A funny thing happened on the way to the airport

Or more accurately, at the airport. We arrived there to insanely long lines -- the line for security was running the length of the terminal. After realizing I couldn't do kiosk check-in because I was checking a bag, we got in line for regular check-in, which was backed up and moving at a snail's pace. We overheard someone talking about the airport having just come back online from a 1.5h power failure, which explained why we waited in the check-in line for 35 minutes before getting to the front. By the time I tried to check in, the console told me I was too late, so I had to get assistance from the clerk. With Dixie's help, I got rebooked for tomorrow with the same flights. Dixie was also very kind enough to have already checked me in and issued my boarding passes for tomorrow. With the time zone difference and scarce number of flights to SJ, I knew I'd be better off to stay here than try to get to Toronto or Montreal today and then have to stay overnight. John is, of course, ecstatic to have me for one more night, even though he had to go in to work today.

On the last 2 trips I have flown in and out of LAX. Air Canada allows you to do web check-in from select US cities, LA being one of those. Since I am flying out of Orange County this time, I am flying United for part of the journey, and I wasn't able to do web check-in and had to stand in the giant line with a lot of other people. LAX does have that advantage, I can check in before leaving the apartment, and since Air Canada only flies to a few cities from LAX, the lines are not too long. Food for thought for next time. LAX is definitely cheaper, but is so much farther away from here compared to John Wayne Airport.

So, I find myself still here in SoCal this morning, with lots of time on my hands. I called Stew to let him know I wouldn't need to be picked up at the airport tonight. I also called and left a message for my boss. "Power failure at airport" sounds an awful lot like "dog ate my homework", but here's the brief story on the problem.

Not sure what I will do with the rest of my day now. I may go for a walk, as long as the rain stays away. There are dark clouds and it will shower on & off, but it looks bright at the same time, and is about 17C out.

As to the weekend that was, I arrived on the earlier-scheduled flight and John picked me up just after 4pm. John Wayne Airport is only about 2 miles from his office, and not far from his apartment either. We then headed straight for See's Candies, since we were very close to it, and I got a couple more boxes of Awesome Peanut Brittle Bar to bring back home with me. We made a stop at Vons grocery store to get some Grape Crush (in glass bottles) and a few other essentials. We headed back home and spent the evening in.

Saturday we ventured out on some errands. John found a place where he could drop off electronics for recycling and has been meaning to get there for ages, so he loaded the truck and we finally made it there and got that done. Next we headed over to Fashion Island where I wanted to turn in a coupon for a free pair of underwear. We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, and took our cheesecakes to go. We each got a slice of the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, and if you think the picture looks good, it tastes even better. Delicious! But not as good as Suzy's.

We also went across the street to Bed, Bath & Beyond to look for the shower curtain I was going to pick up for Jenn. They didn't have any at that store, but did have some at Yorba Linda, about 20min away. We got them to put it on hold and we'd pick it up on Sunday.

John somehow threw his back out on Saturday so I left him home to rest and went to church by myself. Masses here are frustrating. This weekend's mass was more like people reading the bible over kids acting out in a plain room that looks nothing like a church. I really didn't get anything out of that mass and ended up leaving after communion. Definitely miss that about home. I take our beautiful old church for granted and the fact that the mass I usually attend is mostly full of adults.

Saturday night we attempted to go see MI:III but strangely enough it was sold out. We ended up going to Target instead since we hadn't made it there earlier. We came back and stayed in for the night, watched Alias from the other night and had cheesecake for supper :)

Sunday we got up and decided it was likely more comfortable to sit together in a movie theatre than hang out on his uncomfortable couch, so we decided to hit 2 movies in one day. We went to the 11:30am showing of Da Vinci Code. Good movie, but they followed the book so closely that I basically sat through it saying, yeah, I know what's going to happen next. After that movie we headed over to Yorba Linda for the shower curtain, and also stopped at Petsmart and picked up a fountain-type water dish for Caly. So far she's confused by it, but hopefully she'll give it a try soon. We stopped for a burger and then headed to see MI:III. Fun movie, a bit cheesy in spots, but a good summer blockbuster movie. Don't know that I would bother watching it again, though.

We stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few more things, and John cooked us some steak for supper. I packed up what few things I had taken out since arriving and a few things I had bought. Didn't buy much on this trip, especially after having spent extra on the ticket change. Glad I did, though. Any extra time is worth it. Guess I have to thank the power failure for even more time :)

Seattle pics

Started out at the Pike Place Market, one of the best spots to go.

It happened to be the weekend of the Seattle Cheese Festival

The famous Seattle fish

Just a small section of the market. Reminiscent of home, but on a much larger scale.

It was also Mother's Day the day I was there, and everyone seemed to be walking by with fresh flowers.

Very busy day at the market.

Space Needle. I didn't go up, it seemed small compared to previous trips up the CN Tower and Sears Tower :P

Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. They wouldn't let me take any pics inside.

Not just any old French bakery. This one is very French. I should have went inside to see what that meant... or maybe I didn't need to know.

A view of the water and the Olympic Mountains. Seattle has been getting a lot more cruise ship traffic after having taken some away from Vancouver.

Totem pole

A funky parking garage

Took this one for Anthony. Hacky sacks and chile pepper lights, together at last.

The white arch is Qwest Stadium, home of the Seattle Seahawks.

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, down on the waterfront

Just a few of the huge trees. Had I been able to take pictures at the house I visited mid-week, that would have been even more stunning.

I'm behind

Yes, I know, I am incredibly behind in updating my blog. It's been a very hectic and busy trip. Even now I am typing this entry on my Blackberry as that seems to be the only time I have. They have wisely restricted my internet access in a training environment, although I would never be so rude as to play solitaire the whole day. It's just cramping my style when I need to check in with work.

I did make it downtown on Sunday with surprisingly little trouble. I only had directions from a couple of people and a small map. Having the Space Needle as a landmark and reference point really does help a lot, I must say. I got to the SciFi Museum, but they wouldn't allow pictures inside. So I saw Capt Kirk's chair, you'll just have to take my word for it. I never noticed the arms of his chair had wood on them. As to the rest of my downtown excursion, I will try to post some pics soon. I hate posting pics in Blogger... takes forever.

After I got back on Sunday night, I drove down to the offices where I'm having training so I knew where I'd be going in Monday morning traffic. Good thing I did as it wasn't the easiest to find. Managed to stay up until 11pm that night. The time change adjustment has been easier this time, I guess it comes with practice.

When I got up Sunday morning, I discovered my Blackberry wasn't working, and continued to not work during the rest of the day. Still wasn't working Monday morning when I got up, so I put a call in to my account manager at Aliant. She hooked me up with support, and late Monday night it started working again. Talk about feeling like you've lost your right arm, though. 2 days without it while also being away from home, and only having internet access at the hotel was a giant pain.

The biggest thing about Monday was finding out that the other class participants had decided class will end early tomorrow... Like 10am early. My flight out of here to SoCal was 7pm. I was pretty mad when I found this out, as I had specifically asked when class would end so that I could book the appropriate flight. Because I booked the flight with a travel agent, I had to go through her for any changes, which was a pain and no doubt added to my cost. The time difference of trying to get a hold of her just componded the problem. After a lot of thought and not wanting to hang around here all day when I could be with John, I decided to change my ticket. The bad news is that it ended up costing $360 *just to changeit* on top of the $185 originally for the ticket. OUCH. Love is expensive! But with how little I get to see him, any extra time is worth it. So I am now leaving tomorrow at 1:05pm, arriving at the airport 2 miles from John's office at 4pm, then we can have the whole evening together instead of arriving at 9:30pm. Feels a bit like buying time - I get 5.5h more if I pay $360. Luckily I also got an email this week that said my bonus cheque is waiting for me when I get home, so that most definitely helps.

Tuesday things became a little more normal. My Blackberry was back in action, but I was really feeling the suckiness of having to eat every meal alone in a restaurant. My classmates weren't very social and didn't invite me along with them (not to mention I was a little angry with them about the class change). Eating home alone is different than eating in a restaurant by yourself.

