Japanese Word!

*yawn*

I woke up at ten this morning so that I could call my mom before she left the house this morning, but I guess I was too late. I left a message on her cell that's never turned on. Grrr. But, anyway, I discovered that both Jo and Morgan had related the fun-filled events of last night all ready. Way to be on the ball, guys. ;-) I wonder if Angela got any sleep...

So this is most of us (Angela was taking the picture) last night at Rosie's on 124th--a fine establish- ment totally lacking in molesty-looking guys named Captain Bob. Yes, Peter's rendition of "Sweet Transvestite" totally put the rest of us to shame and seemed to make a lot of people decide to leve. ^_^ The picture was taken while we were swaying to Jo's rendition of "More than Words." She really needed Eric or John around to do a duet with. ;-) Also, we need to get Morgan back to karaoke on a night where she isn't driving, and can therefore drink her inhibitions away before belting out... oh, how about some Celine Dion? ;-p My rendition of "Time of Your Life" went better once I switched octaves, and so microphones and I have decided to put a moratorium on our mutual animosity. Then again, the mic last night was... lacking. Not sensitive enough. I hope this comment doesn't cause the microphone community to reneg on our agreement. *worried look* My renditions of "Do It Again" and the classic "Joy to the World" went remarkably well. :-) And Peter needs a Karaoke limit--one established before we enter the building. He could've stayed there for days.

I won't be able to make it for Thai tonight, but I'll call someone when I get off work at 9 to see if anything else is happening. For now, I need coffee.

(Oh, that reminds me: Peter's dad bought a new espresso machine. It's manual and looks, as Peter so appropriately put it, very Steam Punk. I have not yet mastered it completely, having only used it once. Coffee on Sunday may take a moment longer than normal. ^_^)

A Kind of Adventure

Holy crap. I just got back from the Passport Office. It was quite an ordeal. Not the actual Passport Office--I was in and out in ten minutes flat--but getting there was nuts. I went to take the low level bridge, like I usually do, except it was closed, and I wound up going east on 98ave, past the Muttart Conservatory. It's actually very pretty down there--some nice condo/townhouse deals. Anyway, I knew I was going East, but that was about it. But I managed to guess correctly as to how to get to Wayne Gretsky Drive! Yay, me!!! This is especially impressive to me because I've only been there, like, three times since it was named that, and the street that turns into it is 75a street, which is a rather inconspicuous number. I told myself that I wasn't lost, I was exploring. ^_^

But, yeah, I was expecting to have to wait at the Passport Office for a couple of hours, but the drive took, like, five times as long as the amount of time I spent there. *slightly frazzled*

And my photo was rejected, so I have to go get new ones taken. I don't have to get them resigned, though, which is good, but the reason for the rejection is kinda... consterning. (Is that a word? It caused consternation, in any case.) They said everything was too bright--that there wasn't enough contrast between my skin and my hair. I wanted to tell the guy I was dealing with that unless he wanted me in blackface, there wasn't really going to be any contrast, but I figured I'd just try wearing some regular make-up first. I'll go back to WalMart tomorrow. The guy at the Passport Office said they were supposed to redo the photographs for free, which is nice. I considered just going to the photo place next to the Passport Office, but I didn't have a jacket/sweater/something to cover my shoulers, and I figured the make-up would be needed, anyway.

The one good thing about this, though, was that I discovered that getting a passport only take ten business days, rather than the four-six weeks my mom tells all the people she deals with. I was kind of worried that I'd have to get it rushed or something.

Elsewise, the recent state of Joanne's blog makes me giggle. ^_^ Looking forward to tonight, guys. :-)

Been Down, Isn't it a Pity?

It is hot. The forecast high for today is 32 degrees, and Shaw TV says it's currently 30, which means it'll probably be getting warmer than 32 by 6 o'clock or so. I've always said that the perfect temperature is 28 degrees, so I'm reasonably happy right now. :-) A lot of other people aren't though. Then again, I suppose I would be happier if we had our main shower working and if my work wasn't so bloody cold that it doesn't matter what the weather's like--I'll have to bring a jacket. But, yeah, we had one wall of our shower stall taken away yesterday. The glass had been cracked for a while, and we finally got somebody in to look at it. They said it was repairable, but that they'd have to take it in. And they couldn't guarantee they'd have in back within a week. So we made them put a rush on it so that it stands a chance of being done by the time my dad gets back from Peace River at the end of the week. My dad would not be happy with having to use the tub/shower in my bathroom.

