It's Friday morning. It's gorgeous outside. I have exactly 4 hours and 13 minutes left in my workday - and I've only been here 47 minutes. Can't go wrong with that. It's a holiday here tomorrow. Canada day. My very first as a Canadian Citizen. It's going to be amazing. Not only is the weather going to be gorgeous but in the morning I'm going to watch the "homeland" send England packing in WC action and then I get to celebrate my new home from a variety of day long, free activities. I'm REALLY looking forward to it.
I have a bit of running around to do this afternoon. I need a new "push up" bra for my costume. I finally sewed the bustier mock up and it worked out really well. Unfortunately, I pinned my home made pattern backwards and didn't notice until I was ready to sew. When I tried to fix it, I noticed I didn't have enough fabric to re-cut. This means I now have to purchase more fabric. I also need to buy fabric for the skirt and shirt so I'll do that this afternoon. Sunday, we're going to "Superman Returns" and Monday, I'll be spending a large chunk of my day sewing for Friday's POTC2 premiere. So much for "down" time!
I hope you all enjoy your weekends! Happy Canada Day to Canadian readers and Happy 4th of July to all those South of the border! Drink! Be Merry! Be Responsible!
So this morning I started typing this really snazzy, witty post and then the pc rebooted on me. So, instead, you get me being thrilled that today is Thursday, that tomorrow is the last day before the long weekend and I get off early!
I do remember one thing that I talked about in my MIA post: Britney. I liked the girl. In the beginning. And still, I like "Toxic" - another great earworm. But has anyone else noticed how trailer trashy she's been lately? It all seems to be one continuing saga after another for an endless future. But what struck me most is what they can do to a photo today. On the left, is Britney on "The Today Show" a few weeks back when she confirmed the pregnancy. On the right is the cover of Harper's Bazaar which is scheduled to hit news stands:
Wow. It doesn't even look like the same person. That's quite the transformation. I'd like to get hooked up with the touch-up artists who did that cover.
I thought the crazyness of the week was done but apparently not. Still pretty busy around the office. It's great because I stay entertained but after the past few weeks, I just want a day to relax. The plan is for me to leave early on Friday. We'll see how it goes.
There are such wonderful people in the world. I feel blessed (can't think of any other term for it) at having met so many extraordinary people over the last year and one of the most vibrant and beautiful is Nomi. She's full of life, experience and has a smile that'll stop you dead in your tracks. Not to mention the wonderful spirit and aura that she exhudes. Everyone is special in their little way but she touches me in a different way. Hard to explain but it seems like a connection that's older than either of us. It's encounters like this one that make me seriously consider the possibility of past lives.
Little else to share today. It's hot. Today isn't quite as bad as the last few days have been. Actually, this is perfect for me. I hope it stays like this.
It's been an interesting couple of days. Yesterday was a nightmare. Missed my bookcrossing meeting thanks to crappy planning by the bosses. Still a little pissed about that. Other than that, the PIM (public info meeting) went well if rather slowly and quietly. I nearly fell asleep at my little station. Thank goodness for the air conditioning and the co-op student who was there from the architect's office. She was fantabulous to chat with.
I feel like I'm drowning in stuff to do. I have 2 weeks left to finish a costume I haven't even started. Tomorrow I'm meeting Jenskijen to post Serenity goodies on ebay (I'll post the link once the stuff is up in case anyone is looking for swag - all proceeds will benefit the BC Women's Hospital - an uber worthy cause). Thursday I'm meeting with Sharon for coffee and chat, Friday is BIFF, Saturday is Soccer, Sunday is "Superman" and Monday...day of rest thanks to Canada Day falling on the weekend. I guess Monday will be sewing day. To boot, my registration notification came in the mail yesterday. That's a kick in the pants for sure. Gotta check the registration date, available courses and I have to make sure I've got enough money for classes.
I'm really not liking this. Just when I think I'll be able to go on a trip something comes up. Looks like the job hiring is still in limbo so that nice little extra money I was counting on that would allow me to pay for schoo WHILE still go to SFX in September is in perpetual limbo and so I have to pick one or the other. Obviously school is more important so, once again, my trip plans are out the window. Maybe next year I guess. V-Con is going to have to do for this year.
