I know.

I know it's important to you. I am doing all I can do. Calling other people is not going to make me get it done any faster, since it is beyond my control. In fact, all it's going to do is make me pissed off that you just can't be f***ing patient. If I could fix it myself, I would, but I can't, so I'm not going to run around like a chicken with my head cut off just because something is broken that I don't know how to fix.

Have I told you recently how much of an asshole you are? No? Well I just did. Have a nice day.

More news

Oscars

I just found out the Oscars are being pushed back to March 5, 2006 so as not to conflict with the Olympic Winter Games.

When is March Break this year?


Alias

BABY ALIAS: Jennifer Garner's character on Alias, Sydney Bristow, will be expecting a child this fall with Vaughn (Michael Vartan, series mastermind J.J. Abrams confirmed. The star, who's pregnant in real life with Ben Affleck's baby, is expected to be in every episode next season.
[courtesy E! Online]

So that's how they're going to deal with the pregnancy. Better than having her stand behind plants every week. But it will seriously limit the number of skimpy outfits and ass-kicking. Not to mention the fact that Alias is now up against The O.C., Survivor and Joey in the network execs' brilliant plan to try and put every show they have on Thursdays at 9pm.

The fast and the furious

Luau planning has now begun. Still some kinks to work out, but at least the ball is rolling.

Had a landscaper out this morning to look at my yard and provide an estimate on hydroseeding. Hope to see that by the first of next week. Just looking at that for now, I will work away eventually at any "garden" areas. One thing at a time. Need lawn for badminton net!!

The City is supposed to be doing more work on the ditch. Apparently they are going to come by and sod it because the hydroseeding hasn't taken. No word on when that will be, though.

Dad was by this week and has finished the job of bringing the rainwater away from the house, which will hopefully solve part of my flooding issues. May still need to build up ground around the door. Dad also ranked 1 of the 3 cords of wood in my basement to be ready for fall. Nice to have it earlier this year so at least it will have time to season and dry out before I use it. Love my stove.

The door to the spare bedroom is on and ready for Vag's stay the end of next week.

It totally slipped my mind, until someone told me, that this weekend is the long weekend. I might have showed up at work next Monday if I hadn't been talking to anyone. Now I am really looking forward to that extra day off... just what I've been in need of, a day off around home. You have no idea how much I need that.

Not much news on the mother front just yet. The ball is currently in her court. Thank you to those who posted positive comments/sent great emails. I appreciate the fact that you're pulling for me.

What's in the cards for this weekend - anyone feel like an MST Night? Perhaps Saturday or Sunday, with some BBQ on the deck?

So the time has come

My mother wrote me this afternoon. Misses me and wants to communicate.

I will write her back. Should be interesting. I'd like to repair our relationship, but she has to have made or be willing to make some changes before I will get involved again.

We shall see.

August Approacheth

As I sit here on July 24, I realize it is already July 24th. July is one of those months that I always look forward to arriving, but it zips by so quickly that I barely know it's been here. July is traditionally the best month for weather in SJ, with August brings the start of the cooler breezes and you can feel the fall coming. So I still have one more week to bask in July glory. From my office.

Looking ahead to August, it appears I will be having a very busy month. The luau is 2 weeks away now (invitations will be sent by email in the next couple of days) and we need to get some details worked out for that. There are also 2 theatre events I'll be happy to go see, with friends in each event: Theatre On The Edge and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I have the Portland shopping trip scheduled as my first official vacation of the summer (oooo, 3 days, you rebel you!). Shawn G is coming home and we'll be planning a MST Night in there as well. And that's just my personal life - I have a huge work project that I need to complete by the end of August, so there can be a couple of weeks in September to work out the kinks before I leave for Tucson.

Right about now I would kill to just take a week off and do nothing except things around the house. The Blue Room is a mess, and has been since I moved in here. Still could use some organization in my basement. Would love to sit and devour the stack of books I have yet to read. Just relax and take it easy and do a few projects. I used to take those types of vacations, as I have never been much of one who likes being away from home. Lately I find myself feeling guilty for even the thought of that kind of vacation.