I have to say, the service out here is excellent. I've been to Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, even KFC, Subway and especially Wendy's, and all have had great or outstanding service. The guy working at Wendy's the other night could be in a commercial for them, I swear. Such a refreshing change from the crap we take at home. It's made me start thinking about not taking crap from wait staff anymore... I'm going to start thinking about speaking to the manager and complaining. It's so nice to go to a restaurant and have the server smile at you for a change. I've been leaving good tips because they've deserved it. I've never had the experience of waiting tables, so no, I don't know what it's like. What I do know is that, in general, you shouldn't be rude to others if you're having a bad day or hate your job. In my job I do deal with a lot of people, some I like and some I don't, but I still have to help them. There seem to be an awful lot of wait staff out there who like to take their problems out on their customers.

Wednesday after class we were all invited out to the head programmer's house for dinner. She lives with one of the account managers (for a brief time he was my acct mgr) at the same company. I have known them for a couple of years of going to the conferences but I had no idea they were a couple until now. They had two people staying with them for the weekend, clients but also friends. I had actually met them before at conferences as well.

The hostess has owned the house for approx 30 years and it is out in the country, so to speak. Not that far, really, just seems more country in comparison. The house was amazing. Not huge, but design-wise it was very different. Basically two round buildings put together. Patios and decks everywhere. The tallest trees I have ever seen, just amazing. Beautiful gardens too - they've done a lot of work to their land/yard.

Everything is so incredibly green here, so many trees and vegetation. Very environmentally conscious as well, lots of compost bins and I don't think I have seen a single piece of litter.

Back to the house. The outside walls on one side, including the master bedroom, were glass. There is so much greenery around, plus more land between houses so there is still privacy. A neat idea. Sort of sleeping under the stars.

We had a Southern cuisine menu, as the host was originally a Southerner. The hostess was originally from Oregon. We had pork tenderloin with bbq sauce, "corn stuff" (grits, corn and cheese), cornbread, steamed veggies, and salad. Yummy. We ate pretty late as they didn't have much time to begin preparing before we arrived. We left around 9pm after an enjoyable evening.

Now it is Thursday and I'm finishing this entry during class. They're covering a module that is not applocable to Canadian companies.

It's been a spectacular week for weather, abnormally hot. Today is slightly cooler at 24-25C. The past few days have been close to 30C. It's supposed to rain on the weekend but I will be gone by then.

Tonight I'll have to get packed up and ready to leave. We'll prob end class tomorrow around 10am so the others can catch their flight. Should leave me with lots of time to get to SeaTac, return the rental car, and go catch my flight. One more sleep, I can't wait!!

I'll try to get my pics from downtown up later tonight. I also want to get some pics of the trees. Maybe on my walk tonight after class. There is a cemetery I drove by the other day that looked more like a nice park, so I may go explore that tonight.

Safe & Sound

Made it to Seattle after a long day of travel - essentially 12h worth of travel. I am currently in Kirkland but amd heading out in a few minutes to explore Seattle Center, once I figure out how to get there. Perhaps the overzealous car rental agent was right, I could have used a GPS in the car. Somehow I don't think my boss would agree.

I hate renting cars. They always play on your guilt regarding insurance and you wind up spending the rest of the trip worried you're going to smash the car up and have someone tell you "I told you so." I checked with my boss before I left and I am covered under the company's insurance, so I didn't take any. This of course made the agent say at least three times that I'd be held liable... thanks, I think I understand what declining insurance means. They did get me on the refueling option though. I took it so I wouldn't have to worry about gassing up near the airport. The day I leave will be tight time-wise. I get the feeling I shouldn't have chosen that option, but coming from Canada, where gas is priced per Litre, gallons don't mean anything to me. The price per gallon that they're charging on this option is not unreasonable, I knew enough to understand that, at least. I just don't know what the posted price at gas stations are right now in this area. I hate renting cars.

I managed to stay up until 10pm last night, and yet still woke up at 4:30am. I forced myself back asleep and got up around 6:45am to make it to 7:30am mass. I was a couple of minutes late and sat in a reserved pew, oops. At least mass was more normal than SoCal - a cantor & pianist. The cantor was very into her music, tapping her toes and smiling the whole time. They got me again with the Nicene Creed, which I muttered my way through... I'm going to have to bite the bullet and memorize that so I know it when I attend mass away from home.

Anyway, it is 9am and I want to begin exploring while I am still somewhat awake & conscious. Going to get some advice from the front desk, get myself a map, and head downtown. Picking through the tourist brochures, I noticed that the Science Fiction Museum is the home of Captain Kirk's command chair... I have a mission! But not a 5-year mission :) I also must hit the Pike Place Market. Anything else is gravy.

It's weird, but I am having the same reaction to here as John had the first time he arrived in SJ - it's so green! Way more green that I'd see at home, it's beautiful. The freeway drive from the airport to the hotel last night was beautiful.

I guess I'd better be off. Hope to have some pics to post here later.

INXS rocked

Just got back from the INXS show at the Moncton Coliseum. Since I had earned a free night's stay at the Rodd, I decided to stay up overnight after the show. There is always something work-wise to do in Moncton, so I might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

The show was really great. Our seats -- if we had actually sat in them -- were in the front row of the second section on the floor. Not bad. However, social butterfly that the Jaybird is, at the Frederiction show he had met some ladies from Fortune 448 who had empty seats around them in the second row. He staked the seats out and we planned to make a break for it. Under careful instruction to not make eye contact with security, we owned our stolen seats and spent the whole show in the second row!!! Close enough to see the sweat!

Since there were 4 of us going to the show, and there are 4 letters in INXS, we all got together last weekend and made shirts to wear to the concert. Dan was "I", Jaybird was "N", Dre was "X", and I formed the head, er, I mean, I was "S". The shirts were a big hit with people walking by. A girl in the lineup for the bathroom turned to me and said "cool shirts". But even better than that, at least 2 of the band members saw us. Kirk in particular got a chuckle out of it, so that was pretty cool for us INXS-ophiles.

My only negative comments on the evening had to do with a couple of strange things JD did onstage. He did a graphic humping of the microphone & stand which I didn't think was all that necessary. Not something I needed to see. The other thing he did was annihilate some roses a fan had thrown onstage. Smashing them to bits is entertainment? Just those two things I thought were a bit unnecessary.

JD did seem really overwhelmed by the "hometown" crowd. He kept saying how great it was to be home, how he loved the support from Canada. During the latter part of the concert he even wore a shirt that said "Bluenoser". :)

The setlist was great, they played new as well as lots of old stuff. I thought JD did a great job with the old stuff. Certainly there is no replacing Hutch, but it was a nice balance between making it his own and not sounding completely different. Ending with Don't Change, as they are wont to do, was really awesome. We danced, we bounced, we sang, and man am I tired! But we had a great, great time.

A big shout out to the Jaybird, who got us the tickets in the first place through his fanclub membership, and then managed to get us in the second row. Wouldn't have been there without your help -- thanks!!!


As to the rest of my life during the past week, it's consisted mainly of being insanely busy at work. Thankfully today was a bit more sane, and I will be working hard the rest of the week in preparation for another week out of the office. I leave on Saturday for my training course in Kirkland, WA. The course itself doesn't begin until Monday, so I will have Sunday to explore Seattle on my own. I'm not a huge fan of doing a tour by myself, but I may relent and do a walking tour of the city for 1/2 day so I can see some of the major sights. The course runs Monday - Friday, then after class on Friday I hop a plane for SoCal. It can't come soon enough.

Email problems

Since yesterday morning I've been having problems with my fundy email account. If you've sent me something that I haven't replied to, it's because I can't get any mail on that account right now. And I've been insanely busy.

Hope to have a blog update soon.

About damn time, George Lucas

Get ready to get rid of those VHS copies you've been hanging on to:

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2006-05-04/#3

Glad I bought that luggage

Had a busy week work-wise last week. I got approved for a training course being held just outside Seattle which starts 2 weeks from today. Since it ends on Victoria Day weekend, and I'm already on the west coast, I'm going to sneak in a quick trip to SoCal. I can get a direct flight between Seattle and SoCal for a decent price. "Decent price" takes on a new definition when it means you'd get to see your fiancé this month compared to July. Seriously though, flying between those two spots will be pretty reasonable. The convenience of the class ending on the long weekend is extremely helpful. I'll fly home on Victoria Day, and John will have to work that day anyway. I am still working out the flight details and class registration. Hopefully those will get firmed up in the next day or two.

