Saturday, February 28, 2009

Happy Birthday Bella!

Today-ish is my niece Bella's 5th birthday (She was born on February 29th). I can't believe she is already 5 years old. I remember the day she was born and how excited I was. I also remember going to see my sister in the hospital and ending up staying there for 4 hours to keep her company. For the first 3 years of her life, I pretty much saw her every day and took care of her quite a bit. Then I moved to Boston and then to Ottawa and I haven't seen her nearly as much. I miss her quite a bit. She's a smart little girl and doesn't let much get past her. She also uses ridiculously large words for a girl her age. Hopefully, she will get over her fear of flying and come to see me sometime soon. Anyway, Happy Birthday Bella!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Dripping water, Take 2

Today was the perfect mixture of melting snow and non-freezing rain. Perfect. It is that combination of events that has a tendency to make the window above my bed leak. So like I said, perfect! It was actually a bit better this time because: a) I wasn't trying to sleep because it leaked at noon; b) I had some idea of what to do; and c) all of my stuff was not scattered all over the floor after last time. I am not saying it was good just that it was better. I was just glad that I was in a state where I could actually deal with it rather than whimpering while looking longingly at my pillow just wanting to get some darn sleep. So today's favourite thing, while it may seem a bit odd, is having annoying things happen when you can actually deal with it rather than at a time when you have other priorities (such as sleep, beautiful sleep).

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Perogies!

I really enjoy perogies. Today we didn't really know what to have for supper, so my sister just decided to cook the perogies she made a few weeks ago. You can find the recipe here. Living in Saskatchewan, perogies were quite the common food to be found at many different potlucks or community events. I don't know how common they are in other places. I know I had a difficult time finding them when I was living in Boston. I enjoy a few different types of perogies but my favourite type are the homemade perogies filled with cheesy mashed potatoes. So good. Some bought brands are definitely better than others and I enjoy the "Cheemo" brand ones. You can usually find perogies in the frozen sections of your local supermarkets or European grocers. There are a number of different ways to prepare them but I tend to just boil them and/or fry them in butter with onions. People eat them with sour cream and bacon bits as well. I tend just eat mine quite plainly.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Still exercising!

I have written in the past about doing different group exercise classes at the gym I go to. I tend to really enjoy them but some I enjoy more than others. There is something to be said for having an instructor that you enjoy. It makes the workout seem less like a workout. None of the instructors I have had have been bad per se, but some of them have definitely been better than others. There are certain days and times that I go to classes just for the fact that I enjoy the instructor for that class. For example, I go to Zumba on Mondays at 4:30 simply because I like the instructor. I also enjoy the instructor for BodyPump on Wednesdays at 6:30 and Mondays at 5pm and for BodyCombat on Thursday nights (sadly, I can't go to the Thursday night class until my French class is over). Those are definitely the classes I enjoy the most just because of the instructor. So today's favourite thing is Group Exercise class with an instructor I enjoy.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

"If love was a plane, nobody'd get on!"

Way back in 2007, I came here to Ottawa to visit my sister. She had recently gotten a CD by Brad Paisley and was playing it pretty much incessantly in the car. We both loved it. Pretty much everytime I came back to visit her after that, it was in the car as well. She claims that she listened to other CDs between visits but I am not entirely sure that I believe her. Anyway, we haven't really listened to that CD since I moved in with her but last week we put it back in the car radio. I still really enjoy the CD. Brad Paisley is the sort of singer that gets away with singing about odd things simply because he is Brad Paisley. Any other singer that sang about wanting to check someone for ticks would ....well, I don't know but it wouldn't be good. The first time I heard that song, I was like "Did he just say 'I want to check you for ticks'? That's pretty creepy." Then I actually caught the rest of the words and it turns out that the aforementioned line is the least creepy part of the song. Yet, somehow, I still enjoy the song with all its creepy innuendos and such. I really enjoy Brad Paisley because he doesn't take himself too seriously. In fact, generally speaking, I tend to enjoy his sillier songs more than his more serious songs.
Probably my favourite songs of his are "Little Moments" and "With you, Without you." "Little Moments" is from a previous CD. It's a pretty sweet song and has one of my favourite lines of pretty much any song just because it's so darn specific:"When she's layin' on my shoulder on the sofa in the dark/ And about the time she falls asleep so does my right arm/ And I want so bad to move it 'cause it's tinglin' and it's numb/ But she looks so much like an angel that I don't wanna wake her up". I don't know why I like "With you, Without you" so much but I can't just listen to it once. My hand goes to the repeat button 2 or 3 times everytime the CD gets to that song.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Comfy!

