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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for November 16th - 30th
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11/30/04 Today's theme: Death.
Argh. My computer chose today to die. Yes, the hard drive, which has been thrashing around for a couple of weeks now, finally decided that crosslinked files were too much of a problem for it to deal with any longer, giving me a blue screen of death and ignoring my repeated Ctrl-Alt-Delete attempts. I turned it off and basically never got it back. After admitting that nothing in it was really worth saving (since all of my Shinyhappy files are backed up on fateback's server) I tried reformatting. With little success. That hard drive is now a paperweight.
Andrew looked at the clock when this happened and informed me that the computer store around the corner was open for another half hour. He then dashed out, got me a brand new hard drive, installed it for me, then oversaw the large amounts of troubleshooting required to get things going again. But he did it! He did it all for me! And I'm typing this using my new forty gig hard drive that replaced my decrepit four gig hard drive. Shiny!
Unfortunately, the reformat disk is also decrepit and the version of Internet Explorer on it made lotsa trouble for me while I was trying to download a browser fit for human use. I finally got it sorted out, though, and I'm back to using my beloved, adorable Firefox. I even installed a new theme for it which is SOOOOOOO CUTE! Check it out here. The creator of it also made my other favourite theme, Curacao. What talent.
I decided to take a break from doing the crafty Christmas gift work I was doing and make something a little bit different. As some of you might know, I have an appreciation for hair toys. I like nifty things like hair sticks and other bright shiny objects. Soooo, I thought I'd try making a pair of hair sticks. Here's what I made today:
Aren't they just adorable? I had Andrew take a couple of pictures of them in my hair, but the flash was too bright and they looked like little white blobs. You get the general idea, I hope.
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Blah. Ick. Urgh.
Yes, I'm very sick and whiney about it and writing about it in my weblog. Actually, it's not so bad. I'm surviving and am very grateful that I'm able to suffer through it here at home rather than trying to deal with it while at work or school. I'm counting those blessings, believe me. An ingrate I am not. Much.
I made the crock pot roast again. I wanted something easy to make and also rather filling, and this is so that. I used a darker beer this time and I think it made a positive difference in the flavour, although it's still a bit sweet. I thought I used less sugar, but I'm feverish and not in my right mind so can't be depended on to measure things very well. Anyhow, the beer is slowly but surely being used up. Except for the Canadian. Man, we can't even give that stuff away. I'll use it for cooking with eventually. Maybe it'll all be gone in ten years or so.
When I checked the mail today there was a package for me from Jerome. Now, the packaging itself was a major treat. He'd wrapped it in some hilarious paper that has a picture of a little boy on a big chair wearing a black eye mask and a red cape. He has one sock on (green) with a hole in the toe and his other foot is bare. His arms are folded and he's very clearly in the depths of the sulks. Bear in mind that this is not a small package, and this picture takes up the entire front of the thing. I believe it's a copy of a book cover and the book appears to be called 'But I Don't Want To!'. The mail lady had propped it up on top of the mailboxes so it was very visible, since it wouldn't fit in the actual mailbox.
Inside ... oh, inside. Inside was a picture. Perhaps some of you might recall the last picture that Jerome sent us. Well, in order to share the horror of his next discovery he sent it to us, people that he knew would also cry along with him, "Why, God? Why?"
Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture of it to show you. Amazingly, however, I was able to track down the artist online and so can now share with you the horror to a certain extent. Go to this page and click on the painting entitled 'Port Hole to the Past'. That's the picture. Sort of. Look at that picture, look at it long and hard, and try to imagine the whales wearing Santa hats, and imagine the larger whale wearing a full white beard. Picture also a candy cane kind of lying on the temple stairs. Then you will possibly comprehend the horror that is the picture we now own.
I have a suspicion that the ... ummm ... alteration of the picture was maybe done without the artist's knowledge or consent, because though he's kind of a shmaltzy artist, even he seems to have a modicum of taste and restraint.
In the end we are horribly amused, and Jerome once again proves that he can find the weirdest items EVAR!
