 |
free hosting image hosting hosting reseller online album e-shop famous people |  |
  |
||
|
free hosting image hosting hosting reseller online album e-shop famous people | |
|
||
ShinyHappy - Thoughts For January 17th - 31st
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/31/05 Boots should hug feet, not chew on them.
I did feel badly about not writing a weblog entry last night. I'd fully intended to, but it didn't happen for reasons that will be revealed in the fullness of time. (I'm not the type to actually say 'fullness of time' out loud without giggling at myself, but somehow I can type it without doing so. Tee hee.)
Anyhow, yesterday Andrew and I drove from Ottawa to Kingston where I'll be staying for a week. We had a gorgeous drive, even though the sun was in our eyes. Lately when we've been on the road Andrew and I have been looking at barns. He wrote a paper on barns for school and as it turns out I think that barns are interesting to look at too, so as we drove we kept our eyes open for nice barns, or barns that have reached the point of being elderly enough that they're verging on collapsing, perhaps on an unsuspecting farmer. We also started talking about roof styles and I ended up learning lots of them, which I found really very exciting and interesting. I spent most of the rest of the drive staring at all the roof styles around and naming them triumphantly. Learn to name roof styles too with the help of the good folks at Gordon Mott Roofing Company Inc.! It's fun.
When we reached Kingston we ended up going with Mom over to Alannah's place where we hung out with her, her kids, Mimi and July. A good time was had by all until the most horrific noise I've heard in oh, ever, reached our ears from downstairs. Imagine a child and a kitten both screaming at the top of their lungs in terror and pain. Sehrin and Koal (the kitten) were making this noise together and it made the blood in my body just stop. I swear. Everyone in the room bolted downstairs and Andrew started leaping up too, but I thought we should stay where we were since there was quite a crowd down there and lots of confusion. As it turns out, Koal had been about to pounce on Sehrin and when Sehrin tried to escape, Koal's foot got caught in the side or bottom of the bed somehow and all his weight was hanging off that one foot, at which point he went ballistic with claws and fangs and terror-filled kittenish yowling, causing Sehrin to do the same without the claws and fangs, just the terror. And lots of tears. Poor kid.
Alannah got Koal free of the bed, and he ended up clawing her leg and hand in his panic. He came upstairs with a limp, but recovered very quickly. Within an hour he was bouncing around the living room like nothing had happened, attacking me and checking out his food dish. He certainly came off better than his partner in crime, who cried for a long time about the whole thing.
So that was exciting. Oh, and the reason I didn't end up writing a weblog entry last night is because (of course) Alannah started plying me with cheap pop booze as soon as we arrived, and then a little later she pulled out some chocolate martinis, so there was no hope for me. I wasn't stupidly drunk (despite singing song lyrics incorrectly, missing my mouth with my martini glass and laughing at things that weren't even funny), but I was as tired as a newt by the time we were ready to leave and went straight to bed when we got back to Mom's place.
I didn't sleep very well, but was still aware of Andrew having to leave in the morning. Sigh. I do miss my fiance, even if it's been way less than twenty-four hours since I've seen him. And my cat. I miss my cat. Even when I go to bed and Andrew has to stay up, Halo always gets in bed with me (the little snuggle-whore). Oh, well. The trade-off is that I'm spending the AWESOME quality time with my family and I get to lavish love on my Mom's cats, who are totally into it.
Today was nice and quiet. I went shopping with Mom, Mimi and July and bought myself some new boots. The boots that I bought on my fun day of boot-shopping with Andrew a couple of weeks ago ended up being killer boots that eat feet, so I went with what I'd wanted to do in the first place and got myself some lovely, comfy boots from Wal Mart. My feet like Wal Mart boots. What can I say? And for half the price, I think it's a good thing. The expensive and evil foot-eating boots will go back to the store we bought them at.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/28/05 Love isn't silly at all.
One year ago today I started a weblog. Wow. It doesn't really feel like a year, I have to admit. When I started it I wasn't really sure how long I'd keep at it, but here I am still going strong. Jerome did kind of complain a little bit the other night about the fact that I've been missing days here and there since the holidays, but since his cheques still haven't come in the mail I'm not too concerned about my productivity.
Suffice it to say that I love my weblog and I'm so happy that I started writing it. Happy anniversary, weblog!
