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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for August 16th - 31st
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First and foremost I will say that Jen S. is a wonderful person. She has loaned me a digital camera to use so that I can share my masks on my website, which I have immediately done. If you want to see some of the fruits of my mask making labours visit my Mask Making pages.
Now that I'm better rested I can tell about the wonderfulness that was my trip to Ottawa over the weekend. I headed there with Dan, May, Noah and Jen F. in the big old car on Thursday evening. The drive there was pretty rainy and wet, but we made it to Ottawa very safely and soundly. We did stop in Kingston for refreshment and I vainly attempted to set up a quick visit with my family at the A & W on Division street, but it was not to be. After arriving in Ottawa we dropped Jen F. off at her parent's place and headed for Colin and Jen's where we had a nice visit before everyone went to bed quite late.
The next day I slept in a bit so missed out on going for coffee with Jen and May, but in the afternoon I went for a very nice walk around the Glebe, exploring what is soon to be my home. I wanted to see just how near or far the best things were from where we'll be living, and to my great delight there's a Wallack's art supply store directly across the road from our apartment. The veterinary clinic is also across the street, which is just about as good as it gets when you have a very nervous cat that hates travelling by car.
May, in her angelic evilness, asked me to pick her up some fudge from a sweet shop called The Purple Cow while I was out. I went in and of course ended up leaving with a big old brick of fudge for myself too and will be returning for more in the future. In fact, I picked up another one before we left. Oh, the humanity. It's mindblowing fudge.
That evening Gavriel, Emily and Aladara stopped by with the newest addition to their family. I got to hold Taliah for a nice long time and she is a seriously sweet and quiet baby. She has a ton of dark hair, and has a baby face that looks very pleasant and serene when at rest. Some babies have pinchy, puckered faces no matter what, but hers is contented looking when she's not crying or trying to work out her facial muscles.
Jen and I did go for a couple of nice walks around the Glebe as well. We visited the Sassy Bead Company, a fantastic bead store, and of course one of the first things I did when we got inside was knock an entire glass of blue beads onto the floor. Jen was sweet enough to crouch down on the floor with me picking up beads until they were all returned to their homes. We went to a very cool sci-fi/fantasy bookstore called The Basilisk (I think) and spent a nice while in there chatting with the proprieters and browsing the shelves. Jen also took me into a lovely Oriental store that is going to be my financial ruin. It had hairsticks, Maneki Neko stuff, cat-shaped chopstick rests ... the list just goes on and on and on and I still can't believe that I left without buying anything.
We went to Gav and Emily's for a brunch over the weekend too, so Dan and I went to Kettleman's for a bagel run. I think I've had Kettleman's bagels before now, but this is another store that is dangerously close to where I'll be living as I will be returning constantly to buy their food. Not only do they make the best bagels I've ever had, they also make things like chocolate puffs and other delicious sins. The Glebe is an absolute heaven of wonderful treats.
Saturday night found us eating a superb pasta dinner out on Colin and Jen's balcony, having great conversation and enjoying the night air. I missed Andrew like crazy this weekend, but it was kind of nice to enjoy the company of our friends independently as well and I know that I laughed an awful lot while I was there. After the meal but before dessert May expressed a wish for some coffee, so she, Colin and I headed out to the Second Cup. On our way back we were gabbing away when May suddenly stopped us and pointed out a sign on a tree she'd noticed. It was a piece of plain white paper with some anthropomorphized fruits and veggies drawn on it in what appeared to be magic marker. Above the food items was written these words:
"Smell Me Plz"
So, apparently being the sort to smell things on command, May stepped forward and pressed her nose to the paper. When queried, she reported that they 'smelled like bad'.