I'm also being scheduled to go to Louisiana for a couple of days, perhaps Arkansas on the end of that trip. I've also got my annual conference in September. Last year was Tucson, this year is Lexington, Kentucky. I can't say as that's a place I've always wanted to go, but it looks pretty. So with these 3 trips appearing on the schedule, I'm glad I decided on that luggage!

The Flip Side

The Jaybird has offered me the co-host chair at The Flip Side this weekend, so if you're interested, tune in this Sunday from 2-4pm Atlantic. In SJ, it's on CFHM 92.5FM, UNBSJ radio. For anyone else, tune in here on shoutcast.com. You will need iTunes or Winamp, from what the site recommends.


In other news...

I have been going flat out at work this week. This morning I sat at my desk for a grand total of about 3 minutes. Yesterday I spent the day in Moncton for work. I've had meetings, phone calls, questions... just really damn busy this week.

Happy Birthday John!

A big



to John! Today he is old enough to join the ranks of these guys but as I keep telling him, you can't be president of the US while living in Canada. They frown on that sort of thing.

Caly also wishes you a happy birthday and is sorry for puking on the floor 3 times last night, and the incessant peeing "ever since SHE's been gone."

Good luck at sweeps tonight

Win lots of
and be as happy as this guy seems to be

p.s. I love you

Jennifer Garner's regret about Alias

"I regret now that we're almost done that we never made Victor [Garber] and Ron [Rifkin] sing in an episode."

-- Entertainment Weekly

Wedding comments

For the record:

• We have not set a date nor do we even have a vague idea of when it will be
  
• We don't know where it will be held, be it here, SoCal, or other location
• We don't know what venue it will be held in, be it a church, city hall, etc
  
• We're in no rush to plan anything about the wedding, as we've got our hands full with moving, immigration, etc.
• Yes, I know what I'm doing. No, it's not happening too fast. We're engaged, not running off to Vegas.
• That is a picture of my actual ring on the proposal post, it just looks a little lighter due to the camera. I will GLADLY show you in person, just ask :)
  

There are only a couple of things I can say about it with any assurance. I do want a wedding dress, and the color brown will never be involved in my wedding. :)

Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank everyone for their well-wishes. I've been a bit swamped upon returning home, but I really appreciate the comments from those who are happy to hear the news.

The rest of my trip

Friday afternoon I went to Good Friday mass. It was... interesting. They had 9 singers, a piano, a guitar, a bass guitar, and drums. It was the most dramatic performance music I've heard to accompany what is supposed to be the solemn Good Friday mass. Mass itself was not very crowded, it being the afternoon and not a stat holiday. Next time I go out there, I'll have to try some other churches and see if I can't stumble on a more traditional mass.

Saturday was the wedding of John's best friend. It started off a pretty crappy day, actually. I seemed to be running behind, having not done my manicure yet, noticing wrinkles in my dress, getting my dress dirty as I put it on... I was losing my temper. We finally managed to make it out the door, stopped at Target for some umbrellas for the wedding guests in case the weather turned, and then headed on to Laguna Beach.

The wedding ceremony was held in the Heisler Park Gazebo, which overlooks the Pacific. Here's a pic of it and the scenery to the left & right of it.

This last pic shows a spot off in the distance close to where John used to do Tai Chi.

The wedding was non-traditional in a few senses. Wedding photos were taken before the ceremony. The reception was held at the restaurant next to the gazebo, Las Brisas. There was no head table (I was able to sit with John), no toasts by the best man, and no wedding cake (which is why I don't have a picture for Suzy). Just people having lunch together with the new couple and having a good time. We sat with two of John's friends and were often joined by the bride & groom for a chat. With the guest list being small, they were able to spend more time with us. It was a very classy, different, relaxed wedding and we had a great time.

After the wedding, we came home and while still dressed up, John proposed. The rest of the day is personal. :P

Sunday morning we got up and started to cook breakfast while deciding what Easter mass we'd attend. We started receiving notes and calls from people by then with congratulations. We headed off for a noon mass, where we were lucky to get a seat. Churches are certainly more well-attended than here, I'll give them that. After church we came home and I began to let my family know of the news. I called my Dad first, he seemed genuinely shocked but congratulated me. He called me last night to ask me a software question and said "so do you have a ring?" "Yes Dad, I actually picked it out myself." I think it's still sinking in for him. My brothers were both surprised but seemed happy to hear the news. My older brother still hasn't met John yet, so I need to find a way to get the two of them in the same spot and introduce them. My grandfather had the best response, he just let out this huge whoop! and seemed very happy to hear my news.

Next was an email to aunts, uncles and cousins and I also added my mother to that list, despite the fact she's still not talking to me. A couple of relatives seemed to give what I'd call more formal replies, I think they're worried I don't know what I'm doing. My mother hasn't said a word, which is both good and bad at the same time.

A work colleague sent me an ecard when I would normally have gotten a phone call from him regarding the news. Maybe he's just out of town and can't call, but it seemed a bit odd to me.

Most people at work were happy for me, but there were a couple of people who seemed insulted by the fact that I didn't specifically seek them out to tell them my news. Well, if you heard the cheers from the other side of the office, why didn't you come by and see what the fuss was about, instead of sitting in your office being indignant? Whatever. Thanks for trying to make it about you instead of me.

Between the mixed responses and the barrage of questions I really didn't have that great of a first day back. The reactions have been interesting, to say the least.

Anyway, back to my trip.

Sunday afternoon we had lupper at Olive Garden. Late afternoon is a good time to go, the only exception being the obnoxious kid who deserved some old-fashioned corporal punishment for yelling everything he said (he was heard through the whole dining room) and being rude to the waiter.

Monday morning John worked and I headed across the street to do a bit of shopping. Didn't buy much for myself this trip, mostly books and soap and a measuring cup. In the afternoon he came home and we headed out for lunch at Cathay Newport (Asian food). We went to the beach and spent some time there. Also hit See's Candy so I could get some more Peanut Brittle Bars. Have eaten 2 already since being home. Finally we hit Krispy Kreme so I could get another donut. mmmm, Krispy Kreme.

Tuesday morning I went to Costco, the grocery store, and Target. In the afternoon John came home and grilled me another delicious steak (totally spoiled now) and I had to pack. We watched Capote that night.

I can't recall specifically which nights we watched movies on, but we watched 4 DVDs at home. Not much of interest at the theater right now. We saw Austin Powers in Goldmember (John had never seen it and it made an easily available rental from Netflix); Proof (I preferred the stage play to the screen version); Derailed (ugh, bad movie); and Capote (good performances, movie felt like 3h instead of 2).

The cat and I were getting along great... until Saturday. I think she's protesting the proposal. All of a sudden she stopping letting me pet/scratch her, she would move her head away from me. She stuck around long enough to have some pink brush treatment, but didn't want anything else to do with me. She knows she's been permanently bumped down to #2 in John's life, and she's not happy about it.

Wednesday morning we had set the alarm for 5:30am. Considering the fact that that was 9:30am Atlantic, it wasn't so bad for me. I was busy packing the few remaining items which luckily distracted me from being upset. The shuttle came and away I went. The look on John's face as I drove away was pretty heartbreaking -- I hate that look. At least I wasn't bawling all over him this time.

The flights home were a bit shorter due to tail winds instead of head winds. About the only thing exciting to happen was the lady across the aisle on my LAX-YUL flight who puked up orange juice all over those seats before we even took off. She'd apparently had food poisining.

My luggage made out impressively well, especially considering the fact that it weighed 58lbs on the return trip. The limit is 50lbs and they're supposed to charge you over that, but they let me off the hook. Next time I want to buy books while I'm away, I'd better take 2 suitcases. :)

Home

I am home, just wading through the stuff waiting for me at the office. People here were pretty excited to get my news, one lady was almost in tears she was so happy for me.

I had a large post written on my Blackberry which I then accidentally deleted, otherwise you'd be reading about the rest of my trip. I'll re-write things tonight.

Not feeling too bad this morning, but I usually have a much easier time adjusting to coming east.

News

I had an exciting day yesterday. I'll let this do the explaining. :)

More pics from Disneyland

Here's me with the statue of Walt and Mickey. Yes, I am the whitest person in SoCal.

Pirates of the Caribbean was closed because they are re-doing it. It's supposed to reopen in June.

50th anniversary parade

You have to ride the teacups when you go to Disneyland, so I did.

