Victoria, etc.

So I got back home at 8:30 this evening and I haven't stopped moving since. Well, I guess I've kind of stopped moving now, since I'm in my pjs and in bed, but, even now, I was just paying my Confirmation Deposit for the coming school year, so that's still doing something.

Victoria was quite nice. We stayed at this "B&B," which was really just a cozy house we rented. It had yummy fruit-flavoured teas. I couldn't resist, and wrote in the back of the guest book "I sat and am forever at work here." Thank you, Joyce, for checking the line for me. I just wrote it out plainly, though, rather than starting with "Satanic forces are at work here."

The wedding was good. It was a cold-ish day, so a lot of people in their beach wear were kind of chilly, a fact which wasn't soothed by the wind coming off the ocean. My dad didn't wear what Lindsay asked him to, but, thankfully, that went all right. Peter looked awesome in his Value Village tacky blue palm-tree-themed Hawaiian shirt. ^_^ Lindsay and Treleana both wore white capris and pastel blouses (well, technically, Treleana wore tunic), and Lindsay giggled a few times during the ceremony. I got lots of good pictures, and so did a lot of other people. My brother collected most of them onto his computer and is going to put them onto a CD for us.

The food there was insane. There were less than thirty people at the wedding, but there were ten people staying at the house my sister and Treleana rented. A lavish trip to Costco in Victoria was made. Oh, yeah, by the way, I wasn't actually in Victoria--I was in Sooke, outside of Victoria, and the wedding was on French Beach. Lindsay and Treleana were staying about half a kilometre away from the beach, but I'm not sure if there is an actual town there or not...

Anyway, food was plentiful and then some. The fridge and cupboards in what is typically a vacation house were crammed to bursting. My dad trimmed meat and discussed marinades. Speaking of, if you ever want to try a really yummy shrimp marinade (and I don't tend to like shrimp), try this one: Trad with garlic and lime. Those of you not in the general Alberta area may have to substitute another beer, but it was really good. Anyways, lots of people were met during the trip, including people who, I guess, are now my brother- and sister-in-law, but whom I will probably never meet again, at least not until either Lindsay or Treleana dies. Knock on wood that that doesn't happen any time soon and such. Oh, that reminds me--we were each supposed to fill in a page of the guest book at the wedding, and my page included a stick figure drawing of Lindsay and Treleana (a really good one, if I do say so myself), which had an arrow pointing to it, beside which was written "happy and such." Yeah, I totally didn't know what to say... ^_^

We didn't really do much else except hang around the house where everyone else was staying. Oh, there was a trip into Langford to buy bathing suits so that we could go hot tubbing. It was about an hour from Lindsay's place, and it was the closest place that sold bathing suits. That said, it was a Winners, and selection was limited. I wound up with a slightly tacky red tankini. Chris wound up with shorts that didn't fit. Silly Chris, not trying them on. Bathing suit shopping requires trying on, no matter what. Regardless, it was reasonably cheap ($20 each for the suit and a pair of shorts), and I guess I needed a new bathing suit, anyways--the one I have I bought before my seventeenth birthday.

I have a list of things to pack, buy, organize, etc before I leave on Wednesday. And I'm glancing at my closet as I'm writing this and trying to tell myself that I do not need a dress. It will be winter in Uruguay, and a sundress will be rather useless. (Sidebar: When I called the bank this evening to tell them I was going abroad and to please not cancel my credit cards, the woman I was talking to tried to confirm the spelling of Uruguay as "Eregway." Seriously.) I guess I've been in summer too long up here in Canada. *sigh* I guess I'll miss most of the remainder of summer while I'm away. Oh, well. That just means that when I get back, I can go shopping fun fall clothes. I love fall clothes. The textures are wonderful...

Anyways, I should go to bed, seeing as how I have to be up in about eight hours to go to work. I considered finding someone to work for me, but the extra $60 dollars would be a nice little infusion. Then again, I did tell my mom that I had changed my mind about wanting a printer for my birthday and asked for cash instead, but... Bah. Maybe I'll see if I can leave early. I'm on cash, though, so "early" will probably be 5:15 instead of 6:00. Stupid only having once cashier at a time on weekdays...

But, yeah, just a (rather long) note to tell you guys what I've been up to. I haven't gotten a chance to read anybody else's blog, so if someone's died or gotten knocked up or had a bad night and woke up with an unusual and embarassing piercing, you'll have to e-mail me about it. I'm not sure if I'll be abke to update this thing before I leave on Wednesday, but, if not, I will try to update it often while I'm away. Oh, and I'm greatly looking forward to seeing you, Kaitlyn! You see, she has graciously agreed to allow Peter and I to stay at her place on Wednesday night so that we can make it to the Calgary airport for 5:15 Thursday morning. Hell, she's even agreed to drive us to the airport! You rock, Kaitlyn! ^_^

Needles

Peter's worrying about vaccines today. We don 't need any for any of the places we'll be, but his dad has been concerned, and so much phoning and fretting has been done. I'm remarkably blaze, but, then again, I have my Hep A and Hep B vaccinations, as well as Tetnis-Diptheria, or however that's spelled.