But I am looking forward to tomorrow or Thursday, when I get to see Jo again. Poor Jo. She's been having a bit of trouble organizing this. ^_^ But I'm sure that once we're munching on fish cakes or hot wings, it'll all be good. :-)

Spiffy?

I heard from this kid I work with a couple of days ago that Apple was going to be coming out with a new iPod video with a widescreen about the size of the player. Does anybody know anything about that? Google didn't, and I have no idea where to search for inside-ish Mac news. I'm glad my brother doesn't read my blog...

And now I'm going to finally get off my ass and go get passport photos taken.

ETA: Kaitlyn, you disabled blog comments! Why?

Thievery

I confess: I am a blog thief. If I see something nifty on a friend's blog, I will steal it an put it on my own blog. Well, only if it's customizable, like a quizz or a game or something. That being said, here is a classic e-mail survey. Actually, it's not all that classic, but rather sparse on the name-rank-serial number side of things and, therefore, useless as a potential Nex profile. But it's still fun. :-)

Oh, and I got it from MorPRi's blog. Sadly, I do not have dual personalities to give you funny little banter-answers. I could try, but I'd probably wind up naming the personalities "Thesis" and "Antithesis" or something boring like that. Or, worse yet, "Thesis" and "Anacrusis." ... Onto the questions!

1.What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
I... don't know. Breyers Natural Vanilla is most excellent and the one I eat the most often, but it's not my favourite. I like the cinnamon ice cream they have at Marble Slab, but the fun there is mixing it with stuff. Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie would be better if I could eat more than one spoonful without feeling guilty (the yougurt variety just isn't as good). Damn, why did the first question have to be so hard??? I'm just gonna go with Cookies 'n' Creme. That stuff is tasty fish.

2.What was the last thing you ate?
Raisin Bran for breakfast. I woke up feeling ravenously hungry. Now I feel digesty.

3.What CD is in you CD player right now?
You know, I was about to say that I don't own a CD player, or at least one that works, but then I remembered the one in my car. It currently contains Nelly Furtado's latest CD, Loose, which I was featuring for both Peter and Joyce recently. :-)

4.How many keys are on your key ring?
I am insignificant--only four keys and a lip balm holder with no lip balm. I can't remember who it was, but there was a celebrity who had a bit on the Simpsons, and he was talking about how, after his hit show went off the air, he became a real person with his own keys. That one hit a little close to home with me.

5.How much money do you have in your wallet?
61 cents, which is bad. I haven't been carrying any cash around because I haven't been to the bank in, like, three weeks. I'm cringing just thinking about the bank fees I'm raking up by using my debit card so often. I only get 15 free transactions per month, and I'm pretty sure at somewhere around triple that. Note to self: Go to the bank. If nothing else, I should scrounge around for some change to use in the vending machines at work in case of dire hunger emergency, or a Diet Coke with Lime craving. I love that we have that in our vending machine! :-)

6.List two bad habits that you have....
Being messy. *looks over at carpet stain I should have scrubbed out, like, three days ago*
Being... headstrong. A lot.

7.What's your birthstone? would you change it?
Ruby. No, I wouldn't change it, but I would get a better-quality one in my grad ring--the one they used is pink. Stupid Jostens.

8.If you had only day to live, what would you do?
I think the spirit of this question precludes me from saying things like "write my will," so I'll just say spend time with loved ones, drink some good wine and maybe call a couple of people and make embarassing confessions just so that I can laugh at how uncomfortable they look at my funeral. Well, maybe not. At least not for that reason.

9.Do you know what your name means?
Janita is the Dutch equivalent of Jane, which more or less means "Gracious gift from God." I remember my ex nearly had a coronary at dating "God's gracious gift." I think that was moment number 28 that I knew it was over.

10.What colour is your room?
For once, I really like the colour of my room. It's a light grey-ish purple called "Simplicity." Previously, my room was marroon and indigo, and multi-coloured pastel sponge painting that I did myself when I was 8 or 9. I liked both of those ideas in theory, but the way I have things now just looks a lot more like an actual room, rather than a bizarre cave or toybox.

11.Think about this for a second-- when you fasten your pants do you do the button first?
I totally do the button first. I remember having a debate with my mom about this when I was, like, 6. She said that you had to do the zipper up first in order to help get the button close enough to the button-hole to close it. (She was gaining weight at the time.) But I said that you did the button up first to help get the zipper closed because you didn't have to hold the button in place after it was buttoned, whereas you did have to hold the zipper in place after it was zipped. I guess I put a lot of thought into very small things when I was 6.

