Suburban Princess

I won! Oh, wait, maybe not.

2007-01-15T17:35:00.000-08:00

I got a call the other day from a place called Healthtek Enterprises (according to my call display) asking me to participate in a survey. The woman I spoke to wasn't clear about what it was about, so I asked her to clarify, and she simply stated, "it's about products in your home that clarify the air and your environment." Um, okay, shoot.

After the five-question survey (that were not at all the type of questions I expected with regard to the topic,) the representative happily informed me that to thank me for participating, I would be entered into a draw to win a prize. They'd be calling me back if I won. I thought, "I'll probably be hearing back from them, then."

Sure enough, this afternoon I got another call:

Me: Hello?
HT: Hi, is this Rebecca?
Me: Yes it is.
HT: Rebecca, I'm calling from Healthtek and you participated in a phone survey for us the other day. Do you recall doing that?
Me: Yes, I think so.
HT: Well, I'm
calling to let you know that you have won our daily draw for your choice between
two prizes - an all-expenses paid weekend trip for two, or a set of high-quality
knives. Which would you like to choose?

By now this just smacks of some weird scheme, and I wanted out. But on the slim chance that it could be for real, and to see what would happen if I went along with it, I decided I'd go for the knives, (since I never did get any for Christmas.)

Me: Um, okay, I'll go for the knives.
HT: Okay, we'll send them right out to you. In the meantime, we'll have someone come and explain to you about our air-filter system and it's benefits.
Me: Hold on, someone's coming here to
do some kind of demonstration?
HT: Yes, that's how we get our business, is through word-of-mouth.
Me: Yeah, I don't think so. I just...
HT: Thank you - *click*
Me: ?!

So I'm guessing I don't get my knives then, you bastards??

I did a little preliminary research and found that not only do they apparently not have a website, but I found these comments on a message board:

HealthTek Enterprises is a legit company that is in the air purification business (check out the TSE). Yes, they have telemarketers calling at all times of the day, but what company doesn't these days??? If you take a 30 second survey your name is entered in a draw that will take place in September.
Then they call back to say you were chosen as the winner of either a portable BBQ, a set of steak knives (incl. the wood block) or a 3 night stay at one of 80 hotels located across Canada. Only catch is you need to sit through a 1 hour presentation when they deliver the prize you have chosen.
We didn't think 1 hour was too much time to spend, considering we will now be spending 3 nights at the Grand Okanagan Resort in Kelowna over the July long weekend, courtesy of HealthTek Ent. And we didn't even have to make a purchase. This is no different than sitting through a 1-1/2 hour timeshare presentation to get a free rental car while you're in Mexico.
Work the system - it gives you a few free perks here and there and makes life more exciting.

I did check the TSE, or TSX as it's better known, and there is no listing for this company at all. (I did find listings under "Vacuum systems - home sales.") My suspicion is that that particular post was by someone from the company itself, or someone who did not end up getting their trip in the end. What benefit does the company have to demonstrate their product to someone who does not buy, then pay for them to go on a weekend trip at a nice hotel?

The healthtek prize is your choice of a portable bbq, steak knoves, or hotel gift certificates. The catch is that they have to hand deliver the "prize" and demonstrate their "indoor air quality system." I don't know how legit this is, but I would check with the BBB before allowing them into your home.

Healthtek Enterprises NEVER gives away the trip - they always say they are OUT of trip packages - and offer the block of knives instead. My daughter lasted six hours as a telemarketer for this bogus company and they never paid her. They will try to sell you a $10,000 vaccuum with some slick salesperson.

Maybe they are legit, but their poor marketing "techniques" turned me right off. If your product is of any quality, there is no way you should have to be offering bogus vacations and crap prizes just to get yourself in people's houses to sit through a demo about your product. And you DEFINITELY don't offer someone a prize and then don't follow through because they don't want your product information!

If that's how you have to do it, I would question the validity and quality of your product.

So here's my "word-of-mouth" for them: Avoid this ridiculous company!

The man not in the mirror

2006-11-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

I read this article on cbc.ca (virutally the only place I get my news) and was fascinated by Francois Brunelle's project of photographing look-alikes. It took me a minute to realize that these were people who not only looked very much alike, but they are not even related!

The more I read, the more interesting I found the whole idea of this project. It was interesting to read his comments about how the look-alikes were toward each other during the photo shoot. Some were apprehensive and were not comfortable touching each other, where others seemed close:

In many cases, Brunelle has learned, look-alike men resist his invitation to touch one another: "These guys are two Parisians, so they know everything. The guy in back, when I asked him to be in close contact with the other man — who he already knew — he was really reluctant to do so. He put his hands the way they are in the shot. Some of his fingers were up in the air. I didn't say anything. I just shot the pictures as he was. After a while, I asked him, 'Why do you have your fingers up?' He said, 'Oh, oh, sorry!' And then he put them down.

And more interesting still, was his observation that many of the look-alikes did not think they looked much like their mirror-image.

...he says, 'you know, François, I don't think we look the same at all. Between friends, I have to tell you the truth.' Paul is the most visual person I know in the world. He couldn't see that he looked like the other guy. Coming from him, that was the best."

I enjoyed the photos so much that it almost made me wish I had a look-alike. (People used to tell me I looked like Shania Twain, but I think that ship has sailed. I haven't had that comment since before I had kids.)

Check out Francois' website on the project here.

Breast IS best - what side are you on?

2006-10-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

My opinion - brace yourself
At the risk of making myself seem really crunchy granola, I have been thinking a lot lately about breastfeeding and my true feelings about it. I am quite aware that this topic can be a touchy one, so if you have strong feelings one way or the other, you will either be nodding in agreement to this post or you might be pretty offended. But I'm laying my true opinion out now.

My neighbour (let's call her Neighbour #1) was telling me recently about another neighbour (#2) of ours who recently gave birth to a baby girl. #2 had told #1 that she had no intention of breastfeeding because it was "creepy." "Especially," she added, "because I'm having a girl. It's just too weird having a girl sucking on my boob." Um, okay.

First of all, major boob issues aside, no one can argue that breastmilk is far superior than formula feeding a newborn infant. Fact. But women still have the choice whether to breastfeed or not. Especially in our industrialized society where we don't have to worry about malnutrition or contaminated water or other basics that we take for granted.

So I was particularly irritated to read this article in last week's Georgia Strait magazine:

The Nestlé booth was abuzz with pregnant women and new parents at the Baby and Family Fair on September 16 and 17. The attraction was free Baby Einstein and Disney DVDs, free rice-cereal samples, free infant formula samples, and a send-away card for a free diaper bag, a baby-magazine subscription, and more formula. It was one of the juiciest giveaways at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre event.
Meanwhile, Douglas College’s perinatal program manager, Kathleen Lindstrom, was trying to entice the thousands of orb-bellied women to come to her breast-feeding workshop.
“I said, ‘Come find out how to save thousands of dollars a year and feed your baby free,’” Lindstrom recounted to the Georgia Straight. “But I couldn’t tear them away from the formula booths. I felt like getting on the loudspeaker and saying, ‘Do you not care about what’s going into your baby?’”

Read the rest of the story here.

I didn't realize how big of a breastfeeding advocate I was until I had my own children. I support a woman's right to "choose" how to feed her baby. Of course I do. But let me let you in on a little secret: I don't respect the ones who don't breastfeed.

Yup, I said it. When I hear the new mom say, "Oh, I tried it, but I just couldn't do it, so I quit at about three weeks." I'll nod compassionately, but inside my head I'm fuming. Why the hell didn't she stick it out longer? I know I'm not in her shoes, but for the love of god, how is feeding your baby formula better than breastfeeding? It's free, it's natural, and it's proven to be healthier and BETTER! Besides, doesn't the word "FORMULA" itself gross you out?

Excuses, Excuses
Some of the reasons parents give for not breastfeeding are:

1. Dad wants to be part of the feeding process/give mom a break during night feedings. Why? What for? How is giving a bath or changing a diaper or playtime any less important? Breastfeeding mothers are usually not working outside the home (especially not in Canada where they enjoy a year's maternity leave) so what benefit is it to both parents for mom to sleep while dad (who is likely working) wakes up to feed? Especially if sleep is the issue, there are safe ways to have your baby sleep in bed with you and you don't even have to be awake while your baby feeds in the middle of the night. (I LOVED co-sleeping, I never went through that "exhausted new parent" phase. People would say to Hubby and I, "You must be exhausted with a new baby!" and we'd look at each other, puzzled, and say no, we were pretty well-rested.)

2. Not enough milk. Not usually likely. I read a statistic somewhere that said only a small percentage of failed breastfeeding attempts are true lack of supply issues. If this is a concern, a lactation consultant or breastfeeding counsellor is the best person to ask. There are ways of telling if your baby is getting enough than looking at the number of ounces on the side of a bottle.

3. Uncomfortable with breastfeeding. I really have nothing to say to this. If you are so uncomfortable with your own body that you can't nourish your child - that's a whole other ball of wax. I am also annoyed when I hear about breastfeeding women who were asked to leave a mall or other public place. People seriously need to get over the sexualization of female breasts. There are discreet ways of feeding your baby without showing everyone some boob. I used to go to another room or the washroom to feed Devon when he was first born, but after a while I realized I was being stupid. And I fed him (and subsequently Camryn) in malls, in restaurants, friends' houses and wherever else I happened to be. I kept a blanket over my shoulder and usually no one ever noticed.

4. Too hard/tried it and it "didn't work out". This is the reason I have the least amount of sympathy or patience for. It often takes up to 6 weeks for mother and baby to establish a routine and learn how to do it. Sore, cracked nipples can be avoided if you are taught how to breastfeed properly. This is what breastfeeding counsellors and lactation consultants are for. Breastfeeding is NOT innate. It has to be learned, and it's worth learning.

5. Have to work/can't be with baby to feed. This is a very real situation for many families, especially in the States where maternity leave is only 6 weeks, or less if your job doesn't guarantee it. This is antoher area where I'm a little more understanding as well, but this is also where learning to use a good breastpump comes in handy. Many companies are supportive of allowing lactating mothers time to pump privately while at work, in order to keep a supply of breastmilk going for their babies.

Formula companies and marketing
And the formula companies and their marketing tactics - don't get me started! There are regulations on how formula companies can market formula, (see the actual document on the World Health Organization website here) but there are always infractions and companies pushing the boundaries. There are people who boycott Nestle because of their marketing tactics, particularly their marketing efforts in developing countries - they marketed formula to mothers of infants, but because of lack of funds to keep buying the product, and lack of clean water to mix the formula with, babies were actually being malnourished and starved!! Now this is no longer the case, as they have a stricter marketing policy in Third World countries now, but how does a coroporation justify marketing their product to these countries who obviously don't benefit from it?

Not to mention how in North America and industrialized areas they and other formula producers are offering free samples and toys, DVDs and other baby items just to get their product into your home. They know that if you have it in the house, there's the chance you might find it easier to give up on breastfeeding and never look back. I got so sick of getting mailouts and other crap sent to me when I signed up on pregnancy/parenting websites, entered contests in maternity stores (I hate Thyme Maternity!!) or went to baby-related events (although I never went to baby fairs.) Corporations have the money to bombard you, and they will, in the hopes that you will feed your child in a way that will benefit them.

It's not the milk, it's you!
Both sides of the breastfeeding/bottlefeeding debate have their "studies" to back up their reasoning, but this article today on cbc.ca caught my eye. I'm waiting to see what kind of furor this is going to create:

Breastfeeding is important for healthy growth and development but it does not help a child's intelligence, researchers say.

Breastfed children score higher on IQ tests, but the effect is likely because mothers who breastfeed tend to be more intelligent, better educated, wealthier and provide a more stimulating environment at home, the British team concluded.

I think it is an interesting conclusion to say the least, almost more potentially "offensive" than the original theory that it was the breastmilk itself that was contributing to the intelligence of the child, not the parent's parenting. Yikes. At least then there was no one to blame either way. I know that a lot of working parents can't make breastfeeding logistically work, and I think this is why the study came to this conclusion. And with all the perceived guilt and judgement that goes on between working and at-home parents, I'm sure this study will draw a few lines.

Now I'm not getting on my high horse about how I fed my children, (Devon was breastfed for 10 months, Camryn for 13 months,) or about the fact that I am fortunate enough to be able to stay home with my kids while Hubby works (I do it out of choice, and trust me, I'll be going back to work when they are in school all day!) All I'm saying is that I personally believe that babies deserve the best that their parents can give them, and I belive being fed a natural and healthy substance is BETTER than a chemically reproduced substitute. Not to mention that breastfeeding is an intimate and personal time between mother and child that makes such a difference in the parent-child bond.

Don't hate me
So there you have it - my REAL opinion. Keep in mind I'm not so militant that I condemn all mothers who don't breastfeed, I know that there are TRUE lack of supply issues, work situations, or situations where for the mother's own mental/emotional stability breastfeeding is not a good option. But I always wonder in the back of my head how things could have worked out if the parents had given it an honest and dedicated shot.

So...now you're either cheering me on or seething with fury at me. I understand (and I really mean it this time!) This is never going to be an issue where everyone will agree. I just had to get this opinion out (and what better place than my own blog?)

Fortunately for me, (and everyone who disagrees with me,) my kids are way past the breastfeeding stage and it's not a direct issue anymore. But heaven help my kids when they have babies!

Edited to add: If you are still reading (and still interested,) an article about breastfeeding in Canada and what the issues are came out in Today's Parent magazine. It had some very interesting information. You can read it here.

It's all about choices

2006-09-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

I've been surfing blogs and found The Grubby Halo. As I perused, I found this fantastic post about hotel porn. He could not have summed up my feelings on the subject more perfectly:

I came across this article on MSNBC.com yesterday: Conservative activists take aim at hotel porn.
"These are places that you take your family — these are respectable institutions," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. "Anything that brings porn into the mainstream is a concern. It just desensitizes people."
Basically these activists are pressuring the lodging industry to stop offering pay-per-view adult movies in hotels on the grounds that it may violate federal and state obscenity laws. I seriously doubt that it violates any laws as porn itself is not illegal and the whole thing is pay-per-view and voluntary to the end user. What it really boils down to is this group wants to impose their values on the rest of us, and that irks me. It's great that you don't like porn, but don't take choices away from other people who don't share your world-view. To make matters worse they're wasting the DOJ and FBI's time on this "investigation". I'm sure both departments have better things to do.

Read the rest here.

The comments on this post were interesting too, no matter what side of the argument you are on.

But I think the main reason I like this post is because it articulates my feelings on pretty much everything. Abortion, same sex-marriage, childcare/universal daycare, and tons of other issues. Why restrict people's choices because you don't agree with it?

I have the same view when it comes to this "universal daycare" bull-crap the Liberals were trying to shovel at us. Why should my tax dollars go toward paying for someone else's daycare costs when I choose to stay home with my kids, or hire a live-out nanny to care for my children? Why should I be financially penalized because Mr. and Ms. X decide to use daycare and don't feel they should have to bear that cost?

When the Conservatives came out with the $1200 annual childcare benefit, people squawked because "$100 a month doesn't go very far toward daycare costs." You're damn right it doesn't! That wasn't the point! You chose to have your kids, you can pay the costs! You are free, of course, to send it back, but I have yet to hear of anyone doing so. Everyone gets this money - even stay-at-home parents, and the money can be used as you see fit - put toward daycare, sports programs, preschool, or whatever your choice might be.

Besides, the last thing we need in this country is more unionized workers. What happens when the daycare workers (who will finally be making what they are worth, I concede,) decide they need more? What would a national daycare strike mean for families? For businesses where working parents are employed? For the economy? I just think this is an area where the government needs to stay out.

And so it is with many issues, this being just one. Choice, folks. You have it, whether you know it or not. Life isn't about the government taking care of you, the inherent structure of it precludes its ability to meet every individual's needs. If something's not working for you, do something about it, don't expect someone else to take care of it for you.

My feet are getting tired up here on this soapbox, so I'll step down now.

Please hold

2006-08-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

I'm on vacation again. Hubby is on Vancouver Island on business, and the kids and I are tagging along. Right now I'm sitting on his laptop in the dark in a hotel room in Nanaimo, BC while the kids are trying to sleep and Hub's out at the gym. I think Devon is out cold, but Camryn isn't giving up so easily.

Hubby is working all day every day, so we've been left to find things to do within walking distance since he has the car. Today we watched Treehouse (which is exciting to the kids because we don't have cable at home) at the hotel, then went across the street to the mall. We hit paydirt there because right in the mall there is a Canadian Military Museum, and we spent a good hour looking around in there, and still didn't even see everything.

They had tons of stuff, and since I've recently realized I have a deep interest in military/war history, I found it all very fascinating. I was explaining to Devon about what these people had to do for us to be able to have a free country, and I got a lump in my throat thinking of it all. Reading all the plaques on the wall, one of a young signalman who was lost aboard a huge military ship, the Hermes, really hit home for me. He was very young, but was awarded several medals. I also read an amazing story about the elderly veteran you see pictured on the Canadian ten-dollar bill. I saw the two old veterans who were minding the place in a different light when I left than when I came in. Of course they commented on how cute they thought Camryn was, playing peek-a-boo with them behind some of the artifacts. Figures.

We wandered around the mall for a while then came back to the hotel and had some lunch. The kids enjoyed more Treehouse while Mommy crashed and had a nap. Next thing I knew Devon was shaking me awake and said, "Can we go out now? TV is boring." So I got up and we walked over to the lake near the hotel.

Long Lake is literally a five-minute walk, especially since we found a path that comes off the sidewalk from the hotel. We found a little clearing right on the water and spent part of the afternoon playing there. The water was really clear and the kids had fun playing while I sat on the beach towels and painted my toenails (they were much overdue for a new shade!!)

We came back to the hotel and Daddy was back - and he wasn't hungry for dinner so we went out to Kelsey's for the second night in a row (at the kids' request, and I was too hungry to keep searching for somewhere else). I've decided that while last night's dinner was good, (The "Trio" - half a wrap with a soup and salad) their food overall sucks (tonight's was "balsamic chicken cavatappi - waaaay too sweet, although I liked the whole wheat pasta.) Then back to the hotel for a game of Junior Scrabble and then kids to bed.

Tomorrow we are going to take the bus downtown and check out the Old City Quarter, to check out the shops. There's a store called Lobelia's Lair that I want to check out, and possibly get my palm read, then if there's time when we get back we'll go to the lake again, this time to the part that has a better beach.

We're having a pretty good time so far. Devon keeps telling me that the hotel is "way better than our house." I have to agree, when you have housekeeping coming in everyday to clean up your slovenly ass!

I might be online again during the rest of our trip, but then again, maybe not. So I hope all the links I've provided in this post will interest you in the meantime!

Happy Canada Day!

2006-07-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Well I'm off to celebrate Canada today at a barbeque (is there really any other way to do it?). But here's a neat little tidbit I found on cbc.ca - Canadian music suggestions for your Canada Day celebration! I have to admit I only know about two-thirds of this list, but there were some interesting picks. Is this truly a sampling of what Canadian artists have to offer?

1. Wicked and Weird, Buck 65
Halifax’s Rich Terfry, a.k.a. Buck 65, is filed under hip hop in your local record store, but only because there’s no section for modern troubadours. Wicked and Weird is his Kerouac moment, a lament from the road lots travelled: “Don’t bother looking, you’ll never find me / I’m starting from scratch and leaving trouble behind me ...”

2. Dandelion, Boards of Canada
The electronic duo Boards of Canada isn’t actually homegrown (they’re Scottish), but they show much Canuck love. They’re named after the National Film Board of Canada and this woozy track features a sample of Saskatchewan native Leslie Nielsen, narrating a documentary on volcanoes.

3. All the Things I Wasn’t, Grapes of Wrath
It’s hard to conceive of another Canadian pop song as perfect as this folk ballad from the forgotten Kelowna, B.C., duo. All the Things I Wasn’t features a gorgeous verse and a richly harmonic chorus — and after its 2:17 running time, it begs to be replayed again and again and again.

4. Astounded, Bran Van 3000
Montreal beatsmith Jamie Di Salvio, leader of Bran Van’s 20-member alt-pop collective, spent years calling Curtis Mayfield, begging for a collaboration. By the time the soul-funk master agreed, he was too ill to record new music. Instead, Mayfield dug up an unused a capella track from his younger days. Those vocals became the centrepiece of Astounded — inarguably the greatest disco anthem of the young 21st century.

5. Steal My Sunshine, LEN
Members of the band Len. (CP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
“One-hit wonder” is a dubious compliment, so let’s try a different perspective: in 1999, LEN, a Toronto quartet that was called Canada’s answer to the Beastie Boys, caught lightning in a recording booth and cut Steal My Sunshine. It’s an absolute smash of a summer anthem, built on a head-nodding sample from former porn star Andrea True’s decadent More, More, More (1976).

6. Northern Touch, Rascalz featuring Kardinal Offishall, Choclair, Thrust and Checkmate
Many Canucks recall Maestro Fresh-Wes’s Let Your Backbone Slide as this country’s seminal hip hop hit, but 1998’s Northern Touch was the posse banger that proved our domestic rap game’s growing maturity. Homegrown hip hop has been a serious business ever since.

7. Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right), Bjork
Full of ghostly voices and skittering beats, Who Is It is taken from Bjork’s 2004 album, Medulla. The Canadian connection? It features the otherworldly vocals of Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, a native of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

8. Promiscuous, Nelly Furtado
After years of producing anodyne up-with-people pop, Vancouver’s Nelly Furtado re-emerges as a savvy seductress. Featuring the inimitable beats and raunchy call-and-response of producer/rapper Timbaland, Promiscuous is hot and hedonistic.