I was having a difficult time coming up with my subject for today's post when I realized that I love the bunnyhug I am wearing today. The fact that it is my only bunnyhug may have something to do with it. For those of you who are not from Saskatchewan, bunnyhugs are what we Saskatchewanians call hoodies. I don't really know why. Anyway, back to my bunnyhug....It was actually a hand-me-down from my sister about 10 years ago. I believe it is actually 20 years old by now as it is for 'Radville Regional High School" and we left Radville, SK in 1989. Pretty impressive, don't you think? The bunnyhug is still in pretty good shape. It's very comfortable which is pretty much the purpose of a bunnyhug. The more I type the word bunnyhug, the stranger I think it is but I prefer the term "bunnyhug" to the more common word "hoodie" if only because it identifies me as someone from Saskatchewan.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Let it snow!

Today I went for a walk with my sister (technically, I walked while she skied). As much as I didn't really want to go (because I just wanted to veg), I really enjoyed myself. I really like walking through fresh snow. I see what my tracks look like and just mark up otherwise pristine snow. It helps that it was really nice out today, sunny and warmer than it has been the past few days. It was really good to actually get out of the house and just go for a walk. I went for walks all the time when I lived in Boston, but I got out of the habit when I moved here. Perhaps because here, I am not really limited to a one room apartment. There is more stuff to do in the house than there was in my tiny apartment. It was really good to get some fresh air.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Why is homemade stuff so much better?

I never really was much of a hummus eater until last year really. I had tried it but I didn't really care about it one way or the other. Then I tried the hummus, my sister Kathleen makes and I loved it. It is pretty much my favourite but I don't know if it's because it's the only stuff we ever really have or if it's actually that good. Today after dinner, my sister Colette and I still were a bit peckish so we had some of the hummus she had made last week with some of the bought pitas we had in the freezer (It was quite the sacrifice after eating the homemade ones last week). The hummus was what made the pitas worth eating. It was very good. If you are interested, the recipe is conveniently on Colette's blog.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Good times

Tonight I went to a get together at my dance teachers house to watch a documentary and some performance videos. After some slight issues actually getting there (I left the directions at home and even if I brought them, they would have done me little to no good as they didn't give details on how to get from the bus stop to house. Three phone calls back home to Saskatchewan later, I made it there. It would have helped if people in that area had actually heard of the street I was trying to go to.), I had a really enjoyable time. We watched 2002 documentary about Tribal Bellydance which I really enjoyed. Then we watched some performance videos of both my teacher's performances and my performances from back when I lived in Saskatchewan.
I started bellydancing in January 2003 and had never heard of Tribal before that time. I then started taking the more tribal related classes and loved it even more. What I learned in Saskatchewan had more improvisation elements than what I am learning here. Here I am learning more fusion/ choreography based stuff but I am still quite enjoying it. The main things I love about it is the communication between the dancers and just being in the moment. I also enjoy the fact that with the improvisation, it is kind of a follow the leader situation so you are fully expected to look at the "leader" in order to follow them. I find that some of the time with choreographies, you are really just dancing side by side with no communication between dancers so you might as well be doing a solo.
Below are some videos of various types. The first video is of FatChanceBellyDance who are credited with really making American Tribal Style Bellydance in the late '80s. They are of the more improvisational style with combinations of moves and cues:


This next video is of Kami Liddle. I am thinking she is doing more of the Tribal Fusion stuff based on the fact that it is a solo. She does some great body isolations and is really cool to watch.


The final video is of Hipnotic from Chicago. I am not entirely sure if it's fusion or improv but I am guessing it may be a combination of the two. The main reason I am adding them here is that they do an amazing move about at about 2:20, so if you don't feel like watching the whole thing, you should fast forward to about that point.


