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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for July 5th - 15th
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07/15/04 I'm open to more theme ideas if you've got 'em.
Tonight Andrew did something that he's been threatening to do for a long time now. I was afraid this day would come, and it finally did. Yes, he rented Love Actually.
Good thing it was an all right movie, too. We'd even talked about going to see it at the theatre when it came out. We'd heard nothing but good about it at the time from people who'd seen it, and since it came out on video/DVD we'd also heard glowing reviews from folks we know. Yet somehow, we'd avoided seeing it. Until now. It was schmaltzy, yes, but enjoyably so. I got to see my most dear and beloved Colin Firth being a great guy (of course), and Alan Rickman again, although I don't think it was one of his better roles. I definitely recommend this one to all the moms out there. There is a little nudity, but it's not the really bad kind.
We ordered in pizza to eat while we watched our movie, and in this manner discovered that our buzzer has gone and kicked the bucket at last. It hadn't functioned as an intercom since we moved in, only playing the role of a loud and frightening doorbell type thing. This disconcerted deliverypeople who'd press the thing, expecting someone to answer through the intercom, and then would impatiently press it again when there was no immediate response. I hated that, as the noise of it really did make me all jumpy. Tonight, however, there was nothing but blissful silence until the pizza place called to see why the hell we weren't answering the buzzer. Oops. Andrew and the super tested it while he was down there retrieving the pizza, and there wasn't any noise on my end at all. I don't imagine this will be rectified in any manner before we move, as there doesn't seem to be any concern given to that sort of thing. The name labels on the buzz board haven't been changed in years. Andrew and I have been Mr. and Mrs. Enriquez since we moved in.
Mr. Enriquez and I were having some minor wedding-type discussion the other day, where it became obvious that we're focusing on different aspects of the wedding in our own unique ways. Andrew's thinking bigger picture; venue, music, guests, food and such. I'm thinking a bit more detail oriented; the colour scheme, favours, possible types of flowers, if there should be a theme of any sort. As it turns out, Andrew is theme-resistant. He wants no theme. He considers weddings to already have a theme, which is: A Wedding. I think, however, that if you're actually going to have a Wedding themed wedding, you have to go all out and do the most stereotypically wedding-like things possible. The largest, poufiest bridesmaids dresses possible in the most obnoxious colour imaginable with satin shoes dyed to match, tight satin pleated cummerbunds in the same shade on the groomsmen with matching little bowties, a balloon arch behind the head table at the reception ... gosh, there are so many possibilities.
Frankly, I don't really think I want a themed wedding either. The only theme I'm really in favour of so far is the one that Andrew and Jerome discussed, and really, that was only regarding having the vows done in Happy Hocky family style. Wouldn't that be cool? I don't think I've mentioned my idea of having a Coca Cola sponsored wedding to Andrew yet, though.
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07/14/04 I learned not to judge a play by its title.
Wow, did we ever have a great night! Our friend Erin (who's 'in the biz') got us comp tickets to go see Urinetown tonight, and it was so good! I mean, really, really good! I wasn't too sure going in. Let's be honest, a play with a title like that, about people having to pay to go to the bathroom ... it sounds a bit dubious. I was very pleasantly surprised, though, and would pay to see it again. It wasn't a serious show at all, which I think is good as the subject matter probably wouldn't have worked if they'd tried to play it dramatic. There was much spoofing of various other musicals, and tons of tongue-in-cheek humour poking fun at themselves as well.
I may have yet another favourite stage actor as a result. David Keeley, playing Officer Lockstock (who was also the narrator), was fantastic! Something about him reminded me very often of Xander from Buffy, although his character wasn't Xander-like, really. He didn't have the same quality of show-stopping numbers that the main character of Bobby Strong (played by Stephen Patterson) had, but he really stole the show, in my humble opinion.
Something I also found personally hilarious about the show was that it included much mention of bunnies and baby bunnies. I giggled and thought of May and her baby bunny meltdown, and also of Halo who I accuse daily of being as cute as a baby bunny. There's a funny song in the show called 'Don't Be The Bunny' which has completely escaped my brain and I desperately want it back. Also funny was the free giveaway after the show down in the lobby. Each audience member could go away with a free gift of the new Fantastik Toilet Fresh Brush Toilet Cleaning System. It's basically a package containing a plastic handle and four disposable toilet cleaning pads that you detach and flush after you've used them to scrub the toilet. The big letters on the flyer in the program say, 'The Brush You Can Flush!'