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I got my wish. I'm sick. Yes, I am feeling the ick and while I'm not enjoying it, at least it's happening now and not later. If it happens later too I'll be very ticked off, to say the least. However, now it's my turn to be under the weather and have someone wait on me hand and foot. Andrew has already started by making dinner tonight. His macaroni and cheese is one of the best comfort foods there is, believe me.
Today his dad dropped off the television set that Andrew's grandparents said they wanted to give us. I'd been looking forward to getting it as our old TV isn't the best in the world and I'm a bit concerned that it will give up the ghost in a very final and decisive way when it does. So, the new TV arrived and Andrew made the switch tonight so he could watch a movie on it. It turns out that the television set isn't any newer or bigger than the one we had, but it did appear to be in better shape. Until we started watching the movie.
Andrew rented Hellboy yesterday and we'd planned to watch it tonight. I wasn't that excited by the idea, feeling sick and out of sorts and worried that it would make my headache worse. So I was in and out of the room for a bit when it started, but quickly got drawn in and ended up watching pretty much the entire thing. What a great movie! The beginning wasn't promising, but once the opening sequence ended things started to get good. The dialogue is very funny and clever, and there are a ton of extra touches to it that leave me thinking it's very much as if Joss Whedon wrote and directed the thing. I got the same sense of humour and feel for the characters out of it. Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans take note.
Back to the TV: At one point when I was out of the room I heard Andrew fumbling and muttering and it sounded as if he'd stopped the movie. It turns out that the sound went weird on the television. What he ended up doing was hooking up some computer speakers to it, and they work just great. And give better sound, to boot. It's not an ideal setup, but it works for the moment and that's fine with me.
We were supposed to go to New Mee Fung for pho tonight but since I was feeling crummy we stayed in instead. I think that hot soup is good for colds, but it was not to be. The hot soup will have to come to me, I guess.
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11/27/04 Are you making fun of me?
Andrew's recovery wasn't as complete as I might have hoped, so we refrained from going out today even though Colin offered us tickets to see John Geggie this evening. I've only seen him play once and would like to see him play again sometime, but even I kind of wanted to hang around home. The Christmas gift art projects I'm working on are coming along so freaking well that I'm very excited and want to do as much as possible before this streak of accomplishment ends. Not that I think it really will, but I'm in the stage where it's new and fun and I could do it all day long.
Mysterious, no? It's not mask making this time. Although I could use this medium to make masks with, which I'm so considering doing when I'm finished making these objects that I'm making. Fun! Gosh, I want to be an artist. Even if it means only being appreciated after I'm dead.
Since we're mostly just hanging around home being anti-social I really don't have a lot of new stuff pertaining to us to write about. I did forget to write the other day about the fact that I made those beer batter apple fritters and they were delicious. In fact, they were so good that I decided to try making banana fritters using the same batter. I did that tonight and they also turned out great. I liked them a lot better than the apple ones. Andrew and I have both been pondering what else we could batter and fry. Halo's just lucky he doesn't have a lot of meat on his bones. Although ... neither do chicken wings.
That's terrible. Of course I wouldn't eat the poor cat. He's nicer to me than anybody. Even May, and she's pretty damn nice to me. Except when she makes fun of how I talk. She and Dan both like to point and laugh when I say things that have an 'ar' sound in them. Like 'car' and 'bar' and 'archipelago'. See, all our lives my sisters and I have poked loving fun at our mother for saying things with 'ar' in them funny, and now I find out that I'm infected too. Argh! (tee hee)
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Andrew, poor Andrew, has been sick for a couple of days now. Miraculously I haven't been afflicted thus far, but I'm almost wishing I would come down with something now so I'll be over it by the time my job starts in December. Working in a call centre is really not the best place for things like voice-inhibiting congestion and scratchy throats.
I do think Andrew is starting to improve, though. He's finding the energy to be a big meanie to me, so things are returning to normal. He can probably find it in him to take me out for that celebratory 'Keltie got a job' dinner this weekend. He promised me a pho dinner at New Mee Fung, which I'm looking forward to very much.
