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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for January 1st - 14th
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01/14/05 Super-duper fun fantastic weekend!
Well! We're not only going to Toronto, we're going to Kingston as well! Andrew and I are leaving within the hour to go see my family tonight. We'll stay there until sometime tomorrow then head to Toronto to visit our fabulous friends there. What fun!
I'll quickly say that my 'interview' was fine. It's through a staffing agency that seems to be very good at placing people, so they're positive I'll be placed within a week or so. I've heard that before so I'm reserving judgment or excitement until I see if it comes to be. I think that most temp and staffing agencies practice a bit of dishonesty when it comes to luring in prospective workers. They place a job ad, let you apply for it, then tell you that it's not available any more but they'd be happy to find you something else suitable. Hmph.
Anyhow, fun weekend for us. I'm not sure if I'll be updating from my mom's place or not, but I'll try.
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You know, for all that it's supposed to be harder for me to find a job in Ottawa than it was in Toronto due to the need for bilingualism, I seem to get interviews much more readily here than I did there. Today I applied for a job that seemed a better fit for me than the one I just left (read: lower stress). I told Andrew about it this morning not long after I'd applied, and within an hour I got a call from the company asking if I could come in tomorrow for an interview! Uh, yeah, I can! It's funny that I'll be doing my exit interview at the other place on the same day that I do my first interview for this place. Tee hee and all that.
I was tempted to go and do a little shopping today but I knew it would entail hopping a very annoying series of puddles to get where I was going. Walking up Bank street means trying to navigate the oceans that collect at the intersections and I just wasn't into it. Since I have to be out tomorrow anyhow I'm sure I'll be able to deal with it then. You know it's serious when I opt not to go out and buy stuff for my hair, which was the intent of my trip. One of my Christmas presents is a gift certificate for a wonderful store in the Glebe that sells amazing hairsticks and I'm tempted to use it for that. This store also sells tons of tempting cat items too, so I'm also considering a Maneki Neko or little kitty chopstick rests or ... or ... or ... argh. Too many choices!
Andrew happened to do extra well in his classes from last semester. He got great grades overall and killed with his final papers. Of course. He warned me tonight, though, that he'll be living the life of a studious hermit now that he's taking three courses this semester. I imagine I'll see him huddled over some books in the living room or bedroom, but otherwise we'll be communicating through telephone calls and perhaps the occasional grunt as one or the other of us passes in the hallway. I'll miss him. I'm kind of fond of him, you know.
Let's see ... nothing else is new other than the fact that we're tentatively considering a trip to Toronto this weekend which I'm dying to do. I'm excited about this interview tomorrow, too. Please think good thoughts for me.
Edited to add! Andrew just revealed to me that he's a lying liar who tells lies. I was all excited about the idea of a trip to Toronto, when suddenly the truth came out. He wants to go because there's a boat show in TO this weekend. Our last trip to TO turned out to be an excuse for him to go to a train show. The man is bad. I'm still fond of him, though.
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01/12/05 Friends and family = I'm very lucky.
Ha ha. Halo just bit my finger but in doing so accidentally bit his own tongue, causing him to walk away in a huff shaking his head like he can fling the pain away. Silly cat.
Speaking of Halo, lately I've been re-noticing that he has a strange fascination with a pair of rubber sandals that I wear around the apartment a lot. My mom gave them to me last year and I've used them to wear around the apartment on the hardwood floors so my feet won't get all dried out. I noticed soon after receiving them that he was a bit weirded out by them. He spent an afternoon hovering near them suspiciously with his back fur all fluffed up, crouching behind things to peek at them. Then he'd sneak up on them and use one paw to kind of grab and fling them, as if they were somehow alive. It creeped me out a bit, to be honest, but I kept wearing them because they're incredibly comfortable.
Anyhow, I usually take them off before I go to bed and leave them on the floor beside my dresser. I've realized recently that I can usually never find one of them and eventually discover it under the bed. It's puzzled me, as I don't recall kicking them under there. I realized, though, that it's not me making them go under there, it's the bratty feline. He's been playing with my sandals. I wish I knew what it was about them that intrigued him so. I'd buy him his own pair.
Tonight Colin called to say that they were sorry to read about my new joblessness and to invite us over to visit him and Jen and eat delicious 1/3 pound burgers. They really were 1/3 pound burgers! Colin weighed them on a kitchen scale and everything! Now, they don't sell pre-packaged 1/3 pound burgers in the store. Colin lovingly shaped these with his own hands and made sure all were the same weight. Jen made the world's best salad dressing. Seriously, I could have just drunk a glass of it straight, sesame seeds and all. I ate it on my salad, though, like a regular person. Or a close approximation of one.