More important, however, is the fact that one year and six months ago today I met the man I love. Eighteen months we've been in a relationship and it's been even better than I dreamed it would be. We've had amazingly good times, and we've had some very hard times, but I wouldn't trade any of it. For anything.
We celebrated tonight by going out to dinner together, then came home and spent quality time together. We looked back at the time we've had, compared our favourite memories and talked about how much more wonderful the next seventy years will be. Dying at one hundred years of age in each other's arms sounds about right.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/27/05 Putrid pork is poor provender.
Tonight I heard some strange yelping noises coming from the kitchen where Andrew was about to make himself some dinner. High pitched yelping noises coming from the kitchen are not good, right? So I called out to him to ask the unflattering question; "Are you singing, or are you in pain?" Andrew informed me he was singing, then said, "Look, it's not like I'm trying out for American Idol, here."
I assured him that there were many obstacles to prevent him from trying out for American Idol, not the least of which being that he is from Canada. He agreed, informing me that he'd have to try out for Ben Mulroney Idol instead.
I also realized tonight that, upon advising Andrew not to eat the bacon in the fridge because I didn't want him to die of eating pork product past its prime, alliteration really, really annoys him. He agreed, admitting that it does, and seems to think that it all began at the start of the school year when a text he had to read was chock-full of annoying alliteration. It's funny, because mostly he has an ardent appreciation for whimsical wordsmithing. Hee hee hee.
I went to Loblaws tonight rather than go to the Loeb Glebe. Just for a change, you understand. I wandered around trying to decide what to buy since it was a spontaneous trip that I hadn't written a list for. Well, O.K.. I barely ever write a list when I go shopping, and if I do I never remember to take it out and look at it. I'm not sure why, since I write lists for Andrew when he's the one going shopping and I assume he actually reads them. Anyhow, as I was wandering aimlessly and confusedly around I noticed that the same sketchy-looking guy was always in the same aisle with me. I might not have noticed this had I started at one end of the store and just worked my way methodically up and down the aisles. If you do that, you tend to be hanging out with the same people for much of your grocery quest. I wasn't doing that. I was hopping all over the place, and he seemed to be hopping right along with me.
I wasn't doing anything to encourage this, and I certainly ended up trying to discourage it, but he just kept being there, no matter where I went. And he wasn't even using a basket or cart. He was just clutching a ton of bottles and boxes to his chest in a precarious manner. I shot him dirty looks and walked fast, then slow. I hid out in the weird little candy section that's not a part of the rest of the store. TO NO AVAIL. Finally I got in the checkout line. He got in the same checkout line. I felt so freaked out that I got back out of the checkout line and pretended I'd forgotten to grab something, and when I got back a moment later he wasn't in the line any more. The lady who'd been ahead of him was, but he wasn't there. I don't know where he went, but I paid and came home, figuring if he leaped out of the bushes at any point along the way I could brain him with my twelve-pack of Coke.
Maybe he wasn't stalking me around the store and I'm just a paranoid overreacting drama queen, but I don't think so. It could be more likely that he thought I was going to steal something and was tailing me to keep an eye on me. I'm shifty-looking, you know.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/26/05 I don't usually do this type of thing. Honest!
I wasn't even going to write a weblog entry tonight since I'm kind of tired and meh, plus not much happened today at all. However, I was doing a little blog cruising and saw that my fellow blog writer Corey had included a rilly, rilly keen, fun idea for a weblog entry. It's called 'Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue' and he said he'd be checking the weblogs of folks he knew, so I'd best do it just to save on possible bitching and moaning.
Something Old: Corey used an old weblog entry of his, so I'm going to shamelessly copy the idea. Here is an excerpt from an entry written June 21st, 2004:
Tonight, for reasons which I will not go into here (and you'd thank me for it), I jokingly suggested to Andrew that we recite our favourite bible verses. I was then interested to see if he actually had one, so Andrew started (and ended) things off with, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a fat man to enter the kingdom of God." I was incredibly amused by this and had to assure him that no, I think that even fat people are welcome in heaven, it's the rich that might have problems. Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25 all back me up on this, believe me. They all read, more or less, "Indeed it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
As it turns out, Andrew was referencing the gospel of Sting. It has to do with a line from a song called All This Time from the album 'The Soul Cages', and it goes: "Better to be poor than a fat man in the eye of a needle." You can find the complete lyrics to this and many other Sting and Police songs at Stingetc.com.
