Close call!

So, I almost died today, but Colette saved my life. Actually, I might be over-exaggerating a little, since I'm not 100% sure what would have happened if I didn't run when she told me to, but death may have been a possibility.

It started out like any other seemingly innocent ride on the moving ramp to get from the street level to the food court so I could pick up some lunch. Colette got on first and turned to face me so we could continue our conversation. Some dude with a dolly piled up high with boxes - presumably on his way to make a delivery - got on after me. This proved to be an egregious mistake. I guess his load was a little heavier than he had thought or gravity more powerful than he had anticipated. Whatever the reason, the dolly began to roll down the ramp out of his control. At first, Colette just told me to "be careful", but then her eyes started to widen more and more until she finally just said, "Run!" As soon as she said that, I heard someone behind me yelling, "Excuse me," but I didn't take the time to look and see why. We ran down to the end of the escalator and a few seconds later, the dude and the boxes came tumbling down, eventually piling up at the bottom of the ramp.

We just kinda stood there, a little stunned, watching the guy gingerly pick himself up, while people on the ramp helped gather up the boxes while walking backwards to avoid the pile-up. In retrospect, I guess I should have asked him if he was okay, or if he needed help, but we just walked away in a daze and continued on our way to lunch. While we were eating, though, I saw him walk by with an empty dolly, so I assume that he made the delivery afterall.

I don't think I would have died, but Colette is pretty sure he would have taken me down with him if we didn't run, and some of those boxes looked pretty heavy. It was probably scarier for her because she saw the pile of boxes barreling down towards me - all I did was react, without really knowing why. It kinda felt like a video game, or a little Indiana Jones-ish, and it was fun to have a little excitement at lunch, but I think I'm going to pack my lunch tomorrow...

Abandoned!

So, I just found out from my sister that my parents went to Delaware to celebrate my dad's cousin's (does that mean my second cousin??) 80th birthday without even letting me know! Granted, I'm not the best daughter around, and I don't talk to them that often, but you would think that if your parents are going on a vacation they'd at LEAST have the courtesy of letting their youngest child in on the plans! This is not the first time it's happened either. My favourite was this phone call from my dad:

Dad: Hi, Kathryn. It's dad.
Me: Hey, dad. How's it going?
Dad: Good.
Me: What are you doing?
Dad: What I'm doing? Mommy and I are in Philadelphia.
Me: WHHHAAAAAAAA????? For how long?
Dad: Uhh, maybe we come back next week...maybe two weeks. I don't know.

I guess it's nice that they can just pick up and go like that. Maybe I'm just jealous...although, Delaware is not my ideal vacation spot. I'd be more annoyed if they called from San Francisco, or Alaska, or Peru.

I forgot - Zoë can walk! Apparently, she took some mini-steps last week, and then decided to start walking for real when my parents came by to babysit. I'll have to check out her new tricks this weekend. She also kinda says "cat" which is only one short syllable away from "Kathryn"!!

I had to! It was an eeMEERgency!!

I had to evacuate my building yesterday! But, of course, it was a false alarm. Still, even though I knew it wouldn't amount to anything, I trekked down the many flights of stairs at midnight into the rain, just to escape the piercing wail - and I was in the middle of a poker tournament! Grrrr. I can handle the smoke alarm and its annoying little beeps, but the fire alarm is CRAZY LOUD and right inside my little apartment, and usually when there's a false alarm someone comes onto the intercom to tell us so, but this time they just let it ring and ring and ring...

Three fire trucks and the fire van showed up eventually, sirens blaring, and after poking around a little, they deemed it a false alarm and let us go back in. There weren't that many people who evacuated - lots just looking down from their balconies - so, at least it didn't take too long to wait for the ONE working elevator to get back to my game. I ended up in 5th place, which is probably better than I would have done if I stayed and played!

Still not any closer to that trip to Australia, though...

Yes...I pinch.