Mickey's Toontown

Chicken crossing

This sombrero actually has Mickey ears on it, but they didn't come through in the picture. I almost bought this for Cinco de Mayo but it wouldn't have been very easy to take back in my luggage.

John's mom wanted to get me 50th anniversary ears, and they stitch your name in the back.

John & me at the end of the day. By this time I am so exhausted that I didn't notice my ears were askew, hehehe.

Land of the Stroller

A happy Good Friday to you all, though to most of you it's just a free day off. For me, I am off to church this afternoon. A work friend of John's is coming by to pick me up and go with me.

Here it's just another Friday. Not wanting to cater to one religious group over another, no one has the day off, but if you have to go to a church service, they let you have the time off work so they aren't sued. It's the American way. I'm glad that I still have the day off at home. It helps with the solemnity of the day for it not to be like any other day.

I am just hanging out at home this morning, doing laundry. I was going to head across the street to Target & the grocery store, but it started to pour rain. I have my umbrella with me, but my enthusiasm for walking in the rain is lacking right now, so I just decided to stay in until it's time to go to church.


Yesterday was the visit to Disneyland, or as I have re-named it, the Land of the Stroller. The single largest gathering of strollers I have ever seen. By the end of the day, if I saw one more stroller in my way or bumping into me... *shakes fist. What Walt didn't keep in mind when he declared Disneyland the "happiest place in the world" was that there would eventually be a day when there are too many people in one spot. Spring Break (not allowed to call it Easter break) is this week in SoCal and Disneyland was PACKED. Some rides had 2-3h waits. Others weren't so bad, but was still 30-45 minutes in a line for a 5 min ride. It made for a long day of walking. I didn't bring my pedometer with me, but I'm damn sure I walked more than 10,000 steps yesterday.

It's funny, but I found Disneyland a bit more disorganized than DisneyWorld. I don't remember DisneyWorld being as hard to get around in as Disneyland was. Granted, World is newer than Land and thus they would have had more experience to plan it. What I really don't understand is how my older brother is able to go to Universal in Florida and spend multiple days there. One day, sure, it's fun. If he could, he'd spend a week there. I just don't get it.

Anyway, despite the long lines and long day on my feet I had a good time. John's sister, her husband and son arrived at the apartment first, with his mom following a bit later to pick me up. I wasn't expecting presents but they each came bearing gifts. His sister (editor of Teddy Bear and Friends Magazine) brought me the 25th anniversary Snuffles -- I was speechless. John had sent her the picture of my Wall of Snuffles, and she got this one for me. I was really touched. Since I bought my house I've had to curb the Snuffles collecting. His mom arrived and gave me a cream-colored shawl that she had crocheted and it's really beautiful.

We arrived at the park and met up with John's aunt, uncle & 5 kids. This made us a group of 12... we really could have used matching shirts :) I passed the quiz by remembering everyone's name, only needing one reminder. His cousins range in age from 16-3, and I have to say, they put my cousins to shame. They're really great kids, not whiny and spoiled. Everyone I met yesterday was really nice. John has a great family.

John left work and met us for supper at Downtown Disney, where there are shops & restaurants and you don't have to pay the park fee to come in. We ate at ESPNZone as it had a shorter wait time than the jungle restaurant. We were such a large group that they ended up putting us in a separate room, and we had a nice meal. After that, the crew headed back into the park, and John, his mom and I all headed for home.

Here are some pics I took throughout the day, and some that John's mom took for me with my camera.

The castle, which after seeing the castle at DisneyWorld, looks a lot smaller :)






The Matterhorn, which I thought was a fun ride, after I regained my hearing due to the people behind us who insisted on screaming as loud as possible, complaining at it to speed up, and then at the end saying it was lame and sucked.



More pics in a bit, I just realized it's almost time for church and I have to get ready.

Reunited

My flight between Montreal and LA was fairly uneventful. I slept or rested my eyes most of the way.

Got off the plane and headed for the Super Shuttle. Between the traffic and the accent of my driver, it made it difficult for me to understand him when he asked if I was going to Irvine, but we got that sorted out and managed to get myself on the right bus. Despite having a reservation, they couldn't seem to find my file, so when we arrived at John's apartment and he came down to meet me, he had to go back up and dig around for the confirmation number on the reservation. Finally found that, and then we were able to head up to the apartment.

He waited to take lunch until I arrived, so we sat curled up for a while just talking and glad to finally be back together.

John had to resume working, so I got up to unpack a few things. After a few minutes of that I started to feel pretty wonky, so I laid down for a nap. John grilled us some chicken with some KD on the side for supper so I got up to eat. Managed to not pass out at the dinner table but still wasn't feeling so great, so I stayed home while he went to bowling. He just got back and is sitting behind me blogging about his spectacular night. He's pretty excited as tonight determined their position.

I woke up a bit ago when Caly came in to join me on the bed. Caly is not one to want to miss out on any kind of activity involving sleep. She curled up with me for quite a while. She hasn't been giving me that Look of Fear like last time, and came around me within the first hour of me being here, so she must remember me in some fashion. While we were hanging out on the bed, Caly decided she missed John, and meandered over to curl up with his pants. It was even funnier when she was rubbing her head all over, but I couldn't quite get that on camera - every time I moved the camera she became fascinated with that.

So that's it from here, I am up again for a while in an attempt to be able to sleep through the night. Tomorrow is Disneyland and hopefully I'll be a bit more adjusted than I was last time I saw his mom :) I'll be seeing her again, and meeting his sister Mindy, nephew Jack, brother in-law Scott, Uncle Fred, Aunt Wendy, and their 4 kids, all while John is at work. He'll meet us after work for dinner at a yet-to-be-determined location. Originally it was going to be Medieval Times, but than plan has changed.

Caly is posing again. As you can see, she hasn't lost any weight :)

YUL

Well, I'm glad I wasn't in a hurry to clear customs in Montreal. We landed in plenty of time, flight was only an hour and a half really. The holdup was waiting for connecting bags.

This is the first time in a while that I've come through Montreal on my way to the US. Usually I end up going through Toronto. The connecting baggage conveyor belt is about the same size as the one at home (read: damn small). I lost count of the number of times the damn thing stopped and started to load luggage. For a major airport, that size belt just doesn't cut it. Especially when the tour group of Quebec teenagers showed up and swarmed the belt.

Anyway, after somewhere between 20-30 minutes of standing there waiting for my bag, it finally appeared. So far so good on the dirt factor. They also had men loading bags back on the belt so that saved me from wrangling it. I also got a "how you doin'" from the baggage guys. :) I smiled and thanked them for the baggage help. Other than that, mind too busy with thoughts of boyfriend. :)

After that I had to go through security again. I finished up there and walked past a room labelled "Reconciliation Room." Just in time for Holy Week, the airports are offering confessions! How nice is that? :P

Also walked past the gate for Reagan National. Whole other separate set of security. I knew about it, of course, had just never seen the extra setup myself.

Didn't manage to get much sleep on my first flight, despite having the seat beside me empty, because it was too noisy. Propeller planes will do that. My teeth were chattering and my earplugs made the vibration noises of the plane even worse. I did doze off a couple of times, but I'm looking forward to getting some more sleep on this flight. This one is 6h long.

Boarding soon, more from LA. Since it would take 2h each direction for John to come and pick me up, we decided I would take a shuttle rather than him take a half-day off work. So the Super Shuttle will be delivering me from LAX to John's door. Frankly, if I was him, I don't know how I'd get any work done today, I'd be looking out the window seeing if the van was there yet. Hope you get something done before I get there. :)

YSJ

Here I am, at the airport once again. I woke up at 4:30am and Dad picked me up just after 5. I'm pretty tired this morning. Got about 5h of sleep last night. Hope to be able to get as much sleep as I can on the plane.

I did web check-in last night, and while SJ airport isn't that busy, it really comes in handy when you're headed for a large airport. Last time I was away, I did web check-in before we left John's apartment. I avoided a long line and had the security of knowing that I already had my boarding pass. Very handy.

I can't believe it's here already, that it's time to go away again. You think it will never get here, and then there is the rush of packing and preparing, and all of a sudden it's time to go. I'm excited to be able to see John again. We never have enough time together.

Dad told me that Air Canada is no longer flying jets from here to Montreal. All of the flights are now Dash-8s. Doubles the flight time from 1h to 2h. *sigh. I guess I should be thankful that there are any flights out of here, since it's not exactly a money-making run.

