Food again...

The hardest part of writing this blog some days is coming up with the titles. The rest of the blog I am fine with even if I am writing about something pretty routine. Anyway.....Today, my sister and I went to Kelsey's for supper. We don't often get appetizers when we eat out, but we do when we go to Kelsey's because we love the Kelsey's Spinach Dip. I haven't had many varieties of spinach dip in my life, so I don't know if it's the absolute best, but it's pretty darn good so that's good enough for me. We always tend to eat all of the pita things before the dip is all gone, but they are pretty good about bringing you extra, especially if you discuss how you would like more as your server passes by. I guess you could actually ask for more directly, but being offered it just seems like more of a win.

This probably the last day it applies so...

THE BUS STRIKE IS OVER. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently, the buses should be up and running by Feb 9 (In time for Obama's visit. Imagine that!). The first week, rides will apparently be free, so double-yay!. A deal was struck last night about an hour before the government was going to start working out a back to work legistlation (Right? I don't actually listen to or read the news, my sister just tells me stuff.) While that is all well and good, today's actual favourite thing is driving in the bus lane. You see, they opened up the bus lanes in Ottawa for public use while the bus strike was on. In normal times, if you are caught driving in the bus lane, it is a $150 ticket. I didn't drive in the bus lane all the time while the strike was on, but it was nice when you were stuck in traffic and realized "Hey, I can drive in the bus lane!" At first, it felt odd, like you were doing something illegal, but after awhile, it became less forbidden fruit-y. Hopefully, I will remember not to drive in that lane when it becomes, you know, used for the buses but it was good while it lasted. (Just that part though, everything else about the strike sucked.)

Oh, awesome!

Pretty much everyday, when I first go on the internet, I flip through all of my homepage tabs and see what's happening. When I got to my blog and looked at my blogroll (the place on the left hand side of my blog entitled "Blogs I Enjoy"), I got very excited. One of the blogs I follow called The Park Bench had chosen January's Nerd Man of the Month. Not only that, but this month's awesome Nerdy man was Jim Parsons. For those that don't know, Jim Parsons plays the neurotic, humorously socially bewildered theoretical physicist, Sheldon Cooper, on the Big Bang Theory (a show that routinely cracks me up). Sheldon pretty much exemplifies the definition of "nerd" so it was only a matter of time before he (or the actor that plays him)became the Nerd Man of the Month. Past Nerdy men include John Krasinski (Jim Halpert, Awesome!), Neil Patrick Harris (Do I need to explain who he is?), Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Angel, Chuck), Nathan Fillion (Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Firefly, Waitress), James Gunn (SLiTHER), and Joss Whedon, among others.

Oh honey no....

I will be the first to admit that I pay way too much attention to the world of celebrities. It's part of my TV addiction and it keeps me amused. A few years ago, I found a wonderful little website called Go Fug Yourself. It's basically a blog about celebrity fashion disasters, some of which are truly atrocious. Sadly, some celebrities I have only heard of through their fashion faux pas. It is a very snarky website which is one of the reasons I like it. It routinely has me giggling over some of what they come out with. Occasionally, they have something good to say about someone's outfit but generally it's there because it is just awful. Some of their pictures are NSFW (not safe for work) but it's generally pretty clean.

That didn't quite work out like I had intended it.

Today I continued scanning stuff into the computer for my sister. It seemed like it was taking a long time to scan the pages in so I decided to start playing a game of Mahjong Titans while I waited. It turns out that wasn't the brightest idea because ended up trying to finish each round before I stopped to do the next page. Apparently it didn't take as long to scan as I had thought. What should have maybe taken an hour stretched to an hour and a half and I still haven't finished. At least the game was fun. It shouldn't take long to finish the scanning provided that I don't wind up playing a different game in the meantime. I will wait until tomorrow though.

All about me

Yesterday, I was tagged in a facebook note written by a friend. It was basically one of those getting to know you dealies but you could write about anything. Today I wrote one about me. I actually had a good time writing it but I was ultra-cautious about overloading it with TV-references. I also had a good time reading my friends' notes. So today's favourite thing is finding out new, interesting and random stuff about other people and thinking of interesting things to tell them about myself. Once I wrote the items down, I had to tag 25 people in my note and I am curious who will do it and who won't. I figured I would post mine here, so that you can learn a bit more about me. Some of the things I have written about previously, but some are new.

1. I generally enjoy doing things like this but I have to guard myself with this one because if I am not careful, 96% of them will be about TV. I will try to limit myself to four.

2. I am currently unemployed and living in Ottawa. At this point, I just want a job and am trying not to be too picky.

3. I am thinking of going back to school but I still have to figure out what I want to do with my life.

4. I am not a huge fan of cooking if it's really involved. I do, however, like throwing stuff in the slow cooker and cooking it like that. I do like to bake though.

5. When I was 18, I got it into my head that I wouldn't live past 26. I am currently 26 and am glad to have been wrong. So far.

6. On my 26th birthday, I started a thing-a-day blog. Everyday, I write about one of my favourite things, events, etc. So far so good, but occasionally I write about silly things if nothing really awesome happens that day. You can check it out at http://wanda26.blogspot.com.

7. TV has wreaked havoc on my vocabulary. I say "awesome" and "dude" way too much and every tenth thing I say is some sort of TV quote. The guilty parties - Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, and pretty much any Joss Whedon show.

8. Until last March, I had never really seen any show made by Joss Whedon. By the end of July, I had seen all 7 seasons of Buffy, all 5 seasons of Angel, Firefly, Serenity, and the awesomeness that is Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

9. I miss my niece, Bella, a lot. She's almost five and is very smart and insightful.

10. When I have trouble choosing between a number of different options, I tend to choose the one with the most interesting name. That is how I came to rent the movie "The Delicate Art of Parking" and why I once ordered a beer called "Dirty Bastard". The name was the best thing about both of them.

11. When I worked at the convenience store, I gave nicknames to my regular customers based on what they always bought. There was Mr. Copenhagen (Copenhagen chewing tobacco), Crossword lady, and Keno man. It took about 5 months for me to realize that Mr. Copenhagen was actually a well-known (not to me) player for the Roughriders.

12. At the last two jobs I had, I felt like I catered to people's vices. At the convenience store, I sold lottery tickets, smokes/ chew, and junk food. At the Casino,....well that's pretty obvious.

13. I can wake up on time for something if it starts at 8am but sleep in for something that starts at 11.

14. I enjoy things that play with language and language based humour.

15. I only really enjoy watching sports if I am there or if it is high tension. I love the Winter Olympics, not as much a fan of the Summer games.

16. When I go to the library, I tend to get way too many books out. I end up barely reading any of them. My current record is 0 for 13.

17. I figured out the hard way that the Regina Public Library only lets you put 20 books on hold at a time.

18. After going to school in Boston (and being around certain people), part of me wants to giggle every time I say or hear Regina.

19. I like to dance. I started taking bellydance classes in 2003 and flamenco classes in 2005. I am still taking classes.

20. I have lived in 4 different provinces (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario) and one state (Massachusetts). Although, I only lived in B.C and Alberta for 10 weeks each.

21. The only province I haven't been to is Newfoundland. I've been to about 10 states. I haven't been to any of the territories and I've never left North America.

22. Spelling errors on signs drive me crazy.

23. I think I am a "glass half full" sort of person. The thing is, the liquid inside the glass changes from pleasant to toxic depending on my mood.

24. I am taking a really basic French class to work on my pronounciation. I find that my phonetics classes are really helping with that.

25. When I was in university, I took 2 French classes, 2 Spanish classes, 2 German classes, a Cree class and an Old English class. I don't really remember much of any of them.

It once was lost but now it's found

Once again, my sister and I are writing about the same thing. My sister lost her cellphone on Tuesday. That was pretty much the theme for my week. Where is the phone? Can you look for my phone? I am sad that I don't have my phone. Etc......She was pretty sure lost the phone between the house and the car but other than that it was kind of a guessing came as to where it was. Adding to the difficulty is that the driveway is pretty much covered in snow and it was a white phone....Luckily her snow removal company didn't company didn't come all week because then it would be really gone. Anyway, today we parked in a different spot on the driveway. She just said she was going grab a rake to rake through the snow on the driveway when I spotted something shiny in the snow. Lo and behold it was the phone. It was in a tire track so we obviously drove over it a few times but luckily the snow cushioned it so it didn't break. I had to pry it out of the snow though. We dried it off. We tried turning it on a few hours later and it ended up working. Pretty impressive considering it's been out in the snow for five days, and as previously mentioned, driven over a few times. My sister has declared that I am "awesome". I wonder how long that will last. So today's favourite thing is finding things you would never have thought you would find.

More food.

I feel like such a copier because my sister already wrote about this in her blog but that's what happens when we do stuff together. Today we went to Dinner by Design. Basically, each month they put out a list of recipes that they have available that month. You choose which ones you want to make and when. You then go to a Dinner by Design location and assemble them. My sister and I made 12 meals. It's nice because they prepare everything that you will need for the recipe ahead of time so all you have to do when you get there is measure it out and follow the instructions for the assembly. You then get a label to put on the package that actually tells you how to do the actual cooking. I actually had quite a good time preparing the different meals. We are making one of the meals for supper tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. My sister has done it before, I haven't.

You mean they are actually used for exercise?

On Wednesdays, at the gym I go to for BodyPump, there is a class that uses those big exercise balls right before my class starts. When I see them, I think "Wow, people actually exercise with those things." Then I catch myself and remember that exercising is actually what they were made for. As I write this, I am sitting by the computer with my feet resting nicely on one of those balls. When I lived in Boston, my desk chair was one of those balls. When I lived at my parents, we had one of those balls in the computer room that we used with the chairs that didn't recline or we didn't feel like actually turning into a recliner. So I don't think I have ever used a exercise ball for it's actual purpose. If the bus strike ever ends, I may have to try that class, but until then, my favourite thing with continue to be using exercise balls for pretty much anything other than exercise.

If at first you don't succeed........call customer service

My sister asked me to scan a whole schwack of papers onto the computer. No problem I thought. It will give me something to do and perhaps get me out of bed before noon (It didn't). Easier said than done. Apparently the Scan button on her all-in-one printer doesn't work with Vista. I only found that out after chatting online with a lovely customer service person from HP. I really like that you can chat with customer service people online, especially about computer related issues. So today's favourite thing is online customer service. It is also nice because when they give you directions, you don't have to ask them to repeat them. You can just reread them. It's pretty cool.

Two in a row

Today is also a cookie related post. I made Chocolate Chip cookies today. The recipe is pretty much the one that I have always used. I have used the same recipe so often, I don't even need to look at it anymore. It makes a heck of a lot of cookies which is nice because then we can freeze them. I tend to like them better after they've been frozen. It's rather odd. I can never eat cookies the same day that I baked them. They just don't interest me. But tomorrow........The actual recipe in the book does not ask for any oatmeal but I find I like them better with the oatmeal in them. Actually, it's the way I always make them so I don't know really what they are like with out it.

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

My sister is a Sparks leader. In the fall, her Spark group sold the Girl Guide Chocolate Mint cookies. She bought a number of boxes. Somehow, we only had one left (Funny thing that......)Today she opened it. It didn't last long. I'm not saying they are gone yet, but it's only a matter of time. That's what breakfast is for, provided she doesn't beat me to them. They changed the recipe a few years ago, but they are still really addictive. I can't just eat one. (I don't often try to only eat one but that's beside the point.) I enjoy the spring Chocolate and Vanilla Sandwich cookies but I still enjoy the Mint ones much more.

Productive laziness.

As a may have mentioned previously, I am currently looking for a job. It is rather slow going but I haven't reached a state of complete frustration yet. With the bus strike that is currently in its second month, it's difficult to go out and put applications out at different places. Thankfully, many places have a way to apply online. It makes applying for jobs much easier. It also saves me from having to dress up. It hasn't been super effective yet, but my fingers are crossed (Metaphorically speaking. It's hard to type with your fingers crossed). So, today's favourite thing is submitting job applications online.

Not my usual but nice.

Today was kinda a "Meh" day. Nothing really bad happened but nothing happened that was so over the top amazing that it automatically popped into my head as something I absolutely must write about or forever hold my peace. However, something that I did enjoy today was what I had for lunch. It was a sandwich but it is not the type of sandwich that I would typically make for myself. It was a feta cheese and tomato sandwich. I am not a huge fan of feta in and off itself. I like feta in stuff (Feta chicken is awesome) but not such a big part of it. I am also not a huge fan of tomatoes. I like them but not in large amounts. I especially don't like cherry or grape tomates (my reasoning there is odd so I'll skip it). But this sandwich was really good. It was in a baguette and the feta was toasted on the baguette before the tomato was added. I was sceptical the first time I had it but I really do enjoy the sandwich.

This is kinda embarassing............

I love to read. Most of the books that I read are trashy romance novels though so it's not like it's some sort of intellectual endeavor that I am participating in. I can't afford to buy all of the books that I want to read so the library is great. However, there are books that I want to read that are not in the library I go to so I put them on hold. For other people, putting books on hold at the library is maybe a........let's face it, I don't know how often people put books on hold at the library. I just know how much I do. And I do it a lot. A lot. I mean a scary amount. When I lived in Saskatchewan, I once figured out that the maximum amount of books you could have on hold at any given time was 20. I would search for something by one author or on one subject and have all of them put on hold. Then, I would end up going to the library every single day to pick up the books as they came in. When I was taking French and Spanish classes at the university,, I would put kids books on hold in both those langauges. At one point, I had the book "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch out in French, English, and Spanish at the same time. It was a sad day. As far as addictions go, being addicted to putting books on hold at the library is not that detrimental (other than to your social life) but it is still an embarassing addiction to have. Especially to try to explain. But to make a long post less long, my favourite thing of the day is putting books on hold at the library.

Smile!

Today, as with most days, I went on the internet and the first website I looked at was my iGoogle page. On my page, at the bottom, there is a section dedicated to YouTube and the video they were showcasing had a familiar face. I was thinking "What is Hodgins doing in a random YouTube video?" Then, I watched the video and it totally made my day. It's about 16 minutes long and it is about validation. It's just a really cute video with a pretty cool message. So my favourite thing of the day is the following video:

Whoops......

I knew this day would come, because I didn't avoid it very actively. This is my third TV related post in three days and I feel odd about it, but sometimes it just works out that way. I have a French class on Thursday nights which interferes with my Office watching time. It wouldn't be a big deal because my sister and I record every show that we watch with her DVR. Today something awful happened. The DVR was recording but the cable box timer was somehow not on. It was awful. In my sad, sad, TV obsessed world. Luckily, there is something awesome called timeshifting. So we are now taping it at midnight on the Global station from Vancouver. We only have time shifting channels from Canadian stations so we get multiples of A Channel, CityTV, Global, CBC, and CTV and maybe a few more. Unfortunately, because we are in the East, all of our time shifts move the shows to later times. When I was in Saskatchewan, we got the shows earlier and later. So that was pretty cool.

Freeze Ray. Stops time. Tell your friends.

In July, the web series Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog was released. It was and continues to be awesome. It was made by Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and the upcoming Dollhouse) and several members of his family as well as some of his friends. It stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible who wants to get into the Evil League of Evil and win the heart of Penny (Felicia Day) who he knows from the laundromat. His main obstacle for both of those goals is the oafish Captain Hammer played by Nathan Fillion. Today, the DVD arrived. I want to call it mine but it is actually my sister's so that wouldn't entirely be accurate. One of my favourite things about the DVD is that one of the commentaries is Commentary: The Musical. It was rather amusing. I think to accurately detail why I like Dr. Horrible, I will have to rely on another list:

• Neil Patrick Harris (I have mentioned that I think he is awesome before, haven't I? If not, I am rectifying the omission now.)
• Nathan Fillion is brilliant as the oafish Captain Hammer (Corporate Tool).
• The songs are darned catchy (I will be surprised if I ever get the Bad Horse songs out of my head)
• It has lines that I wish there were more cause to use in normal life such as "Look at my wrist, I gotta go," "What a crazy random happenstance," and "You give my regards to St. Peter. Or whoever has his job, but in Hell."
• Spoiler alert: Bad Horse is actually a horse
• The ending has a vastly different tone from the rest in that it's kinda depressing, but in a totally expected, Joss Whedon sort of way
• Some the lines are not all that funny in writing, but the way the actors say them, they are hilarious. ("Captain Hammer threw a car at my head" (Actually that one is still amusing in writing) and "That's not a good sound")
• Two more of my favourite quotes:
  1. "It's not about making money, it's about taking money. Destroying the status quo. Because the status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just...need to rule it."
  2. " Alright. The wait is over. This, my friends, is my Freeze Ray, which, with the addition of the wonderflonium I obtained at my famously successful heist last week... I say successful in that I achieved my objective. It was less successful in that I inadvertently introduced my arch-nemesis to the girl of my dreams, and now he's taking her out on dates, and they're probably going to...French kiss or something...! She called him sweet? How is he sweet? [long pause] Right, Freeze Ray"
• The fact that Captain Hammer possesses and dry cleans sweater vests

I believe you can still get Dr. Horrible on iTunes and you can get the DVD through Amazon. This blog definitely does not do justice to the show but it is definitely today's favourite thing. I was very excited when I saw that it had arrived. Sad statement about my life, but there you go.

More TV

I don't watch a lot of TV on Tuesdays because, well, nothing really interests me. The one show I do watch is the Mercer Report. It is similar to the Daily Show and the Colbert Report but it deals with Canadian issues. That show is probably why I know anything at all about Canadian politics. Each show follows pretty much the same format. Introduction, Him doing something with a Canadian politian or celebrity, a commercial parody, The Front Page (where he shows pictures from the newspaper and makes fake captions for them), another segment of him off doing something somewhere in Canada, another commercial parody, the infamous RANT, and finally, the closing where he plugs his website, photo caption contest and Spread the Net campaign. I may have a few of those things out of order, but that's the basic gist of the show. That show is definitely the highlight of Tuesday TV for me.

Cooking by not actually cooking

I like to bake. Cookies, cakes, bread, etc. It's all good. I am not however a huge fan of cooking. When I lived on my own last year, meals consisted of either pasta or something from Subway, Pita Pit, Panera or any number of different places. So yeah, not into cooking. Since I moved in with my sister, I have been doing more cooking than I have done in a long time. Usually about one big meal a week. Usually, it's something that I put in the slow cooker. I love using the slow cooker. You put the stuff in it. Turn it on. Go away. Come back 5-10 hours later et Voila!!!! Dinner is served. Or ready, because you actually have to physically put it on your plate on your own. Thing about slow cookers is that you have to leave the requisite amount of time because as the name implies, it cooks stuff slowly. I have a bad habit of not leaving quite enough time so the fast setting on it works awesomely. It basically cooks stuff twice as fast as it does on slow (which for a 10 hour stew, is still 5 hours. "Fast" is relative). So for today, my favourite thing is the slow cooker. Woohoo!

Mwa ha ha ha!

My evil, evil sister has this ability to get me hooked on to various things. Many of the things that I enjoy, particularily of the TV variety, it is because she is the one that said you should watch this. And I do. And I pretty much get hooked. It's happened with the Office, Bones, Buffy and to a lesser extent Angel. Yesterday she taught me a solitaire game that I had a difficult time not playing today. So when I know that I have gotten her interested in a particular show it makes me happy. The shows that I started getting her to watch have been Big Bang Theory, Chuck and 30 Rock. Knowing that I am the reason that she watches those shows makes me quite happy and I feel that is justifiable payback for all of the shows she's hooked me on over the years. So today's favourite thing is getting my sister interested in stuff and then not telling her how it ends.

Wicked through and through

Today, I spent much the day in the car. I really only tend to listen to the radio/ CD's while I am in the car because it is the only time I really am able to listen without many distractions. The CD that is currently in the car is the Wicked soundtrack. I have never seen the musical, but my sister has, hence the soundtrack. The show does have some catchy songs that get stuck in your head. Incessantly. I don't listen to every song on the CD but some of them are catchy. I especially like "What is this feeling?" which is a very upbeat song for two people telling each other how much they hate each other. I also the songs "Popular" and "For good." I tend to sing along with most of the songs even though I don't know half of the words. I wouldn't mind actually seeing the musical sometime because it seems interesting and I feel odd knowing many of the words to a musical I've never seen. I probably don't know as many of the words to musicals that I HAVE seen. So anyway, today's favourite thing is the WICKED soundtrack.

It's freeeeeeeeeeeee!

Today I went to the doctor for the first time in forever. I needed a new prescription so off I went. I went to the clinic where once you're in their computer system, all you do is swipe your Ontario healthcare card to sign in. I actually had to register at the desk because I had never been to that chain of clinics before. What was also interesting was that the doctor wrote everything down on a computer and then hooked it up to the printer to print out the prescription from, etc. It was pretty cool. But the point of this post was that going to the doctor was free. So that was cool. I tried going to one of those clinics before Christmas, but my Ontario healthcare card was not in effect yet so I would have had to pay $68. It wasn't urgent so I just left it. When I was living in the states, the thought of going to the doctor made me nervous because of the whole insurance thing. I knew I was insured through the school but I hadn't received one of the insurance cards so I wasn't sure how it worked. Also, the school clinic was closed during the summer so I would have had to go somewhere else. I definitely like living somewhere that you are pretty much automatically covered for basic medical needs through the province or whatever. It makes life less worrisome. So today's favourite thing is free medical care.

And confirmed by Wikipedia

As the title suggeests, today's favourite thing is Wikipedia. To quote Mr. Michael Scott of Dunder Mifflin, "WIkipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So you know that you're getting the best possible information." While the validity of that statement is questionable, I really like using Wikipedia to find info or confirm something. It may not be the most reliable tool ever but I have, thus far, found it to be quite accurate. Today, I used it to confirm the different between the accent grave and the accent acute in French. I began a French class today (my first in around 6 years) and my teacher interchanged them. Rather than questioning my own knowledge, I came home and looked it up on Wikipedia. I was right. So yay me!

"There is no step two."

As I mentioned on Monday, I love pumpkin muffins. Something tragic happened though. We ran out. I guess that's what happens when you make numerous treks from the computer/sofa to the pumpkin storage recepticle in order to eat them. They disappear. And then your sister asks how many are left and you blush and stammer "One" because you thought this through and didn't want to eat alllllll of them. To make a long story....less long, today I made more pumpkin muffins. They were okay, they could have been better but I didn't follow the recipe exactly so they had a hint of dryness to them. And the awesome part was that I just put the dishes in the dishwasher and didn't actually have to actually do them by hand. Plus, my sister got some entertainment value from the process of loading the dishwasher by mocking me, so win-win (?). So my favourite thing of the day is having a dishwasher that does your dirty work for you.

I'm the wiiiiiiiiinner!!!

This past fall, the gym I go to was having a promotion where every time you went to a group exercise class, you would get an initial on a card. After you filled up two cards (50 initials), you could hand the cards in and be entered for a draw for a water bottle (After one card, you received a key tag. More excited about the water bottle). Today, I found out that I won a water bottle. So yay me! I haven't gone to retrieve the water bottle yet but it is pretty awesome anyway. Hopefully, I will make it there at some point this week. The bus strike is really a drag. Although when it's over, I can no longer use it as an excuse to not go to the gym. Sigh.

Even if they don't have chocolate chips.

Today's post is food related once again. I was having trouble coming up with something after a day full of laundry-doing, clothes-moving, table-building and general "productivity". Then my sister handed me a pumpkin muffin. All my worries disappeared about a blog entry disappeared. The muffin was quite enjoyable and it made me happy, so what more can you want? About four more actually. I also like the pumpkin muffins that contain chocolate chips (which these did not but I won't hold that against them). And yes, Colette, there are still some left (depending on what time you are reading this).

You're giving me my old sheets?

Today was a pretty lazy day for me. I have a bit of a cold so I basically just hundled under a blanket on the couch and had a nap. Or four. I used the quilt my mom gave me for Christmas. It is really nice and big. On one side is a set of sheets that I used a few years ago. The quilting squares are made of some of my old souvenir T-Shirts (as well as some random T-shirts that belonged to some of my sisters). It was fun to look at the quilt and see just which shirts she used. Some of them were from my time in Katimavik, some were my various muppet shirts and some were old Guiding shirts. She also put the shirt from a certain legendary concert that I was way too excited to go to. The quilt itself is very warm and covered me up nicely. I didn't have to rearrange it at all due to lack of foot or body coverage. So today's favourite thing is the quilt my mom made and gave me for Christmas.

3 of a kind, 7 of a run

Today, my sister and I played Big Bertha. It's an enjoyable card game that uses 2 decks of cards. Basically, each person is dealt 11 cards and have a series of combinations of cards you have to get before you can move on to the next level. The combinations are as follows (K = of a kind, R = a run of the same suit):

1. 3K, 3K
2. 3K, 4R
3. 4K, 4K
4. 4R, 4R
5. 4K, 4R
6. 3K, 3K, 3K
7. 3K, 7R
8. 10R

. It's possible that stages 4 and 5 are in fact the other way around, but I play it the way that I stated. There are wild cards which are 2's and Jokers. The goal for each hand is to complete the combination and get rid of all the cards in your hand first. The lower your score is the better. The first person to complete 10R (or Big Bertha) wins. If more than one person achieves Big Bertha in the same turn, the one with the lower score wins. The scoring is as follows: values 3-9 count as face value, 10-K are scored as 10, Aces are 15, and wild cards are a whole lot (don't remember). If you don't achieve the combination before another player gets rid of all their cards, you count 100 and have to try for that combination again. These instructions seem rather vague but I don't feel like completely going into the rules right now. I think one of the reasons I like the game so much lately is that the last few games I played, I won. So woohoo!

“Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness"

In August or September, my sister went apple picking and came home with a whole bunch of apples. We originally made about 4 apple pies and managed to eat those in a relatively short period of time. We made four more a while later and ate one and froze the rest. Today we had one of the pies. SO GOOD. I especially liked the pie because the apple pieces were nice and big and chunky. So today's favourite thing was definitely apple pie. This is actually the fourth day in a row that I have had pie of many different varieties* but the pie-y goodness was eclipsed by something else that happened that day. Today, pie is my favourite thing. Not saying that nothing else today was great, the pie was just that good.

_____________________________________________________________
*Tuesday - pear, Wednesday - Lemon and Strawberry, Thursday - Rhubarb

"I'm not asleep... but that doesn't mean I'm awake"

Today was a travel day for me. I came back to Ottawa after spending Christmas and New Year's Eve with my family in Saskatchewan. Because the traveling time was shorter, we decided to take the flight that left at 7AM. This meant that we had to get to the airport at least an hour in advance. We got there two hours in advance because our airline called us to tell us to get there a bit early due to higher traffic and they didn't want us to miss our flight because of delays at security. So this meant that we had to leave for the airport at 4:30AM. After New Year's Eve. I suppose I could have went to bed before midnight but I probably wouldn't have gotten to sleep right away anyway. Occasionally, I don't get to bed til around 4 anyway so I was considering just staying up all night, but I decided that that is usually an option when you can actually sleep in the next morning and I hate sleeping on planes. So I decided to go to bed, but I should have made that decision about 2 hours before I actually got there because I went to sleep at 2:30. I had to be up at four. Needless to say I was basically a zombie all morning. I got some sleep in the (what felt like hours) we were on the plane before takeoff on the flight from Winnipeg but other than that not a whole lot of sleep was had. So this afternoon, after I ate and showered, I had a much needed 3 hour nap this afternoon/ evening. I definitely feel better but could still use about three years more. I am hoping that I can still get some sleep tonight. I think that I do enjoy spending 5 hours travelling as opposed to 10 even if I have to wake up at Why-the-Heck-am-I-awake? o'clock but next time I will attempt to get more sleep before hand.