This is funny because it directly followed the heavy-handed message at the end of the show, which warned us to sit up and take notice of the unsustainable lifestyles we lead. Those brushes disappeared fast into people's greedy little hands, believe me. So funny in a sad way, maybe.
Anyhow, we were happy to bump into Bea and Dave and Dave-O after the show down in the lobby, so we went for a drink with them afterward at some bar which I do not recall the name of. I had two long island iced teas, thinking that the others were probably going to have more than one drink as well, but as it turned out I was the only one who did. I was surprised when I stood up to find out that I was a bit more tipsy than I'd expected to be after only two drinks, but as Bea pointed out, it's a bit of a swanky place so the drinks are better. I was not drunk. Just tipsy. Ish.
Andrew and I had planned to go to Greg's for ice cream after the show, but obviously did not, so we may do that tomorrow night. I'm craving another Grape Nut ice cream fix. Who'd have thought that would be my favourite flavour? Marcus did inform me the other night that the Roasted Marshmallow had been changed slightly, in colour and flavour. It's still delicious, yes, but for some reason that weird cereal really does it for me.
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07/13/04 It's not that his kink's not O.K. ...
And our air conditioner is promptly uninstalled. Neither Andrew nor I think that it's doing what it's supposed to do. Well, that's not exactly true. It's making cool air, but in a stinky, leaky manner that just doesn't seem right. So out of the window it comes, pending inspection and possible correction. The weather hasn't actually been overly hot, but the humidity is making it feel that way. Ick.
I was dawdling on the whole shower-having thing today, figuring I'd wait until the last possible minute before leaving the apartment for the evening as I didn't want to be a sweaty mess before going over to Dan and May's. Rayna surprised me by calling late in the afternoon, though, to see if I wanted to go shopping with her. I tore through my beautifying routine and I think I had myself presentable, although it involved wearing ponytails instead of washing my hair, which I don't often resort to. I had myself ready by the time she pulled up, thankfully.
Rayna had to do some grocery shopping so we headed to Dominion. While there we encountered a horrible rude woman who wouldn't move her cart so we could get past her in an aisle, but otherwise it was a fairly successful outing. I had to buy deodorant but while I was waiting with my teeny little purchase in the express line I felt I had to buy more stuff so I wouldn't have just one item. I'm not really into exploring why I felt that way, so uh ... I won't. However, I grabbed some stupid Halls Defense Vitamin C drops, which turned out to be a dumb purchase because they just taste like cough drops, even though they're not marketed as such, they're marketed as vitamin supplements. Yeah, my cough was last week, thanks.
This still wasn't enough to flesh out my buying, so I looked at the magazines and my eyes fell on one called 'Good Things for Weddings'. Further print informed me that within the pages lurked 105 timeless ideas for weddings in every season. The cover was pretty, with tasteful muted colours and painfully understated and elegant wedding cakes, bouquets, centrepieces and favours pictured there. My friends, I knew. I knew before I bought it, but I didn't let myself think it. Afterward, when it was paid for, I searched the cover and found, underneath the enormous word WEDDINGS, the small, tiny, blending-in-with-the-background-colour words, "from the editors of Martha Stewart Weddings." Not from Martha herself, oh no, and not marketed to announce that it has anything to do with her, heaven forbid. But hers, nonetheless. Why, oh why do her wedding books and magazines have to be so irresistable to me?
Anyhow, I've already learned how to make chocolate maple leaves as favours, so it was worth the price.
Our visit to Dan and May's was as pleasant and enjoyable as I knew it would be and even though we ended the night earlier than usual we managed to squeeze in two episodes of Firefly. Marcus informed us that some store was having a huge sale on first season DVD collections so Andrew got online right away and bought us our own Firefly set and the first season of Buffy. I was kind of hoping that the first season of Xena would be available, but I think I've already asked for too much for my birthday as it is.