After the good delicious meal we hung out and chatted and watched the snow removal taking place on Lyon street by their building. It was quite an event (made more so by Colin's great enthusiasm for the process). The ploughs made a big barrier of snow in the middle of the street, then the snow sucker drove along, sucked up the snow and blew it into a truck driving alongside. It's a very interesting process that involves more vehicles than seems necessary, as the trucks filled up fast and there were two more hovering nearby waiting for their turn to hold snow. Plus there was a little truck with a plough on the front helping to make the snow line pretty. In the end the snow was cleared, though, making the road smooth and wonderful for the coating of ice that is currently building up over the city. Winter. Bah.
Oh, today I received a very important package in the mail. It was sent Xpresspost (as important packages often are). Yes, my Friedman friends in Toronto sent me a pick-me-up parcel containing a milk chocolate Cocoa Camino bar. I LOVE you, you wonderful friends. And our beloved Ottawa friends, too! Life can't be too bad when you have such great people to remind you that you're O.K..
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01/11/05 Bananas just the way Andrew likes them.
Alannah told me a great story on the phone tonight. Apparently Kelton approached her with the ominous sentence, "I have something to tell you and it's going to make you mad." What parent wants to hear that? Whatever scenarios ran through her head in that moment, I don't think she was prepared for what he said next.
He found a really, really old banana in his backpack. I think in a pocket of it or something. From what I gather, it hadn't surivived well. As bananas do it had succumbed to old age and had become mushy. Squishy. Unappealing.
Obviously relieved, Alannah didn't fly into a rage or chain him outside or anything like that. Kelton asked incredulously, "So you're not mad?" Alannah responded, "No, I'm not mad. I'm not the one who has to clean it up."
Apparently Kelton wasn't too thrilled at the thought of cleaning the very gross banana carcass out of his backpack, but the fact that he wasn't in any real trouble beyond that seemed to please him. I told Alannah that she should have (jokingly, of course) told him that his punishment was to eat the banana. Unfortunately, this thought made Alannah gag while on the phone with me so apparently she's not going to pass it on to Kelton. Sigh. My genius will remain a secret from my nieces and nephews. I can hardly wait to have my own kids! :)
It's been a rough few days around here. I don't want to dwell on it too much, but I quit my job on Monday and I'm back looking for another job. It just wasn't working out. It was making me miserable which in turn was affecting my job performance no matter how much I tried not to let it, so ... yeah. Back at square one now and dusting off my Workopolis account, planning to hit the streets again with some fresh new resumes. If nothing else, wish me luck.
I got a lovely package in the mail today from Jerome. He sent me a post-Christmas gift which also included Andrew's belated birthday gift. The monkey socks and kitty socks were exciting, the French Kitty journal was thrilling and the grumpy cat magnets that Betsy sent were more than wonderful. The part that amused me most, however, was the card he sent with all of it. It depicted a weeping wife holding a smoking pan beside the stove, her husband with an arm around her gesturing toward the kitchen table where two bottles of beer sat. The caption reads, "Don't worry darling, you didn't burn the beer!"
Despite his assurances, I still harbour a suspicion that this is some sort of crack regarding my cooking abilities. I can cook, dagnabit! I can make the best Mr. Noodles you've ever tasted. Honest.
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01/09/05 Burnt Cheesey Goodness!
Hmmm. Today was much like yesterday. Me sleep, Andrew go train place. Halo also did some quality sleeping, although he kind of pounced on Honeysuckle Mouse a couple of times and sat near his catnip ravioli in case he felt like playing with it. He must have at some point because it's in a totally different spot now.
So it was a quiet day on the homefront. I did do a bit of an art experiment that I'd been meaning to try for a while. I have a box of white Sculpey that I used to make a mask form out of a while back. There was a fair amount left over so I wondered if this stuff would make a good base for the paper mache masks I was making over the summer. My least favourite part of making those masks was the initial layers of paper mache that I built up the pulp on, as they were time consuming and rather fiddly.
The problem with white Sculpey is that it's brittle and weak. It usually only gets used for projects that are fairly thick, and even then it's probably sold as more of a kid's craft clay nowadays than anything else. The better stuff (Sculpey III) is much more durable, which is why it's more expensive. It's what I use for the eggs and hairsticks that I make. Anyhow, I made a thinnish mask base to see how well it would hold up, the intent being to cover it with paper clay which would lend it a lot more strength. Unfortunately, it crumbled to pieces as I tried to take it off the layer of tinfoil I'd put over the mask form. Sigh. Failed experiment #3005, I guess.
