, anyone? anyone?) it makes me feel good and makes the days go by quicker.