Our vacation period at work runs from June 1-May 31, and I have 15 days I can take off. I'm taking 3 for Portland, and 3 for U2 in November. I have some time booked off between xmas and New Year's which I may or may not take, depending on whether I am home or not for xmas. I also have my older brother's upcoming wedding to consider, and I will need time off for that, which could be as early as this December. The days get eaten up fairly quickly, and you never know what might come up fairly last-minute that you wish you still had extra days off for (like the trip to Florida for house decorating). I am also in a position now at work where if I can be reached, I will be reached... not sure how taking a week off to be at home would truly be a week off.

I long for those days off to do "nothing", but I don't think they'll be around anytime in the near future. Some may say I need to make myself do it, if it's that important to me. I guess it's something to think about.

Sunday afternoon

Jay has graciously invited me to co-host the Flip Side this Sunday afternoon. I am making up my list of songs to play... finding things that I like that didn't chart is a challenge, but one I am willing to accept! :)

Tune into CFMH 92.5 FM on Sunday from 2-4pm and if you have a request, call it in! Has to be something that is a B side or didn't hit the Top 40.

Sitting outside blogging

That is what I am doing right now. The sun has set, but there is still some light. I have the bug lanterns and the patio lanterns on. I hope it stays warm, at least for a while, so I can enjoy some dusk time outside.

Being cold most of the time, I am always grateful for a nice stinking hot day. Today was that day, and for me, it was great. That's all that matters.

I met up with Dad at lunchtime, glad for the break from the deep freeze that was my office. Got myself some pre-hung doors for the basement, as well as some pipe for the trenches. The doors will go in next week, with the return of the infamous contractor I had last year who did most of the finishing work in the basement (he works for Dad sometimes).

Since I wasn't expecting any company tonight, I went for my hourlong walk after work. On the way back I ran into my brother, who was headed into MediTrust for his insulin. Talked to him for a bit, he is doing well and things with his new gf are great (with that small exception of the fact that she is in Ontario and won't be moving down until next year).

A few minutes after I got home, Mare dropped by to say hi. Good timing! We chatted for a bit and then she left and I cooked a burger for supper. Then I sat down to get some hotel rooms booked for our Portland shopping trip, and came out with a decent rate for the 2 nights in Portland and an excellent deal for our 1 night in Bangor. Yay savings! The more money we save, the more we can use for shopping! So the trip is finally booked and we can now look forward to lots of shopping. Dad also got everything arranged for my own Sam's Club card, so we'll be able to hit both Sam's and Costco.

Bug lanterns seem to be working well. Don't see many bugs around, really.

So that's basically it for me today, I am just enjoying being outdoors as much as I can. Really wished I had the day off, or a day off. Not having any vacation until August is not an appealing prospect, but I can't bring myself to take any time off until I know some more details about....

My brother's wedding! Older brother got engaged, and I keep forgetting to blog about it, silly me! Happened last week. He also started a new job. I've been wanting to chat with him, and he did call tonight but I was out on my walk. Can't wait to hear more details. I am extremely happy for them both.

It is damn nice out right now

One might even call it deck-crashingly nice out.

Things I can't believe

This is news?

Come on. Is this really a big enough deal to get up in arms over? Does Bush really care if women wear flip-flops to the White House? They are all dressed appropriately. There is very little difference between sandals and flip-flops.

Why does this constitute news? I have a hard time believing that wearing flip-flops to meet Paul Martin at Parliament would create an uproar. Any average person meeting Paul Martin in itself isn't even newsworthy, let alone what footwear they're wearing while they are at said meeting.


You shouldn't mess with The Joshua Tree

I was watching videos this morning over breakfast, as usual. On came Pras Michel, of Fugees and one-hit wonder "Ghetto Supastar" fame. Turns out he has a new cd. The single is called "Haven't Found". The chorus of his song uses U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. It was not sampling, but women singing the chorus. Reminiscent of Puff Daddy/P. Diddy.