I hinted at Dan and May's about a kind of disturbing link that I'd been planning to include in the old weblog tonight just for 'what the crap' entertainment purposes, so I'll do it, even though I have to warn some of you that it's a little bit icky. Not incredibly gross, just something I don't really get. So, if you want to check out the oddness that I find this guy's Realdoll page, do so at your own risk. And frankly, it's not even the fact that he really seems to love and adore his dolls, it's his stories of why he turned to them in the end that really make the page what it is for me. He either had some really, really bad luck with women, or he's ignoring some fundamental character flaws of his own. I dunno. You choose.
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07/12/04 Artificial cool breezes rock.
Today was a gross day, weather-wise. It was hot, humid and sticky. Ick. The apartment wasn't too bad if I didn't do anything too strenuous, and I had the fan going full tilt which helped. So far, though, it hasn't been a bad summer at all when it comes to the heat. Yes, I know that the bulk of July is still before us, not to mention August, but I'm grateful for what we've had.
We were over at Bea and Dave's place tonight. They live on the top floor of their building, so we got to appreciate the full effect of the smoggy haze blanketing Toronto. That's icky, but it was still actually a really interesting view. Erin was also over choosing pieces of Bea's artwork for her walls in her new apartment. Bea is a fantastic artist. Really hugely talented at drawing and painting the human form, something I've always wished I could do without having to practice like crazy. I watched Erin going through all the pieces and saw so many absolutely stunning ones. So, in the end, Andrew and I ended up taking one home too, and I'm thrilled with it. I'm hoping that we can do a lot more with our Ottawa apartment than we did with this one, and having such a special piece done by a friend to put on our new walls makes me happy.
I decided on what I want as birthday gifts from my dear, sweet fiance who rocks my world and enables my hair obsession. I'm getting (hopefully) a seamless Mason Pearson rake comb and another Ketylo hairstick in Kingwood to match the one I already have so I'll have a set. Yay me! I've actually wanted a seamless comb far longer than I've had my current hair care awareness period, but they're not exactly easy to find at your local drugstore. Anyhow, it's a quality comb that will apparently last me forever and ever, and won't rip my hair to shreds. Sounds good to me.
Andrew installed the air conditioner in our bedroom window tonight. It's just a little bit too big to fit properly, so we have to see if we can do some tweaking to get it in there the right way, but it really has made a difference already. Our bedroom window is the only one it'll install in, so we won't have it running all day long every day or anything, but luckily the bedroom is directly off the living room so I can benefit from it during the hotter parts of the day. Halo even seemed to appreciate it while we had it going for about an hour tonight, although the noise does seem to disconcert him a bit.
I'm looking forward to going to Dan and May's place tomorrow night and watching some Firefly with them. Even though we saw them on Friday, it feels somehow like it's been too long since we spent time with them. Plus, Marcus spurned us on Friday so we haven't seen him since last Tuesday. It should be a good night.
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07/11/04 Vampires are scary when they're not overacting.
I am just incredibly tired tonight, so I don't know how long or legible this entry will be. For some reason lately I've been in the annoying habit of waking up a bit too early and staying awake. It's starting to catch up with me, I think.
I didn't do anything special today while Andrew was at work. We missed a call from Marcus inviting us to do fun stuff before his gig tonight. Sorry, Marcus. It was a beautiful day today, if hot, and an ice cream run would have been the bomb.
What we ended up doing tonight was staying in and watching movies for the majority of the night. We had a good time, all told. Andrew rented two movies for our viewing pleasure. The first was Swimfan, which wasn't a terribly great movie. We kind of made fun of it as we watched, picking a little at the overuse of a certain effect. I know I had unkind thoughts about a few of the peripheral characters and their acting abilities. After watching the second movie, however, my opinion of Swimfan had risen enormously. It was some terrible horrible no-good B movie about vampires that operated out of a nightclub. I can't find words to properly make fun of it, it was so bad. It was the kind of bad, thankfully, where it's really funny enough to watch it anyhow, but just barely. There were some things that made me literally scream with laughter. The actor playing the main baddie vampire was doing his very best to be menacing and evil in a seductive, alluring manner, but he kind of came off like a cross between Quasimodo and Fabio. The one scene where he flew in as a bat and turned into 'human' form looked like they swung a muppet across the screen for a few seconds. Seriously, the director brought in his son's stuffed bat or something. They didn't even try.