Eventually Andrew came home and brought his dad with him. His dad needed to do some computer related stuff so while he did that Andrew started making our dinner. He promised last night that he'd make macaroni and cheese for our Sunday night dinner. I always look forward to his mac and cheese, so I was happy about that. Lately he has been making broccoli to go with it too, but I'm O.K. with that. He likes to see me eat my veggies. The dinner turned out as delicious as it always does and we ate it in front of the t.v. while his dad worked on the computer. We ended up getting totally absorbed in the season premiere of 24 and spent the whole two hours glued to the screen. His dad left about halfway through this and it was getting close to the end when I realized that I could smell something very yummy. It smelled like slightly burnt cheese.
Now, slightly burnt cheese is always delicious. You know that delicious brown sort of tinge it gets? That kind of delicious. However, we hadn't eaten anything that incorporated burnt cheese. I thought about it, then turned to Andrew and asked, "Did you turn off the element beneath the cheese sauce that's left?"
Andrew quickly left the room with a few curse words trailing behind him. Then he filled the kitchen with a whole lot more. I hurried to join all of them. The smell of heavenly burnt cheese was much stronger and I walked in to witness Andrew holding up the spoon he'd used to ladle out the cheese sauce. It had a lovely burnt circle on the bottom, and the pot of creamy cheese sauce had turned into a pot with a layer of (likely inedible) very burnt cheese coating the bottom. Andrew seemed horrified but I found it very funny for some reason. So, no leftover cheese sauce for us tomorrow, I guess.
Guess what, guess what? I get my own domain name soon. More info on that will be forthcoming!
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01/08/05 Joel Haslam: Ottawa Valley Eye Candy
Ah, the weekend. The weekend is when anything is possible. And by 'anything' I mean sleep. And by 'sleep' I mean an uninterrupted coma-like state for at least ten hours. It was so nice to sleep!
I had a nice and quiet day today. Andrew was out for most of it as he has a train-related event taking up the weekend. I did the sleeping I'd been planning to do, then got up and spent a lazy day with Halo hanging around the apartment and relaxing. It was a tough week at work and decompression feels good.
When Andrew got home he told me that we had to watch Regional Contact. I was all for that because I loooOOOooove Regional Contact. That Joel Haslam is some good looking! That's not why I like to watch it, though. It's a wonderful show all about artists and hobbyists and other interesting folk from around Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.
Anyhow, we had to watch it because one of the train guys Andrew knows was on the show tonight to show off that he has an entire room of his home dedicated to a model train setup of North Dover, Massachusetts. That might sound weird to you. Well, it does to me too, but we all have our obsessions, right? It was actually very impressive, to be quite honest. There was a staggering amount of detail and effort put into it and (even better) there were Coca Cola signs all over the town. I did a lot of teasing and poking at Andrew while we watched, but I really did find it interesting. I even told Andrew that when we're rich he can have an entire room of our home to dedicate to a setup of his own. What I didn't tell him was that as a trade-off I want my own bathroom.
So, I have plenty more sleeping pencilled in for tonight and tomorrow morning, and after that not much of much until Monday. We might end up doing something tomorrow night, or we might not. We'll see. I like that things are far less rushed and busy now that the holidays are over, even though they were tons of fun and I got to see so many of the people that I love. (And yes, Jerome, I mourn that you were not one of them.)
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There's a Sesame Street movie that Noah likes to watch that has a bunch of songs on it that the muppets have sung over the years. We were watching it when we were visiting in Toronto and May said that this particular song reminds her of me and Andrew. I think she's right, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy to think so.
Bert: I like paper clips.
Ernie: Paper clips?
Bert: Paper clips! I like bottle caps.
Ernie: Bottle caps.
Bert: Bottle caps! I love pigeons, yeah.
Ernie: Pigeons?
Bert: Love pigeons, oh, yes I do.
Ernie: Well, Bert, you know I don't really like any of those things but I like you.
Bert: Aw, Ernie.
Ernie: I like playing jokes.
Bert: Playing jokes.
Ernie: Playing jokes! Love my rubber duck.
Bert: Rubber duck.
Ernie: Rubber duckie!
Ernie: I like bubble gum.
Bert: Bubble gum.
Ernie: Bubble gum! Yes I do.
Bert: Well now, Ernie I'm not crazy 'bout any of those things but I like you.
Ernie: I like to lie awake in bed at night and talk to you.
Bert: Yeah, I know. I like to say goodnight and go to sleep.
Ernie: I like to go and see the big hippopotamus in the zoo.
Bert: Hey, Ernie, you know what?
Ernie: What, Bert?