So Dan and May had to leave on Sunday, as Noah hadn't been feeling all too well off and on the entire time and they had things to do in TO on Monday. Sunday, however, was also when Andrew was coming to town after his gig deejaying a wedding, so I was sad to see them go, but glad that Andrew was arriving. Sunday was also the day of his grandfather's 85th birthday party and his sister Jenny was going to pick me up with her aunt and fiance at close to two. As it turns out, Andrew made a major effort and was in town in time to take me to the party himself, which thrilled me to no end. The party was great. Meals are always excellent at these get-togethers and there were the obligatory family photos and even a special theatrical presentation put on by all the cousins, which Andrew and Jenny were pressed into roles for (not too reluctantly, I might add). After this Andrew and I went back to Colin and Jen's and were pretty happy to just relax and hang out until bedtime.
The next day we took a while getting ready to leave town. I had been looking at a photo album belonging to Jen and had noticed something about all the Halloween pictures of her and her brother over the years. So, innocently, I asked Jen if she was always the one stuck wearing the Unicef box every year. Well, she thought about it and realized, to her great dismay, that yes, she had always been the one stuck wearing the Unicef box every year! Except it hadn't occurred to her until now. I felt bad about bringing it up, as it seemed to really tick her off. Sorry, Jen.
Our trip home to Toronto was really nice. We weren't in any hurry. The only negative was when we stopped in Perth. Andrew wanted to get pizza from the Minute Man restaurant, and I didn't. So we agreed that I'd get McDonald's to eat on the road after he got his pizza. Well, when we walked out of McDonald's with my food I noticed that the car lights were on. Andrew was immediately freaked out, because not only were the car lights on, but the keys were locked in the car. In the running car. So, while he called someone to come and get the car open I went back in the restaurant and ate my meal. The guy who came to break into the car was quite a character. He wore coveralls that were open down to the middle of his chest and no shirt underneath. He got it open quickly enough, then we all drove over to the mall in our respective vehicles so Andrew could withdraw some money from the bank machine. While Andrew got his cash the guy hung out and chatted with me, telling me that Andrew really needs to just relax and not let things bother him so much. I thought that was some funny stuff, but he didn't seem to think that getting locked out of a car was anything major in the grand scheme of things. And he's right, although he was forty bucks richer for five minutes of work and could afford to be equanimical about these things.
After this we drove on to Peterborough, where I took Andrew on a tour of all the places I lived there. I also showed him my old college campus, even though it's been taken over by Trent University. Then, we came home. It's good to be home. There are other minor things about the trip that I want to mention, but they'll wait until tomorrow as this has been quite long enough and I'm once again exhausted. Good night! :)
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Well, we've arrived home safe and sound and glad to see our kitty. He's also glad to see us. Since we were only leaving him alone for two days we didn't go the boarding route and I'm really glad we didn't. It made him so unhappy last time, poor guy. He's been purring very happily ever since we've gotten in the door without doing any hiding or sulking under end tables.
I'm waiting until tomorrow to write about my weekend in Ottawa as I'm very tired and just don't have it in me tonight. However, I came home to two (count them, one, two) lovely surprises in the mail from Jerome! The first one I opened, which turned out to be the second he sent, was a card. Upon this card was written:
Dear Keltie,
I hope nothing terrible happens to you anytime soon.
With all due respect,
Jerome
The card is machine printed with lines where the giver is to write the name of the recipient and their own name, and on the bottom right hand corner of the card is a drawing of some water with a hand reaching desperately up out of it.
Highly disturbing. And hilarious.
The second, perhaps more uplifting surprise came in the form of a wonderful book called Oopsy Daisy's Bad Bad Day and it is demented, twisted, and bizarre, like most things I receive in the mail from Jerome. It's a story about a duck that wakes up and has a really bad day, which sounds like a simple, straightforward tale. It is not. Early in the book her cereal (made up of letters of the alphabet) spells out the words, "I hate you." That's just a minor happening. I look forward to letting Alannah's kids read it.
So that's it for tonight, as I'm dead tired. More to follow tomorrow including such highlights as 'things that smell like bad' and 'Jen's Unicef Revelation'!