In fact, I'm a pincher extraordinaire! According to Tania's mom, I'm a "Pinching Queen". Oh, this might sound kinda disturbing to people who don't know that I spent Sunday on Tania's farm making perogies. My job, aside from grating cheese, and peeling potatoes, involves the stuffing and pinching of the dough. I fully understand the "factory line" method of stuffing/pinching, having been part of many mandoo (Korean dumpling) lines in my lifetime. Tania, Mrs. A, Baba and I were in charge of pinching, while Mr. A rolled out the dough. It's a long process, and the A's only know how to do things in bulk, so we spent about 3 1/2 hours making 650, or so, perogies. The time passes quickly with a tv in the kitchen, though, and we made our perogies while watching You, Me and Dupree and Kicking and Screaming (Will Ferrell...not Noah Baumbach). The best part about perogie weekend is, of course, the taste test, and the A's make the best perogies I have ever tasted! I'm sure it has everything to do with they way they are stuffed and pinched. :P

OMG - I just looked up Noah Baumbach and found out that he co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Wes Anderson! I love Noah Baumbach AND Wes Anderson! I'm also looking forward to Margot at the Wedding which has Jack Black, so I think I might like it.

Also, I saw another dead squirrel on my way to work. That makes about 6 dead squirrels and one dead pigeon in less than a year on my 10 minute walk to work. It's kinda creepy. Some of the squirrels aren't even roadkill - two of them were lying flat on their bellies with their arms and legs sticking straight out...sorta like Superman. This leads me to believe that they ate some hallucinogenic peanuts that made them think they could fly. Poor things never had a chance...

Bad things come in threes...

I feel like a sitting duck. I'm just waiting for something bad to happen to me...more specifically, to my foot.

My boss is back, and she's doing well - just a little hobbly - but, now Kristina is limping, too! I'm not entirely sure what the nature of the injury is, even though she described it to me (in disturbingly graphic detail), but it's got something to do with dancing and her big toe. I think the heel of her tango shoe somehow ended up between her toes, causing an unbearable hangnail. Eeeewwwwww! (Sorry, Kristina!!!)

So, I figure it's just a matter of time before I stub my toe, or roll over on my ankle, which would be horrible since, the last time I rolled my ankle, I discovered that the hairline fracture I sustained in 1992 never fully healed. I will try to control my own destiny by double-knotting my shoelaces, but beyond that, I'm not sure what else I can do. I'm open to suggestions, though.

Wish me luck!

Back to the grind!

So, I apparently do not blog on weekends. Who knew?

Saturday was Zoë's first birthday party. It's a little sad when your one-year old niece has more friends than you, but she's so dang cute, it isn't any wonder that she's also very popular. Myles and I got her a fun Laugh 'n Learn toy that should help her learn to walk, and then it turns into a little push bike that she can ride when she's big enough. This is her having good times with the toy...also, she has crazy hair that her parents have dubbed, "Zo-hawk"!



I was craving chili last night, so I ran to the grocery store to get all the ingredients to fulfill my chili needs. The problem was, I don't really know how to make chili, even though I've made it before. I can only cook if I have a recipe and I forgot to look one up before going shopping. I think I did alright, though: ground beef, red pepper, onion, kidney beans (although I bought the wrong kind - I saw the word "chili-style" and grabbed it, but apparently it means "baked beans with chili"...I used it anyway. Whatever.), corn, and mushrooms (MUSHROOMS??? WTF??? I used them, too, because I didn't want a pack of mushrooms to rot away in my fridge). I also bought chili peppers which the cashier mistook for green beans so they cost me all of THREE CENTS!

Anyway, the chili turned out okay, but there's SO MUCH of it! I have no idea how to cook for one...or even two! Now I'm going to be stuck with this chili for the next week. And to top it all off, I forgot to pack some for lunch. Luckily, there was a United Way fund-raiser at work where a bunch of people brought in food from around the world. I really just wanted my lunch to be from Mexico, but that was my own damn fault. The United Way food was okay, but the real consolation was the German chocolate mud pie, or whatever the hell it was. All I know is that it was TASTY!

I'm impressed (and a little embarrassed) that I can blog ad nauseam about chili...it's a gift AND a curse.

Check out this crazy spider! Its butt is so happy!!!