Oh yeah, and I went to see the new Fast and the Furious on Saturday and really liked it. The soundtrack rocked so I now have it on my little player and OMG. It rocks. It's soooooo totally off the wall. I LOVE it!
For some reason, I have an internal soundtrack on repeat mode this morning. It includes: "Milk Shake", "We Built This City", "Bandages", "Toxic", "City of Blinding Lights", "The Hand that Feeds" and "Imagination". Talk about bizzare. Doesn't matter what's on the radio. I'll hum along to what's on and when a song I don't like comes on, the internal soundtrack goes from pause to play.
I've been at work since just after 8AM. I have sooooo much to do today but I'm determined to leave at least an hour early so I figured I'd come in a bit early and get a head start. So far so good and whith the guys gone for most of the morning, I think I should manage to get most of the stuff done.
The "Serenity" Charity screening is tomorrow. If anyone out there is a fan and is interested, other charity screenings are taking place today and over the weekend all over the US and Canada. More info can be found at Can't Stop the Serenity. If you're at the Vancouver screening, don't forget to say hello. I'll be co-judging the costume competition.
I went for another bike ride last night. I was out for almost an hour which isn't bad considering I'm totally out of shape. I live in a neighbourhood with lots of hills and yesterday I strayed a little too far and went down what I thought was just a little hill. Problem: no energy to get back up the little hill. I managed to get half way up and then I had to walk it the rest of the way, breathing hard all the way to the top. At least I know I got the blood pumping! Bike still needs some little adjustments (like the handles raised and hence the brakes re-adjusted) but I'm really liking this. Definately exercise I don't mind doing!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. It's shaping up to be another scorcher here and I can't wait to get out and about town and catch some of the sun. Hope the weather gods treat you all equally well!
They say you never forget how to ride a bike. Guess what? It's true! Last night, on my walk home from the bus stop, I saw some guy leisurly riding around the neighbourhood. For some reason, I decided that's what I wanted to do so before I even got in the door, I checked in on my old bike. It's actually not really my bike. It's my dad's but he doesn't use it so I told him I'd keep it. It's in pretty decent shape and I did when I acquired it was change the seat. So dad filled the tires for me and off I went. At first, it was a bit scary getting started but when I started rolling, it was pretty cool. I still need to make some adjustments to it. The seat needs to be raised and so do the handles but other than that, runs pretty good. I think I was only out there 20mins but when I got off, I felt like I'd been riding for hours. My legs were sore! I'm going to go out for another ride tonight.
This morning has started out very well indeed. I managed to catch the early bus (accountant is away today so I had to start at 8:30). Usually when I have to come in early, I find I have to run around in the morning to get out on time and the commute to the bus stop also includes a bit of a jog but today, I was up and ready early enough that I had a leisurly walk to the bus stop. As if that wasn't enough to get me happy, the most beautiful man I've ever seen (in real life at least - not on tv, movie or photograph) was on the skytrain standing accross from me. I wish I had a camera built into my sunglasses. He was gorgeous: blond short hair, tall, lean (no bulging muscles). Over the years I've found that I don't notice men the way I used to but once in a while, it still hits me.
So it's been a great morning and I think the day may shape up to be a good one. I'm a bit tired from all the happenings this week and I think to prep for the weekend, I'm going to hit the pillow a little earlyer tonight.
Already the middle of the week. I can't believe it!
Yesterday was a bit of a crazy day. From the moment I walked in at 9AM to when I left at 5:30, it was non-stop work. I did manage to scoot out for lunch - I really needed the break - but that meant I stayed an extra 30 minutes because I just didn't have time to get everything done.
This morning I got up very, very early (5AM) in order to be somewhere in the downtown area by 7AM to watch the game. I found a little coffee shop a few blocks away from work which worked out really well. I wish it was closer so that I could walk to the office but it worked out well. I still managed to arrive for 9AM. So far, it's been a fantastic morning and the day is shaping up to be a little more controllable than yesterday. I just hope it ends soon so I can go home and sleep tonight. I need a good sleep.
BTW, for all of those who asked, my review of "The Lake House" can be found here.