WHY?!? Bono said this was ok? Can't people write original songs anymore? Step away from The Joshua Tree, please.


More time sucked from my life that I can't get back

I had a call at work this morning from someone who needed to vent, and they unfortunately chose me. 25 minutes he vented on me, saying the same things over & over again. Look buddy, I told you what I can/can't do. That's the end of the story. Thanks for wasting my time.

Dirty rakes and other adventures

Friday

Friday night began with a phone call from my Dad, outlining what he had done around my yard that day. He extended the driveway and suggested if I was ambitious to rake it up and level it. Ok, a rake... yet another thing I don't have in my house yet, so I knew I'd be going rake shopping at some point this weekend. At the very least I thought I had better do the suggested raking, seeing as how Dad has done everything else outside. Dad also cut down the weeds in my yard, so it looks less like a jungle, and my stepmother donated a lawn mower to me, which is much appreciated. Dad needs to show me how to use it. Oh, and I need to get a lawn first as well. Last on the list were the trenches he dug to put in more drain pipe and get the water flowing from the edge of the house out to the ditch. He's gotten those partially done, and will probably finish it up sometime in the next week or two. The drainage will be put in, and then covered over, and then I can get started on some landscaping.

While Dad was over at my place, my next door neighbor (the one in the duplex) stopped to chat with him and Dad did him a favor by removing an annoying stump with the backhoe. They're nice neighbors, even though I haven't officially met them yet. On the other end of the scale, the "Is your hubby home" nosy-ass neighbor from the next street came running over to ask my Dad if he was from the City and was there to fix his flooding problem. Dad told him no, he wasn't. This guy insists the City is coming back to make changes to the ditch so he doesn't get flooded out next winter... uh, buddy, the City just hydroseeded the ditch. That means they're not doing any more work to it. So now I'm going to have to go call the City before I start the landscaping just to make sure some trucks don't show up some day and wreck my new lawn. When I get a lawn.

After my phone call with Dad, I then headed to what is now "the usual": karaoke. Had a great time, though there were fewer of us there than normal, so we ended the evening with some DQ ice cream instead of a restaurant meal. Decidedly cheaper as well. Though I have to say, Friday night at the DQ is probably the busiest time to go. Jenn and I had to wait a good 10-15 min for our ice cream, but Lisa & Brian managed to hop the fast line and were done eating by the time we escaped.


Saturday

Saturday was an anniversary for me, as the 16th marked the day I took possession of my house. I started the day by cleaning up and getting ready to have people over. The good thing about a small house, and living by yourself, is the fact that that whole process only took a couple of hours... and it only took that long because I am a perfectionist. In the afternoon I headed out for my haircut, then killed some time out east before church. Stopped at Wal-Mart McD's for lunch (mmmm, grease), went to Future Shop and bought the Season 1 original Star Trek DVD set, which was on sale cheaper than at Costco. From there I headed to Kent.

Now, you see, I decided since I was going to be getting my hair done, and it was an anniversary of sorts, and just because I felt like it, I would wear my new capri pants suit. So one might say I was "dressed up", more so than usual anyway.

I went into Kent to find a motion-sensor floodlight (ok, no problem) and a metal rake. I don't know what it is about that store, but I can never find anything in it. Never. I don't like how it's organized. I walked around forever before I found the outside tools (which, of course, were right next to the front door). Alright, fine. So I get to the rakes. Brand new rakes, and as filthy as can be. Why is a brand new rake so filthy that my hands were brown after pulling one down off the shelf? I don't get it. Was very annoying. No consideration for the customer who actually may want to keep their hands clean while in the store. That or they only expect to sell metal rakes to men who are already dirty. Next time I go to Moncton, I'm heading to Home Depot to see if they also sell dirty rakes. If not, I will be shopping there first once ours opens in winter.