9. Count Souvenirs, Junior Boys
Hamilton’s Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus create intricate electro-pop that gratifies both music snobs and simple fans of melody. This haunting track, from their upcoming second album, So This Is Goodbye, channels both the Pet Shop Boys and the Miami Vice soundtrack.

10. Pate Filo, Malajube
Malajube. Courtesy Outside Music
Montreal’s Malajube cultivate punk-pop that’s alternately thrashing and melodic, but never less than thrilling. This track opens like a music-box hymn before swelling into Arcade Fire-like drama.

11. Eyes of a Stranger, Payola$
Paul Hyde is no hipster icon, but this 1982 single, recorded with his then-band the Payola$, makes a case for retroactive cool. With its dub-like pulse, echoey guitars and generally paranoid mood, Eyes of a Stranger is eerie, foreboding — and eternal.

12. Slave, Michie Mee featuring Esthero
By 2000, Canada’s first lady of hip hop was perhaps better known as an actress (she had a prominent role on CBC-TV’s Drop the Beat) than rapper, but she reaffirmed her microphone control with this boombastic reimagining of the Rolling Stones’ Slave. Trip-hop chanteuse Esthero does good work on the hook, but make no mistake: this is Michie’s moment in the sun.

13. My Way, Sid Vicious
Paul Anka would surely prefer that we big up his Way — i.e., the original English-language version — but, well, it’s Sid freakin’ Vicious. The infamously inept Sex Pistols bassist was plunging towards rock bottom when he arrived in Paris to perform My Way for Julien Temple’s The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (1980); he wound up creating a premature eulogy for the death that he must have known was coming soon.

14. Underwhelmed, Sloan
For male Canadians of a certain age, Underwhelmed — the best song by the East Coast’s best band of the ’90s — is a cruel reminder of long moments passed in dark closets, struggling to solve the timeless challenge of the brassiere clasp: “She was underwhelmed / If that’s a word / I know it’s not / ’Cause I looked it up.” So of course we love it.

15. Gore Veil, Deadly Snakes
Toronto’s Deadly Snakes are a first-rate, bare-knuckles rock ’n’ roll band. Gore Veil — a play on Gore Vale Avenue, a charming sidestreet that borders downtown Toronto's Trinity Bellwoods Park — is the band’s most melodic pop song. It’s a minor departure from the Snakes’ standard fare, but a delightful addition to their canon. All together now: “Bap-ba-dap-ba, bap-ba-dap-ba...”

16. Dis-Moi, Mitsou
Although the Quebecois singer is best known for the frothy single Bye-Bye Mon Cowboy, this 1991 track captures Mitsou’s pouty, bad-girl allure. The beat sounds like it was factory-produced, but the chorus is dead sexy.

17. Work on You, MSTRKRFT
No doubt influenced by French disco mavens Daft Punk, this Toronto electronic duo releases its debut album, The Looks, later this month; this, the leadoff track, should augur lascivious dancing in finer clubs and rooftop patios.

18. All We Are, Kim Mitchell
Most of this Toronto native’s oeuvre is characterized by self-deprecating silliness and allusions to ale; what this song has, however, is gravitas. From the iconic opening synth line to the soaring chorus to Mitchell’s feverish guitar solo, All We Are was built to last.

19. One Evening, Feist
Even if you didn’t enjoy the ’70s — the era Calgary-born singer Leslie Feist seems most enamoured of — this slinky ode to the one-night stand is sure to burrow into your cortex.

20. A Case of You, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell (CP)
And to finish, an elegiac, patriotic tune from the Grand Dame of Canadian folk. The tone of the lyrics is enough to bring your hand to your heart: “On the back of a cartoon coaster / In the blue TV screen light / I drew a map of Canada / Oh Canada / And your face sketched on it twice.”

Getting connected

2006-06-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

I lost my cell phone about three weeks ago. The battery was dead, so I couldn't call it and see if I could hear it ringing. (Not that it would have made a difference.) So I have trudged through the last few weeks feeling slightly nude, even went to Sasquatch and back, and still no phone, no text messages, no phone camera.

Finally I called Telus yesterday and told them I had looked everywhere, and asked what my options were. The guy said I would have to buy a new phone at the non-discounted price, and there was a $35 fee to connect the new phone to my account. (Screw you, Telus!) He also offered to suspend my phone so no calls could be made or received from it, if anyone found it. Then I went to a Telus store to see what a new phone was going to cost me. After looking at the display, and finding one that had similar features as my last one, I found that it was going to cost nearly $200. I told the guy at the store I was going to take one last look, and if I still couldn't find it, I'd have to suck it up and just get a new one.

This morning we were on our way out to a parade, and Camryn insisted on bringing her doll. I pulled the doll stroller out of the garage and opened it up, and there was my phone in the bottom of the stroller basket.

I seriously nearly had tears in my eyes.

Friends - call me, text message me, leave me voicemails! I'm back!

My mail carrier can go directly to hell

2006-05-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

As I said in an earlier post, The Hub and I suspect that our mail carrier is slacking on the job. We've noticed in the past few months that we'll go days without getting anything in the mail, then we'll get a whole whack of stuff in one day. Very strange.

I checked our mailbox on Tuesday, and have been so busy this week I forgot to check the rest of the week. Hub said he checked this morning, and there was nothing. NOTHING in three days? Then he went and checked again around 5pm and there were a couple of things there. Hmmm.

Our mail carrier also doesn't show up at a regular time - when we first moved in, our mail usually arrived by 11am. Now it's freaking all over the place, sometimes 10am, sometimes never!

Note the dedication this mail carrier displays in getting the mail out. Something my mail carrier couldn't give a crap about, evidently.

As a sidenote, I'm super pissed now because I didn't get my freaking census form last week! I wanted to count myself in! I tried to call the Census to get a form or find out how I could be counted, but I haven't been able to get through. I can't help but think that my lazy-ass mail carrier is somehow responsible!

I'm now keeping a list of what arrives when, and I'm going to be noting postmarks on my mail and checking with my neighbours. She better get off her ass and start doing her job right, 'cuz Bex is on her tail! And she better hope she isn't delivering the mail when I show up at the mailbox with my shitkickers on and Chauncey Jackson at my side!

Death Cab, 2; Franz, 1

2006-04-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

So. The show the other night.

I really didn't prepare myself to enjoy Death Cab for Cutie that much. I had downloaded Death Cab's iTunes Originals and quite honestly found it boring. Franz Ferdinand, on the other hand, I was sort of excited to see, although I had been this close to downloading their album several times but just wasn't sure I'd like it (based on the sample tracks on iTunes) so I figured the show would help me decide once and for all.

So basically I went with very different opinions that those that I came out with.

We arrived when Death Cab was already on stage, and I was immediately surprised at how much they rock out. I kept thinking of Carly's statement about Jack Johnson last summer, that he "plays some pretty boring music." But I was immediately intrigued. I recognized the songs, but they sounded way better, and were played with more heart than what I remembered hearing on my computer at home.

I loved the set. Probably my favourite set of all time. A city lights backdrop with white trees, and two white houses (which halfway through the show I leaned to Carly and said, "I want to live in those houses." To which she responded, "I was just thinking the same thing! We could be neighbours!")

During the string of three songs that Carly mentioned, they played an extension of the ending to Crooked Teeth (I think?), and I turned to her at the end and said, "That was beautiful," and she showed me her hands, which were shaking. They were really good - even though I felt the ending was sort of drawn out too much.

So Death Cab for Cutie, 2 points after starting out with none.

Franz Ferdinand, however, divided Carly and I. Franz as a band weren't really compelling performers; but their music is high energy; so as Carly said, you could be fooled into thinking they are great performers because they have a lot to work with - they had great lighting and the music was good, but they just stand there, which reminded me of seeing Oasis last year. Between songs when they chatted up the crowd they seemed like nice guys, happy to be there, so that earned them points with me. And I felt there were moments where there was some energy, and I loved how the place erupted when they played "Take Me Out." (But it didn't compare to the rush of seeing the crowd go crazy at Audioslave when they busted out the Rage Against the Machine songs.)

Franz Ferdinand, one point just for being happy to be there and rocking out on "Take Me Out."

But Carly and I did agree on one thing: they butchered "Do You Want To". It just didn't have the "punch" that you would expect after hearing it at home or on the radio. I was disappointed. And after playing those two songs within the first five of the show, I couldn't call it anything other than blowing their load.

We did some people watching, as we decided to forgo our seats and just stood in the back, where we could enjoy the view. I saw the nerdiest looking kid, glasses, skinny, red-faced with a nerdy short haircut, wearing a shirt that said, "Playa" and I wanted to cry, because he so wasn't a playa. It actually made me sad for him! We also saw two of the guys from Hot Hot Heat, who I heard have moved here to Vancouver from Victoria. And we made fun of the gangs of kids who all come to the show together, buy the same concert t-shirt, and wear them while they walk around during the show! Dorks!

We ducked out of the show early since Franz had done all the songs we wanted to see, and went for food at Milestone's where we discussed "The Plan." Had some good laughs and of course the usual discussions and critiques. A fun night.

Diamonds are for losers

2006-04-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

Actually, my title is a little misleading. I like diamonds. (Canadian ones, not South African ones that people are slaving and fighting for and not getting any profit from while North American companies reap the benefit.) I actually would like to have a nice diamond, because I think they are beautiful, not because I want to show everyone that I am married, or to say, "Look what my man bought for me!"

So that's probably why, about two days ago while driving in my car I was really irked to hear a radio ad for Spence Diamonds, (nope, they don't get a link) whose ads have always bugged me, but this one really took the cake. Let me see if I can paraphrase:

"Psst. You. Yeah, you. I know what you're thinking, and you're right. Your girlfriend is paying for this ad because she wants you to know but she doesn't want to say it. She wants to get engaged. That's right, I said the "e" word - engaged! She knows that other guys are checking out her hand and they're happy when they don't see a diamond ring there. But she doesn't want them, she wants you. You know how wonderful she is, and it's time you showed her how much she means to you. She deserves it. So get her the diamond that proves it and make it official. She makes your world brighter, get her the diamond that makes her brighten up too..." blah, blah, blah. You get the idea.

But WOW!! Thanks, Spence, for clearly making almost every woman out there look like a complete ass. Because every woman is secretly plotting how to get her boyfriend to marry her and propose with a huge diamond, right? Because you can't be in a relationship without the pressure of marriage being the ultimate goal, right? Because that's the only way to do it and if he doesn't buy you a diamond, he doesn't truly love you, right? This ad isn't just an insult to women, it's an insult to normal, secure adult relationships!

Hearing the ad was timely because I'm currently reading The Meaning of Wife by Anne Kingston, where she talks about the role of the wife and how it is seen in society. (Yes, Janet, it's yours, and I will return it, just after I read it one last time!) Consider this:

While single women are carving out their own reality, improvising their lives, they are routinely targeted by marketing intended to inspire them to conform, to marry, and to spend. In effect, single women are being asked to buy into imagery that reduces them to marriage-hungry stereotypes not seen since the 1950s.

Kingston also writes:

De Beers also put a value on the future wife directly linked to her husband's earning potential. That arrived with its edict that an engagement ring should cost two months of her future husband's salary. The size of the diamond, went the marketing message, represented the depth of love, as illustrated in one De Beers ad: "You can't look at Jane and tell me she's not worth two months' salary. Just look at her. So I wanted to get her the biggest diamond I could afford. ONe that other men could see without getting too close."

The value of the ring was a flexible standard, however, based on what the market would bear. In Europe, men were asked to shell out the equivalent of one months' salary; in Japan, brides were assigned a higher price tag by De Beers as men were expected to spend three month's salary on their future wives.

I could go on. I strongly encourage everyone to read this book, it was thought-provoking and definately articulated some thoughts I have had about the role of the wife for a long time (for good and bad!)

Hubby and I did get a diamond ring when we were engaged, but we were so poor that we couldn't afford anything extravagant. I didn't care, I liked it more for the fact that it was a nice ring (and got a lot of compliments on its unique white and yellow gold design.)

I lost my engagement ring and wedding band when I was pregnant with Camryn and my fingers swelled up to the point where I couldn't get my rings off. I had them cut off at the jeweller's, and somehow lost them after that. He took his off when he started playing football and nearly lost a finger one day and never put it back on. So now neither of us wears a wedding band, because neither of us feels the need to show the world that we are married and in love by a piece of jewellery.

I'll end this rant with the statement that while I do appreciate a diamond, I will make it a point to not expect one from my husband - I can get one myself if I want it, because it is simply a piece of jewellery, not a statement about my availability, status, or relationship. And when I do get one, it will definitely not be from Spence Diamonds.

Some spring cleaning

2006-04-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

I have a stack of books and DVDs to return. If you see something of yours here, hold your pants on, they're a-comin'.

But first, here's my brief review of each item pictured here before it goes home to its rightful owner:

How to Master the Art of Selling: I don't know about this one, The Hub borrowed it and read it. He said it's pretty old-school selling techniques, but some good info.

Le Mariage - Diane Johnson: After enjoying Le Divorce, I just couldn't get into this one. I tried a couple of times, but I found it sort of boring. It's not a follow-up of Le Divorce, it actually has nothing to do with Le Divorce at all, except for the French/American relationship/romance element. I skipped ahead and read some of the later parts of the book, and it still didn't hook me.

I am David - Anne Holm: I bought this book on Amazon because my teacher read it to our class in grade 5, and I remembered snippets of it and wanted to read the entire story again. It was not nearly as good as I remembered. The writing was a little weak, although the story is meant for a younger audience. It's the story of a boy in a concentration camp who escapes and it follows his adventures on his way to find his mother.

The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin: I was really excited to read this book after all I'd heard about it, and given the fact that "Stepford Wives" is a phrase used to describe "perfect housewives." I was disappointed. Maybe I would have appreciated it a bit more in the 60's or 70's when women's lib was different than it is now, but I find the whole "men are out to get us" theme a bit fanatical. (I have not seen the movie.)

The Matrix Reloaded: Never watched it. I did enjoy the original Matrix movie when it came out in theatres, but I haven't seen any of the sequels. I've heard mixed reviews on them, but I just never bothered to watch this one that I've had for literally a year and a half. It's just been sitting on my shelf.

The Big Lebowski: Hubby and I heard so many good reviews of this movie, and we were looking forward to watching it. I did like it, but I wasn't bowled over. It was funny and entertaining, but not one of my favourite movies ever. It's about this loser who gets mixed up in a mob hit, and of course manages to work things out.

The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger- : This book is so popular, and gets great reviews, but I hated it! A girl who gets a job at a magazine as the self-absorbed, superbitch Editor-in-Chief's personal assistant has to deal with the boss from hell. Could have been funny, but wasn't. Kept wondering why she didn't just QUIT!! Hello?! Got annoying how all the other employees cowered in fear of this bitch. Didn't enjoy the book.

How to Be Good - Nick Hornby: This is one of the better books I've ever read. I loved it. Laughed out loud in a couple of parts, even. Hubby and I had to fight over it because we were reading it at the same time and couldn't put it down. It's about a woman who is in a lacklustre marriage, and in the process of deciding whether to split up, the concept of what "being good" means comes into play while her depressed husband makes some changes in his life, and hopes to change the world, with the help of his new best friend and guru, GoodNews. This book hads gotten mixed reviews and people often compare it poorly next to High Fidelity (which ironically I haven't managed to finish yet)and find it to be too sarcastic - which I think is what I liked about it. Deliciously nasty in some parts, very funny and enjoyable. I almost hate to return it.

The Stepford Wives and I am David are up for grabs. If you want it, you got it, just email me and let me know. Just make sure you give me your feedback after you read them.

Giggles at the Dollar Store

2006-04-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

I'm at the dollar store today and told the kids they could each pick a cheap toy. Camryn ran up to me with toy handcuffs and said, "Can I get these?" The old woman with the raspy voice and the smoker's cough beside me said, "Heh, heh! Maybe those would be good for Mommy?!" and started laughing her head off.

I couldn't help it, I laughed too.

You can't go home, the night is young, I'm blacking out, but it's been fun

2006-03-30T11:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, boys and girls, here's my review of the We are Scientists show last night. (Yes, that's a link to their site. Check it out. Seriously.)

As Carly said in her review, we were like giddy schoolgirls all the way downtown to the Red Room where the show was happening. Listening to the album on my iPod in the car, we debated whether the show would measure up to our expectations, and agreed that there was no way a band this good could fail. And to our utter delight, it became our Vance Hotel of shows!

I was the photographer for the night, and unfortunately didn't get many good shots. Pretty hard to get good photography when you're rocking out, I guess.

This was my first show in such a small venue, unless you count some band I couldn't even tell you the name of about 10 years ago at the Roxy. But I don't count that. This was so fun, and was just what I'd always imagined when I heard the words "intimate setting" to describe a show.

The guys in the band were charming, charismatic, and funny. And cute. I've always been a sucker for the lead singer types, (I did almost marry the lead singer of a band, although it was the lead singer of Precious Blood!) and this was no exception, because Keith Murray is a freakin' babe! Any guy that can throw the phrase "oh, snap!" into a conversation is special in my book. (After he said it, I turned around to Carly and said, "Did he just say, 'oh, snap'?" and she was already laughing and could only nod the affirmative.)

The music was just as we'd hoped. As Carly said at one point, "This is a three-piece band!" and seriously, you don't expect a sound that good from just three dorky looking guys! We heard every song on the album (and props to Carly who called the first song, "This Scene is Dead" when we were trying to guess which one they would open with beforehand.) They were truly awesome, they rocked, and they made for a great night.

Now how will we survive until the Sasquatch Fest in May??

The weekend I relaxed

2006-03-23T23:23:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to Harrison Hot Springs because Hubby's school diploma program has a "Spring Workshop" there where each group in each class presents their year-end project and there is an awards banquet and everything.

I didn't need to be there, but I took it as an opportunity to get some time to hang around the hotel by myself without any kids around. Well, wouldn't you know it, it was Spring Break and there were tons of families with kids around, goddammit! Annoying kids all over the hotel, annoying screaming kids in the hot springs pool (thank god for the 'adults only' area). I know I sound like a bitter kid-hater, but guess what - I AM! Love my own kids of course, but I have come to realize I have no patience for kids in general.

Anyway...

So we arrived on the Thursday night and ran into Dennis, a guy in Hubby's group, and Dennis said that his girlfriend Renee was there for the weekend too. So I met up with her and she and I walked around all the shops for a while. She and I were going to book facials at the spa, but the facials were $115, and I wasn't quite up for splurging that much. I didn't feel like getting a pedicure or manicure, so we gave up and went up to her room, drank and talked for hours. So of course, Hubby and Dennis were downstairs at this wine & cheese thing telling everyone Hubby's wife and Dennis' girlfriend were upstairs in bed together, drinking. Okay, so that's true, but it really wasn't anything exciting. Really.

Our room had two beds. Hubby said, "Hey, after we cuddle we can each stretch out in our own bed!" I said, "After we what?"

Friday morning I woke up and was almost afraid to look at the clock in fear that I'd slept away most of my big free day. Hubby had gotten up at 6am to go set up for his group's presentation. When I finally peeked at the clock, it was only 8am! I was so thrilled that I got up right away and got ready, threw some stuff in a bag and went downstairs for the buffet breakfast.

While I was waiting for a table, I struck up a conversation with a man sitting next to me. He told me he was from Portland, and that he and his wife came to Canada quite frequently on vacation. "Ever since 'nine-one-one,' we choose not to travel anywhere other than the Pacific Northwest. We went to Fiji once, but other than that, we avoid air travel." In my head, I'm thinking, "WTF? That was five years ago! Are you going to live your life in fear of airline travel because of that one event? Suppose terrorists strike on land without planes next time?" But before I could say anything else, I got called for my table, and of course food is more important than this guy's dissertation on the American paranoia of travel since 9/11, so off I went. But I kept an eye out for that guy during the rest of my stay because I wanted to find out more about why he would 'choose' that - and I was curious about what political leanings he had. (Oregon is a blue state, isn't it? Dex??)

It was truly one of the more glorious breakfasts I've ever had. I love breakfast - I'm just not usually up in time to enjoy it. Even the server I had was really jolly - you could hear him laughing all over the restaurant. I had the best-hashbrowns-ever. I had scrambled eggs, some egg on an english muffin thingy, some fruit, a bran muffin, some other egg with spinach thing, toast, juice, and I even went back for seconds.

Not the breakfast buffet I was at. Mine was much better than this photo.

While I ate, I cracked open a book I was reading for an online book club I'm in, the book was called "When the Emperor Was Divine" by Julie Otsuka, about a Japanese-American family and how they were treated during WWII after Pearl Harbour. It was not as good as I'd hoped, but still an okay read. Except for one part I didn't see coming and it wasn't the kind of scene I wanted to be reading when I was eating. I almost lost my appetite. (But not quite.)

After that I went down to one part of the lobby where there are tons of couches and thought I'd find a cozy spot to read my book. I scored a sweet spot right in front of a fireplace and sat there until 1 in the afternoon, when I finished my book. Hubby came out of a boardroom nearby and said he'd just finished his presentation, and said he felt like they had a fair chance at winning the presentation competition, which was heated between his group and the North Shore group. Hubby's group had won the previous year, so the pressure was on to repeat the win, but they felt they had some real competition from North Shore and New West groups. (I know this sounds dumb and lame but it comes into the story later.)