I'm currently waiting for my mom to call me back. She's out for a long lunch, and therefore cannot tell me whatever it is she needs to tell me before I take the dog to the kennel. We don't leave until... oh, hey, tomorrow. I totally thought today was Tuesday. Damn. I should hop-to with the laundry and the packing and whatnot. That was my plan for today, but then I had to take the dog to the kennel. Oh, well. That shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. I can't actually remember where the kennel is, but I know it's out past the airport. Hmmm. Call, mom, call!

I am looking forward to Victoria. I haven't been there in many moons. The prospect of pretty is happy-ifying. Not to mention wedding goodness. Or, at least, I'm hoping it will be goodness. My dad's wardrobe is still unaccounted for. Bah.

I thought last night would be my last shift at work until I got back from Uruguay, but I get to work next Tuesday, as well. On cash. *sigh* Oh, well. It's extra money, which I have no problem with, but it kind of cuts into whatever I might need to be doing two days before leaving.

What the hell is taking my mom so long?????

In other news... uh... Good Mormon boys don't know that herion isn't harmful. Wait. No. Alternate reality. Or, rather, hypothetical reality postulated at work last night. Silly soon-to-be-angrified Logistics Manager. I have to miss all of that.

And, of course, my mom doesn't even have her cell phone on. Bah.

It's Called a Headdesk, but I'm Using a Laptop

I'm at Peter's watching Hell's Kitchen. I'm sad to say that I haven't really been following this season very well. Two people are in Vegas checking out the restaurant that one of them will win. Well, one of the final five, anyway. Why do all of these people smoke? It's like they don't think that you need a sense of taste or smell to be a chef. Also, this season is much more Reality-TV-ish than the first one, and I am not impressed by that. The one guy just had a bit of a breakdown about his past as an abuser of some sort. The other guy was wearing his hard hat at a jaunty angle.

We are all manifestation of Ass. Peter therefore wishes to remove himself from being a relevant portion of humanity, lest he share Ass with certain people.

Also, nobody enunciates properly. ;-p

Ok, I think that I need to extend my "no watching the news while blogging" to "no watching TV while blogging." Possibly also "no talking to other people while blogging." I am upset at various things around me. Bah. Grrrrr!!!!!!!!! Stupid reality TV! Stupid other people talking while I'm thinking! GRRRRR!!!!!

~...

>_<

Ok, I'm done now. I hope.

Poor Black-Fured Farley :-(

Hot.

According to this morning's paper, yesterday was the hottest day in the city in 69 years. Today wsa only marginally less insane. I had to sleep at Peter's last night because my cousin and her fiance were staying in my room. Peter's place, as I'm sure most of you remember (or don't), is horrible with the heat. And the kicker? My cousin and her fiance slept outside, at least until six am, when the lightening started.

I work a cash shift tomorrow. I hate cash shifts. Then again, Mondays aren't that bad. But I'll be the only cashier, so there won't be anybody to shout questions at, like what to do with an unknown credit note, such as happened the other day, when I was covering Jasmine's bathroom break. Bah. Oh, well. Tomorrow and the next evening, and then no more working until late August. Hopefully. Oh, this is a story worth telling, even if I do come off kinda bad...:

So Saturday was Kripa's first day back at work in two months, what with her taking time off for Nuova and going to Montreal and stuff. She was on backup cash, so I was downstairs at the tills talking to her, which is a place I probably shouldn't have been, but we'd just opened and nobody was around and we had a whole bunch of software staff on that day, so I figured whatever. The main cashier was a girl who's dating the manager who writes the schedules, and they were also chatting, so when I mentioned my trip to Uruguay to Kripa, I also said "Brett remembers this, right?" over and over until he stopped to ask what I was talking about. I told him, for about the seventeenth time, about going to Uruguay, and he was like "What?? Really?!?" and walked off cursing rather loudly. He came back a couple of minutes later with paper, and double-checked that I was leaving on the 3rd, and so I could work on the first and second, and go back to working on the 27th, since I leave Montevideo on the 24th. He then left, and I said to Kripa that I was surprised that I let myself get roped into working on the first and second. She said she was surprised, too. I then thought about it a little more and realized that out flight leaves from Calgary at about 9am on the morning of the third, so if I have to work on the second, I'm probably going to wind up pawning off the shift. All because I felt bad that Brett has a bad memory. I really should have e-mailed him, but I've told him this repeatedly. *sigh* Silly me. *rolls eyes at self*