Have a great Wednesday everyone out there in bloggerland and....
GO PORTUGAL GO!
The week ahead is shaping up to be, weather wise at least, one of the best so far this year. It's supposed to remain warm and sunny well into the weekend. I hope it does. We've had enough rain to last for a while!
I had an interesting weekend. Saturday Baby Girl and I got caught in a crazy ass rainstorm that left us soaked to the point of us standing in the women's bathroom for nearly 30 mins trying to dry our jackets under the hand dryers. Not something I ever thougth I'd do but definately a learning experience. Met a few new folks with the movie group and not to mention that I woke up nice in early to watch the game, which we won, and then I went back to bed for a nap.
Sunday I just lounged in front of the TV until dinner with the family. I cried, I laughed, it was a day full of relaxation. So much for working on the bodice for my wench outfit. I'll have to do some serious work on that this week and over the weekend. At the very least, I need to finish the mock-up at some point this week. This should be interesting considering it's only my second costume and the first I'm doing without a pattern. Should be interesting....
Tonight, BG and I are getting together again to see "The Lake House". Can't wait. As I said to her, it's been a while since I've had a big screen Keanu fix. I'm really looking forward to it.
Oh yeah, and dad totally loved the shirt. He was giddy with excitement!
I know, what Friday isn't happy??? But today is EXTRA special!
So yesterday I complained about my MP3 player. Well, everything has been resolved! I found out late in the day on Wednesday that they no longer produced my old model of player so I was a bit worried that they were going to make me pay for an upgraded model. So I showed up yesterday, talked to the Manager and that got the ball rolling. They exchanged my player under an "Out of Warranty Replacement" clause. So when the portable music dude came over to check to make sure the return was in order, I was all prepared to argue that I didn't want to pay anything extra. It didn't even come up. He suggested that I should consider switching brands, mentioned a few options and I picked one. 
So, this is my new toy. It's totally fabulous. It's the same capacity as the original I purchased and it has all of the same features and extras including colour screen, the capability of video and photo playback, optional expansion slot for additional memory (up to 2G extra!) and not to mention the fact that it's 1/2 the size! Seriously, this thing is just a little thicker than the iPod Nano. Turns out this thingy is $70 more expensive than what I originaly purchased so I got me a bit of a deal! :)
I'm sooooo happy. I loaded a bunch of music into it yesterday and came rocking along to work this morning.
It's going to be a busy weekend. I have an early wake up call for tomorrow morning (5:50AM) to catch the game. Then maybe a nap before heading downtown for a movie meetup. Sunday is Daddy's Day! I bought my dad one of his favourite things, a Lacoste golf shirt. He doesn't golf but he's been wearing these things for, no joke, 20 years. His first one was red and I remember he bought it in a little shop in Caracas near the beach. Since then, he's always had a few on and off but for a few years we were hard pressed to find them here so Grandmama was bringing them from Portugal. Now that Vancouver is unofficially Hollywood North, there's a bunch of designer shops opening up and one of them was Lacoste. So after much debating (and with Mom's suggestions of course) I picked out an aqua. Hopefully he likes it. If not, he'll be making a trip downtown to pick the colour he wants! :)
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a great Father's day!
Some of you faithful readers (thank you guys!) may remember back in November of 2005, I purchased an mp3 player. I was re-reading that post and how gushing that review was and though I'm still very happy with my selection, I'm more than a little upset at the problems I've had with this thing.
In April, the headphone jack stopped working properly. After dealing directly with Creative (thanks to restrictions and crummy Manufacturer's Warranties), they sent me back a shiny new player. They even sent me an upgraded one and I suddenly went from 4G to 6G player. Cool right? Not really because only a week after they sent it to me, I started having trouble. At first I thought it was just a little slow but then it got to the point where the thing would only turn on and off when it wanted to. So I called Creative again and they proceed to tell me that my "free" telephone customer support has expired and I need to pay extra to troubleshoot over the phone before I can mail it back so they can fix it. I refused to pay and instead contacted the place where I'd bought it, Future Shop (owned by Best Buy).
