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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for May 1st - 15th
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05/15/04 It's not about my hair this time!
Ah, we had a lovely day today. We slept in late together just because we could, and there was no real rush to do anything. Andrew did go out in the afternoon to get a haircut, but it was a quick trip.
The haircut surprised me. The last haircut Andrew had gotten was on Valentine's day, three months and one day ago. As you can imagine, his hair has grown a bit in that time. That haircut was a beaut, too. It was short, with just the right amount left on the top to balance out the close cut on the sides and back. As I wrote at the time, it was worth every penny of the forty-five dollars he'd spent on it. This time, in the interests of saving a bit of money, Andrew didn't go back to that particular salon. He went to a cheaper place nearer to us.
When he came home I had to ask him if he'd gotten his hair cut, because at first glance I wasn't quite sure he had. As it turns out, he'd asked the hairdresser to leave a lot of length on the top, but she did thin and tidy the sides and back. I'm worried by this. Yes, the cut itself might have been more cost effective this time, but if it's necessary to get it cut more often since it has less 'room to grow', will it not end up being just as expensive in the long run? We'll have to discuss this in depth, as I am not yet convinced of the wisdom.
It's a good thing that Andrew is good-natured about the intense teasing I subject him to on a regular basis, isn't it?
Oooh, remember the South Park Character Generator? Well, that was so last week! Nowadays the cool thing is this avatar generator that seems to be all the rage on Orkut. The nice thing about it is that no matter what, the avatar that you make for yourself is generally more or less pretty darn attractive. Check mine out for an example of this phenomenon. I'm probably going to doodle around with it and avatar all my friends, but I'm not making any promises. With this one, it's expected that you'll design your own, so there's no shame in doing so.
We went to Dan and May's tonight for a visit, and May once again cooked up a feast of marinated chicken and roasted potatoes. We had a fantastic time eating and chatting with them over the course of the night. We'd planned to watch a movie, but with the conversations ranging from room to room we lost track of time and eventually realized that we could not. I think we all had a lovely time, however. I know I did. I got to eat icing with a spoon!
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05/14/04 Dinner, a movie and a real bitch.
Sigh. I don't even know where to start.
It's Friday. Payday. A night that we can go out fairly late and do something fun, as tomorrow is Andrew's day off. So after he got home from work today he suggested we start the evening off with a lovely pho dinner at Pho Hung. I of course thought that was a great idea, so off we went. It was delicious as usual. There was a very tense moment when the waitress brought the rolls, however. Andrew had ordered his usual fried spring rolls, and I'd ordered my usual cold rolls. The platter she carried held two orders of fried rolls and one order of cold rolls. She put down an order of fried rolls, then walked away. With my cold rolls.
Andrew and I looked at each other, and he watched her put the cold rolls down on another table with the other fried rolls. The customers at that table were puzzled by them, but the waitress left my rolls with them. Perhaps she thought they were just too silly to remember what they'd really ordered. As she walked by our table, Andrew flagged her down and told her that she'd given away our cold rolls. My cold rolls. So she went and took them back from the other table and brought them to me. Phew.
Then we decided to go see a movie. I've been wanting to see Troy since I'd heard it was coming out. I love Greek history and Greek mythology, an interest of mine that was sparked by my outrage over the butchering that the television shows Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess had visited upon them. Unfortunately, when a movie is described as an 'adaptation', you'd better be prepared for a slaughter.
Before I get into the movie itself, however, I'll tell you about the best part of the theatre experience. We went to the 11:15 p.m. showing, and it was packed. We got there early enough that we got great seats, but the theatre kept filling and filling and filling. We were seated at the end of the row on the left aisle and at one point a woman and man came into our row and sat down by a guy a few seats down. Suddenly the woman started talking really loud and really fast. "I can't believe this. These seats are not taken! You can't do that!" Apparently, the guy was saving those seats for his friends who had gone to the concession stand or something. Then she stood up, said "Bastard!" to the poor guy in a really, really bitchy tone of voice, and huffed back out to the aisle, her boyfriend following docilely along.
They then went to the row ahead of us and she did the same thing, sitting down in some seats that were being saved. The person saving them informed her that they were taken, and she said, "No, they are not. These seats are not taken!" He said that yes, in fact they were, and she insisted they were not. They went back and forth like this a few times, her boyfriend standing by with a drink in his hands. Apparently they really were taken, though, and she got up, ranting and complaining and basically making a prima donna freakshow of herself. At this point I was furiously poking Andrew, trying to get him to witness the show, and he caught just the tail end of it as she once more flounced back to the aisle with her hangdog mate in tow, who (perhaps wisely) did not say a single word that I heard.
They disappeared up into the heights behind us and I didn't see her again, to my disappointment. She was worth the ticket price.