12.Leno or Letterman?
Ugh, neither. Maybe if Tucker Carlson monologued with a back-up stage band, then I'd find it funny.

13.When you have food cravings, is it usually for something sweet or salty?
Sweet. It's all about the sweet. Especially sweet of the gummy variety. Mmmm...

14.Whats is your favorite breakfast cereal?
(Note: I have chosen not to edit the grammar or spelling of the questions. Therefore, imagine a constant [sic] pertaining to anything I didn't write.) Uh... Probably either Raisin Bran or Mini Wheats. I don't often sit down to enjoy cereal. It's usually something I eat in a hurry or because I'm hungry and need something quick. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is a good sugar cereal, though.

15.When you fall asleep are you usually on your side, your back or stomach?
I prefer sleeping on my back, but if the pillow's too firm, I sleep on my side. For some reason I always want to sleep with my arms above my head, and that's really only possible on my back.

16.When you find a spider in your house do you kill it, ingnore it or shoo it?
I kill it. If it thinks it's going to go make a little spider's nest in my house and start writing messages about my hot water tank being quite a pig, it's got another thing coming. The only problem is I don't like feeling the bug squish and break and die and whatnot, so I have to go find something I can kill it with that won't let me feel that.

17.Can you play a musical instrument if so which one?
According to my transcript, I can play all instruments except strings and less common versions of common instruments (like English horn, bass clarinet, etc). In reality, my trumpet and saxophone skills are my strongest, and there's a significant drop in competence between the former and latter. I guess I'm not bad at the brass instruments, though. Flute made me light-headed. Percusion made me feel stupid. Note how the two are different sensations.

18.What is your blood type?
I have absolutely no idea. Probably O-, I imagine. But it'd be nifty to have an uncommon bloodtype, like AB or something. But I guess that wouldn't be as nifty if I ever needed a transfusion.

19.What is your favorite number?
I can't decide between 9 and 16. 25 is just too much, though, and 4 is not enough.

20.If you could be any animal what would you be?
I remember I was talking with Jenilee about the Furries once, and she expressed something to the extent of liking the idea of being able to express yourself as you truly are by dressing up. Now, I'm pretty sure she won't do it, but for now, I'm saying that I'd like to be a human, thankyouverymuch.

21.Women- what kind of perfume do you wear? men- what kind of cologne do you wear?
On occasion I'll use Dewberry-scented bath products, and I do own a bottle of Dewberry-Black Currant sceneted perfume, but I can't remember the last time I wore some.

22. Whose the hottest actor or actress?
I'm trying to decide whether or not to answer this question seriously. Jake Gyllenhal is pretty hot, I guess. Oh, what the hell: Bob Dole!!!!

23. How is Your Summer going so far?
Hunky-dory. Work, get paid, work, get paid, work, get paid. And soon I get to see everybody who's been away. Yay, everybody!

Quasi-Flirting in the Workplace is Unhelpful

I must be at work in just over an hour, but oh, well. The insanity that has been is now over. It is, of course, being replaced by a new kind of insanity in the form of a CD and DVD sale, but that's less physical labour, so I'm cool with it. ^_^ I was redistributing/organizing/facing the metal and rock/pop sections last night, having gotten stuck on the main CD floor again, and since I know next to nothing about metal music, I asked the manager who'd been helping me before for some way to figure out what was important and what to feature, etc. I was basically trying to con him into helping me again, but I would have settled for just some insight into metal music. He moved some CDs around and told me to "fake it. Fake it as hard as you can!" I just couldn't resist playing along with that one, so I caught his eye, smiled coyly and held it for a second before giving a sly "ok." This would have been a lot more fun, though, if that hadn't been a natural time for him to walk away without having helped one whit. *bangs head against desk* I managed all right, though, but, good lord, we have a lot of Iron Maiden. And Megadeth. And like 25 different Kiss CDs.

But right now it is sunny, I had a yummy portabello burger for lunch, and I am wearing my favourite jeans, so the world is a wonderful place. :-) Even if the new Nelly Furtado CD sounds frighteningly '80s. I'd swear the track Glow is a remake/rip-off of something, but there's nothing in the writing credits to suggest that. Huh.