Anyhow, it's been a quiet couple of days what with Andrew feeling under the weather and me immersing myself in some new art projects. I'd tell y'all what they are, but since they're going to be Christmas gifts I just can't do it. Anyhow, the point is that we've been quietly hanging out at home, reading, working and watching t.v. to pass the time. So we were very surprised tonight when my cousins Erin and James showed up at our door unexpectedly. They'd been on their way to see the Spongebob Squarepants movie when their car broke down in the middle of Bank street very near our place. Luckily someone helped them push it off of Bank, but it ended up kind of in the middle of a side road. So, they came to our place to enlist our help in getting it pushed somewhere a little more out of the way.
We threw on our outdoors wear and went off to push the car, which turned out to be easy enough. Erin and James didn't get to see their movie, unfortunately, but at least I got to give her back the sweater she'd left here the night of the Halloween party.
Tonight I told Andrew I'd come up with a plan for making him all better. I figured if he had to do something unpleasant because he was sick, his body would work that much harder at getting better. My idea was to have him sit down and watch Titanic, which I happen to have on VHS. So, not only would he have to watch a movie that he's never seen and doesn't want to see, but he'd have to watch it in an inferior format. A format with no extra features! Agh!
In the end I got too caught up in the projects I was working on to press the issue, so my theory was not tested. Perhaps he's feeling a bit better simply because I threatened it, though? Hmmm.
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11/24/04 I wonder what I'd see in a meatshake?
Well, I got scooped in my own weblog comments, but here it is anyhow: I was checking the news this morning and discovered that there's a guy in Kingston, the town I lived in for twenty years, who claims that last year he saw the face of Christ on a fish stick. Personally, I think it looks like Jeff Daniels, but hey, why would Jeff Daniels want to appear on some guy's fish stick? I'm sure that Jeff Daniels knows that appearing on fish sticks is probably a poor way to promote himself, seeing as how most people just don't look at the burn marks on food items to see if there are any miraculous appearances by celebrities and/or deities. Jeff Daniels probably has more class than that and prefers to make himself known through his works and reputation. You gotta respect Jeff Daniels.
Seeing as how I hate fish, I won't be making any fish sticks to see what I see in the burn marks this time.
Oh, speaking of cooking: My crock pot pot roast turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. When we went to bed it was a chunk of raw meat swimming in some ketchup, beer, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce, and when we woke up it was a chunk of juicy, tender cooked meat swimming in some hot ketchup, beer, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Mmm mmm. Well, the flavour was actually a bit strong for me, I admit. We had it for supper tonight with some broccoli and I think it needed something extremely bland to go along with it to cut the intense flavour thing it had going on. Like, white rice or bread or whatever. Next time, I guess.
But I'm totally thinking about making some beery apple fritters once I get tonight's entry uploaded. Maybe. If Andrew wants some and I'm not tired and if I feel like cleaning the frying pan. Stuff like that.
Something I realized over the weekend: May and Dan's home causes Andrew and I to act like brats. Seriously. Dan and May always seem to think that when they hear us screaming and shrieking in the living room they're going to walk in on us doing something naughty (in a sexy woo-woo way), but no, what's actually going on is that Andrew is trying to bite me or I'm trying to poke his bellybutton and we're basically beating the snot out of each other. Here in our own home we're very sedate, calm and peaceful. I think it's because of Halo. If we were half as obnoxious here as we are there, Halo would spend all of his time running and hiding under things.
O.K., so maybe we're a little bit crazy here. I sometimes wonder what our upstairs neighbour, weird and strange as his actions seem to us at times, thinks of us and the odd singing, hollering and yelling he must overhear. I sometimes break out into random Pentecostal lyrics, you understand. And Andrew plays interesting music like the Meatshake song and other strange offerings. I think what's important is that we have fun.
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11/23/04 That's entertainment?
Of course now that I'm actually employed I got a call from a store here in the Glebe that I'd applied to a couple of weeks ago. It was very nice to be able to say, "Oh, I'm sorry but I've found full time work since applying at your store." She actually said, "Bummer." Hee hee. It really wasn't the kind of job I'd be too excited about working at, being retail and all, but I did like how close to home it was. I'm sure they'll be able to sell their overpriced trinkets without my help.