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I'm going to take a chance and post something in my weblog that was sent to me by a very, very dear friend in email today. I have not asked for permission to reprint it here, but it made me so happy and cheerful that I feel I must share it with my friends and family. So, here it is. I hope you don't hate me for it, Jerome. You're just too freaking funny and nice to keep to myself.
A Little Song for Keltie
(to be read with a lilting tune)
by JeromeSomething will be coming in the mail
For You!
What fun!
What fun!
A happy little package in the mail
For You!
What fun!
What fun!A treat and mystery
A gift to you from me
Oh just you wait and see
And seeeeeeeeeee!Something will be coming in the mail
For You!
What fun!
Oh what joyous fun!
A happy little package in the mail
For You!
What fun
For You-oooo!Who am I to have such dear, wonderful friends like this?
So tonight I had the blinding realization that we can't do any grocery shopping as we're going to be out of town all weekend and have to save it for when we get back on Monday. With this knowledge we reluctantly (hah) concluded that we had to go out and forage in a restaurant for our dinner. Andrew was hella tired and didn't feel much like trekking out to Pho Hung, so we went to McDonald's. For some reason I find that after I have Harvey's, I crave McDonald's. I guess it's because my body wants to be reminded of what a real tasty burger is like or something. So, we went there and had a lovely meal (well, for McDonald's, you understand). On our way back home we ran into Wade and Hisani and had a little chat with them which was nice.
After we got home, however, I started feeling not-so-hot and had to lie down on the sofa for a while. I've had a headache dithering around all day that decided to get worse, and with it came some nausea. Usually that means migraine for me, so I popped some Advil Migraine and lay there quietly for a bit. Surprisingly the Advil seemed to take care of it quite handily, which doesn't always happen for migraines, and I was able to get up and do stuff again. I decided to do some searching for graphics to base some new masks on. I'd asked Andrew for some ideas and he suggested a very cool shark-themed one, and I'd already had an idea for an octopus. Usually animal searches in Google produce a lot of the disturbing porn-related stuff I mentioned a couple of days ago, but neither did this time! Shock me, shock me, shock me!
So, yeah. We're going out of town until Monday. I'm leaving for Ottawa tomorrow with Dan, May, Noah and Jen F.. It should be a fun trip up. Andrew has to go to Muskoka for the wedding that he's deejaying and will be joining us in Ottawa on Sunday for his grandfather's birthday. Friday is also his last day of work at his job and I think that leaving it is going to make him much more relaxed and happy! So next week we'll hopefully spend some nice quality time together before he has to head off to Ottawa for September.
Have a great weekend, folks.
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08/24/04 He's my private dancer.
I very excitingly laquered three masks today! Woo hoo! I was very happy to do this, as they just didn't feel 'finished' until I sprayed them with polyurethane. Actually, I made an addition to the paint job on Andrew's gecko mask today too, as it felt a bit unfinished to me still. I wasn't sure what was missing, but when I thought about it I knew that I wanted it to look brighter somehow. So with the help of some bright paint I modified the design a bit and then it was finally what I'd wanted it to be. Andrew was apparently thrilled with the modification and came up with a name on the spot for it. He dubbed it 'Gordon', which I like very much. He also finally named the bird marionette that I gave him for Christmas, but I can't quite recall what the name is now. At the One of a Kind show last fall Andrew admired a bunch of marionettes at a booth, talking about the ones that he and his sister had as kids, so I figured (being poor and all) I'd learn how to make them and create one for him for Christmas. I bought a fake feather boa and started up the paper mache machine that I am.
Frankly, it turned out looking great. It just doesn't work that well. I need to weight the feet somehow, which I should just figure out how to do and do it. It's bothered me that I gave him a non-functioning bird puppet.