Anyhow, movie spoilers now commence.
Troy sucked so hard. I expected some tweaking, some slight shuffling of facts, but what they did was throw it in a blender and splatter it on the movie screen, Pollock-style. They decided that ten years was just not a reasonable amount of time for a war, so compressed it down to a matter of a few weeks at the very most. That was the most significant change, I guess, so I mention it first. They took away any intervention of deity that was supposed to have happened in legend, so no Aphrodite, no Hera, no Zeus, no orchestration of the gods whatsoever. And most heart-breakingly, no frustrated prophetess Cassandra going mad trying to warn everyone of their imminent doom! They also figured that Priam didn't need a wife, that neither Menelaos or Agammemnon needed to survive the war, and that it might be nice to have Achilles inside the horse as well instead of dead on the battlefield. At least there was still a horse. Bah. My sensibilities are highly offended.
In the end I'm glad I saw it. No matter how badly it was Frankensteined, Brad Pitt did make a perfect Achilles. I was very skeptical that he'd be good in the role, but really, Achilles was a self-involved prettyboy with an inflated ego and sense of invulnerability, and Brad Pitt pulled it off impeccably.
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05/13/04 I can separate reality from television, honestly.
Gee, who do you think won the extra Survivor All Stars million tonight? Do you think it was Boston Rob, for being the most machiavellian genius to ever play the game? Do you think it was Colby, for having teeth bright enough to attract bugs at night? Do you think it was Jerri, for promising to create a brand new kinder, gentler reality show with the money?
Or do you think it was Rupert, for ... uh ... what exactly did Rupert do again? He fished. So did Richard Hatch and Lex. He got all verklempt when he saw his wife during the game. So did Shii Ann when she saw her mom. He complained that he got picked on when he was a kid. Well, O.K., nobody else was pathetic enough to do that, so give him the million. Apparently he needs it to finance the therapy.
Please, excuse me if my bitterness is hanging out. I just really don't see how he deserved the million. Really, really don't. I wish Rob had gotten it out of the final four (Boston Rob, Big Tom, Colby and Rupert). He actually played the game with forethought instead of just letting other people play the game for him, and got far doing that. Not many people who play hard get as far as he did, and he was right when he said he deserved the money for just that.
O.K.. Enough of that. It's just a show, it's just a game, it's over now. But come September I'll get to obsess all over again, and Amazing Race is coming up soon and so is Big Brother! Woo hoo!
We watched the show with Dan and May (of course) and it was great as usual to hang out with them. Rayna and Marcus did not make it so it was a smaller crowd than usual, being just the four of us, but we got to eat more of May's patented delicious chicken soup which will likely keep us cold-free for months to come. This is also because I put in one tiny drop of a hot sauce that Dan put on the table, Nando's Hot Peri-Peri Sauce, and that one tiny drop made my soup hot hot hot enough to burn away any germs I might have, as well as my stomach lining. Wicked, lip tingling spicy. I may just be a wussy, but that stuff has more kick than a donkey. Perhaps I'll stick with my beloved Frank's Red Hot. It's the absolute best on wings. I want some right now. I am also of the camp that believes that too spicy just means you can't taste your food.
I'm very pleased with all the evil that was discovered through yesterday's test. Thanks for participating, all you cool people that did. And for those of you who don't seem to be able to muster up much evil *cough*JeromeandJen*cough*, I'm sure it'll come eventually. Remember, you don't have to actually murder anyone, just think about it longingly. And sleep. Lots and lots of sleep.
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05/12/04 Evil is in the eye of the beholder. When I poke you in it.
Well, when something seems too good to be true, perhaps it really is. Remember the link I posted a little while back about the eBay wedding dress auction? Well, Snopes.com has published their debunking of said story. Not all of it was untrue. There was a dress for sale, there was a divorce, and there was disgruntlement, but it just wasn't as 'interesting' a story as it could have been, so the seller took some creative 'liberty'. It did get him a lot of attention and I guess that's the mark of a savvy businessman, crude as his methods may have been.
But yanno, seeing as how I'll be in the market for a wedding dress soon, I have to say that I wouldn't want to buy one that I'd witnessed being worn by a big, hairy, sweaty guy with no face. Really. When you look at bridal magazines you see these pretty, willowy princess-like women wearing the dresses and you think to yourself, "That dress will make me look like that!" So, the perception kind of follows for the pictures that guy posted ... at least for me.
I have to say that in all, today was remarkably unremarkable. I'd just started watching some Firefly with Andrew tonight when the phone rang and I was on for a looooong time. There are commentaries to go with some of the episodes, some done by certain actors, some by Joss Whedon. And really, they're very, very funny. So though I was sad that we'd watched all the episodes, now it's like having new episodes to watch. Very cool. Joss Whedon, as Andrew pointed out, talks like a Joss Whedon Character which makes me like him very much.