I started packing for moving today. My mom wants me to make my room all staged and whatnot before I go to Uruguay, so that she can sell the house, so most of the stuff from my storage closet that wasn't all ready in Ikea boxes is sitting on my floor in little category piles. I found a couple of cards that made me kind of sad: one birthday card from Joyce and Sarah, that Sarah had decorated, and one birthday card from Christie, which says that in another life we were "sister cats." *sniffle* Tuesday will be my laundry day before leaving for Victoria on Thursday. Wednesday, I'll have to be packing for Uruguay and Victoria. Thank goodness the two trips will require largely different wardrobes, what with it being winter in Uruguay. And, by "winter," I mean an average daytime high of 13 degrees celcius, which isn't really that bad at all, and is certainly not the heatwave we've got going here. You know, the last time I wrote about how hot it was on my blog, I got a comment from some random guy about how that was nothing. I wonder if I'll get another such comment this time. At least I can say that our winter weather beats the crap out of theirs in terms of extremeness. *defiant and proud smile* ^_^

Lastly, I saw Sean tonight for probably the last time before he heads out to Ohio. Man, he wasn't here long. Good luck and have fun and all that jazz, even though I'm pretty sure you don't read this blog!

Milestone

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear blo-og!
Happy birthday to you!

Summer Excellence

It is Friday night and I am at home by myself blogging. Oh, well. I worked tonight and will be working tomorrow morning, so I guess not being out is for the best. After tomorrow, I only have two shifts left before my time off starts. Then no more working until September! This is both good and bad. Good in that I get to travel and move and stuff, but bad in that I won't be making any money. Speaking of, I got paid today, but I'm not sure how much. Lots would be nice--I'll have to check on that.

I had a life last night, though! I went to the Nelly Furtado concert at Ed Fest, the new music festival that's going along with Capital Ex. I dislike that name. I mean, yeah, the klondike aspect of Klondike Days was outdated, but this new name is just awkward. In any case, I went with Jenilee. We got there just before six, which was when the doors opened. We had a really good spot (it was standing room only), but 45 minutes later, we moved out of the sun and into the shade, since the first act didn't start until seven. The first act sucked. It was this DJ from The Bounce radio station, Kwamei or something, and this guy called DJ Quake, who also works for The Bounce, but only as a mixer. There were a couple of dance groups, too, but I guess they'd planned the act without realizing that it was an all-ages show, so the dancers who were supposed to have their shirts off didn't and the DJ Quake guy kept having to stop songs because of profanity. Plus, I don't like hiphop music, which is what they were playing. >-p

The second act was better, but still not great. It was this Reggae-Rap type guy called Socrates. He was pretty cool, and he played the electric violin on some songs, which would have been great if the connections worked and we could hear it. But alas, things kinda flopped. He performed with Nelly Furtado, though, doing Timbaland's part in "Promiscuous" in the encore and backup vocals and bongos the rest of the time. I really liked Nelly's performance. There was a lot of stuff from her new albun, of course, but I liked it much more live (and I liked it just fine on the CD). She also did all the songs I was hoping she would do: Explode, Turn Out the Lights, etc. And there was a great amount of audience interaction. The crowd sang the first verse and chorus of I'm Like a Bird by themselves. ^_^ All in all, more than worth the $25 the ticket cost.

Elsewise, my life has been quiet. My aunt and uncle are here for a wedding tomorrow. My cousin and her fiance will be arriving tomorrow. I have been requested to stay the night at Peter's so that they can have my bed. I guess that means I should put clean sheets on it...

Lastly, just let me say that I *heart* summer fruit. Right now we have fresh nectarines, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and watermelon. Breakfast tomorrow will be glorious. :-)

Blah

It is Wednesday and I have had not much of a day. I should have done some more laundry, but I didn't. I only got three loads done on Monday, and while that sounds like a lot, they were small loads, because of requirements of certain garments being handled differently. Cloth is fickle.

My mom is out for dinner with friends of hers and my dad's out of town, so it's just me and my dog right now. My dog is sitting in between me and the door, with one eye on his treatball. *sigh*

I continued down the path of my merry little Firefly kick today. The subtitles are hilarious. I had them on because some of the slang is hard to catch, but even the subtitles get it wrong quite often. My favourite was when "gorrammit" became "you're a rabbit." ^_^ Another great part was in the "making of" featurette in the special features. Near the end, the actors were giving their opinion on what they thought their characters were. Ron Glass talked about how Book was the conscience of the ship, Jewel Staite talked about how Kaylee was the family element, and so on and so forth. Adam Baldwin, however, was much more concise: "Sex, muscle, humour, thuggery: Jayne."

I'm wondering if I should eat dinner. I've been pecking all day, kinda, so I'm not really hungry, but if I wind up going out, then I won't be able to eat and in a few hours I'll be all tired and headache-y and all those other things that keep my doctor worried that I have diabetes/anemia/thyroid problems/etc, despite having been tested multiple times for them. Stupid being sensitive to diet. Maybe I'll have some cereal.