Various Forms of Insanity

Wow. Not meaning to channel a couple people I know who've written lengthy and melodramatic posts in response to stupid comments, but I'm confused by these anonymous rantings. So I'm a jazz snob because I find it frustrating to play with musicians whom I know have good aural skills but can't seem to apply them to the instrument in their hands (which they've taken courses on how to play)? Alrighty. Get yourself into a tizzy if you'd like. But the comment on the last post is bizarre. What would prompt somebody to bring up that previous entry? What about putting people down came up in my last post? Why would you even read a blog that just gets your riled up? I guess some people get off on righteous indignation.

In other news, work has been ridiculous the past couple of days. Yesterday started out with a scramble to finish what I've dubbed the Project for Hell, ie, boxing up all our clearance CDs by label, meaning we have to scan each CD individually because the sticker's not always right, then put it in one of 46 boxes (I counted all the possibilities). Now, since this requires you to have roughly 46 boxes around, it's not reccomended that it be done in two seperate locations, otherwise we'd never have enough boxes. And since the clearance section is right next to the reception desk, that's where the work is done. But since there' s only one computer at the reception desk, only one person can work on this at a time. So yesterday I was helping Jasmine, who was on reception, by taping her up some more boxes, "refreshing" for her the ones she'd filled up and organizing them so that she could find each label easily, instead of having to look under piles of boxes. Over in the corner by the bins we'd already emptied, two of our managers were conferring. Once I'd finally gotten everything reasonably straight, I retreated to "my" room. I then sent Joyce a text message about said Project from Hell.

Then the two managers walked in and started the Project from the Bowels of Hell.

Namely, re-arranging my room.

It's looking pretty nifty now, but what they wanted to do was bring World Music and Folk back into the Jazz and Classical room, but without giving back the space we lost to storage when we moved World Music out of the room. So we wound up putting bins in this kind of curvy triangle shape, which took forever because of the amount of discussion our GM wanted to do, plus moving the bins, some of which were full of CDs, others of which we had to unload and then reload so that we could get the bins into the room. I spent the remainder of my shift yesterday moving CDs around.

Then, this morning, once I did an hour and a half in the bizarre limbo that is the main CD floor (I have no idea what they're in the middle of doing there, so I don't touch anything. Thus, a boring hour and a half) until Stephanie arrived, I went back and moved some more CDs. Then I had to portion them out into the new number of bins we'd allocated for each section. Then I had to check the organization (since they were moved a handful at a time, and not just by me, but by the managers who don't know the stuff, some handfuls were mispalced) and then face everything so that the shelves looked as full as possible. I got through everything but Jazz, which I left for Lindsey to do when she gets back to work tomorrow after being in Tennessee. I'll be in tomorrow night to double-check that I didn't miss something horribly glaring before the sale starts on Friday. I don't know why the managers didn't do anything a couple days earlier, because they've been in a mad scramble to re-arrange the whole bloody store over the past two days, and it's getting tight, time-wise.

I know this just sounds like for once I'm getting a couple days' honest work, but, really, that's not what I signed up for. ^_^ Although, last night I got stuck on reception for a few hours because the scheduling manager goofed, and, I must say, I was quite happy to be back at the Project from Hell, compared to what I'd been doing before. ^_^

And now it is 8 o'clock, and I'm going to go make the most of the longest day of the year. I made myself not nap when I came home from work so that I wouldn't miss the evening. ^_^

*Title*

Jenilee, why are you in Calgary? And why are you so excited about it?

I remember once when I was spending most of the day with Joyce, she got a call from her mom, saying that she and Joyce's aunt were on their way to Calgary. I can't remember why, but I do remember that when they hit Red Deer they decided they didn't to go to Calgary after all, and they turned around and called Joyce to tell her they were coming home. I said to Joyce that they must be frustrated to have to drive all that way for nothing, and she replied that they probably had a ball chatting away and didn't care one whit about Calgary.

Anyway, tonight is game 7. Peter asked if I'd come by the store to see him tonight, and I said I wasn't sure. I'm kind of uneasy about the prospect of being on Jasper Ave tonight. I wonder how many preventitive/zero-tolerance arrests will happen. I am hoping we win, but mostly I'm waiting for all this craziness to be over. Then again, we might finally merit our city nickname, "City of Champions," if we have the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup won in the same year. Then people can stop complaining about what an outdated, ridiculous nickname it is. To be fair, though, I've never known the Eskimos to particularly suck, but I'm only peripherally aware of them most of the time.