It had clouded over by the time I went for a stroll around town. In fact, when I first left the hotel, there was hail coming down!

By this time, the sunshine earlier in the morning had gone and it was cloudy and rainy. I decided to get my jacket anyway and went checking out the shops. I thought about asking Renee if she wanted to go with me, but I knew she was hoping to spend the day catching up on homework, and I couldn't remember her room number. So I poked around in the stores, and found some little souveniers for the kids. Camryn's was so cool, it's a lipstick and compact, but the lipstick is a pen and the compact has a little pad of paper in it. For Devon I found a Harrison Hot Springs magnet that had his name on it, spelled the same way - which I've never been able to find before! I almost bought myself the coolest handbag ever - there was a store going out of business, and in one corner there were some purses marked down.

I fell in love with this Nicole Miller leather purse with the vintage style silver clasp closure. The leather had a 1940s/50s photograph printed on it, of two women boarding a plane, waving at the camera. I just loved this purse, but the price said it was regularly $399, marked down to $230. The store owner saw me checking it out, and said, "If you're really interested in that bag, I could offer it to you for $200." I seriously considered it, but realized I would get my ass kicked if I came back with a $200 bag that I would probably not use very often. So I left it behind. *sniff*

I came back to the hotel and still had a couple of hours to kill before the banquet, so I got changed into my gym clothes and went to check out the hotel gym. As I was working out on the elliptical machine at the end, a cute guy came in and got onto the treadmill next to me. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, and although I didn't really take a good look at him, I could tell he was cute. Then Hubby appeared, disrupting my flow, and after saying hi to me, he also said hi to the guy next to me. I thought it must be someone from his class. But Hubs and I started talking about going to the pool for an hour, and he told me to bring some towels when I went up to the room to change. I said I'd just order some robes, and he said, "Just get towels, okay?" I again said I wanted robes instead, and he said jokingly, motioning to the guy on the treadmill, "This is my instructor next year - don't disobey me and embarrass me in front of him!"

So he's Hubby's instructor next year. Sweet.

So we went to the pool for a while (with robes) and hung out with a guy in Hubby's class, and they discussed who they thought would win the competition. They both thought the three groups were the most likely.

There was this annoying couple in the pool that were the Public Displays of Affection Couple. And not only that, but he was wearing a cowboy hat! And she was wearing a Corona beer bikini! Gawd! They spent the whole time snuggling and kissing in the middle of the pool, making the rest of us slightly ill and (almost) not want to eat dinner later.

PDA couple, the next day, sans cowboy hat. I was on the balcony of my room, taking a few shots of the view. Couldn't help myself.

We went up and got ready for the banquet, Hubby was ready early so he went downstairs to mingle. I got showered and dressed, putting on my new bra from Jacob with the removeable straps, since I was wearing a sheer top with a camisole attached underneath. I removed the straps from my bra and stuffed them in a shopping bag so I wouldn't lose them. Went out to the banquet downstairs.

The awards were being given out after dinner, so we got to enjoy a fabulous buffet first. Then they announced the awards. Second place - Hubby's group. Hubby's face registered some surprise, but okay. First place - a group that no one expected to win. Hubby, who was sitting at the table with his back to the rest of us, slowly turned around and with a shocked expression, mouthed the words, "What the hell?!" Everyone applauded as the group accepted the trophy and the Dom Perignon that went to the first place winners, but Hubby only got more and more agitated.

Who's the big loser in Harrison tonight?

As we started to laugh about Hubby's obvious disillusionment, he started joking around and saying things like, "Hey, remember who the second place team was in the 1988 Stanley Cup finals? Me neither." or, "Do you remember who finished second in the NBA Finals in 1995? I didn't think so." He had a good sense of humour about it, but the rest of us thought it was so funny that he was obviously bothered by their loss.

Dennis and I got to talking about books, and it turns out he is in a book club. They have been going for about three years, just started again after a six month hiatus, and they are going to meet next month. I happily accepted his invitation to join.

After that Hubs and I went up to the room to get changed. As I walked off the elevator, I looked at the credenza that was against the opposite wall, and saw some black straps sitting there. I went closer, and they were my bra straps that I'd removed and put into the shopping bag in the room! How they got there in the middle of the hotel hallway I have no idea! I'm still creeped out by that. We got changed and went to some guy's room and they started a poker game. I lost interest pretty much immediately and went back to my room and read in bed until I fell asleep.

The view of the pool from our room

There was an evergreen-covered mountain right behind the pool area, which was pretty to look out at. I couldn't fit it all within the frame of the camera. Ah, whatever.

The next morning we had to clean up the mess in our room and check out. Hubby was going golfing with someone from his class, and I was going to get the kids from my parents'. As I stood in line in the lobby to check out, I remembered I had something exciting to do - release a Bookcrossing book into the wild!

So after checking out, I put my stuff in my car that Hubby had brought to the front doors, and I went back inside to get a bagel at the Cafe to eat on my way out of town. I was sort of nervous! I planned it out so that I could make a quick escape without anyone chasing me down outside saying, "You forgot your book!" I put the book down on one of the tables while I waited for my bagel, and as soon as I paid for it, I booted out of there, got in my car and drove away! Hopefully someone finds it and passes it on!

And off I drove into the sunset. Okay, it wasn't really sunset, but that's how it felt after having such a nice relaxing time. And now, back to reality. (And this blog.)

Happy birthday to me (3 days ago)

2006-02-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

31 is fun

2006-02-13T10:15:00.000-08:00

(Look at this freakin' cake! Doesn't it look divine? It tasted even better than it looks!)

My day started by getting Devon ready for school so Hubby could drop him off. Somewhere in there I got a "Happy Birthday" phone call from Carly, all the way from Paris! Then I took Cams to ballet class.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, everyone! Tonight I'm going for dinner with sisters and cousins, so I'll post more pics later.

Birthday plans for Bex

2006-02-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

I have a busy little birthday weekend lined up. Tomorrow night my friend Rocket is coming to cook dinner for Hubs and me. He's going to cook us up some serious German schnitzel, so it should be good (and fattening.)

Sunday night we're having dinner at my mom's place, and my Grandma and cousin Shawna are visiting from Winnipeg, so they'll be there too. Mom is making my double-layered chocolate cake that I promised myself if I lost 10 pounds by my birthday (which I did!)

Monday night is my actual birthday - and the Hub is going to be at school, so my sisters and cousins and I are going out for dinner in Ab, as sort of a girls' night out. Hopefully more cake will be involved.

Then...back to the gym!

A Birthday Present!

2006-02-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

I went shopping with my friend Janet yesterday and we both loved these adorable flip-flops at Old Navy. So she bought them for me as a birthday present! Aren't they great? Thanks Janet!

God, I need a pedicure.

Happy Birthday Cuz!

2006-02-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

My cousin Joanne and I were born exactly one week apart. She and I were inseperable as kids, until her family moved to another province when we were five. She was always my favourite cousin, and it was so exciting when they came to visit, or when we went to their house. She was even the one who taught me how to wear a bra!

Anyway, over the years we lost touch, although I knew it wasn't forever. Then about two years ago I had to go to Calgary on a business trip and decided to look her up. She met me for a few drinks at a pub near my hotel, and we sat there chatting and catching up for nearly six hours! It was a great night, and I literally went to bed giddy! And we've managed to keep in touch ever since.

And today is her birthday! Happy birthday Jo! I love you lots!

Here we are as babies - aren't we adorable?

Circa 1977 - we even dressed the same!

Seriously, I'm not kidding!

At my fifth birthday party - *ahem* a week after hers!

Five Guilty Pleasures

2006-02-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

I've seen this one going around and I never got tagged and was feeling like the loser kid who gets picked last on the playground, and finally Toni came to my rescue and now I get to play. Yay for me!

1. Cartoons. I love watching the cartoons my kids watch. My favourites are Rolie Polie Olie, Backyardigans, Oswald, and I even like Go Diego Go (Diego is Dora the Explorer's cousin, and he has his own spinoff show now.) When Devon was little I used to love watching CBC Kids when Alyson and Michael were the hosts. Ah, those were the days. Now it's called Kids' CBC (thank you CBC for putting the apostrophe where it belongs!) and there is a different host for different regions. Ours is Kush, and she bugs me.

2. The Olympics. I love watching the Olympics, but by far my favourite part of the Olympics is watching the Opening Ceremonies, where each and every Olympic team walks in and is greeted with applause. It truly is one of the few times that all the countries come together. Okay, I'll admit it - I get teary watching it. Especially the less economically well-off countries who have two or three or even only one athlete, but they are so thrilled to be there. Ugh, I get choked up just thinking about it. And I like figuring out which country has the most hotties. (Helllooooo Romania!!)

3. Craigslist. I love reading Craigslist, and honestly have spent hours, sometimes almost all night reading the general shiz that people post there. It's way too much fun. And I've even applied for jobs on there before.

4. Swiss Chalet's Quarter Chicken Dinner. Sweet, succulent rotisserie chicken, savoury dipping sauce, roasted veggies and a caesar salad. Come to me, my lovlies. And when I'm not trying to lose weight, the soft chewy white dinner roll and mashed potatoes with gravy - sweet mother! And the day the Hub and I found out they delivered - Eek!

5. I have a weakness for paper partyware. I swear anytime I have people over or we plan a shindig, I go a little nuts with the paper napkins and matching paper plates. I have spent hours on websites like plumparty.com, Oriental Trading Company, or Birthday Express. For my kids' birthday parties, I go all out with the theme and make sure I have all the paperware matching. And anytime when I'm shopping and I see some I like, I just buy them. (Then they get stashed in a box and when I need them for guests, I can't find them.) But I gotta have them. Hubby thinks I'm an idiot, but there's some really nice seasonal paperware out there!

Thanks

2006-02-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the Urban Barn I now have new curtains in my living room.

Thanks to Carly for not being a bitch when I cancelled our plans we'd made to meet up for a drink last night. I rarely ever cancel, but I was tired and felt like being alone for a while, so ended up going to the movies by myself.

Thanks to Hubby for going to Swiss Chalet to get a Quarter Chicken Dinner for each of us.

Thanks to my friend Jen for introducing me to spinning classes (and now my ass hurts.)

Thanks to my newest writing client, for being so easy to work with, and for prompt payment too! (Unheard of!)

Thanks to Hubby for possibly securing another new client for me.

Thanks to all you wonderful people who have been reading my blog (yes, even you losers that never post comments! I know who you are!!) and being patient with me when I lag for a bit.

And because I'll be busy over the next few days...

2006-01-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last Alcoholic Drink: Wine wine to celebrate the election
Last Car Ride: Home from taking Devon to a tryout karate class.
Last Kiss: Hubby, last night.
Last Good Cry: After a scrap with Hub, I stormed out and sniffled myself to sleep on the couch. (Stop laughing!)
Last Library Book checked out: Some book that was so bad I can’t remember the name of it.
Last Movie Seen in Theatres: Brokeback Mountain.
Last Book Read: The New Speaking of Sex: What your kids need to know and when they need to know it, by Meg Hickling.
Last Movie Rented: Some stupid Jeff Foxworthy stand up that Hubby rented.
Last Cuss Word Uttered: Goddammit!
Last Beverage Drank: Water.
Last Food Consumed: Wendy’s taco salad.
Last Phone Call: Hubby, talking about negotiating his job terms tomorrow.
Last TV Show Watched: 21 Jumps, last night.
Last Time Showered: About four hours ago.
Last Shoes Worn: Black leather boots.
Last CD Played: Kasabian-Kasabian.
Last Item Bought: A super cool veggie chopper from Pampered Chef.
Last Download: Cash Machine – Hard Fi.
Last Annoyance: The mess in my kitchen.
Last Disappointment: Bad news about my Auntie.
Last Thing Written: A depressing blog entry.
Last Key Used: My car key.
Last Word Spoken: “Yes, I will fix your General Grievous – now go get in the bath!”
Last Sleep: 9am, just before going to the gym.
Last Sexual Fantasy: Surprisingly, Hubby.
Last Weird Encounter: Checking out another karate school and the lady there kept calling me “Mrs. V>>>>>” Even though I made a point of saying “Ms. V>>>>>.” Then I noticed all the students refer to people as "Ma'am" or "Sir." Not sure if I'm so cool with that.
Last Ice Cream Eaten: A spoonful of Strawberry – weeks ago.
Last Time Amused: Reading the the local paper where Hubby is quoted in an article about the NDP candidate running a "dirty," campaign with personal attacks on his opponents.
Last Time Wanting To Die (figuratively): When we were watching Devon’s tryout karate class tonight with a group of other parents and Camryn announced loudly that “Something is going on with my vagina!”
Last Time Hugged: Hubby, before going to bed.
Last Time Scolded: Hubby, telling me to get my act together and start doing laundry.
Last Chair Sat In: My desk chair.
Last bowel movement: I don’t.
Last Underwear Worn: Black g-string.
Last Shirt Worn: White PJ wifebeater with pink sequins in the shape of a heart.
Last Webpage Visited: cbc.ca

Bad news

2006-01-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

My auntie Rita has been suffering with breast cancer for a couple of years now. Today she got the bad news that she has between 3 weeks and 3 months to live. This is just two years after we lost my Grandad (her father) to cancer as well.

She has two kids, age 7 and 5, and the nicest husband you could ever meet. I don't know what else to say. I'm feeling a little melancholy now...

The results are in

2006-01-23T19:31:00.000-08:00

Harper wins Tory minority government, CBC News projects

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will become Canada's next prime minister, as Canadians have elected a Tory minority government and ended a 12-year reign of Liberal rule, CBC News projects.

Am I lame for getting goosebumps when reading the italicized part? Goodbye, rotten Liberals!

Today is a big day!

2006-01-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

Election day in Canada! Get out and vote!

And if you received an email that looked like it was from Elections Canada telling you you could vote on Monday AND Tuesday, be aware that it's a spam email and today is the only day you can vote!

Going to cast my vote later this morning, and like Carly said, for such an exciting moment, it goes all too fast to really cherish it!

I'm nervous and excited about waiting for the results to start coming in tonight!

Because I'm a big loser

2006-01-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

Four things. Read Tequila Red's, had to do it.
(Yeah, I KNOW I've promised the babysitter story, and it's coming - just hold your pants on. It's a long one, it might take some time.)

Four jobs you've had in your life:
1. Copywriter
2. PR agency Account Assistant
3. Receptionist
4. WalMart minion

Four movies you could watch over and over again:
1. So I Married an Axe Murderer
2. Zoolander
3. Romeo & Juliet
4. What About Bob

Four places you've lived:
1. Winnipeg, MB
2. Vancouver, BC
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Moose Jaw, SK

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. 21 Jump Street
2. Desperate Housewives

I don't have anymore because I don't have cable and these are the only two I have on DVD.

Four places you've been on vacation:
1. Halifax, NS
2. Prince Edward Island
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Reno, NV

Four blogs you visit daily:
1. With a Turn and a Twist
2. Blogography
3. Warrick Brown/You Turn the Screws (even though he never freakin' blogs anything! Your link is currently under review, man!)
4. Penmachine

Four of your favourite foods:
1. Double-layer chocolate cake (Feb 13, here I come!)
2. Anything at Pepita's
3. Hot wings at Pappa Leo's
4. The Quarter Chicken dinner at Swiss Chalet

Four albums you can't live without:
1. Guero - Beck
2. Almost any Depeche Mode album from the 80's, and Violator
3. Kasabian - Kasabian
4. In Search Of... - N*E*R*D

Four vehicles you've owned:
I'm only on my third, but I'll count Hubby's -
1. My trusty 1995 Honda Civic hatchback
2. Black Honda CRV
3. Grey Honda CRV
4. Grey Honda Accord (Hubby's)

Four people to be tagged:
I don't tag. Just do it.

Conversations with a three-year-old

2006-01-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

"I love you, Mommy."
"I love you, too, sweetie."
"And I love Daddy and Devon too."
"That's good, 'cause they're your family, right?"
"Yeah, and I love myself, too!"
"That's great, you should always love yourself."
"Yeah, 'cause I'm Camryn."
"I know, and everyone loves Camryn."
"Yeah...I love your ring, Mommy!"
"Thank you, baby."
"uh...you're welcome."

Into the dustbin of history

2006-01-16T21:55:00.000-08:00

Hubs got on a cleaning kick the other night and insisted we clean clutter out of our living room. And since our photo albums were falling apart and we had nice new ones we'd gotten for xmas, we decided to stay up until 2am putting all the pictures in the new albums. Along the way, we found some we felt we had no use for.

We have to be careful because Hubs' dad is a clean freak and he actually went through their old family pictures and threw out A LOT of them. His criteria included things like the picture was off-centre, or blurry, or someone had a weird face, or it was too bright. So now Hubs doesn't have many pictures from his childhood left. Weird.

Anyway, I scanned a couple that we are throwing away:

When we lived in Vegas, we came back to Vancouver for a week for a wedding. While we were in town we visited some friends of ours and they had a chinchilla. And Hubby took a picture of it. Why, I don't know. Bye, bye, chinchilla.

Some of you know about our sordid past when we were in Amway. We used to go to all the functions and events. They were boring as hell, but the food never disappointed. This is a guy we met at a function, and we can't remember who he was or why he's been chillin' in our family photo album for the past 8 years.

This is one of Hubs' brothers at his parents' house in Dartmouth. He's about 18 or 19 here. He is now married, living in Edmonton and they are expecting their third child.

This is a shot of one of my best friends' wedding reception in 1999. They have since split up, and she is much happier now with someone else and they are the parents of two adorable children. I wasn't sure about keeping pictures from her wedding, but I decided it's part of our history, and I kept most of them. Plus I was pregnant at the time and had a really cute maternity dress on that day.

This is the Seattle Space Needle, circa 1997. Hubs and I were engaged, and we went there for the day with Hub's brother Jenson and our friend Tyson. We found a carnival and spent the afternoon going on rides, then realized we didn't have enough money left to go up the Space Needle.

This is the Mormon temple in Seattle, same trip. We were married there the next year. I have tons of pictures of this place, so I'm throwing this one out, because it's the only one without one of us in it. We aren't believing or practicing Mormons anymore.

Hubby went hiking with his friend Paul at Shannon Falls once. He took lots of scenery pictures. This was the least cool one.

I went with my family on a road trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, for my cousin's wedding. SLC is like Mecca for Mormons. I took this picture of the Church Headquarters. I have NO IDEA why. It's no architectural wonder or anything. The one picture my sister and I wanted was of us in front of the huge organ where the Tabernacle Choir sings, but while we turned out great, the background was completely black!

This dumbass picture is of the Hubs posing in front of a McDonald's in Las Vegas. Ha ha, look, it's a giant drink and fries! I thought the building looked cool. I don't anymore. Quite possibly one of the lamest pictures I've ever taken.

I have no idea who this nice couple is. But like Amway Guy, they have been hanging out in the family photo album for about eight years. I know we met them at our friends' wedding reception in Vegas, but neither me nor Hubby know who they were.

So long, vague memories!

A great new way to wake my lazy ass up

2006-01-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

I am not a morning person. So needless to say, alarm clocks are a big part of my mornings. The Hubs and I usually put our alarm clock in some strategic area, like in the walk-in closet under some clothes, or in the hallway, or in the bathroom in the sink, so that when it goes off, we have to find it, which means we wake up a bit more rather than just slapping a hand on the snooze button and inevitably sleeping in for whatever we set the alarm for.

Well, I think I might have met my match:

The alarm clock blowfly works like a "blowfly" that at the desired time it escapes from a cage in your room. It starts moving and producing sound around you - to turn it off you should catch it and put it back in the cage.

You guys, this thing flies around the room making noise until you get your sorry arse out of bed and catch it and put it back in it's cage! Holy crap! Who would want to go to sleep after that, you'd be so mad!

Check out this little sucker here.

Top 10 Reasons Why I'll Never Be a Cowboy

2006-01-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

Carly and I saw "Brokeback Mountain" last night. I won't get into my utter disappointment in the movie itself, but I did learn one thing: I will never be a cowboy. Here's why:

10. Always smelling like campfire smoke.

9. Being dirty. (And I ain't talking about the nookie.)

8. Wearing the same dirty-ass clothes every day for weeks.

7. Way too much denim.

6. Bathing from a bucket by the river.

5. Eating food that was cooked in a can.

4. Scuzzy bosses that spy on me and the other cowboys while we're having a tussle in the grass, and use phrases like "stemming the rose."

3. Sleeping in a canvas tent in the rain, snow, hail, and whatever. Yuck.

2. The only other person to make out with is another cowboy who's as dirty and smelly as me.

1. Other cowboys who say things like, "I need more than what I'm getting from this relationship!" Ugh.

Now my iPod's not naked

2006-01-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to find a nice case for my nano that I like. I bought one on Boxing Day but I didn't like how it opened and it didn't leave an opening for the USB so I'd have to take it out everytime I wanted to update it or recharge it. Annoying. So I exchanged it for this one, and I love it! I like the cute little racing stripe on it, too.

Ginger's tucked in all nice and cozy.

What do you think?

Feeling bookish

2006-01-03T13:40:00.000-08:00

Last year I was listening to CBC radio and heard the host talking about the Whitbread Award winner for 2004, a book called "Small Island" by Andrea Levy.

I was so intrigued by the story, set in post-WWII (my favourite time period), about a Jamaican couple who come to England to make a better life for themselves based on the wonderful things they had always been taught about "the Mother Country" in Jamaica, and the "scratched record sound" they experience when they arrive. I promptly picked it up from the library and read it. It was funny, quirky, educational and thought-provoking. I enjoyed every minute of it!