Sunday Evening

Trying this again. I wrote a post this morning, but it didn't take. Not sure why. :-(

I saw Shelly and Edie this morning. I was quite surprised to see them in Andy's dining room on a Sunday morning, but I guess the Beat Beethoven walk had just ended. I can never remember which symphony they use for that one.

Joyce is back in town, now, so we went and had coffee. Surprisingly, we didn't talk about a certain boy and the "boundary issues" that developped when she was visiting him. Instead we just chatted and looked at pictures on her ridiculously nifty digital camera.

My mom wants to buy me a birthday present that I get to pick. I had decided on a 4-in-one printer with flatbed photocopier so that I can photocopy stuff out of my music books without paying 11 cents per page, but after having just used my DVD player, a new one of those would be pretty damn nice, too. The one I have was a gift from my parents, and I've always hated it. It does ten billion things that I don't need it to do and the remote doesn't work unless there are between 3 and 3.2 million dust motes on the tv screen, or, of course, unless you hit one of the 9.9 billion buttons that does something that I neither need nor understand, and therefore can't change back. But Comsumer Reports said it was good. Blind faith makes other people annoyed. Grrr.

I guess Darrien's is tonight. I didn't get the e-mail, though, so I'm not sure if I'm invited. ;-p silly Sean, assuming that sending it to Peter meant that I would hear about it. He got lucky this time, but next time I won't have a clue and Peter will be wondering why I haven't come picked him up to give him a ride. I can't think of an emoticon that fits with my narrowly equilibrated sarcastic bitterness.

So, yeah... I need to do laundry tomorrow. I have very few hours again this week. Although, I guess I worked all day yesterday and the day before, so my paycheque won't be that pitiful. Now is not a good time to be running out of money. Or, rather, running out of incoming money. Oh, damn, that's what I was going to get Peter to do today--make hotel reservations. I hope my passport comes soon. And my new driver's licence. Stupid piece-of-paper-not-useful-as-ID licence. I wonder if the people at Darrien's will care. Oh, well...

Tween Crap Makes Me Twitch

Nothing much has been up lately. I have been working for the past couple of days. Whoop-dee. But today is Sunday and I have the day off, so I'm enjoying it. :-) When I woke up this morning, I heard people laughing downstairs and eventually discovered that Shelly Edie were over. Shelly, at least, had just done the Beat Beethoven walk. Something about doing a walk in less time than one of his symphonies. The Pomp and Circumstance recordings I ordered at work finally came in, speaking of the ESO. I added them to the Symphony Under the Sky display. I guess we must've sold out in themidst of the graduation season that just passed.

Ooh, also, I have a band geek moment to share. Lindsey Coulter ordered some CDs for herself, and when I saw them, I ordered myself a copy of most (I all ready owned the equivalent of one), and ordered a copy of each for the store. Two CDs of Grainger, one orchestral, one wind ensemble, one Holst of the Suites, and one Whitacre, which, despite not being a huge fan of, I decided I should probably get my hands on while I could do so easily. And then Lindsey and I had a mutual band geek moment while she made this girl Allia listen to Second Suite so that she could prove that classical saxophone doesn't sound "Can I Borrow a Feeling?" cheesey. We were even motioning the bass drum strikes at one point. ^_^ Allia laughed at us.

In other news, Joyce is back in town! Yay!! I talked to her this morning, and we're gonna have dinner, which means I won't make it to Darriens, probably, unless she wants to come, but, I gotta say, the girlfriend chat session about certain boy is much more pressing. ^_^

Oh, my God! There's a Bratz TV show! That is so, so wrong!

Fourth Time

Birthday went well. I went downstairs to make myself toast after writing that post yesterday, and I discovered that a mouse had destroyed the loaf of bread on the counter. Dammit. I went upstairs to wake Peter up and tell him this, and since that's not a pleasant thing to wake up to, I offered to make him coffee. I went downstairs and opened the fridge to see how much milk we had (lots, thankfully), and right there in front of me was a package of blueberries! It was like devine intervention, telling me to have blueberry pancakes instead of toast. I was only too happy to oblige. And they were extra tasty, too, because I put butter in the pan sot they wouldn't stick (Peter has neither non-stick pans nor Pam spray), and so they were all yummily butter-fried and fluffy. Mmm. :-)

I went shopping yesterday, partly to go to American Eagle and buy myself this nifty t-shirt that has this assortment of quasi-stage band instruments and says "Music Happens" on the back, but mostly to find Peter a birthday present already. I bought him Donkey Konga, since we don't own that, and the guy at EB told me that it had been the game of the day yesterday, which meant I could have gotten the game _and_ the bongos for $10. I was rather frustrated at my tardiness. >-( Afterwards, I was wandering through Kingsway and popped into Coles. I was looking at the magazine rack when this guy behind me made a comment about my tattoo, which was exposed, since I was wearing a tank top. I turned around. The guy was about 40, and was standing in front of the self-help section of the wellbeing section (as opposed to, say, the diet section--it's a big area, wellbeing). I kept my replies awkwardly polite and brief, but they guy just kept going, eventually leading to the suggestion that I should get a tattoo of a cross piercing a heart. If I believed in what each symbolized, he added. I couldn't believe it. I'd actually been hit on by a middle-aged guy hanging out in the self-help section of a book store. It was when I was looking for a way out, though, that I came across the second gift I wound up getting for Peter: Chicken Soup for the Latter Day Saint's Soul. Yay, Mormons! I picked it up and booked it outta there. Peter found the book rather amusing. ^_^

