New leaf = TURNED

In a feeble attempt to revive this sorry excuse for a blog, I'm going to take my sister's advice and try to write a 'lil something about the random nerdy shit I get up to every week. Well, not ALL of it is nerdy, but they are most certainly random. This week: random British drama.

Married Single Other


I had no idea what this show was, so I looked it up: Dawn from the Office (UK), Tully from Being Human, and Jo from Spooks??!?! Those are three of my favourite British shows!!! Done and done. Married Single Other is about three couples who are, well, married, single or 'other'. Lillie and Eddie are high school sweethearts who have been together for a bazillion years, have two sons, but are not married (not from Eddie's lack of trying, though). Dickie and Babs are married, but not happily. They're plagued with money problems, and Dickie is a bit of  - actually, a lot of - a loser. Clint, an unlikely playboy (well, would YOU think this guy gets all the ladies??) has a one night stand with Abbey, falls in love, but can't win her over...something about him being a bit of a sleazeball.

It's not the most amazing show ever made, but it's very well written, very well acted, and there is something very beautiful about the way it's filmed (I'm thinking of Joe, Lillie and Eddie's youngest son, writing out pi to a whole whack-load of decimal places to keep his mind off of other, more serious and dire things happening around him). I actually think that this is where the show really succeeds - its drama is dramatic, its comedy is comedic, and the reality that it's trying to create actually feels pretty real. I one hundred percent believe that Lillie and Eddie are as much in love now, as they were when they first started dating sixteen (or however many) years ago, and that Clint really does want to change his slimy ways because he's actually in love for the first time. And I believe that Babs wants to find a reason to stay with Dickie, and Dickie can't help but be a pathetic failure.

I dunno...maybe I'm just a closet hopeless romantic. I have no idea if I should be recommending it to people. All I know is that I enjoy it quite a bit, and it's probably only going to be 6 episodes, which I both love and hate about British television.

Oh, there's one other cool thing I like about this show: the theme song. It's called Find My Way Back Home, by Priscilla Ahn (she's a fiddy Korean!!), and it's almost too pretty. Her sugary sweet voice, the uber-folky ukulele, and the eerie singing saw somehow work. I'm inclined to check out more of her stuff (so far, I've listened to her cover of The Beatles' Julia and it's pretty awesome, too).

Lis and Craig's Wintry Nuptials

YAY! Lis and Craig are married!!! And no one was eaten by a bear (take THAT, Jeremy!!!!)!!

The ceremony (as odd as this may sound for a January wedding) was held lakeside just south of Algonquin Park on Oxtongue Lake near Dwight, ON. As Office (US) fans, Sandra and I couldn't help but laugh every time we saw a sign that said "Dwight"...I think Myles would have laughed, too, but he was sleeping in the back.

It was a beautiful ceremony - very initmate with only family and some close friends - and the weather even cooperated! Sandra, Myles and I had to pull over in Barrie to let the white-out pass by, which ended up being a great decision because as we got back on the 400, an accident was just clearing up. I was concerned that the crazy storm would last until the next day, and we'd be forced to stand like a bunch of chumps in knee-deep snow freezing our buns off! But, somehow, things worked out: the skies opened up, the sun came out and we were actually pretty warm!

Here's a slideshow of pix to prove it!

And for yoinking purposes, or if you'd like to see the pix without the aid of a magnifying glass, here's a link to the actual album: http://picasaweb.google.com/ksong3000/LisAndCraigSWedding?feat=directlink

My Army of Cute!! MUAHAHAAHAAAAH!!!!

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of learning the art of needle felting, so I finally decided to buy a book that will teach me how. I plan to start with little animals and work my way up to designing my own line of superheros...I'm thinking I'll just ride the Hollywood superhero fad: Batman, Spider-man, Hulk, Iron Man and Superman. I want to try to get them all figured out before the next Fan Expo, though, since my friend, Niall, is planning to buy a table so he can sketch for the masses. I figure I'll just steal a little corner and try to hawk my amateurish crafts.

Anyway, while looking for the needle felting book, I came across this and just couldn't pass it up:



Apparently, there's a name for this type of craft: amigurumi - the Japanese art of cute little crochet dolls! I have to thank Tania for sending me a link to some video tutorials on the basics of amigurumi, because I'm really more of a knitter than a crocheter...although I'm not sure why. Crochet is so much easier and faster! I eased my way into amigurumi by tackling two of the "easy" patterns: the grim reaper and the ninja.