Bert: I like that, too!
Ernie: I like jelly beans.
Bert: Jelly beans?
Ernie: Jelly beans!
Bert: I like lentil soup.
Ernie: Lentil soup?
Bert: Yeah! I like a marching band.
Ernie: I like a music box.
Both: Yes I do.
Ernie: But though I don't always like everything
Bert: That I like
Both: Still I like you.
Bert: Though I'm not too crazy about your rubber duckie
Ernie: Though I don't love pigeons
Both: Still we're awfully lucky 'cause I like you!
It's true. Andrew has his trains, I have my hair toys. He has his sailing, I have my artsy stuff. He has his bellybutton phobia, I have my foot issues. And we both love Halo. We are awfully lucky.
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01/05/05 Honeydew I talk about hair too much?
It can be called a very good day when your beloved fiance picks you up from work in a car and you don't have to take the dirty old 99 bus home. That's what happened today. Andrew had his dad's car and came to get me so that we could go to the St. Laurent mall and I could get my bus pass. I realize that I'll be taking lots of dirty old buses with this pass, yes, but I take pleasure in the fact that I was chauffeured there in a car. Nyah.
The entire point of getting my pass at the St. Laurent mall and not the Rideau Center is because the St. Laurent bus pass photo camera doesn't do an ultra close-up like the one at the Rideau Center. It takes your picture from somewhere around mid-chest instead of getting right up your nose. I had the opportunity to see a few belonging to my co-workers and decided the less invasive view was the one I preferred for my own mini-portrait. Of course, the picture itself is atrocious and nobody but the bus driver will ever see it. Andrew was going to try and make me laugh (and was mildly successful when he lackadaisically acted like he was going to) but in the end the woman took a photo of me kind of half-smiling in a "when are you taking the damn picture?" sort of way that echoes my health card photo. She didn't tell me when she was taking the thing, so I had no idea when to try to look my least psychopathic.
Ooh, ooh! The best part of the St. Laurent trip was when I went into The Body Shop to check their stock of combs and brushes. As you may know if you've read the last couple of entries I've been stalking The Body Shop for the wooden detangling comb pictured on their website. The store closest to us has never carried it and claims no knowledge of it, and I've never seen it in any of their other stores. Today I went in just kind of vaguely hoping and when a sales woman jumped at me to offer me any assistance I needed I asked about the wooden comb.
She looked at me very oddly. "Did someone tell you we had them?" I said no, that I'd seen them on a website but had never found any in an actual store. "Well, that's amazing. I can't believe you're asking about them now, because we just got them in today for the first time! They're not even out on the shelves yet!" She was super-excited about the combs too and we spent a while bonding over them. She pulled them out from behind the counter and took one out especially for me. We talked hair and stuff and Andrew came in to find us gushing about things like detangling and finger-combing and how beautiful the comb itself is. I did try sticking it in his hair when we were in the car. It stayed put.
After all that was over with we went to New Mee Fung for some pho. We both thought we'd eat more than we ended up putting away but it was as delicious as usual. This time I went with the Honeydew melon bubble tea instead of my usual Strawberry and I think it's my new favourite. It tastes like Honeydew melon! Really! Why have I not been drinking it all along? Man, if Greg's made a Honeydew melon ice cream I'd be moving back to Toronto. Right now. You hear that, Dan and May? You might have a tenant if it comes to fruition. (That's a little fruit joke for those of you still reading this for whatever reason.)
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01/04/05 No, I'm not obsessing about his hair.
I believe the illness I've got is drawing to some kind of end, while Andrew suspects his is just beginning. Poor guy. This was a somewhat nasty one, although I have to admit I've been almost constantly on Otrivin and will likely regret that. Ah, well. Being able to breathe is such sweet luxury.
For some reason I find today that Andrew's hair looks more like it's been cut than it did yesterday. Don't ask me why, it just does. Not dramatically so, but there's a difference. I think now I could stick my Creative 5 seamless comb in there and have it stay, but not the Creative 8, whereas before the Creative 8 might also have gotten mired. The Creative 8 is a heavy-duty comb, people.
Which reminds me; you haters might all be relieved to know that I didn't end up buying a metal dog comb (yet). I bought a metal comb from The Body Shop. I went in there looking for a particular wooden one that their website says they carry (which is a total lie). When I asked about combs the sales staffer I talked to pointed out a little bucket with these metal combs in it. I was pretty surprised, and even more so by the fact that they were fairly good quality for only a dollar each. Of course I bought one. Don't think I'm not still going to buy a sturdier metal comb somewhere, though. I'm still tempted by the poodle comb.