So anyhow, I'd planned to bring one of the masks to Dan and May's tonight to show them what I've been talking about so much, but they were still a bit sticky feeling. I didn't want to mess with them much before they were totally dry as it could ruin the finish, so perhaps instead I'll bring one next Tuesday. Maybe I should take one to show Colin and Jen in Ottawa this weekend, actually. Andrew's gecko will travel. Oh, but I haven't put ribbons on any of the masks yet as ties, since I still want to have a very specific and strong way of doing it. I must do some research on the best way that doesn't involve putting holes in the masks. So for the moment they're not wearable, just ornamental (unless one wants to stand around pressing the mask to his or her face).
As I mentioned, tonight was the Tuesday night get-together at Dan and May's. We got some fast food and had a great time hanging out with them (and Marcus, who joined us eventually). At one point before Marcus arrived Dan put on a cd while he and May were off doing other activities, which prompted Andrew to dance like a maniac in the living room for me in an attempt to get me to smile. It was successful. I laughed so hard I almost threw up. That was at the point where he attempted the splits, though, and I don't think anyone witnessing that would have been safe from painful laughter. It turned out that May had witnessed much of the dance in the reflection from the front door window while she stood in the foyer. It must be the same as with Medusa; the reflection takes away the power of the sight, as she didn't fall down laughing.
Marcus (who had been helping Bea and Dave load their moving truck, as they're leaving for Boston in the wee early hours of the morning) brought his Family Guy dvd set with him, so we watched a couple of episodes of that before heading home. I actually got to bring a gift home from May. She'd decided to show me all her hats and did a little hat presentation, then gave me a very cute one that she said she didn't wear much. Yay me! I don't own any hats and this one actually didn't look as stupid on me as I'd feared it would.
Something I have neglected to mention and have been beating myself up for is that Gav and Emily's new baby was born a couple of days ago! Her name is Taliah and Colin wrote a whole weblog entry about it and how he and Jen were involved. They watched Aladara for Gav and Emily during the labour, and got some awesome pics of the entire day. Aladara's Homepage also has tons of great pictures of her and the new baby. Check it all out!
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08/23/04 Is that a lizard on your face?
Today was a long, long day for some reason. I'm very curious about when our landlady is actually going to start showing our apartment, but she still hasn't put up the notice that the place is available. So I keep checking to see if she has. I like knowing things, see, and not knowing this bugs me. I'm kind of glad to see that it's not up when it's not up, but at the same time I just want the whole process over with. Argh.
Anyhow, that was just the obsessive/compulsive part of my day. On a brighter note, I did manage to get over a major hurdle concerning one of the masks I'm making. The type of masks I seem to be leaning toward making are very non-traditional types. Not Commedia Dell'Arte or tribal designs (although I certainly don't rule out the possibility of making those kinds in the future). The one that I was agonizing over is in the shape of a gecko. The tail curls up over the forhead and the eye holes are in the body of the gecko, with the head coming down on the lower left side of the face. It turned out so much better than I thought it would that I was afraid to paint it. When I researched gecko markings, I found that because I'd placed the eyeholes right in the center of the body it would be difficult to make the design 'flow'. There was much painting and repainting as I experimented, but finally today I came up with something that felt right.
When Andrew got home I showed him my work and he admired it so much that I decided that this one would be his. Which makes me kind of happy because after putting so much angst into it I've gotten attached to that little lizard. Now that I have my mask making technique a bit more polished it will be easier for me to make the same design again as many times as I want to.
I was at the laundromat tonight pretty late. I usually try to go mid-afternoon, when it seems to be less busy, but had to go tonight as I was busy during the day. So, I was there very near to closing time. This laundromat is a long, narrow affair with both front and back doors wide open continuously during the warm weather. I was sitting on a bench by the dryers and another woman was leaning against the folding table, but otherwise the place was empty. I was reading a book, minding my own business, and absentmindedly tucked my feet out of the way as a guy rode past me on a bike. Then I realized that I was in a laundromat and no guy should be riding past me on a bike, but I looked up and there was a guy calmly taking a shortcut through the place on his bicycle.