*yawn...streeeettttccccchh*

I do not want to be at work, but here I am. At least it's Friday...and apparently Diwali! A co-worker brought in some Indian treats, so that was nice...and gooey. I'm not sure what it was that I ate, but it was a big, round ball of syrupy goo. It was pretty tasty, though. I also got a Lifesaver lollipop, but for some reason, they don't make them lifesaver-shaped anymore. By that I mean there is no hole in the middle. Can you really call it a Lifesaver if there's no hole? I mean, their big ad campaign was "there's only one candy with a hole in the middle" (tweet, tweet, twiddle, twiddle...remember that commercial??)! A lifesaver with no hole isn't much of a lifesaver, if you ask me...I'm imagining people drowning because they're thrown a lifesaver with no hole that's too awkward to grab onto. (Nerdy aside: lifesavers became more widely used after the Titanic disaster...I wiki'd that shit, so it's gotta be true.)

Anyway, this red lollipop doesn't even taste like a red Lifesaver! Wrigley's, you've really dropped the ball on this one. I'm insulted and annoyed, but I'm going to finish the lollipop anyway because I have a sugar craving and I'm too cheap and lazy to go upstairs to the convenience store.

Yay! My co-worker, Kristina, agrees with me on this whole lollipop business and she brought to my attention that the "red" lollipop is actually ORANGE!!! I swear, it looked red, but not like a red lifesaver. She insists that Finland knows what's what when it comes to flavours: orange = mango; yellow = pineapple; and green = pear. What's with orange, lemon and lime in North America? It's just 'pick your boring-ass citrus flavour'...hmmph.

Weekend, please come save me. I see many naps in my future.
 

I'm blogging! I blog! I'm a blogger!

Woohoo! I'm two for two! This blogging thing is a piece of cake! But, like most things I get into, I'll be all gung-ho for the first little while, but my enthusiasm will eventually wane until this blog becomes another lost page floating by the side of the information superhighway, collecting virtual nanodust. Oh well. That's the future and this is today, and I have something to say.

So, I'm trying my darndest to win a trip to Australia using my stellar (*sarcasm alert*) poker skills. It's such a long shot - you gotta win a satellite tournament to qualify for the second round. Then you gotta finish top 9 to make it to the giveaway tournament, where you gotta come in top 2 to win a trip to sunny Australia! One step at a time, though, so I play a LOT of round 1 satellites. Last night I came the closest ever to advancing: third place!!! But, it was such a dirty way to get knocked out. Poker gods hate me and like to toy with my emotions. There I was, short-stack in the top 3 (but only by a little) staring at my POCKET KINGS! Woohoo! I push all-in, get called by the dude with a teeny bit more money than me, and get slapped in the face with ACES! BOOOOOO! Needless to say, I lost.

Sorry for the poker story, but get used to it. I lead a pretty mundane life, and bad-beat poker stories make me happy...as long as I'M the one telling them. :P

I guess I could tell you about the comic book I read last night, but comic reviews are best left to my boyfriend. A review by me would just be, "it had pretty pictures and I like the way the dude with the green skin and purple cape exploded red-mask-face chick's brains out..."

Also, it's Zoë's first birthday! That's my niece, if any of you care, which you should because she's the cutest baby this side of the Mississippi! I don't even know what side of the Mississippi we're on - geography is not my strong suit. Does it run east/west or north/south? THAT'S how stupid I am...but I will guess that it cuts through America vertically (my reasoning being mostly based on gravity) and that there are no cuter babies to the east of it than Zoë.

And so it begins..

My shoulder hurts. I know that doesn't make for an interesting first blog, but that's where I'm at right now. I can't think of anything to write because I have this chronic pain in my shoulder. Today, I cleaned up my desk area so that I could move my chair back from my desk in order to pull my keyboard tray further out and up. Hopefully, this will allow me to make better use of my ergonomic keyboard and relieve some of the pain. So far - nothing. My fancy little magnetic bracelet that my daddy got for me seems to be losing some of its effectiveness, too...or maybe the pain is too much for it to handle. That's a lot of pressure for one little bracelet. I should cut it some slack.

This morning, my boss slipped in some vomit outside the subway station and sprained her ankle pretty badly. I wasn't there to witness any of the ensuing madness, but I hear she made it into a cab and will be gone for the rest of the day. If I had a really mean, annoying boss, I would think that karma was rearing its vengeful head, but my boss is the super-bestest and she doesn't deserve to fall in puke and hurt herself. I hope it's not too serious and that she recovers quickly.

On a completely different note, this is the coolest USB pen in the world...THE WORLD: http://www.radioheadstore.com/stick.asp