So naturally when I logged on to CBC.ca today and saw that one of the headlines was about the Whitbread Award for 2005, I wanted to know more. And now I have a new book to add to my "to read" list, "The Accidental" by Ali Smith. And after visiting the website and going through the lists of past winners, I am finding more books that I either recognize or will be adding to my requests at the library.

However, now the Whitbread Group is passing the torch:

Whitbread Group announced last year it would no longer back the prizes, which were founded in 1971 and are open to residents of Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The search is on for a new sponsor.

The company, once Britain's largest brewer, said it doesn't have any products carrying the Whitbread brandname anymore and therefore, doesn't need to promote itself through the awards. Whitbread owns restaurants (Costa Coffee, TGI Fridays), hotels (Marriott, Travel Inn) and fitness clubs.

I hope they find a new sponsor, and I hope the new sponsor continues to award books like "Small Island." I'll be looking for a winner to add to my list next year!

The Good Blonde

2006-01-02T13:40:00.000-08:00

I love Pamela Anderson. She seems to get how she is seen in the celebrity world, and she runs with it. She doesn't pretend to be something she isn't, and has fun with what she is. She plays the dumb role, but you can tell she isn't dumb.

I didn't always like her. I was very skeptical about her until I saw her on Jay Leno after she split with Tommy Lee. He asked her, "Do you think there's any chance you'll reconcile?" and she paused, then teared up and shook her head. Jay offered her a tissue, and she didn't say anything for a moment. I could relate, because everybody has dated a loser at some point, and even when you break up, it can still be tough. She suddenly seemed "real" to me after that.

I also read her advice column a few times in Flare magazine, and I thought her advice was actually good. She seemed really honest and didn't try to sound like an expert on anything.

And I also think it's really cool that she came to the Grey Cup and was Grand Marshall in the parade in Vancouver.

Paris Hilton, on the other hand, makes me want to puke. She is stupid. Anytime she opens her mouth my head hurts from what comes out.

So naturally it made me laugh, when I read this story in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader (Hubs gets one for Christmas every year from my mom and it is our sole reading entertainment for weeks after the holidays):

While dining at a fancy restaurant with Pamela Anderson, Hilton threw a temper tantrum when handed the menu. "I hate reading! Someone tell me what's on the menu!" Anderson told the story to GQ magazine, concluding, "I'm blonde, too. But c'mon."

2005: A Big Blank Space in the Timeline of Life

2005-12-31T12:07:00.000-08:00

My year in review! Was it exciting or not much to speak of? You decide!

The beginning of JANUARY found us driving home from Reno, NV after spending Christmas and New Year's with Hubby's sister and her family, and a few days in Vegas to visit our old haunts. We had gotten so sick of our CDs during the drive that we went to Best Buy in Vegas and bought a whole bunch of new ones, and Hubs chose Metallica's Black album as one of his picks. We taught the kids how to headbang and everytime we turned on Metallica, we'd say, "Who's ready to rock?" and the kids would yell from the backseat, "Meeeeee!"

Lots of snow fell while we were in Reno - damn, get me back to Canada!

Quote of the month: "I'm weddy to wock, Daddy!" - Camryn, age 2

FEBRUARY was great because I turned 30! My birthday is the day before Valentine's Day, so in keeping with the birthday parties I had as a kid, Hubs and I had a party with Valentines as the theme decor. We had a great time! (It may not have happened had it not been for Carly's inspiration and fabulous job on the invitations.)

February also saw the end of our babysitter's services, in an event that will be detailed in a later post (since everyone pretty much agrees it was the weirdest, most hilarious babysitter story ever.)

Hubs, me and Carly - "I'm 30 now too!"

Quote of the month: "So, now we're freaks." - Hubs, after discovering our babysitter's online journal

MARCH

I also got to be a doula for my sister Ginny and brother-in-law Ashton for the birth of Adorable Niece, born in the middle of my weekend at Harrison Hot Springs, after I'd been sitting in the hot tub with Hubby's school classmates, being obnoxious until 2am. Adoable Niece got to meet her auntie with the bad hot tub hair at 7:30am on March 19.

Adorable Niece, 2 hours old

Quote of the month: "You will not poop on our party!" Hubby to the security guard kicking us all out of the hot springs pool at 2am

Carly and I went to Seattle for the weekend in APRIL. We had such a good time, even though it was only two days it felt like a lifetime. It was fun checking out Seattle's many offerings - of the male variety. We took pictures of the fish market - guys. And enjoyed staying at the Vance Hotel - for the staff. And we reviewed everything in sight.

Me and Rachel the Pig at Seattle's Fish Market

Quote of the month: "Here's my review of the drink I had at Oliver's..." Me, after drinking a particularly sugary Mandarine Drop at Oliver's that very nearly make me puke.

On MAY 1 Hubs and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary by going to his football game. (We might have gone out for dinner after, but I don't remember.)

I decided I'd had enough of the freelancing from home thing and decided to try something new. I started applying for copywriting jobs and was offered a position at a large electronics retailer. I worked there for the entire summer, and loved it, and learned a lot.

Two years of hell, five years of bliss!

Quote of the month: "What's it like being married to such a STUD?" - Hubs

I spent most of JUNE getting used to my new job, and preparing for Devon's preschool graduation. I was on the planning committee, and the preschool grad is quite the event at his preschool. I thought the whole thing was dumb and overdone, and I'm not sure my little preschool graduate disagreed too much either.

Watching fireworks on Pitt Meadows Day

Quote of the month: "I don't want to go to kindergarten." - Devon

In JULY I was inspired by my friend Rocket to start going to more concerts. I've always been a music fan, but never went to shows because - well, I don't really know why. I just never made the effort. So Carly and I bought tickets to see Beck, and after she couldn't make it, I went with my sister Amy. We shook our respective booties and had a blast.

Beck rocks.

Quote of the month: "I think I might get injured here." Amy, on the wild dance moves of the chick beside her.

In AUGUST I found time to do fun stuff around my work schedule. Hubs and I started taking the kids hiking, and to this day they ask to go on hikes. I played Pitch & Putt with some of my workmates, and found I wasn't too shabby of a golfer! My little nephew turned on year old and my sister had a "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" themed party for him. I also went to Kamloops for a weekend to visit my friends Dawn and Murray, played in their pool, and generally lounged around. (I love their place!)

Piggybacking is faster than waiting for a 2-year-old hiker to freakin' hurry up

Quote of the month: "This is so beautiful, I wish I could live here!" - Devon, hiking at Alouette Park

SEPTEMBER brought the end to my contract at work, and I decided since the kids were both starting school I would go back to freelancing. As I drove home on my last day, I thought to myself, "I just blew it big time," and second-guessed my decision for months. And while I still miss it, I'm liking what I'm doing now.

Both my kids started school - Devon in kindergarten, Camryn in preschool. I didn't cry (well, I managed to hide my teariness on the first day of preschool for my youngest, and last child!)

Carly, Clay, me and Hubs went to Seattle for the weekend. The Vance died a horrible death, and as Carly said, you can't go back. You just can't.

I also went to three good shows in September - I saw Oasis with my friend Rocket, and later in the month I saw Jimmy Eat World/GreenDay and Audioslave in the same week. Starting to wonder if I'll ever see a show that's NOT at GM Place.

The biggest change in September was when Hubby was summarily dismissed from his job without any warning. Oh, and the same day as my last day or work. Nice.

"Hi, I'm Hubby, and I work for...wait, no I don't."

Quote of the month: ME: "These kids better appreciate what I'm doing for them." My mom: "They won't, but you did the right thing."

OCTOBER was pretty boring - Thanksgiving, Hubby's new job, school teachers on strike, blah, blah, blah...

Trick-or-treating, candy-eating, fake-teeth wearing kids...

Quote of the month: Devon: "I saw my teacher at my school walking around wearing a sign that said, 'Locked out.'" Me: "Did you say hi to her?" Devon: "No."

In NOVEMBER I saw two great shows. I made a teenage dream come true and saw Depeche Mode live (yup, at GM Place). Thanks again to Rocket. It was the first show I saw with Hubs, and I got down, singing and shaking it while he sat quietly in his seat beside me. Then on the 20th Shelley and I went with my sister Amy, her friend Matt and his girlfriend to see Gwen Stefani! Shells and I let loose and cut a rug while singing and screaming like little girls. Very fun.

The Gwen, pre-pregnancy

Quote of the month: "I'm not paying money to see Depeche Mode." - Carly, as I tried to find someone to go to the show with me.

I swear I've gained probably 10 pounds in DECEMBER thanks to both my kids' birthdays (cake, and cupcakes for school) and Christmas (dinners out, chocolate, candy, and of course booze.) I guess I'll be heading back to the gym like every other schmuck in January. After a fun season of parties, events, food, and time with friends and family, my "eat-whatever-I-want, no-holds-barred" philosophy for the holidays ends tonight. (And don't worry, this blog won't turn into some boring weight-loss journal! I'm just saying...)

Me and Shelley, New Year's 2000.

Quote of the month: "I like a girl with some booty." - Hubs, on the subject of my new, big ass.

THE QUOTE OF THE YEAR

"Yeah, because sometimes you can't breathe through your mouth." - Kelly, after being shown some "freshening spray" (that can also be used for men) at a sex toy party

(Could the Quote of the Year have been any better?)

After being disappointed that there was no splashy New Year's party to get gussied up for this year, (not even a birthday party for 31-year-old Carly) the Hub and I are having a group of friends over for a little celebration tonight.

Have a safe and happy New Year and see you in 2006!

Merry Christmas to me!

2005-12-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, so Christmas is over, but here's the rundown in pictures:

The kids sprinkled "reindeer food" outside to attract Santa's reindeer and bring them to our house - A concoction of oats, sugar and sprinkles, it's designed to get Santa to your house first, and screw every other kid on the block.

I walked into Devon's room and found him searching the skies for Santa. He also came downstairs after he was supposed to be in bed and whispered in my ear, "I heard someone outside say, 'A goodnight to all, and to all a good night,' and I know it was Santa's voice!" Ah, the magic of Christmas!

Cams opening her lightsabre - so now when she fights her Jedi brother, she doesn't have to use the vacuum attachment.

The aftermath - guess who got to clean that up? Wrong! It was me!

My adorable niece crawling around in the presents at Grandma and Grandad's house!

Uncle Ashton asking Cams: "Which one of your twins do you like better than the other, Camryn?"

Mom and Dad at Christmas dinner. We always wear the paper crowns from the Christmas crackers.

I swear this is the only picture of me this entire Christmas! Don't I look impressed!

Jingle Jingle!

2005-12-27T01:08:00.000-08:00

Merry post-Christmas! I'm busy with friends and family these few days, so I'll be back soon. Also putting together my "Year in Review" post - you knew that was coming, didn't you?!

Edited to add: I'm trying to add some new stuff, but my computer is being really SLOW so I'll be back later to try again...

Love Angel Music BABY!

2005-12-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

Guess who's pregnant?!

Gwen's having a baby!

And can I just say, I totally called it at the show last month? I kept saying to Shelley, "Does she look pregnant to you? She looks like she's about three or four months pregnant!"

Am I smart or what?

Them newfangled things called "doors"

2005-12-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

This was funny, but you have to admit it's happened to you, too. (Make sure you watch the video.)

Let's not talk about me, let's talk about you - what do you like about me?

2005-12-20T15:06:00.000-08:00

I got tagged by Carly (visit her new blog here,) so here's my response:

Five things about me that most people don't know:

1. I love breakfast. I'm never up in time for it, and when I am, I'm too tired to make the effort to make good breakfast food. When I was single, Dawn and I used to wake up on the weekends at 1pm and go out to an all-day breakfast place in our pajamas. It was great. I'll eat breakfast food anytime, day or night. I love pancakes, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, english muffins, toast with butter or jam, fruit, and I especially love egg and cheese on an english muffin. Yum. I used to love bacon and sausages too, but...

2. I've decided I'm not eating pork anymore. I think pigs are disgusting, gross animals and I can't enjoy eating pork. I decided this after reading a story in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader where a woman was using an outhouse in India and was freaked out because there was a pig's snout rooting around under the outhouse - there were pigs under there eating whatever came down the chute! EW!! Then a few days later I was watching Hannibal with Hubby and saw the scene where Verger was planning to feed Hannibal to the pigs, which of course reminded me of the Pickton pig farm case, and, well, let's just say I'm not into pork anymore.

3. The best advice I ever got - ever - was from a nurse in the hospital when I had Devon. She told me to always take care of myself first, because I wouldn't be able to take care of anyone else unless I took care of me. That has proven soooo true in so many ways.

4. I have a weird thing about toilet paper in public washrooms. I can't bear the thought of using the couple of inches hanging down from the roll, so I always tear a couple of squares off and throw them away before taking some for myself. I can't stand the thought of someone else's grubby hands touching those first few inches and then using it on my intimate areas!

5. I hate beer. I hate the smell of it, the look of it, and the taste of it. I even hate talking to people who have been drinking it because their breath smells like it and it makes me gag. And people always recommend beers to me and say, "It's really good - even people who hate beer love it!" and inevitably I end up hating that beer, too. (I defy anyone to recommend a beer I will like!)

I shred, I'm shredding, I shredded

2005-12-18T21:38:00.000-08:00

Went snowboarding today. I love it. But I have to learn that I'm really not that good yet and I'm not quite ready to take jumps at top speed.

Went flying down the mountain, saw a jump and thought, "Aw, hell, I'll try it," and as soon as I hit the peak of it, I knew I'd made a mistake. Somehow I flipped, and my arm jerked violently behind me and I landed flat on my back on top of my arm with the wind temporarily knocked out of me. I think I even felt my brain jiggle around in my skull.

That'll learn me. I made it down a few more runs, but I was done after only three hours (minus a short break to eat a smokie and have some OJ.)

I suck.

Pretty ballerina, now she's the queen of the dancing floor, this is the moment she's waited for, just like cinderella

2005-12-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

The ballerina is three today!

Someone I once knew speculated that the style of her children's births seemed to correlate with their personalities as they grew. I can say that Camryn's was that way. When I woke up at 2am, by the time I figured out I was having real contractions, it was time to get to the hospital - fast. (Although Daddy managed to somehow squeeze in a bath and shave before we left.) After a mad dash to the hospital and 20 minutes after checking in, she had arrived. (And Daddy, thinking this was going to be a long, drawn out process like last time, nearly missed her birth because he decided to take a break in the bathroom with a newspaper. Thank god for our doula, Vicki, and midwife, Sylvia!)

Now she is living her 3-year-old life to the fullest. She loves preschool, her friend Mason, ballet class, and playing Dora the Explorer. What more could you ask for when you're three?

Make yourself heard

2005-12-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

So Canada is having another federal election. I love politics, and Hubs and I volunteer for our local riding during election season. So it's exciting times for us.

Hub's mom loves politics too. She's a Conservative, and agrees with us that Stephen Harper is just the wrong person to lead the party. She also thinks that the anti-gay marriage issue is costing the Conservatives their chance to actually get elected, and they should either drop the issue or change the policy (I vote for the latter, but I digress...)

She called the other day and she and Hubby had a discussion about it, and I guess it was really bothering her. So she called up someone locally (in Halifax) and had a good half-hour discussion about how she felt the Conservative party was messing up it's chances for election. Who did she call?

Peter McKay, former Tory party leader, current MP. My 4'11" mother-in-law, who raised four children as a stay-at-home mom in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, spent half an hour airing her concerns with Mr. McKay, who, she said, was very nice, and they had a great conversation.

This is the political process, folks. I love it. Get involved and be heard!

What I need

2005-12-08T22:06:00.000-08:00

The Hub has been away on a business trip all week and I've been way too busy/lazy to clean up around here. He's coming home tomorrow and he asked me to make sure it's reasonable because he's bringing some guys here for a meeting. The boxes from Dev's birthday toys are still laying on the floor at the top of the stairs to be taken down to the recycling bin. The kitchen is clean, but the floor needs washing because there are cake crumbs and icing under the table. There's laundry coming out of my ass. (Not literally.) My office - well, let's just say it's bad. Oh yeah, and I have to sort all the recycling and put it out with the garbage for garbage day tomorrow.

Housework is mentally taxing - and that's not even when you're doing it - it's when you're just thinking about doing it. My head hurts and I feel sad. What I wouldn't give for someone to come and do it all for me.

Christmas light discrimination

2005-12-06T22:23:00.000-08:00

I judge people by the colour of their Christmas lights. I think the colour he or she chooses says something about them as a person. Call me a nut, but I've thought about this since I was a kid. Here's my breakdown:

Blue lights: You're sort of moody, and think Christmas is a waste of time. Hell, you can't even be bothered to put up festive lights - you picked blue, for the love of god. You probably play "Blue Christmas" a lot. And drink a lot, too.

Red lights: Hell yeah! You are festive, and like to get into the mood. You probably still believe in Santa, and you don't care who knows it! You're the type who is busy photocopying your ass at the company Christmas party.

White lights: You are a Christmas traditionalist. You are also pretty anal. You read the Nativity story on Christmas eve. You probably do a lot of Christmas baking, don't you?

Green lights: Well, aren't you special? You probably like Christmas, but you probably smoke a lot of weed, too.

Multicoloured lights: You are just here for a good time, and don't care what anyone thinks! Christmas? Yeah, okay, but you're just ready to get festive and party! Yay for you!

Icicle lights: You are a sucker for trends. Icicle lights are lame! They are so 2001! And here's a newsflash: They don't really look like icicles!

Beautiful Boy

2005-12-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

Six years ago on December 6, I became a mom.

23 hours after my water broke, after 6 hours of unsupported agony, an epidural that gave me two hours of sleep and then two hours of pushing, I had a beautiful baby boy.

He came into the world with a little cry, then he just quietly observed everything around him for the rest of his first day. And he hasn't changed much since.

Happy birthday little son!

For the love of women

2005-12-05T21:26:00.000-08:00

For 45 minutes on Dec. 6, 1989 an enraged gunman roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and killed 14 women. Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists." Almost immediately, the Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women.

The Montreal Massacre

(Sigh)....

2005-12-05T21:19:00.000-08:00

U.S. Parent Company Bids To Aquire All Of Sears Canada

Filling some blog space while I'm busy

2005-12-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

FIVE random things you might not know about me
- I was in a pageant when I was 18
- I'm sometimes shy IRL
- Although I can be shy, I LOVE public speaking (go figure!)
- I'm thinking of getting breast augmentation surgery next year
- I hate country music

FIVE places I've visited
- Reno, NV
- Las Vegas, NV
- Charlottetown, PEI
- Halifax, NS
- Salt Lake City, UT
My travel life has been very boring!!

FIVE ways to win my heart
- scratch my back - (I'm like a cat)
- Send me out shopping
- Clean the house for me
- Make me laugh
- Give me chocolate

FIVE things I want to do before I die
- Travel anywhere and everywhere
- See my children grow up to be responsible, happy people
- Help women
- Live somewhere sunny and hot
- learn Spanish

FIVE things I'm afraid of
- a painful death (but not death itself)
- snakes
- something bad happening to anyone in my family
- cancer
- not saving enough for retirement

FIVE things I don't like
- shrimp
- overbearing people
- getting up in the morning
- housework
- poor customer service

FIVE ways to turn me off
- be rude and condescending to wait staff in a restaurant
- be harsh or rude to my kids
- ask me how many bags I want (Superstore)
- act like a know-it-all
- be a drama queen (or king for that matter)

FIVE things I do everyday
- brush my teeth
- kiss Hubs
- crave chocolate
- visit my message boards and blogs
- laugh

FIVE things that make me happy
- music
- girl friends
- Hubby and kids
- Christmas!
- being 30

FIVE things on my mind right now
- finishing my Christmas shopping
- calling someone and telling them I lost the raffle tickets I was supposed to sell
- I have to find Camryn's hairband, it matches her Christmas dress and I'm getting her portrait done this afternoon!
- I need a shower
- I wish I'd booked a haircut before the holidays

She's all grows up

2005-11-28T13:46:00.000-08:00

My great-grandma turned 103 last Wednesday.

Here's what my mom's cousin had to say about Great-Grandma's big day:

After she layed down for a nap, she woke up and called for Aunt Darlene.
Aunt Darlene didn't hear her calling, so gramma got out of bed by herself and got into her wheelchair.
Linda was on her way down the hall and saw Gramma rolling herself out of the bedroom. Gramma was a little annoyed and turned her nose up in the air when Aunt Darlene asked her what was wrong.
She was great today. Sitting alert, sipping her tea and eating her dainties.
The staff says she is doing so well because she eats so well.
I was amazed at how well she is doing.
If only she'd use a darn hearing aid. LOL

I love it! Happy Birthday Great-Grandma!

Other side of Sunday

2005-11-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

In recovery mode today. Last night Hubs and I were invited to a wine and cheese party being thrown by the parents of a kid in Cam's preschool class. The mom, Lisa, seemed pretty cool, and she invited us and the parents of another kid in the class, Jeff and Jen, who I'm friends with already. It was a good time.

We showed up late as we couldn't find a babysitter and ended up driving the kids out to my mom's to stay overnight at the last minute. By the time we arrived there were about 40 people there and the party was in full swing. (I lectured Hubby in the car before we went in, saying, "If you act stupid, offend anyone, say anything retarded or perverted, you will be leaving in a cab alone!!") Jen and I hung out and drank copious amounts of wine, and chatted. Our husbands had only met once before, and it wasn't too long before they were playing table hockey in the basement and Jeff was kicking Hubby's ass in darts.