Gundel and Julie stopped by tonight to pick up some of their mail and their shower head. They said it was really strange to come in and see our stuff everywhere instead of theirs. It must be odd for May and Dan too. Everyone has to accept that it's ours now, dammit! I'll pee in every corner if I have to! Or I'll let Andrew, as it's probably an easier project for him. Unless I get one of those TravelMates, which I do think is a good idea to have around in case of emergency. Honest, I do. Anyhow, I'm not really going to pee in the corners here. I think that painting the walls (with paint, yes) will suffice.
I've finally gotten around to trying a recipe that calls for beer in order to try and use up some of the oceans of beer left over from our Halloween party. I'm making a crock pot roast that hopefully will end up kind of falling apart and being very tender and flavourful. If it's delicious we'll eat it. If it's not, Andrew will eat it. There are other, more ambitious recipes out there that I will eventually try, but this one involved mixing up the sauce, putting it and the roast in the crock pot and simmering it on low for ten hours. That's it. Easy as easy can be, and it will feed us for more than one meal. I think that next I will try an apple fritter recipe that uses beer, since it's a really good-sounding egg-free dessert and there aren't enough of those around.
Tonight Andrew and I watched The Amazing Race again and this time around it's not the racing that's stressing me out. It's one couple. Specifically, the husband. He's obviously an abusive asshole that probably smacks his wife around when they're not on T.V. together, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up backhanding her on camera before the show is over. He's so on the edge of it already that I nearly fell off the sofa at one point tonight when he literally raised his hand at her. I know there's always someone you love to hate on these kinds of shows, but this is the worst case of someone being blind to their own faults I've ever seen. Well, on television, at least. It's making me very angry, and I can safely say I hope this woman dumps his ass, on T.V. or off as long as she does it.
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11/22/04 There And Back Again. (Andrew titled it this time.)
We are home from our wonderful, fun and fantastic trip to Toronto! I had such a nice time. Nay, a lovely time.
We arrived on Friday night. We'd managed to leave our apartment at four o'clock, and with the insane traffic in Ottawa we didn't actually get out of the city itself until around five. It was crazy! Once we got on the road, though, it was a very pleasant drive to Toronto. I love road trips, and having Andrew to talk to for hours makes the drive that much better. So, we were feeling good when we arrived and being able to visit with Dan and May almost right away was great. They weren't actually home when we got there, but they appeared soon. We gabbed and visited and ended up taking a drive to get some doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. It was the first time I'd ever had real Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I highly recommend them.
By bedtime I was aware that I was developing a migraine. I'd had a headache that had been progressively getting worse and knew what I was in for. I ended up suffering greatly until the sun came up, at which point I finally managed to fall asleep. May's father had invited us over for breakfast on Saturday morning but I was still in such cranial pain when the time came that I stayed in bed. Dan's dad and brother were also staying over until Saturday and so Andrew and I were sleeping on the futon in the living room, and I was very touched by how quiet they tried to be as they tiptoed out the front door. Dan's brother especially spoke in the quietest of whispers. Aww.
I got a few more hours sleep and was more or less up and presentable by the time everyone got home. May brought some extra strength migraine medication with her which helped my brain immensely. We had a very nice day of hanging out and just enjoying being around each other again, and May made a batch of her incredibly good, mouth-watering chicken soup. It's really amazing soup. I have never before considered soup to be a good meal, not much liking the types that come in cans. But May's soup ... oh, goodness. Everyone (who isn't allergic to eggs) gets at least two kreplach each, so it's a major meal, believe me. I'm going to attempt to make a soup similar to the one May creates. I can't imagine it'll turn out as well, but I have to try.
On Saturday night we rented The Station Agent. Andrew and I had seen it, but since it was one that Dan and May wanted to see (and May was supposed to see it for a class anyhow) we got it again. It was even better the second time around! I think I got a lot more out of it this time.
