Sunday, November 29, 2009

Things I do not recommend

Yesterday I made a cauliflower-cheese pie and farmer sausage for dinner, and then an apple cake for dessert.  I also cleaned the bathroom.  And then Joel and I went to a movie and the reason I'm telling you all this is because an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters could not begin to describe the sausagey-appley-baked-cauliflower smell, underthreaded with a strong hint of chemical, that greeted us when we got home.

Friday, November 27, 2009

In Memoriam

Weep!  Oh, lament for the Little White Car that was.  Mourn its tight turning radius.

Take comfort in the trips that were, in the journey to The Gorge to see Dave Matthews and then back again that same night, in which we were pulled over twice. 




Delight in the voyage to Seattle to see the Woodland Zoo hippos (more plentiful than Vancouver's own), and the side-trip to the outlet malls in Tulalip on the way home where I bought my black Roxy flats, which I wear to this day.

Rejoice that we did not die that time we got caught in a blizzard on the way home from Washington.



Though it was a near thing.




Marvel that we survived the trip to Victoria in the Great Inconvenient Snowfall of '08.



Ponder how much snow this lower-mainland car has seen.

Oh Little White Car.  I will not miss the way the seatbelt on your passenger side didn't retract so that it always got caught in the door.  I will not miss your lack of air conditioning or cruise control.  I will not miss the HNNNNNNN sound that your right blinker made, or the shhhk shhhhk shhhhk shhhhhk sound that we could never place.  I will not miss the way that, no matter how dressed up we got, you always made us look like po' white trash.



But I will miss putting my feet on your dashboard.  Enjoy the scrap heap.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Alright, this is usually the part of the game where I would eulogize our little white car (may peace be upon it) which we took to the scrap heap yesterday, but instead I would like to complain about Canadian Tire.  Should you, dear friend, ever find yourself in our neighborhood with car trouble, you might be tempted to pull into the Candian Tire.  It is SO CLOSE!  I adjure you, dear friend.  Push your car, if you have to, that extra couple of miles to Somewhere Else.

So, the Kruegers bought a new car and gave us their old car, so that we could get rid of OUR old car, and then Joel went to insure what is now our new car, and then drove it straight to Canadian Tire, because what is this thing it is doing?  And the guy at the Tire was all Hrrm harrum belt hmmm hum missing teeth hhhhem needs to be replaced immediately, cost you about $900.

And I'm not going to tell you what we pay for rent every month, but it is NOT VERY MUCH MORE THAN THAT!  So nearly a month's rent to fix our veeeehickle?  Alas.

But then Joel's dad hopped the ferry this morning to come have a look-see, and replaced a doo-hicky here and a whazzit there and one long day later, the car runs like a top.  The 'belt' had all its 'teeth' and also that was not the problem.  *sigh. of. rage*

So...we have a new car now!  That's thrilling.  It has twice as many doors.  If we come to pick you up, I will not have to get out so that you can get in.  Also, it is a full four years younger than our old car, so you can suck it, 1988.  I will probably eulogize Little White Car tomorrow, though, because I am ensaddened to see it go.  I have an over-active nostalgia muscle.

Friday, November 20, 2009

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 2.0

Things in the mail yip yip yip! 

Ok, so the whole issue of internet-friends vs. real-friends has kind of gotten blurred for me by this point.  Stephanie is a real friend who I have never met in person.  Yet.  Also, she had Cancer of the Ta-Tas this time last year.

I didn't really know Stephanie that well before all these shenanigans, but back in August when the doctors were all, Hrmm hmmm we think you might have cancer, I emailed her all, Hey, I know I don't know you very well but the doctors think I might have cancer and what do I do?

And then I emailed her again when they wanted to cut me open, and then I emailed her again when we found that I had cancer on the real.  And through all this she emailed me every few days to say kind and encouraging things and and talk me down from my Tree of Panic then tell me hilarious stories about her biopsy (this after mine almost made me faint).  It turns out that long, pokey needles give you the almost-yacks across the board.

Aaaanyhoodle, she emailed a bit ago to tell me she'd sent me a 'little something' in the mail, and then today I got a BOX but I was running out the door to catch a bus and the whole time I was out I was all Eeeeee I have a present at home!  (I am ridiculous about presents.)

So I get home and open it and there are THESE THINGS:




A Bookmarks magazine, which everyone always raves about but which I've been too poor to buy, a copy of the Cake Wrecks book, the site of which has been part of my daily larf for ages and the book of which Joel is leafing through as we speak, and then Jen Lancaster's Such A Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or, Why Pie is Not the Answer which I have heard good things about and also, UNREASONABLY LONG TITLES!!  AMUSEMENTS!