Something New: I have discovered a new website obsession. I've had people recommend it to me, but didn't actually get around to checking it out until yesterday for the first time. Now I'm hopelessly addicted. So, check out my newest love; Television Without Pity. It makes me pee my pants (which I assure you is also new).
Something Borrowed: I am a huge fan of the fantastic photos our friend Colin takes. They're gorgeous, and one of the great gifts we got this year for Christmas was a calendar of photos Colin has taken over the past year or so. January is lots of cheese and fruit and crackers, which is a very Colinesque type spread. Anyhow, borrowed here is a stunning picture that Colin took in Nova Scotia that they had enlarged and hung in their living room/dining room. Click on the photo to visit Colin's photo page to see this and more gorgeous pictures. I really hope you don't mind this, Colin!
Something Blue: I didn't want to go the 'blue as in sad' route because ... I just didn't. So I went out searching on the big scary web and found a fascinating page about Blue Food! It's really cool. Did you know that the colour blue is an appetite suppressant? Enjoy it, even if it is a brief piece of fluff.
I will leave you all with a picture of my cat looking as sweet as he possibly could and a picture of my cat looking as goofy as he possibly could.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/25/05 Do not call the Humane Society
Andrew and I did something tonight that means we should probably never be allowed to have children. We're mean, mean people and I'm ashamed of us.
See, we were in the living room watching television. It was during some show or other and probably in the middle of some commercials. Andrew was tormenting me in a manner that probably involved poking or tickling or waving sharp objects at me. I'm sure I shrieked about it and a few seconds later Halo came in the room to see what the hell we were doing. Andrew put out his hand and 'psss psssed' at him. I thought, "He's my damn cat," and also put out my hand and 'psss psssed' at him. He stood stock still and stared at both of us. We kept calling him, both of us increasing the intensity of the 'psss psssing' to try to convince him to choose one of us over the other.
I saw the horror on his dear, tiny little face when he realized that both of the people he loves most in the world wanted him at the same time and he'd have to choose between us. I couldn't do that to my baby. I'm not even kidding. His eyes got all big and his pupils were huge and he kept looking back and forth between us, not knowing where to go or how to extricate himself from the awkward social corner we'd forced him into.
So we stopped and we both felt like the awful, awful people we are. Thankfully Halo had the grace and dignity to smooth things over. He came around to my side of the sofa and got up on the sofa by me, making me happy because I'd been trying to convince him to do it in the first place. When he got up he walked across me to Andrew's lap and snuggled down. He stayed there for a while, then moved over to my lap. What a good cat.
Let's continue the animal theme of today's weblog entry by sharing the disturbing nature of this article in today's Ottawa Citizen. Awww. Poor doggy.
I applied for a good sounding job today. Every time I've ever gone to a temp agency and jumped through all their fiery hoops and endured their grating tests of drone-skillz I've blown the data entry portion out of the water. I've caused them to grab my data entry results and run into the next room to show them to their co-workers. I'm so not kidding. So today I applied for a data entry job that is actually data entry, not call center work wrapped up in a data entry label. If you're sick of wishing me good luck for jobs I understand, but I would actually really like to get this one. So think of me kindly, perhaps.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/24/05 They do smell kind of fresh, in a chemical manner.
O.K., so I wasn't carrying anvils around in a chlorine-filled warehouse (thank you, Marcus). However, there might have been some kind of contact with poisonous chemicals involved.
Let me get one thing out of the way: Out of the five of us there today from the temping agency there isn't a one who plans on returning tomorrow. It was pretty bad. I feel that in my attempted explanations to people so far as to why it was so very bad I haven't been able to accurately or convincingly convey the actual badness of it, but please believe me when I say it was bad. I have had a lesson driven home that should already have been part of my consciousness: If an agency repeatedly avoids giving you a description of the job you're being sent to do, it's because it SUCKS. Remember that.
Firstly, my fellow temps and I couldn't get in the building. We hadn't been informed that it was a secure building and swipe cards were necessary to enter. So we had to wait for people who were entering the building to get in. Secondly, the person we were told to look for when we got there wasn't in today. That seemed odd, and got more odd when everyone we asked just kind of shrugged and left us wandering around. Finally someone took pity on us and found out where we were supposed to be.
