Why do I always think that I’ll have time to do everything on the weekends? I always schedule everything for the weekends because I mistakenly think that I’ll have spare time during these two short days.

So far today I’ve slept in, checked my email (which mysteriously always takes longer than it should), had breakfast, finalized plans for my friend’s birthday party tonight, went across town to the clinic to pee in a container, came back, did half of my weekly chores, had lunch, and then started working on some of my huge projects. You know what I mean. Those things you write down on a "to do" list that you never actually do because they’re too big. Like "organize my computer files" or "practice typing to get my speed and accuracy back up to where it should be" or "type in the three notebooks worth of writing I’ve written so far on my book. I spent about 15 minutes gathering my three notebooks and then an hour or three typing in my notes. These notes for my book go back to September of 2002!

So now it’s the middle of the afternoon and I haven’t finished my chores. I still need to vacuum, clean the kitchen, pick up around my room, and do laundry. And how much time have I left myself to do this? About 3 hours. After that I need to have supper and then it will be my friend’s birthday party.

So why didn’t I do some of my chores throughout the week? Or type up some of my notes? I think that would make too much sense and so is therefore impossible to do. I’m sure there’s some perfectly rational explanation as to why I only go to the gym and watch TV after work and try to do everything else on the weekends. And why I borrow a whole season’s worth of episodes of a TV program and try to watch the whole thing on the weekends along with everything else.

What other things have I accomplished today? Well, I managed to re-charge my cell phone and write my first ever blog entry. Yay me! lol

When I moved I changed most of my addresses. I got mail forwarding for 6 months to take care of the rest. That should work, right?

Wrong. At first my mail was coming properly and I noticed that I hadn’t changed the address of my bank. So I dutifully called them up to change my address. After having answered about 9 personal questions, one of which was my over the phone banking password, I couldn’t answer the last question and so they refused to change my address. (I didn’t know the exact date of when I had last used my card or exactly how much money was involved.) They said it was for security reasons and the man suggested that I go and use my card and then call back. Thanks.

About a month later I noticed that my bank statement had been forwarded and that the address on the forwarding sticker was incorrect. It had been scratched out and the correct address was hand written in. Weird, but at least I got it.

The next bank statement never arrived. I called the bank and they claimed they had sent it. I called to investigate my mail forwarding and told them about the wrong address on the forwarding sticker. They said everything was correct and that I should be getting my mail.

The next bank statement never arrived but my tax stuff did. This time there was a different incorrect address on the forwarding sticker. It had been scratched out and the correct address handwritten in. So I went to the rental office and found out that they had been scratching out the incorrect address and putting my correct address so that I got my mail. That was very nice of them. So I went back to the mail forwarders with proof that they were forwarding my mail to an incorrect address. This time they actually did fix the problem (I think) and they refunded me my money. Where, though, were my bank statements for the past 3 months?

I called the bank back. As I still hadn’t used my stupid card, I couldn’t answer their last question and so I again couldn’t change my address with them. So I went into the bank and asked to speak to someone who wasn’t a teller. Maybe someone with an office.

The result of this was that my bank address finally got changed. That was all. They claimed that if my bank statements had been returned to the bank, the statements would have been shredded but that they would not have made any records of it being shredded. They claimed that they don’t keep records of what they shred. This boggles my mind. So they therefore couldn’t tell me if my bank statements had been returned to them and shredded or not returned to them at all. Thanks for all your diligent record keeping, Royal Bank. They also told me that I had nothing to worry about, even if someone else did open up my bank statements and read them. They claimed that there was nothing anyone could do with that information.

If they weren’t returned to the bank, then whoever received them either

1. Threw them out unopened.
2. Kept them (unopened) as they mean to give them to the office but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
3. Opened them and then threw them out.
4. Opened them and kept them.

So I have 3 questions for the Royal Bank of Canada.

1. Why don’t you keep records of what you destroy?
2. If you do keep records (which I think you’re legally obliged to do), why did you lie to me?
3. Will you charge me a fee if I decide to close my account and open another one so that I have different account information?

Here are some funny stories I feel like sharing. They’re all real. I wasn’t there for the first one, but it involves people I know.

I share a cube at work with Bob. Bob is at least 60. Bob has an inbox that co-workers put stuff in. One day, Christine (a co-worker who might be 40) came by to put stuff in Bob’s inbox. Bob looked like he was deep in concentration. "Forming thoughts, Bob?" Christine asked. Louise (our boss who sits across from us) overheard and cried out "What did you say?" Louise was rather alarmed as she thought Christine had casually walked up to Bob and asked "Horny thoughts, Bob?"

One day I was in the SUB (Student Union Building) of my university with Sophie. We were just hanging out. Then I spotted Frank. I pointed him out to her and told her he was my GM. She asked what a GM was and I told her Game Master. She gave me this really weird look and asked why I had a master and why he was gay.