And then also some chompy monster magnets that act as bookmarks, and then also exotic coffee!  And I know that 75% of you are all, Dude, it's just Dunkin' Donuts but we do not have a Dunkin's in Canada and now 90% of you are all, Dude, it's just from the Merica and didn't you used to live, like, half an hour from the border and didn't you used to LIVE IN THE MERICA?  But at least 10% of you are with me in this, all, SQUEEEEEEEEEE treats from other countries!!

Not pictured there is this cranky mug:




Because I am using it.  It is perfectly shaped for my hands.

Stephanie!  It has been raining all day and I got stuck downtown in the wrong jacket and I don't even care.  I am filled with delight (also, coffee).  Many, many thanks.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Blogging is hard

The new druglings aren't as shiny and helpful as I hoped, so I have the raging aches again.  It's like I'm coming down with the flu every evening, only I never actually get it.  Ah me.

Also, it looks like my radiation won't be until the new year, and I'm pushing for late January so that I don't have to go on a low-iodine diet over Christmas (low iodine = no salt and no dairy and no processed foods and no fun).

Also, our basement has flooded and so the troll has dug two enormous holes beside the house.  I'm not totally sure why the holes, but they keep him busy and he seems less pissed at us now.

I need to blog earlier in the day when I have not got the glooms.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Treats in the mail!!!  I cannot TELL you how much I love treats in the mail! 


So, purple, right?  Purple goes with everything.  Purple is the new black, except that all of my purple is either summer- or very-early-fall-related.  Except that now I have purple gloves and a purple scarf!

And then also, festive magazines!  I am addicted to holidayesqueness.  I wish every month had a theme, so that I could be all, It's November!  That means bacon and turquoise all month! 

Jane, Andie, Christine, thanks so much for this and for all the emails.  You guys are the best writing-group-that-never-talked-about-writing-or-even-really-books-because-there-are-so-many-other-things-going-on.  I wouldn't trade you for the world.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

I wish I had more for you.

That thing that I ate the other day:



The chef tried to make a monkey out of my sour cream and almonds.  It looks like a Wild Thing.

Hrm hum.  What to tell you, intrawebs?  I wrote a paper today.  Also, I went to the gym this morning and do NOT feel like shit at the time of writing (8:17 in the pm), which is a welcome change.  The bigger, better, badder drugs are working.

Also, how awesome would it be if I got one of these?



And then named it Bruno?  I would need a yard.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Monkey's Brunch

My Large Paper is due tomorrow, so this will necessarily be short.  But I ate this thing today and I wanted to feed it to all of you.  So say you take a skinny omelette and fill it full of sauteed bananas and brown sugar and then roll it up like a crepe and top it with sour cream and toasted almonds and fresh bananas and cinnamon?  Tasty or not tasty?  DUDE, totally tasty.  And I have a raging sweet tooth, especially when it comes to breakfast, so there is little in the way of sugary morning eats that I won't relish.  But this was an unreal combination of sweetness and eggyness.  If I weren't dying of the fullz, I'd totally eat another.

Also, there were pan fries.  And harvest toast, with apple butter.  *dies*

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Do me this one favor

Can you all please start watching Glee so that we can talk about how awesome last week's episode was, how it was overflowing with everything that is great about the show (Kurt hitting a high-F, Rachel being told she's irritating, teamwork solving everything, the pathos of Kurt's mechanic-dad dealing with Kurt's gayness, the kind-of-sweetness that is how much Puck wants to take care of his baby-mama, wheelchair dancing, Principal Figgins) and how it was totally devoid of everything that is wrong with the show (Mrs Schuester, the whole fake-pregnancy storyline entirely, Emma and Mr Schue making dopey eyes at each other, uninspired numbers with no real choreography, that fake-pregnancy bit, Mr Schue rapping, fake pregnancies)?

Kthx.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Exertions

I ran a mile today.  I sort of felt dumb going all the way down to the gym for my 12-minute run, but I mostly felt dumb because I put my t-shirt on backwards and didn't realize it until I was on the treadmill, and it was really obvious but too late to switch it.

Also, the doctor gave me better drugs today.  Tomorrow I plan on building an igloo out of sugar cubes.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A minute, please.

Ok, so I know that those idiotic things on facebook you can become a fan of (like breathing!  Seriously, if I do not 'become a fan' do I not get to breathe?) aren't the epitome of long-lastingness or professionalism, but WOULD A SPELL-CHECK KILL YOU?!??!