By about midnight the music started getting louder (Lisa had the Black Eyed Peas going, unfortunately) and she came running in and said, "Rebecca! Your husband says you love to dance! Come dance with me!" So I looked at Jen and said, "Well, I guess I've had enough wine to allow this," and off we went. The three of us got down in the family room and I seem to remember Lisa, Jen and I dancing on the coffee table. (A photo of this may surface sometime in the future.) The music selection was weak, (especially when Hubs went out to his car and brought in 50 Cent and Ice Cube,)and Jen and I relived our "Tommy's" club days by playing Green Day's "Basket Case". We even pretended to pole dance to songs like "In Da Club." The pervy husbands sat around and made jokes about us all making out with each other. (They got along just fine, and since Hubs wasn't the only one saying stupid stuff, I revoked my earlier warning.) Lisa turned to Jen and me and said, "I just knew you girls would be cool. We're going to be great friends!"

Jen and Jeff were on the babysitter clock, so they left around 1am, and we left at the same time to head over to another party at Hubby's friend Robb's place. A bunch of people he used to work with were there hanging out, and by this time I'd had quite a bit of wine. (I announced to the group how much I hated Hubby's old boss, which they all thought was pretty funny.) We stayed another two hours or so, talking and making jokes while Robb served up antifreeze-like martinis.

Got in at 3:30. Thank gawd the kids are at my mom's because I slept until almost 1pm, and I am still tired.

Now, who says preschool moms can't party?!

My life in concert

2005-11-19T21:41:00.000-08:00

My post about the Depeche Mode showinspired Rigby, now her post has inspired me. (Note: I will add photos later.)

Must have been some kind of kiss, I should have walked away
My first concert ever was at the Regina Centre of the Arts in Regina, Saskatchewan sometime in 1987. My friend Nicole's mom worked for CHAB, the radio station in Moose Jaw, and had tickets to the Cutting Crew, so she took Nicole and me. We were 12, and I thought this was the pinnacle of my preteen experience.

Yeah, I know. You have no idea who they are. Well, they weren't exactly a one-hit wonder, they had hits such as "I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight," and "I've Been in Love Before" - okay, I guess that makes them a two-hit wonder. Still not clueing in? Ah, forget it.

I'm a low brow but I rock a little know how
Then for five long years I didn't see another concert again until my 17th birthday when my parents bought me tickets to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was sooo excited. My best friend, Dawn and I were huge fans and were practically known throughout our high school by our love of RHCP. We had the Rolling Stone cover with them on it in our locker. LOVED them.

So we saw them in February of 1992 at the Forum during their tour for Blood, Sugar, Sex Magik. During the opening act Dawn and I got separated in the mosh pit and I was right up against the gates at the front. I had a perfect view of Flea, and I swore he stuck his tongue out at me. I ended up next to a guy from my school in the mosh pit, got my foot trampled on and lost my shoe in the chaos. It was a great time! They didn't get naked and wear socks like they were known to, and I was a bit disappointed about that, but overall it was a great show. Some girl even gave me my shoe that she'd found on the ground afterwards!

No Diggity, No Doubt
Then another long period of non-concert activity. In 1997, my sister and I decided to go see New Edition's Home Again Tour in Seattle's Key Arena. Aside from feeling sorry for the poor dude sitting next to me who was apparently alone and who kept leaving and coming back with food (he never said a word, but kept offering me some of his licorice!) we had a really good time. Blackstreet opened the show, and I screamed my head off for Chauncey, then Teddy Riley ran down the side of the arena and I reached out and skimmed his bald head with my hand!

New Edition was really fun, and my sister was a fun concert date, especially considering this was during a period that Pre-Hubby and I were broken up (again). It was also a great excuse to wear my favourite black patent-leather pants! We spent the whole show getting down in the stands and having a great time. We had gone with the intent that we were going to scream like silly schoolgirls, and we did. When New Edition hit the stage, I screamed, "I LOVE YOU BOBBY!!" And screamed even louder when Bobby mooned his ass to the crowd. This was also shortly before New Edition imploded with all the apparent infighting that went on between them, as my friend Tyson saw them shortly afterward in Vegas and said they took the stage an hour and a half late because they were reportedly fighting with each other backstage!

Although I owned both Blackstreet and New Edition's albums at the time, I can't say it was my favourite show ever. It was just fun. And afterwards, being the only two white chicks in a Denny's at 3am in Seattle was a hilarious experience.

We've Got It Goin' On
In 2001, Shelley, her sister Lindsay, and Sheri and I all decided to go to the Backstreet Boys show. We knew we were losers, and we didn't care. Like I did for the New Edition show, we said we were going to scream like little schoolgirls and we did. We each had our favourite Boy and when they came out and the teeny-bopper screaming started, I screeched, "I LOVE YOU KEVIN!!" and nearly caused the 12-year-old girls sitting in front of us with their mom to pee themselves.

That show was pretty good, considering we all felt like cougars compared to the other concertgoers. We didn't care, though. We were just there for a good time and to have a night to act like pre-pubescent, starry-eyed Backstreet fans. (Ironically, when I was preparing to go to the Blackstreet/New Edition show 4 years before, one of the lawyers at the firm I worked at kept saying I was going to see "Backstreet" and I had to keep correcting him.)

We spent the rest of the show laughing and screaming, and I was literally hoarse for the next two days. Losers, yes. But happy losers.

Say my name, say my name
Also in 2001 I had my first "just-'cause-you're-my-friend" concert attendance. Shelley wanted to see Destiny's Child really bad, and I said I wouldn't spend money to see them. She called me up one day, and cheerily sang, "Happy Birthday!" I said, "My birthday was months ago." She said, "I know, but I got you an early present for next year. You're going to Destiny's Child with me! Yay!" It was so funny!

To her credit, Shelley didn't pick such a bad show. I went with a skeptical mind, but I have to say it was pretty good. It was very much a "girl power" show, with thousands of females singing, "I'm a surivor, I'm not gonna give up, I'm not gon' stop, I'm a surivior!" And while that was kind of corny, I have to admit I gained some respect for Beyonce that night. She works hard at putting on a good performance. And I got a little teary near the end there when they sang "Emotion."

Chances are, 'cause I wear a silly grin, the moment you come into view
Last November Ginny and I went to see Johnny Mathis. I can't even describe how much I love Johnny Mathis. My parents used to play his music when we were kids, and now it just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when I listen to songs like "Chances Are."

This show was at the Paramount in Seattle, which is my favourite concert venue ever. It is such a gorgeous theatre. (I was intensely jealous when Carly and Clay went to see Audioslave at the Paramount months later. I can't imagine how amazing that would have been.) Even though Ginny and I were by far the youngest audience members there (by about 20 years) we had a great time, and we were right near the front of the stage. Johnny was so humble, friendly and happy the whole time, he chatted kindly between songs, and his voice was just perfect - even though he must be in his 50s or 60s by now! He even smiled as he sang every song. Definately a great night.

I've had you so many times but somehow I want more
I discovered my love for Maroon 5 while listening to my station on launch.com (now just Yahoo Music.) I looked up Maroon 5's website, and lo and behold, they were coming to Vancouver! I emailed Carly and asked if she'd go with me, to which I distinctly remember her responding, "I'm always up for a show." She said Kelly liked Maroon 5 too, so the three of us went.

This one was at the Plaza of Nations, which was a cool place to enjoy a show, but we spent most of it in the beer gardens chatting. I heard all the songs I wanted to hear, and Kelly and I got our glimpses of Adam Levine, and giggled over that while Carly rolled her eyes with disgust.

(There is, however, one memory relating to this show that doesn't have anything to do with Maroon 5 but will always stay with me whenever I think of that day. It was July 11, 2004, the first birthday of my friend Janet's son, Andrew. He was terminally ill and we celebrated the little guy's first birthday at Canuck Place. I left the party for the concert knowing I might not see Andrew again. And sadly, I didn't - this sweet little boy passed away shortly afterward on July 27.)

That brings me up to this year. This year I started going to a lot of shows because of something my friend Rocket said: "I love concerts, and if there's one I want to go to, I'll just do it. You just make it happen, and work it into your life." That got me thinking, and I decided that if there was a show I wanted to see, I would just go. So since I knew Oasis was coming, I told him I wanted to go. And he hooked us up with tickets, and off we went. I won't re-hash that show because I detailed it on my blog already.) The only thing I regret about that show was that we intentionally skipped the opener, Kasabian, and ended up missing the other opener, Jet, as well. I have since developed a love for Kasabian and now wish we would have seen them, and by all the rave reviews of Jet and judging by the great show they were finishing up as we arrived, we should have gotten there in time for them, too.

A couple other shows I've seen this year:

July: Beck - Queen Elizabeth Theatre, with my sister Amy. Two thumbs up. He rocks. Had such a good time.

September: Jimmy Eat World/GreenDay - GM Place, with Rigby. JEW - Two big thumbs up. Good, clean fun. Read more here. GreenDay - two words: Arrested Development. Left about four songs in.

September: Audioslave - GM Place, with Rigby, Clay, and Rigby's friend Jason. AMAZING. Developed a love for Rage Against the Machine. Great fun.

November: Depeche Mode - GM Place, with Hubby. Fulfilled my teenage fantasies. Everything I'd hoped it would be. As I said, now I can check off something on my things to do before I die list.

November: Gwen Stefani - GM Place, with Shelley. I'll let you know! Tomorrow night! YAY!

I'd like to do a list of other bands I'd like to see before I die, but I'll leave that for another post.

The little ballerina

2005-11-19T00:51:00.000-08:00

I'm enrolling my daughter in ballet lessons, starting in January. I don't know who is more excited, me or her. I'm having huge flashbacks to when I was taking ballet when I was little. Today I took her to get her bodysuit, tights and ballet slippers for dance class. Tried to take a picture of her, but she and her brother were goofing off and this is all I could get.

Heh, heh...you said "bum"

2005-11-19T00:43:00.000-08:00

Feeling a little juvenile tonight. I just had a word verification that had the word "bum" in it. Hee hee. But I forgot to save it to post here. Damn.

(Oh yeah - one more day til Gwen.)

Never let me down

2005-11-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

So last night's show was awesome. The Hub was an interesting concert date, seeing as this was his second concert experience EVER - the first being "Up in Smoke" about five years ago with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and cohorts. Yup, not much of a concert guy. And because he knows Depeche Mode's "Violator" album, I assumed he'd listened to all their older stuff too, meaning that we shared at least one musical interest. I was about to find out differently.

The show started with some of their new stuff from the new album, which I haven't yet heard, but it was pretty good. Of course the best part of the night was hearing all the old tunes like "Everything Counts," "Enjoy the Silence," "Policy of Truth," and of course, "Personal Jesus". It totally brought back memories and reminded me of why I like Depeche Mode. It was also really fun to sing Depeche Mode songs with a stadium full of people who also knew the words. The band did two encores, one of which included my all-time favourite DM song, "Never Let Me Down," which I didn't expect to hear...surely "People Are People" or something else would have come first, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Dave Gahan is a great performer. He gets down from the minute he's onstage to the minute he's off. At one point, when he was gyrating his hips while wearing black leather pants and a vest that was open in the front, Hubs turns to me and says, "Are these guys gay?" Truth is, I couldn't remember. My guess was yes, but now that I think about it, maybe not. Later Dave stripped off his vest and spent the rest of the show cavorting around shirtless (see the pic for this post), and Hubs leans over and says, "Definitely gay."

And Martin Gore did a few songs, most noteably "Somebody," which, although it reminds me of dumbass teenagers in love, I still think it is one of the best romantic songs out there. And at the beginning of the show he was wearing a hat that looked like some sort of pony costume/touque hybrid. (I'm thinking of a show my friend Janet was telling me about that showed a fetish group of people who liked to dress up like ponies, but I'll leave that reference alone...) I also noticed that Martin was wearing black feather wings and black feathers on his boots. That kind of weirdness is part of what I love about DM in general, I think.

Then when they started playing the older songs like "Question of Time," "Everything Counts," and "Just Can't Get Enough," Hubby started saying stuff like, "This song is Depeche Mode? I had no idea!" Suddenly I realized he really didn't know Depeche Mode at all, and he confirmed later that he only listened to the "Violator" album when it came out in high school and didn't know their other older stuff at all. And when he started playing country music in the car to aggravate Rocket and me, I realized how far apart we are musically after all!

It was a great show. It really brought back a love for Depeche Mode, although I can't see myself loving them as much as I did when I was 15 or 16, - it just won't ever be the same. I'm sure seeing their show in the late 80s/early 90s would have been slightly more amazing, but I can now check off something on my "things to do before I die" list.

Black Celebration

2005-11-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

My awesome friend Rocket called last night and offered me two tickets to see Depeche Mode tonight. I can not explain how totally thrilled I am to be seeing them live! They were my favourite band when I was like 14 or 15, and I have always wanted to see them in concert. And tonight it happens! I've literally waited half my life for this!

Hubby decided to rearrange some earlier plans to go with me, since everyone else I called couldn't go (or like Carly said with disdain, "I'm not paying money to see Depeche Mode.")

Yay for me!!

(And only 5 days til Gwen! Woo!)

Digits at the grocery store

2005-11-11T00:50:00.000-08:00

Was visiting my sister this afternoon, and had to pick up a few items for dinner as Rocket was coming over to make me some enchiladas. Gin said she would watch the kids so I could run out and get the stuff quickly, so off I went.

A couple of dumbasses didn't know how to get out of their parking spots and exit the lot efficiently, so the truck behind me and I had to wait awhile. As I was walking in, the guy from the truck next to me said, "Wow, took a while for everyone to get organized back there!" and I responded with a smile, "Yeah, guess so!"

We chatted briefly while we went into the store and went our separate ways. Halfway through my search, I ran into him again and he smiled and said, "Hi again!" I laughed a bit and he said, "It's awkward when you enter the store with someone and you run into them later, then you wonder if they think you're stalking them!" I said, "Well, I'm not from around here anyway, so I'm not worried," He then said he was trying to find soft tortilla shells, which was exactly what I was looking for, so a store employee led us to the Mexican food section. The dude kept talking to me, telling me he was making dinner for friends, and how he is used to cooking for one, and how he usually eats fast food. I'm nodding quietly at this point, and add that I am having dinner with a friend and my kids. (When I recognize that I'm potentially being hit on, I always throw in the kids reference first, then if necessary throw out the hubby reference second.)

Got what I needed, went to the checkout - dude arrives and joins the line right behind me, basket in one arm and armload of buttwipe under the other arm. Starts chatting again. I tell him where I'm from, and he tells me he flies planes at the airport in my city. I'm nodding and praying for the freakin' woman in front of me to hurry the hell up, and he breaks out with, "So maybe your kids would like to come out for a ride in the plane one day?" I said politely, "Um, I don't know. They aren't really the type." He goes for the kill: "So maybe Mom would like to?"

Gawd, buddy, this is in the middle of the dinnertime grocery store rush - in the 20 items or less line!! Everyone is listening at this point, and I don't want to make this embarrassing or awkward, because I HATE awkward. And it's not just that I'm married - it's that he's SO not my type! Frig!

"Oh, that's not really my thing." (It is.)

STILL doesn't get the message, and continues with, "Oh, it's much better than flying in a bigger plane, in a smaller plane you feel like you have more control and you feel a lot safer" (Yeah, tell that to my mom who needs to dope herself up to get on a commercial flight - you couldn't get her in one of those little planes if her life depended on it!)

I finish paying for my shiz, politely wish him good luck with his dinner party, and make a mad dash for the door. Flying to my car while trying not to look like a bat out of hell, I'm just getting in when I hear, "Excuse me..."

Crap.

He hands me his business card with his cell phone number and says, "Here's my number. I don't know if you're single, but..." I say nicely, "Um, I'm not," and he shoves the card at me and says, "Well, here anyway..." and races off.

For one, good on him for at least taking a chance. That's how you meet people, right? I mean, I admire the guy for his persistence.

But could I have created a more cringe-worthy situation for myself? (Rigby can attest to the fact that I turn stone cold frozen when I get hit on in a very forward way, she saw me crash and burn at the Vance Hotel back in April.) I kept hearing the alarm bells going off, saying "The Hubby Reference! Now! Do it now! Now! NOW!!" But I felt too awkward, and when it finally came down to the wire, I made it worse, for myself and this poor guy.

Geez. When will I learn?

Woo hoo! Let the holidays begin!

2005-11-09T15:28:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, some of you are thinking, "Screw you, Bex! It's only November!" but I am sooo stoked about the holidays. The way I see it, the earlier you enjoy it, the longer you get to enjoy it. I got a good taste of it at my job in September because we were planning the holiday campaign and I was writing holiday headlines and looking at the holiday creatives - it was so fun! They hired me to write some holiday headlines for some upcoming flyers last week, so I got another taste of it, and it got me so excited I went out and bought a few Christmas cards!

And thanks to Carly's recommendation, I downloaded Jimmy Eat World's "Last Christmas" and I LOVE it! I'm listening to it right now and it makes me feel so festive! Eeee!

I have about half my holiday shopping done too!

Now I'm a restaurant reviewer

2005-11-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

Going through some files on my computer and found this article I'd written about Rigby's and my experience at a local eatery.

Joey Tomato’s Coquitlam
May 11, 2005

This restaurant gets good reviews from men. Okay, the waitresses get good reviews from men. But let’s be real here. The food, the service, and the atmosphere, that’s what makes a restaurant, right? Right? No?

Well, we decided to give JT (as I like to call it) a shot. We went in, and the really saccharine hostess greeted us at the door and welcomed us very enthusiastically, and invited us to have an appetizer while we were waiting to be seated.

Now, excuse me for being a bit picky, but how long has this “appetizer” been sitting on this table by the door? Long enough to garner enough bacteria to make me sick? Long enough for someone else’s grubby fingers to touch it while they are grabbing a morsel for themselves? Long enough for all the germs from passersby to cough on and who knows what else? I mean, this is basically public food – it’s just – sitting there. Normally I wouldn’t touch something like this, but I was starving, so I popped a bit in my mouth. Spicy, yes, tasty…uh, no. Oh, well, strike one.

We are seated. Now to check out the décor. This restaurant is nicely decorated, don’t get me wrong, but my husband calls it “the best vibe and the best thing going in the Lower Mainland.” (Well, this is also coming from a guy that eats ground beef cooked up with rice and soy sauce, so we’re not talking restaurant critic here.) I’d like to say that that weird looking blown-glass thingy in the middle of the dining room is cool, but it’s just sorta freaky and dumb. Like somebody is trying to be artsy, but the whole thing reminds me of an ugly red and orange blown-glass ornament my mom used to have in our living room in the 70’s before my sister broke it.

But I digress.

Our server was nice. But am I the only person who is sick of going to a restaurant and feeling like the server thinks they are supposed to become our friend for the hour and a half they are serving us? I guess some people think this is what makes a place fun, trendy, welcoming, or whatever? I for one am just tired of the forced friendship. Come on, do you really care how my night is going? If it’s going badly, are you going to care? I doubt it. The worst is when the server squats down beside your table and starts really chatting. Oh boy. Now we have to make conversation.

I guess I should justify my disdain for perky, hyper-friendly, wanna-be-your-friend-for-the-hour behaviour in most "trendy" restaurants. I used to be a hostess and a server. Note the phrase "used to be". Not my bag, baby. I hated serving people with a heated passion. Do I care if you want a refill. Sorry, pal. I was a pleasant server, but I felt very fake doing that job. Not for me. I want real. I have had a couple of "real" servers who don't play the game but still give great service. It's a delicate balance not everyone can pull off.

But on this particular night, to her credit, our server was on top of things, got our appetizer right away since I told her we were starving, and she was pretty accommodating. The problem came later. We had just decided that the food was mediocre, (me, chicken souvlaki wrap with Caesar salad, she, some prawn bowl dish.) and overpriced, and the servers were sort of bimbos, we went to pay our bill and another server offered to help us, but on seeing our bill, she said, “Oh, I’ll have to find your server, where is …” and said the name of our server out loud, which was about the bimboest name I could have hoped for. Dear gawd. My friend turned around and looked at me and suppressed a laugh, and I couldn’t suppress the mutual feeling – I snickered out loud. Oh dear.

Our server took our bill payments and we said our obligatory thank yous, blah blah…and we walked past the hostesses who called out their friendly goodbyes: "Goodnight ladies!" We walked no more than 10 steps outside the front door when my brain reverted back to the Visa bill I'd just added a tip onto and signed. I stopped and said, “Wait a minute, how much was our bill?” My friend said, “About $45, why?” “Oh my gawd, they totally overcharged me! I was charged $44!” My friend checks her bill, and she was charged $44 as well.

Hmm…forty-five dollars…divided by two…is…not forty-four.

So we turned around and went back inside. The hostess looked at us and I saw her face brighten with the obligatory welcoming smile and…oh lord, here it comes…I’m trying to walk away fast before it hits…

”Hi there, is it for two?” (Sigh.)

My friend looks disgusted as she says, “Uh, we were just in here.”

We are met by our server, who has just discovered her gaffe on our bill and has come to rectify the error. We make the obligatory jokes and she voids out my Visa, and gives my friend cash to make up for the debit payment she made.

We leave again, and silence prevails for just a moment before my friend pipes up and says, “What the hell was with that girl at the door? We didn’t even get ten steps outside and she still doesn’t recognize us when we come back in! What the hell?”