I was at Louis’ Pizza Shop with a few friends eating pizza. I don’t remember what we were talking about but I remember turning to Darin and saying something that started with "I know". Sophie, on the other side of me, asked me to repeat what I had said. I asked her why and made her tell me what she thought I’d said before I would tell her what I had actually said. Nobody remembers what I really said but she thought I had casually turned to Darin and said "I know Charlie’s Angels."

I decided to leave work a little early today. 15 minutes to be exact. For one thing, I have a bit of time owed to me and I thought that if I left early it would give me a jump on all the errands I had to do today. The other reason is that I was feeling a little gyped.

At work, I convert paper files into computer files. I was hired to do this on a contract and that contract is up the end of next month. I do the old backlog files and someone else does the new files. I need to do a bit of prep work on the files before I convert them, but not much since there is someone else who does a LOT of prep work on the files before I get them. At the beginning of each month, he starts going through the last months files. For example, at the beginning of March, he will start to do the prep work on the February files. When I finish converting all the files I have at my desk, I go and get more. What changed is that I caught up. I finished converting all the January files at the beginning of this week and therefore started working on the February files. Since it isn’t March, no prep work has been done on the files. I’ve therefore spend the vast majority of this week preparing the files. I’m almost done. By the end of tomorrow I should be completely finished preparing the files for the whole month. Once that is done, there won’t be anymore files to prepare for at least a week. While preparing the files, I don’t need my computer.

So what happened today to make me feel a little gyped? The network went down and might be down tomorrow as well. It didn’t affect me at all. It stopped lots of other people from doing a full day’s work, but not me. I just continued to plug away all day. And will probably do the same thing tomorrow.

On the up side, I not only got all of my errands done but also had time to pick up the wedding gift I had in mind for a friend. It is all wrapped and has ribbons, a bow, and even a card!

Now I’m off to have supper at Montanna’s and then grocery shopping.

Have a good evening!

Monday I went in to work a little early. I like to do that because then I can leave a little early. In the afternoon there was a meeting for everyone except four people. I, of course, was one of the four who got to stay in the office and work. That’s really not so bad because I think the meeting might have been a bit on the agonizingly boring side. When everyone got back from the meeting, however, it was just about time for me to leave. As I’m going out the door (at about 2:50pm) I find out that, due to the weather, they are sending everyone home early. In fact, everyone is encouraged to leave within the next 10 minutes. Great. That means I could have came in really late and still left at my usual time. I guess those are just the pitfalls of working 7am to 3pm instead of 9am to 5pm. Oh well. It’s worth it to get to leave at 3pm when it’s still daylight out no matter what time of year it is.

I recently bought a shredder. I’ve wanted a shredder for quite a while now. Maybe I’m paranoid, but I feel better shredding my receipts and personal info into little bits of paper that cannot be put back together without serious and strenuous effort. I doubt anyone is really out at the dump going through garbage in order to find receipts and steal your identity or anything, but just in case I think I’ll now shred everything. Besides, it’s FUN!! LOL

Does anyone else out there read children’s books for their own amusement? Or for any other specific reason? I currently have the complete set (books 1 to 11) of the Lemmony Snicket series, the Harry Potter series (1 to 5), an unnamed trilogy by J. FitzGerald McCurdy (1 to 3), and the Worlds of Chrestomanci series (1 to 5). I also have Eragon by Paolini and Gingerbread by Cohn. Some of these books are REALLY good, like Eragon. That one is a series except the second book hasn’t come out yet.

I have a friend that is about to become a teacher and he tries to keep up with all these books so that he can know what his students are talking about. I have another friend that is a philosophy professor and he reads them too. I not sure exactly what my interest is in them, although I am attempting to write my own children’s series so maybe I can claim that I’m doing research. Yeah, that’s it. Research. LOL.

In case anyone noticed, I haven’t posted for a while and now suddenly I’ve posted four times. Well, I was a bit busy and didn’t have time. Tonight I had time and I guess a lot to say as well. Maybe it’s because I’m procrastinating. Avoiding, really. Like my taxes. I did the rough copy but haven’t done the good copy and sent them off yet. I also need to find a new job. Updating my resume is, of course, part of that. Bleck. I don’t really want to do that. I started. Really. I just got stuck and wrote all these blog entries instead. Maybe I’ll be hit by inspiration tomorrow and create a wonderful new format for my resume that will dazzle so many prospective employers that I’ll have offers left, right, and center. It could happen. It has more chance of happening that I do of winning the lottery. I never buy lottery tickets.

Even though the week started off with a severe winter storm and followed that with insane cold (I think it was –32 C or something with the wind chill today), I can feel spring in the air. So much so that I've started buying new clothes. And what did I buy? Why skirts of course!! Next shopping trip: shoes!!

This is to clear up a comment Sophie made in regard to my Forming Thoughts posting on Feb 17. Her comment was "Hey!!! I'm getting the odd impression that you are mocking me!" Now, I know she was kidding and didn’t really think I was mocking her. But others other there in netspace might not know that and think that I was mocking her.

