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| Tonight I was in Harvey's and just after I sat down, these two guys sat in a booth nearby and started talking weird stuff, starting with religion. Unfortunately for the most part I could only hear the one guy's side of the conversation - I strongly suspect that hearing both sides would have added to the comedy factor. I should note that I like to think I have a pretty good BS-meter (especially having known Matt for so long) but this guy seemed to be saying this stuff as 100% OF FACT, not as a fun BS conversation. Here are a few snippets, paraphrased of course since I couldn't write that fast but I've tried to keep the original spirit as much as possible.
- [After clearly talking about something religious, and his buddy asking a question I couldn't hear, he decided to use an analogy to make his point:] They're like Namekians, you know, from Dragonball Z. They're asexual. They're these little creatures that aren't of either sex.
- The three parts are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Like Mom, Dad, and Brother. Holy Spirit is the Mom because it gets sad and cries when you do things wrong. God is the Father because when you do something wrong he says "I love you but you're really pissing me off right now". Jesus is your bro, your buddy.
- Mormons have a god that's a mother figure. I think there was a mother god in the old scripture, but the Vatican hid it when they started shutting women out because they didn't want anyone to get any ideas.
- Mother Nature... well, nature's a woman because she can be as gentle as a bunny, or as harsh as a lion! Mothers are like that!
- Friend: What's paganism?
Loud guy: Pagans worship nature gods, like corn gods. You know, false gods. - [Discussing 2012 doomsday theories:] I think something's going to happen. I think the date's made up though. Some Mayan used a future device and wrote down what he saw, and thereby sealed the fate of this universe. Stupid idiot! You don't meddle with time travel!
- I think the Egyptian pharaohs were alien warlords. They were preparing for inter-dimensional alien warfare.
- Wilfred Laurier's on the $5 bill. Why is the Queen on the 20? It's not the Queen. It's some governor. It doesn't say her name. It's signed by someone else, some guy. That picture could be anyone. That could be my grandmother.
Oh crazy people. You provide me with comedy at the most unlikely of times.
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| A brief update of happenings since last Christmas, with a little help from my calendar. I've been busy having a life rather than blogging about it. 
January
Went snow tubing at Chicopee. Saw a couple of operas (Faust and Fidelio). Helped pull off Ellen's awesome surprise birthday party - she honestly had no idea until she got there.
February
Had a blast at the annual bellydance Shimmy-a-thon for Heart & Stroke. Made a bunch of cabbage rolls. Saw an opera (Rusalka). Sang karaoke in a private karaoke room on Erin's birthday, and laughed heartily at the homemade videos that didn't go with the songs at all. Spent a weekend in Montreal with Mom.
March
Pi Day festivities brought much glee and much sugary goodness, some of it fruity. We took over the party room in our building's basement and invited our friends and the other tenants to join us for a potluck pi party. I thoroughly enjoyed my first game of Settlers in about a million years.
April
Went on a fantastic daytrip to Le Scandinave Spa in Collingwood. Had two very good Easter dinners. Worked way too much. Saw an Andre Rieu show with Mom. Saw another opera (Simon Boccanegra). Left for a long weekend in Chicago with Allan.
May
Finished the long weekend in Chicago - while there we visited the Shedd Aquarium, Sears Skydeck, Navy Pier, Adler Planetarium, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Victoria's Secret, and of course, the Oprah Store (for a Mother's Day gift). My absolute favourite was the aquarium, although Victoria's Secret was pretty awesome too. Back in Canada, continued to work too much. Saw another opera (Midsummer Night's Dream). Went camping at Point Farms in Goderich for the May 24 weekend - very cold but lots of fun. Also had fun at Derek & Shannon's stag & doe. Attended North Waterloo's 75th anniversary camp and showed off my extreme lack of lashing skills.
June
Went to Yuk Yuk's with Ellen & Brian and had a blast. Helped Ali run the sleep disorders booth at the World's Longest Street Sale. Spent four totally bizarre days at a Tony Robbins seminar in Toronto (my boss bought my ticket) and came out mostly intact, although kicking myself a little for not walking on fire. Went to a BBQ at Holly & James' place, where Dave the Poet and I and spelled fun things on their fridge with magnets. Helped Dan move.
July
Rode the sleep disorders float in the Aurora Canada Day Parade, and had great fun waving at people and falling asleep on command. Went camping and tubing at Elora with Kim and Dale. Ran another edition of Rovers Only Moot, with actual participants. Said goodbye to Ellen & Brian as they packed up and moved to New Brunswick.