I am not the best at it yet but I have a very good time while I am dancing. I really miss the ladies I danced with back in Saskatchewan as, after we danced together for a few years, we got to be pretty close. I am hoping I will find close to the same thing here in Ottawa. We'll see.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Second verse, same as the first

Today was President Obama's visit to Ottawa to meet with PM Stephen Harper, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, and the Governor General . So I was sitting at home, watching Oprah (for the first time in about a million years) who was talking about declutterifying your home (an appropriate topic for me!) when it cut away to the press conference with Obama and Stephen Harper. After some preamble, Stephen Harper started his speech completely in French. I was really trying to listen because I am trying to improve my French (though that endeavor may not be a great success if I try to improve it by listening to Stephen Harper) but the annoying translator lady was way too loud. Eventually, they got around to the time when Stephen Harper started to repeat the entire speech in English, at which point I turned off the TV because the translator lady pretty much told me everything he had to say (Although if I had listened to it twice, I may actually remember what was said). I now wish I had kept the TV on because I kinda wish I had heard what Obama had to say.
While I know why we do things in both official languages and actually appreciate it, I am not entirely sure why we do it if someone is pretty much translating everything as we go along. It seems like it just takes up a whole lot of time for no reason. Maybe the second time was for Obama because I don't think he has the need to learn French as our leaders do, but if that was the case, they could have started in English and had French translator. There is probably a good explanation that I am not seeing at the moment so if someone could explain it to me, that would be good. That being said, today's favourite thing is the fact that we have two official languages (even though it can occasionally make things long and/or repetitive).

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

"Seven is never an appropriate number of pitas to eat"

Mmmmm...homemade pitas! So good! recently my sister came across this website called Choosy Beggars. Its a website that has a bunch of different recipes and the descriptions of the food are so vivid and funny that I am less opposed to the act of cooking than I might otherwise be. On Sunday, with inspiration from the website, my sister made something called Kibbeh which is a really tasty Lebanese meat dish. She also made the homemade pitas. They were really good, which meant that they didn't last all that long. So today I made more of them. They turned out more like flatbread both times, but I am sure that with the rate we are going through them, eventually we will have them turn out more like pitas. The pita recipe from the website is really quite easy and after having fresh pitas I am less likely to want the store bought pitas. But really, when aren't homemade fresh bread products better than store bought ones? On Sunday, my sister only made ate of the big version of the pita; today, I made the 16 smaller ones. I ate quite a few, because a) fresh pita! and b) how could I not?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Woohoo!

I have a number of different blogs that I go to quite often or that I just enjoy reading. Some of them are on my blogroll and some of them aren't. The main reason I have my blogroll is so that I am aware of when some of the ones that don't update frequently get updated. Today, both* of the blogs that are of the less frequent updating sort got updated. It was a happy day and the posts were enjoyable as well so bonus. So today's favourite things are new blog posts on my favourite blogs.

________________________________________________
*[redacted], The Park Bench

Monday, February 16, 2009

"Work"ing it out

As I had previously feared, this blog is spending far to much time on food related topics. Today's post is only going to exascerbate the problem. Anyway, today my sister and I went to a local restaurant called "The Works." It's pretty cool. Its main dish is burgers but it has quite a variety. Basically, you choose the type of patty you want (chicken, hamburger, veggie, etc) and then you choose the type of topping. Some of the titles of the toppings and descriptions (often referring to topical Canadian/Ottawan people or events) are quite amusing so I've been known to giggle once or twice while reading the menu. I usually get the 'Greek Goddess' because it's quite good and there are so many different options that I get a bit overwhelmed. There are about five locations throughout Ottawa and I believe, at this point, I've been to about three of them.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