Here are my first two attempts:

    



The ninja is missing a little silver throwing star that I need to crochet and stitch under his sash, but I can't find the right embroidery thread...soon, though. Right now he looks a 'lil bland. I like how the grim reaper looks with his hood down, too, and I opted not to give him a spooky mouth - I'm partial to the cute emoticon-ish smile. I made the eyes and the scythe with sculpting clay.

Sadly, I lost my ball of white yarn (did anyone find it on the subway, by chance???), so I couldn't make the other two "easy" patterns in the book. The only other doll I had the right colours for was an "intermediate" doll: Nosferatu. He's not super difficult in terms of the crocheting (they're pretty much just variations of little stuffed balls), but he has so many little pieces to him (ears, collar, buttons) that it takes just as long to stitch him together as it takes to crochet him! He's also kinda tricky cuz he's hunched over and front-heavy, so you have to stuff him in such a way that he won't fall flat on his face. He's pretty much the best one, though. See for yourself!

    

Well, I probably won't try any other patterns until I get some more yarn. I need lime green so I can try my hand at that Cthulu! I've got his eyes all ready to glue on! I'm pretty sure I can handle the "intermediate" ones, but I'm not so sure about the "epic" dolls, like the monkey. EPIC!!! Yikes! Again, the main difference really seems to be all the extra accessories and the complex assembly. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

As for the needle felted animals and superheroes, Fan Expo isn't for another year...right?? :P

I'M WALKIN' HERE!!!

So, I nearly got hit by a car today on my way to work! Excuse me for a second while I let my heartbeat slow down a lil....there, that's better. My sister called me while I was walking to work to ask if I could babysit last minute, since she just scored some Feist tickets for tonight (lucky duck). I was hemming and hawing about whether or not I could, since Myles and I already have plans to watch the season finale of Survivor (DON'T SPOIL IT FOR ME, PLEASE!!!!) while eating leftover jumbo stuffed pasta shells that I made on the weekend. They're super yummy - stuffed with spinach, prosciutto, cottage cheese, and mozzarella....MMMmmmmm.

Anyway, I started to cross the street - my right of way, btw - and, some dude turning left hit the gas, presumably to beat oncoming traffic, and didn't see me 'til the very last second. He literally stopped maybe 5-6 inches away from me, causing me to instinctively put out my hand on the off chance that, through some strange miracle, I might suddenly possess super strength and be able to stop the car with one hand. Thank goodness I didn't actually have to test out that theory, though...so, there's still a chance that I have latent superpowers. I'll keep you posted.

My poor sister, though. I was still talking to her when it happened. I'm glad he stopped, cuz I'd hate for her to have heard me get squished! The dude looked stunned because he didn't see me at all, gave me an apologetic wave, and drove off, leaving me with an adrenaline high that will probably last the whole day.

I need a coffee...and a shot of whiskey.

Oui, We Wii!!!!!

Thanks to a fortuitous serious of events, beginning with the upcoming birthday of my friends' little girl (which coincidentally is also my mom's birthday!!) and ending with a phone call from Myles, we are now the proud owners of our very own Wii!!

As the way things often happen when I go to visit Tania, an impromptu celebration involving the Rave family and friends took place. This time, the excuse was Maya's 4th birthday. I was given the task of picking up a present for her at Toys R Us, since it's on my way to the subway. While there, I couldn't help but notice all of the signs saying, "Wii Consoles Available".

Myles and I have been trying to buy a Wii for a few weeks now, but with no luck. The last effort was particularly disappointing, with the Shoppers' Drug Mart having sold their last console that very morning...even worse, I was supposed to check a few days earlier, but never got around to it! Curse me and my crippling laziness!

So, there I was at the counter, paying for the cute lil' flower-shaped cd player, with Tinkerbell sitting atop it, debating on whether or not I should just go ahead and buy the Wii. I'm not very good at making these kinds of decisions on my own, so it was a good thing that Myles called me at that very moment. With a slight twist of my rubber arm, and the convincing argument of, "if I was there I'd buy it, but I'm not...YOU are," I added the Wii and WiiPlay to my purchase. Yay!

We had loads of fun breaking in the console at Tania's. I'm even a little stiff today, from all that boxing! I'm pretty sure Myles and I are going to get our money's worth outta this machine. I'm gonna go set it up now, so I can practice posing those stupid Mii's so he won't kick my ass next time!

W00T!