So, what I did today, all day, without pause except for breaks and lunch, was close boxes. Yes, I closed boxes. Boxes of Scotch-Brite Disposable Toilet Bowl Scrubber Refills, no less. (That's where the nasty chemicals come in.) We stood at a round rotating table with a giant drum of these refills in the center. Someone built boxes and put them in the grooves on the table edge. Two other guys stuffed the boxes with six scrubber sponges each. I closed the boxes and put them on their sides. Someone after me packed six boxes together in display units.
All day. Sometimes the table would stop and looking down at it it would suddenly look like it was going backwards. I'd have to touch it to prove that it wasn't in fact moving at all. Then it would start going forward again. Damn table.
The permanent employees had chairs to sit on. As temps we weren't given chairs. We stood while we worked. This is where the badness does not convey itself. Buy yourself a box of these sponges. Close it repeatedly for seven straight hours. While standing. As fast as you can. I know, the box won't survive. But maaaan ... I hurt a lot in strange places. The tendons in my forearms are stiff and sore. I used to worry about repetitive stress when I worked a desk job. The work I did today is repetitive stress guaranteed.
The guy working beside me filling the boxes was angry about it all. He pointed out that we were told we'd be doing plastic assembly, not packaging. He was right, but for some reason I found the whole thing a lot funnier than he did. By the end of the day he was so pissed about it all that he was letting two empty boxes go by for every one he filled, and he kept slapping the boxes to make the individual cellophane sponge baggies burst like balloons. I couldn't help but think that this was causing the chemicals impregnating the sponges to puff into the air (the air that I was breathing, no less) and was a bit freaked out, but this was in the last hour for the most part.
I called the temp agency when I got home and the woman I talked to told me that I was the third temp from today to call since our shift ended. I guess this is why they look for new temp workers every week for this company. She seemed unsurprised and assured me that it won't hinder me getting more work through them, and said that my honesty and professionalism about the situation was appreciated. Wow. They must have people getting pretty nasty with them over the phone about this kind of thing to seem so happy about my call.
So that was my temp job excitement. Honestly, I'd be more likely to close boxes for a living if the pay was anywhere near enough. And I don't think there's enough pay to convince me to close boxes for a living.
I'm considering a visit to Kingston next week if the agency doesn't have a new placement for me by then. It seems like when we visit my family I don't get to spend quite enough time with them, so I feel like I should take the opportunity to spend some time with them while I can. I'll miss my Andrew and my Halo, but I think they'll take good care of each other while I'm gone.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/23/05 What a way to make a livin'.
So yesterday we visited one of Andrew's classmates for dinner. It was a pretty good time all in all. She made a ton of Vietnamese food and seemed very aware and conscientious of the fact that I don't like fish or seafood of any kind. She'd very thoughtfully sent out an email beforehand asking what everyone's likes/dislikes/allergies were. Unfortunately, she had included mushroom as a main ingredient in almost everything pre-made, but luckily the main part of the meal was do-it-yourself cold rolls, which I was quite pleased about. In the end everyone had enough to eat. Mmm mmm!
I start my new temp job tomorrow. I'm not freaking out about the job itself (yet). As I said before: I don't even really know what I'll be doing, so I'll wait to see if they have me doing something that involves extra-heavy lifting or breathing poisonous fumes. As I also said before: getting there by bus will be a real pain. However, Andrew has once again proven his extraordinary love for me by borrowing his dad's car to take me there for my first day. That's love, since it involves him getting up before seven to do so. LOVE, I tell you!
Today I was perusing Google News and was kind of absently scrolling down the page. One headline in the entertainment section sort of jumped out at me and I thought, "Wow, I've been living with Andrew way too long! It's just my pervy mind reading things in a silly way." I double-checked to make sure, though, and no, it wasn't just my pervy mind. See for yourself. Read carefully. Tee hee.
Well, I'd better go make my lunch for work tomorrow and go to bed. There aren't any cafes or restaurants where I'll be working so it's (cue exciting music) a bag lunch for me!
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
Well, today was quite a day. Yesterday was not quite a day, which is partly why I didn't write an entry. Today, however, made up for it.
Firstly, I got a call from that tricky temp/staffing agency to tell me that I could work all next week if I wanted to. I said sure, since it was the same kind of work I'd applied for in the first place. It'll be at a plastic mould injection company (I think) and I honestly have no real clue what they'll have me doing. Apparently it'll be me and a whole gang of other temporary staffers. Should be interesting.