So Monday Jun. 5th, I went to the store and talked to a rep. He wasn't sure what to do so he photocopied ALL of my paper work and said someone would call be by Wednesday. Wednesday came and went and no call. So I decided to give them a bit of a break and I waited until Monday. Went back to the store, talked to another rep, said she'd have the Customer Service Manageer call me because he'd be the only one who could help. Smart girl even gave me his name and direct number. She said he'd call me Tuesday. Tuesday came and went and still no call. So yesterday I called him. He had no clue who I was and no idea what I was talking about. Turns out no one passed any information to him. I was calm but angry and after some talking, he suggested I come in and they'd replace the product. Turns out that their customer service reps in the store and on the phone screwed up so they're going to replace it with a shiny new one. Now, I just hope they have one in stock!
Other than this saga, the week has been flying and I could have sworn today was Friday. I wish it was Friday! Ahhhh it's ALMOST Friday! :)
Hope you're all having a good week!
I discovered this morning that FIFA and Yahoo! have teamed up to provide live streaming game tracking, minute by minute updates, live pictures and a fan chat line for fans. So this morning I didn't lose a beat. I managed to catch the last 1/2 of the France v. Switzerland game and the entire Brazil v. Croatia game. Coolness. Definately one of the best things since coffee. YES. It's that good.
Check it out.
It's not been a great morning. I didn't have cream in the house so I didn't make coffee this morning (had to buy it. Never as good). Then, on my walk to work, I slipped. I fell square on my knee. Not to mention that it raines over night so the street was all muddy and stuff. I know have a massive scrape on my knee (which hurts!) and my pants are all brown along the bottom. I've managed to clean some of it off, thank goodness for the quick dry black material, but you can still tell it's a bit dirty. Yup. Not a stellar start to the morning. At least I rinsed out my coffee cut well this morning. For a minute after I poured the coffee I thought I was going to have soapy brew. Thank goodness that's not the case. I don't think I could handle another bad event before 10AM.
Hope everyone else has a better morning than mine so far!
It was a great weekend. Nice and relaxing. D and I went to the movies Saturday afternoon to see Cars before we headed off to the football game in the evening. Yesterday was a *really* lazy day for me. Woke up around 10ish, did laundry, watched the game at noon (glad we won but we really need to play harder if we expect to win), then some movies until well into the evening. It was too hot to eat dinner so we just nibbled on nachos and salsa. I could easily have stayed in bed this morning. Although I rested lots this weekend, I found it hard to get out of my comfy bed this morning. I wish I was back there right now.
They say there's a first time for everything and that is SOOOO true. Here's my first audio post. This is the coolest thing I've come by recently. Coolness. So go ahead, check it out below.
Let me know if it doesn't work. I have no speakers at work and so I can't even listen to it!
Ladies (and some gents), get out your dating handbooks! Time to go 'hunting'! Canadian hearthrob and totally hilarious Ryan Reynolds just split up from fiance Alanis Morissette. My goodness. I started to sweat just reading this story. You'd better believe that I'm going to keeping my eyes extra open around town. I think his parents live in Kits.....
Blogger has been strange the last few days. It's up and down constantly and I've been having a really hard time updating. Event commenting is difficult! I hope this isn't an ongoing problem...
I chatted with some Browncoats last night. Four hours later....FOUR hours! The funny thing is, I see these people at *least* once a week. I haven't done anything like that since highschool. Ah the days of staying at school until 8pm chatting.
I have more pictures! I wast sent a link to some of the parade pictures. Check it out.
As for me, it's been a rather uneventful few days. The boss lady has been bothering me again about the logo. They decided that they didn't want to use the "Group" bit in the name so I have to re-design some of the stuff. I've been rather busy and haven't had a lot of time to work on it but she's been asking me nearly every day for a week so I think I'll go and do some work on it for a bit.
I've also been reading a fair bit lately. With no classes and it being light until much later, I've managed to get through a number of books over the last 2 weeks. I'm even giving the latest book club selection a chance. It's not my typical type of read (romance) but it's pretty good. I want to dislike Nicholas Sparks but I just can't. I was particularly surprised at how YOUNG he is. I had him pegged as old fat guy but he's actually pretty handsome. Makes reading the books all the more interesting....
I'm off to work on this logo. Have a great night eveyone!