Both my carry-on and luggage are new for this trip. My new luggage hasn't gotten much of a test run just yet - the true test for that will be in Montreal when I clear customs. I recently got a new laptop for work, and with it I got a backpack for it instead of a traditional laptop bag. So far I am really enjoying it. There are a lot more pockets, nooks and crannies in which to put things. The laptop itself is 6 lbs, so if I'm going to lug that around, no sense in wrecking my shoulder.

Couldn't avoid taking the laptop with me this time, as my co-worker who is filling in for me is on her own with no one else in the office who could help until Tuesday. This means I have to be a little more accessible to work on this trip, unfortunately. Oh well, I am not in as desperate a need for a break as I was last time :)

They just called pre-boarding, so I guess I'd better pack up. More later from Montreal.

And now the packing

I solved my luggage dilemma by dropping by Winners and discovering that they hadn't yet sold the 2 pieces Jenn and I had seen a couple of weeks ago. I bought the two pieces, though I will try to only take one, so as to have less to wrangle with at the airport. Winners had the large and small pieces, but not the medium, so I have two of the three.

It's quite a neat set, actually. The front that you see here is nylon and expandable, but the rest is hard-shell polypropylene, so it's hybrid luggage. Protection and expandability, and still lighter than my old luggage. The handles are molded plastic and fold down, as opposed to faux-leather stitched handles that hurt your hands after virtually any carrying.

It is pretty girly looking, but since I'm a girl, that works out pretty well. I also looked at a set of luggage in Walsh Luggage that was purple, which is what I wanted, but internet research told me that it weighed more than what I bought. The nylon in the purple set wasn't as tight a weave. It was slightly larger though, and my fave color. In the end I think I made the right choice, based on the fact that it's lighter than what I have, it's definitely distinctive, I really like the hybrid, and the two pieces together were cheaper than a single piece at Walsh. I don't mind paying more for good quality, I just happened to luck out in finding it at Winners. I'm leery of the light color, but with 3/4 of it being polypropylene, perhaps it will still pick up less dirt than all nylon. It's going to get dirty, there's no stopping it, so I'll just have to live with it.

Luggage is a tough purchase because you really don't know what it will truly be like until you've used it and it's too late to return it, after multiple uses to get a full opinion. I have a subscription to Consumer Reports' website, but even they didn't have a whole lot to say specifically about lightweight luggage. They had sections on inexpensive luggage and how to choose luggage, but no real recommendations or comments on lightweight luggage. In any event, I did the best I could with the info I had, so here's hoping I made a good investment.

Now that I have new luggage, I have to get packing! That's tonight's project, along with getting my pedicure out of the way, if I have time.


Friday

Friday afternoon I had a conference call with John and an immigration lawyer to get some answers on his ability to move. The bottom line came down to it being a lot easier if we were married, but neither of us wants to jump the gun there, so we have to get some other things organized in order to prove we are indeed "together" before I could sponsor him as "family". I personally find it a bit insulting to have to prove to anyone that I have a real relationship, but thanks to those who try to abuse the system, my word isn't enough. We have to start getting some things jointly in our names, so we'll work towards that. We're also investigating the work option for sponsorship, we'll see how that pans out. The good news is that health care doesn't appear to be an issue, and Caly the cat will have the easiest move of all - just a rabies shot and she can come on over. So the cat can basically move in with me anytime, but John can't. Figures. :P

Friday night I was on call for work. They finally called around 11pm and said they wouldn't be ready for me until sometime on Saturday, but they didn't know when. Joy.

After speaking on the phone with the lawyer earlier in the day, John and I abandoned the typing that night in favor of the telephone. It's funny how typing so much makes you start to forget what the other person sounds like. I will be glad not to have that problem anymore.


Saturday

Saturday was damn busy. I had postponed my hair appointment last weekend due to my brother's visit, so I headed there in the morning. She worked me in between other customers, so it took a bit longer than usual, but I had planned enough time in between. After hair was done, I zipped down to Winners and bought the luggage. Also ran into Wal-Mart, against my better judgement, for a couple of things I could only get there. Then I headed uptown for a salon appointment. Saw my Dad, who offered to drive me to the airport on Wednesday morning. Dropped in to Walsh Luggage to make sure there wasn't something better than what I bought.

Palm Sunday was this weekend, so church ran longer than usual due to the reading of the Passion.

After church I headed to Suwanna with Jenn and Stew for dinner, in recompense for having to miss it last weekend with everyone else. Very yummy Suwanna chicken, as usual.

Saturday night was going to see Moonchildren, which was a great show and the cast all did a wonderful job. Very entertaining. Post-show we headed over to the Ale House for drinks & dessert, then off to the cast party. I had a good time, though I hadn't intended on staying out as late as I did. By the time I dropped off Jenn & Stew and crawled into bed, it was 4am. Good practice for the time zone change I'll be going through, but having to work today & tomorrow means I won't really be able to take advantage of that.


Sunday

Slept in to recover from the very late night. Did some cleaning in prep for having people over for JCS. Started some laundry so I'd have everything ready to choose from for packing. Ordered John's birthday presents online so they'll be there when I arrive. I have to leave a week before his birthday, so we'll celebrate while I'm there.

The JCS viewing was pretty quiet, just me, Jenn, Stew and Brian. With the cast party recovery and the Crucible read-through, most people weren't able to make it, but that was expected. I wish I would have been able to choose another night with fewer conflicts. Hopefully next year I can move it back to Good Friday. In any event, the 4 of us watched the show and had a good time. Jenn and I sang along, but no kickline :)


Time to get packing. Only 2 more sleeps!

Luggage dilemma

6 days to go and I am headed back to SoCal. I haven't started packing yet. I have extra stuff to take this time, considering I'm attending a wedding.

I'm having a dilemma with my luggage. I have luggage, it's in good shape, there's nothing really wrong with it other than the fact that it's too damn heavy. When I travel, it's usually by myself. A lot of the time I travel to the US, to see John or for work, which means I always have to handle my own luggage through customs. I am not known for packing light, I'll admit that adds to the problem. But when your luggage weighs 13lbs (≈6kg) before even putting anything in it, that just makes it suck even worse. So, my dilemma is, do I invest in luggage I can actually carry and manoeuver more easily on my own, or do I just deal with what I have? The problem is that I really don't do that much traveling. But when I do, it's a killer to have to carry my own luggage. I've thought about spiltting it up between 2 bags, but that's even more annoying when you have to carry/wheel it down a hall in an airport. I'd rather deal with one bag.

My luggage right now is red. Distinctive enough, but red is becoming the new black. What I really want is purple luggage -- this is me, after all. But really, it's a darker color, so it won't show the dirt as much, and not many people have purple luggage.

I'm not sure what to do. As of right now, I know I will [likely] be traveling 3 times, all to the US, over the next 6 months; next week plus two times for work. Do I spend the money, or just put up with what I have?

Not much, really

Haven't been up to that much. Pretty much just going to work and then coming home, reading job-related non-fiction, falling asleep, then waking up in time to chat with John. The time change seems to be making me tired, that or the stuff I'm reading is boring. Likely both.

My brother's visit on Saturday was quick but good. I had a hair appointment for that day but cancelled it in case they were going to drop by in the afternoon. Plans changed a few times, but eventually I headed off to church, and then met up with my family at The Falls for dinner. After dinner everyone came back to my place, where we chatted and I got to see the wedding pictures. My SIL said I was very photogenic and looked great in all the pics. I could still see my creepy red eye, but I was specifically looking for it, so I guess in the end it wasn't that bad. Hopefully my brother will get some time to scan some of them in. Need another pic to add to the bridesmaid pile ;) I also recently found out that I've finally made the leap and on my 10th wedding appearance, next summer, I will achieve maid of honor status. My career is advancing! From flower girl to junior bridesmaid to bridesmaid to maid of honor. For all your wedding attendant needs, call Liz! 25 years of experience! Book now!

As of right now, unless plans change, next year's dress will be blue. I've worn seafoam green, pink, mauve, forest green, red... I think this will be my first blue bridesmaid's dress. I wore that blue dress when I was the guest book minder, but that wasn't a bridesmaid's dress.