After leaving Kent, I headed to pick up Jay and we went to church. Watched a couple of entertaining children during mass.

Church ended and Jay headed to a pub crawl, and I headed to Sobey's where I ran into B, then picked up a couple of things for the House-iversary.

A great evening was had by all. Actually ended up being a Suspect night, sans Mare & Chris. The unfortunate part was the fact that at 8pm the wind shifted and it got quite cold, so we had to retreat inside. Have no idea when it will actually be warm enough to sit outside so I can have the patio lights on. I guess "never" is the answer to that. Watched Pirates of the Caribbean and then called it a night.


Sunday

Sunday saw me cleaning up after the party for a bit. Then in the afternoon I headed to Frenchy's with Jenn, and while driving around in between we listened to The Flip Side. I did miss parts of it because I was shopping, so I will have to catch the tape later this week. At Frenchy's I scored with a pair of low rise Old Navy jeans and a pair of navy Abercrombie & Fitch pants, and 4 shirts. A good haul.

Sunday night I spent cooking some BBQ for supper and eating outside. Managed to get bit on my heel, while wearing socks... little bastard mosquitoes. After supper, I got to work and raked the new section of driveway. After about 5 pushes of the rake I was exhausted. I have no strength in me, but I stuck at it and finished the job. I started to gather up some of the weeds/hay/grass that Dad cut down, but realized it was going to be a much easier job if I had a leaf rake. Another thing I don't own... yet. I took a couple of minutes to relax outside and cool down, then in for the night.

Road Rules

They've been tearing up the end of Fairville Blvd the last couple of weeks, so I've been avoiding that exit and getting on/off the highway at the start of Hwy 7. This morning I did this, and was coming around Dead Man's Curve, and I see two bikers in the lane. For those unfamiliar, this is a 4 lane highway, so on this side there are 2 lanes plus a merge lane. I was coming along in the merge lane and the bikers are coming up beside me. Bikers are supposed to follow the same rules of the road as cars. So I expected to have to yield in the merge lane for the bikers to go by.

So I'm driving along, and all of a sudden the first biker cuts in front of me in the merge lane to get to the shoulder/side of the road. I thought I was going to hit him and I had to slam on the brakes. WTF here a**hole? If this was a car, it wouldn't have cut me off in the merge lane.

Learn how to f***ing drive your bike before you take it on a highway.


Clarification: they were on bicycles.

Things are starting to happen

So my Dad called last night and said he is going to bring the backhoe over today. He wants to go over with me the stuff he thinks should be done around back to prevent another flood next winter, as well as extend the driveway around the back of the house so that the trailers full of wood I'll be getting won't wreck my lawn. Not the most eye-catching option, but it's the most practical for me right now. It's not like it's permanent either, in the future if I want to change it I certainly can. Regan will be disappointed with it, I know, but I have to take the cheaper and more practical options right now. You don't get as much choice of things to do when you're a 1 income household.

Dad's also going to trim the weeds down for me so it looks a little less like a jungle, so that will be good. Have to get them hacked down so we can actually tell what areas need lawn. I do have a small area with a couple of plants (done by the previous owner) that I should be weeding out. Maybe I'll tackle that sometime between tonight & Monday.

Never heard a word from that hydroseeding guy. Not even after my Dad ran into him in person. Guess he really doesn't want my business. I will have to find another company.

What *have* I been up to, anyway?

Let's see.


House-iversary Party

Apparently this doesn't fit in with most people's schedules. Let's just say if it's sunny, I'll be out on my deck, if anyone wants to drop by, come on over after 6.


Rock Star: INXS

Watched the inaugural episode with Jay last night. It was a great show. Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. There were a lot of great performances last night, but they really did make the right choice in letting that girl go. And how sweet was it when Tim delivered the news?! Some may say that was all for show, but he really is a nice guy. Jay was annoyed about how they faulted the other chick for forgetting the lyrics... Michael Hutchence used to do that all the time (and he even co-wrote the songs).