This infuriated the folding table lady, who hollered after him, "Come again!" in a nicely sarcastic manner. He stopped and shouted stuff back at her and I was afraid it was going to get hostile, but he rode away. Unfortunately, because we had shared this odd little happening together the woman decided that we had to talk, and so she talked to me non-stop, rattling on about the guy on the bike, her ex-husband, her health problems and the fact that she is plagued by a nonstop swarm of mosquitos. Yes, she is convinced that she is under attack in her apartment by these pesky bloodsuckers. She theorized that they lay their eggs in her clothes, and she said that the reason she was doing so much laundry was so that she could kill the babies. She said that if she shook out a pair of pants at home the mosquitos would leave them in a cloud, and she shook the pants she was holding to demonstrate. She also made me feel the pants so I could see how hot they were, fresh from the dryer.
Then, the bicycle guy rode back through the laundromat from the other direction, stopping to banter with us rather pleasantly this time and say that really, he just wanted to make us laugh. Then my laundry was done and I could escape to my home where there are no mosquito ladies or bicycle guys.
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08/22/04 I don't encourage y'all to seek out porn, actually.
Nothing terribly much happened with me today. I was home, Andrew was at work. I had a headache for much of the day that went away through the evening but has come back in the last few hours. I'd intended to go to bed kind of early but here I am. Not in bed. With headache.
Andrew had stuff to do tonight regarding the wedding that he's deejaying next weekend and I think he's pretty much on top of everything he needs to be on top of for it, but seeing how 'into it' he is makes me realize how important the reception aspect of our wedding (and namely the musical aspect of that) will be to him. Don't get me wrong, I'm also very focused on having a great reception so we can have a meaningful (and fun) celebration with friends and family. I just think that it's going to be more Andrew's baby than it is mine. Heh heh.
I often tell Andrew that he's not allowed to help plan the wedding, actually, as he finds it lots of fun to make the most horrible and inappropriate suggestions he can regarding theme, location, and dress. Of course, his intention is to get me all riled up, but it's all in good fun. So when I punch him in the arm really hard after a joke about having a LARP wedding, we just laugh and laugh and laugh.
Mask making is still going well. I had the idea tonight to see if I could do a mask of a Welsh dragon for Andrew's grandfather's birthday next weekend, so hopped on Google image search to see what I could find. And once again, just by putting in the simple phrase 'welsh dragon' it inevitably produced some disturbing pornographic images. I mentioned this to Andrew last night when I was doing a search about geckos. Pick a word or phrase that's very innocuous and innocent-seeming, plug it into Google image search with the SafeSearch off and you'll find somewhere among the results an image of a sexual nature. It's a highly creepy but kind of fun game. Andrew put in 'accountant' and 'giraffe neck' (separately) and both did result in some sexual content.
O.K., so 'bowl cover' (all search terms are processed without quotes, though) is turning up nothing. Although there's a picture of a sheep on the ninth page of results that looks somewhat alluring ... Oh, hey, it's a page about the wonders of lamb meat. Hrm.
I must go and take Advil and hope for the best. OH! But to those of you reading, it's now officially my baby sister Mimi's 24th birthday! Happy birthday, Miriam! Love you! Mwah!
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08/21/04 Beware of fuzzy, cuddly cats!
Yesterday Andrew and I went to Dan and May's place to hang out and eat good food. Marcus and Michele were also there which made for a pleasantly social evening. Most of us had deli from Pancer's Deli and I actually ended up going twice. Once with May to pick up our sandwiches, then I went with Andrew when he expressed a wish for a pastrami sandwich of his own. The lady there gave me a teasingly hard time for being there twice in one evening.
On the way home Andrew, Marcus and I just missed the Bathurst bus as we were coming off Dan and May's street so while we waited I sat on the wooden bench by the bus stop as we talked. Then as we rode the bus I felt a little tickle and looked down to see an earwig on my hand! Agh! I freaked a bit and knocked it on the floor, then felt a bit silly for freaking out. I always do, even though I think I'm entirely in my rights to be distressed by an ugly insect using me as a jungle gym without my permission.