*sigh* You know what? After reading Angela's blog, I have decided that what the world needs is an honest love letter. Not the timid I-have-a-crush-on-you kind, and not the my-darling-I-will-love-you-forever kind, but an actual honest I-want-a-relationship-with-you one. Kind of like the following:

Dear [recipient],

I have passed up [#] opportunities to do activities I actually find enjoyable to spend time with you. I have passed up [#] opportunites to flirt with other people because of you. [#] of the [#] friends I have polled think you're hot. I have whacked off [#] of times while thinking about you. And now I would like a return on my investment.

Sincerely,
-[sender]

Not to be mean or anything. I mean, obviously people who actually bother to write a love letter aren't just looking for whatever good comes their way without effort. It's just that, if people like Angela's older paramour can get away with having an emotional relationships because of a lack of physicality while he's tied to someone else, I figure that specific evidence of wanting a physical relationship means that there are actual events (with the request of more) that someone won't mind being held accountable for, which is a much more concrete commitment than fluffy words of subjective emotion.

My dog is sleeping on the back of the sofa, because that's where my dad's comfy "old man" shirt is, and he's having some trouble not falling off. It's ridiculously amusing. ^_^

Post 220

Today is my birthday, but right now my eyes are really dry from sleeping with my contact lenses in them, so I'm postponing the par-tay-age until I can see properly. And Peter wakes up. And, you know, I have breakfast and get dressed and that kind of stuff. Mmmm, breakfast sounds good. If I were at home, I might make myself some blueberry pancakes, seeing as how there are delicious, delicious blueberries in our fridge. But, unfortunately, I don't think there's fruit here, so I'l probably just have toast. Oh, well. At least that's something healthy to be eating after going to Jack's Grill last night. I had the creme brulee for dessert, and I know better than to eat the sugar on top, but I started out doing so, anyway, and by the time I was was one third of the way through the dessert, my stomach was seriously ticked off. Ah, such a cruel irony: sweet is my favourite indulgence, but I can't eat much of it without feeling rather bad. :-(

Peter got a decanter from his dad that has this little funnel thing that essentially causes the wine to pour in these fine little streams, kind of like a shower head, against the inside of the decanter so that there's more surface area and, therefore, better oxygenation. The waiter noticed it and told us he loved that decanter, and suggested we use it. He cleaned it for us and everything, which was nice, but I found the whole process rather uncomfortable. Dave tried to arrange a blind taste test to see whether Peter could tell the difference between the decanted wine and the non-decanted wine, and, in the back of my head were all these contradictory objections about things like the wine being from two different bottles, so of course the glasses will taste different, even though the wine was a reasonably young Sirah (so there's negligeable difference between bottles). But, at the same time, I had a hard time believing that the decanter wasn't just a gimmick, especially after the waiter told us that it made a bottle of Little Penguin taste actually pretty darn good. Mostly, though, Peter enjoyed the shtick, which is always amusing to watch, and was vauguely concerned that the waiter was displeased by the fact that he wasn't sure he could taste a difference, to which I give a general grimace.

I went to West Ed to come up with a birthday present for Peter yesterday, and while I got a couple of ideas (though I'm not going to get him the "Things You Need to Know About Chuck Norris" t-shirt), I actually wound up spending a lot of money on myself. ^_^ I was looking around Jacob, not expecting to find anything, but I wound up walking out with three tops and a skirt, all of which are very pretty and the total price of which came to what the skirt alone cost at regular price ($80). And I also decided that I have to go poke around the American Eagle in Southgate, because the West Ed one is renovating, but has a temporary location that's very small and cramped, so I couldn't get around easily, but I still found stuff I wanted to consider further. I should go to that store less--I like their stuff too much and wind up spending money that I maybe shouldn't. Oh, well. ^_^

Hmmm... More rambling or making toast? Hmmm... I decide on coffee. (And toast.) :-)

Listy-List

1. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers are coming to town in September and I totally didn't hear about it in time to get tickets! Wah!! This is what I get for not listening to the radio... What's almost worse is that I found out about this via the screen name of this guy I have on my MSN list that I went to high school with. He was asking if anybody was up for going with him. Now, this guy is in serious need of something, probably orange juice and norepinephrine, but I was sooo tempted to send him a message saying I'd go with him when I realized tickets were sold out.