So, uh, since I really have nothing interesting to talk about, I will post a link to this evil test that one of my Orkut friends posted in her scrapbook about. Don't feel obligated to tell me your score if you take it, seeing as how my last online test demands fell on mostly deaf ears and I alienated all my friends by insisting they take it. For what it's worth, I was only 31% evil, which is borderline, while Andrew is 53% evil. Whew! If mine was higher, I'd feel obligated to take over the world or something, and I'm just too passive for that kind of thing.
I am 31% evil.
I could go either way. I have sinned quite a bit but I still have a bit of room for error. My life is a tug of war between good and evil.
Are you evil? find out at Hilowitz.com
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05/11/04 My neck, she is sore.
Tonight Andrew and I went to see Super Size Me and it was awesome! Slightly horrifying, but awesome! Some spoilers are ahead, so be warned. Although frankly, anything I'll say has already been said in the media, anyhow.
We were going to see the ten o'clock show, but got there about five minutes before the nine-thirty show so bought tickets for that. I went to get us seats while Andrew dashed back out of the theatre to buy us some contraband treats to sneak in. I was immediately pissed off because every good seat was taken. We ended up sitting on the far right in the second row, so had to look to our left to watch the whole movie. Once the movie got into full swing, though, I didn't think about it too much, thankfully, as it was engrossing.
The director and guinea pig, Morgan Spurlock, started out upbeat and peppy, mugging for the camera and cracking wise about "McGas" and "McSweats" while taking almost an hour to force a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese combo, supersized, into his lean, trim, incredibly healthy body. This is the meal that he ultimately splattered right back out on the pavement of the parking lot outside his car door, shown to us in a lingering, interested shot. However, as the month progressed and he became more and more bloated and depressed he often just sat, staring and sighing, mechanically eating his 100% beef burgers with the air of a man on death row, no longer energetic enough to dance for us.
Go see it! Seriously! I'm not even kidding around. It really made me think back to when I lived in Peterborough and worked at the McDonald's there. I was very poor, living paycheque to paycheque, and because I got the food at McDonald's for half-price, I ate a lot of my meals there. Lucky for me, I was also in the best physical shape I've ever been because I walked absolutely everywhere I went and often that was pretty far, but if I'd had to do it for years I could have ended up like poor old Morgan and his fatty liver. Ew! Interestingly, though, I never once got sick of their food, and Andrew pointed out that even Morgan Spurlock did not once say that he didn't like the food he was eating. He said it tasted good and that eating actually started making him feel better toward the end.
I am kind of craving a Quarter Pounder w/cheese now, myself.
Soooo ... that was pretty much it for excitement today. I talked on the phone a lot to Mark, Alannah, and Mom, and did a bit more writing this afternoon, but none of that will interest anyone outside of the players themselves. On Thursday we're going to Dan and May's to watch the strange Survivor thing where we find out the results of the audience vote for which All Star Survivor gets a million dollars for nothing. Can we say Rupert? Yes, we can. Duh.
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05/10/04 Fried dogs don't taste like chicken.
I managed to wow Andrew with more of my culinary expertise tonight. I mentioned a couple of entries ago that I'd had a fleeting hankering for hot dogs, so on his last trip to the grocery store he brought some home. With buns, too. Well, I made hot dogs for us tonight, but I warned him ahead of time that I probably made hot dogs differently than he did, which turned out to be true. I make mine in the frying pan like mom taught me. He said that in the past he made them in the microwave, and that his mom boiled them. Blech. I think it's a shame to cook them like that. Plus, stinkier.
My argument is that it may be unhealthier to fry your hot dogs, but it's a hot dog! Unhealthy to begin with! And for the record, Andrew loved them. Frying them makes them just as good as when they're done on the barbeque. So there you go. If you don't fry your hot dogs, perhaps you should. I can't speak for the effectiveness of cooking your tofu dogs this way, however.
So, I'm very, very content with how Survivor All Stars ended. If you don't know already, don't read any more of this paragraph, I guess. It was hilarious to get to the reunion, because I totally called it! I said before it started that Boston Rob would propose to Ambah, and what do you think happened? Boston Rob proposed to Ambah! And gave her a 'no foolin' around' ring to seal the deal. Interestingly, whenever pressed about her feelings toward Rob, all Ambah would admit to was that she felt 'secure' with him. Over and over again. Whereas Boston Rob couldn't stop grinning and shining at her, especially after he proposed. I theorize that perhaps she's just reserved about things like that and doesn't like to make a public display of affection, but come on! The guy proposed to you in front of millions and millions of people! Force a smile for more than five seconds at a time! Oh, and Ambah won. Yeah.