(I'm paraphrasing because if I go look them up in their original forms, my head will a-splode)

Become of fan of 'randomely laughing because you remembered something funny.'  There isn't even an 'e' in 'random' anyways, why would you add one before the 'ly'?

Or 'going to do homework but then finding yourself on faceebook.'  Facebook should automatically delete your account if you spell its name wrong.

Back to my paper.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

This story ended up being way longer and having way less of a point than I anticipated. Hey! Sort of like my paper will!

Ok, so the office chair that came with the house broke so that the thing where you lower yourself to the appropriate height was always at the lowest height.  So I couldn't sit at the desk ever (which I really only do when I need to feel like I'm doing Serious Work [like this paper, which is actually going to be fine because of its length and not despite it, which allows me to just sort of talk about the re-appropriation of power through the re-writing of history for some ten pages {or fifteen!  Seriously, look that up} without ever really making a point or coming to a conclusion]) and even Joel was uncomfortable with the chair that low.

And we looked on craigslist for chairs, but this is Victoria and so everyone's all, I bought this chair for $165 but I'm selling it for $130!  That's a savings of $35!!!  Which, people, used.  You have to at least half the price.

ANYhoodle, so we found this one chair for $35 and I'm apprehensive that it'll end up being something that an ordinary person would try and sell for, like, $5 just to get it off their hands.  I'll tell you right now that the chair is great and whatever, because that is totally not the point of the story.

The POINT is that something did not want us to get that chair.  Part of that something was me, because of this paper and my Bad Attitude towards leaving the house when I should be facebooking and pretending to do research.  But I enjoy adventuring, and sometimes leaving a thing alone makes you care less about the thing so that you can do a better job of the thing later. 

So we hop in the car to get the chair and the car starts making this awful chugging...something something flooded something?  Whatever, it wasn't safe to drive.  So we stop to get cash and then grab a few energy drinks to make change because the chair is $35 and not $40 and drive back to the house all Werp werp, what are we going to do now?

But Joel gives the car a few revvs just to see what's the what, and suddenly it runs fine.  You are such a KOOK, little white car.  So we head back out on the road except at the first stop the energy drinks fly off the back seat and hit my chair and roll under it.  So BECAUSE WE ARE DUMB we decide to put them in the glove box.  And as Joel is handing them to me to PUT in the glove box he's all, I just don't want them to smash into something and dent and for us to have energy drink squirting everywhere.

Ok right, except that I close the glove box with the drinks in it and one of them punctures and by this time we're driving again and I can't figure out which one is the one that punctured and purple energy is oozing everywhere and there's nowhere to pull over and seriously, WHICH ONE IS PUNCTURED and I have to roll down the window so that I can hold the drink outside the car because we still can't pull over yet and my arm smells like Trix.

And then, I guess that's sort of it.  I kind of wanted one more bad thing to happen to round out the story, but we got home alive and didn't bump into any cyclists.

Also, I've been eating this cereal that, in English, is called 'On Track' (which is sort of encouraging, I guess) but which, in French, is called 'Victoire!' (which is far more triumphant-sounding).  We English-o-phones need to up our enthusiasm.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Is it another day AGAIN?

They have seriously got to make us do this in a month that isn't November.

Ok, so I know I just had, like, five days off school, but I spent the weekend recouperating from being miserable about things and then yesterday I ran mad errands, and now it's Tuesday and the in-laws are coming for a visit tomorrow and then I'm back in school on Thursday (AND MEETING WITH THE ENDOCRINOLOGIST!  I am going to be all, Dude, you have got to make me feel better than this) and then it's the weekend wherein I have to write a 10-page paper.  Or 15 pages, I totally forget which.  I should figure that out so that I can recalibrate my panic.

ANYhoodle, I also have a paper due a week tomorrow, but all time after today is going to be taken up with that 10-(or 15!)-page paper, so I have to get this one sketched out in the next three hours so that I can go see Men Who Stare At Goats.  It's an 8:15 showing, at which point I'm usually in bed so I had to sleep in an extra 2 hours today to compensate.

Right.  So I came on here to tell you a Halloween story but now I don't feel like I need to.  Probs I will anyways.  So we're playing Cranium Pop 5 (which is easily the best of the Cranial incarnations) and the answer is 'Seinfeld' and Chelsea is drawing and she was going to draw a little soup bowl with steam squiggles, which I totally would have gotten, and then a swastika.  Because soup nazi!!  Clever, right?  But she DIDN'T EVEN GET A CHANCE because she's all *draws line on paper indicating single-word* and I'm all, SEINFELD!  Because I have espn like that.