So addictive

Today was a pretty nice and relaxing day for me. I played some games on my Nintendo DS, read a book, watched some TV, ate unusual food, and read some more. Much of which allowed me to be huddled under my nice big blanket on the couch. But back to that first thing...A couple of years ago, I came here to Ottawa to visit my sister and she got me addicted to the Sims 2. A game we didn't have back home. It was terrible. I eventually found out that there was a version for the Nintendo DS, so I bought myself a DS. I kind of wanted one anyway because I had tried my cousin's and thought it was pretty fun. It was a lot of money; I could have bought the game for cheaper. Because it was expensive, I pretty much didn't tell anyone in my family that I had this Nintendo game console. After about a week of having this really odd secret all to myself, I told one of my sisters but she was sworn to secrecy. It wasn't until I had moved to Boston that I actually let my mom know that I had this game thing. All things considered, this secret was a really weird secret to have and I don't know why I felt the urge to keep it a secret but there you have it. Last year, I let my sister try my DS and she ended up getting one for herself; she now has more games than I do. She also got one for my mom when my mom broke her arm to stifle the boredom of not being able to do anything. My niece loves it. My mom probably does too, when my niece lets her use it. Anyway, yesterday my sister bought two new games. I have been playing both of them pretty steadily for the last day or so, with one of the game cards in my console and one in hers. I think my sister probably would enjoy the games as well, but I seem to be a bit like my niece.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

"I need to buy this book and I'm not even through the preface yet"

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. I hope everyone had as good a day as I did today! It totally had nothing to do with Valentine's Day but I had a really good day. Today, I (drumroll, please) read a hilarious book about punctuation and grammar. Seriously. I can honestly say that it is the funniest book about grammar that I have ever read (Not a difficult feat, mind you). I may have mentioned previously that I love language and language related humour so this was pretty much the perfect book for me. I was at the library today, finished checking out all 10 books when I saw "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" by Lynne Truss on the shelf. I started flipping through it while I waited for my sister and pretty much decided on the spot that I absolutely had to get it out. It is darn funny. I was driving my sister crazy as I giggled my way through, reading the funny parts aloud for her enjoyment. I took a break at one point, and my sister stole the book and started reading it and started giggling hysterically as well. She decided that, even though she hadn't even finished the preface yet, she is going to have to buy the book. I have already finished the book and already want - no, need - to read the book again, if only to engrain the punctuation rules in my head. As I am writing this, I am thinking about all of the grammatical mistakes that I am most likely making and am really self conscious. It's definitely worth a read if you enjoy language, humour, or a combination of the two.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Catching up

Last year when I was living in Boston, I didn't have a TV so any of the shows I wanted to watch, I watched online. Preferably on Hulu because many of the video players specific to different networks pretty much sucked (I am going to go ahead and say that I liked the one on abc.com the least, it didn't even load). This caused me to be very choosy about which TV shows I watched and actually made me stop watching some shows if I couldn't watch them on Hulu. Since moving back to Canada, I actually have access to a TV so I don't have to watch the shows online that often; although, sometimes, if I hear something interesting about a show I don't watch and/ or record, I will in fact watch them online. So today, I watched the crossover episodes for Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice online. I stopped watching Grey's after the strike last year (not on Hulu, ABC show) and had only seen a few episodes of Private Practice. I enjoyed them but I don't think I will go back to watching the shows on a regular basis. But I will say that I like the network video players in Canada much more than I liked the one's in the states. So today's favourite thing is being able to catch up with TV shows online.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Drip drip drip goes the water