Then we came home and I stayed up entirely too late and didn't even write a weblog entry. Ah, well.
So today Andrew went to Home Depot and picked up some paper blinds for our living room. We never really got around to buying any before now because it wasn't exactly pressing, privacy-wise. We're on the second floor and except for the occasional flash of nudity to our neighbours across the way (who I think have taken to waiting around on their balcony for when Andrew gets out of the shower and parades around) it hasn't been an issue. However, the other day I noticed that a bunch of rowdies moved in a floor or two above them and I now feel more comfortable having blinds during the month of September while Andrew spends so much time in Ottawa. And so he brought home some almost cheap-as-free paper blinds for the time being and the weird thing is that I really, really like them. A lot. Better than plastic, I think.
After Andrew came home and we'd had our supper he ended up talking to his dad on the phone for a while. All was well and serene, me at my computer looking up art stuff, he sitting nearby at his computer while he talked. Halo wandered in the room from having a nap or something in the bedroom, obviously ready to be cute and affectionate. He walked under Andrew's chair where he probably planned to rub around his ankles or something. Well, the way his tail or some other fuzzy part brushed against Andrew apparently felt like an insect because Andrew suddenly, with no warning, flung himself up out of his chair and backwards, scrambling to escape from the attack. I don't think his dad knew anything happened as there was no explanation on our end from Andrew, but Halo hightailed it to safety by the bedroom door, looking at us in a wounded way. Most of the time his friendly overtures don't result in panic and violence, so this was new to him. I coaxed him into my lap where we could both shoot Andrew dirty looks for a while.
We watched Lantana finally, which turned out to be great! A bit gut-wrenching, though, in an emotional way. No gore whatsoever despite its being a murder mystery. Not even a thriller, actually. Just a story of a lot of confused, sad people and how their lives are connected in small ways. I recommend it.
Andrew also bought some polyurethane so I can varnish the masks that I have finished. Two are done, one is almost done, and two are still in the early stages. Mimi requested a mask as a bithday gift on the phone today when I was talking to her. Her birthday is on Monday and she'll be 24. That's old! I'm open to suggestions as to what type of mask to make to commemorate this. Perhaps a crone? Or a hag? I don't know. She's not getting it on Monday, I guess, but then I probably won't see my family on my own birthday either, so hmph. Speaking of old, I'll be 30. So I really want to watch Logan's Run on my birthday to make it really, really special.
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08/19/04 Good tea. Nice house.
Tonight we went to Bea and Dave's farewell party at their place. Bea is going to Harvard this fall and they're moving to Boston very, very soon. Dave said something about them only being able to take a certain amount of liquor with them across the border so they had all their booze out on the table and were encouraging people to drink it. Bea makes a mean chocolate martini and I know I had two of those, but otherwise Andrew was mixing my drinks and ... well, there's a reason he's not a bartender. He'd put any place out of business the way he mixes his drinks and by the end of the night I realized I'd had way too much more than was sensible. The one that put me over the edge was some concoction that he'd had earlier that I'd taken a sip of and found very yummy. There was gingerale, Blue Curaco and ... something else in it, but whatever it was I recall Dave saying it wouldn't pack much punch as there wasn't a very high alcohol content. So when I asked for one, it was with the understanding that it wasn't very boozy. Well, whatever Andrew concocted wasn't the same drink, as it had a very large amount of vodka in it and I ended up trading it with him for whatever he had that had cherry brandy in it. But the end result was that I really had one too many.