August
Had a great time at Ancient Moot. Saw Coraline for free on the big screen in Waterloo Park - creepy movie! Got word that I was being let go from my office job (not fired, more like downsized) as of Labour Day. Celebrated Natalie's birthday at the Huether. Celebrated Kim's birthday at her place. Spent a fabulous day at Bingeman's Big Splash, even if they were understaffed and even if the morning got totally rained out. Camped at Laurel Creek with some folks who came up for Moparfest. Took the two weeks' vacation I'd scheduled before finding out I was being laid off. Went to a new friend's Canadian Citizenship ceremony. Saw District 9 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Went to the CNE with Ali on $1.25 admission day, and did just about everything! Helped Monte & Tammy warm their new house. Saw Cyrano de Bergerac in Stratford with Ali. Celebrated Allan's birthday, as well as his office's annual mini-golf party.
September
Worked my last few days at the office. Spent Labour Day weekend at Brant Conservation Area, running out on Saturday to pick Allan up from the airport (he'd spent a week or so working in Northern Ontario) and see The Sound of Music in Toronto with his family. Had a fantastic dinner at blind restaurant O Noir. Officially started my self-employment as a college & high school math tutor. Went to Holly & James' awesome wedding.
October
Attended the funeral of a friend's mother. Tried and enjoyed vegan pizza (although not as much as Pepi's non-vegan stuff). Had a chair dancing lesson with the girls for Mitun's bachelorette party, and the next day went to Luc & Mitun's amazing Hindu/Catholic wedding. Thanksgiving dinners abounded. Got to see Diana when she visited from Nova Scotia. Saw and thoroughly enjoyed Zombieland. Played nursemaid to Allan, who managed to come down with strep and mono at the same time. Had fun at Oktoberfest. Went dancing at Abstract for Bishop's goodbye party. Had a blast at Kim & Terry's halloween party, and at Valerie's samhain party the next night, and at Jacquie & Kevin's surprise baby shower the next day.
November... so far
Had to pay for $400 in car maintenance and repairs when my car started to rattle. It's not as bad as it sounds, in that a chunk of that was scheduled maintenance (oil change, and changing to winter tires). Had an excellent afternoon and evening with Ellen & Brian when they came to visit. Gratefully noticed that tutoring is now up to speed, just about, in that the number of hours I've done in November are what I've estimated I need to cover my bills - now I just need to exceed that a bit to get some extra cash on hand!
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| Ah, Christmas. A time to gather 'round with family and friends, exchange a few gifts, eat some good food, and enjoy each other's company. Unless, of course, you're in my family.
I left work at noon on Tuesday as there was nothing I more needed to do there before the holidays. I spent Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning preparing for the trip to Newmarket, and shortly after noon on Wednesday Ali and I picked Allan up from work and the three of us started the trek. Traffic was OK, and the trip was uneventful.
We dropped Ali off at Mom's place, and Allan and I headed over to Ellen & Brian's to drop some stuff off before returning to Mom's for a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner. Apparently Mom had been yelling at Ali, but switched into "best behaviour" mode once I arrived with Allan. Even best behaviour isn't that great, but at least it's not outright nasty. He and I left there around 10 PM and headed back to Ellen & Brian's for some much-needed sleep, while Ali decided to sleep on Mom's couch. Apparently Mom got nasty again as soon as we left.
In the morning we got up and were back at Mom's for 9 for crepes, followed by presents - again, she went back on best behaviour as soon as we arrived. While Ali made crepes, Allan and I lugged the presents out from the bedroom and made each a pile in the living room for each person, as is family tradition. After an excellent breakfast we fought our way through the presents, sat down, and started opening things.
Oh my, there was a lot of stuff. Some of it was good stuff, and some of it was junk. But we all politely said thank you, and packed the stuff into rubbermaid tubs so we could cart it out to the car more easily. The very last gift I opened was the one that flabbergasted me - she bought me a Wii! Now, I'm not sure why she decided to do that, but it's a good gift. I was genuinely surprised and thanked her for it, as it really is a good gift.