The reunion itself was pretty freaky, though. Usually by the time the reunion rolls around, most of the castaways have come to terms with whatever pissed them right off during the game. They've had a few months to cool down and make their peace. Not this time. Man, it was ugly. The worst part though was that as soon as Jerri Manthey opened her mouth the audience booed her until she shut up. Granted, she was making a schmaltzy, impassioned, florid speech, but she took it very personally. When they came back from the next commercial break, she'd left the premises in a huff. Probably with more grace than I would have. Actually, no. I'd have stayed, too embarassed to leave in case anyone thought I was a drama queen, and just sat with my lower lip trembling the entire time. That's what I would have done.
I went out and bought a one dollar package of hairpins today and I'm more pleased with them than anything else I've bought for my hair. They make buns hold like cement! Hairsticks work and they're pretty, but I'm always 'aware' of them. I keep forgetting I have a bun in my hair now.
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05/09/04 Which is more gross: Mushrooms or toes?
Since I won't have an opportunity at the end of the day to write my weblog, I have to write one in the middle of the day if I want to have one today. So far it's been a good day. I got to wish my mom and sisters and grandma all a happy Mother's Day over the phone.
I'm in the middle of doing laundry right now and I'm doing it pretty late. I hate being rushed. But Andrew will be home soon and then we have to get ourselves over to Dan and May's place for our Survivor party night sleepover event, so it's my own fault that I haven't gotten things done in a timely manner today. Plus, to make things even more annoying, I skinned a knuckle when I was carrying my laundry baskets down the stairs. mutter grumble. But I was actually non-productive in most menial ways because I was doing some pretty productive writing, so I don't feel too terribly bad about it. I haven't done a lot of creative writing in the last year, and I have been down on myself for that.
Oh, last night after Andrew read my weblog he went and checked the bag of mushrooms for the mushy one. He said they all felt fine, but I know that one of them felt grosser than the gross that all the other mushrooms felt, so if he wants to eat a mushy mushroom (hey ... even the people who named them knew they were gross!) I guess that's his choice to make. I will simply tell him how gross he is.
Which also reminds me, the other day we were on the sofa and his foot was near my head, so I pretended like I was going to lick his toe. Except that when I was pretending, he moved his toe so that it came into contact with my tongue! After I writhed and screamed and freaked out for a while I demanded that he give me his juice glass so that I could wash down some of the toe grossness, and he had the gall to say to me when I handed it back, "Hey, you drank almost all of it!"
So eventually I had to insist that he prove to me that he doesn't think that licking a toe is all that gross, and he proceeded to sit down and full-on lick his own big toe! He's sick! Sick, I tell you!
However, he didn't look all that pleased with his toe-licking demonstration when all was said and done. I mean, if you're just fine with ingesting your own toe cheese, you shouldn't be grimacing slightly after you've done so, correct?
Ugh. This has been a gross entry. I think I'm going to go not eat anything for a while.
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My current favourite Google search term that somehow led a poor, unsuspecting someone to my weblog: "fast furious loblaws parking." What? I mean, I see how it led them here, but: What?
Well, it seems that my family is utterly astonished that I've eaten roasted potatoes and thoroughly enjoyed them. Nobody made a fuss about the broccoli! I've eaten potatoes in the past in some form. French fries? Potato chips? Hello? And now that I'm eating a dark green veggie that before would never have even touched my plate, no one bats an eye. Hmph.
That reminds me that I've finally met someone else who likes to eat their McDonald's french fries with McDonald's ice cream. When we were at Bea and Dave's place, Bea let that little tidbit slip and was just as impressed that I enjoyed it too. I don't really remember how I found out how delicious that combination is, but seriously, next time you go to McDonald's, get a sundae and eat the ice cream with the fries (and I'm talking using the fries as a utensil, here). I'm not kidding. So good! Personally, I like having them with a Strawberry Oreo McFlurry, but whatever turns your crank.
And speaking of food, Andrew and I did our stir-fry special tonight. We hadn't had that in a long time as lately we've been on a 'cheese sauce with everything' kick. Plus, you know, making a stir fry is a lot of work. Cutting up all the veggies and whatnot just doesn't seem like it's worth it sometimes. I realized that last time and this time Andrew's dad called while I was starting to prepare the veggies. I don't like mushrooms at all, ever, and this includes handling them, but because I'm the worlds nicest fiancee I cut them up for him seeing as how he was tied up on the phone. Mushrooms are gross. There's nothing good or pleasant about mushrooms. So when I have to cut them up, knowing what they really are, I try to ignore that fact. But when you get a mushroom that's not only a fungus, but a fungus gone bad, well ... It's not good. I feel all kinds of wrong about that. So I put the mushy one back in the bag and when Andrew goes to eat the rest of the mushrooms at a later date, he can deal with it. Hah.