Miss Sophie is one of the funniest people I know. We’ve been friends for a very long time (I think 10 years?) If anything exceedingly bizarre is going to happen to anyone, it will be her. She takes it in stride, though. She tells everyone all the obscure and amazingly unbelievable stuff that happens in her life and laughs while she tells you.

She’s very smart, successful, and INTERESTING. She has a great career and owns her own SUV and house. You know that saying "You can dress her up but can’t take her out"? Well, that’s NOT Sophie. Sophie is great to go out with. Always fun and entertaining. If there’s anything Sophie isn’t, it’s boring. She doesn’t dominate the conversation, either. You can tell her anything at all and she’ll listen. If it’s a secret, she’ll keep it.

Sophie is always up for anything. If you want to go out and do exciting things or stay in and chat, she’s okay with either. She’s the most agreeable person I’ve ever met. That’s not to say that she doesn’t voice her opinions. She does. All the time. It’s just that most of the time we agree or else it really doesn’t matter to her. Like should we get pepperoni pizza or Hawaiian? She likes both so she doesn’t care what’s decided. So when she tell you it doesn’t matter to her, it doesn’t. If it mattered, she’d tell you. I really like that.

I also think she’s very pretty. I’ve told her this before, especially while looking though pictures. She’s very photogenic. So, to sum up, I think Sophie is one of the best people I know.

I’m feeling very mellow right now. I managed to actually get a few things done today and I’m feeling that as a reward I should allow myself to read a book. I don't normally allow myself to read if I have things to do because I’ll read the whole entire book from front to back in one sitting and not do anything else. Including eating and sleeping. I’m very focused when I read. I was at home alone one time when I was about 13 or 14 and I started a book. It was a quiet sunny Sunday afternoon in the summer. When I finished, my sister and some of her friends were home. They were in the room with me. The tv and computer were on and they were making lots of noise. I just hadn’t noticed until I finished the book.

Today is a quiet Saturday afternoon. The sun is out, my window is open, and nobody is home. Prime reading criteria.

I finished my book and am happy to say that although I only got half way through it yesterday, today was again prime for reading and I therefore finished it.

I also had tons of fun last night at Aubree’s place. Sarsar was also there with her bf and I have a picture of him caught in the act. LOL.

I was rather ambitious this morning and actually made breakfast. As in cooked. All by myself. I made pancakes and I’m seriously thinking about making a stew later today so that I can have real food during the week. This is a new experience for me and it’s kind of exciting yet weird. I mean I’ve cooked before, but never anything complicated that used a recipe. Except in home ec. But that doesn’t count because your partners always helped.

Seacrest OUT! LOL

Last week I went with a friend of mine to pick up her wedding dress from the seamstress. She had bought it from a wedding dress store but then had taken it to an Italian seamstress to have it professionally altered. I didn’t see what her dress looked like before it was altered, but when my friend tried it on, it looked AMAZING! I’ve never seen a wedding dress look so wonderful on anyone. It was so beautiful! It fit perfectly everywhere and it was so flattering! I actually think stunning is a better word to describe it. She’s been debating whether or not to wear a tiara at the wedding, and I say wear one! I think she (and her dress) deserve it. Plus, I think she looks like a princess in the dress. If she doesn’t wear a tiara, she’ll look incomplete. I even found some exquisite ones in the jewelry store. Mind you, they were $400 and $450, but they would look amazing with her dress.

I am back from my weekend home and have found a new job. My last job ended yesterday and so I have today off. My new job starts on Monday. This new job is not what I really want to be doing, but income is income. I’m still looking for a better job and hopefully I’ll come across one soon.

I just finished a cover letter to send with my resume. I sent it off to my friends to get their opinion before actually sending it off to the company. Now I just have to wait a bit. Hmmm. While I’m waiting, maybe I’ll taste test the peach pie in the fridge. Yes, I believe that is a truly excellent idea.

This hilarious phrase comes from my niece, Alexis. She is 2 years and 5 months old. The day before, my sister Heather had been showing Alexis a cowboy Fisher Price person and saying "Yee Haw". Alexis also heard the cowboys in the Calgary Stampede saying "Yee Haw". I have a video clip of her (courtesy of my digicam) rocking on her rocking horse. It was at my sister Karen’s house. Alexis was the only child there. A lull in the conversations caught Alexis’ attention and she looked up from her horse at everyone.

Alexis to everyone: What doin?

My mom to Alexis: We’re watching you.

Alexis to everyone: I on my horse. WHOO HAW! WHOO HAW!

I guess somewhere along the way she’s also heard the expression "Whoo who!".

My mom gave me a little mesh bag of chocolate eggs for Easter. The label reads "Real Milk Chocolate". Do you think there would be a market for little Easter eggs with the label "Fake Milk Chocolate"? Is the word real really necessary? Shouldn’t "Milk Chocolate" suffice? I mean, if it wasn’t REAL milk chocolate, wouldn’t it simply not be milk chocolate at all?

I hosted a Bachelorette party Saturday night for a friend who is getting married soon. Very soon. Later this month.