I managed to get one movie review up this morning and then Blogger died. First time it's happened since I've been here and it was a bit weird. Sort of messed up the rest of the day too. I didn't manage to read anyone's stuff. I'll try to catch up.
***
I noticed/spotted a number of interesting things over the last few days. This morning, I saw a girl come out of the language school across the street. She was dressed in outside going clothes but she was wearing slippers. Big fluffly slippers that look like lions. Fashion note (from the not so fashionably inclined) - BAD IDEA. Not a look I'd like to generally see. I hope it never catches on.
I walked by a guy yesterday afternoon who was wearing a First Nations t-shirt with a picture of an eagle. Has anyone else noticed the resenblance of the First Nations masks and the Mexican luchadore masks? Interesting.
Thanks to Serenalita, I now have a picture of me from the Parade on Saturday. Here I am in full regalia, laughing my ass off. I'm the one in the black dress.
And here is a group picture from the Lynn Valley Days parade two weeks ago.
This is interesting. I was thinking about this little tid bit this morning when I heard, for the 4th time before 10AM, an advertisement for a televangelist (this should be illegal - they take money from the old and poor who really can't afford it, all in the name of salvation. They give organized religion a bad name). And then, I was reading Sylvia's blog and she had up a little thing about Ann Coulter. Check out her blog - she has some priceless quotes. Now, before reading further, keep in mind that I know NOTHING of this woman except for what I've managed to read in the last few hours but, to me, she sounds like a crazed lunatic. It never ceases to amaze me how crazy folks like her manage to make it in the media. Now, this is solely my opinion based on the bits I've read, but she comes across like a NUT and I can't believe people, in their right minds, would give her the time of day. Goes to show that being smart doesn't necessarily mean you're right. Now, during my search for info on this woman (I'm ashamed to call her that), I came accross two things. The first is a bunch of quotes and the second is this picture (which, rather sadly, made me laugh):
I've been on hold with Maytag for nearly 20 mins. On and off, I've been on hold since 12:15. I've missed lunch. And it's not even work related - except for the fact that the boss lady made it sound like it was the end of the fucking universe if she didn't have the information RIGHT NOW!
Fuck.
Weird. I tried to catch up on posts during the day but my Blogroll disappeared. It just recently showed up again (good thing too! I was starting to worry it was gone for good!). YEY!
It was a nother full couple of days. The group I usually meet with on Friday's had a Filk night (my first) which was interesting and fun. I requested "Special Agent Man" (fromt he X-Files) which was great fun and one of the members even emailed me the lyrics! It was awesome! I went home and stayed up until 3 putting finishing touches on the dress, putting in rolers and getting everything packed up.
Saturday started with an early morning wake up (6:30) to give me enough time to do my hair, get dressed and out the door. I was going to catch a cab from the Mall but decided agains it and, instead, took transit. Good thing too, I made great time. I took transit in full costume and I'm amazed that NO ONE asked me about it. I did get a few strange looks but no one asked about anything. The parade was really great fun. We were a pretty big group with a cross of Sci-Fi, movies and period (me and Jo). Darth Vader (of course) got a lot of attention. Me, not so much, though I did get a few nice comments from folks. The next project for me is going to be something recognisable - I was thinking maybe something from "Ever After". I was thinking LotR but it's very popular and I'm not sure I want to do something that others already have. Either way, it was fun, I got a bit of a sunburn and (again) I was sore as hell afterwards. I'll post a link to the pictures as soon as I have any. At the moment, I have NOTHING to show I was there! Oh yeah, cosutming suggestions are being accepted too! :)
Saturday night I met the movie group for "X-Men". It was good fun and we had a nice meal and lots of converstaion after the fact. Looking forward to the next outing.
Sunday was very quiet. I was supposed to help out with some packaging of card but I was soooooo pooped, I didn't get out of bed until noon. D and I went to do some grocery shopping and while at Walmart, I picked up season one of "Dark Angel" for $18. What a steal of a deal! I'm a happy camper. I was disappointed by the season finale of "The Sopranos" but "Big Love" did a great job of creating a cliffhanger. Can't wait to see what's going to happen now that they've been exposed.