Last night, I didn't get to bed early, as per usual. That wouldn't have been bad if when I did get to bed, I didn't have an unceasing drip going on around me. I got up to check on it once and I couldn't find anything. I thought it had stopped so I was almost asleep when I heard it again. I reached above my head and it was all damp. Not good. That's when I noticed the water leaking in through the window. Pretty much just gushing down the wall. I grabbed some towels but that really didn't do anything because the water continued to find ways to run down the wall. It seemed pretty determined that way.
I pushed my bed away from the wall and, low and behold, there was a huge pile of water on the floor. Like from one end of the room to the other. So I started piling all of my stuff that was on the floor onto the bed. Note to self: don't keep so much crap on the floor. Apart from some damp books, yarn, etc nothing was damaged too badly. It also helped answer the burning question of whether or not I need some of my stuff. I do not. After this, I threw some of the damp towels in the laundry room. That is when I noticed the puddle in the laundry room. "This is going to be a fun night," I think to myself. So I started rearranging crap in my room, I brought my broken closet pieces to the furnace room. I started to go up the stairs a few times to tell my sister that I am floating away but figured she wouldn't appreciate it. Apparently, I wasn't as quiet as I thought (which, to be honest, was an accomplishment because I didn't think I was being quiet at all.), because my sister had woken up anyway. I was correct in assuming she wouldn't be impressed at being woken up at 4am.
She helped me lay out some towels to soak up some of the water and even made up the futon for me so that I would actually get some sleep. So I changed out of my pj bottoms which were now soaked due to the whole dragging in the water issue and went up to the futon to sleep. Wishful thinking on my part. It took me two hours to get to sleep, by which point I had bored of changing movie titles to incorporate flooding basements, dripping, or sleep deprivation (The Loudness of the Drips; DRiPPER; When Drippy met Floody; Scream; Waterworld; Sleepless in Ottawa; Wet and Wetter; Dripping Water, Flooding Basement; etc). I eventually got to sleep and, today when I eventually woke up, I continued cleanup. Unfortunately, I didn't get my sheets in the machine in time for me to actually be able to use them tonight. Luckily, my sister is awesome and she put them in the machine and had them dry by the time I got home from French class. So yay! Hopefully, tonight won't be a repeat of last night, although there is less stuff on the floor to get wet tonight.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

This is becoming a habit, a really tasty habit.

Every Wednesday, pretty much since Christmas (last week excepted), my sister and I have been going to the BodyPump class at 6:30 at a gym that we don't typically go to. She picks me up and we go and we work out and then the question becomes "What are we doing for supper?" We both have it in our heads that we are going to Quiznos but we continue to have to check with one another to make sure that the other one isn't thinking Subway or Shawarma, because after working out it's nice to not have to cook and by the middle of the week, we feel less inclined to cook anyway. I, personally, only started going to Quiznos when I moved in with my sister because, well, I never really thought of it before. Now, I really enjoy the stuff that I get there. I typically get half of one of their flatbread pizzas, a double chocolate cookie and a Coke Zero. I haven't really had many of their sandwiches, but for now I am good with the pizzas. The cookies are really good, too.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Why I don't mind filling my sister's car up with gas...

Don't get me wrong, I am really not a huge fan getting out of the car to fill the tank with gas. When I lived in Saskatchewan, I always went to the full service gas station so I never had to leave the car. I only started going to self serve gas stations when I moved in with my sister because there doesn't seem to be any full serve stations that I am aware of. The reason I don't mind filling her car with gas is she has those easy pay keytags for Esso and Shell that make it less of a hassle. I love those keytag thingies......especially when they work. Another bonus to using those keytag things is that I never have to pay for gas (with my money, anyway). However, after this blog post, the free ride (basically literally) may end. It was good while it lasted.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Absense makes the heart grow fonder.

Today, I went to the Monday Zumba class that I love for the first time in nearly two months. With the bus strike, going to that particular class just didn't work out in terms of car availability and other class my sister and I like. I've been to Zumba since the strike began but was never able to make that class. I don't know why I like the Monday class as opposed to the Thursday or Friday classes but I think it has a lot to do with the instructor. She is very energetic and really into and seems less inhibited than some of the other instructors. It helps that I am familiar with the songs now so have some idea of what I am doing and, also, that the class is only 45 minutes as opposed to an hour. I was just really happy to be back at that class. So today's favourite things is the Monday Zumba class at the Baseline Goodlife. (I know I have written about Zumba before but I really enjoyed today's class.)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Probably going to regret writing about this TODAY...

I am probably not going to enjoy the fact that I chose today to write about this later on, but what can you do? (Not write about it, but I have already decided against that,) Anyway, the buses are back on the road, which is great because it allows me to be less of a shut-in. I have much more freedom in terms of when I do certain things because I don't have to plan in advance to drive my sister to work so that I have the car. Today was the first time I rode the bus in nearly two months. It was nice because a) I didn't have to park downtown, 2) I didn't have to drive downtown, c) my sister didn't have to pick me up (She drove me there though. Thank you, Colette!) and 4) it was free! Yes indeed, I didn't have to pay to ride the bus, and probably won't have to for the rest of the week or so. One of the few benefits of the strike. I was very excited yesterday when I kept seeing buses on the road. It made me realize how much I had missed seeing them.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Pretty much the definition of an extra penny