Here is a picture of the cake I made.

I had a roommate, Tonya, who talked in her sleep. One night I came in and she was fast asleep. Suddenly, she said "Yay". It was completely deadpan and sarcastic, not enthusiastic at all. I had to grab my pillow and laugh in that in order not to wake her up.

Her sister told me this really funny story. One day Tonya wanted to take a nap but she also wanted to watch a movie that was coming on later so she asked her sister to wake her up for it. So her sister went in to wake her up about 5 minutes before the movie. Tonya’s response? "Not now. I have to sharpen my fingernails for my test on snowflakes." In a weird way, that kinda makes sense. LOL

Okay, I only did 20 songs cuz it's almost

2:30 in the morning and I want to go to bed

now.  I forgot to post the rules.  They go

something like this:

1.  Try and guess my songs.

2.  If you get them right I'll erase them or

    hightlight them or something.

3.  NO CHEATING!

4.  Bonus points if you get the artist too.

Update:  Wednesday June 22, 2005

The songs in Orange are the ones nobody guessed.

The songs in Yellow are the ones that were correctly guessed.

Final Tally:

aubree with 4 points (5, 15)

poohgirl with 7 points (6, 13, 14, 20)
rxciting  with 4 points (12, 16)

Nobody:  25 points (1,2,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,17,18,19)

feisty claims that she knew them all - but she didn't post.  :)

1. You’re everything

   that’s why I cling to you.

   When I emerge

   my thoughts converge to you.

I was looking for my digicam charger. It took me about 15 minutes. Why? Because my pattern recognition software in my brain is broken. It was in the first place I looked but I didn’t see it. I searched there three times. Maybe this is why I can’t find my train tickets either.

When I was in high school I made the ridiculous decision to take physics. The class was always taught in the same room because of it’s lab-like facilities. The desks were bolted to the floor and sat two people. Partners were assigned according to who was sitting at your desk and seats were assigned according to your last name.

The first time I took physics (yes, I opted to take it more than once! Grades 11, and 12!!) I had Trecia O. for a partner. I liked Trecia. We had fun in class but she dropped out about three quarters of the way through and so I was just stuck in with another group – Shawn and another guy. Our seats didn’t change, though. I sat by myself for classes and squished in with my partners for labs.

The second year, Shawn from the previous year was assigned as my partner. As soon as he found this out, he was upset and asked (very loudly in the middle of class!!) to be re-assigned to someone – anyone – else! I was embarrased and insulted. What was his problem? The teacher simply told him no. No negotiating or anything, just no. He was really upset. He didn’t even want to sit beside me. So I just asked him what his problem was and he said (still loudly) that he didn’t want a drug addict for a partner. A drug addict? Where did THAT come from? So I asked him. His reply? "You’re so happy, bubbly, and giggly you must be stoned all the time!" So I, of course, laughed. That did not help my case. I tried to assure him that I was not, nor had I ever been, stoned but he simply would not believe me. He did sit beside me because the only alternative was to be sent to the principal’s office and be kicked out of class – for the whole term, not just that one class – but he fumed and shot me dirty looks throughout the whole class. Which, I must admit, made me laugh. I couldn’t help it. I knew I was exacerbating the situation but come on! He thought I was constantly stoned because I was always in a good mood? Even now that makes me laugh.

The next class I jokingly asked him if he wanted to check the size of my pupils and he said yes and then checked them!!! He didn’t want me to do my share of the labs although when I insisted, he grudingly backed down. He finally warmed up to me a bit halfway through the course and admitted that I wasn’t stoned – at least not in physics class – but that he was still afraid of me. Still? It turns out that he had been afraid of me the whole time! And he was still afraid of me! How bizarre is that? Anyway, we made it through physics with kick ass lab marks and he only accused me of cheating about four times. He couldn’t explain how I had cheated, but he said he just didn’t believe I was smart enough to have done the work properly all by myself. I’m thinking I should have smacked him! LOL

It was weird, though, knowing that he was afraid of me. I only used it a few times – and one of them was to save him from freezing to death during a fire alarm in the middle of winter. We were in Pysics class and everyone brought their jacket(s) with them except for Shawn because his was in his locker. He was only wearing a t-shirt so I ordered him to put on my leather jacket. We (my friends and I) were really into layering that year so I was already wearing 3 or 4 layers without my jacket. He was literally shaking but didn’t want to take my jacket. What a strange guy. I never saw him after we graduated. I wonder if he has mental issues.

Yay!! I found my train tickets. If I hadn’t been able to find them I would have had to buy them again at full price. How stupid is that for customer service? If you lose them, it’s like losing cash. Anyway, I outsmarted myself and actually filed them so that I wouldn’t lose them. Hahahahaha!

And more good news – I got my cell phone software to work and managed to download the pics I took Sunday when I was in Montreal. Yay! I’ve also removed permission for that software to ever touch the internet again. No more updates for you, stupid software! Why would it need updates anyway? All the update did was change the names of my options, move things around, delete all my configurations, and generally cause mayhem (a state of violent disorder or riotous confusion - havoc). So no more of that!