2. Shit, what was number two...? Hmm, well, I guess I'll just keep talking, then. I watched Serenity one and a half times at work last night. I *heart* that movie, and I was poking around online after I got home and discovered something highly amusing: The River/Jayne fans. Doug, I'm sure you at least will find that suitably disturbing. ;-)

3. My dog is a morning "person." I am not. However, our main shower is still not fixed, so my paretns both showered in my bathroom before working this morning. From my room, this sounds like a small rocket being launched. My dog was happy as, well, a poodle that I was awake. I was not. Boo, less than five hours' sleep.

4. I'm going to go look at paint colours today. It turns out that the builder for our new house doesn't use Behr paints, but rather Glidden, so I'm supposed to go find a Glidden colour that's the same as the Behr colour that I currently have in my room, which I love. I'm kind of thinking, though, that I should just get them to paint my room an off-white or something, and then paint it with the Behr paint myself before I move all of my stuff in. Did I mention that the poessesion date was pushed back 30 days? This means less panic in between Lindsay's wedding and leaving for Uruguay, but it also means, well, waiting an extra thirty days, plus I want to get things done before school starts on the 6th of September, which only gives me a week, and I know that *I* don't have much stuff to deal with, but my parents are old and feeble, so I'll have to deal with their stuff, too, and did I mention that we took a shelving until out of my dad's wine cellar the other day so that he could organize wine for the tasting party they're having before we move to get rid of some wine and it was a total disaster and we took a chunk out of the ceiling and there was lots of yelling and my mom hurt her back and man this is a long run-on sentence.

*inhale*

*exhale*

5. The cleaning service should be here soon. I was blogging to kill time while waiting for them, but I've run out of things that I could reasonably subject you to, and so I think I'll have to boot up the solitaire. Yay, mind-numbing!

ETA: Oh, oh! but, wait! I remember what number two was supposed to be! I went yesterday to get my driver's licence renewed so that it wouldn't expire tomorrow, and I figured that, as long as I was out looking pretty for the government, I would get my passport photo redone. And, guess what, it turns out that they did just want me to wear make-up! Now that they know I am capable of applying mascara, and that, therefore, I do in fact have eyes, I'm allowed to travel the world. But, I gotta say, I actually rather like my passport photo, even though I look vaguely... superior and annoyed, what with the no-smiling rule. Maybe that's just a good look for me. You can take the girl out of Alberta, but... ^_^ (Oh, wait, I'm still in Alberta. Oh, well.)

Cookies!

So I walked into the kitchen looking for a snack tonight and made the unfortunate realization of exactly what I wanted: a cookie. We had digestive cookies, but I wanted a cookie with chocolate chips and nuts and all that good stuff. This lead inexorably to me making cookies. So now I'm baking dozen number four of five. They're tasty though; I used milk chocolate chips, Reese's chips and walnuts pieces. *drool*

Onto dozen five. See, the one problem I have with this is that I can't take the cookies to school tomorrow and get other people to eat them. So I'm trying to think of people to give some to. I've got a dozen set aside for Peter's mom, but that's about it. Peter and Dave probably don't think that a dozen cookies is quite the best thing for Andy, since he's trying to lose weight. I'll still bring some over there, but I won't present any specifically to him. Hmmm... maybe if Sheryl is around tomorrow... Joyce is out of town--I often subject her to the results of my cooking whims. Jenilee would be a good person to give some to, but I don't know when I'd be able to see her. I'll call tomorrow and see if she's got the day off. Let's see, that's... four dozen, potentially. Good enough. I've already eaten three of them, so there won't be too many left to hang around and tempt people who shouldn't be so much with the cookies...

In other news, Peter's birthday dinner is tomorrow night. Hopefully. It hasn't been booked yet, but I'm assuming it won't be a problem. And, oh my god, a golden retriever is running for governor of Alaska. I totally want one of his t-shirts. (Why can I never stick to my no-watching-the-news-while-blogging tule???)

Anyway, as I was saying, my cookie binge (I'm up to four, now) gets to be followed up by a nice, big, rich, gourmet meal. I think I'll fast for a couple of days after that... ^_^

Happy Birthday, Peter!

Today is Peter's 24th birthday. He's celebrating by playing World of Warcraft. ^_^ I haven't gotten him a gift yet, though. *embarassed* But I figure the Migrane from Hell is a reasonable enough excuse to be a coupld days late. I didn't get to work yesterday. Instead, I woke up late and freaked out because I kept slipping back asleep unwillingly. Just for a second or two at a time, but the kind of sleep where you're not tired but sleep anyways is rather unpleasant, and I was not happy to have little bursts of it attack me at random.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the pharmacy and picked up some perscriptions and self-medicating substances (read: gummy worms). I then took enough pills to kill a house cat, some perscrition, some not, some related to my migrane, some not (bonus points if anybody can post an accurate Venn Diagram to represent what I just said). I topped it all off with gummy worms, a Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese and a Diet Coke. The half a Gravol I threw in the mix didn't do anything other than make me even more drowsy than I should have realized I'd get, and so halfway through my Ikea walk (exercise and furniture pre-shopping, all in one), I thought I was going to die.