One phone call to England and 5 trips to the car later, we headed over to Ellen & Brian's place. Mom was heading to Guelph as she had to be there by 4 PM. On the way there Ali, Allan and I all agreed that there was no way we could get all this stuff back to KW as the car was absolutely packed solid and we still had backpacks and such at Ellen & Brian's place that we needed to take back with us. We wound up taking in about half of the stuff from the car and sorting it out in their living room, putting things we couldn't use into a big cardboard box we called "the box of giving away box" (we have a permanent box of the same name in our apartment, so the name came naturally). Of the stuff we brought in from the car, we wound up putting about 25% of it into the box, thereby creating breathing room in the car. Unfortunately we had to leave the box in E&B's basement for the next 2 weeks as there was nowhere we could take it that day - if we took it to a local Value Village or similar, Mom would just find it and buy it back. Among the things left behind are not one but TWO Magic Bullet blenders - Mom bought one each for me and Ali, with the reasoning that one day we'll live apart so we'll need one each. The trouble is, neither of us wants them. Thankfully they're new in box, so we should be able to return them. We all agreed that although it feels really ungrateful to give away/return that much stuff, it's 100% necessary to do so. And we did wind up keeping a good chunk of our presents.
The second we got to Ellen & Brian's, things were much calmer and more relaxing. Brian asked Allan to go snowblower shopping with him in the Boxing Day sales, and Allan gladly agreed - he's not one to turn down an excuse to go to Lowe's! We spent the afternoon helping prepare dinner, sorting presents from Mom's place, and giving and opening new presents with Ellen & Brian. Presents there were on a much more normal scale, and good times were had by all. Dinner was excellent as usual and we spent the rest of the evening chatting and drinking wine. It was nice to visit with them and not have to rush anywhere.
Boxing Day, Allan actually got up before the alarm (which was set for 6:30) could go off. He and Brian made a whirlwind tour of stores and came home triumphantly around 9:30 AM with a snowblower and two DVD players. It sounds like they had fun "man shopping" although they'd had to rush before stores sold out of snowblowers, and they both wished they'd had more time to look around the stores. The five of us went out for a celebratory breakfast at Daybreak, then said our goodbyes and Ali, Allan and I took off for Scarborough.
Why Scarborough? Allan's sister was hosting his family's Christmas there, so Ali dropped us off and went to see a movie/wander the mall. It was an enjoyable dinner, fairly relaxed and with good food, of course. I was pleasantly surprised to receive gifts from his family during the exchange, and was glad that I'd taken gifts for them too. We wound up sending a couple of things home in the truck with Allan's parents as they wouldn't fit in the car, but we'll get those things back from them soon. All in all it was a good afternoon/evening there. Ali picked us up once things wound up and we hopped on the highway for a quick jog home.
As we were home around 9:30, we brought everything up from the car and sorted it all out in the living room. There was much laughter, a few drinks were drunk, and we made a lot of good progress too. More stuff went in a new Box of Giving Away Box, a lot of packaging went in a big bag for recycling, and a whole lot of stuff got put away. Looking around the apartment now I can see a bit more stuff than we had before, but thankfully it's not overwhelming as it would have been had we kept it all. Of course it helps that a bunch of the stuff was Allan's, so when I took him home the next day he took some of it with him.
I spent yesterday (Saturday) putting things away and cleaning up a bit more. I also made a lasagna, as Allan was coming back for dinner and Ali's male friend was coming over for dinner too. Allan put up a new shelf in the hall closet while we were waiting for dinner to finish cooking, and the shelf is fabulous - much sturdier than the old junky one that was in there! And higher up too, so we can fit larger things on the lower shelf. We had a good dinner (if I do say so myself) then went our separate ways, Ali etc. going to a party and Allan and I doing a bit of window shopping before heading over to his place.
He and I got up this morning and watched some TV in the nice relaxing way you do on a Sunday morning when there's not much else to do. Around 11 we decided it was time to get moving, so I headed home for more tidying and he headed off to run some errands. Ali and I decided to tackle the newly-shelved closet in an attempt at restoring order, and quickly realized organizing it required buying some clear bins to hold all the junk that keeps getting piled up loosely on the shelves. So we spent the afternoon store hopping and wound up getting exactly what we needed at an excellent price at the Great Canadian Wholesale Club - funny because we only went there because we were in the area.
While we were out, Mom called to ask Ali something, and while they were on the phone Ali mentioned to Mom that I'd realized our TVs are too old to work with the Wii, and thank you for the awesome gift but could we have the receipt so we could return it please? It was sort of a half-truth in that yes, our TVs are old but we could cobble something together to make it work. The real trouble is that we're not sure we'll play it enough to make it worth keeping, but we decided to go with the "old TV" line as a way of sparing Mom's feelings. Mom got grumpy and accused us (Ali first, then me once I got on the phone) of pressuring her for a new TV, which we both refused. Finally she grumpily agreed to look for the receipt, and hung up. About 3 hours later she called again to say that she'd gone to Canadian Tire and bought us a 24" RCA flatscreen, and grumpily state that it's in the back of her car and we'd better pick it up before someone steals it. I told her that was unnecessary but thanked her for it, and said it'd probably be 2 weeks before we could make it there, and could she take it upstairs in the meantime? "No!" I had to try so hard not to laugh on the phone, the conversation was just so ridiculous. I told her I'd get back to her on when we could pick it up, then hung up and laughed my ass off. Seriously, most people would just give you the receipt, and silly me, I thought my mom would act like most people. Guess we have to keep the Wii now!
I did look up on the Nintendo website to see if they have any games that interest me, and it turns out they have a version of SSX that's just for the Wii, so I think I'll try and get my hands on a copy of that. I've played 2 or 3 of the games in the SSX series and have enjoyed them all, although they've each got their pros and cons. Hopefully this version lives up to the standards of the others. It should be interesting in that this version of the game is motion-based rather than button-based, but as long as the controls make sense that shouldn't be a problem.
Anyway, I'd better go as it's well past my bedtime. Goodnight, and happy new year everyone!
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| So it's November already, and once again I have been completely ignoring my blog. Hrm. Well, it's because I've been out doing stuff/working lots, so I guess it's for a good reason. : ) So what's been happening since August 11?
Aug 13 - Went to see Labyrinth on the big screen at the Princess. It was amusing, but there were two problems. First, the sound quality at parts wasn't great, so it was hard to tell what was being said, especially by some of the monsters. Second, and most importantly, David Bowie's wiggly bits. Oh my. If you're going to have a fully-grown man wear spandex pants AND show full-length shots of him, GET HIM TO WEAR A CUP! Every time there was a full length shot and he moved, all I could see was "wiggle wiggle wiggle". Thankfully I did not have nightmares.
Aug 22 - Allan's 30th birthday party. A bunch of us went over to Bobby O'Brien's, which is just around the corner from my place, and we spent the evening drinking on the patio. Ali even bought Al a muff diver, and watching him try (quite valiantly) to drink it was hilarious. Good times were had by all.
Aug 24 - The much-anticipated Bingeman's trip. Six of us went: me, Allan, Dan, Sarah, Grant and Pauline. The weather forecast wasn't great but it turned out to be a really nice day, so it was the perfect day to go! We may have been the first people (aside from staff, of course) to step into the waterpark area that day. I don't know how many times I went on the tube slides, but it was a lot. The new torpedo slides were quite fun, too, although the green one was kind of scary because being enclosed in dark green plastic makes for a damn near pitch black ride. Add to that the speed and the sharp curves and it's kind of freaky. We had a blast that day.
Aug 27 - Allan's actual birthday, and we went for dinner at The Keg with his parents and his brother. It was a nice family meal, and we went over to Ed's place afterwards for cake and presents.
Labour Day weekend (Aug 29-Sept 1) - Allan and I headed out to the Belleville area to spend the weekend at a cottage with some friends of his. The weekend was a lot of fun. Highlights included learning to play bocce ball, going on a SeaDoo (passenger only, as I don't have a boating license), and the fart incident in the tent (wherein he let out the rankest fart), which had us laughing so hard we woke up the people sleeping in the trailer next to our tent. We even had good traffic on the way there and on the way back!
Sept 5-7 - Camping at Elora Gorge. We'd camped there back in June but the water level was too high to go tubing down the gorge, which is really the main attraction of this fantastic campground. This time around, however, the weather was pretty good and the water was at a safe level. Huzzah! I don't remember exactly who went but I think there were about 10 of us, including me, Allan, Ali, Michelle, Jimmy, Tanim, Natalie and Chris 2. We met up with some Rovers and made about 3 runs over the course of the day. Somewhere there are some great pics of Allan in the truck, which is loaded up to a ridiculously unsafe-looking level with inner tubes.
Sept 13 - Laura & Keith's Stag & Doe in Hamilton. Allan and I were going to go anyway since they're friends of his (the same ones we'd gone to the cottage with). They'd mentioned at the cottage that they were looking for a second girl to sell hooter shooters, and when we jokingly suggested to Ali that she do it, she thought it was an awesome idea. So we made a day of it, stopping at Ikea in Burlington so I could buy a new bed frame and so Ali and I could finally see what all the hype is about Ikea. That is a rather fun store, although I was just starting to get sick of it by the time we left - so it was perfect timing I guess. We wound up buying a bunch of other stuff, too, including some rails to put in the kitchen and hang pots from, and a thing to hold pot lids. The Stag & Doe itself was pretty fun. By the time we'd arrived they'd decided not to advertise hooter shooters but they did ask Ali to go around selling shots, and by the end of the night a bunch of people had requested hooter shooters (and she had gleefully obliged).
Sept 13 (again) - While we were at Ikea, Mom called and said Grampa had died. It was only slightly surprising, as he'd been sick since about April. The visitation was held on the 16th, with the funeral on the 17th. Mom came out and stayed with us for a couple of days since the funeral stuff was in Acton.
Sept 19 - International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Ali and I held a pirate party in honour of the joyous occasion, and we had great fun dressing up and acting piratey.
Oct 10-13 - Fast forward almost a month to Thanksgiving. I don't remember exactly how it worked out, but I know Ali, Allan and I went up to Newmarket on the Sunday and had brunch with Mom followed by dinner with Ellen & Brian. All in all an excellent day. Sunday night Allan and I headed back to KW, and spent Monday preparing dinner for his family at his place. That was also an excellent day, actually.
Oct 17 - Oktoberfest! Ali, Allan and I went to Oktoberfest at the Schwaben Club, and had a blast. We were sitting in the midst of all these mortgage brokers who had been bussed in by a company they work for, and who kept giving us beer and even gave Allan a t-shirt. They knew we weren't part of their group but they were really friendly and the company had paid for them to have a lot of beer, so they were not at all shy about offering us some of theirs. Highlights of the night include the beer song, and seeing the Schwaben Club (traditional German) dancers dance to Rammstein's Du Hast.
Oct 18 - Laura & Keith's wedding in Hamilton. It was a bit chilly but still a fairly nice day for a wedding. Allan and I were a bit concerned to arrive at 1:30 for a 2 PM wedding and find a wedding party spilling out of the church. Thankfully we weren't late - it turned out the church had accidentally double-booked the date and time, so they'd bumped the other wedding to 1 PM, but they were (quite understandably, really) not leaving the premises immediately following the ceremony. Anyway, it was a good day and a fun evening, made complete by crashing on a friend's floor.
Oct 24 - Kim & Terry's Halloween party. I dressed up as a pirate yet again for yet another night of fun including a viewing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with hilarious colour commentary. Kim & Terry always throw a good party!
Nov 1 - Valerie's Halloween party. Piratey again, off we went to London. Good times were had by all, except for when my car wouldn't start in the morning. : P
Nov 8 - Ali, Allan and I headed to Newmarket for Brian's birthday. Allan spent a good chunk of the day getting their leaky showers fixed (checking out the situation, going to Home Depot, working on it, going back to Home Depot, working some more...), and after dinner we all went to see Role Models. The movie was surprisingly good, although I wouldn't nominate it for any Oscars. ; )
Nov 15 - Started the day by going in the local Santa Claus Parade and walking with the Scouting floats. It was fun but very wet and fairly cold, so we were all glad to get indoors at Scout House afterwards for hot chocolate and pizza. As soon as Ali and I got home, people started arriving - Jesse first, followed shortly after by Allan, then Natalie, and Kim & Terry. It's Ali's 30th birthday on the 20th, so a bunch of us went to dinner at this pub in Guelph. The plan was to head to a strip club afterwards and split off into two groups as the place was supposed to have a room for naked ladies and a room for naked men. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that the part with the naked men is no longer operational. Lame! So those of us who'd opted for the strip club went in anyway and had a drink. It was kind of interesting, and I'd never been in an actual strip club before, but I was glad we'd stayed at the pub longer than expected because the pub was much more fun. We left around 1 AM and drove back to KW, and the out-of-town guests pulled up some floor/couch space.
Nov 16 - Hey, that's today! Sweet. Got up, went for breakfast, and on the way out of the breakfast place I managed to totally wail my right elbow on a doorframe - I was tightening my ponytail and walked right into the doorframe. It hurt like crazy but after some swearing, a bit of a cry and a hug I was mostly OK again, the initial shock having worn off. Allan and Chris took off for their respective homes, and Ali and Jesse and I hung out for the afternoon, getting caught up since it's about 2 years since we'd last seen Jesse, as I iced my elbow. Eventually we went for dinner at this weird place Jesse used to go to a lot when he lived here. It used to be Mr. Panino's Balkan Chevaps, but now it's a Chinese food place that sells what Jesse says is the most authentic Chinese food he's had in Canada. I've been craving their steamed dumplings lately and have been there twice (now three times, hrm) in the past few weeks. We stopped by Dairy Queen so Ali could get her free birthday Blizzard, then headed back home so Jesse could catch a bus back to Toronto.
And now I'm blogging! Woo! My elbow still hurts, but I don't think I caused any permanent damage. The best way to describe where I hit it is to demonstrate... bend your arm up so you're touching the back of your head, with your elbow pointing at a comfortable angle more or less in front of you. With your other hand, feel your elbow and find the part with two bony bumps side by side. Now press right between these two bumps, and you should feel a tendon or something there. THAT is exactly where I walked, full-speed, into a door frame. I've got a pretty good range of movement, and technically I think I could move my arm anywhere, but it hurts to do certain things, like bending it so my right hand is on my right shoulder - I can easily bend it about far enough to put my hand over my heart. I definitely won't be doing any heavy work with that arm as long as it hurts!
And now I'm showering! Woo! | | |
| ...since June 15.
June 20: The Relay for Life in Newmarket. Ali and I volunteered
to help out, which consisted of spending 15 minutes on boring parking
duty before being sent to run the swag shop. We shut the shop
down at midnight, not because people weren't buying anymore (it had
picked up, actually) but because we ran out of receipts and the
organizers wanted every sale to have a receipt. It was a fun
evening, and Ali and I are talking about putting a team together to
walk in the Relay next year - probably with an airplane theme.
Brian's Bombshells, anyone?
June 21: Had a girls' day with Erin, as she was leaving for Denmark the
next day. I went for a wonderful massage first thing in the
morning, then picked her up for lunch and mani/pedis. We had a
lot of fun, and I had a particularly good laugh when the guy doing my
pedicure brought over a towel for me to lay over my legs - I hadn't
even thought about it, but I was wearing a skort. There was no
actual flashing risk but it certainly looked better to have a towel
there.
June 24: Went to Hamilton with Allan for Dale's surprise birthday
dinner. We parked in a slightly weird part of the parking lot,
hoping Dale wouldn't notice Allan's car as it doesn't exactly blend
in. But Kim, Dale's girlfriend, was driving the two of them and
she accidentally parked right beside it. Kinda blew the surprise,
but that was ok. The evening was a lot of fun, and we all learned
just how big Jake's shorts are. (They're used to transport killer
whales, among other things.)
June 26: Slone's tribute show. Mr. Slonetsky, head of the music
department at my high school for the past umpteen years, retired at the
end of this school year, and a tribute show was held in his
honour. I got stuck in traffic hell on the way up to Newmarket,
but made it in time to see the excellent show. Memories of high
school though, holy cow. While I loved the music program, being
there also reminded me of all the social awkwardness crap that went
along with being in high school, and I was glad to get out of there and
get back to my life as an adult.
June 28: Dale's second
surprise party, and this time it was actually a surprise. (It may
have helped that Allan and I took my car...) It was good times at
a nice little backyard barbecue.
June 29: Allan and I made a TON of really good strawberry jam. Yum!
July 1: Not content with one ton of excellent jam, Allan and I headed
out and did some berry picking so we could make another ton of jam the
next day. In the evening we picked up Sandra and went to see the
fireworks up at Columbia Lake. Good times all around.
July 12: Another birthday barbecue, this time for Al's brother
Ed. It was interesting, because it meant meeting Al's
parents. Eep. I'd already met Ed and his wife, Kathy, and
felt pretty comfortable around them, at least. We stuck around
for the afternoon but left right after dinner because Al was feeling
pretty ill.
July 18-20: Another fun edition of Rovers Only Moot. We had an
investiture ceremony, as usual, and invested Heather into the
crew. Dan and I got booted in a rather official-seeming ceremony
that Albert made up, and we were each presented with a little red
bootie from Baby Gap. Dan joked later that whichever one of us
has a kid first gets both booties.
July 26: A bunch of us made the trip up to Wasaga Beach for the
day. We had great weather despite the forecast, and spent lots of
time in the water and on the beach, and those who wanted to shop (not
me) also went shopping. I came home with a souvenir though - a
wicked sunburn on my legs. It's still peeling as I write this.
August 1-2: Ancient Moot. The camp actually went all weekend, but
Allan and I were only there Friday night to Saturday just after
dinner. It was much fun, and good to see the old Rover folk
again. A few of us even went on a walk around the trails at the
campsite and found stuff we didn't know existed - none of us had ever
really been outside of the main field. It's actually a pretty
cool site.
August 2-4: Camping at Brant. The reason Al and I left Ancient
Moot on Saturday night is that some of his friends were camping out at
Brant that weekend, so we figured the fairest thing to do would be to
split the weekend between the groups. Brant was fun. I
think the highlight for me was watching Ranger Dave rush Al with a
water gun, knock him out of his chair and spray him mercilessly, then
chase him down the road. Good times. Dave can really act
intimidating when he wants to be, which made the whole episode all the
more hilarious.
August 8: Monte and Tammy's wedding in Hamilton. I went in to
work a bit early (8 AM) and left at noon, as the wedding was at 4
PM. We (me, Allan and Ali) got there around 3:30, so we had
really good timing. The wedding was great, especially the part
where Tammy pulled kleenex out of her dress, handed one to Monte and
kept one to wipe her own face with as they'd both been crying through
their vows. When we got outside we found out that unfortunately
someone's car had been broken into - not mine, thankfully. The
neighbour had noticed two guys watching from their balcony as we went
into the church, and when one guy came down and broke the window on an
SUV and tried to get away with the GPS, she sent her husband down to
scare him away and the guy got away with nothing but his freedom.
Anyway, the reception was a lot of fun and I even managed to get nicely
drunk without spending a dime. Hooray for free wine, and for
Allan buying me the one non-wine drink I had the whole night.
Eventually we headed out and spent the night on Ranger Dave's living
room floor.
August 9: Got up stupidly early considering the late night (7:45 AM)
and I dropped Ali and Allan off at Ali's car before continuing on to
meet up with Grant, Dan and Sara for a day at Wonderland. Rain
was in the forecast but we hoped it would rain only enough to scare
away the crowds. Unfortunately it backfired - we got a lot of
rain, and the crowds were big anyway. We managed to go on 5 rides
(the Minebuster, Thunder Run, the Bat, Backlot Stunt Track a.k.a. The
Italian Job, and Time Warp a.k.a. Tomb Raider). We were in line
for The Fly when the sky opened up yet again, so we decided it was time
to go get some dinner at the indoor diner-style restaurant,
Coasters. We wound up hiding out in there for about 2 hours
before admitting defeat and leaving to meet up with Pauline, who had
spent the day shopping at Vaughan Mills. We had a fun day, just
not as much fun as we'd hoped. The Bat, though, holy cow I'd
forgotten how fun that ride is! The only one we went on that I
was less than thrilled with was Time Warp, which looked like much more
fun than it was. After a short time at the mall, which included
three of us changing into dry clothes (in my case, my dress and heels
from the wedding), I drove home and spent the night on the couch
because Mom was in town. She'd been on a seniors' bus trip to the
Fergus Highland Games that day and Ali had picked her up so Mom could
visit her father in the nursing home he's in in Fergus.
August 10: Allan came over and had breakfast with me, Mom and Ali so
that he could meet Mom while she was in town. It was quite a
feast - bacon, eggs, cereal, toast, jam, fried tomato, tea, orange
juice, and probably more that I'm forgetting. They got along OK,
with Mom telling stories about when she met Dad, and when her parents
met, and other such stories. Thankfully it was one of her better
days. After breakfast he headed home to do some housework while
Mom and Ali packed up and drove to Barrie, and I steamcleaned the
upholstery and carpets in the apartment. It looks SO much better
now. We'll have to do that again in another 6 months or so.
The carpet almost looks white now, it's ridiculous. You can
really see the few spots I missed, though, as they're significantly
darker. Ew. Once I'd finished steamcleaning I went over to
Allan's so we could spend the rest of the day together, which was good
as always.
August 11: Just another day at work, really. Spent the evening
doing laundry and dishes and work, oh my. But hey, now I have
clean underwear, which is always a bonus.
I think that covers the main points... I hope everyone out there in internet land is doing well. | | |
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