Impromptu family supper

I got a call this afternoon from my grandfather, who offered me some strawberries from the garden and asked for some help with his new cell phone. He's never had a cell phone before, so I think he finds it confusing and a little hard to read the small letters. I helped him out with that and then he suggested going to grab a bite to eat. We headed up to AJ's Diner and had a nice meal & chat. During dinner he noticed my habit of eating one food at a time (they served me mixed veggies, which I eat separately) and said "are you still doing that?" Funny what your family remembers about you, even after many years :)


Sunday cleaning

I too have been cleaning up, but this is a normal activity for me. After the false alarm, I wanted to finally get my act in gear and clean up the basement from when Dad's cousin was over hooking up the electrical outlets. Cleaned all of that up, and still didn't find any signs of anything having fallen over, nor did I find any signs of mouse poop (thank God!) I moved things around a bit so they were less likely to shift. I cleaned out the spare bedroom and stripped the bedding. I painted the batch of IKEA picture frames that my brother brought me when he was home, so I now have lots of frames for future pics on the Wall of Infamy. Did laundry & ironing. All in all a productive day.


Almost just in time for my birthday,

Sheryl Crow is releasing her new cd on Sept. 27. As of yet, still untitled, but her new single Good Is Good will be officially released in August. In the meantime, starting next week, she can be seen/heard hawking Dell products. Sheryl, you know I have issues with Dell. Why do you do this to me?

House-iversary Party

My first house-iversary is this Saturday. I am thinking of having people over, we can do some BBQ, maybe it will actually be nice outside. Looks good for Saturday so far.

I know Mare and Scott will be in Hafilax (sp intentional) and some of you have Shakespeare but can always show up afterwards.

Thoughts?

Cause for alarm

Today I was a total lazy-ass. Slept in until somewhere between 12:30-1pm, then kicked my sorry ass out of bed. Went on the PC for a while, still in my PJs, until 3:30-ish and then got ready and went to church. After church I met up with Jenn at Frenchy's, but we didn't realize they closed at 5pm on Saturdays. So off to the mall we went.

I ended up with some ankle socks, which were on sale and I needed them for when it's hot out and I'm walking (hot, HA! I sound like I have to justify that purchase). Also bought a really nice black t-shirt, and though I already have 2, this one was slightly more dressy, if that makes sense. The major purchase of the night (sorry Mare, it was on sale and looked really nice) was a blue & white striped suit with capris. I did it. I finally broke down and bought a pair of capris. I feel defeated in a way, since I have until tonight refused to wear capris, but they do look really nice. Mare and I will have to co-ordinate so we don't wear the same thing at the same time (though mine was from Reitman's, so it's not exactly the same). We also ran into Lisa & Anthony in the middle of our shopping and stopped to talk to them for a few minutes.

By the time we finished the mall, we were getting hungry and Stew had gotten home, so we decided to get Chinese food - Jenn and I had said the next Saturday night we were hanging out and it was raining, we should get some. So we ordered & picked it up and headed to her house to eat.

I sat down and started into my meal when I heard my cell ring. I was lucky my purse was beside me, actually, b/c I had left it on buzz mode and heard it vibrating. The call was from ADT, and the alarm at my house was going off. Basement motion sensor. They asked if I wanted to dispatch the police, but I said no, I'll go over and check it out. Stew came with me, and looked around first before I joined him and we went inside. No obvious broken windows or anything. We went inside, and I expected that something in the basement had fallen over, but I couldn't find anything that looked out of place. The only thing I did find was one of my windows was unlocked, but the screen was still on, and if someone had come in, it was wet outside and there was no evidence of anyone having come inside. We also looked around everywhere upstairs, but nothing out of place. Nice not to have found anything wrong, but I hope it wasn't a malfunction that would go off again in the middle of the night.

The evil thought of perhaps mice in my basement occurred to me as well... God please don't let it be that!!