I've been doing more thinking about wedding stuff recently. Planning a wedding is so much fun to do, but at times it seems so long from now and it's too soon to do pretty much anything for it. I was reading Colin's weblog about he and Jen looking for wedding planning books and it made me think that I want one now, too. I'm very much looking foward to watching them plan their wedding over the following year and learning from their mistakes and discoveries! Plus, of course, helping out if I can. Our one major decision, aside from where the ceremony and reception are to be held, is that we've settled on what we're giving as favours. Well, I've settled on what we're giving as favours. Andrew hasn't said it's a great idea, but he just needs to warm up to it. I can't say what they are yet as I don't want to go giving away all my great ideas so early. However, I will maintain predictability by admitting that I'm thinking about wedding hair quite a bit. I think that something like this would be beautiful and elegant if I choose not to go with a veil, or just a veil in back.
I suppose, however, that it will all depend on the dress I choose. And it's definitely too soon for choosing dresses. Sigh.
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07/10/04 I hope it's zebras next!
Animal week continues here in Toronto on Vaughan Road. I had uploaded my weblog entry last night and was starting to consider going to bed, where Andrew had already tucked himself and was dreaming away of not having to wake up in the morning to the irritating blast of the alarm radio. I heard a strange sort of trilling sound outside that seemed quite close by. It was high-pitched and repetitive. I wondered if some racoons were messing around in the parking lot so went to the window and pressed my face against the screen to see what I could see. Not three feet from my face on the fire escape were two racoons! One was gigantic, and one was obviously very, very young. The enormously fat adult racoon stared at me for a minute, then went back to what it was doing, which was trying to pick up the baby racoon and carry it back down the fire escape. Every time it grabbed the baby by the scruff, the baby made the high-pitched trill that I'd heard.
I figure that the little one climbed up the fire escape and then couldn't deal with getting back down. Or something. But it was a bit of a surprise to find them right outside my window like that! I always forget just how big racoons really are until I see them up close and personal. I didn't stay in the window watching, though, because I figured it would make the mother racoon nervous. I checked ten minutes later or so and they were gone.
Today was Andrew's day off and it was so nice. We had a great time hanging out together before we went to see John and Ted. They had us over tonight for a barbeque and movie night, but we took some time to go through some old photo albums of John's that had many pictures of me and him from public school through high school and college, which was great fun for me and John, if not particularly Andrew and Ted. I think Andrew liked seeing what I looked like back in my younger days. Ted did notice that every time I saw a picture of myself I had some kind of comment about my hair, though. I'd forgotten how many stages it went through from the time John and I became friends onward. Perms, mushroom cuts, long and straight, you name it, it seems like I had it. There were some great shots of Jerome scattered throughout as well, too. His hair didn't change very much, for some reason.
We watched Galaxy Quest and Moulin Rouge. I'd seen Galaxy Quest and enjoyed it just as much this time as I had the first time. Neither Andrew or I had seen Moulin Rouge, however, and we both loved it. It was even weirder than I'd thought it would be, and that's a good thing. Nicole Kidman and Ewan Macgregor are great singers, both. I don't think I'll ever be a John Leguizamo fan however, although I almost liked him in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. I did reaffirm my growing like for Alan Rickman, though. I especially have a soft spot for him as Snape in the Harry Potter movies. He actually makes the character more likeable than the books, although it could be argued that there just isn't as much of his anti-Harry behaviour portrayed in the films. Whatever it is, I do like Mr. Rickman.
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Today was pretty darn good for many reasons. Some days you have a horrible, rotten, no-good day where everything feels wrong and bad and you wonder why you were ever in a good mood before, and then when you wake up the next day you realize that you just had to get it out of your system or something because you're in a good mood again. So, yesterday was the bad and today was the good.
That means that even though my day up until the evening was pretty much like the day before, I enjoyed it much more and wasn't sad and blah. I did go out and make a visit to Bi-Best where I picked up some stuff, so got to have a bit of a perambulation during daylight hours which probably also helped with the mood. Getting some sunshine on me can't hurt.