So, after the party when we went to The Big Slice with Marcus I felt overly drunk, not happy tipsy, which I didn't like. At the party I was informed by Dave that I wasn't really acting much differently than I do when I'm sober, but perhaps he was just being nice. Or maybe he was drunk. I don't know. I do know that Jen F. and I had another lovely conversation or two as we seem to do at these occasions, which is always great, and I got to meet some very interesting people that Bea works with. Dan, May and Noah were also there when we got there so I got to enjoy their company for a while and admire the social skills that Noah is developing more and more. I love that he always seems kind of happy to see me, or at least not terrified. Tee hee.
Andrew and I found out yesterday that on Sunday our apartment is going to be listed in the newspaper, so we have to prepare for the landlady showing it over the next two months. That's one of my least favourite parts about moving out of an apartment, so I'm hoping that it gets rented out relatively quickly so that I'm not always wondering when we're next going to be invaded by strangers. Halo doesn't even really appreciate seeing people he knows, much less anyone totally new, so it would be nice to get it over with as soon as possible.
Oh, something that was also nice about the party tonight was that three different people told me what a great name I have. When I introduce myself to people I usually get one of two different reactions. The more common is the kind of raised eyebrows and half-nod, half-head tilt thing with the comment, "Keltie? That's different." But the second (and the one I prefer) is the enthusiastic, "What a cool name!" I got that one three times tonight so I was pleased. I love my name. I'm not ashamed to admit it. Of course, all three were young, hip guys from Bea's workplace who seemed to like things that were slightly uncommon, but I'll certainly take it!
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08/18/04 Yeah, I have boring dreams, O.K.?
I had a wonderful dream last night that I had a 'small white computer', as May calls her adorable iBook G4. In my dream it was delivered to the apartment during the day and I knew what it was, although Andrew had ordered it as a surprise for me. So I opened it and started using it right away and I was so happy! I don't think Andrew was exactly pleased that I'd ruined his surprise, but it was worth it to have such a fast and cute little machine. My crappy Windows machine has been giving me much grief as of late and I think when the time comes I'll make the switch to the Mac with little fuss.
In the meantime it works and when worst comes to worst I can just hop on his PowerMac G4, which I do for things like visiting homestarrunner.com and some of the job hunting sites that are slow on my machine.
Tonight we ended up at Dan and May's place with Marcus. We ate sushi and gabbed a lot, then watched an episode of Soap. Months back we'd watched the first couple of episodes with them, but then started watching Firefly at some point so Soap was retired from our Tuesday night get-togethers. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of what they have, though. Funny stuff. We'd brought along the Firefly so we could watch some of the extra features, but Soap appealed more tonight. Anyhow, we had a great time. Everyone was dog-tired except me, it seems, and I'm not sure why I wasn't as I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night. Also, tonight May loaned me a book by Nicholson Baker called Vox that she assures me I will enjoy. That is happymaking, as I have no new books right now.
I've been thinking about my weblog recently and how things are going to be pretty different in Ottawa. I will be working full time (come hell or high water) and won't have the luxury of staying up really late to write my weblog at the end of the day all the time, so either my writing pattern will change to earlier posting or I'll make fewer entries. I love that I've been keeping this on a pretty much daily basis since January and the time when I sit down to write it is, as I've said before, one of my favourite parts of the day. I go over what happened in the past 24 hours and always manage to find the good in whatever's gone on, which I might not do if I didn't have a reason like this. Oh, well. I never expected that I'd be able to maintain this weblog schedule for good. There's no way I'm going to give up weblogging, though, even if it does evolve into something a bit different over time.
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08/17/04 Keltie & Andrew Go to Harvey's. Again.
We'd made plans to go see a movie with Pez and Skye tonight and Andrew called from work to say that they were interested in going to see Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, which Andrew and I had talked about seeing. I was all for that, so looked forward to it. We were going to a ten o'clock late show and planned to eat a meal before Pez, Skye and their friend Rodrigo picked us up at nine. Andrew got home kind of late, though, and we got busy with this, that and the other and didn't really get ourselves together until after eight. So we called them and told them to pick us up at the Harvey's near our place instead.