We'd been trying to work out getting to see Marcus, but he's been getting so much work that it was difficult for him to find some time between gigs. This is good for Marcus, of course, but we were a bit afraid it wasn't going to work out. In the end, though, we did get to see him for a wee while on Sunday. May had admired my current purse and decided she wanted to visit Mountain Equipement Co-op to see if she could find one she liked as well, so we worked out that we'd meet Marcus there and go for coffee or something after. May didn't end up finding a purse she wanted, but I ended up leaving with a cute little travel wallet that will live inside Pursey, but will also double as an unobtrusive little purse-like thingamajig as well. I haven't decided if it's going to be named Wally or not, but it probably will.
We went for coffee with Marcus and had a very good time, then saw him off outside and we headed for Jerusalem restaurant to pick up our dinner. Jerusalem is good food. Lamb and beef and pita and stewed tomatoes (which are the things I ate) and hummus and baked eggplant and falafel and rice and salad and pickles and olives and ... holy crap so much food. I thought I might die, but then Dan and I went to Bubble Tea And Me to pick up some bubble tea and some dessert. Then I was sure I would die. Andrew was in charge of picking up a movie for us, and he chose Van Helsing.
This was a bad movie. A monstrously bad movie. That was a joke, yes, but it doesn't take away from the fact that this was such a very truly bad movie. We agreed that it was so bad it was Jen-bad, and I must insist that Jen watches this movie if she hasn't already, it is so very, very, very bad and again I say bad. I'll even watch it with you, Jen, because it is very enjoyably bad. There was a point in it that nearly killed me it was so funnily, freakishly bad. I do hope that it was as enjoyable for everyone else in its badness.
So, today Andrew had to visit with an old professor of his in the morning and then it was understood we'd be leaving town as soon as he was done so we could come home. I got up and got showered and was ready when he got back. I'd realized that the one thing we didn't do was visit Greg's for some incredibly good ice cream. When Andrew arrived back from his meeting, however, he pulled a bag out of his backpack and presented it to me. In the bag were two tubs: one full of Greg's sweet cream ice cream, and the second full of Grape Nut ice cream! I'm so going to marry him. Andrew, not Greg.
Then we really had to leave. We had a lovely drive back home for the most part. We stopped in Peterborough for a nice meal at East Side Mario's which was nice, but the driving got a bit unpleasant close to Ottawa. We made it home safe and sound, though, and were thrilled to see Halo again, who was just as thrilled to see us. Coming home is so nice and good, but I still miss Toronto and our dear Dan and May. Why can't Ottawa and Toronto be closer together? Why aren't there transporters in the world yet? Why?
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Something that has been highly amusing me lately: The Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich. The articles I've been reading online have had me laughing and quoting various funny things aloud to Andrew as I've been reading. If you don't know about it, basically ten years ago a lady made a grilled cheese sandwich and saw what to her looked like an image of the Virgin Mary on it in the grill marks. So, she stuck it in a plastic box with some cotton balls around it and kept it at her bedside, crediting it with her good luck at the casino since.
Bah, humbug, I say. This article gives a very nice little explanation for the phenomenon. We all do this. I used to lay on the bed in our old Toronto apartment and find all kinds of pictures in the ceiling spackle while I talked on the phone. There was the Grumpy Fat-faced Girl, the Donkey In A Baseball Cap, the Laughing Devil, et cetera. It's a very common thing that most people do without even thinking about it.
Another effect of this grilled cheese attention is that I developed a major craving for one. So, I made some today and while I was grilling the first one decided that I'd take pictures of them and see what I could see. Perhaps I'd have a miraculous apparation take form on one of my own, leading to great wealth or at least good hair days.
Are you ready? Pay attention, now. Grilled cheese sandwich one, side one is the most burned side. I lost track of time with it. Look at it closely and see what you can find, then click here to see the mysterious image that appeared to me. It's a duck wearing winter clothing, standing under a winter sky with a shark-like creature coming down to eat him, perhaps. That roundish thing is the sun.
Grilled cheese sandwich one, side two was less burned and more to my liking. The picture that appeared was most definitely a tiny kitten leaping around the grilled cheese playfully.