After my family left it was only 10:30, so I called over to Jenn & Stew's to see if people were still hanging out. I headed over there in time to see people, which was nice. With my brother being in town I had to miss out on part of the evening, but thankfully I got to see people later on.

John and I have been in contact with a lawyer about immigration. We decided there were too many variables and complications to our situation to handle on our own. We want to be sure that when he moves here, we don't have too many surprises. So if we have to spend some money getting that assurance, I'm ok with it. We hope to be able to talk to the lawyer tomorrow and maybe get some answers to some outstanding questions.

Haiku Wannabe

I see you looking at me
I think it's pretty funny
You must not know whose leftovers I am

Pumpkin Patch

As I drove home tonight, I saw the word is out: the Pumpkin Patch is re-opening on April 19th. Yay!!!

They're digging up a bunch of grass there also. Likely building a bigger parking lot.

Spring is here!

Nothing says Easter like

a hollow chocolate Grave Digger monster truck. Seriously. This was in this week's Zellers flyer.

My nephew would love this. Coincidentally, Grave Digger is doing a show tonight in London, ON. Somehow I don't think his mother will be taking him to a monster truck show :P

I guess bunnies no more signify Easter than a monster truck. Seeing as how I can't eat food shaped like animals, I guess that makes the monster truck more edible to me.

On reflection, I do find the thought of eating a monster truck disturbing as well. I like to think of Grave Digger as "indestructible" - sort of like George, my old truck. Eating the chocolate Grave Digger would destroy it. I don't think I can handle that responsibility.

Anyone looking to buy me Easter chocolate, you'd best stick with eggs. Or See's Peanut Brittle Bars. John's mom gave me a box of these and I'm hooked. And no, this is not a hint. I still haven't finished the chocolate I brought back from my last trip!!

Road Trip

I spent 2 days this week driving around with a suitcase in my car, not knowing when I was going to have to get up and leave to go to the Evil City. Because it was Halifax that I was going too, all hell broke loose this week, equipment kept breaking. Finally I was able to leave on Wednesday around lunchtime. Didn't arrive in time to be able to do any work that night, but at least I finally managed to get there.

That night I met up with Cyn, whom I hadn't seen in quite a while. We had supper at Subway and then did some shopping around Bayers Lake. I got to see her and Roomie's new apartment. Really, really nice spot. They truly lucked out in finding it. It's only 3 years old and seems to be very quiet. Roomie didn't get home from work until about 11:30, so it was a late night for me as I wanted to meet him since I was down there. He seems like a great guy :)

Thursday I spent working all day. I visited all the locations, got to see lots of people I hadn't seen in a while, got to see renovations and changes also. I managed to get everything I wanted done in one day, which was nice.

Both days I had breakfast in Bedford at Great Canadian Bagel. Really miss not having one here. Their choco chip bagels are the best.

Met up with Cyn again last night at the Halifax Shopping Centre, where I finally found a shirt to go with the skirt I bought in Moncton a few weeks back. After that we hit supper at Jack Astor's, where I had steak. Really looking forward to BBQ season. We finished supper and hit a few more stores. Cyn got an amazing sale on a couple of items at Cotton Ginny and I got 3 things at Jacob Connexion. Mare: the regular Jacob store opened in Mic Mac a week ago. Didn't have time to make it to Mic Mac though.

Got up this morning, had breakfast and then hit the road. I had stops in Truro, Amherst, Moncton and am now back home again. On my way home I got a call from Fredericton, so now I have to leave in about an hour and meet someone between here & there to exchange broken for working equipment. I've been driving all day so I am not looking forward to hitting the road again, but I am only going as far as Welsford.

Also during my drive home my older brother emailed me to tell me he & my sister-in-law are making a whirlwind trip home today. He's buying a new truck and is coming down to pick it up. I hope they bring some of the wedding pictures with them so I finally get to see them... and my creepy red eye. I rarely get to see my brother, even more rarely when he comes here, so it will be great to see him again.

JCS

I've set a date for the annual viewing of Jesus Christ Superstar at my place. Since I will be away at Easter, I don't have any kind of large Eggstravaganza planned this year. Just a simple evening to come over and watch JCS, sing along if you know the words (Jay knows ALL the words), and participate in the kick line.

I've decided pretty much the only night I can hold it is Sunday April 9th. That leaves time for people to recover after the Moonchildren cast party. It won't be a late evening, we'll just watch the one movie, as most of us need to go to work the next day. I am thinking a 7pm start time for the movie, since it's just under 2h long.

I haven't had people over since Christmas. It's been a while, so I think it's time to host some fun again. Comment here if you know you're coming.

Garbage, garbage, garbage

A couple of weeks ago I recommitted to walking 10,000 steps a day. Just a personal goal, mostly for health reasons since I get no other forms of exercise. At lunchtime I walk from my office to the end of Harbour Passage and back, which is about 1/2 hour. On the weekends and after work, I will walk varying lengths of Manawagonish Road, from my house, cutting through Island View School, onto Manawagonish to Purdy's Corner (where it meets Manchester Ave). Walking to Purdy's Corner and back takes me a few minutes over an hour.

Last weekend, something caught my eye. I started to notice just how much garbage was lying all along the sidewalk and side of the road. Some of it blown there by the wind after crows attack the bags on garbage day, some of it carelessly thrown on the ground as litter, some of it just now coming to light since the snow has melted away. It became the focus of that day's walk, how much garbage I was seeing and eventually it felt like that was all I was seeing. It felt like walking through a dump.

Yesterday I decided I was going to do something about it. I knew I wouldn't be able to get every single piece of garbage along the route, and also didn't want to trespass on people's property, but I was going to pick up what I could along my walk. It wouldn't solve the problem, but it would definitely help in some small way. At the very least, I wouldn't have to keep seeing that gross hairbrush.

I drew the line at picking up cigarette butts, snotty kleenex, used condoms, the pregnancy test (that was more disturbing than the used condom) and I wasn't sure what my position would be on needles, but I thankfully didn't find any. What I did find was an old shirt, beverage containers, plastic forks & spoons, two beer bottles in the school playground (one broken, one not), cigarette packages, an old hairbrush, plastic bags, pieces of fake flowers from the cemetery, bottle caps, packaging from various products sold at MediTrust Pharmacy, and the most popular item of the day was most definitely plastic straws. Apparently no one likes to hang on to straws.

By the time I hit MediTrust, 15 minutes into my walk, my bag was pretty much already full. I kept cramming stuff into it as I went along. Stopping for garbage added about another 1/2 hour onto my walk. I know it's a good thing that I got that much garbage off the sidewalk, but at the same time it's also very depressing to have picked up that much garbage and yet still left so much more behind (especially in front of Curves/MediTrust).

I guess I had been living under the false impression that littering was no longer a popular thing to do. What I really don't understand is why. Why is it so hard to hang on to that used kleenex until you get home? Did you really put that much snot on it? Wrap it in another kleenex and stick it in your pocket. It won't kill you to hang on to a used kleenex. I promise.

I guess these people just don't care what they are doing to their environment. They don't care that they're making it look like a dump and they are polluting it. All, I think, out of laziness. It's pretty sad when you can't hang on to a pop bottle until you get home, instead throwing it out your car window or just dropping it on the ground. What do you think happens to this stuff? It's sad that some people still haven't learned to clean up after themselves. Sorry there aren't any garbage cans along Manawagonish Road, but that doesn't mean you can treat it as a dumping ground.

One of the worst in terms of offending litter that I see (less so on the West Side, but more of the litter on Harbour Passage) are the *&^%(& Tim Horton's coffee cups and lids. By looking at Harbour Passage, you'd think there was a self-destruct mechanism on these cups, that if you don't drop it as soon as you're finished with it, it will kill you. These paper cups & plastic lids outnumber any other kind of litter I've seen during my walks on Harbour Passage. What really saddens me is that there are at least 4 garbage cans on the path. The laziness and/or carelessness of some people to not bother holding on to their empty coffee cups a bit longer until they reach the garbage can is just astounding to me.

After this effort, I then concentrated on my own yard. Not being a littering person, any garbage that was in my own yard was usually blown there from someone else's yard. In my yard I found plastic bags, Halloween candy wrappers, 3 tennis balls, 1 other black ball, a kids' watering can, and a Corelle plate looking to be in perfect condition other than being dirty. Not sure which neighbor it belongs to, but I may try to clean it up and find its owner. Sad that there was that much garbage that had floated its way into my yard. At least it is much cleaner now.