I just felt like doing a few more songs.

Can you guess what they are?

This first one seems to need a hint - so I'm going to add more to it and tell you that it's by Monster Magnet.

1)  Just one lick upon my thoughts

    Or both our worlds will have to go.

    I’m just not quite right today.

Guessed by Greeneggsandham and Herewegoagain

Aeroplane by Red Hot Chilli Peppers

2)  Someone better slap me

    Before I start to rust

    Before I start to decompose

    Looking in my rearview mirror

    Looking in my rearview mirror

    I can make it disappear

    I can make it disappear!

    Have no fear!

    I like pleasure spiked with pain

Guessed by Herewegoagain

Just a Girl by No Doubt

3)  Yes I’m some kind of freak
    Cuz they all sit and stare

    With their eyes

    [line edited out]

    Take a good look at me

    Just a typical prototype

Guessed by Herewegoagain

Queer by Garbage

4)  Hey boy, take a look at me
    Let me dirty up your mind

Guessed (close enough) by Herewegoagain

Ava Adore by the Smashing Pumpkins

5)  In you I see dirty

    In you I count stars

    In you I feel so pretty

    In you I taste God

    In you I feel so hungry

    In you I crash cars

    We must never be apart

Guessed by Herewegoagain

Love Is A Battlefield by Pat Bennetar

6)  You’re making me go
    Then making me stay

    Why do you hurt me so bad?

    It would help me to know

    Do I stand in your way

    Or am I the best thing you’ve had?

    Believe me, believe me

    I can’t tell you why

    But I’m trapped by your love

    And I’m chained to your side

My roommate has been trying to go home for vacation for 2 days. They keep canceling all the flights. I’ve been checking the web-site all night to see if she’s still stuck at the airport. Her flight was supposed to have left at 7pm but it didn’t actually leave until 9:48pm. At least it did leave and she didn’t have to loose yet another day of her vacation. However, I feel the need to stay up and make sure that her flight actually lands. Her flight should be landing right about now but according to the web-site it just simply hasn’t yet. Hurry up! I want to go to bed!

I’m feeling rather exuberant today. I spent all day yesterday with the guy I’m seeing. We spent most of the day at his house talking and getting to know each other better (and no, I don’t mean it like that!). It turns out that we like the same kinds of food – which is a huge deal to me because I have food allergies. We also like the same style of books and are reading many of the same series. We have so many of the same interests! He also doesn’t like country music (another huge deal for me). Afterwards we went to two concerts (Alexisonfire and New Your Dolls). So it was a really great day! And today we’re going to go see Fantastic 4! Hurray!

The only down side is that I missed getting my Harry Potter book when it was delivered and now I don’t know where I need to go to get it. I’m not worried, though. I’ll get it eventually. :)

(Although if touriste would call me I could find out where I need to go and she could get better details than what I put on here!)

The other day I was reading purgatory's post and he was talking about Jessica Alba and how much he likes her. I like her too, but I’m sure for completely different reasons. :)

Anyway, I couldn’t sleep Friday night so I started watching a few things I had taped. The last thing I watched before going to bed was Dark Angel (starring Jessica Alba).

So when I finally fell asleep I dreamt that something exciting and important was going on and it was vitally important that I get a particular fashion magazine to Jessica Alba so that I could show her the add about the onion inside!!! I woke up laughing so hard I was crying. Maybe it was the onion?

I really liked the movie. My date was good too. We went out to eat at Eastside Mario’s and then went to the movie. We’re going out again Wednesday night. :)

So today was rather different than most days because today I spent 4 1/2 hours looking for green dots. Not just any green dots either. There had to be two of them and they had to be at each end of a string of numbers. After I found them, I found the corresponding numbers on the list and then checked them off. There were several false alarms of finding single green dots. There were also quite a few false alarms of finding a dot only to discover that it was red and single so it was of even less use than a single green one. So after having found all my special green dots, I did something completely different and intensely boring for the rest of the afternoon. I think I now require a nap.

I saw a guy jump off a building yesterday! He was at the top of the Rideau Centre parking structure with two other guys. He ran up to the half wall, jumped up on it, and then jumped off it onto the level below!! I have no idea what he landed on, how he landed, or if he was hurt because my view was obstructed, but the two guys he was with didn’t seem overly alarmed by his actions. Guy #2 also jumped up onto the half wall and debated jumping off – he almost did, then he sat down and almost pushed himself off from a seated position, then he stood back up and thought about jumping off from a standing position again – but then he changed his mind and got down off the half wall. Guy #3 never even got up onto the half wall. He looked over it and watched while guy #2 debated jumping, but then he turned and walked down the ramp that cars use to change levels. That’s when guy #2 gave up and got down off the wall. Guy #2 then ran after guy #3 to catch up with him. Once they started down the ramp I couldn’t see them anymore.