During the afternoon, though, I realized that I could hear some weird dog noises going on outside somewhere close by. It sounded like a couple of dogs (at least) barking at each other in a frenzied and furious manner, one just yapping and growling so steadily that I wondered how it could breathe. I looked out the window and saw a group of people out there with about three or four dogs. These dogs were pretty good dogs, all just kind of staring over in one direction close by the laundromat. I went and looked out the kitchen window and saw a few more people. One of them had a little yellowish dog on a leash that looked like a fairly youngish puppy sort. It was flinging itself around on the end of its lead and apparently wanting to free itself so it could kill a boxer type brindle dog that was tied to a railing. The boxer seemed annoyed by the fury of the little dog and barked back at it every once in a while, but in a kind of, "I can't believe this little piece of nothing is calling me on," sort of way.
I don't know if this was an inner city impromptu dog park sort of gathering, but it was a lot of people with a lot of dogs. It was also very highly annoying, as the other dogs were getting agitated by the spazzy yellowish puppy and started getting more barky and growly themselves. Eventually all the dog people left, though, and things in my neighbourhood quieted down again. I'll take the quiet and polite Los Gatos Banditos over the Parking Lot Canine Fight Club any day.
The real fun came tonight, of course. We went to Dan and May's place for another visit. Andrew was working late so Dan and May picked me up and we three ordered pizza. May wanted to install a baby seat that she'd bought onto her bike, so she and Dan struggled with that while I played with Noah, who is just getting more and more charming and funny by the day. He likes to pick up grass or sticks or leaves or whatever and act like he's going to eat it, all the while watching you to see your reaction because he knows full well that us grownups find that sort of thing a bit gross. So whoever he's doing it at will say, "No, no. That's not for eating," and he'll either drop it or cram it in his mouth real fast. I find I'm not too good at predicting which he'll do, too. Thankfully he evinces no interest in bugs whatsoever so far, even though Dan and I did try to interest him in some pill bugs that were wandering around getting crawled on by him.
I think that pill bugs are incredibly creepy and believe me, if I even thought he was approaching the merest inkling of putting one near his cute little face, I would have freaked out. Noah will not eat bugs on my watch, let me tell you. I just wanted him to be amazed by bugs, not snack on them.
Eventually Andrew arrived, and then the beauteous Hilary did too, and she brought along her Buffy season six DVD set. We watched two episodes which made me very, very happy as one of the things I miss about watching television is my daily Slayer fix. I'm surprised that I don't miss watching T.V. in general, really, although I guess if you live alone you tend to watch it a lot more to cut the boredom. I guess I kind of miss watching shows like Trading Spaces and While You Were Out, too. Oh, and Big Brother. I'm not even watching Big Brother this year. Sacrilege. Damn that Andrew and his damnable good influences on me!
Oh, and I must say that the egg/olive oil/honey thing must have done good things for my hair, because Andrew was all full of compliments about how soft and nice it was today. So there, Jerome! Compost indeed!
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So today was kind of a long, draggy day. I did the daily job-hunt that I do, did some dishes, had my shower ... all the usual stuff. But I'm still feeling tired and run down and it's getting to me, man. I even tried going for a walk tonight, but after about five minutes or so I turned around and came home. I need my energy back! Maybe I should hunt down some of that Red Bull beverage.
Anyhow, I made spaghetti for dinner, which is also possibly why my walk was cut short. I mean, a bellyful of pasta can feel like you've swallowed a brick at times. It was pretty good, though. I went through a phase of not wanting spaghetti at all, ever, and it took me quite a while to agree to have it again. I do that with food. I'll want to eat the same thing for a month straight, then get sick of it. I'm still not back on frozen pizzas yet.