That was good news and I was happy to be able to tell Andrew I have some employment, even if it's temporary. I told him when he got home and he was glad for me, since it will be an enormous help to us financially and I have a good chance of getting a lot more work with the company if I do well.
After he got home we saddled up for another ride out, as we had many errands to run. Firstly we had to make a trip to the post office. I'd gotten a notice in the mail that there was a parcel for me. I was excited as I am expecting something important in the mail and wondered if this could be it. I saw when I got the package that it was from Jerome, which I was not expecting. Upon opening it, I found that it was a tiny box within a larger box. Upon opening the tiny box I found that it was Incredi-Bull Instant Bullsh*t. Yes, bullsh*t. (I know that you all know I'm really spelling the word 'bullshit', but moms and kids read this, so 'bullshit' will be spelled 'bullsh*t', O.K.?) I'm serious. It's a box containing two wee baggies of what looks like potting soil but is apparently fecal matter from pedigreed bulls. The ingredients read: Bullsh*t/manure. No preservatives, no added colour. Dried and sterilized; shelf stable. Naturally low in cholesterol and high in fibre. Recycle-a-Bull and Biodegrade-a-Bull. You just add water, and ... bullsh*t. It's marketed as something you can send to politicians or other figures whose opinions you have little respect for. I'm sure you can put the joke together for yourself, there.
Thanks, Jerome.
So after picking up my bullsh*t we headed out to see where I'll be working next week. We drove there (way out there) and discovered that from where I have to get off the bus it's a fifteen minute walk to where the building is. There is no bus service on the cul-de-sac that the company is located on, so ... yeah. That's kind of crappy in this cold weather, but I guess I'll survive. I was grumbly about that but from there we headed off on our next adventure, which was to visit a bead warehouse that Andrew has told me about.
I loved the bead warehouse, but honestly they didn't have anything more special than the Sassy Bead Company that's located about a five minute walk from where we live, so I'm satisfied that my beading needs are met here in the Glebe.
After that we made our way to a Payless shoe store so I could find some new boots, something I've been needing for probably about a year now. With the new job and the extra walking it's become something rather necessary so we went and I tried to find something suitable. The saleslady was all like, "Yeah, what you see is what you get at this time of year," so I tried on a few and sort of dubiously settled on a pair that I didn't love but didn't hate. I realized that I was wearing really thin socks, though, and that I should get a size up. They didn't have a size up, so the saleslady called another location which did have them. So, we trekked off to the other location which happened to be in a mall with a competing shoe store as well. I figured I should check out that shoe store too, and ended up getting my boots there instead of at the other Payless. And after buying them I realized I didn't want to walk into the Payless with a bag from a competing store and tell them not to hold the pair for me, so instead we just left like jerks.
Whew. By now we were both fainting from hunger and decided to go to New Mee Fung for some reviving pho and rolls. And man, did I ever enjoy it. I demolished my cold rolls in mere minutes and ate more soup than I can usually manage as of late. It was so awesome. And I had another honeydew bubble tea. Holy crap good. Tomorrow we're going to visit one of Andrew's classmates for dinner and she's making Vietnamese food too, so I'm really looking forward to that. Two days of delicious food. Woo hoo!
Just for Jerome I'm throwing in this picture. He'd included a very interesting Edward Gorey illustration on the packaging that is entitled 'self-portrait' and had commented that it wasn't visible in earlier pictures of Halo enjoying the box it all came with. So, there you are, Jeromey.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/19/05 He's some smart, that Andrew.
Andrew came home around noon today and I quizzed him about what he'd done with his hair. I don't do that every day or anything, so don't get excited. I was just curious. He hadn't used any of the new fancy ABBA leave-in so he suffered me to rub some through his hair (which was exciting in itself). I did so with a lot of enthusiasm and aside from a slight comment about the scent (which is lovely) he was fairly calm about the whole ordeal.
After letting it sit a bit I combed his hair and ordered him to go look in the mirror. He trudged off to the bathroom and the first words out of his mouth were, "I still have my cowlick!"
Yes. My beloved (who is currently working toward his Master's degree) informed me that the magical potion I'd rubbed on his head hadn't, in fact, mutated his scalp into a more acceptable state of being. Perhaps he thinks the enormous cost means it works miracles? Happily he was satisfied with the effect on the hair itself, so the ABBA is a keeper.