“Oh my god, I know. And since when does 45 divided by two equal 44? What if I hadn’t noticed that? That was overpriced food as it was, let alone paying twice as much!”

Off we drive into the night. Hey, I don’t blame anyone for my bad night at JT, really. Okay, maybe the hostess who has the memory of a goldfish, but whatever. I always say I’m bad with recognizing faces, but come on. Working at a restaurant that makes the female staff members wear high-heeled leather boots to work, vericose veins ain't the only problem they've got.

Birds of a feather

2005-11-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

I've been spending a lot of time lately reading random posts on the Vancouver section of craigslist.org . Some of the stuff people write is so funny, I laugh out loud and then spend hours reading more, then I realize it's 3am and I'm a complete loser, and go to bed feeling sorry for myself because I'm going to be tired the next day, and geez, why didn't I just go to bed earlier, I have so much to do...

Anyway, I found this post today, and it made me laugh because this girl sounds like my kind of woman. Not sure if I would really want to dress up like a skank do the club thing, but I love her style! I think it's kinda sad that her married friends don't want to go out. Definately my biggest peeve about married women. (And who would want lefty hippies for friends anyway?)

Wanted: Catty Bitches - w4w - 25

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to:
Date: 2005-11-03, 3:49PM PST

I'm looking for a woman or women who is/are interested in ripping it up on the town some night. All my girlfriends are either a) married b) lefty hippies or c) both of the above. I seem to have run out of cute girls to go cavorting with! And frankly, cavorting alone is just not that much fun.

Thing is, I'm not really a club girl. I'm usually pretty content to relax with the friends I do have over dinner, drinks, talk about good books, see interesting films, talk politics and contemplate life in general.

But every month or two I get the urge to put on something short and tight, with a tad too much makeup and some painfully high heels and go perch myself at a bar somewhere while I talk smack with my girls about the skanks across the room (pot, kettle, black, yes I get it), consume more Martinis than socially acceptable - perferably paid for by someone tall, dark and handsome (more likely paid for by Mr. Mastercard) - followed by shaking my groove thang and maybe collecting a few phone numbers before pouring myself into a cab and going home (alone!) to pass out and wake up wondering why the hell I do this to myself.

I repeat: this is not my entire life - but it's fun to go out and play club-girl every now and again. I suppose I could find a set of club-hoppers to run around with, but it'd be nice to have some intelligent conversation and maybe hang out outside of painting the town red too.

So if you and/or your girlfriends are between 23-30 and interested in getting a little Drrrrrty, Xtina style without a) thinking you're contributing to the downfall of feminism or b) thinking being Drrrrty, Xtina style is an acceptable lifestyle choice, then drop me a line!

I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go!

The Keys to My Heart

2005-11-05T13:42:00.000-08:00

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to good manners and elegance. Do potato chip crumbs on his shirt count as good manners and elegance?

In love, you feel the most alive when your partner is patient and never willing to give up on you. Doesn't every princess have loyal subjects?

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring. *Ahem* I AM stylish and alluring. (Ha.)

You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Yup, hate the drama.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Overall I think continuity is good.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. I have broken commitments and I have cheated (not since I was married though.) I wouldn't cheat in my marriage. Too much to lose. Unless it's David Beckham. But that's totally different.

You think of marriage as something that will confine you. You are afraid of marriage. Marriage? Confining? No! But sometimes confinement can be a good thing! ;)

In this moment, you think of love as something you can get or discard anytime. You're feeling self centered.Self-centred? Um, HELLO?? Read my blog much?

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Return of the Ring

2005-11-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

So apparently my humiliating story of the discovery of a personal item of a sexual nature in my parents' living room has made the rounds. People have told me it's the most hysterical thing they've heard in a while. Glad you all could enjoy my agony.

Well, today I got a call from my sister who said she tried to do me a favour, and picked up said item and hid it in her bag to give to me later. Congratulating herself on her stealth, she promptly forgot about it.

A few days later she takes her daughter, my little niece, over to mom's to be babysat, and when she returned, she saw Baby on the floor surrounded by toys - including that toy. As she picked it up to toss it back in the bag, mom notices and says, "That's a pretty good baby toy, where'd you get it?" (Oh gawd, she DOES think it's a teething toy!!)

Sis says, "I don't know...it's Becky's."

Mom, knowing my kids are well past the teething stage, says, "What does Becky need it for?" (Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!!)

Sis, praying for this conversation to end, says, "I don't know!"

She calls me up to relay this story and tell me how mortified she is now that she is implicated in this debacle. She said she should have just told mom what is was and that it was mine. No way! I don't really need mom knowing that! We're the non-sex talking family! Ew!

I told her just to throw the stupid thing out, the last thing we need is a hair-raising third chapter to this ridiculous story.

So it's gone. And if you're wondering what it was, it was something like this: not a baby teething toy.

Comment anxiety

2005-11-01T15:23:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one who sees the longer word verifications in the comment area and thinks, "Oh gawd, how am I supposed to get this right? I can't even see what some of these letters are!" "Is that a j or an i? Dammit, I can't tell if that's an I or an L!" Or if it's only a few letters, "Good! Less effort!"

Wow. I am lazy.

Candy, candy!

2005-10-31T10:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! I'm going out with Darth Vader and a little ghost tonight.

(And if those bastards in the house behind mine keep setting off firecrackers at 10:30 in the morning, I'll be showing them what firecrackers are all about!)

**************************************

Update - The ghost gave up after about 45 minutes, announcing, "I'm done. I wanna go home." And Darth Vader and his buddy...uh, also Darth Vader, continued on with Darth Vader 2's dad. Lotsa loot. Mama and dada are having some snacks before bed!

Oh, my bleeding heart

2005-10-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Remember in "101 Things About Me" when I said I felt a little sad whenever I heard that an American company has bought a Canadian one? This one particularly hurts. I don't know what it is about Hudson's Bay Company, but it has always made me feel pretty Canadian. Now...although nothing will essentially change except for ownership, it will feel different to me.

I get globalization and all that, but geez, Canada, can't we keep anything together?

Hudson's Bay shares spike on takeover bid
Last Updated Fri, 28 Oct 2005 11:30:55 EDT
CBC News
Shares of Hudson Bay Co. soared more than 20 per cent Friday after South Carolina investor Jerry Zucker announced a billion-dollar takeover offer for Canada's oldest company.

Read more here.

Holy hell! How did that get there?!

2005-10-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

I've debated over whether I was going to post this, but it's so awful I figured I'll just do it. Brace yourselves, though, because it may contain a little "too much information", if you get my meaning...

So today I'm at my mom's house, she's helping me put together little Cam's ghost costume for her preschool Halloween party tomorrow. If you know my parents, you'll know I was raised in a practicing Mormon home, very devout and very conservative. And we don't talk about sex. Ever.

Anyway, we're having a tough time coming up with a concept of how to make her look like a ghost and not a KKK member. So I call up Gramma in Winnipeg and get her take on it. As I'm talking, I'm wandering around the living room, and happen to look over at the mantle above the fireplace...and froze dead on the spot. Lost my train of thought in the conversation. Nearly dropped the phone.

What did I see, you ask? Well, let's just say it's something from an "Adult Home Party."

There are three things wrong with this scenario:

1. There is a 'sexual aid' on my parents' mantle in their freaking living room.
2. The sheer fact that it is just sitting on the mantle means that they have no idea what it is.
3. It's mine.

I couldn't grab it because my mom was in the room and I didn't want to draw attention to it (and then possibly have to explain what it is - oh, lordy, the very thought!!) And after we got the costume finished, I was so rushed trying to get the kids home because it was their bedtime and we had a 45 minute drive ahead of us that I forgot to get my, uh, item. Not to mention that a lady from my mom's church came by just as I was leaving and she and my mom were sitting there.

I have NO CLUE how it got there. The only thing I can think of is that it's something we had at our old house and I haven't seen it since we moved here. We did borrow my dad's truck to move a few things when we moved, so that could be it. Or one of the kids took it there as a toy (they used to always get into my bedside table drawer, hence all my personal effects are now in a shoebox on a high shelf in my closet.) Not quite sure which is more cringe-worthy.

I called Hubby when I got home and told him, and he said, "Well, you obviously took it back, right?" Um, nope. "So it's still sitting there?" That would be correct.

This is so very wrong in so many ways.

Does Janet Jackson have a secret daughter?

2005-10-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

The rumour making the rounds. Two words: WHO CARES!!

Unemployed bums

2005-10-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't post this gem earlier because I couldn't remember if I'd given the URL of my blog to my mother-in-law, and we didn't want her to know about this yet. If she did, I'm sure tears and stress would have been involved, and not from Hubby or me. But now that the cat is out of the bag, and Hubby is gainfully employed, I'm posting it.

(Note to my mother-in-law: You know I love you. But it was for your own good.)

And hey, it was kind of fun sitting around for two weeks, neither of us employed. We had some fun times!

*******************************************

After a great night out to see Audioslave and out for a few drinks afterward, I got home at 3am and had a few precious hours of sleep before Hubby took Devon to school in the morning and Camryn woke me up. I was laying on the couch half-asleep when Hubby came in and said, "I have something important to tell you."

Aw, geez. The phrase no one wants to hear.

He settled back in the chair and looked at me with a nervous smile and said, "I got fired yesterday."

Wow. Let's review, you guys...my last day of work, Hubby fired...same day. Yup.

I won't go into the details of why he was fired, because frankly I have always throught his boss was an ass anyway and now I have nothing nice to say at all. Thankfully Hubby is a resourceful guy and he already has a few offers on the table, so hopefully it won't be long before we're back on track.

And since he was hired as an "independent contractor" (even though he was treated as an employee, basically a way for the boss to avoid paying employee benefits, etc.) we aren't eligible for EI or severance. Nice.

But I am sooo happy this has happened overall. I have wanted him to leave this company for a long while, and now it's happening. Now we are looking at some exciting possibilities, and he has the opportunity to do something that he loves, something totally new. I'm excited to see what the future will bring.

Men I Once Dated, Part 2

2005-10-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

This was the guy I nearly married.

I met Mario/Morey when I was 17, and I went to Karaoke one night with my best friend Dawn and her friend Tanya. Tanya was his ex-girlfriend, and little did I know she wanted him back. Her plans were thwarted when he took a shine to me, making that blatantly clear by singing "It Had To Be You" while staring at me the whole time. Um, yeah. (She later had one of her friends track me down at Wonderland in Abbotsford and attempt to kick my ass, but luckily I was with Mario and a bunch of his friends and they got me the hell out of there. I wouldn't have stood a chance against that chick!)

He lived with his "parents" who were in their 60s, which I always thought was odd, because he was 19 and his "brothers and sisters" were in their 30s. Hmm. His name was Morey, but his family had Italian background somewhere, and went by his "Italian name," Mario. I couldn't quite figure that one out, but he was "Mario" to me.

The best part was that he was the singer in a band, called Precious Blood. That's right. It was the height of the "grunge era" and he thought he was in the thick of it. I used to make fun of the name of the band all the time, and every time I said it, I would use a whispery voice and drag out the word "Precious" like it was a revered name of deity. It was a metal/alternative rock type band, and like a good lead singer's girlfriend, I even had their demo tape which I wish I still had, although I do have a copy somewhere of the "album cover" which he had drawn by hand.

His "parents" liked me, but they were probably clinically insane. His "mom" was very overweight and couldn't get around on her own, and had a lot of health problems. She was nice to me, but always yelling at her husband and at Mario, but they always just laughed at her. Sometimes when she got mad at Mario she would scream, "You're not really my son!" That was always interesting. Her husband, Mario's "dad," was a redneck type of guy who was drunk a lot. Mario had a "brother" and "sister-in-law" who had two daughters, and seemed pretty normal. He had another brother and sister who lived somewhere else (I don't remember where) and another sister who I don't think I ever saw sober. In fact the first time I met her she screamed at me for something, so I just avoided her after that.

If that's not weird enough, I decided at one point I was going to marry into this family. We even had the wedding planned out - I planned to wear a skin tight silver top with silver hotpants and silver boots. He was going to wear something "grunge-y". I would walk down the aisle to "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins. I dreamed of being the wife of a rock star. (I am writhing in humiliation right now. Gawd, why am I revealing all this? I will never live it down!)

His parents moved to Calgary, and although Mario tried to keep afloat on his own to try to stay near me, he decided he had some better opportunities in Cowtown and packed up and moved. I was devastated and we agreed to make the relationship long-distance. We were quickly running up long distance phone bills and I even flew out there for a week. The deal was that I would buy my ticket there, and he would buy my ticket back. But when I arrived, he had no money. So what did I do? Contemplated staying for good and marrying him, of course!

Things really came to a head one night as I sat in the pizza shop where he worked, and pondered my future. I was registered to start a program in office administration at the college at home, and I suddenly thought, "If I want any kind of future, I'd better at least go to school. I better get my ass back there." So with the kind generosity of Mario's boss at the pizza shop, I got my ticket home. I bawled almost the whole flight back, but when I arrived home I knew I'd made the right decision.

We wrote letters, but over the months those were growing few and far between. Then he went missing for a week or so, no letters or calls from his friends houses, and I knew something was up. When I finally reached him he claimed he was in the hospital with pneumonia, trying to assuage my anger and elicit some sympathy. I was past all that with him now, and my friend Sheri and I called every hospital in Calgary, claiming to be his sister and asked if he had been, or was admitted there. No one had heard of him. When I talked to him again, I said, "So how is your pneumonia? Hey, what hospital were you in again?" and he said, "Foothills" and I answered, "Well, that's funny, because Sheri and I called every hospital in town, and no one has heard of you!" The line went quiet. And I was done. Shortly afterward I mailed off a letter telling him what a loser he was, and not even the sobbing, blubbering phone call I got a week later could convince me to change my mind.

And I met Hubby a few months later. About two years later, after Pre-Hubby and I had moved in together, I got a phone call from Mario, he was moving to Vancouver and wanted to come by to see me. Pre-Hubby was at work, but I let him come by, and we went out for coffee. He told me about how things were going for him, (not much had changed,) and told he he'd finally found out his "parents" were actually his grandparents, and his drunken "sister" was actually his mom. I said, "Are you telling me you never suspected that once? Even I knew that," and he said he had had no idea. As he was getting ready to leave, he looked at me with disdain and said, "Look at you. You have your nice downtown apartment, your conservative job and your conservative boyfriend (whom he'd never met). You've totally sold out!"

Well, if selling out means I don't live in a dirty old hovel of an apartment, begging money off my friends, working in a pizza shop and playing guitar in coffee shops, then I think I'm pretty okay with "selling out," thanks.

Men I Once Dated

2005-10-24T01:05:00.000-07:00

I'm bumping this post up because I finally got off my arse and dug through some old pictures. I think the effect is better with the photo.

One of the first websites I frequented when I first discovered the Internet was BRETTNews. Brett featured a column from time to time called "Men My Mother Dated" and would tell a story (claimed to be "mostly true") about some experience his mother had had in her dating years. They were pretty entertaining, and later I found Brett had published the stories as a book.

So I have decided to review some of my dating stories, or, "Men I Once Dated," ...well, if you can call them that.

I think one of the most colourful characters I dated was Jude. Jude was the friend of a friend who had moved from Abbotsford to Vancouver and came back to Ab every now and then to visit. One New Year's Eve he came out to party with us, and when we arrived (er, crashed) the party we intended to ring the New Year in at, we were refused entry because of our friend Jude. You see, he looked a little rough around the edges.

He wore an eye patch.

No, he was not a pirate. The story was that he had been hit in the eye with a baseball bat in a fight, and had to wear it for real medical reasons, but I think he continued to wear it a little longer than necessary. He also had spikey hair and - hmm, should I say it? A rattail. Believe it or not, I thought it was incredibly attractive, but note that I have always been a sucker for the bad boy.

That New Year's Eve I spent riding around in his brother's SUV with a bunch of my friends. He and I didn't really get to know each other, but I was definately attracted to him. That night I stayed at a friend's house, and we chatted for a while after getting to her place, and I opened up and told her I had a thing for Jude, and she admitted she did too! We laughed and said how cute is that, but secretly plotted to obliterate the other.

Anyway, I guess word got around that I had the hots for him, and somehow (I can't remember how) we ended up an item of sorts. We would hang out together, and he would take me shopping and buy me stuff. (I never wondered where he got his money from, even though he never seemed to have a job...hmmm!) For Valentine's Day, (ahem, and my birthday the day before that,) he came to my house and brought me a gold ring shaped into the word "love." It even came in a heart-shaped box.

Well, the romance came to a screeching halt when another friend told me she found out that on the very day that he came to give me my birthday/Valentine's present, he'd been to this other girl's house and given her a present too! Hmph! But that's not even the clincher...a few days later, my informant friend arrived at my doorstep and said, "Jude wants back the jewellery he gave you." (Meaning another ring and a gold bracelet of his he'd let me wear.) I wasn't terribly crushed over the turn of events, and huffed and rolled my eyes, and my friend was sympathetic. I got the stuff, and she said, "Oh, just come out to my truck - he's hiding in there because he's too ashamed to get this stuff from you himself."

So I went outside and yanked open the door to her truck, and sure enough, the dumbass is lying across the seat of the truck, waiting, and as soon as the door opened he jolted up and said, "Oh! uh, hi!" I had to stifle a snicker as I tossed his stuff to him and said, "Well, there ya go," and he mumbled, "Thanks," and I said, "So long then!" and slammed the door in his face. My friend and I had a good chuckle over that.

The last time I heard from Jude was when I was living in downtown Vancouver with Hubby (before Hubby was my hubby) about 10 years ago. He phoned me from jail, and asked if I wanted to come visit him. I said I would, more because I was curious to see if he was really in jail or not, and and I kind of wanted to see what jail was like. He told me where it was. I forgot to go, and that was the end of that.

When you don't have cable, you gotta have something

2005-10-20T22:52:00.000-07:00

The Hub and I have slowly been building up our movie library, and picking up a few here and there when we see them. Hub bought a season of Ali G and we had some great giggles over that, and got "The Bourne Identity" to complete our collection (see earlier post).

So here are a few I am looking forward to getting:

That's all I can think of for now. Suggestions?

Late-night losers

2005-10-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hubby and I have a pasttime of staying up late and watching movies. Our favourites are "The Bourne Supremacy" "Romeo + Juliet" (only the beginning, Hubby thinks its totally cool and won't watch the rest - it's "too depressing") and a variety of others ranging from "The Office" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episodes to "Some Kind Of Monster."

Anyway, we realized last night that we've watched "The Bourne Supremacy" so many times that we can say the lines before the character in the movie does. And some of the lines we've heard so many times, they've lost their drama and have become hilarious. We start laughing our fool heads off before they say them. Such as:

"Why Naples? Why now?"

"I will not have Jason Bourne destory any more of this agency!"

"Is that definitive enough for you?"

"How's that scan?"

"You call this a success?" "We have a lead, Marty."

and the best one of all time, "She's standing right next to you."

Maybe you have to watch the movie eighty times to find this as funny as we do.

When what's lost is found

2005-10-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hubby came in with the mail last night and I had a mysterious package. I looked at the return address and it said, "Chris Cornell, Paris, France." Of course my first thought was, "OMG! He found me! He's asking me to run away and tour with the band!"

I opened the package and found this note:

With these:

Wow. Well thank god I got those back.

(I have really funny friends.)

The family's altogether for Thanksgiving

2005-10-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

Canadian Thanksgiving today, and a weird one at that.

No turkey dinner for us today. I didn't feel like cooking one, and pretty much everyone we know has either already had theirs or is having one with their family today. My mom normally does one, but decided to do it next week instead so the whole family could be there.

So here we sit. The kids are playing, Hubby is watching "Some Kind of Monster" the Metallica documentary on DVD. And I'm here blogging. It's been pouring rain all day. Nothing quite like family togetherness to make us all thankful.

Actually, here are some things I'm thankful for:

-Hubby - for kicking my ass in Scrabble and being nice about it;
-Kids - a son who will watch Star Wars with me (so I can enjoy Hayden Christensen) anytime, a daughter who will sing dumb songs with me;
-my friends, especially for not caring when I invite myself over at a moment's notice, or for dinner (hee);
-my family, because they all dig Christmas as much as I do;
-Food - particularly chocolate covered almonds;
-Canada, for letting me live a free life and beautiful scenery;
-my iPod, Ginger, just for being herself.

I think I'm going to go up for a nap.

I need some Gwen!

2005-10-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't loaded a lot of my CDs onto iTunes, but since I got my iPod I have been adding them on. But I went to put Gwen's L.A.M.B. album on, and my whole CD is scratched to the point where most of the songs aren't listenable! The only ones that don't skip are "What You Waiting For", "Hollaback Girl", and "Rich Girl." I kept "Cool" on there, but it has a few skips in it too.

The thing that bugs me is that the reason it is like this is because Hubby tends to toss CDs into the compartment thingie in the car and not into the CD case where they won't get scratched. He also leaves DVDs and CDs on the floor by the player in the living room where the kids end up handling them, and no matter how many times I tell him to put them away properly, he is too lazy to do it!

I need my Gwen on my iPod but don't want to pay for these songs all over again! Ugh!

But it's for work...

2005-10-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

I admit I've been neglecting my blog lately, I've had a lot going on and let's be honest, I haven't been too creative as of late, and I'm a bit dry on ideas. Actually that's a lie, because I have another "Men I have dated" entry, but I have to dig through some old pictures in my garage and I'm too lazy to do it. But maybe that's what I'll do tomorrow since my calandar is totally clear for tomorrow.