While I was on my abbreviated walk I had a bit of a neat experience, though. I was walking along Raglan and passed by a walkway with a giant dark something-or-other at the sidewalk end of it. It was very dark out and I wasn't quite sure what I'd seen, so stepped back to look again. I thought it could have been a giant raccoon, or maybe a bag. It wasn't either. It turned out to be the biggest, fattest cat I've ever seen. He was grey and just massive. I said, "Man, you're a fat kitty!" He took this as a compliment and came out to see me, winding himself around my legs and purring and letting me pet him, which I did lots of. Then suddenly there was another cat there, a cute little black one that I've seen on my walks before. She's a teeny little thing with a pink collar and Andrew and I have speculated that she could possibly be a cat that he knew when he lived on Raglan. I then went to continue on with my walk, and a white cat was standing a few feet away in the other direction! This one seemed a little leery of me, but I said hi, then looked up to see a multicoloured cat sitting on a porch post watching me.
I think I stumbled across the Raglan street cat gang or something. They didn't make any trouble for me because I'm an obvious cat lover, but if Alannah ever comes to town I think I'll have to steer her clear of the area. And never, ever let John walk there alone.
Ooh, I also did a neat hair-related thing today, so if you don't give a damn just quit reading now. I have been eating more eggs lately, but just the egg whites, not the yolks. I've felt a bit badly about throwing away all the yolks, so decided to see if I could find some hair uses for eggs. We've all heard of people using eggs in their hair, right? So I Googled and found a neat moisturizing recipe that called for an egg yolk, honey, and olive oil. I whipped up a little batch today and holy crap, was that stuff sticky and gross! Putting it in my hair was a little tense, even for me, but it actually worked exactly like it was supposed to and gave me nice, moisturized hair. Cool!
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07/07/04 No, I won't wear croissants in my hair. Just eating utensils!
I got in trouble today for not writing a blog entry last night. I totally intended to, but ended up somehow falling asleep instead. I'm almost recovered from whatever illness I had, but still feeling rundown and exhausted a lot of the time, so it caught up with me in a major way last night. Let's blame sneaky Halo for luring me onto the bed in the first place with his whiskers and otter imitations.
Yesterday was a great day, though. We went to Dan and May's for our Tuesday night get together and had another of their delicious barbeque dinners. May's dad came over before dinner and needed help moving a shed from their yard to the yard next door, so that was quite exciting. A little later, however, he came and asked if he could get some help then moving the shed from the back yard into the front yard. Dan was in the tub by this point, so I helped out. The shed itself was very, very light, just made out of sheet metal. The hard part was wading into the tall plants by the fence in my sandaled feet. I'm very freaky about that stuff. In my mind there were millions of bugs under the plants waiting to jump on my feet and crawl up my pants legs. I did it, though, and I don't think I got any bugs in my underwear. I'm also thoroughly grossed out by seaweedy plants in lakes and stuff, because you know something's going to grab you or bite you if you get your legs in that. Ew.
I guess Marcus had it worse than anyone because he twice had the earwig infested corner of the shed to deal with, and then there were some more earwig sightings as the night progressed. I tried to be nice and not insinuate that they might be in his hair, but I might have done so at least once. It's hard, being nice.
We watched an episode of Firefly and then came home. Usually I just let Andrew unlock the doors, since fishing around in my purse for my keys is so much work, but this time I had them in my pocket and figured I could do it. Andrew had his out as well, though, and we ended up having a major wrestling match over who would unlock the door that involved a lot of screaming laughter (at least on my part) and shoving, pushing and clawing. I won, I think. Andrew says he let me win, but I don't really know. All I can tell you is that I unlocked the door. I think perhaps he was just afraid that our neighbours across the hall were going to call the cops on us or something.
Today I excitingly modified a pair of hot pink chopsticks into a pair of hot pink hairsticks by cutting off an inch or so at the top and sanding the part that I'd cut. They turned out pretty nicely, actually, and now I may have to buy some more of them. I got them at Loblaws and they come in even more cheerful and obnoxious colours for cheap. It's funny that cheapo chopsticks will often cost much less than hairsticks from Claire's or the drugstore, and usually be much better for your hair. Chopsticks (unless they're the disposable kind you buy in bulk bags or steal from fast food places) are made to be smooth and seamless, whereas hairsticks that are mass produced for chain stores are not so much.
Anyhow, I'm again dead tired tonight but luckily not much happened today other than the chopstick surgery.
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07/05/04 Have cold, will travel.
We are home from our trip! Yay!