I'm currently having a grand ol' time with my computer in front of me and my television playing CSI over my shoulder. Earlier, however, I was really, really hungry and, therefore, irritable, and I nearly talked myself into a parking ticket. I was dropping Peter off at his mom's house, and, for those of you who've never been there, it's a small residential road with parking on both sides and one driving lane down the middle, even though there's two-way traffic. I pulled over to my left, which was the side Peter's house was on, and, just as we were saying goodbye, a "Parking Patrol" vehicle pulled up. I apologized and played dumb, and she wasn't going to give me a ticket, but because I played dumb, she explained why what I was doing was illegal. She said that parking on the wrong side of the road meant that, when I pulled back onto the road, neither me nor a vehicle on the road would be able to see eachother. I must've looked confused, but, really, I was biting back a remark about people apparently not being able to use their eyes and/or rear-view mirrors. ^_^ But, yeah, she left, Peter went inside and I went home to get food. Which I have since eaten. So I'm feeling good again. :-)

However, I should go clean the kitchen. Oh, well. CSI will still be here in 15 minutes, and the internet will be here for... I imagine until WWIII, at least.

Post # 204

It is Saturday night and I had yummy homemade hambugers for dinner. :-) Now I'm full, though, which is less :-) than I'd like. :-(

Last night rocked. We were all rather drunk (except for Trilina, who was driving, but even she had wine and scotch), and for once playing cards wasn't a tense game of... What game would that be? I want to say chicken, but that's totally not it. It's kind of a meta-game where you have to make sure you make only optimal moves, otherwise you're fed to the wolves. Needless to say, playing cards with my family can be very stressful. But last night it wasn't. One particular highlight was when I turned to my brother to say "I'm articulate," but in my inebriated state said "articulant." He found that rather funny.

And I won at cards. ^_^

Work is boring. I was on reception today, and I watched Harry Potter 4 twice and Almost Famous one and a half times. And I half-heartedly boxed up a bin of clearance CDs by label. That's mind-numbing, because you have to scan each CD to double-check the label, because a lot of the tags are wrong because the info gets changed on old CDs when their status gets demoted to clearance, so reprinted labels are reasonably useless. There are *thinks* somewhere between 8 and 10 bins left to box up, and somebody working at a non-frenzied pace would get through one every four hours or so.

Come to think of it, I remember when I first started working there, we were doing a project to re-label the clearance CDs so they'd have the correct information on them. That's what I spent the entirety of my first shift doing. I guess we didn't get through all of them... *-_-

So the Oilers are playing and I'm trying my hardest not to know anything about it. It's not that I don't want them to win, but I don't like the stress of watching live sports when the stakes are high. I'd rather just know the next morning. Or whenever the honking starts. I guess I am going down to Jasper Ave later tonight to pick up Peter, so I'll know then, I'm pretty sure. Since his Second Cup is in the same building as a bar. *apprehensive look*

This is rather a long post considering I don't really have anything to say. You guys now know the ins and outs of my job just as well as I do, I'm sure. I'm hoping our house is ready on time--there've been delays with the drywall--because otherwise things will probably happen while I'm in Uruguay. And stuff. Yeah, bye...

Friday Night Food

I'm actually at my desk, of all the improbably locations for me to be using my laptop. I'm very happy to be home. I was supposed to be at work right now. See, my mom woke me up this morning to inform me that dinner with my sister et al. would be tonight. I guess whatever my parents had to do was cancelled or ignored or something. Anyway, I was supposed to be working from 12:30-9, but I told my mom I'd try to get the last four hours off. No luck, however, as it was only going to be me and this kid Jeff, along with a receptionist. That's what's known as the bare-bones staffing of software. I even called Kripa to see if she could work, but I left her a message and she never got back to me. However, when five o'clock rolled around, this other DVD guy came in. It turned out that he had bargained with the scheduling manager to work tonight instead of Wednesday, when the game was on. Jeff showed up ten minutes late, thanks to a train, and I almost thought he wasn't coming, but I did a little happy dance when I saw him. And to top it all off, I talked to the scheduling manager on my way out, and I am not in fact working on Sunday, after all. Different versions of the schedule were conflicting, so I wasn't sure, but now I get a day of leisure. ^_^

Something downstairs smells good. My siblings aren't here yet--within 45 minutes--but cooking has begun. I had to stop on my way home and buy a steak because I'd told my parents that I wouldn't be able to make it tonight. My dad reimbursed me, plus two dollars, though, so I really didn't mind. ^_^