When I was living in the US, I had a couple of accounts with Bank of America (chequing and savings). A couple of months after moving back to Canada, I finally decided to close my accounts because a) I needed the money and b)I couldn't see myself returning to the States in the near enough future for it to be useful for me. I closed my accounts over the phone. The lovely agent helped me transfer my money from savings to chequing so that my savings account would close, then I wrote myself a cheque for the balance of the chequing account so the chequing account would have a zero balance so it would close. This all would have been fine and dandy if $0.04 interest hadn't been credited to my savings account after my money was transfered out of my savings account. This meant that my savings account never closed. I continued getting Bank of America statements alternating between saying I had $0.04 in the account, I had $ -11.96 in the account (due to a $12 balance protection fee. Seriously, $12. I didn't realize that until after I thought I had closed the account or I would have closed the account sooner), and a notice that I once again had $0.04 in the account because they had cancelled the fee. This went on for a few months until I finally got my arse in gear and called them to see what was going on. They explained everything to me and, because they can't just do away with people's money, they would be sending me a cheque for the $0.04. The cheque arrived this week. I want to reiterate that I now live in Canada, so they had to mail the $0.04 cheque using international postage. I would, in fact, rather have the postage because it is worth more. But anyways, today I cashed the cheque at the ATM under US currency transactions. Due to the exchange rate, I actually got $0.05 which made me inexplicably euphoric. When I told my sister what had happened, I made the profound statement that it was "like I got an extra penny." She replied that it was pretty much the definition of an extra penny. So todays favourite thing is getting $0.05 when you think you are getting $0.04.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Yet another thing my sister got me addicted too.....

A couple years ago, I came to Ottawa for a week to visit my sister. She had just gotten really into the game the Sims 2 and decided to show it to me. I ended up playing it most of the visit, couldn't stop thinking about my characters when I got home, played it much of the time on subsequent visits and, now that I am living with her, I usually tend to play it before I go to bed at night. When I first started playing, I had absolutely no idea what to do. My sister ended up having to fix my characters because they were doing quite terribly. I have figured it out since and haven't screwed up my new characters too badly.
It seems like such a basic game, fulfulling the characters wants and needs, so they don't get depressed or die, but it definitely draws you in. The Sims 2 is the basic game, and the subsequent expansion packs allow you to do more.
Once you get into it, it can be quite addicting and I often stay up much too late because I want to fix a problem or seem how something turns out. It's technically my sister's game, which I play on her computer, but she hasn't actually played the game since I moved in with her since I kind of hijacked her computer (it's in the same room I sleep in. Not to worry, she's pretty much hijacked my laptop. I got the better end of the deal. Mwa ha ha ha)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

A show for the whole family, but really not....

"Bones" is definitely one of my favourite TV shows although I haven't always felt that way. I stopped watching after the episode "Aliens in a Spaceship" because it annoyed me that they didn't catch the guy. Oddly enough, that episode is the one that got one of my sisters watching the show. This week's episode brought closure to that episode and I really enjoyed it. As with many "Bones" episodes, it had moments that brought up more questions that they answered but it was enjoyable enough that I didn't mind. Apparently, my niece had to call my sister to tell her that she was scared in the middle. Yes, my four year old niece watches "Bones." It is totally an inappropriate show for her to be watching but she loves it. Especially the parts where they actually show the bones. At the end, my one sister called back to make sure my niece was okay. Her mom said she was but they were going to have to have a discussion about ghosts.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

P.S. Moo!