My weblog entry wouldn't be complete without a little snarky comment about getting my food, so here it is: When I asked for pickles the guy put some on my burger. I said, "Oh, could I have extra pickles?" He looked at me for a few seconds, delicately picked up one pickle slice in the tongs and laid it neatly across the other pickles on my burger. Then he looked at me again, as if daring me to ask for more. I don't know if he was challenging me or what, but since I was hungry enough to lick the sidewalk in front of Dutch Dreams (it's covered in ice cream splatters) I just didn't feel like insisting on a number that would actually amount to 'extra'.
So, our three friends met us and we headed out to the Queensway Cineplex Odeon in Rodrigo's new car. When we got in the theatre it was actually quite full, which surprised me, so Andrew and I sat in the row in front of the other three, since there was no way we could all sit together. The movie was very, very funny. I was expecting it to be quite dumb and over the top (which, of course, it was) but there were some moments of clever comedy that impressed me. Riding the cheetah through the woods was not one of them, however.
What I loved was the role played by Neil Patrick Harris, playing Neil Patrick Harris. Doogie was never such a badass. I really liked him in Starship Troopers and always hoped to see him in more starring roles. Sigh. He was on that short-lived T.V. show Stark Raving Mad that I loved, but like all shows I love, it went away.
Then we came home. I am debating doing some late night work on my masks as I really, really want to get the paint job finished on the first one as soon as possible. Earlier today Andrew admired the work I'd done on it thus far which made me quite happy. You know how if you spend forever working on something you seem to lose perspective on whether it's good or bad because you're too close to it? That's kind of happening to me, I think, so it's nice to get a fairly unbiased opinion. Andrew, as I have discovered, is a very honest editor and critic when asked to be.
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08/16/04 Monday night and all is well.
Today during the afternoon I got a very pleasant surprise. My beloved friend Jerome called! This was unexpected, it being the middle of the day, but we had a lovely chat. He's stuck at home, it seems, healing from his recent hand surgery and sounding kind of bored. Of course, in the grand tradition of Jerome being injured and the people he works with not seeming to think it's a problem he'll have to work a feast at the Buttery with a heavily bandaged appendage. He'll have to come up with a funny way to work it into the show, or at least a funnier way than the one he suggested on the phone. Something about being pulled out of retirement or something ... Not that amusing. Come on, Jerome. You can do better.
Other than spending a while on the phone with various people this afternoon I also did more work on my arty stuff. I haven't managed to cut myself yet while using the exacto knife, and I'm expecting that I will. I have a thing about sharp objects, ever since putting my arm through a window (accidentally) in grade eight and ending up with ten stitches. The other night at Dan and May's we were helping them with the cutting up of veggies for the spaghetti sauce and I just couldn't watch Andrew cutting onions with the Wiltshire Staysharp knife. I am far more comfortable cutting things myself than watching anyone else with a knife, and onions are a bit tricky to cut anyhow. So even though I was miserable cutting them, I made him let me cut them until I just couldn't do it anymore. Then I tried not to look while he did.
Anyhow, while I haven't managed to cut myself yet while mask making I did manage to make some accidental cuts in one item and I'm wondering how I'm going to fix what I did wrong, as the bits that got cut off were tiny and fiddly and won't be easy to put back on. I'm very near completion on one mask and about to start painting the second, so I'm making better time than I thought I would.
Tonight Andrew got home kind of late and we were both starving. Rather than going to Loblaw's we just ordered pizza, bought pop and relaxed. We'd thought about watching a movie as Andrew rented one while he was returning another one after work, but didn't end up doing that after all. It's called Lantana and I'm not too sure what it's about beyond it being a murder mystery, but we'll watch it sometime this week as we have it for seven days.
Really all in all it's been a nice, quiet day. I was hoping for that, as we have plans for every other night this week and neither of us seems to get enough sleep lately. So, relaxing with my fiance for the evening was just what I wanted.
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