There was one disturbing thing that I found in my backyard, way at the back beside my neighbor's fence. The largest poop I'd ever seen. I don't know if I want to know what animal created that poop. I've seen dog poop, and cat poop, but this was no ordinary poop. It was scarily-large poop. Probably a good 2" wide poop, and I am not exaggerating. I have no idea what's walking around in my backyard when I'm not looking. I may not want to know.

So after my weekend of trying to make a small corner of my world less filled with litter, I do feel like I succeeded at the task. I hope you're placing your garbage in a garbage can, or even better, recycling as much as possible. I'm going to continue to do my part.

Personal DNA

I come out as a Concerned Analyst.

I always end up as some kind of ANALyst. Geesh. ;)

Comments

I opened up my comment options a bit. Use "other" and you can sign your name to it without having a Blogger account. You can't enable "other" without also enabling anonymous, so we'll see how it goes.

So much for that

I just lost my Immigration contact due to a layoff. Damn. I don't know if he'll still get in contact with me or not. I am likely the least of his concerns right now.

I'm going to Disneyland!

I don't know what it is lately, but time just seems to be flying by. Unfortunately that also includes the weekends, and does not include time between visits with John.

Didn't have much to do last week. Thursday morning I drove to Fredericton and dropped off my passport application. I should have the passport back by the end of the month, so that should be fine. Also did some work while I was there.

Friday night I met up with Jenn, Stew and Joanne for supper at Swiss Chalet. Our server seemed to be caught in the middle of some kind of ordering system malfunction, so our food took a while to be ordered and to be brought to the table. Not too big of a deal though, as we had lots of time before heading uptown for Sight Unseen. Since we had a few extra minutes, we stopped by Old Navy to look for some jeans for Joanne. I found a white tank which I hope will go with the skirt I bought in Moncton. Still need to try the two on together.

Not being a drinker, I didn't really do anything for St. Paddy's Day other than wear green. I didn't mind missing the "festivities" to see Sight Unseen. I really enjoyed the revolving stage, I thought that was excellent. I hope it can be used for other productions as well. Kudos to Scott T on his performance and I kept thinking of Dre every time I looked at the costumes :)

My weekend otherwise consisted of doing laundry, chatting with John, reading, dropping by Zellers for some sale items before the vultures picked it dry, and waiting for my weekend flyers. I was annoyed yesterday - my flyers still hadn't shown up by 9pm last night. Weekend flyer delivery is supposed to be earlier than Sunday night. Cripes, I know people who get their weekend set of flyers on Friday night.

Plans continue for John's move here. It seems like every time we get one answer, it invokes another whole series of questions. John's next step is to call the Canadian Consulate office in LA, whereas I am trying to get a lunch meeting in the Evil City with a friend of a co-worker who works for Immigration. There are so many questions we need to have answered that it is almost paralyzing. I just hope we can soon get a plan in place that will at least give us some more direction.

I still don't know whether or not I'll be headed to the Evil City this week. The laptop I am waiting on for repairs has not been fixed yet. Whatever parts they are waiting for seem to be takig a long time. If I don't get the laptop back by tomorrow, I'll have to delay the trip until next week. Not that I am itching to go to the Evil City anyway.

On the trip front, my second day in SoCal has been reserved for a trip to Disneyland. John's sister will be home for a visit, so I will get to meet her and her family, as well as see his mom again. I didn't make it to Disneyland last time I was down, so it will be interesting to see. John says I will find it a lot smaller than Disney World, but it doesn't matter, really, since I get to go around saying "I'm going to Disneyland!" like I just won something :) After a day at Disneyland, the plan is to meet up with John after he finishes work and go to Medieval Times for dinner. I've driven past that many times while in Florida, but we never went to it, so I think it will be fun. My only concern about the day is being able to stay awake. I hope I can adjust a bit more quickly this time. I don't want to pass out in my plate of food during the jousting :)

Casting the Dallas movie

HEADED TO DALLAS: Per Variety, 20th Century Fox's big-screen version of CBS' Dallas picking up steam, with John Travolta being eyed to play J.R. Ewing, Jennifer Lopez in the role of Sue Ellen Ewing, Luke Wilson as Bobby Ewing and Shirley MacLaine playing Miss Ellie Ewing.
(from E! Online)


[speechless expression]

It's sounding Pink Panther-ish to me...

No more Whammies

The host of Press Your Luck, my favorite game show growing up, died yesterday in a plane crash. Peter Tomarken and the Whammies entertained my younger brother and I every day. Click here to visit a great tribute site. Ah, the memories!

"Big bucks! No more Whammies.... and.... STOP!" It was classic mindless muttering, in the days before Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and the "well, it can't be C because I was born in Utah in 1956..."

"Big bucks? I'll show you big bucks!" [Whammy then brings out an elk].


No more Whammies, indeed.

The turtle creeps along

I had a moderately busy weekend, more self-imposed than anything else.

Late Friday afternoon I took the Haunted Car in to get the clicking noise fixed. Decided to wait for it, it only took an hour. While I was there I chatted with my sales guy about my increasing mileage. Going to keep an eye on that and see what I can do about not going over and paying the penalty.

Friday night I spent at home, devouring a book and then chatting with John after he got home. Saturday I did more reading and went to church.

Saturday night was the Rob Thomas concert. Really good show, although the sound wasn't the best where we were seated. Free food and no wacky weed made up for that, though. Anna Nalick's opening set was good, she seems to be a decent live performer. Rob's set was really good. He played a lot of his new stuff, which I enjoyed hearing - I had bought his cd when it first came out. He rearranged a few Matchbox Twenty songs that turned out really well. I actually liked the new arrangement for If You're Gone better than the original. The highlight of the evening though was definitely the cover of Bowie's Let's Dance. I love that song anyway, and it was a total surprise when they started to play it. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the 5 minute bass solo... I don't mind songs being extended when they're live, but when the interlude is so long that I've forgotten what song they're playing, I think that's a little much. All in all a good show, I'm really glad I was able to procure the tickets. Next up for concerts is INXS, for which I have very high hopes.

Sunday I got up and cleaned. And cleaned. And cleaned. I stripped the bed, washed the sheets, and washed a new set of sheets I bought when I was away. I turned the mattress. I cleaned and dusted the dresser and nighttable. I vacuumed the whole main floor of the house. I cleaned the desk in my office. I dusted the living room. I cleaned the bathroom. I vacuumed baseboards. The only thing I didn't get done was mopping the floors, but dammit, after all that, I was ready to go to bed around 7pm. I took a break in the middle of the day to walk up to the drugstore. I haven't been walking much the past month, between the weather and being sick, so all of that walking around yesterday is taking its toll on me today.

I have to go to the Evil City for work. I thought it was going to be this week, but it looks like something got delayed, so that trip will get postponed until next week. Good parts: get to visit Cyn, get to go to Costco. Bad part: I have to go to the Evil City. Halifax and I don't get along.

After work today, since I was already on the East Side, I stopped at Wal-Mart to look for a couple of things. After today's visit, I've decided I'm not going back there unless there is something specific I need that I can't get anywhere else. I can't seem to set foot in that store anymore without being around a whole bunch of stupid people, in a crowded aisle... conditions always ripe for Wal-Mart Rage. Today's adventure was standing in line at the checkout. Stupid-ass lady just took her bags and left her cart right there in the middle of the aisle, right in my way. I smashed it out of the way. Not a mature response, I'll admit, but I was pissed. You have to walk right by the cart corral in order to leave the store. There's no excuse. She just left it in my way to have to deal with. So I smashed it down the aisle out of my way. After that, I decided it wasn't worth my frustration every time I go into that store. It's on the other side of town, out of the way for me. There are plenty of stores on my side of town that I can frequent, so that's what I'll do. If Wal-Mart builds a store on this side of town, fine; I'll consider shopping there. But I'm not going out of my way to the other side of town to be frustrated buying kleenex. Just not worth it.