I had actually planned a post for today earlier, I hadn't really written anything but I actually had some sort of idea of what I was going to write about. I normally spend minutes (literally, minutes!) at the end of the day trying to figure out what to write about so having an idea before getting to the computer was big. But then, something happened that was even more awesome so I had to rethink today's post.
I have been living with my sister for about 5 months now and it has been interesting. For the first four, she was continuing her 2008 New Years resolution to do a new thing everyday. That was pretty interesting because you never knew what was going to happen. Some days things would be pretty normal.....And well, some days you would walk into the kitchen to find a steaming toothbrush in a pan on the stove. Of course, she would be the one to ask you what you were doing. All you can say in response is "What are YOU doing?" with the appropriate note of befuddlement in your voice.
Her new thing-a -day resolution ended on Dec. 31, 2008 and she has just been sporadically updating her blog with rants or, occasionally, actual new things. Today, sparked by something she saw on the web, she decided she wanted to make a cake in a mug. As soon as she stated this, I knew it would be going in her blog. While, I just made mine with no production, she actually had to take pictures so she could document it fully for her blog.
It's been pretty interesting living with her but tonight she said something that will live in infamy. She erroneously said that I was "sad" (not necessarily the emotion, it was more a comment on my thought processes) while she was "normal." Her assertion that she was "normal" (I will always use quotes when using that word to describe her.), while laughable on its own, was then followed by her eloquent and awesome statement "P.S. Moo! I haven't laughed that much in a while because it was a brilliant followup to her statement that she was "normal." It was completely random and just, well, odd. I realize that the hilarity of the moment will never be matched in simple blog post but it was pretty much an awesome conclusion to an otherwise uneventful day.

P.S. Colette, I hope I can still live with you after this! Also, moo!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

And I was worried about writing about TV too much.....

Today's favourite thing is once again related to food. I can see that my previous fears about this blog becoming biased toward TV have been calmed but new fears about this being a blog about nothing other food are steadily growing. Tomorrow, my goal is to not write about food. Anyway, today I made homemade Lasagna. It was quite good and better than I thought it would be considering it was the first time I had made it on my own. I only had to call my mom once and my sister twice. So, not bad. I definitely like my mom's recipe for lasagna better than some of the other lasagna's I've had. Maybe, it's because it is the one I am most familiar with but, at any rate, it's pretty good. And, as a bonus, I may never have to cook again because I made a heck of a lot of lasagna for two people. That's probably an exaggeration but it will last us a while. I may actually eat a proper lunch this week. Go figure.

Monday, February 2, 2009

And that's what I did all day.......

I pretty much go on the internet everyday. In fact, I probably can't go more than a few hours without going on the internet....which sounds startlingly like an addiction.....which it probably is...(Me addicted to something? Never......Oh!) (I think I just used way to many of these ".....") (I am also using too many brackets (Crud!)) Where was I? Oh right...the internet! I have a few websites that I check first thing such as my iGoogle page, Yahoo!, Twitter, Facebook, and my blog, anyone of which can lead me on some sort of timewasting yet enjoyable journey through the internet. Checking one thing leads me to something else which leads me to something else which leads me to IMDB, which wastes even more time because checking one thing leads me to something else which leads me to something else which is probably why I am still unemployed. For those that are unaware, the IMDB or Internet Movie Database is a website where pretty much anyone who has ever worked on anything TV or movie related is listed. So if you are watching a TV show or something and you recognize someone but can't place where you know them from, you can go to the IMDB and type in the show name and Voila! For TV, it helps if you know either the character name or episode name/number. Occasionally, you will read the list of what the actor has done and still be completely baffled but at least you tried. The IMDB also has Trivia, Memorable Quotes, Actor biographies, and Viewer reviews and forums. I end up spending way too long on that website.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

So many things....

I have a few favourite things today that are loosely tied together. First of all, my sister made a semantic mistake today that I, of course, decided to take advantage of. You see, generally, when she cooks, I clean up and when I cook, I clean up......Wait, that doesn't seem right. Hmmmm........ Anyway, after supper today, she said I could do dishes anytime. I gladly said "Sure," taking her at her word. She soon realized her mistake and amended that I could do them anytime today. So first off, I enjoy taking the most literal meaning of things if it works to my advantage. At about 7, my sister had this craving for Lemon Meringue pie without the meringue (I guess that just makes it Lemon Pie, but anyways.....). Unfortunately, we had neither the stuff for the filling or for the crust. She offered to do the dishes if I would go to the store for the supplies. I agreed. Which leads me to favourite thing number two: Getting out of one thing by doing something else that is much more work intensive and time consuming. That doesn't seem right either, but moving on.... So I got the supplies and she made the pie which we ate too late at night for it to be properly classified as "dessert." But it was quite good, making my third favourite thing Lemon Meringue pie without the meringue.