Since I quit my job and I'm back on the freelance scene, I have been thinking of ways to spruce up my website for my freelance writing business, and I've decided to add a blog where I will talk about advertising/marketing/copy-related topics. I thought it would be a good way to keep clients and other people coming back to check for new content and to show that I'm halfway competent.

So my web guy came over yesterday and explained this whole blogging thing to me, and holy crap, you guys, there is some actual strategy behind all this! Geez! I could actually get business from my website if I add this blog, so it's actually a good business move!

Months ago I subscribed to the monthly/weekly email from this website, Wordbiz and almost all the emails were about corporate blogs and how to make them effective. I didn't think it applied to me as a freelancer, and considered cancelling the subscription. But after talking to my web guy yesterday, holy crap, I'm going to be looking at the site more frequently and looking forward to Debbie Weil's emails! Geez, how could I have been so dim?

Now Hubby can quit whining about me being on the computer writing stuff for my blog. Now I have the ultimate excuse. And I can blog all I want! Bwahahahaha!!

It's here!

2005-10-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

I was having a little snooze while the kids played this afternoon when suddenly they shook me awake and were yelling excitedly, "Mommy! Your iPod is here!"

In my stupor I heard the doorbell ring, so I jumped up and ran with the kids downstairs to the door. Sure enough the mailwoman was there holding a box! The kids were so excited and I opened the box to find this:

(Mine is black)

So now that I've dropped everything (including my nap) and have installed the software, loaded my music on and have it going, I'm finding I have to share. Halfway through the first song ("Black Tambourine" by Beck) Devon said, "Can I listen to your iPod please?" So now I have one earbud in and he has the other in.

You guys, this thing is small. It fits in the palm of my hand, and Apple wasn't kidding when they said it was as thin as a pencil. (It's thinner - I just tested.) I don't think there are carrying cases for the nano yet, so I'm going to have to be careful. Not to mention a guy at my (former) work had one and said the black ones tend to scratch really easily, so I haven't taken the plastic covering off the face yet. The back is silver and almost as good as a mirror so I can use it to apply lip gloss when I'm on the go - how cool is that? And you can get inscriptions on the back too, although I didn't.

This is gonna be fun.

Mopeds, scooters, they're all the same, just another thing that's lame

2005-10-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

I've been reading this blog, Tequila Red for a couple of weeks now, and literally almost spit out my drink when I read this:

Scooter Rage
I'm waiting for my turn at a stop sign on Damen when I notice a motorscooter pulling up hell-for-leather behind me. In the rearview mirror I can see that he is shouting something, but it's impossible to make out the words. Until he pulls around to my passenger side. Leaning into the open window he screams, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY YOU COCKSUCKER!" very nearly causing me to pee myself. While I try to figure out if I accidentally cut him off or something, he moves up to the next car. "MOVE YOUR CANDY ASS, YA FUCKIN TURD!" he yells at the poor girl inside. He pulls up to the truck ahead of her. "DON'T EVEN ACT LIKE YOU DIDN'T FUCKIN HEAR ME BITCH!" Then he gives us all the finger and speeds away. As fast as a scooter will speed, anyway.

Everytime I read this I laugh out loud. Last night as I was going to sleep, I thought of it and started giggling. Then all-out, snorting and belly laughing. Hubby was half-asleep and snapped, "What is your problem? What is so funny?" and I couldn't tell him because I was laughing so hard.

This actually reminds me of the story my friends Sheri and Shelley told me about the time they were in Hawaii together. They rented mopeds for the day, and were riding them around town. Someone cut Sheri off, and she leaned on the teeny-tiny horn for a good 30 seconds and got totally mad at the guy as she maneuvered around him and sped off. We all still laugh about that story when it comes up.

Or a few months back when my aunt emailed pictures of one of my cousin's friends who was living with them for a while, who bought a scooter. She said he was bootin' around town on it, and some girls in a car rolled down their window and "called him gay." Not nice, but made me laugh. (And what is the connection to owning a scooter and being gay? Not all gay people ride scooters, not all scooter riders are gay. Can't figure that one out exactly, but still funny nonetheless.)

I get the purpose of scooters, I get that they are fuel-efficient and handy, and great for getting around in a busy city, but I don't care what anyone says, scooters are lame.

Feel the rhythm with your hands, steal the rhythm while you can

2005-09-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my last day at work. It was really fun. My manager even had me sit in on an interview with a potential candidate for my position, which was nice and I got to add my own input! Lots of people came by my desk to say goodbye and a bunch of us went for Thai food for lunch. They ordered a couple of desserts too, telling the waitress it was my birthday (maybe hoping it would be free)and she came over with mango ice cream and deep fried bananas with a candle on top, singing "happy birthday," so everyone joined in! It was so funny. Then when we were going back to the office, the waitress walked by and said, "Bye - happy birthday!" which started me giggling again.

It was actually hard to say goodbye. My manager kept hovering around my desk, chatting, and when I went to say goodbye he hugged me and said he was sorry to see me go. As I drove away from the office I kept thinking to myself, "I just made a huge mistake. I just really blew it. I just totally screwed myself!" When my kids get older they better appreciate the sacrifices I'm making to be home with them while they're little!

The absolute high part of the day was meeting Rigby, Clay and Carly's friend Jason last night for Audioslave!

After a rocky start when I locked my damn keys in the car and had to call a tow truck, we were off to GM Place. I was so excited when the show was starting, almost excited as superfan Clay, who almost ditched us for not moving fast enough.

I almost couldn't contain myself when they came onstage and started playing. I really like their new album Out of Exile and hearing it live only made me like it more. Chris Cornell looked great (even though Carly thought his haircut looked brutal, and I had other concerns about his physique, to be detailed later).

Carly's friend Jamie came by and she went out for a minute to talk to him, and when she came back, she said he'd told her that the Spoonman was there! I was so excited, I almost wished she didn't say that so I could be surprised. When Chris Cornell introduced him and brought him out during "Spoonman" they let him play a bit longer than he did in the actual song, which I thought was pretty cool.

And can I just say, when I hear those first few chords from "Rusty Cage" I get chills?? As soon as I heard that, I got goosebumps everywhere. EVERYWHERE. (I'm playing it as I write this, and started the song back at the beginning and yup, still get 'em too.) I was so excited I was jumping up and down and stomped on Clay's foot, and had to calm myself down before he decked me for dirtying up his shoes.

But the Rage songs took the cake. Chris Cornell left the stage (I don't know why I keep calling him "Chris Cornell" instead of just Chris, I just can't for some reason) and the band played what he called a melody, then started in on "Bulls on Parade." Holy crap. The crowd went bananas! All the Rage songs got way more of a response than even the new Audioslave stuff. I was in shock, even though Carly had told me that the same thing had happened at the show in Seattle a few months back (that I almost got to go to instead of Carly.) Back in "the day" I was a big Soundgarden fan, and while I knew some Rage songs I wasn't a huge fan. Now I can say I have a bit more love for them, and have downloaded a few songs since the show.

The only Soundgarden song I wanted to hear that they didn't play was "Jesus Christ Pose", but I've gotten over that.

Okay, so the big question of the night was, "Does Chris Cornell have man-boobs?" I swear when he was jumping up and down that I saw movement. I did. I pointed it out to Carly near the end of the show because it was bugging me, but he didn't jump anymore after that, almost like he'd heard me.

Man-boobs?

The debate continued in the parking lot where Jason declared that they were pecs, and even pecs jiggle if they aren't flexed. I wasn't aware of that, so I'm willing to believe the lack of male mammaries, but I will be trolling for recent topless photos of CC before issuing final judgement.

Oh, and this was the first concert I've been to and bought a shirt. I was so thrilled because the shirt I got looked exactly as I'd hoped:

Very fun night.

Laminated card and backup?

2005-09-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

I got this from a message board I visit. Who's the top five on your laminated card, and who's a backup?

My laminated list:

David Beckham (Another reason I like English football, and the nickname Bex)
Johnny Depp (Could IMDB have picked a more unflattering photo for his profile?)
Jude Law (Even though Rigby sent me an unflattering link about his "lack of substance" in certain areas...)
Steve Young (the reason I am/was a 49ers fan, even though I don't even follow football)
Hayden Christensen (I'll watch Star Wars with my kid any day)

And an honourary addition to my laminated list:

Olivier Martinez

My backups:

Michael Vick (Sorry Rigby, he only makes my backup so far)
Jamie Foxx
Cillian Murphy
Adam Levine
Kobe Bryant

Tag - you're it.

My - What A Happy Day!

2005-09-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

I'm having a great day. This is my last week of work, and although I'm sorta sad to be leaving, I'm happy that I won't have to truck my kids back and forth to my mom's house 45 minutes away anymore since our nanny went back to school.

I'm also super stoked about the new iPod nano I just bought online last night! Eeeee! I can't wait until I get it, I ordered it through work, and the website says it should arrive a day or so after ordering. I got a black one, just a 2GB, but it holds about 500 songs, so that should hold me. I am so so so excited!

I also got a digital camera (thought I'd take advantage of the employee discount before I quit.) My old camera died about a year ago and I've been using my mom's really old digital camera, so I finally got a new one.

I'm also excited because I'm seeing two shows this week - tomorrow night Rigby and I are going to see Green Day/Jimmy Eat World. I'm not as big a fan as she is, but hey, it's a show and I'm just there for a good time. Then on Thursday (my last day at work) we are going to AUDIOSLAVE! I am so excited I get giddy thinking about it. I know I sound like such a huge nerd, but I missed seeing them in Seattle a few months back (at the Paramount, where I saw Johnny Mathis last November, which is a gorgeous theatre and would have been an amazing concert) so I'm so thrilled that I get to see them after all.

There's other good things going on too - a few people at work asked for my card, so if all goes well, I could end up with a new freelance client or two. I also am going to check out a networking group my friend Deb is a part of, so it will be nice to get around people even though I'm not going in to the office anymore.

I am also really excited because I've started thinking about Xmas shopping! Devon wants pretty much anything Star Wars, and since we've watched the old movies (Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) and two of the new ones (The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones)and I have to say I'm a fan now too. Particularly of Hayden Christensen, but that's another post.

Life is good today.

The blog is in transition

2005-09-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

I was getting sick of that puke colour on my blog, and I don't like any of the templates available, so it's basic white for now until I can figure out how to make it look better. Yeah, I know, it looks really boring, but hang on and I'll get it looking fit for a...

General, nonsensical, wandering thoughts

2005-09-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

YellowandOrange didn't tag anyone, but since I'm a complete sucker for these types of things:

10 Years Ago: Ten years ago I had just moved to Vancouver from Abbotsford and was about to move in with Hubby. We weren't even dating anymore, but his sister had just moved here from Halifax with her boyfriend, and Hubby told her I'd be cool to hang out with, and got her to call me. We started hanging out, and by default Hubby and I ended up together again. We moved into Beach Towers on Beach Avenue, the best place I've ever lived - ever! I got a job at a law firm downtown and felt like I'd reached the top of my game. I was happy - life was good.

Five Years Ago: Hubby and I had just moved from our basement suite in Walnut Grove (Langley, BC) to another basement suite in Westwood Plateau in Coquitlam. Devon was eight months old. I was growing tired of staying home alone with a baby while Hubby was gone with our only car all day, so I got a part-time job at Fitness World, and while the club was under construction we were selling memberships out of a trailer in the parking lot. I worked with four or five other people and some days it was so slow we'd just goof off all day. It was so much fun, I almost felt sad when the club opened and we were working in the gym and doing actual work. I got quite good at the bus system with a stoller on my days off when I wanted to go spend my paycheques too.

One Year Ago: We had just moved into our new townhouse in Pitt Meadows and I was working on my freelance business. I was actually really busy over the fall. Hubby and I did the Atkins diet most of last year, and he lost 40 pounds and I lost 25. (I've gained about 15 back though, so once I'm finished at my job I'll have more time to go back to the gym.)

Yesterday: I got up and took Devon to kindergarten, then came home and gave Camryn a bath and had a shower. In the afternoon I took the kids to the dentist, and they did so well that I decided to take them to pick out a new movie each. Mommy found a movie she likes (Almost Famous) and helped herself to one too. Had friends over to play after that. Then last night the babysitter came over and Hubby and I went to watch a friend's hockey team (he is one of the coaches) play in Delta, and went to Cactus Club for some food and drinks after. Fell asleep promptly around 2:30am.

Five Songs I Know All The Words To:
1. The Iceberg - Ice-T (probably some of the crudest lyrics I know)
2. The Seed - The Roots
3. Its Great to be an Engine - Thomas the Tank Engine
4. Bob the Builder Theme Song
5. Track #8 (I think - can't remember what it's called) on Gwen's L.A.M.B. album

Five Snacks:
1. Chocolate
2. Those low-carb, whole wheat tortilla chips I bought - yum
3. strawberries and cream
4. Black Cherry diet Jones soda
5. Green grapes from Langley Farm Market

Five Things I'd Do With $100 Million:
1. Pay off debt
2. Take the trip of a lifetime
3. Give enough money to get my family and friends comfortable
4. Invest
5. Buy a Jaguar XK8

Five Places I'd Run Away To:
1. Hawaii
2. Seattle
3. England
4. Australia
5. Somewhere in the South Pacific

Five Things I'd Never Wear:
1. A poncho
2. Those hippie skirts that are popular right now
3. Gotta agree with Toni - those half sweater things
4. Anything cowboy or western
5. A sweater set

Five Favorite TV Shows:
1. I
2. don't
3. watch
4. T
5. V

Five Greatest Joys:
1. Playing with my kids, especially when we play horsie ride, and I buck them off
2. Writing something I am proud of, and getting great feedback
3. Those late nights where Hubby and I lay in bed and laugh our heads off at dumb stuff
4. Road trips, getting on a plane to go somewhere new
5. Spending the whole day reading a good book, and not having anywhere to be that day

Five Favorite Toys:
1. My computer
2. The iPod nano I am going to buy
3. my cell phone (I love text messaging)
4. My debit card (loooove to shop)
5. I would say my digital camera, but since I am using my mom's old one since mine pooped out, it doesn't really count. (But I might get a new one before my job is over so I can get a discount!)

Five People To Tag:
I'm not going to tag anyone either, since a lot of the blogs I read have already done this - except Carly - or Clay - you're up!

You said it, little sister

2005-09-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

This morning my daughter Camryn was wandering around with a blanket wrapped around herself, singing, "I wuv being a Pwincess, she wuvs being a Pwincess, I wuv being a Pwincess, she wuvs being a Pwincess..."

I started laughing and said to Hubby, "Did you hear that?"

He said to her, "Wow, Camryn, you aren't the only one in our family that loves to be a princess!"

Well, at least he's acknowledging it.

(She got the song from this kid's show, Backyardigans.)

Adventures with Ron Mexico

2005-09-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

In honour of Carly and our trip to Seattle last weekend (which I will get around to posting about later) this post will be all about Michael Vick, aka Ron Mexico.

For those not in the know, Michael Vick is the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, whose #7 jersey I agreed to wear to the Seahawks game on Sunday and hence had to slink out of the stadium after a score of 21-18, and even had to bear the humiliation of two skinny Seahawks snitches making fun of me behind my back (more about that in an upcoming post!)

Anyway, the story is that Michael Vick contracted herpes, and when he went to be tested/treated at a clinic, he went under the pseudonym "Ron Mexico."

First, I have to post this hilarious bit that Carly sent me via email that I could not stop laughing at:

Nobody wants to use Michael Vick's chapstick

Falcons quarterback Michael Vick can't seem to find a single teammate who wants to borrow his chapstick.

"I can't explain it. It has UV protection and everything," said Vick. "It's perfect to wear during a hot day of training camp out in the sun."

Vick said he thinks he can remember some teammates accepting his offer of chapstick when he's asked in the past. But this year it's different.

"Dude, you must be out of your f*king mind to think I'm going to rub anything on my lips that have touched yours," said lineman Patrick Kerney. "Ask me that again and I'll knock you out. And I've already applied chapstick today, thank you very much."

The reaction has been similar among most Falcons.

"He asked me the other day if I wanted some as we were walking out of the locker room," said running back T.J. Duckett. "I looked at him like: 'Brother, you crazy!' Like I want his nasty chapstick. If I'm going to get herpes it's going to be from a girl, not from my quarterback."

Okay, now that I've caught my breath and can sit in my chair straight again, here's another little tidbit from MSN that proves Carly and I aren't the only ones who love the Ron Mexico moniker:

ATLANTA - The NFL doesn’t want Ron Mexico to play for the Falcons.

Since that name was listed as an alias for Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick in a lawsuit filed last month, people have gone to the NFL’s online store to order Vick’s No. 7 replica jersey with a personalized “MEXICO” on the back.

But fans trying to order the customized jersey now get this message: “The personalization entered cannot be accepted.”

Hmph, sounds like the NFL needs to get a sense of humour.

And can I just say how much I love the name "Ron Mexico?" Can that get any sexier? I mean, herpes aside and all, I think I might just start to dig Mike Vick because he uses the pseudonym "Ron Mexico" for cryin' out loud! Geez!

Not to mention that rumours were swirling about whether he was gay, and when asked by an Atlanta radio station, he answered, "I won't even feed into that . . . Everybody who knows me, knows how I get down..."

Hellooooo?! That is so hot!

Anyway, here's to Ron Mexico...and to Carly, here's to you!

Top Ten Reasons Why I'll Miss My Job

2005-09-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

My contract at my job is up, and I decided not to continue and instead go back to freelancing and being here for my kids. It's a tough decision. I still doubt it some days. But alas, my last day is Sept. 29.

So in honour of my leaving, here are a few things I will miss about my job:

10. Getting up, having a shower, doing my hair and putting on makeup before 8am. (Believe it or not.)
9. Listening to the Jeff O'Neil show on the Fox during my morning commute.
8. Scouting the building for any male specimen over a 7.
7. Having a day where I feel like I'm a part of something.
6. Not getting the chance to wear the mascot costume.
5. Sitting in meetings and goofing off and laughing.
4. Making fun of the advertising manager for loving hockey so much.
3. Writing fun stuff.
2. The cafeteria food - the roasted cornish game hen, blackened cajun tuna, and the stir fry with shanghai sauce particularly.
1. My manager chanting, "We're here, We're queer, we're not going away!" when suggesting what I should write for some teaser ads for a Grand Opening. (Still laughing over that, maybe you had to be there..)

Sleepless for Seattle

2005-09-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

As Carly mentioned in her blog, we are taking Clay and Hubs to Seattle this weekend. I can't wait it's going to be so fun. We're staying at the Vance, going to an NFL football game (my gift to Hubby for his b-day) and will generally haunt downtown Seattle to see what tickles our fancy (besides the Vance staff, of course.)

I have a ton of things to do in the meantime, and I don't have any new blog entries to entertain any of you over the weekend (I've got a few drafts halfway started but not finished.)

TTFN!

Wannabe English

2005-09-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post about this earlier - when I was at the Oasis show the other night, it really bugged me to see all the people wearing England jerseys, jackets and shirts. I strongly doubt that all those people, like the England-shirt-wearing dude in front of me and Rocket with the wanna-be-David-Beckham mohawk (that was flat on top by the end of the night) are even English! I had to resist the urge to ask random people, "Excuse me, are you English? No? Then why the hell are you wearing that jersey?"

I know the guys in Oasis are from Manchester. I get that. But just because the guys in the band are a certain nationality do we all have to break out the national gear? Do people wear Canadian stuff to a Tragically Hip show? American stuff to any American band's show?

Maybe I'm just overreacting. It wouldn't be the first time. But it still bugs me.

My dad is English, (and still has his English citizenship even after being in Canada for 35 years) and his family takes a lot of pride in their English background, so I'm open to the possibility that I'm being a little snooty about this.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

2005-09-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

(And to prove he doesn't look like he has Downs....)

Today Hubby is 31! Yay for him! As he said to me last night, "Now you get to enjoy six months with an older guy again!"

He's off at the Canadian Open Golf Tournament with a friend today and we won't see him until tonight. Then tomorrow he's going to play some football. And next week we are going to Seattle for the weekend and will be seeing an NFL football game, which he's really excited about as he's never been to one - and he's excited to be seeing Michael Vick (aka Ron Mexico)in action.

I'm taking Devon to a martial arts school open house today as he's been begging me for Karate or Tae Kwon Do lessons. I want him to see what it's about first, and we'll see how it goes.

The Importance of Being Idle

2005-09-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Went to the Oasis show last night. Rocket was my "date." We decided to have dinner at this Italian place on Broadway and skip the first band, Kasabian, but by the time we arrived at GM Place, Jet was on and we only got to enjoy the last song of their set. (And Rocket was really just going to see Jet, too!)

Anyway, all I can say about Oasis is that it's a damn good thing they have good music and Liam has a great voice. Because good lord, they do nothing on stage. Nothing! I did come prepared for that because I was talking to someone at work who's seen them live before, and he said Liam just stands at the mike with his hands clasped behind his back, and sometimes he'll shake the tambourine around a bit.

No kidding...

Well, that is exactly what he did during the whole show. It kind of annoyed me at first, but then once I got used to it it was kind of funny. Between verses of the songs he would walk away from the mike and just stand there, with his hands clasped in front of him, staring out into the crowd (or the distance, I couldn't tell which) with no expression. I commented about how he looks like he doesn't give a crap about being there, to which Rocket said, "Yeah, like he's thinking, "Geez, why'd I come in to work today?"