This is the crappy part about being a single girl living alone. I am a stereotypical girl in this situation, I would rather have a man around to protect me. Living here alone was the major reason I got the system. Some of my neighbors work shift work and are home during the day, which is good, and there is an RCMP officer up on the next street, but if someone wants to get in, that won't stop them. I'm glad I invested in this. I always said I'd rather have the system in place before experiencing a break-in, and watching friends deal with their break-in served to strengthen that idea later on when I bought a house on my own.

Makes me want to keep a baseball bat under my bed though. I am going to invest in a motion-sensitive floodlight at the back door, I've been thinking of that for a while, even just for the fact that I'd like a floodlight back there anyway.

Being in the basement also reminded me of all the cleanup I still need to do down there, and since tomorrow is going to rain, perhaps that would be a good Sunday project, along with laundry. Will have to do that anyway since Vag will prob be staying with me around the luau. Maybe I can actually have a door put on the spare bedroom by the time you get here, Vag! Nothing but the finest in accomodations :D

Decisions, decisions

I am looking over my flight options to Tucson today. I don't have much in the way of options, so it's easy to narrow down the possibilities.

Option #1, I fly AC from here to Phoenix (10h), then it's a 1.5h drive to Tucson

Option #2, I fly Delta out of F'ton to Tucson (11h)


#1 is cheaper and we'll have to rent a car anyway. #2 is more expensive but will eliminate driving for an hour and a half after having flown for 10h. Both have me leaving at the crack of dawn and returning late, though #1 has a bit better times - except for that whole getting to Phoenix and flying out at 9:30am (1.5h drive, plus arrive 2h before flight, so 6am-ish leaving Tucson, as opposed to 4am for #2 to make a 6am flight). I could always stay my last night in Phoenix near the airport as well.

Suggestions?

Kick. Ass.

Got my car detailed today. Looks like a million bucks! Thankfully didn't cost me a million bucks (but wasn't cheap, even with my discount).

It feels brand new though, it is so clean. Gone are the signs of winter, the salty, dirty carpets. No more dusty dash. No more dirty windshield - on the inside.

I love my moonroof, have I mentioned that? The best thing I ever did was finally get a car with one in it. Great in the summer, and allows the sunshine in on a cold winter day. I never pull the shade shut.

Now if it will just spontaneously heal itself from the time I whacked the front end against a really high curb at A&W, I'll be all set. Not looking forward to paying for that little boo-boo. You can actually barely notice it until you're up close - scratches all along the bottom of the front bumper and a crack in the bumper behind the license plate. Already I have dropped a printer on it, gotten rear-ended, and had mysterious dent appear back in May when I was in Moncton. It attracts its share of damage, and being a lease, I have to make sure the stuff gets fixed. Since the front end is plastic and won't rust, I am delaying the repairs on it until just before I return it. I have a bad habit of whacking the air dam due to the fact that it is so low, so inevitably if I get the front fixed now, I'll have to do it again before I return the car.

This is actually the second of this car that I've had. I got this one 2 years ago, before that I had the exact same car, in silver, for 3 years. I liked this car enough to get it twice. It "corners like it's on rails" as they say in Pretty Woman. It has a lot of power on the highway. I can easily do 140km/h without noticing. Actually I have to use cruise control to make sure I'm not going too fast :S

An experiment in pollenation

The lawn struggles continue.

I've called the hydroseed company twice now, and they still haven't bothered to get back to me. Not sure why I'm being ignored, especially since the guy knows my Dad and they talked briefly about me being in touch to get an estimate.

The weeds are now grown up to the point where they need to be cut, but I don't have anything to cut them with. Nor would I know how to use such a device. So they're just gonna have to keep on growing. I don't really care at this point. Perhaps it can be my contribution to pollenation.

The other day I came home after work and there were 2 guys digging around in my ditch. Ok, not sure why they're here, but whatever. After they left, I went out and looked around. They made some adjustments to the ditch, likely due to the complaint of the "is your hubby home" neighbor. Ok, have no problem with that.