I went on a trip out to the Gloucester Center today because I wanted to visit both Loblaws and Zellers and that's a mall that has both stores. Plus, it's easy to get to on the dirty old 99 bus. My intention was to visit the Gloucester Center, do what I had to do there, take the 95 to Bank street and get on the 7 or 1 from there and take that all the way to East Wind where I planned to spend the gift certificate I had. It was a great plan until I got on the 7 and realized I didn't have the gift certificate. Argh. So I had to get off of the 7 near our place. Now, unlike Andrew I don't really terribly enjoy the process of transferring from one bus to another so it really irritated me that I'd done that instead of taking the dirty old 99 back home again in one trip.
I got home regardless and took a quick breather before heading back out to East Wind with my gift certificate safely tucked in my purse. I walked, of course, and it was nice enough. It was snowing out and not as awfully cold as it has been lately. Once I got there I took my time browsing around the store to really make up my mind about what I wanted. They sell lovely hairsticks there, but I have also been lusting after various cat-related items like kitty chopstick rests and Maneki Nekos. In the end a hairstick won the struggle and I am so happy with my purchase. There were a few scary moments there, though, when I tried to use my gift certificate and the sales lady wasn't sure if she could take it. Apparently the store owner had neglected to validate it in their books when he signed it and didn't assign it a tracking number, so she dithered for about ten minutes trying to figure out what she should do in the absence of the store owners. Finally, she just validated it and assigned it a tracking number which she assured me was very shady and not the way things should be done at all, but she did also inform me that it wasn't my problem so she'd do it anyhow. I thought that was nice of her.
My Mayfriend is feeling very under the weather. Let's all send her healing thoughts and possibly double chocolate fudge from The Purple Cow, O.K.? Get better, MayMay!
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/18/05 Repeat after me: It's May's fault.
It's May's fault. Let's just get that out of the way immediately so that I don't have to belabour the point repeatedly as this entry progresses. Well, unless I really want to.
It's May's fault that I went out in hellishly cold weather today to buy a wonderful new hair product. Yes. She is the one who showed me her gianormous bottle of ABBA Nourishing Leave-on Moisturizer For Hair & Skin, so it's her fault that I found myself standing at the bus stop, feeling the tears brought on by horrendous freezing temperatures freezing to my cheeks in lines of icy pain. It's May's fault that I browsed around the snooty beauty supply store with my hair in fuzzy braids and my bright red rosy cheeks giving snooty beauty supply sales clerks something to look at. Who else would be there on a stupidly cold day like today? It's May's fault that I bought a wee bottle of the stuff for a not-so-wee price and ran home clutching it so that I could wash my hair and apply liberal amounts of it to my hair.
In the end, it's May's fault that I now have shinier, softer and more touchable hair. Oh, May.
It might be partly Marcus' fault too, though, since he also started using it and went and shook his Captain Morgan curls at us and made me touch them to see what a wondrous product this ABBA is. So basically, I take no personal responsibility for this whatsoever. Plus, Andrew will be using it too. All you curly-heads out there take note: This is da bomb for curly hair, available only in salons or beauty supply stores. (I know I don't have curly hair. It's just even better for curly hair than it is my straight hair.)
Let's see ... I meant to also go to East Wind but forgot my wonderful gift certificate so I guess that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I was so over being out in the cold by the time I'd picked up my exorbitantly priced hair product that coming home was really my only option.
Andrew was out pretty much the entire day leaving me to my own devices, so this evening I vegged out with the season premiere episode of American Idol and this week's episode of The Amazing Race. I missed half of the American Idol premiere to watch The Amazing Race but, frankly, I was kind of glad to. Usually the spotlight on the worst singers is kind of funny, but this time around it was more sad than anything. Plus, the judges look like they'd rather puncture their own eardrums with flaming bamboo than sit through one more second of it. Simon Cowell actually seems in a better humour than Paula Abdul this time around. Or maybe it just seems he is when really he's as negative as ever and Paula's just clinically depressed, making it seem that he's more cheerful than her. I think it's very likely.
I won't give away what happened on The Amazing Race. I know that people who read this might be taping it to watch at a more convenient date. I'll just say: BOOYAH!
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
01/17/05 If babies like you, you can't be all bad.