Oooh, Dan called today to inform us that we're going to be watching the Survivor finale tomorrow night instead of on Tuesday. The reasoning for Tuesday in the first place was that watching it live would be disrupted by Noah's bedtime schedule. He can't help it, he's a baby with a schedule and that's just the way it is. But there is the fear of getting spoilered, which none of us want, so what's going to happen is that we'll go over there tomorrow night, hang out while the three hours of Survivor plus reunion are taping, then start watching at eleven after we've eaten and socialized and seen Noah off to dreamland. Which means that we'll be there until two in the morning. This is not crummy at all, as we'll end up having a super-duper hoopla sleepover! Yay! Dan and May have stellar guest facilities, which I got to experience last summer while Andrew and I were apartment hunting. Maybe they've forgotten that Andrew broke the toilet that time.
And in the end, this means that on Tuesday Andrew and I are going to go see Super Size Me, which I've been dying to see since the first time I heard of it. Maybe I won't be eating McDonald's fries and ice cream after that!
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05/07/04 Apparently this is the reality T.V. entry.
Tonight was Survivor night at Dan and May's. Because we couldn't go on Tuesday night we had it tonight, and we got to watch two episodes in one night. I'd seen them both already, but I love to watch them twice because I'm that much of a geeky fan. There are always little things you miss that you want to go back and look at, like Big Tom's son, Bucky Bo (?!?) eating a huge fat and sassy grub in less than two seconds flat. It almost seemed like something he was used to doing ...
I just wish that sometimes somebody would agree with me on who should win. It's the same every season. Nobody likes my pick. Right now, I'd like to see Amber win, for some reason. I guess I wouldn't be brokenhearted if Rob won, but whatever. Sometimes it's gotten down to the final four and I haven't liked a single one of them, so at least this time there are three I could handle winning. If Jenna wins, I'll be utterly wrecked. Wrecked I tell you. The only plus about Sunday being the last episode is that I won't have to see her grumpy face any more, or have to watch Alicia making sour faces during every tribal council.
Tonight May made dinner for all of us (me, Andrew, Marcus, Dan, and her) and it was delicious as usual. May is a talented cook. There was a loaf of absolutely fantastic challah bread that I might have eaten in its entirety if given half a chance. But there was marinated chicken to eat, as well as the most mouth-watering roasted potatoes ever! Whatever magic May has in her pretty hands was used to make potatoes that I ate two servings of. And I don't like potatoes. There were also beans, of which I did not partake. I don't think even May has enough magic to make me eat beans.
It has been decided that we're waiting until Tuesday night to watch the Survivor finale, however, so for anyone reading this, please, please, pretty please no spoilers in the comments until Wednesday, at which point I'm sure I'll blab about it a lot. I'm going to work extra hard to not get spoilered because this time, I actually do care. The last few seasons of Survivor it wasn't as important to me, but this has been such a great season. The All Stars idea was such a good one. Andrew expresses doubt as to whether fans will continue to maintain interest in the regular format after the All Stars, but I don't think it's going to be a problem at all. Survivor is intriguing and people keep watching. There are always new personalities to love and hate. I think the only detriment would be the producers getting too creative and making too many cheesy 'twists' to the game, which they have done a little of already. I never did like the idea of the gender split in the Amazon.
Anyhow, now that I know there will be more seasons I'm happy. And hoping that there will be a Big Brother season this summer, too! That is my second reality T.V. love and I haven't done much checking lately to see when it starts, or even if it already has. I've been waiting for another evil Dr. Will personality to come along since season two.
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05/06/04 Television is my friend.
Advertising works. I was watching the Friends retrospective, then Survivor, then the Friends finale, and I saw the same Pizza Hut commercial a few times. So I wanted pizza. I wanted greasy, doughy, hot Pizza Hut Pizza. Then, for some reason, I wanted hot dogs, but I swung back to pizza after seeing the commercial for the last time with Andrew.
So, we ordered pizza. As he was placing the order, Andrew asked me which of the three movies that Pizza Hut is giving away with pizza I wanted. Now, they're giving away free movies because they're movies that suck so hard they probably haven't been rented by anyone in years and all they can do is hand them out with food. We had to choose from: Lost In Space, Weekend At Bernie's, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I recalled liking Weekend At Bernie's quite a bit when I saw it for the first time back in 1989 (I believe I saw it with John). I realized tonight that my fond memories could possibly stem from the fact that I was fifteen at the time and hadn't developed any type of critical eye for what constitutes a good movie.