Sketchy McSketcherson

Hmm...it's been a while since I've posted anything. Sadly, it's mostly because nothing really happens to me that's worth writing about. Or, if I could write about something, I'm usually too uninspired or lazy to do so.

Well, all that changes TODAY!!! Heh. That makes it sound like I'm turning over a new leaf, or something. I am not. I'm just posting a couple sketches that I got at the Hobbystar Fan Appreciation event that took place this past weekend. If you want some in depth coverage, you should check out Myles' article. Digital Kontent (www.digitalkontent.com), along with friends, Shane Heron and Brian Boodnarine, set up a table where they pimped their wares and raffled off loads of free stuff.

I spent the first day not really feeling very well - I was just getting over a cold - so, I just tooled around and bought a bunch of trades. I was too indecisive and just couldn't figure out from whom and of what to get sketches. Sunday I was feeling better, and finally ended up getting a few sketches.

The con was lots of fun. I love that Digital Kontent has a table at these things - I must say, it's really nice to have a place to sit and chill when you need to take a load off, or a place to store all your purchases.

The highlight of the con for me was talking to Michael Cho. He's part of Transmission-X and his web comic, Papercut is my absolute favourite. Also, he's Korean! So, we had the typical Korean exchange:

Michael: "Are you Korean?"
Me: "Yes."
Michael: "Do you speak Korean"
Me: "No."

I don't know how many times I've had that conversation, but it's probably equal to the number of times I've met a Korean. Anyway, I'm a really big fan of Cho's art and his style, so it was nice just to chat about that. And, as if that weren't enough, he was kind enough to indulge me with a Butternutsquash sketch, which I asked for because I LOVED the guest strip he did for them a few months back.

Holy Matrimony, Batman!!!

Okay, so I just found out yesterday that my best friend got MARRIED!!! I knew he was engaged and that they were planning to get married in the fall, but I had no idea that they already got hitched!

It had been a while since I'd spoken with him, but we finally had a chance to catch up over Google Talk (I love me my gmails, boy howdy!) and after a few minutes of chitchat, he suddenly mentions that he's married! And, no, it wasn't shotgun. They just found a day that was supposed to be lucky for the both of them, and his wife is a little superstitious, so they quickly threw together a little civil service. It all makes perfect sense and I'm super happy for them! They're still planning to have a proper ceremony in the fall...IN CABO! Well, that's the tentative plan, anyway, and I'm gonna try my darndest to be there to celebrate with the happy couple!

CONGRATULATIONS, ANDREW AND CHARMIAN!!!!!

In other news, I got yelled at by a cop this morning. I just ignored him, though. I'm such a rebel! Actually, I had my headphones on so I couldn't really hear him. The police had blocked off the intersection by my work, but the dude that was directing traffic didn't say anything to me as I crossed the street. Just as I was about to go up the steps to my building a cop pulls up, turns on his little warning siren, and starts frantically waving his arms. I was literally five steps away from my building entrance, and he's yelling at me to get off the sidewalk - it was either, take the five steps to my building, or backtrack 50 steps ON THE SIDEWALK to the other building entrance building. So, I took a step forward and he started to FREAK OUT. Since he wasn't making sense, I just went ahead and took the 4 remaining steps to get me "off the sidewalk."

I found out afterwards that a window on the 17th floor of my building was somehow knocked loose (perhaps due to the strong winds??) and pieces of glass were apparently falling to the ground. Whoops. I guess he had pretty good reason to yell at me, after all. Sorry, Mr. Officer. Thanks for saving my life!!!!

OMG - I'm a N3RD!!!!

There's no denying it...*sigh*. I've been playing this stupid game on Facebook called "Christmas Couples", and it's been keeping track of my high scores. It lists my highest score of the week, as well as my all-time high score.

Check out my high score this week:



If you don't understand the significance of that score, that's a good thing - trust me. If you DO get it, then you might enjoy this:



Anyway, I bought new cutlery today. The spoons in my current set are so annoying! They're shaped like little ladles so they're really awkward to eat with. I inherited them from my sister - to whom I'm very grateful!!! - but, I felt it was time to replace them. This is the first time I've ever bought my own cutlery! It was fun. I'm quite pleased with the set I picked, too. The spoons are normal shapes and sizes, and the knife handles are PERPENDICULAR to the blade! It makes more sense when you see them:



I need to get some decorative pine cones...

I'm a Hero!!!

Well, a Guitar Hero...and even then, I'm not much of one.

Myles - awesome b/f that he is - showed up this week with Guitar Hero 3, and I've been playing it every day since! I'd been yammering on about how badly I wanted to try it out so, taking my (not so) subtle cues, he found one for me. No easy feat in my neighbourhood - they've been pretty much sold out around here since Christmas.

Addictiveness aside, I think that it's actually been good for me. For instance, I cleaned my apartment so my friends could come and play! For any of you who have seen the sorry state of my place, you know what an accomplishment this is. Yes, that's right - you can now sit on BOTH of my couches!! Right now, my favourite song is Cliffs of Dover, by Eric Johnson. It's just so much fun, and I can ALMOST do it on Medium. I can't even imagine ever being able to play this game on Hard, let alone Expert!

I do wanna get another guitar so that we can play co-op mode. It sounds like a lot of fun. And, some day, I might even graduate to Rock Band! My poor, poor neighbours. They won't know what hit 'em, but they'll probably assume it's a dying cat...

THANK YOU, MYLES!!! You're the best...AROUND! Nothing's gonna ever keep you down! (That would be a great song for Guitar Hero...)

Calling All Clickers!!!!

Team Chicken Shirt has made it to the finals of the ING Direct Superstar Saver Competition!!!! They now have a 1 in 10 shot at the $10,000 first place prize!!!!!

But, to win, they desperately need you to vote! It's the same deal as before. Just go here:

http://www.ingdirect.ca/superstarsaver/watch.html

Click on the "VOTE" tab, then type in a search for "teamchickenshirt" (all one word) and one video result will pop up. To vote, click on the "thumbs up" and Bob's your uncle (wtf does that even mean???)!

You can vote once a day so please keep going back to that link to vote.

Making top ten is pretty sweet, but the win would be even sweeter!

Thanks for your support and wish 'em luck!

I need your thumbs!!!!

Well, I don't, but Myles and the rest of Team Chicken Shirt need your help!

They entered a competition to make a commercial for ING Direct:

http://www.ingdirect.ca/superstarsaver/watch.html

Just click on the "WATCH" tab, and then do a search for "teamchickenshirt". To vote for the video, you just need to click on the "thumbs up" - you don't even need to watch the video! It's pretty fun, though, so you should check it out anyway.

I feel better now that I've done my part to pad the votes...by at LEAST two!!!

SPREAD THE WORD!!!!

The people have spoken!

Well, two of 'em, anyway. Within minutes of each other, two friends in separate msn conversations made reference (one explicitly, the other implicitly) to the lack of activity on my blog. So, here it is - the much anticipated (by at least TWO people) first k_song post of 2008!!!!

I wish I could say that I've been purposefully holding out, building up curiosity and suspense for my eager fans (all TWO of them!!!) who have been waiting patiently to find out what I've been up to, lo these many weeks. Sadly, this is not the case. I haven't written for two very simple reasons: I'm lazy and I'm boring. But, I think I can also blame my lack of blogging on the types of activities I engage in. For Christmas, I knit a whole slew of coasters for my sister's extended family. At around 1.5 hours per coaster (not including the time it took to felt them) we're looking at a whole lotta tv-watching time. That's the nice thing about knitting - I get to catch up on my tv shows. The month of December was pretty much taken up by Veronica Mars, Spooks, and Boston Legal (which I'm still working on). I WOULD have written about it, but math is objective:

Knitting + TV ≠ Interesting Blog

After Christmas though, when I was finished with my boring knitting, I tried my hand at a comic book review for Myles. For some reason, he wanted me to read and write about the first issue of The Search for Ray Palmer. It's not an ideal review if you're looking for advice and insight into whether or not you should buy the comic. I guess I have a slightly different perspective and criteria than REAL comic book readers. Here - see for yourself: http://digitalkontent.com/?p=108#more-108

I think he wants me to do more of these, using his rating method. I don't mind reading them (even when they suck) and I'm okay with the writing, but I draw the line at taking goofy pictures of myself holding the comic. [Sorry, Myles, but you KNOW you look goofy, don't you?]

I guess I'll have to come up with my own rating system, then. Any suggestions?

OMG! I forgot! For those of you who have been reading since the beginning, I'm sure you'll share in my excitement over getting the coolest USB pen in the world!!! Yes, my brother-in-law special ordered the Radiohead limited edition USB pen with complete discography for me! YAY! And it arrived in the nick of time - even though he missed Christmas by a few days, I received it just as I was considering ripping all my Radiohead albums onto my new MP3 player! He saved me a lot of headache...THANKS, MARK!!!! :D

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.