I went home and slept for an hour an a half, breaking my own rule from earlier in the day when I was freaking out. Miraculously, when I woke up, my migrane was gone. And it has stayed gone! My stomach felt like it had been given forty bamboo lashes, though, so I wound up having a bagel and ginger ale for dinner, but things turned out ok. I even made it to work today. And even though I was on cash, it was a good day. I was next to the wall of TVs, so I got to watch the World Cup. I-TA-LIA! I-TA-LIA!

(etc...)

Ugh...

This is day three of the weirdest and most annoying migrane I have ever had. It doesn't hurt, but the sand-like "swishing" sounds in my head are about to drive me crazy, and I'm rather incapacitated. I worked tonight for the first time since Monday, and, even though it was a quiet four-hour reception shift, I was having a hard time. I've tried controlling it with medication, diet and exercise, but no luck so far. I've decided that if it's still around tomorrow, I'll call in sick to work. I checked the schedule, and we've got enough people working tomorrow that I won't be terribly missed. It's not pleasant being sensitive to light, sound and motion when working in a record store. Even though my head doesn't actually hurt, I'm having a hard time "seeing straight," ie, focusing my vision so that I can tell what the hell is in front of me. And I'm having an equally hard time thinking straight.

I'm at Peter's, and Andy just walked in wearing jeans and a slmost-too-small plad (flannel?) shirt. I told him he either needed an axe or some paper towels. He didn't get the Simpsons joke, and claims that he's dressed the way he is because he was in Calgary today. You Stampede people. ;-p

Peter's doing a World of Warcraft Molten Core raid right now, and it's very weird. He's on TeamSpeak, or something similar, anyways, and I guess he's responsible for broadcasting which player has been cursed wiht being "The Bomb," which menas they're about to blow up, so every few seconds, he'll say a character's name. World of Warcraft characters have some weird names. I think my most oddly-named character is my gnome named Delbert, which was a randomly generated name, but some people take the naming thing to extremems. I don't know how many of you played Jade Empire (Dave bought it, along with an XBox, just before he started working at BioWare, because they made it), but you can either give your main character a stock name, like Gilded Jade or something Eastern-y like that, or you can make up your own name. Peter played a beefy guy and named him Stupendous Wang. Anyway, in the credits at the end of the game, you get the voice actors narrating as if they had played their characters live-action, and one of them (I think the guy who played Sky) comments that he doesn't like the names that players come up with for the characters, citing "Creamy Nougat" as an example. Well, some of the World of Warcraft names are just as bad, though less with the sexual innuendo, and Peter's saying them out-loud half-randomly. It's both amusing and odd...

I think I'll go zone out in front of the tv now. Stupid migrane...

*Melt*

It was freakin' hot again last night, and I therefore had a hard time getting to sleep. Staying asleep, however, was quite easy--I didn't get up until nearly 3 o'clock when a woman named Ruth called about our new house. I totally could've gone right back to sleep then, too, but I didn't. I hate sleeping past noon. It leaves me feeling groggy and it throws off my sleep pattern, which is why I'm blogging at midnight with no plans whatsoever of sleeping soon. Although I am in my pyjamas. Just in case.

Last night was good. I have cleansed my computer of the... stuff that Sean subjected it to. I'm glad I got to see people all together again so that I could actually be conscious to say goodbye when they left. ^_^ Kaitlyn's new car is gorgeous. As is Peter's mom's almost-new car. My mom came home today and announced that she was getting $50'000 from the sale of her parents' house, and I suggested she use it to buy me a new car. She said no. ^_^

I have gotten eight mosquito bites so far this year, and three of them are on my toes. This is quite annoying...

So I guess I actually have to go do stuff tomorrow. I need to get my passport photo retaken and dropped off. I need to get my driver's licence renewed before my birthday on Wednesday. I need to buy Peter a gift for his birthday on Sunday. Peter and I need to book a hotel for Uruguay. As nice as the hostel he was telling me about sounds, I don't think my mom would be too happy with that, and, really, we could split a hotel room for more or less exactly the same price. And even if it's not exactly the same price, it's still dirt cheap. I don't expect a hotel for the two of us to top $25 per night, or $12.50 each. I'm probably going to be asking for money for my birthday from my parents, but I don't really want to. Then again, I also have no idea what else I would ask for. Other than a new car. ^_^

I know what I could ask for! I could ask that nobody mention the words "birthday dinner." I don't want one, and the mention of one will probably cause some involuntary shouting while I try to suppress a panic attack and/or homicidal urges.