However, when the pizza arrived and we cooled down the DVD (which was toasty hot from sitting in the warming bag with the pizzas) Andrew popped it in the player and we proceeded to watch it. I was determined to enjoy it as much as I had the first time, and didn't not enjoy it (beware the double negative), but it didn't quite seem as full of intelligent one-liners and clever hijinks as it did the first time around. In fact, I'm sorry to say, it was sort of predictable. Obvious, if you will. Sigh. Another memory tarnished. It didn't help matters that it didn't exactly fit the t.v. screen (panned and scanned) and the swears were all dubbed over. Poorly, again.
Andrew, however, laughed and laughed and laughed. Maybe it's a 'first viewing' thing. I don't believe we'll be renting Weekend At Bernie's 2.
I was sadder than I expected to be watching the Friends finale. I hadn't been keeping up with it at all this season, and was dismayed to find that I'd missed Phoebe's wedding. The inclusion of a chick and a duck made me happy, though, as did no mention of Marcel at all. There was a shot or two of him in the retrospective, but nothing major. As I told Andrew tonight, I really hate monkeys. In all, though, I'd have to say that the Friends finale was about as predictable and obvious as Weekend At Bernie's. I wasn't expecting major shocks and plot twists, of course, and I think I'm basically satisfied with it in general. But still sad.
I guess I have even more separation anxiety coming up, as the season's finale of Survivor is on Sunday night. I'm sure we'll still have get-togethers with our friends, of course, but I do so love Survivor. I don't even know if there's going to be another Survivor season, so we'll see how deep my mourning will have to be.
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05/05/04 Next time you go to the drugstore, smell the Alberto Balsam Blueberries and Cream conditioner.
Hooray! Mimi is now officially part of the online world. She's got a computer and is all hooked up and has already sent me an email, added me to her MSN friends list and added me to her Orkut friends list! Whoa. Don't go rushing things too much, little sister. Oh, and I asked Alannah a few days ago if what I said about having her and Mimi crap up my comments with snarky stuff made her mad, and she said no, it just makes her try harder to think of snarky stuff to say. That's all cool. I think Alannah is at her funniest when she's snarky ... for the most part. Sometimes I do cry at night, though. As for Mimi, well, she's surprisingly prudish and "Oh, my land!" sometimes, so we'll really have to work hard on her to rectify that.
So Andrew was even sicker today, as often happens with a cold, and stayed home from work so he could recuperate some. Andrew is not the snoring type, ever, except when he has a cold, so he was doing the whole buzzsaw thing last night. Sigh. It made me afraid to go to bed, but as it turns out, when I'm in bed he doesn't lay on his back, he lays on his side which effectively stops the snoring. Then today he just sort of hung around the apartment fluctuating his body temperature wildly and letting me baby him with tea and juice and soup. I made a special trip to Loblaws to get him the best soup ever (Soup's On! chicken noodle soup, and it comes in a big mason jar) which worked out great for me because I also unexpectedly found a honking huge bottle of the conditioner I love for really cheap. Yay me!
To make Jerome go all twitchy I'm going to talk about hair related stuff a little more. I mentioned yesterday that the henna smell was strong when Andrew and I went out. Well, it does tend to linger in hair for a few days, so today it was still there. However, I also used a brand new conditioner today too, Alberto Balsam Blueberries and Cream, which has the most overpowering blueberry smell I've ever smelled. So after I'd showered I noticed that the two smells had combined and it was ... interesting. The conditioner smell stays. Powerfully. So I've been surrounded by blueberry henna all day and night. I don't mind either smell on their own, but together it's maybe not the greatest smell ever. A while after my shower I was in the bedroom and got on the bed with Halo (he always tries to lure me into lying on the bed and paying attention to him) and he actually stopped doing his cute cat thing and took a moment to smell my hair with his ears kind of back a bit. I don't think that was a positive review.
Andrew says he can't smell it at all, but he's also the guy with the clogged head so his opinion at this moment cannot count.
I think it has become fairly obvious that I'm actually not going to get the Queen's University Social Worker Study job that I'd been assured I was a shoo-in for. That makes me sad, as it was a job I really, really wanted. It was a sort of oasis temp job amongst all the other dry-as-dust temp jobs there seem to be out there. I don't want to call about it any more, as the woman I speak to every time just sounds vague about it. I'll take any other jobs they want me to work, I suppose, but it would have been nice to have the one I wanted.
Here's a site that I found the other day when I was looking up ingredients in VO5 conditioners: Joey Green's Wacky Uses for Household Items. You can discover all sorts of strange uses for most of the things you have around the house. One of my favourites is the one where he advises us to pour lemon juice on cuts and scrapes. It might work, yeah, but is it really worth the tenfold amount of pain?
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05/04/04 My head smells like hay.