I just looked out the window tonight and suddenly notice that the ditch is looking a little green. Like it's been hydroseeded. Because I want to mow the ditch. Really, this has been my dream all along. I thought to myself, "self, I know how much you're looking forward to mowing your future lawn, wouldn't it be great if you could mow the ditch too? Then you'd have to buy even more power tools and spend even more money and time and aggravation trying to keep the grass cut. Sounds like a f***ing blast, let's do it!"

I don't want to mow a ditch. I don't want to whipper snip a ditch. But since it's on my property I have to look after it. Great. Just great. I will now have a lovely, grassy ditch combined with a big brown mudpit for a yard.

I can't do this outdoor stuff myself. I just can't. I am only one person, a weakling at that, and I can't rake, weed, and plant a lawn myself. This lawn thing is just not going to happen. It's much easier this way. The bees are happy, they get to do the whole pollenation routine. Here's to you, bees. Enjoy my yard.

The stealthy telemarketer

There are a lot of telemarketers out there who read from a script and you can tell they are only there for the paycheck.

I just had a call from one of the most stealthy of telemarketers. This girl had personality. She started out trying to befriend me, discussing the long weekend, talking hockey because I am Canadian. Not really introducing herself or her product until she got through that stage of befriending and offering a couple of free hats. Then she started in on her product (cleaning items for PCs). With the special pricing which has recently gone up but of course she had some of the product at the previous lower price. She also used a lot of the phrase, if you know our product works well for you, you'd come back to where you got them from, right? I said, "you're good, but I'm not interested". She then launched into how they have smaller packages for display units and those would be cheaper if I wanted to try them... this is where I hung up.

I'm sorry, I know it's rude to hang up on someone, but I know when I am on the phone with a salesperson who refuses to take no for an answer. She was not going to let me off the phone until I tried her special cleaning towel. I've already walked in the office and dealt with 2 big issues this morning and haven't even started my normal work of the day. I didn't have any more time to waste on this call.

It felt like it was going to be one of those calls that ended up with them telling you they'd send you product, despite your refusal, along with a bill. I've been through that one before, where stuff just shows up that you didn't agree to and they also bill you for it. An attempt to sell to a larger company who isn't paying attention to the odd $200 here or there. Sorry, I have a closer watch than that. I go over my own Visa bill with a fine tooth comb. Not going to make me pay for something I didn't ask for.

So I did hang up, which was a little rude, but I did say no I don't want your product. I also didn't slam the phone down, I just quitely pressed the switchhook. Now I can get on with my day.

Portland Update

I will say those dates are tenative depending on how casting goes for Theatre On The Edge. That being said, there is no way we're going to be able to work around *everyone's* schedule. So I'll hold off until the end of the week before doing any more on it.

Portland Shopping Trip

The time has come to begin planning our shopping trip to Portland, ME. I want to get a hotel booked soon, preferably this week, so I need a firm count of who would like to go. 2 girls/room so we can split the cost. Please only commit if you know you'll have the money and are serious about going.

The plan is to leave late Sunday afternoon/evening on August 7th, it's a 5h drive. Return Tuesday night or Wednesday sometime, depending on how quickly/slowly we get through places. May spend the Tuesday night in Bangor to cut the driving down, am mulling that over.

We want to hit South Portland, Kittery, Portsmouth, and probably Freeport/LLBean, I haven't been there in a long time.

I'm trying to get the best hotel rates I can, but it would definitely help if anyone is a CAA member. If you are, let me know. You have to be the actual member though, because most places make you show your card, so you can't use a relative's card.

I have a Costco card and am getting a card for Sam's Club.

I love work today

because there is Belgian chocolate in the kitchen.