That was the weekend. Busy but fun. I only home next week is a little slower. I really need some time to just rest.
It's been a BAD night/morning. Here's the list:
- On my way home last night, I stopped at the bank machine to get out money so that I could buy the remaining supplies to finish the dress. The bank machine ate my card = no $$
- Stayed up until 3am sewing fringe on dress BY HAND because if sewen by machine it would frey.
- Got up at 6:30AM (1/2 hour earlier than usual) so that I could make the bank. Took too long in the shower and missed the bus. Had to take bus in the other direction and took longer to get downtown. Barely had time to go to the bank.
- Bank wouldn't give me a new bank card. After the citizenship dealy, the government took my permanent resident card and my mom is till holding my citizenship card which means I HAD no picture ID in my wallet. They let me deposit a cheque, withdraw $200 but they wouldn't issue me a new card. WTF??? Now I have to figure out a way to get to a bank that's open tomorrow to get a new card. Just what I need, more stuff I HAVE to do. Bugger.
- Still have to sew the belt for the dress and add eyelets to the sleeves. PROBLEM: I have no eyelets and the only shop in the downtown area which carries them is only open 'till 5:15. Another WTF???? Trying to talk to boss lady to get a longer lunch hour so I can head down there.
- Gotta finish that dress. I hope I don't have to pull an all-nighter to finish it.
- D and I talked last night. We're good. He appologised and I appologised and things are back to normal. Yey! This is GREAT because I don't think I could go another hour not talking to him. I had a lump in the pit of my stomach all day yesterday. Feeling much better now. Thanks to everyone for your good advice. I used a little of everyones!
- The dress is looking FANTASTIC! I Can't believe I actually made it! I can't believe how beautiful it is and I'm excited to wear it! I just have to finish it!
- It's FRIDAY!
- I found ot this morning that Finola Hackett, a 14 year old from Alberta, Placed 2nd at the Scripps National Spelling Bee yesterday. YEY! Congrats Finola! You can read the whole story here.
- The problem with my MP3 player appears to be a simple fix. I just have to install the new firmware. I'll have to do that this weekend.
- I'm going to see "X-Men" tomorrow!
- I'm going to be in another parade tomorrow too!
- I may have company for SFX in September! K is interesting in going and he's trying to convince D to come along. It would be FANTABULOUS fun!
- It's Friday! (I know I already said this but it deserves repeating!)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
I'm always happy of the fact that D and I don't have many arguments and we've only had a couple of fights in our 8 year run together but yesterday took the cake. I went home right after work because I still had a lot to do on my dress. I forgot to turn my phone on when I left the office and so, when D came in the house, he mentioned that he'd been calling to see if I wanted to go out for dinner. I said that I'd take a break to eat and asked him where he wanted to go. So I'm thinking we're going to have a nice dinner together, just the two of us. D goes to the front room, talks to his brother and about 1/2 hour later they both come back into the kitchen. "We're going out to dinner. You want to come?" I was in a bit of shock. I thought *we* as in me and D but now brother was coming along. I had a bad day, I wasn't up for appearances and I told D I'd stay home. So he's getting ready to go and he asks me what's wrong. I say "Nothing" because I'm really not in the mood to get into it. So he asks me again. I still say "Nothing". Then he says that I need to lighten up. I lost it. Totally lost it. I said to him "I'm sorry but I've seen enough of your brother to last me a while and I just don't want to have dinner with him". Yes, it was mean, I know but I'm at the end of my rope and this just pushed me over the edge. D made some comment about how I need to 'lighten up' and then he went for dinner. He hasn't talked to me since then.
I was a bit upset when he left because I did come accross harshly but I don't think he fully grasps where I'm coming from. Yeah, I've told him how I feel about having brother there but I don't think he understands just how much it irks me. I was going to say something to D this morning but I changed my mind. He asked me what was up and I was honest. I'm not going to appologise for being honest. On the one hand I feel bad because I made him angry and upset but on the other I'M angry and upset because I think he doesn't "fully" understand how much this whole thing has pissed me off.
I'm not sure what to do. I usually feel pretty good about dealing with this stuff but this has left me at a loss. Suggestions are welcomed and much appreciated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