Anyway, Rocket and I had a great time. We were gettin' down in our seats, locked arms and swayed from side to side with our arms waving (in a German sort of way, minus the leiderhosen) and having some laughs at Liam's expense. And at the end of the night when Liam said, "Thank you all for coming, you're very nice people," I said, "That means, thanks for not throwing your boot at me," and Rocket said, "Yeah, thanks for not beaning me in the melon!" and we burst into peals of laughter. Then as the band walked off stage after the encore, (which was really good, they played a great rendition of "My Generation," which was probably the most energetic they got all night, in my humble opinion) Rocket started clapping and said, "Thanks buddy, thanks for coming to work today!"

Thanks, Liam. Thanks for going in to work last night. At least we had a good time.

She's coming! She's coming!

2005-09-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

This week it was announced that Gwen Stefani will be doing a concert in Vancouver on November 20! And I was able to get pre-sale tickets thanks to Carly's friend who hooked me up.

Shelley and I are going to see the show together, which will be so fun, the last time we went to a show together was the Backstreet Boys in 2001! Okay, that's a little embarrassing to admit, but we went with Sheri and decided we were just going to go have a great time and scream our brains out. I was hoarse for two days afterwards. Hubby thought I was a huge dork.

I am so excited! Gwen is so cool, and I hear she puts on a really fun, high-energy show.

Can't wait!

More me, me, me

2005-09-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

Carly emailed me this survey (I love surveys and questionnaires, as stated in "101 Things About Me")

I decided to fill it out instead of cleaning the house like I told Hubby I would while he went out to run an errand. Suddenly as I'm finishing up and about to add the email addresses in, I heard the garage door opening...YIKES! I had to quickly save it as a draft in Word and shut the computer off, and run upstairs to make it look like I had done something or I'd have to listen to his whining.

Did I tell you I loved surveys and questionnaires?

1. Your name spelled backwards?
*nahguav acceber

2. Where were your parents raised?
*Mom: Winnipeg, Manitoba.
*Dad: West Hartlepool, England.

3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer?
*Probably the update to a program of some sort.

4. What's your favorite restaurant?
*Charlie's or Carlos' Mexican

5. Last time you swam in a pool?
*A week ago in Kamloops :)

6. Have you ever been in a school play?
*Yes, I was in a mystery story in grade 5, and I was the maid - (and the maid did it!)

7. How many kids do you want?
*Just the two, thanks.

8. Type of music you dislike most?
*Country, with rap a close second.

9. Are you registered to vote?
*You need to ask??

10. Do you have cable?
*Nope, been without it for a year. Miss it from time to time, but not enough to get it again.

11. Have you ever ridden on a moped?
*Wouldn't be caught...

12. Ever prank call anybody?
*Ever heard of Walter, Chauncey Jackson, and Mr. Chen? (Well, it wasn't me actually calling, but I was party to the whole affair.)

13. Best friends?
*Hubby, Carly, Janet, and Shelley

14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?
*No I would not.

15. Furthest place you ever traveled?
*Charlottetown and Cavendish Beach, PEI.

16. Do you have a garden?
*No. All my plants are fake, for their own safety.

17. What's your favorite comic strip?
*I don't read comic strips. There was a Dilbert comic I read about 8 years ago that really made me laugh for a long time once.

18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem?
*Sure do, but not all the extra verses.

19. Bath or Shower, morning or night?
*Morning shower, or mid morning shower, or afternoon shower.

20. Best movie you've seen in the PAST MONTH?
*Sideways.

21. Favorite pizza topping?
*Bacon.

22. Chips or popcorn?
*Neither, but if I had to pick, it would be chips I guess.

23. What color lipstick do you usually wear?
*I have this sample lip gloss in a cool little clear plastic cube from Estee Lauder. Can't remember the name of the colour though, it's a cross between brown and "blush." I put it on in the morning and never bother to reapply, though. (*Sad update - I was at the Estee Lauder counter today and the consultant told me they don't make them anymore! *sniff*)

24. Have you ever peed somewhere besides the toilet?
*That - is - gross.

25. Have you ever been in a talent show?
*Yes, lots! Mormons love talent shows!

26. Orange Juice or apple juice?
*I don't normally drink juice, but sometimes some cold OJ hits the spot.

27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you dine?
*Hubby and I went to Cactus Club the other night.

28. Favorite type chocolate bar?
*Oh, all of them! Not a big fan of the nougat ones though.

29. When was the last time you voted at the polls?
*May 17.

30. Last time you ate a home grown tomato?
*What a weird question! Dawn gave me some from her garden when I left Kamloops just last week! They were so good!

31. Have you ever won a trophy?
*No, but I won a tiara, does that count?

32. Are you a good cook?
*I can make good stuff if I try, but I lack the desire.

33. Do you know how to pump your own gas?
*Yeah, who doesn't?? My five year old likes to "help," even he knows how!

34. Did you ever order an article from an infomercial?
*Yeah, I got the "Sounds of the Seventies" CD series. Still have 'em, they are so great! I also came VERY close to ordering this mini food processor one day - I still think about it sometimes.

35. Sprite or 7-up?
*I don't drink pop, but if I had to pick, it would be 7-Up.

36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work?
*At Wal-Mart I had to wear that dorky blue apron. At Fitness World I wore black yoga pants and a Fitness World track jacket.

37. Last thing you bought at a Walgreens?
*Postcards for my kids in Seattle! Although whenever I think of Walgreens I think of when Aaron and I walked to Walgreens near our house in Vegas and that's where we bought a pregnancy test when I found out I was pregnant with Devon.

38. Ever thrown up in public?
*Yup, in Las Vegas when I was pregnant with Devon. Going to work with Janice, she went inside 7Eleven and I was waiting in the car, I felt so sick I got out and ran beside the building to puke, looked up and saw a busful of commuters at the bus stop beside me.

39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love?
*Love is nice, but so is "lotsa dollahs!"

40. Do you believe in love at first sight?
*I believe in infatuation at first sight.

41. Can exes be friends?
*They can be, but I never have been friends with any of my exes and never would want to be.

42. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital?
* Ginny when she had Vienna.

43. Did you have a lot of hair as a baby?
*Not a lot.

44. What outgoing message is on your voicemail?
*Hi you have reached the Vaughans sorry we can't take your call right now, but please leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.

Or something like that.

45. What's your favorite color?
*Purple

46. What was the name of your first pet?
*Kitty, a stray we took in. We just started calling her that before we realized we would be keeping her.

47. What things are in your backpack?
*I don't have a backpack. My purse has all kinds of junk in it though.

48. Favorite thing to do before bedtime?
*Watch a movie

49. What is one thing you are grateful for today?
*A hubby who will sometimes do the crap I don't want to do.

50. What are you thinking about?
*Food.

I'm a whore for home decor

2005-09-04T23:58:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago our neighbours came over for a drink. We were all chatting, and her husband starts in about how she spends so much money on the house, and she said, "Oh, come on, you get something out of it too," to which we all laughed and Hubby said, "So you ladies will give it up for home decorating stuff?" and I said, "Sure - I'll whore myself out for home decor."

Well, today we redecorated our 2-year-old daughter's room, new bed, new dresser, bookshelf, bedding and reorganized the whole room. We're planning to paint as well once I decide on a colour. I was almost more excited than she was:

Guess I'm going to be busy tonight.

I got an article published online!

2005-09-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

I sent this article into the owner of this website a few months ago and just got an email from her the other day saying she loved it and had posted it to her site. I'm thrilled! Here it is!

Parenting isn't for wussies

2005-09-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

I was getting my hair done last night and my stylist and I had a great time talking. He suggested I read some of Christopher Hitchens' work, a writer for Vanity Fair and sometimes for Slate.com. So I looked him up today and found I agree with him on a lot of things. Here's a quote I found from the San Francisco Chronicle that I really identified with:

Q. What kind of world do you want your children to inherit?

A. Struggle. I think most people want their friends or family to have a peaceful future. I don't think that's possible or desirable. Far too much work is done to make children feel their world is safe and reassuring. That's a tremendous waste of time for teachers, who should be spending time teaching poetry, history and science. For Valentine's Day at school, my youngest daughter, who is 12, sends a Valentine and gets one. When I was a kid, it was a day of extreme anxiety and tension, as it can only be and should be. One: Will you get a Valentine at all? Second, will you know who it is from? Because it would mean someone had or hadn't made an effort, and yours had already been sent. These anxieties are important. They prepare you for life. She gets a Valentine from the entire class. They might as well e-mail one from the headmaster to everyone. It's painless. Excitement-free. Risk-free.

I love that quote, as I have often thought we are keeping one another down when we award every kid the same way and for mediocre things. My son's preschool had a huge preschool graduation dinner last June with 200 attendees, ranging from parents to grandparents and friends, and we all sat for an hour while we watched each child (about 40 kids, from 2 different classes) get on stage and recite a nursery rhyme. Each child wore a paper graduation cap and were given a "diploma" and a yearbook containing pictures from their year at preschool.

Hello?! People, it's PRESCHOOL! Nobody fails, you just show up and play with toys and sing songs and make friends! That's the point! And when I suggested that next year we just do it on a class level, with just the parents and some refreshments, and we could still enjoy the nursery rhyme recitations, I was politely told that "people wait a long time for this event, and we've been doing it this way for 12 years, so I don't think we'll be changing it."

Hubby and I were also talking about how when the soccer season ended in March, every kid in the league was given a medal. I realize that at the 5-year-old age it is not competitive, and no scores are kept, but what did they accomplish that warranted a medal? Even the kid in the league with the worst sportsmanship, pushing other kids and not playing by the rules, got a medal. For what?

Maybe I'm just a crusty downer when it comes to stuff. I'm not the kind of parent who pushes my kids too much, and I worry about how my passive, sensitive son will get by in this world, but I try to give them the tools to survive with, rather than try to make every situation easier on them.

Thoughts?

Soap opera/stripper name

2005-09-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

A long time ago my friends and I used to play this from time to time for laughs. Your soap opera name is your middle name and the name of the street you live on. Since I live on a numbered street it doesn't quite work, but going by the last street name I lived at, mine would be:

Caroline Cusick

Your stripper name is the name of the first pet you ever had and your grandmother's maiden name:

Kitty O'Rourke

101 Things About Me

2005-09-02T01:33:00.000-07:00

I've had this little nugget sitting in my Blogger Dashboard for ages as a draft, because I was going to add pictures like Carly did, but I don't have time to go digging around in my garage for them right now, so here goes anyway:

It's the latest blogging fad, and how could I resist?

1. I like Valentine’s Day because it reminds me of Valentine parties as a kid, and my birthday was always around that time.
2. I’ve always wanted a dog and never had one. I wish I had a beagle, and I’d name him Chauncey Jackson.
3. I’m the oldest of three girls in my family.
4. My dad has always called me his “firstborn.” I love that.
5. My name was Michelle for the first few days of my life, then it was changed to Rebecca after someone told my parents my nickname would be "Mickey". (I've never known a Michelle who was nicknamed Mickey.)
6. I had my tonsils out when I was 19.
7. I love shopping so much that even buying groceries is sometimes a bit of a rush.
8. My first kiss was with Carmen Wilcox when we were 12.
9. I almost married another guy before I married Hubby. (The guy was the lead singer in a band called Precious Blood *shudder!*)
10. I have always loved to write, and now I actually have a job doing just that!
11. The only reason I entered the Miss Abbotsford Pageant was to prove that I could do it. (Well, sort of - I was the second runner up)
12. I have a tiara.
13. I love staying up all night, and wish I could do it every night.
14. When I was a kid I used to hear the word “guerilla” on the news and thought it was a band of people who went around the world terrorizing people while wearing gorilla costumes.
15. Carly is my partner in crime.
16. My friend Rocket and I have this weird connection like we're soulmates, and Hubby agrees.
17. I love Chinese food.
18. My favourite “holiday” is New Year’s Eve.
19. I met a guy once who played drums – he played his drum kit to “Roxanne” by the Police and I was so turned on I could barely stand it.
20. I never had a Cabbage Patch Kid. I bought my daughter one this past Christmas and she doesn't want anything to do with it.
21. I have learned I am not a very detail-oriented person. I leave details to other people.
22. I don’t enjoy multi-tasking either.
23. I see a lot of myself in my friend Janet. She always seems to know exactly what I’m talking about.
24. I have always, even now, had a thing for the “bad boy.” Tattoos and goatees still do something for me.
25. I hate Britney Spears.
26. I love Johnny Depp, David Beckham, and Jude Law.
27. I consider myself a conservative, but feel like I can’t admit it sometimes because I don’t agree with some of the Conservative Party’s social policies.
28. I was in Amway for nearly 2 years.
29. I borrowed some books from my Political Science professor three years ago and never returned them. I still feel guilty, but too embarrassed to go back and return them.
30. I love politics and love talking about them.
31. I don’t like religion and can’t be bothered with it.
32. I cheated on Hubby when we were dating (he knows now!)
33. The first concert I ever went to was the Cutting Crew at the Centre of the Arts in Regina, Saskatchewan.
34. I don’t care about meeting famous people.
35. I look like Charlize Theron in my passport photo – unfortunately I resemble her when she played Aileen Wuornos, the serial killer in "Monster."
36. I had a mullet in grade 5 – Hubby calls my school picture from that year my “lesbian picture.”
37. When Hubby and I were first married, a guy three floors up in our apartment building was murdered and he lay dead in his apartment for two or three days before anyone found him.
36. The Vance Hotel has become a part of my daily thoughts, even though it’s been four months since I was there.
37. I’m too scared to watch scary movies anymore.
38. I never got “the sex talk.”
39. I'm a fiscal conservative, and a social liberal.
40. All the guys I ever dated who dumped me later apologized.
41. I would love to travel more, but never make it a priority.
42. I love laughing with my friend Shelley, we laugh at the dumbest stuff and she understands my sense of humour.
43. I would feel a sense of loss if my kids grew up to be lefties.
44. I am worried about the day my cat Roofus dies. He’s 11 years old this year. I always make sure to give him a scratch and a hug when I go to my mom’s.
45. I still remember my full address and phone number from my old house in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
46. I had a French teacher who didn’t like me for some reason and I quit taking French because she made my life in her class miserable.
47. I’m glad I didn’t go to university when I graduated from high school. It would have been a waste at that point in my life.
48. I feel a little bit of despair when I hear another American company has bought out a Canadian one.
49. To this day I still think the curfews my parents gave me as a teenager were lame. I was always grounded because I never abided by them.
50. When I was in high school, there was a garage band around town who heard about me being a Mormon, so they wrote a song about me.
51. I’ve learned that I’m a city girl, and I don’t like living in the suburbs that much.
52. I have no desire to ever go to Toronto.
53. I was always really tall for my age but stopped growing when I was about 12 or 13. I’m 5’4 now.
54. I lived in Las Vegas five years ago and while it was nice, I wouldn’t choose to live there again.
55. I quit being a doula because I couldn’t stand other doulas. I only attend births for friends and family now.
56. I was at the births of my nephew and my niece and I feel a little special bond with each of them because of it.
57. I think political correctness is out of control.
58. I wish we’d named our son Jude. The only reason we didn’t is because we had a “no ex-girlfriend/boyfriend names” rule when naming our kids
59. My favourite flowers are tulips.
60. I think I have nice-looking feet.
61. I once owned a great pair of black patent-leather pants.
62. My favourite sandals when I was a kid were tan/brown suede with coloured beads on them.
63. My mom’s side of the family comes from the Red River French-Canadian fur traders who married the Native women, thus giving me Metis heritage.
64. My dad’s side of the family is English, Scottish, and I’m guessing some Irish. 65. My great-grandmother’s cousin was Louis Riel’s mother. (Figure that one out!)
66. I never understood Shakespeare until I read Antony and Cleopatra on my own one summer while suntanning.
67. My best friend through high school was Dawn. She and I shared a locker in grade 12 and had a Rolling Stone cover in our locker of the Red Hot Chili Peppers naked with their hands over their jewels.
68. I still have that Rolling Stone cover in a box in my garage.
69. My favourite movie is Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. I saw it in the theatre for the first time with Aaron’s friend Matt, who leaned over halfway through it and said to me, “Do you understand what’s going on or what they’re saying?” I answered, “Yeah,” and he sat back and muttered, “I don’t.”
70. I gained a new appreciation for the city of Seattle when I last went there with Carly.
71. I still laugh when I see a picture Sheri faxed me years ago on my birthday, of me dancing at a party, superimposed with O.J. Simpson.
72. I have only been a bridesmaid once.
73. I like watching old Star Wars movies with my five year old.
74. I’m anal about kids (even my own) messing up my house because I hate cleaning up after them.
75. I like having tea parties with my two year old, but instead of having a proper tea, we like to knock the lid off the creamer when we’re pouring it and go crazy, knocking the whole tea set off the table, while laughing maniacally.
76. If I were to have a pen name, it would be Layla O’Rourke.
77. I hate confrontation, and only in the last few years have started forcing myself to start dealing with it.
78. I think the Tragically Hip are lame, as well as Nickelback and Coldplay.
79. I love to have people over and love to entertain, but I hate cooking. A lot.
80. I’ve done the kind of camping where you build yourself a shelter out of a tarp and sleep under it and build your own fire to cook with. I wouldn’t do it ever again.
81. I love, love the Christmas special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” I collect figurines from the movie and watch it several times during the holiday season.
82. I read a book I really enjoyed last summer but I can’t remember name of the title or the author.
83. They say you’ll know your perfect wedding dress when you see it. I found my perfect wedding dress, but I couldn’t get it because I had to have a dress with sleeves in the kind of ceremony I was getting married in.
84. I didn’t like “The English Patient” and turned it off halfway through because I was so bored.
85. My favourite book as a kid was “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
86. I love Gwen Stefani.
87. I wanted to change my daughter’s name to Olivia for the whole first year of her life. My husband refused and thought I was a nut, and now I’m glad I didn’t.
88. I love newborn babies.
89. 13 is a lucky number for me.
90. I pick my cuticles and bite my nails and have since I was a kid.
91. I’m terrified of jellyfish and I’m afraid of cutting my feet on barnacles.
92. Basically I think all marine life are scary.
93. I never felt more pathetic than when I used to go to the $1 a slice pizza places downtown for lunch because Hubby and I were so poor when we first got married. In fact I used to go to the place that charged $0.93, so that with tax it came to $1 even and I wouldn’t have to pay the extra 7 cents.
94. I don’t think anyone has a more infectious laugh than my friend Tyson.
95. I remember my mom being sad when John Lennon was shot. I was five.
96. I don’t like sushi.
97. People who really like hockey bug me.
98. I have a fond memory of my Grandpa taking me to the store and buying me a toy hairdryer with a brush and comb.
99. I have always loved makeup, and hated that my mom wouldn’t let me wear it until I was 14. (I did anyway.)
100. Some days I crave double-layered chocolate cake.
101. I love filling out quizzes and surveys, and will even answer phone surveys if I have the time, because I like the fact that I get to talk about what I think! (Any surprise there?)

Casino rage

2005-08-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

So Hubby was playing blackjack at the casino one night with his buddies. If you know Hubby, you'll know he has a lot to say about everything and will flap off at the mouth at times. And if you've been to the casino with Hubby, you'll know that he does this particularly at the blackjack table, especially if there is a player at the table who sucks.

This guy at the table totally sucked, and Hubby was doing his usual sarcastic commenting on the guy's decisions, like, "Oh, you hit on 18? Wow, that's great!" The guy was obviously getting agitated, and after a few rounds of this he said, "What's your problem?" Hubby stated he had no problem, just that the guy sucked and it was costing everyone else at the table. They get into a little verbal altercation, and suddenly this guy blurts out, "Oh yeah? Well, you look like you have Down's Syndrome!"

What...the...hell?

So let me get this straight. This guy is sitting at the blackjack table and there is another guy (Hubby) who is ticking him off, and he looks at Hubby and thinks, "Dude, this guy looks like he has Down's Syndrome!" I mean, he obviously had to have been thinking this before actually saying it, right?

When Hubby and his friend were telling me this story I could barely breathe from laughing so hard. It was just such a bizarre insult to fling at someone, like someone is making you mad at the casino one night, and you start getting personal and telling them they look like they have Down's Syndrome? What is that all about?!

Well, apparently, Hubby didn't take too well to being told he appeared to have a an extra chromosome in his genetic makeup, so he told the guy he was a F%&*# head. Nice.

drool

2005-08-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

For the last two weeks I've been doing this semi-low-carb thing (just no bread, pasta, rice or potatoes, cutting out as much sugar as I can and adding extra veggies) to lose some extra pounds, and I've even had a little bit of result so far. But today - oh, I would give anything for a big hunk of chocolate to devour!

Hubby promised the kids a "treat" earlier today, so when I was out getting a few groceries I got a packet of peanut M&Ms for them to share. I opened the bag for my 2 year old, gave her her share, and saved the rest for my 5-year-old, who is over at his little buddy's house. I scarfed about three of them for myself, and then literally taped the packet shut and wrapped it up in an envelope, sealed that, and let my daughter scribble on it as a "present" for her big brother.

But it's really so Mommy doesn't inhale them all herself.

My Dream Job

2005-08-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

Years ago I used to tell my friends my dream job would be to work in a run down 50's-style gas station out in the middle of the Nevada desert, wearing cut-off jean shorts and a tank top, listening to a crappy old radio all day while pumping gas and giving directions to travellers.

I would still love that job.

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?

2005-08-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Well, check me out. Gawd, I love surveys and questionnaires.

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?

(It's amazing what you find when you start following links from people's blogs. I swiped this from a blogger of a blogger of a blogger's blog - didya get that?)