Birth Tree

Borrowed from Cyn's site, this spits out what your birth tree is:

Olive Tree, the Wisdom Loves sun, warmth and kind feelings, reasonable, balanced, avoids aggression and violence, tolerant, cheerful, calm, well-developed sense of justice, sensitive, empathic, free of jealousy, loves to read and the company of sophisticated people.

There's a compliment for all you sophisticated people :)

Hot chocolate on the 2nd of July

Saturday night, the second of July, and I sit here drinking hot chocolate. An effort to find some kind of relief for my scratchy throat, which I have had for a few days, and can't seem to shake. Just took an Advil, and am hoping now that I am back home for the evening I can rest my throat and kick it back into shape. For those keeping score, hot chocolate is the only opaque drink I enjoy :)

Having a Friday long weekend is different than having a Monday long weekend, I find my days are all screwed up. Kept reminding myself that today is Saturday.


Thursday

At work on Thursday, to thank the office, we were treated to chinese food from my fave chinese food restaurant. I was stuffed and only ate half my food, but I had leftovers for Friday.

After work, Jenn met up with me at my office and we headed over to drop salmon off to Mare's mom (work had ordered salmon from a plant down in Charlotte Co. so I offered the special pricing to Mare's parents, who love fish). All but me had a bite to eat at Mare's (I was still full from lunch) and then we headed to Lisa's scene study class performance. All were really good, entertaining, some intense, some funny, and some just plain out there :) Parts of Dre and Beth's scene, about a mother and daughter, really hit home with me at times. Yay to all the actors, great jobs all around!

After class we headed to Sebastian, where one end of the table had extremely poor service (45min wait to be acknowledged for drinks?!?!), and at the other end of the table we had considerably better service, by Los' sister actually. She recognized me and told me who she was, it was nice to see her.

Creeping up on 10pm, I then headed over to Jay's to watch the season finale of Hit Me Baby. No one really blew us away with their 2nd performances, but there was one particularly bad performance by Missing Persons, or more accurately, only the lead singer. Where was the rest of the band? Who knows! Post-show we sat and listened to the 92 dedications I missed from a couple of weeks of Jay's radio show, so I was glad to hear all the shout-outs I got, yay!!


Friday

Friday was Canada Day, but I woke up exhausted and didn't feel like doing anything other than curling up on the couch and trying to cure the cough. I did have to get up and drive my younger brother to the airport, sat and chatted with him for a while as he waited for his plane. Headed to work for a few minutes to pick something up (which I subsequently forgot to grab), then over to Lisa's to drop off her backpack that got left behind in my car. Went home and did indeed curl up on the couch, popping in Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra, which is 4 hours long. I didn't end up finishing the movie until midnight last night, because I kept falling asleep, got up to eat, write an email, and took a phone call. A slow day but I hadn't had a slow day in a while so it was nice to chill and relax.


Saturday

The order of the day today was helping Chris move, and getting in as much Live8 as I could. I started watching this morning as U2 & Paul McCartney came on stage, and the London performances were among the best so I was glad to see those, before the evil that is Ben Mulroney came on hogging the TV. Nobody likes you Ben. Get over yourself.

The moving went well, actually pretty quickly because we had lots of help and having already moved the furniture the other day, what remained was a lot of books. I grabbed the empty boxes from my basement and was able to lend a hand with the packing. Chris' new apartment is really nice, he has a great find with that place. Lots of room. Looking forward to the do tomorrow night.

Live8 was cool to watch, as you can see from the earlier blog of today, I was a little upset at the lack of Duran Duran being shown live :) I have the highlights show on right now as I blog to see what I missed. Really makes me want to break out my DVD of LiveAid, which I haven't watched yet and was saving for an outdoor viewing party. Kind of need that landscaping issue solved first though.


That's my weekend thus far. I hope to be able to kick this stupid cough. Regardless of whether I have or not, if it is sunny out tomorrow, I am not staying inside. 2 days off with fog makes Liz very angry... must have sunshine during days off.

More Simon!!!

No, don't go to commercial, I want to see more Simon!!!!!! More Simon!!!!!