How bizarre is that!?! Was there a garbage dumpster there that broke his fall? Was there a truck full of pillows? Were they filming a movie and there was one of those blue plastic pillow bags there? Is there a number we’re supposed to call when we see things like this? Because if there is, I should definitely have it because I would use it all the time!!

Sunday I went out and saw Sky High. I quite liked it but then again I was expecting to like it. Out of 5 stars, the critics gave it 2, the person I went with gave it 3 1/2, and I gave it 4. There was less sappiness and less patriotism than I expected and, since I managed to stay away from all previews, I hadn’t seen the movie out of sequence before I went to see it. Afterwards we went back to his place and watched Hellboy. I really liked that. I thought the day was going rather well but then it got even better because he invited me to go to the Def Leppard concert with him in less than two weeks. :)

We’re also going to go to the International Fireworks Competition on either Wednesday or Saturday, depending on which country is setting them off.

I called the police today. Nothing serious, but something weird. I mentioned before that I was getting calls for someone named Tracy. Well, through more phone calls for her I found out her last name (or so she claims) is Ouellette. I’m not sure of the spelling. It could be Ouelet, Ouellet, or Ouellette. Anyway, the financial institution MBNA started calling my cell phone looking for Tracy. I told them they had the wrong number. They kept calling. I kept telling them not to. They’re using up my minutes. Today I asked them to remove my number from her account. They refused to do so. They said they couldn’t do that. So then I called Rogers (the company I have the cell phone with) and Rogers offered to change my cell phone number free of charge (which would be a frig but I might have to do it) and they also suggested that I call the police. So I did. The police officer I talked to seemed surprised that MBNA refused to remove my number from their system. She gave me a case number and said I could give it to MBNA. So I called MBNA back and told them I had called the police and gave them my police case number. They became more accommodating but they STILL refuse to remove my phone number from Tracy Ouellette’s account!! They have, however, put a call suppress note or something on the account so that they won't call for the time being. So either Rogers screwed up and told her that her phone number was my phone number or Tracy just messed the number up, OR Tracy might be a bad little girl who’s using fraudulent information to do bad things. MBNA deals with credit cards and they seem VERY anxious to talk to her. She gave them my cell phone number as her business number and then vanished.

Doesn’t that seem suspicious?

I got an email from Chapters the other day. They were advertising that the second book of a series had just come out. I read the first book and loved it! I’ve been waiting for a year or so for the next book and now it’s here! But how did Chapters know that I was waiting for it and that I would be excited about the news that it had finally come out? I bought the first book from Costco, not Chapters. And if the theory is that it was just a random email – why haven’t I received any other emails announcing other newly released books? I’ve been a Chapter’s member of quite a while. Anyway, tomorrow after work I’m planning on popping over to Chapters and picking it up.

During my first week of university (Frosh week), the Frosh Bosses made us do a variety of things as an induction into our university. We were often woken up very early in the morning, dragged outside, and told to do a bunch of ridiculous stuff. One morning, all the Frosh in my all female residence (Cutten) were rounded up and given a sheet. It listed several all male residences – each with about 5 or so people that we had to find in each residence and get them to sign our sheet. Things like "A Frosh who has just brushed his teeth" or "A Frosh who is in the same program as you". There were Frosh bosses going around with us and Frosh bosses in the residences. So I’m skimming the sheet when suddenly I see that we have to find someone who has blue hair!! So I’m sort of freaking out because if we don’t get our sheets signed, we’re not allowed to have breakfast. (Which, as an aside, was served to us without utensils for the first little while). I guess I looked a little shocked because someone in my section asked me what was wrong.

Me: "How are we going to find this person?" (pointing at the blue hair spot)

Girl: "Well it should be really easy. There’s probably lots of them."

Me: "Lots of people with blue hair?"

Girl: "Blue hair? What are you talking about?"

Me: "See? (Again pointing) We have to find someone’s who’s hair is blue."

Girl: (Looking at me oddly) "Colour."

Me: "What?"

Girl: "Someone who’s favorite colour is blue."

So I looked again and noticed that the square did indeed say someone who’s favorite colour is blue. The square above it, however, required us to find someone who’s hair colour was BROWN.

This story STILL makes me laugh.

I was reading a book (Eragon by Paolini) last night and this is what I read: "A cloud of black crows flew over the barrier at the crouched defenders." There’s nothing wrong with that, right? Except that the black crows would have had to come out of the ground in this particular scene. Why would monsters coming out of the ground have crows with them? That really confused me so I read the sentence again. What it really said was "A cloud of black arrows flew over the barrier at the crouched defenders." That made ever so much more sense. You know it’s time to go to bed when you start seeing imaginary black crows.

There was a fire alarm here last night. We were outside for over an hour. Here’s what I noticed while waiting for the all clear to re-enter: some people are seriously stupid! The fire alarm is going off and there are fire trucks and everything - so what do some of the car drivers do? They park in the middle of the driveway area and/or drive their cars into the underground parking lot. If there really was a fire would you want to be in an enclosed space with an abundance of combustible fluid? Or blocking the fire trucks from getting to the building? And some people stayed in the building! I saw them! If there really had been a fire and they had died I would have felt NO sympathy. Survival of the fittest baby and the fittest require at least a modicum of intelligence!