Well, it looks as if it's Andrew's turn to get laid low by the cold or flu. He called from work just before he came home and I barely recognized his voice. He was stuffed up totally, and has been getting progressively worse since. Taking a Reactine didn't seem to do a whole heck of a lot, so I've put him to bed with some Neo Citran and I'm hoping he'll at the very least get a night of good sleep out of it. That stuff knocks me flat. Which I enjoy.
I hennaed my hair this afternoon and as it dried I didn't think that it had made much of a difference this time at all, but when Andrew got home and was talking to me me on the sofa, he said that the light coming in the window against my hair made me look almost like a 'real' redhead. Woo hoo! I don't think I rinsed well enough this time, though, as I had some sticky spots near the ends and I really seem to be stinky-headed tonight. We went to see Kill Bill Vol. II (finally) and it was raining out, so I found that the damp air enhanced that very distinctive henna smell. Personally, I like it, but I'm not so sure about fellow riders on the subway, or other moviegoers. Ah, well. When I visited the ladies room after the movie I looked in the mirror and the lighting made the red show up quite well, so I'm pleased. We'll see after a couple of days and the henna stain has a chance to mature.
The movie was excellent. I don't know that I enjoyed it as much as I did the first one, and I'm not quite sure why. It was definitely not as gory and violent as the first one, but what violence there was in this one affected me more, I think. When the Bride went after the Crazy 88, the gore-fest was presented in a manner that made it almost cartoonish, but every death in Vol. II was personal to her. Hmm. I obviously don't want to give anything away to those still planning to watch it. Go watch it.
Andrew and I did smuggle in snacks in order to avoid paying the just plain stupid snack prices at the theatre. I am happy to bring Coke in with me to a Pepsi establishment, but since we brought in cans I always get this fear just as I'm about to crack it open that as soon as it goes "Pssht!" an usher is going to swoop upon me and kick me out for my actions. It didn't happen, though. It never has. Where does my paranoia come from?
Otherwise nothing much else happened today, which can be a good thing. We've been going out a lot lately, and I don't believe we have any real plans between now and Friday, so there are a couple of quiet days coming up. For me, anyhow. I think Andrew has a St. Clair something-or-other meeting to go to tomorrow night, so if he's feeling well enough to actually go it'll be really quiet around here for me. This can also be good.
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I spent most of the day fighting off a headache and was successful for the most part. I was concerned as Andrew and I had been invited to Bea and Dave's place for dinner, but by evening knew that it wasn't bad enough to prevent me from more wonderful socialization.
During the afternoon, however, I did manage to drag myself out and check the natural foods store to see if they had my henna back in stock, and they did! So tomorrow I get to henna my hair again, which I haven't done for a while now. I think that this stuff is much fresher, too, as the powder is brighter green than the old stuff which was probably quite ancient stock, so I'm crossing my fingers that the stain will be brighter too. That's usually how it works.
I was telling Andrew today that the proprietor of the convenience store next door to us has suddenly decided that he likes me. Since we've moved in he hasn't seemed to regard me one way or another, just taking my money and handing back change with a "Thank you," each time. I think he's come to see me as a regular at last, however, as now whenever I come in the back of the store he hollers, "Hi!" to me from the counter with a big smile, and wishes me goodbye with equal friendliness and cheer. This makes me happy, as I'd always watched him chat up the people ahead of me in line and sort of wished he recognized me in the same way. I have a feeling that I'm the 'two Cokes' girl in his mind, though. Ah, well. It's nice to be on good terms with people in the neighbourhood. Andrew always tells of the conversations that he has with proprietors of various businesses around the area, mostly having to do with the St. Clair streetcar situation, and it makes me wonder if I come across as unfriendly. I dunno. I don't think I've ever been served by the same person twice at Shoppers Drug Mart, to be honest. And the guy in the natural foods store is about the same level of friendly to everyone, I think. Which isn't very, from what I've seen.
Anyhow, as the day wore on I wondered if Andrew would be up to going out, as he'd predicted having the day from hell at work, but since purgatory seems to have been postponed for twenty four hours he was all for it. So, off we went to Bea and Dave's place for lasagna. There'd been some consternation about the food as it turned out the lasagna had eggs in it, but a cabbage soup was produced for Andrew's dining pleasure and all was well. After the meal the four of us just sat and yakked in the living room until almost 1:00 a.m. and I was really starting to wilt, so we came home. It was actually the third day running of listening to heavily politically loaded conversation, so I was glazing over at times, but it really was interesting to hear the ideas and opinions of Bea and Dave, who we don't get to talk to as much as we should for living so close to them.
So, yeah. I think that the flowers Andrew got me for our nine-month anniversary are starting to smell a little swampy, and I'm not sure if it's the flowers or the flower water. Tomorrow will tell if they are reprieved or go out with the trash. Poor flowers.