I then headed over to Winners, where I spent what I think was 20 minutes looking for a picture frame and coming out of the store with nothing. There were plenty of frames, but apparently I am incapable of deciding on one and picking it out. Libras are notorious for not being able to make decisions, and I definitely live up to that part of my sign. I looked over the frames... ugly color. Too girly. Too plain. Too many scratches. Too dark. Too heavy. I'm pretty sure it was my indecision and not a lack of decent frames. I wanted to print and frame one of the pics of John & me from my last trip, but for some reason none of the frames looked right. So I still don't have a frame, nor do I have any idea what kind of frame I want. Maybe I should just tape it to the wall.

Last but not least today, I got someone to sign my passport application. Now I just need to get it up to Fredericton some day this week. Weather's not looking the greatest for tomorrow, so it will have to wait until later in the week. My passport pic looks bad, as is the requirement for passport pictures. It could look worse. Think positive.

C'mon turtle. 30 days to go.

Haunted car

I am finally feeling a bit better today. This cold has been a killer on me. I should have stayed home on Tuesday as well as Monday but I didn't. Wednesday I went to Moncton and likely overextended myself. Yesterday I lost my voice and went home at lunchtime, trying as best I could to take phone calls; thankfully I didn't have too many. This morning I wasn't going anywhere at 7am, but after a bit more rest, getting up and unclogging, and then finally getting some of my voice back, I felt well enough to come in to work.

Something happened to my car when I went to Moncton on Wednesday. When you use the turn signal, it makes a ticking noise. When the turn signal goes off, so should the ticking. My car has decided to spontaneously keep ticking as I'm driving down the road. tick..... tick tick tick..... tick tick. No rhyme or reason, it could be any number of ticks, it could be 10 minutes since I last used the turn signal and it will just suddenly start ticking. I have an appointment this afternoon to go and get it checked out.

My car's warranty will soon be expiring. It's up in 3 years or 60,000km. I'm currently at 55,500km and the 3 years will be up at the end of May. I have a 4 year lease, so I will be running on a year with no warranty. I knew that going in, I just hope it doesn't start having a lot of problems. I have a couple of trips coming up for work that may push me over the 60,000km before the end of May. I don't want to have to pay a penalty for being over my mileage at the end of this lease, but it looks like I am heading that way. I wish I had had the foresight to choose the 24,000km/year option instead of 20,000 when I signed this lease. Live and learn, I guess. I'm not sure that I will go for a lease next time. I think I'd like to have a little more freedom with my next car. We'll see.

I took Jenn with me to Moncton on Wednesday and she shopped while I worked. Once I was done work I met up with her and she'd found me a really nice skirt that I could wear to the wedding in April. That, of course, led to the quest of finding something to put with the skirt, which led to finding a dress on sale for $15 that I am now going to wear instead. Still have the skirt, still need something to go with it, but the dress was a great score, with the added bonus of not having to buy new shoes to go with it. Since shoes cost me somewhere in the range of $200, this is a big deal.

Planning on spending a quiet night at home tonight, getting some more rest. Tomorrow night is the Rob Thomas concert, with Anna Nalick as the opening act. Looking forward to that. The tickets I got from work were for our company suite, so we'll be up in the new boxes at Harbour Station. I've only been up in that section once but it was in a different company's suite. It will be interesting to see how a concert is from up there. We're pretty much the furthest from the stage, hope we can still see pretty well. And hey, if not, the tickets were free :)

*cough

Which is basically what I've been doing since Saturday night. I started coughing during Girls' Night, which evolved into a sore throat in addition to the cough on Sunday. I stayed home from work today, feeling marginally better but not sure I wanted to be driving myself anywhere. I had no specific deadlines today at work so better I miss one day and get over this than have it drag on all week.

Thursday night was the Collective Soul concert in Fredericton. I worked a bit late on Wednesday night so I could take off around 4 on Thursday, pick up T-L and Van and head to Fredericton. The highway was clear for the most part, but I was really uncomfortable driving it that day, in part because it's a shitty highway to begin with, but mostly due to the anniversary of the deaths of friends 9 years ago who had been driving on that highway. Thankfully we travelled without incident and the weather co-operated as well.

It had been so long since I'd seen a concert at the Aitken Centre that I'd forgotten how bad the acoustics are. It's a hockey arena, not really made with the intention of hosting other events. While the band was great, the sound was so bad that it ended up ruining the concert a bit for me. I also had a giant row of speakers in my view. In the end it certainly wasn't worth $55 plus the drive, but I can't blame that on the band. What I would like to see is their new live DVD, in my living room with surround sound, and I think that would be worth the $30.

I felt bad for the band that night. I wonder if they knew they'd only draw 1500-2000 people? It was a pretty small crowd, even with student ticket prices being $25.

What was really sad that night at the show was the girl who was around 10 years old who got sick from the wacky weed smell. Her parents had to pack her up and take her home quite early in the evening because she'd gotten so sick. There's 3 tickets down the drain because some idiot decided he/she couldn't have fun at a concert without pot. News flash, jackass: smoking is bannded in indoor places in this province. Of course, you were likely oblivious to the fact you ruined this poor girl's night. Personally, I'm pretty tired of attending concerts and getting bombarded with smoke of any kind, especially pot. I wish there was some way to control it, but in a venue that is dark and holds thousands of people, there's not much that can be done.

Friday I had another frustrating day at work, so I was really glad to leave and go home when the time came. I don't even remember much of what I did, I think I read until John came home and then we chatted.

Saturday was a lazy day. I had told myself I would get out and walk both days this weekend, but I didn't end up getting out at all. Saturday I just had no energy, was feeling pretty unmotivated to do anything, and the inherent distance issues in my relationship were really getting to me. I headed to church and was then happy to have plans for the evening. I picked up Jenn, we did an errand and then headed to lemongrass for supper. I'd barely seen her since I got back from my trip so it was nice to catch up. After supper we picked up Suzy, headed to the liquor store, then over to Lisa's. We chatted, watched Dirty Dancing, Jenn broke out the Carmen Electra Aerobic Striptease. Good times. Then I started having coughing fits, I thought due to my being dry so I got some water, but that wasn't helping a whole lot. We drove Suzy home, picked up Stew, dropped off Jenn and Stew and I crawled into bed at 2am. Been a while since I was up that late.

Sunday I felt worse, having the sore throat in addition to the cough, so I slept in, did laundry, but didn't feel enough like doing the cleaning I needed to do. I tried to rest in the afternoon, took a nap, but at 6pm I realized I wasn't well enough to be going anywhere, so I had to call Mare and tell her I wasn't able to make it to the Oscar party. Hope everyone had fun though.

I did stay up to watch, crashing on the couch earlier in the show and then crawling into bed to watch the latter part of the show. John doesn't normally watch the show, but stayed on and chatted with me and ended up watching the whole thing. I hacked and coughed my way through it.

I did enjoy the show, here are my highs & lows:

• Michelle Williams - Christina Aguilera called, she wants her lipstick back. Mustard yellow with ruffles? Ew.
• Helena Bonham Carter looked crazed. Or high. Or something, just not normal.
• Charlize Theron - giant bows went out with the 80s.
• Naomi Watts - too bad you got your dress caught in the shredder. Nice of you to match your dress to your skin color, that way it just blended right in. *rolls eyes
  
• Oscar montages suck. Academy, if you're so worried about attracting a younger audience, why are you filling an hour of the show with montages? The "In Memoriam" is fine, that serves a purpose. The rest is crap filler. The show is long enough without crap filler. Save the montages for a big milestone, not every friggin' year.
• Jon Stewart did a good job, not outstanding, but good. I laughed. A lot of people didn't, though, and the consensus this morning seems to be that he won't be asked back. He looked nervous in the beginning, the opening monologue seemed pretty stiff, but as the night wore on he had some great lines.
  
• I want one of the stuffed penguins
• Music being played during the whole acceptance speech was ANNOYING.
• Why, why, why did they ever think it was ok to cut short the acceptance speech on Best Picture? As I heard or read this morning (can't remember where), what was ABC worried about, starting Jimmy Kimmel on time???
  

So Crash won best picture. Personally, I don't think it deserved the win, but there are lots who will and do disagree. John and I rented Crash while I was in SoCal, and it left me with the feeling that LA is the worst place in the world, full of racist bastards. I just found it really depressing, and I didn't feel as though Sandra Bullock's or Matt Dillon's characters would actually change after what happened to them. It's not as though I thought Brokeback Mountain was the best movie ever, but I thought it had more redeeming qualities than Crash.

*cough, cough. Time for some more Advil C&S.