Grilled cheese sandwich two, side one was also not overdone, thankfully. I immediately saw a clear and definite apparition in the nicely browned buttered bread which took the form of a large pawprint. Possibly my totem animal speaking to me through the medium of grains and (pseudo) dairy. (Those that know me will be aware that my cheese of choice in a grilled cheese sandwich is more along the lines of an edible oil product, not an actual piece of cheddar.)
Finally, Grilled cheese sandwich two, side two was finished. I'm sorry to say that this was the most disturbing image and not one I'm happy to have seen, but you take the good with the bad when seeking mysteries and miracles. Prepare yourself for the humanity. It's very, very clearly a hot air balloon ride gone horribly wrong. Note the helpless passengers being thrown from the basket to their doom. Sob.
Well, I pondered these images, seeking what wisdom I could from them. In the end, however, I thought that they'd best serve me as dinner with a dash of delicious Frank's RedHot to spice them up. So, no eBay dollars for me. I bet that kitten one would have fetched a lotta dough, too.
Now, I'm going to be gone for a few days, so hopefully the grilled cheese will keep people who actually read this satisfied until Monday.
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O.K., so today it was driving me nuts that I hadn't heard anything about the jay oh bee, so I decided to call the recruiting agency and see if they'd heard anything. I left a message for the woman who's been working with me. I felt kind of bad about harassing her, since I was told that I'd find out by the end of this week, but I wanted to know. Very badly. I'm not very patient, you know.
Not half an hour later the actual company called me and offered me a position. So, I have a job! Oh my heck! I start on December 13th, but there's an orientation meeting a week before that for us newbies. I don't really plan on telling anyone that I'm already familiar with the software and many aspects of the job. In the interview I told the interviewer that since it's a different company than the one I worked for I was glad that I'd be doing the same training as anyone else. I don't want to be expected to be a superstar or anything like that. I just want to start over again and have the same expectations placed on me as everyone else.
So Andrew and I were pretty pleased about that today. He had to go off to school tonight and we planned to go out for a celebratory dinner on Friday night to New Mee Fung, but then he gave me a call tonight as he was leaving the school. It turns out he has his parents' car for the weekend and had the fantastic idea to use said car to take a trip to Toronto! I was thrilled at the thought of that, so gave May and Dan a call to see if we could crash with them. They're cool with it, so we're going to have a fun-filled few days with our lovely friends in Toronto! Yay! For those of you thinking that I'm most excited at the thought of eating Grape Nut ice cream at Greg's ... well, think what you like. I know the truth.
I think that everyone should now take their good wishes for my job-getting and turn them in Jerome's direction for his stress levels. He has a show this weekend and is in the midst of writing report cards, which I know is not a very fun thing to be doing, especially when you have other things crowding your brainspace. Good luck, Jerome! Break a leg! Break both legs! In a good way, of course!
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No call yet. No panic yet. No.
Let's see ... otherwise, not much else is going on. I really do feel like laying low and hiding out, for some reason. Trying not to trigger any bad karma or jinx myself in any way, so being able to torment only one person is better than exposing myself to the possible evils that other people can inspire in me. Perhaps this is not optimal for Andrew, but it works for me. Mwa ha ha.
Oh, Andrew was highly offended by my entry last night where I said that Halo has the monopoly on cuteness around here. So let the record state that Andrew is indeed as cute as a baby bunny with his blue, blue eyes, unruly hair, adorable freckles, happy little smile and heart-shaped birthmark. Oh yes, he's precious! Reading this will give him no cause to suddenly shout out irately, "Hey!" Why? Because he is every bit as appreciated and fawned over as the cat*.
I did watch the season premiere of The Amazing Race with him tonight and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, I'm not sure if 'enjoyed' really fits my feeling about the show in its entirety, but I did overall like the episode. It was two hours long, so twice the stress, and they've managed to find some incredibly obnoxious people this time around. I will admit that it's what makes the show interesting, yes, but they're just. So. Annoying. One guy makes me literally want to reach through the screen (and back in time, apparently) to slap him. Ah, well. It's entertainment, and my reality T.V. whoredom continues.
But that's it! No more. I don't want to end up having to watch a show every night of the week. It's a good thing I know how to set the VCR.
*If you think I'm joking about that, I'm actually not.
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