Okay, I haven’t blogged in about a week so I have about 14 topics to cover. I’ll try to do this in chronological order. Last weekend I saw some Halloween Pilsbury cookies on sale and decided to buy a pack to try them out. For those of you that don’t know, Pilsbury cookies are sold raw – you have a tube of dough that you cut into cookies and bake. This pack, however, was already cut into cookies. Well, instead of explaining why they were so special, here are the cookies I made.

Last Monday was a holiday and I went and saw The Transporter 2 staring Jason Statham. I absolutely love him! The movie was quite good but I didn’t find it as good as the first Transporter movie. And it was quite short – not much longer than an hour – so that was a bit disappointing. I went with the guy I’ve been sort of seeing/dating but we’ve concluded that we’re just going to be friends. We decided that before we went to the movie together but here’s something odd – he still paid for the movie. I was surprised and didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say anything. Well, I thanked him but that’s all I said about it. Is that weird? And I was the one who called him and asked if he wanted to go to the movie.

I’m not sure when this happened but I was in my bed in my room half asleep when I rolled over and burped. So I said "Excuse me". That woke me up and I realized that I was talking to an empty room. I thought that was really funny and started laughing. I have really good manners!

I finished Eldest by Paolini this week. It was even better than the first book and now I want the third book! I had to re-arrange my whole bookcase in order to accommodate my new books. I’m soon going to have to start purging stuff in order to have room on my shelves. I have a few things other than books on there – some VHS tapes, some DVDs, and packages of light bulbs (don’t ask). Speaking of purging, I also bought some new clothes so now I’m running out of room in that department too. I think I’m going to have to starting purging again. My whole family is full of pack-rats so this whole business of not having more than you need or use is hard for me. I’m getting there though.

Then I got a wonderful surprise in the mail – green socks from Wylddaze! Sent all the way from Australia! I had previously posted a tragic story about my favorite pair of socks that I had as a kid. They were green and they suffered an untimely demise but Wylddaze has replaced them! They aren’t the same as my old socks – they are better! They say Australia on them and they have a platypus, a kookaburra, and an echidna on them! So that was exciting. My first internet gift!

Since I’ve had to spend so much time at work lately, I got to leave Friday at noon! That was nice. I went swimming and then had a super large amount of time to get ready for the Pearl Jam concert. I had already decided to smuggle in a bottle of water since a bottle of water there is $5 AND they take your bottle cap. Screw that! I have the perfect purse too. It’s big enough to hold a 500ml bottle of water and not much else. At the last minute, though, I decided not to bother with the water. Which turned out to be a VERY good decision because they were searching bags and frisking people before letting them into the concert!! They were even making people lift up their pant legs so they could see their ankles, making them empty their pockets, and actually patting them down. Except for me. When the guy got to me I held up my tiny little purse and he said it was too small to search. I told him I didn’t have any pockets. He had me turn around and then he let me go. I wasn’t touched or searched or showed my ankles or anything. Everyone else had their bags and purses and pockets searched. I guess I just look trustworthy.

The concert itself was awesome! I had a really good time. And it was really long too – from 9pm to 11:45. It was supposed to be over at 11pm. They were still playing with the building people turned on the lights. After a couple or so songs, the building people then turned off the stage lights. A song or two after that, Pearl Jam finally decided to call it quits. I thought that was kind of funny. I bet the building people were wondering what other hints they would have to give in order to end the concert.

Here are some funny things I saw during the concert:

A woman on the floor level started changing her outfit. She pulled on a skirt over her pants and then tried to take her pants off. Her pants were too tight to get off under the skirt so she pulled the skirt up and was going to take her pants off anyway when security showed up and made her leave to change in the bathroom.

A couple in the row in front of me stole another couple’s seats! They were really good seats too. So there was a bit of an argument where people were pointing at their tickets and the numbers on the seats and section listings. It’s a really good thing nobody got angry and pushed anyone because they were in the front row with a long drop in front of them and only a little 2 foot wall.

There was a woman who screamed, pretty much throughout the entire concert, "Eddie, I want to have your baby!"

Towards the end, Eddie picked his way though all the crap at the front of the stage and sat down on a speaker or amp or something to sing. It was fairly low to the ground and kind of sloped in the back. After he had finished the verse he wanted to leave the absolute front of the stage, but instead of picking his way back he just flopped backwards and rolled feet over head back onto the stage. He landed sitting on his shins. He just sat there for a minute before he grabbed the bottle of wine and took a swig. I found that fairly amusing for some reason.

They did a tribute to Neil Young – about 3 or 4 songs - and they did an excellent job! But I still thought it was funny.