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Today was a very nice day. I was pleased that we were invited back to Dan and May's place tonight to hang out once again. I have to say that they are just incredibly giving hosts that keep their home almost constantly open to a steady stream of friends and family. If we were characters in a sitcom, it would take place at their house. Rayna has stated in the past that she and Andrew were the obligatory wacky male and female friends of the main couple characters, and that I came along and messed with the dynamic, but since I think she kind of likes me I guess I get to hang around too. Perhaps there was some suspicion that I was only going to be around for four or five episodes and then get written out like one of Phoebe's boyfriends on Friends, but I escaped the cut. Woo hoo!
I think I'm pretty wacky too, though, so it works.
When we got to Dan and May's we found that Dan was in the mood for bad Chinese Food, which meant eating Ho Lee Chow. Now, I'm no connoisseur of Chinese food, but I've always loved Ho Lee Chow. Mmm mmm. So needless to say, I was quite pleased. The only problem is that Ho Lee Chow doesn't send chopsticks automatically when you order; you have to request them specially. We neglected to request them and I had to eat my Chinese food with a fork, which makes me sad. Since I've learned how to eat with chopsticks I'd rather use them than anything else. Forks and knives just seem so barbaric now!
After the meal (which nearly incapacitated me) there was time for lovely conversation. I got to talk to Marcus for a while which was really excellent as we don't often get a chance to talk just the two of us. There was some debate about whether the group of us would play a game of Trivial Pursuit after the chats, but instead we watched a great tape that Marcus brought with him. He'd found a copy of something he'd taped back in 1988. It was the Sesame Street Anniversary PBS special, and it was hilarious. Gladys Knight and the Pips, James Taylor, Donahue, Barbara Walters and many, many other celebrities of the day appeared and sang and interacted with muppets. It looked like so much fun, and it really made me remember how much I loved that show as a kid.
Oh, and every time I talk about Sesame Street with anyone I ask if they remember El Hombre. He was part of one of their little cartoons series about a Spanish superhero of sorts. I don't remember it all that clearly, but he seemed to stop kids from bullying each other or something, and I just remember the words, "El Hombre!" being said loudly and enthusiastically every time he appeared on the scene. I know it's not something I just dreamed. Does anyone else remember him? Please? I can't seem to find anything about him on Google. Sigh.
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05/01/04 Are you asking me for a challenge?!?
Today was Andrew's day off, so we got to sleep in nice and late together. I got up earlier than he did and puttered around amusing myself online mostly. Eventually I had to go into the bedroom for something, but whatever it was I was going in there for was blasted completely from my mind at the sight of Andrew and Halo snuggled up together in the bed, cuter than two baby bunnies. Andrew was on his back and Halo was lying in the crook of his right arm, one paw on his chest. I swear if I didn't know they both loved me more, I'd be worried.
I still don't remember why I went in the bedroom.
Andrew did get up soon after this and we started our day nicely enough. This did not last. We'd been planning for almost a week that we'd go to Zellers today. I wanted to buy more White Rain conditioner, and Zellers appears to be the only store in Canada that sells the stuff. Well, I figured that leaving at four in the afternoon was early enough, and when four rolled around and I was all ready to go and putting on my jacket and boots and sighing impatiently, our chipper moods fell apart. Andrew and I had a major 'difference of opinion'* about leaving, what time we were leaving at, the reasons and sense behind leaving at that time, and what really amounts to 'fun' on Andrew's sole day off. We both firmly believed our individual arguments were rooted in reasonable ground, but eventually (sometime between Zellers and Wal Mart) reached an agreement wherein we could see that neither of us was really wrong. I do think that taking a McDonald's break and getting some grease and sugar in our systems mellowed us both slightly.
And by the time we got to Dan and May's place tonight I'd found the humour in the situation enough that I could laugh about it to our friends. Which is a good, good thing.
Actually, it was impressive that I got Andrew to go to Wal Mart at all, as neither Zellers or Wal Mart are favourite stores of his and being in a somewhat down mood I thought he'd refuse the idea out of hand. I ended up regretting it, though, as the shampoo and conditioner aisle in Wal Mart was the most uncivilized part of our day. I was touched by how intent Andrew seemed on helping me hunt down the particular conditioner I was seeking, but in hindsight I think it was a self-preservation tactic focused on getting him the hell out of there as soon as humanly possible. I can't say that I blame him at all. When I'm looking at something on a shelf and someone stops and stands directly in front of me, I really, really want to push them. Hard.
I did not assault anyone, thankfully, and did come away with what I wanted in the end. We also agreed that Andrew would henceforth not have to accompany me on conditioner seeking ventures, and I would not have to go to model train stores with him. Win/win!
* Fight.
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