Now, on to more serious things. Since moving in with Andrew I've known that there would come a time when our relationship would be tested, that the day would arrive when I'd have to acknowledge his other true love. That day, my friends, has come. Yes, the train modules are moving in. So far that's only two of them, but they're lining the only free wall in the dining room (which leaves zero free walls, I guess). They very, very slightly overhang into the kitchen doorway but not in any greatly inconvenient manner and quite honestly they're not in the way at all. I can deal with this. With this. Until Friday when they leave. For love of my darling fiance. After all, he bought me a Ficcarre.
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01/03/05 Shining, steaming, gleaming, flaxen, waxen!
First weblog entry of 2005! Woo!
We had a lovely New Year's in Toronto with Dan and May. We arrived there at around 10:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve and joined the little party that was going on at their place. Michele was there, and a couple that May knows through school. Everyone was sleeping over so it was a very sociable event. We actually rang in the New Year rather quietly and casually, noting that it was 2005 a few minutes after the fact. May had made delicious lasagna and salad that was served us immediately upon our arrival. Have I ever mentioned that she can cook? May can cook. Really, really cook. After the dinner food there was also May's patented cookie dough goodness which could be considered reason enough in itself to drive to Toronto.
Saturday brought Marcus over! Yay Marcus! May's school friends had to leave, and eventually Michele had to go too, but that left the five of us to spend some wonderful time together. We eventually went for a walk that took us to the video store and a convenience store. At the convenience store we all conveniently bought snacks and treats, and at the video store we rented Shaun Of The Dead. I'd wanted to see this movie since seeing the previews at the theatre so was glad that everyone else seemed O.K. with it. It did turn out to be as good as I'd hoped it would be, even though there was one scene that I found very disturbing. I still can't quite decide if that ruined it for me or not. Hmmm.
Oooh, oooh, I cut Marcus' hair! He's been after me to cut it since before we moved to Ottawa and finally on Saturday night I did it. I was very, very nervous about it even though Marcus assured me he had full confidence in my abilities. I fired up Feye's Self Trimming Page and refreshed myself on the straight-across cut, thinking that would be the most appropriate for Marcus' enviable black curls. Then I got out the oh-so-professional tools required (borrowed scissors from Dan and a black scrunchie from my purse) and went to work. I was terrified, but within minutes there was about three inches of hair lying on the floor at my feet. A few trips to the bathroom mirror and some nods from May led to an inch or so more getting snipped off, but in the end it turned out pretty well (if I do say so myself). I'd combed his hair out for the trim so Marcus wet it again and when it dried it looked awesome. The awesome is more due to Marcus having awesome hair than the actual cut, but with some of the weight gone his hair was free to curl more, which is always good in my books and leads to incredible awesomeness.
So, after the movie we drove Marcus and his newly happy hair home where I got to meet his cat Socrates for the first time, then Andrew and I went back to Dan and May's and fell fast asleep. The next day brought dire warnings of bad weather leading back to Ottawa so I was a bit anxious about leaving in a timely manner, knowing I had to work the next morning and not wanting to spend eight hours on the road and get home after midnight. I was torn because really, the last thing I wanted to do was leave Toronto and our dear friends to return to a week's worth of drudgery, but logic prevailed. We left and drove home. The weather did indeed turn rather ugly on the way, but Andrew drove like a champion. He kept his cool, drove calmly and sensibly, maintained safe distances between us and other cars and basically got us home in one piece.
Now, we'd all been teasing Andrew over the course of the weekend about the fact that his hair was in need of a trim. Not just a trim. It was in need of a shearing. At one point I borrowed May's brush and gave him a very cool 70's anchorman style that we got some pictures of (and I'm hoping to be sent copies of them at some point hintie hintie). The teasing was quite severe, although my Andrew took it with better humour than I would have in his place. Anyhow, we did tease him lovingly and he said that a haircut was imminent. I wondered if he'd get one today while he was out and about and I was at work. When I got home he was still out, so I eventually went to lie down for a bit. I dozed off and woke up when he came in the door. He came in the bedroom and got on the bed to talk to me, and I ran my fingers through his hair and commented that he still needed a haircut.
Of course, this is the point when he indignantly pulled back and said, "I did get a haircut!"
I was shocked. I looked more closely. I could not see the haircut. Then he pointed out to me that the length was gone in the back, which did turn out to be true. The hockey fringe in the back was indeed trimmed away. He did get a haircut. Of sorts.
Of course, I have to admit that in the end, I don't give a damn what he does with his hair. Grow it, cut it, dye it green. Whatever. As long as he's the one wearing it, it's good hair.
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