Okay, now on to battery chargers. My jukebox stopped charging the batteries a while ago but I took it in today to see about it because the product service plan expires in two days. So their solution was to give me a free battery charger (which they said retailed at $50) that will safely charge my very specific high powered NiHM batteries. The package, however, already came with a set of four. The last time I sent it in to be fixed they gave me an additional set of batteries so now I have three sets of these special batteries. Yay! So one set is now charging. As soon as it’s done, I will again be portable! And without the huge long wait of them sending it off to be fixed. I find that to be an acceptable solution.

Does anyone know the song "Rain Will Fall" by I Mother Earth? I used to listen to that CD (Dig) all the time, but I never really looked at the case or the song titles. So one day I do and I realize that the song is called Rain Will Fall, not Brian Ripple!! Hahahahaha!

So there was this mysterious leak in the hallway that was making the carpet wet. We reported it and, because the guy couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, he didn’t take us seriously and said we’d probably just spilled some water.

The next day we reported it again because the carpet was so thoroughly soaked that it made a squishing noise when you walked on it. The wall was even damp and soft.

So they tore through three walls getting to the leak and one of them was my bathroom wall. When I came home after work, my toilet was disconnected from the remains of the wall and sitting in the middle of the floor. That was about three days ago. Today when I came home they were still here – but they finally finished and now I have my bathroom back! The only sort of odd thing is that they painted the new wall instead of putting the wallpaper back. So now two of my three walls are wallpapered and one is painted. Oh well, at least the toilet works!

My head has been found and successfully reattached – nose included. Thank you very much for all of your help. The problem now is that I’ve coughed up both lungs and therefore am having significant difficulties breathing. Believe it or not, breathing requires an astonishing amount of energy and coughing depletes energy reserves faster than water escapes from a net. I went out to the kitchen to get some food and after I finished eating I needed to rest from my exhausting excursion. There aren’t even any stairs involved. I feel like I’m 90 years old with emphysema. So why am I not lying in bed resting? I find that it’s about 500% harder to breath lying down than it is sitting up.

So here’s to me feeling better by tomorrow when we’re hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for 15 people.

Maybe I should be drinking fruit juices?

I’m going home for a week, starting tomorrow. There is no internet there so I’ll be on here even less than I have been in the past few months. :(

But I will get to spend loads of time with my niece, and I’ll get to see my new nephew who was born yesterday. :)

Bye everyone!

The other day I received an email from a friend inviting me to a party. It might sound stupid, but I really enjoyed reading the email. It was exceptionally well written and it made me laugh. So when I replied I complimented her on it. That made me start thinking – why don’t I compliment more people more often? Why, when I read a funny email, do I not reply and tell the sender I enjoyed it? Why, when my friend is wearing something especially nice or flattering, do I not tell her so? Because I think it would ultimately hurt people’s feelings. I think that if I started complementing more often that it would then become more expected. Like an aunt that usually gives you a present when she visits. When she shows up without a present you’ll be disappointed. You’ll wonder WHY you didn’t get a present.

And don’t ever give complements in a group setting unless you either have a really good reason to or you have a complement for everyone. The good the complement does just doesn’t outweigh the bad it does.

So be careful with those complements – they are dangerous!

That’s my opinion based on observation.

I spent an extra 4 hours at work today, which means I get to leave by no later than 11am tomorrow morning! Yay!!

That gives me time to run around doing errands and pack my bag for New York! We’re popping down to the states for a shopping weekend. We’re leaving Saturday morning and coming back Monday (which means I’m skipping work that day too). I love leaving work early on Friday’s. It makes my weekend feel so long!

I have a bag of Better than Sex! on my desk.

This is a story I overheard on the bus a few years ago. My apologies if I’ve written this story before but it sprang to mind the other day and I just had to share. The woman in front of me had recently gone to Japan. She didn’t speak Japanese fluently but she spoke it well enough to get by. One day her sink broke. The plumber came the next morning but she couldn’t stay because she had to go to an appointment. Before she left, however, she emphasized to the plumber that she wanted him to make sure that her cat didn’t get out. The plumber just laughed at her.

When she got back her door was wide open and her cat was nowhere in site. "Where is my cat?" she kept yelling at the plumber but the plumber just laughed at her, shook his head, and left.

So she called her friend that spoke Japanese fluently and repeated the story to her. Her friend also laughed at her. Apparently there are several words in the Japanese language that are almost identical and just the slightest emphases on one syllable instead of another will change the word completely. Instead of saying the word "cat", she was saying "public hair".

I love lemon loaf but you can’t get it in this province. I’ve looked in all the stores and they just don’t sell it. At home you can get it year round at the grocery stores and you can even get lemon muffins. Yummy! So I was ecstatic today when a woman from work gave us slices of lemon bread! It tasted just like it should. I was so happy after my first bite that I did a little dance. I had 3 of the 8 pieces but, since nobody else in the office seemed to care as much for it at I obviously did, Brent gave me the last slice. It’s sitting in my fridge right now, waiting for me to get home from work tomorrow. Then I will gobble it down and dance my happy-to-be-eating-lemon-loaf dance.