I naively thought that we were beyond this in this great land we call Canada. I guess I was wrong.

Days left to my birthday: 15

I can't believe how quickly the month is going. It seems like just yesterday was the 1st of the month and we're nearly halfway throu it! It's been a quiet day so far. The MIL left this morning at 5AM. D got up to see her off. I had been planning on getting up but when the time came, I just couldn't move. I stayed in bed, curled up in the sheets while the poor hubby got up to see mom off. He came back to bed sometime just after 5AM but tossed and turned until the alarm went off for work. He complained that he didn't get any sleep between 5 and 7 and when we left he looked beyond tired. Poor guy. I hope the day goes quickly for him. The visit was better than usual this year. The few times we all went out were very pleasant and MIL appears to be in a better place this year than she was last year (she bitched a lot last year). We may actually go out there for a few days next year. I wouldn't mind getting away for a few days...that's for sure.

I'm still having problems commenting on some of the pages. This is soooooooo frustrating! I just want to pull my hair out. The worst bit is that some of the movie folks I read regularly probably think I've fallen off the face of the earth! WAHHHHHH! I hope they fixt this bug soon!

I was at the video store over the weekend and picked up a DVD of one of my favourite shows of all trime. When I was growing up in Venezuela and Portugal, sis and I watched a few shows including Tom and Jerry (the original with no talking), Bugs Bunny, He-Man and She-Ra. Those were the only 4 shows that we could watch in both countries but my favourite by far was She-Ra, Princess of Power! I noticed a few months back that He-Man is now out on DVD but I hadn't seen a She-Ra DVD until this weekend when I picked the "fan favourite episodes" in a DVD set with the She-Ra movie. Yes, there was a movie (it was called "The Secret of the Sword"). Now, I liked both She-Ra and He-Man but she was soooooooooooooo much better because she was a girl kicking butt! While boys my age are drooling over Transformers, I go a little bananas for She-Ra. I have yet to watch any of this DVD but I can't wait for the opportunity to revisit this much loved childhood flashback. I hope she still kicks as much ass as I remember.

I'm trying to get myself all prepped for doing audio and live posting from the Vancouver Film Festival. I've scouted out the majority of the local coffee shops around the theatres that have free internet as well as some areas outside where I can set up shop and connect to a wireless network. This will be my first year of live reporting and I'm *really* looking forward to it. The only thing now is that I'm also trying to get the video in there but this is turning into a bit of a problem because I don't actually have a video camera and I'm not sure I can pull it off with the webcam but I'm sure gonna try!

I actually have some work to do this morning so I'd better bugger off. Hope everyone is having a good hump day!

I don't know what the hell I was thinking but late last week (I think it was Friday afternoon) I changed over to Blogger Beta and I tell you, it was the worse thing I ever did. Everything seems to be working well but I'm unable to comments on anyone's blog which only has blogger comments enabled because the beta version hans't been integrated into the regular Blogger accounts and, therefore, I'm not a "Blogger" member and can't comments. If you're site is listed on the sidebar, be assured that I'm still coming by daily, I just may not be able to leave you any feedback! ARGH!

The weekend was great. Sis and I went to see the Brian Jonestown Massacre on Saturday night. They were bloody amazing! They actually managed to stay on stage without fights or collapse for over 2 hours and though they took an insanely long time between songs, they were awesome. Everyone was impressed, especially considering that last year's show only lasted 20 minutes before it collapsed into complete chaos. I drank more than a little too much and had a bit of a headache on Sunday morning but it was a generally good evening. Sis didn't fare so well. She promised she wasn't going to drink too much but when all was said and done, she had much more to drink than I did and you could tell. As we left the club, she stuck a nearly full opened bottle of beer (which she had just started drinking) in her bag. As is custom in our outings, something had to go wrong. The entire bottle spilled inside her bag. She had her camera, phone and mp3 player in there. On the cab ride home, she was weepy and sad and I tried to reashure her that the stuff might work if she just let it dry. Turns out I was kind of right. Though her phone and mp3 player are officially dead, the camera appears to be in excellent working condition. Poor girl. This sort of stuff always happens to her. I just wish she would have listened to me when I asked her to leave the beer behind...

I picked up a really great t-shirt at Walmart (of all places!) yesterday. It says: "Duct tape is like the force, it has a dark side and a light side and it keeps the universe together". I loved it so much I had to get it. I can't wait for opportunity to wear the darn thing.

I'm off to see Hollywoodland tonight with a couple of the girls from the movie group. Should be a good show. The VIFF has posted a full listing of movies on their site so I'm now off to sear the endless pages for possible movies.

Days left to my birthday: 20

It has been a rather uneventful week. Work has been rather quiet and life at home with the MIL this week has been pretty good, especially considering that I haven't really been home in the evenings and we only talk in small 20-30 minute spurts at a time. THIS is the type of visit I LIKE!

I did go out and watch The Illusionist with a girlfriend on Wednesday. Yes, again. This is my favourite movie of the year so far. Even after the second viewing and knowing what was coming, I still loved it. I can't wait to get my little hands on the soundtrack.