Oh! Right! That's why I started this post in the first place: Peter has finalised the menu for July 2nd. As it stands, we've got:

Course 1: Pork wonton woup.
Course 2: Dragon noodles (cold, slightly spicy) with wok-seared tuna. Peter's take on a noodle salad, he says.
Course 3: Classic fried rice with stir-friend greens and maltose-glazed spareribs.
Course 4: Chocolate pecan rum tarte. This isn't Chinese, Peter says, because there are no desserts in Chinese cuisine. ^_^

Lastly, here's a little game I've stolen from Joyce's blog. The rules are as follows:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

Since I cleaned my room yesterday morning, the nearest place of a book was my bookshelf. This presented a problem, as there are many books on my bookshelf. So I chose the last one I put down (also the last one I read). In addition to that, I opened the book and was reminded that the pages are in reverse order (as are the chapters), so I'll post both the fifth sentence from the page marked 161 and the 161st page of text.

The page marked 161:
"Hiding in the toilet, I mean."

The 161st page of the text (marked page 128):
"People went home feeling saved, and I told myself I'd kill myself some other time."

Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk

Triple Grande Sugar-Free Vanilla Non-Fat Caramel Macchiato

I have that song, "Music," by Madonna, going through my head. And I don't actually even mind.

I have just had yummy Starbuck's coffee, since Peter's coffee machine is on the fritz again this mornnig/early afternoon. I was so happy to not have to go home last night, for once. Now that my parents are back, I don't have to worry constantly about my dog. My mom took myself, Peter and her friend Linda out to The Keg last night, and I ate a lot and had wine, and so when I got back to Peter's house to drop him off, I was happy and sleepy with fullness. ^_^ And since I don't have to work today, I just more or less went to sleep. :-)

Oh, and I have been proven wrong. There are as many people on this season on Hell's Kitchen as there were on the last season. It just seems like less because Larry got sick and left, and Michelle seems to be going AWOL next ep. Oh, well.

*does a little dance to Madonna song*

Yeah, other than that, there's not much going on. Peter is reading. I have to work the next three days. Yay, money! Lindsay's driving into town today, so we'll be seeing her maybe tomorrow night. This'll be the first time my parents have seen her and her finacee since learning about their relationship. I'm hoping wine will mellow any overcompensation. (Ooh, btw, I talked my mom into ordering cabernet sauvingnon last night instead of shiraz. I was happy. ^_^) Then again, thinking about it, I work from 12:30 to 9 both tomorrow and Friday. And the whole reason Lindsay's in town is to go to a wedding on Saturday. My parents have to go out on Friday, too. This may be slightly difficult to schedule. Then again, I doubt that Lindsay would want to drive back to Vancouver the day after the wedding, so maybe we can see her on Sunday. I don't think I work then, but, even if I do, it'll only be from 10:30-5. In any case, I'll stop using my blog to think "out loud" now.

Oh, and I have asked Peter to point out any spelling mistakes he sees in my blog. See, last night, my mom called my English spelling "atrocious," citing my blog as a prime example. Now, I try to read over my posts, but sometimes things just slip by me. Regardless, I hardly think my spelling is really all that bad, so I want other people to point out mistakes so that I can show my mom how few there really are. *stubborn*

Then again, I've also asked my mom not to read my blog at all. It's probably horribly disillusionning for her, and that's just plain inconvenient for me.

New Hell's Kitchen!!!

*does happy dance*

My only problem with this season is that there aren't enough people. And they all seem to have some backgroun in professional food preparation. I'm hoping the "something [Gordon Ramsay's] never done in Hell's Kitchen before" is adding more people, what with Larry dropping and Sara apparently going AWOL in addition to the two people eliminated and Heather with her burnt hand. That looked painful. But, other than that, the past two hours were entirely filled with wonderful Hell's Kitchen antics that I know and love. Well, I suppose I only saw the last hour and a half because I was at work until nine, but, still. Despite them being totally different people, I am so calling Tom as the new Dewberry. More or less incompetant caricatures of people who are hopelessly doomed to be their own downfall in life. Then again, Tom could just be some actor who auditioned for the role of Tony Soprano and didn't get it, causing him to go into a psychosis where he believes he is a New York/Jersey badass. His permanent detached frown and liberal use of slang such as "you wanna wax me" has me fixated on him out of morbid curiosity. ^_^

*does another happy dance*

Also, work was great tonight. There was practically nobody in the store because of the hockey game, and since I was working reception, I wasn't even bored. I got no more than two dozen phone calls all night. When I got there, the menu for The Wedding Singers was on the screen, and I almost hit play, but decided that I had seen that movie too much recently, so I turned to the shelf where we keep DVDs for watching, and there was the first season of House, just sitting there. So I watched five episodes of that. Had a grand old time. ^_^ I doubt my shift tomorrow will be quite as interesting, but maybe I'll bring another book. I wonder if Half Blood Prince is out in paperback yet. My hardcover copy is too big and too cumbersome to read to take it to work with me. Hmmm... I'm looking at my bookshelf right now, and it strikes me that I don't have a lot of books there to choose from. Not because I don't have a lot of books that I like (although I dislike reading books because I can never get good lighting and almost always get a sore neck), but because I have such limited bookshelf space that it forces me to pack away all but my most favourite books. I am greatly looking forward to getting a bookshelf when we move. The shelving until I have now is totally staying here. It's fastened to the wall with some wood blocks and leather straps. I might make a kinky joke, but the whole deal is also painted a light purple called "Simplicity," and that really kind of takes the edge off any potential humour.

But after work tomorrow, my parents and I are going to The Keg. They were too exhausted to go last night, and I was working tonight, so it's happening tomorrow night. But, hey, if I were to travel through time, would tomorrow night become tonight? Or is living and "moving" through spacetime considered time travel, ergo all tomorrow nights are destined to become tonights, and, therefore, are tonights? I wonder what percentage of Americans spell it "tonite" in casual writing. I wonder what percentage of people generally spell it "2nite" in online chat/forum senarios. Things to ponder.

The Lost Hour (Perdus)

It's Sunday evening. I have to go pick up my parents in about an hour. Or, rather, their flight gets in in about an hour. I'll leave in maybe 50 minutes. It takes remarkably little time to get to the airport from my place, and it'll take people a couple of minutes for my parents to get off the plane, so I don't want to get there right at 7:30. Parking at their rendez-vous area costs $1/10 minutes, with a maximum of 20 minutes, and the damned meters only take loonie and toonies. >-(

Man, I'm tired. Work was, for once, difficult. There was this mix-up as I was working on backup cash, and it wasn't really anybody's fault, but a salesman got yelled at by a waiting customer and lost the sale because I was told that I needed the salesman to call for authorisation for this credit card payment for another of his customers. I'd say it was the fault of the person who told me that, but I like her. ^_^ But, you know, that is one of the more annoying things that I've heard of lately, is credit cards that have a lower purchase limit than they do credit limit. I mean, I understand how someone with a $20'000 limit on their credit card might want to limit the extend of any possible fraud, but if you have sit on the phone going through those "For blahblahblah, press one. For blehblehbleh, press two" menus enough times, it gets pretty tiresome. I think I'm gonna go find that website that was on the news a couple of weeks ago, the one that tells you the fastest way to get to a real person through any automated menu, and then post that in all the little black cashier binders next the credit card company numbers.

And don't even get me started on the guy who wanted to order a CD over the phone by catalogue number and then decided that the 0 at the beginning of the catalogue number was irrelevant. He spent nearly 10 minutes lecturing me on how Kripa was better than I was at finding stuff. He's a regular customer, too, so I couldn't even be just stiff enough to him to make him not come back. Bah.

I have run out of dog biscuits, and I think my dog's finally realized that I've hidden his treat ball. He was wandering around looking vaugely distressed earlier, like he knew that a part of his soul was missing, but he couldn't remember which part or where it might be. I'm sure he'll have a heart attack or an aneurism or something when my parents get home. Or, well, more relistically, he'll do that thing where he jumps too high and too enthusiastically on his hind legs and then lands the wrong way on the tile, therefore slipping and falling on his back. It's actually kind of funny if you forget how messed up his back actually is. ^_^

I'm assuming that my parents will want to go out for dinner, having just sat on a plane from Vancouver, which, of course, does not serve food. Peter brought this up, and I can't figure it out, either: Why would a flight route from Itlay to Edmonton get to Vancouver before here? Anyways, I'm trying not to eat so that I can go out with my parents, but I'm rather hungry. So I had some pineapple tidbits and a scone, and hopefully I'll still be able to eat a full meal later. My parents prefer full meals. They're like that... Anyway, I'm gonna suggest that we go to the Keg. ^_^ It's actually even on the way home from the airport, now that they have one in South Common. ^_^

Woah. That's a lot of anime-inspired smiley faces...