We had a great time, of course. I was very ill for most of it. Well, O.K., I was ill for all of it, but that didn't stop me from enjoying being able to spend time with all my lovely friends and family. Whatever virus latched onto me has incredible staying power, or I'm just a wreck with a very depressed immune system. Whichever, I was coughing and blowing my nose and feeling like a zombie an awful lot of the time and I'm sure I unimpressed a lot of people. My theory is that because we were traveling and on the go a lot my poor body didn't get a chance to rest and recover. Hopefully now I'll be able to make it all better.
The highlights of the trip were (in order of occurence):
1. The barbeque at Andrew's grandparent's place in Ottawa on Canada Day. We had been waiting for this day to finally tell the members of his family that didn't already know about our engagement. His grandparents, who hadn't known, seemed very pleased and both told me separately that Andrew had made a wise decision. And then his grandmother explained to me that the heavy burden of carrying on the family name now rests on us. And since I'll have to carry the mini Jeanes, I suppose the burden will be especially mine.
2. Watching the fireworks on Canada Day from the arboretum at the Experimental Farm with friends. There was a nice group of us, most of whom (including me) were skeptical about being able to see the fireworks from where we sat. Andrew and Jen smugly assured us that it was fine, the fireworks would be easily viewable, blah blah blah. And they were, except for the big tree in front of them. Honestly, though, our view was great and the fireworks themselves were very impressive. We oohed and aahed and ohhed like idiots.
3. Friday we headed for Kingston. First Andrew and I went to the Carlingwood Mall where Andrew got his hair cut (yay!), but then we headed out of town, taking a little detour so that Andrew could see my grandma's old house near Kemptville, which was very, very nice to do. That evening after we got into Kingston we went straight to Shoeless Joe's to see Mimi (who was working) and she overcharged us for our meal, then we went to Alannah's place where she got me totally drunk on two different kinds of cheap pop booze. I especially liked the Sourpuss raspberry drinks and wore the cat part of the labels on my inner forearms like tattoos, which I forgot to take off until just before bed. I think I sobered up quite well by the time we got to my mom's place, though. I hope. Tee hee.
4. Saturday was July's fourth birthday and we went to her party which was a good time. Andrew and I bought her a couple of My Little Ponies, which I was very happy to do because when I was a little girl they were my absolute favourite toy. I had tons of them, but to my great regret I don't have a single one of them saved. Sigh. Anyhow, my grandma and dad were there as were her other grandpa and grandma, plus all of us, Mom, Alannah and Alannah's kids, and by the end of the party I think poor July had gotten a little high-strung. She wanted to demonstrate her bike-riding skills, which weren't too bad except for when she stopped, which meant she had to be push-started again and the entire thing culminated in the loss of a toenail for Mimi and great screaming sobs from July, which wasn't good. That evening we went to Whiskey Willy's for supper because Alannah was working and had a lovely dinner there, then went to see the newest Harry Potter movie. It was great. Much better than the first two, I think.
5. Sunday we headed back to Ottawa and watched the second half of the Greece vs. Portugal soccer (football) game with Andrew's sister and her fiance, then gave them a lift to the bus station. From there we headed to Gav and Emily's place for a So Good feast with them, Colin and Jen. We love So Good, and so far I'm pleased that I'll be living in a city with such great sources of yummy, yummy eats. Then we watched The Triplets of Belleville with them before crashing in bed. Andrew and I saw that movie back in December in the theatre, and it was even better the second time around. I'm glad, because I wasn't quite sure that would be the case.
6. Coming home. It's always nice to come home.
In honour of my mention of My Little Pony, I'm going to include a little quiz that's been around the internet for a few years now. It's a quiz to see if you can tell the difference between porn star names and names of various My Little Ponies. I scored a paltry three out of twelve, which distresses me, but it's been a long time since I knew those colourful little equines. I guess I can't feel too badly about myself.
I emailed a letter of complaint to the owner of the El Palenque restaurant before I went away on Wednesday, and I plan to mail a hard copy to the restaurant as well, addressed to the owner. If you want to read what I wrote to them, read it here. It details what I've already written about in the June archive, but I'm pretty pleased with it.
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