*five minutes later, once the above has run its course*

My laptop is warm and is not helping with the whole too-hot-too-sleep thing. Perhaps I should turn it off and watch a DVD.

Una Mass!

So I was at work tonight reading Real Simple magazine, and an article about this couple who are creative entertainers (in the dinner with friends sense) made me realzie that I am a glutton for punishment. And then I came home and found Angela's e-mail about needing a way in which to see Jo off, and I felt validated. ^_^

In any case, I suggest that we do a BBQ. Simple BBQ. Like, marinated meat and corn on the cob wrapped together in aluminum foil and stuck on the grill kind of simple. With nectaries, because I finally found some in season, and they make me happy. And if you really want, you can inject them with vodka, tequila or sambuca, though with a nectarine I really only reccomend vodka. ;-)

Jo's place would be good for this--they have a great backyard--but this would, of course, require that she and her family be ok with it. My place would be just as good. I know that I never suggest my place because it's out in suburbia, but Jo's place is pretty far away, too, so it's really about the same. In fact, I hereby volunteer my place for tomorrow night. Bring bugspray and please don't get my dog drunk. Oh, and, on that note, please BYOB. Peter can corral some of the stuff we bought last night, but most of the liquor we have at my place is the pricey stuff that we shouldn't be shooting, lest my dad kick me out of the house.

Kaitlyn, I know you're leaving tomorrow, but it would be great if you could make it. Call in sick to work or something. Really--when's the next time you're going to be able to see Jo?

Reply however you'd like. As long as you've gotten back to me by four o'clock tomorrow, it'll all be good. If you get back to me later, then I might ask you to stop at Safeway on your way over. ;-) I'm keeping my phone numbers, address and directions to my house off my blog--if you need any of those, check the e-mail I sent out, or contact me in some other way and I'll get them to you.

All right--I hope to see you guys tomorrow evening. Any time after six is fine. My dad will be out of town, and my mom's fine with the idea.

ETA: Only bring food you don't anticipate me having. I'll be buying beef and veggies (corn on the cob, as well, if I can find it) for grilling, as well as something dessert-related. If you feel bad about this, then feel free to chip in, but it's certainly not mandatory.

For Once, I Admit to Being 21

Wow. I tired asking Peter earlier today about what happened after I went to bed, but he couldn't remember. Then I came home and read Jo's blog and I suddenly don't feel so bad for how drunk I was. ^_^ What I can remember tells me that I had at *least* 11 ounces of hard liquor, plus the wine with dinner. I'm guesstimating, because I dind't measure either of the long island iced teas I had, but I'm pegging them at about 3 ounces each, and I can only remember three tequila shots, one of which I kinda stole from Joanne, I believe, and at least two of which were doubles.

I actually managed to get through last night/today with throwing up, unless I got up to vomit after going to bed and I just don't remember, but I doubt that, because I woke up without pyjamas on...

I'm glad I stayed away form the sambucca--the tequila was bad enough. I remember saying a couple of things last night that I wouldn't normally say (sorry if anything was awkward to the less inebriated people!), as well as comitting a few gropes while giggling on the front porch. Somebody was worried that the neighbours would call the cops. We weren't being that loud. I can't believe Joanne posted the e-mails we wrote Eric. Mine would have been more coherant, except people kept telling me to not use the backspace key. I wish Eric had been there to join in on the fun. ;-)

I'm glad that everybody seems to have gotten home all right. I was actually surprised when there wasn't anybody on the futon this morning. I woke up at about 4 am when Peter got up to go to the bathroom. I was still somewhat drunk, a little bit nauseated and I had a HUGE freakin' headache. But once I had Asprin, Gravol, some water and moved to the futon, I was fine. I woke up just after noon feeling reasonably peachy. Reasonably. I'm still dehydrated, though...

Part of me wants to say that, in retrospect, the trip to the liquor store was a bad idea, but a bigger part of me says that it totally wasn't. I had a ridiculous amount of fun last night. Thanks to everybody who helped out people who needed it. I'm sorry I was a bad hostess and went to bed before everybody started getting sick. Also, thanks to Andy for putting up with us and cleaning up the kitchen. Most importantly, though, thanks to God for inventing showers so that we may cleanse our hair of "cotton candy wine" vomit. Explanation: Peter and I were collapsed together in the downstairs bathroom, kind of laying down together with our heads in the hallway. We were talking to Angela, who was sitting in the doorway, smoking and observing Andy coming home. It was all going great until I heard Peter kind of gurgle and realized he'd essentially thrown up into my hair. ^_^ Andy came in at some point around that, but I was too busy shaking my hair out over the toilet to notice him. ^_^

Anyway, I should get ready for work, because, unlike Peter, I am actually capable of working today. Peter was still doing bad this afternoon. He'll be fine, though. I left him after he'd taken a Gravol with a bit of water and fallen asleep. But, yeah, I love you guys and had a great time last night. I wish more of you were around Edmonton more often.