(See, I like to leave off blog posts with something light and final-feeling like that, but, the truth is, I still have half an hour before I'm going to leave, and I don't know what else to do. And now I've written myself into a corner where I can't even blog. Damn.)

(Ohohoh! I know!! I'll go for coffee on my way out. That way I can leave five minutes sooner, be awake when I greet my parents _and_ have something in my rumbly stomache! Man, I'm good.)

Point Form Update

1. Thanks to everybody who RSVPed about July 2nd.

2. Went over to Jenilee's house last night with a dozen donuts. I was assuming her brother was there, but he wasn't, so I ate three myself and came home with five. I can feel my arteries clogging. I'm gonna try bringing the rest over to Peter's today.

3. My grandmother had a heart attack. Wow, I just realized that I found this out and then wanted donuts. Creepy. Anyway, she's alive, getting stronger and now officially has a room at a real hospital for the rest of her life, instead of the nursing home-esque hospital that she was at before. My mom and my aunts are going to see my grandparents in waves over the next few weeks. I was asked to come, but I have work that I really can't afford to miss.

4. In absense of my parents, my dog's life has simplified down to the point where he only has two thoughts that alternate: "Breathe. Treat Ball. Breathe. Treat Ball." It's actually getting really annoying, so I'm gonna try keeping the treat ball out of sight, out of mind for the next while and see how that goes.

5. My parents get back in two days. Yeah, I haven't done the gardening. It really has been raining almost non-stop around here. Jenilee offered to come over in a rain jacket and help today, but I really don't know where she gets her priorities. ;-p Oh, well. I'm fully prepared for my mother to beat me within an inch of my life and kick me out onto the street for this, so I should be all right.

If bad things happen in threes, I'm gonna have to keep an eye on my dog. RIP Iggy, The Flash. :-(

Wanton Gathering

After much conferring, I can now procalim that our "reunion dinner" will take place on Sunday, July 2nd! I will be sending out e-mails in a moment. Unfortunately, though, I don't have e-mails for Courtney or Jeremy. Unless Jeremy's still using that kts_chops one, but I don't know... Then again, I don't know if he's even in town... Regardless, anybody with a current e-mail address for either of those people, could you please send it my way?

On a side note, I have (finally) added Angela's blog to my links list. I don't know why I didn't do that before. I also changed the Tinuviel Henneth link back to her Xanga, which is the one that she's actually using.

Now for little random things: I have just eaten an enormous quantity of cherries. First bag of the summer. Mmmmm. :-) "Rob" has been mowing my lawn for the past hour and a half, about. He left it for so long after the last time that the grass had grown higher than the deck, so it's taking quite a while for them to cut it. I have locked my dog inside. Peter and I's celebration of our two and a half year anniversary last night went very well. ^_^ I bought a pretty new dress to wear, one that was strapless, and so, of course, it rained. Oh, well. I also bought a jean jacket, so I wore that. I had been looking at that jean jacket for a while, and it was finally down to about half price, so I gave in and bought it. ^_^ I don't work at all this week except for tomorrow evening. That means less money made, but it also means a break from work, which, as I believe I've mentioned, has kind of eaten up my whole life for the past little while. Maybe I'll reread the sixth Harry Potter book. I've only read it once...

MorPRi

So Morgan and Pri have decided to become known by one name. And one blog. *points to new link at right* This simplifies things greatly, since now we can eliminate those two pesky syllables, "gan and" from the phrase "Morgan and Pri." Stupid "gan and."

Elsewise, I am still alive. Tonight at work was boring. I read about 100 pages of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Survivor. Go read it. The Prayer for a Parking Space just cracks me up. Tomorrow I get to work reception all day. Not as boring as it could be, since it'll be Saturday, so there will actually be people around, but still. I feel like I should go to some bar, get ridiculously drunk and have a one-night stand with somebody to make up for the fact that I have had very little of a life lately. I don't think that's such a good idea, though. Maybe I can get moderately tipsy and spend the night with my long-term boyfirend instead. ^_^ Monday will be our two and a half year anniversary. :-) We're gonna go to Wild Tangerine.

For now, though, I should go to bed. My dog agrees with me whole-heartedly, it seems.