We're home from our lovely weekend trip away. I had a very good time, as usual. It was a last minute sort of trip, but sometimes those are the nicest. It was a definite surprise to me that Andrew wanted to go, however I think we both needed it.
Hmm. It could be argued that perhaps Andrew didn't need the rowdy visit to see my sisters and mom, but I sure did. It's always fun to hang with them. There's much in the way of laughing, teasing and general affection, even in Andrew's general direction. Unfortunately, when we got into town we discovered that Alannah's kitten had gone missing. He's a scrawny little baby and it was cold in Kingston on Friday. The kids were understandably upset and the rest of us were quite concerned. He's a mouthy, sociable type of kitten so after a few hours it was fairly obvious that he wasn't just hiding somewhere in the house. Imagining him lost and alone outside was what had us unhappiest. Zero body fat just doesn't lend itself well to sub-zero temperatures.
Andrew and I took some time to wander around Alannah's neighbourhood a bit to see if we could flush him out of any possible hiding spots, but eventually we had to give up and go to my mom's place where we were spending the night. Happily, the next day we called to check on his missing status and learned that he had indeed gotten outside at some point and a neighbour had taken him to the Humane Society. Yay! Alannah said that when they got there they could hear him hollering his tiny head off from the reception area. He's part Siamese, and those cats do tend to have big mouths. So everyone is happy again, except perhaps Alannah who had to fork out the mad dough to get him back again. Hopefully he's learned his lesson about the outdoors and how it's not a good place for domesticated baby kittens.
On Saturday we headed off to Toronto to spend some time there with our lovely Dan and May friends. We arrived in the early evening and settled in for some serious hanging out funtimes. Dan and May fired up the barbeque and we had an absolutely amazing meal like the ones we enjoyed in the summertime. Seriously, grilled red peppers are about the best thing going. Man. Marcus (dear Marcus) arrived a little later and we continued the joy by watching a movie and relaxing with tea and bourbon and cookie dough and the box of Vachon Rosette cupcakes I'd bought.
The next day Andrew and I had planned to go to the boat show, but we ended up not going. Instead, Andrew took a much-needed nap and I got lots of reading done while Dan and May tried to do less-fun working and studying. After we were all finished our afternoon activities we went for a trip to Greg's Ice Cream, which to me seemed the natural thing to do on the (so far) coldest day of the year.
Walking in the door I highly amused Andrew by nearly fainting when the first flavour I read off the chalk board was 'Egg Nog'. I know I squealed like a two-year-old, and to my mind from that moment on there were no other flavours listed. There could be only one. I got myself a cup of indescribably good egg nog ice cream with hot fudge sauce. Oooooh, baby. Noah enjoyed it as much as I did and I couldn't help giving him some every time he asked. That adorable boy.
Speaking of that adorable boy; later that evening Dan and May went to her parent's place for dinner so Andrew and I hung out until it was time to go get Marcus. While we were out Dan and May came home and apparently when they arrived Noah cried because I wasn't there! He actually cried for want of me. Do you have any idea how flattering I find that? We'd had some nice bonding moments over the weekend, and he's never seemed to mind me much in the past (once he got beyond crying whenever I sat in the back of the car with him when he was just a wee infant), but to know that he wanted to see me that badly just warms my heart all the way down. If I had some extra cash lying around and a bigger apartment, I'd be tempted to try making one of my own, you know.
Anyhow, we had more quality time with our friends and The Zeppo episode from Buffy season three, then it was time for bed for everyone. Today we slept in but still managed to leave Toronto before two, which was our estimated time of departure. Pretty good, I think. The drive home was clear and wonderful weather-wise and we made it in one piece yet again. Halo didn't even seem as bothered by our absence as he usually is. I made him forget the trauma of being alone for the weekend by carrying him out into the hallway while I checked the mail. He was thoroughly freaked out by that, made worse by the appearance of our superintendent. This caused him to go into stiff and silent shock until we got back inside.
He recovered, though, enough to be absofreakinglutely adorable many times over. Jerome sent a lovely package last week and I tossed the box on the floor beside my desk (as I usually do with stuff like that). Halo knows he's extra cute if he sits in empty boxes, so he showed off how cute he is for a while. I decided to throw Daddy Pompom Legs in there and see what Halo thought of that. Not much. So I snapped off one more shot of him looking rather constipated and left it at that. I love my cat!
Home