The weekend is going to be an interesting affair. Tonight I'm heading to my weekly sci-fi dinner and we're celebrating Star Trek's 40th anniversary by watching a couple of award winning episodes of the original series. Saturday is still up in the air. I have a bunch of things I need to do (like make a couple of music CD's), movie group outing and a concert with little sis but I'm not sure what D and the mom are up to. They're talking about going down to the States but nothing is for sure yet. As for Sunday…who knows? I guess we'll wait and see. This is one of the first weekends in a while where I don't have any solid plans for both days. I'm one of these people that knows where I'm going to be and when - I like to know my schedule ahead of time. For the most part. Occasionally I like to let things fall how they may.

And one more funny thing before this week's KFF. I saw this news story yesterday about a single mother who's on strike. Yes, you heard right. She's fed up with her kids not pulling their weight around the house so rather than take some action, she's set up a tent in the front yard with a big sign "Mom on Strike". I have problems with this story on so many levels I'm not even sure where to begin. Needless to say, this woman has some serious issues if she can't control her 3 kids, all of which are under the age of 12. Lady, if you can't handle them now…what the HELL are you going to do when they're all teens? You can read about the entire debacle here.

Oh hell, one more thing! I was reading one of the local ragmags this morning and I found the coolest little thing I've heard about in a while. It's called Tiki Bar TV. It's a locally made, low budget TV show that is distributed for free. I was snooping around the site this morning and it looks HILARIOUS. My understanding is that this is like a Dr. Phil except it's a bit of a joke because the guy who's the doctor isn't really a doctor and he prescribes his advise over drinks at the Tiki Bar. HAHAHAHAHAH You can check it out for yourself at www.tikibartv.com.

Ok. And now on to what you're all here for, this weeks KFF.


Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Days left to my birthday: 23

I hate to start the week off like this but I just have to let this all out.

D made reservations for us to take the MIL to the horse races on Sunday. So, Sunday morning we pack the MIL, the BIL, D and myself and head out to the PNE for the racing (which started just after 1pm). The hostess had told D that we could park in the racing parking lot and we wouldn't have to pay for parking or for entrance to the PNE. We pull up to the parkade and D tells the attendant that we're there for the races. "Sorry sir, unless you're with one of the teams, you'll have to pay for the parking". Instead of arguing, he pays the $15 for parking. We walk over to the gate and he tells the attendant that we're there for the racing. "Sorry sir, you still have to pay the PNE entrance fee". $15 per person and $5 for the senior. $50. D is starting to get irritated but says nothing. I'm having a caniption. We walk up to the race track and take the elevator to the restaurant. We knew that the buffet was going to be $15 per person (which is actually a really great deal) but we weren't ready for what came next. We walk up to the desk, D asks for our reservations. "That's going to be $25 please". "Oh," says D. "Did the price go down?" Blond bomshell behind the counter "No sir, that's the cover cost." "The what??" says D, getting visibly irritated. "The cover charge." says bomshell "We charge $5 cover for every reservation." Holly shit people. I was LIVID. I totally lost it. "You mean I have to pay $5 just for making a reservation? Why don't you just charge $20 for the food and call it a day? No one mentioned anything about a cover charge! And now that I'm at it, whoever we talked to also told us that parking and PNE entrance were free! We had to pay for all that!!! And WHERE THE HELL IS MY FREE PROGRAM?" Oh boy. Everyone there was looking at me like I was freakin' crazy. WTF man! I spent $90 before even eating! Never, ever, ever again.

Once I got past the money, I was a bit better. I managed to win one race (thanks to D's uncle who joined us a few minutes later and has a permanent horshoe up his ass). I asked him what to put my money on and his suggestion won me $40. No fortune but all of the money I'd lost up to that point. After the races we took a walk through the PNE and just before leaving we stopped into the casino. The uncle with the horshoe decided to play a couple of hands of blackjack. D also decided to put in his last $20. At a $10 table, that lasted 6 minutes. I gave him another $10 and he managed to stay in for a few more and then busted. After watching uncle play for a while I decided to play my luck and sat down next to him with my last $20. In ten minutes, I'd made $60. I walked away while I was ahead and managed to walk out with $80 at the end of the day. Not too shabby.

I did take some great photos of the sand sculpture competition and of a very, very very cool car. You can check out all the pictures here.

Sorry again for the rant. Should be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow!

Days left to my birthday: 27

Yes, the countdown to the next big number has started. I figured I'd let you all know that yes, I'm getting bloody old. God dammit! I still haven't met him. YEAH HIM!!!! You know who I'm talking about! Maybe between now and 40 I'll become a HUGE movie star and meet him. Sigh.

Grandama came home yesterday. Went over to see her. She looks fantastic. She always looks so much more relaxed when she comes back. It's like all she does is sleep there (which is FAR) from the truth. It's nice having her back. Really nice.

I'm not sure how else I'm going to fill my day today. I'm bored out of my mind. I'm going to have to settle for some filing. God I hate filing.

The MIL comes in tomorrow. Sunday is off to the horse races and the PNE. Those are the big plans for the weekend. Exciting eh? The good thing is that D and I are planning a little outing to the States for next week. Probably Sunday. That would be awesome. It's been years since I last went accross to Belingham. Can't wait to do some shopping! I need new shoes. Nice shoes. Just not shoes that cost $140.

That's enough ranting. Here's this week's installment of KFF: