Earlier than usual....

Last night, in what I am presuming was a fit of insanity, I agreed to work from 8am -4pm even though I had worked until 4:30 am when I was there to clean Monday night. I was worried I wouldn't wake up on time but luckily I woke up and was there earlier than I had been anywhere in months. It was interesting doing an 8 to 4 shift because it's very busy with both the breakfast and lunch rushes. I was also working with people I don't normally work with. It was definitely a nice change of pace. I also liked being home at 4 pm and having the rest of the night to myself. So today's favourite thing was working the day shift for a change.

Lofty art-ness....

Today, I had lunch once again with my flamenco teacher from Saskatchewan but this time she brought her husband along. After an enjoyable lunch (amazingly enough, at the same place we ate at last time) we went to this gallery where they were displaying artwork done by animals. They had paintings done by chimps, elephants, turtles, dogs and probably a few more different types of animals. I definitely enjoyed the paintings by the elephants and turtle. One of the paintings by the elephant even looked like a tree branch with leaves on it. So today's favourite thing is seeing artwork done by animals.

It's a miracle!!

Tonight, I was called in to work to help clean. I got in at about 9 and got straight to work. I ended up in the stock room with the moveable shelves. After rearranging it and attempting to make everything fit, I started to mop. Just the mopping would have been easy, unfortunately, over time stuff tends to build up in the tracks that the shelves move and it fell to me to clean them out. Not the funnest (I have decided that's a word) job in the world. Four hours later, that job was done. I then started wiping down the outside of the shelves with a stainless steel cleaner. This required me to use a ladder. Unfortunately, there was an incident with the ladder where I fell off of it. I was uninjured and I managed to catch the stainless steel cleaner and the paper towels. Unfortunately, the ladder ended up being bent all to heck. I felt bad about breaking the ladder but was glad that it hadn't turned out worse. So today's favourite thing is not being injured when it seemed likely that I would be.

"Hotter than the real world me by far"

Today I found this music video tie in to the web series "The Guild" that I wrote about a few months ago. Here it is:

I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's an amusing song and the video really entertains me. It was directed by Zach Whedon of "Dr. Horrible" fame. SO today's favorite things is the song and video of "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?".

Change of pace

Tonight was, I believe, the first time I had ever worked an entire overnight shift on a Sunday night with the regular overnight manager. It was a nice change from the typical Friday/ Saturday overnight that I normally work. It was a lot slower that I am used to but it allowed me to actually get work done. Everybody I was working with really seemed to know what they were doing and what they needed to do and it just went so smoothly. It was a nice change from the busyness and general chaos of the weekend overnights. So today's favourite thing was working a non- weekend overnight.

Maybe this isn't the best thing to be thankful for but....

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I go to church regularly. I feel awful and almost sacriligeous but it's always nice when mass gets out early. Growing up, mass was always an hour long service maybe a bit longer - it seemed like forever. We got a priest at my church back home that didn't believe that mass should be longer than 50 minutes. That was pretty cool. The masses here aren't too bad - they don't tend to be longer than 45 -50 minutes. Today's mass though was especially short. I don't think it lasted more than 35 minutes. It was amazing. While I feel quite bad about it, today's favourite thing is short masses.

Picking up where I left off....

Two years ago, when I was going to school in Boston, one of the clinical supervisors held a knitting class every Wednesday night which I quite enjoyed. I had tried knitting when I was younger but I never really got the hang of it then. The knitting class really helped me relearn and I even learned how to pearl. Anyway, knitting also got me back interested in crocheting which I have done probably since I was ten or so. I bought wool and a plastic crotchet hook and got to work making the hot pad type thing I learned how to make from my aunt many years ago.

The ball of wool I had also had the instructions for a baby blanket, so I started making that. Not long after, I found out that one of my cousins was pregnant. Perfect. At one point in the process, I squeezed the crochet hook so hard it bent right half and broke, so I had to go buy another hook (metal this time) along with some more wool for the blanket. I promptly got bored crocheting and let it be.

The other day, I found the half - made (more like 1/4 made) blanket, the wool (with the all -important instructions) and the hook and got back to work. It will probably be a rather small blanket because I don't have nearly enough wool and there is no way in he..ck that I am going to find the same type of wool let alone from the same dye lot...but that is okay. A small blanket is okay - it is for a baby after all. In other news, the baby I had thought to make the blanket for is now a year and a half old...so I probably won't be giving it to him. I know a couple other people who are pregnant now though so there is somewhere for it to go.....provided it doesn't take me another two years to finish. Anyway, today's favourite thing is crocheting.

Inneresting.......

Last March, I started watching "Dollhouse". While it wasn't my absolute favourite show, I found it quite interesting. When I heard that one episode would only be on the DVD, I was kinda disappointed because I didn't like the show THAT much. When I heard it was on iTunes, I was quite happy and decided to get it. I really enjoyed the episode. It was set in the future and had an apocalyptic air to it (Someone really needs to have a chat with Joss Whedon - all of his shows deal with an apocalypse of some sort. Buffy had an apocalypse once or twice a season...at least). So anyway today's favourite thing is the Dollhouse episode "Epitaph One".

Oddly exciting while also kinda gross....

Today, I had an appointment with the otolaryngologist or for people who use normal language - the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. Back in January, I had an ultrasound done on my thyroid and this was a follow up appointment. While I was waiting for the appointment in the examination room, I was looking at all the posters of the ears on the wall which completely reminded me of my time at school studying to be an SLP. If that wasn't enough, the doctor decided he had to look at my vocal cords so he stuck a camera down my nose. While it wasn't exactly comfortable in any sense of the word, I was oddly excited because while I was in school I kept hearing about that test. It was cool to actually have it performed on me. Having said that, if I never have it done on my again, I would be quite happy. So today's favourite thing is experiencing something I had only ever heard about before.

"It's like having eyes everywhere, but not in a bad way, like that time we spilled that container full of eyes."

So tonight was the actual season finale of "Better off Ted". I have mentioned previously that I love the fake commercials that air during each episode but other than that, it's just a really funny show. It's like "The Office" in a way, but while "The Office" seems to believe that deep down every one is a good person, "Better Off Ted" almost comes from the opposite point of view. Many of the people on the show are not very good people, but some how they are all quite funny all the same. I am looking forward to the new season.

"If I could give myself a quizzical look right now, I would..."

A few days ago, I mentioned the website "Give Me My Remote" and how it had a tendency to hook me on new shows. It struck again. Kath (the girl who runs the site, I guess) was having "Greek week" in honour of the TV show "Greek". One day, she had a post with a bunch of quotes from the show and a video. Here is the video:

After watching the video, I have to admit I was intrigued. So I watched one episode, and then another. Five episodes later, I was admittedly hooked. Most of it had to do with Cappie but I am sure there are other reasons as well. So today's favourite thing is the TV show "Greek".

Up and Away...

Today, Colette and I finally went to see the movie "UP". I really enjoyed it. We had originally planned to see it with my niece when she came to visit but events transpired in such a way that it didn't actually work out that way. I loved the opening montage between the old man and his wife. I think that is the only time I have ever cried during a kid's animated movie (that I recall anyway - there may have been others). I was so glad that the movie lived up to the hype. So today's favourite thing is the movie "UP".

Vroom....

Apparently part of the deal that comes with me living with my sister is doing the yard work. Today I used the motorized hedge trimmer on some of the bushes in my sister's yard. She says that I am better at it than she is, I think its just a ploy to get me to do it all. It is rather fun once you get going and being able to see the difference between what you've done and what it was like before is pretty cool. It's that getting started part that is hard. Anyway, today's favourite thing is using the motorized hedge trimmer.

All about the music....

I am a bit behind the times when it comes to buying music. Most of the music I have on my MP3 player came from CD's that I have. I don't really buy it online. Until today. I finally went on iTunes to find music. Mostly because it was from some cool routines from "So You Think You Can Dance" and didn't know where else to find it. I have decided that I actually like iTunes and may be more inclined to use it in the future. So yay!

Do a little dance...

Tonight was the season finale of "So You Think You Can Dance". To honour the occasion, I thought I would post my favourite dances from this past season (mostly because this is the only season I actually watched). So today's favourite things are the following dances from SYTYCD Season 5:

• Kayla and Kupono - Addiction: She is an addict, he is the addiction. Choreographed by Mia Michaels.


• Brandon and Jeanette - Ruby Blue. Choreographed by Wade Robson.
• Jeanine and Jason - If It Kills Me. Choreographed by Travis Wahl.
• Randy and Evan - The Butt Dance. Choreographed by Mia Michaels.
• Jason and Kayla - The Zombie dance. I have posted about it on my blog before you can find it here.

There are probably a bunch more but those are the routines that really stick out in my mind as being my absolute favourites.

Something that appeals to the TV addict in me...

Way back, when I first got into "The Office", I started visiting a website called "Give Me My Remote". I really enjoy it. It has got me into a bunch of shows that I may have never watched without it. The recaps amuse me and the writer has access to a lot of background info that really interests me. One of the things that she does is a podcast with another TV blogger from "Ducky Does TV". I had listened to one of their podcasts last year but that was pretty much it. They then started podcasting regularly this past season of "So You Think You Can Dance" which I tended to listen to more regularly. I enjoyed hearing what they thought of the particular dances. I also started to listen to their regular podcasts particularly if they were going to be talking about "True Blood". So today's favourite thing is the "TV Talk Podcast with GMMR and Ducky".

Bye-bye Bella!!!!

Today, my mom and my niece went home. It was nice having them visit but in some ways I was nice to have the house back to myself (oh, with Colette too of course). We dropped Bella and mom off at the airport quite early this morning. On the way home from the airport, I received a phone call from Bella saying that she missed me already. It was very sweet. I miss her already too. So today's favourite thing is how sweet my niece is (and knowing that I am one of her favourite aunties).

Downtown, everyone's going there.....

Today, we went downtown. Because it was a holiday, we didn't have to pay for parking so that was nice. The Busker festival was going on so we got to see some street performers. I nearly got a Henna Tattoo but didn't feel like waiting in line. We ended up walking over by the parliament buildings. We didnt' go on a tour because they were mostly sold out for the day but we got to see some of the architecture and statues that were around the buildings. I learned that my niece doesn't want her cousin to become Prime Minister because she would have to move to Ottawa and Bella would have to take a plane to see her. Shucks....Anyway, today's favourite thing is sightseeing (even though I have seen many of the sights before).

Chit-chat!!

Today, at work, I really managed to hurt my hand. I made a bit of a fuss about it when I got home and managed to wake up 2/3 of the house. My mom sat with me while I iced my hand and we had a good talk. It was nice to chat with her one on one while she was here rather than over the phone. So today's favourite thing is talking with my mom.

Sleepover!

My niece wanted to have a sleep over in my room before she leaves so we decided to have one tonight. It was quite interesting even though we never got to the sleep part before she decided to go upstairs to sleep with Grandma. I learned that her mommy supposedly has a crush on the guy that sold them their dog (and the Jonas Brothers!). I also learned who Bella has a crush on (Bella calls them her Loveboys). I am not supposed to tell anyone else because I crossed my heart that I wouldn't. It was nice to hear what Bella had to say and see how she views the world. So today's favourite thing is talking with my niece.