Also, it was Chelsea's turn again later and the category was 'Characters' which is the champion of vague categories, and before she gets to look at the card I'm all, If it's the Kool-Aid man I want you to just Look At Me Significantly.  And it WAS and she DID but I was TOTALLY JOKING and so I didn't even get that she was Looking At Me Significantly and I'm like, What?  Food on my face?  Luckily, Shannon did and we got the point.  *phew*

All that to say, I am busy and maybe a bit psychic.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Oh right.

Oh.  Hullo.  Rather forgot I was doing this.

Hrmm hum.  Haven't been doing much since I tried on those shoes.  Err, I finally got around to reviewing Where the Wild Things Are.  That was fun.  I'm working on a longish paper now.  That is less fun, because I'm not totally sure what I'm supposed to be doing.  I went to find some sweatpants today but couldn't uncover anything less than $40 that didn't also say SweetPeace68 or something equally idiotic.  I will probably end up springing for a pair of UVic sweats because hey, I go here.

Oh no wait!  My sister was featured on dooce.  THAT'S what happened today, and it was hella awesome.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

In which I geek out rather uncharacteristically, which is to say, fashion-wise.

So.  Shoes.  ADMITTEDLY, I have shoe-pairs in the dozens, but 88% of them are ballet flats in various colors and then maybe 10% is heels that I have almost no occasion to wear, and the other 2% is my boots, which I wear every day.  I love shoes and I love the idea of having somewhere to wear fancy shoes to (also, of not having bunions so that I could wear said fancy shoes for more than eight minutes), but I'm not a madwoman re: shoes.

And ok, more or less everyone in Joel's class is feelthy reech, because they are all the only children of doctors or lawyers or what have you.  But Sam is reedeeculously feelthy reech, and has a deep and abiding fondness for designer shoes.


So there was a party at her house last night, and we get there and Claire is trying on Sam's dresses because she wasn't happy with any of her own, and I'm all, I am discontented with my jewelry.  And Sam is like, Let me bejewel you.  And one thing leads to another and then suddenly we're all trying on Sam's ridiculous collection of shoes and Joel sneaks off to find a tv and some sports because the party right now consists of him and ten rabid girls and then Morgan and Shannon show up and I'm all Look how HIGH these boots are! 



aside: look how high these boots are

And Shannon squees and Morgan is all, Where are there boys and sports?  So Morgan slinks off to find Joel and Shannon joins the shoe-wearing-party and she knows things about designers and apparently these are Louboutins that I'm wearing here?  Whatever, they were leopard-print and made my legs look amazing.



But the ones which I loved and never wanted to stop wearing EVER IN MY LIFE were these dainty Cinderella darlings:



You cannot see them close enough here.  You MUST see them closer:



Closer still!  To the GooglePhone!



They have a teacup handle on the back!  Me googling these shoes was brought to you by Shannon, who so helpfully informed me they were Miu Mius.  Google let me in on these are worth more than my car!

*hem*  So.  Many thanks to Sam for both hosting a party and for letting us traipse around in some very valuable footwear.  She is indeed a generous soul.  If I ever get my hands on these delicate beasts I may very well keep them in a glass box in my room.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Slimcado

Slimcado?

SLIMcado?  Really, Victoria?  This is what you've stooped to, this low-fat avocado?  *whispers*  What's that, Google?  The slimcado is actually just an avocado from Florida, where it's less dry than in California so the avocados get more bigger and less denser?

Sorry, Victoria.  My bad.

Still, slimcado?  Ok, so my beef is just really with the marketing.  Which, hey, it worked on me.  Although Joel was all, That avocado is going to end up being one massive pit inside and, like, zero cado.



Nay!  Muchas cado.  And I snagged a few more facts from my googlearning, namely that because of the extra water weight, slimcados tend to be...er...lighter in flavor.  Like, more wateryish.  But that people who grow up on slimcados find the haas variety too oily.

Well, bring me on the oilyeshness.  Chopped up in a salad I probably wouldn't notice, but eaten alone in slices this was definitely not the avocado I'm used to.  Although it came out of its skins with CLEANLINESS and would make a lovely garnish.




I can never get that perfect firm sliceyness from a hass.  If there is one talent I lack entirely, it is choosing a ripe avocado.  That, and sports.

But back to the wateryness.  So, this would not be extra-delicious spread on a bagel, which is how I like my avocados, unless you dumped on, like, eighty seconds of salt.  It kind of tastes like avocado-melon.  I may or may not but will probably not buy one of these ridiculously expensive marketing ploys again.  But for now...


Thursday, November 05, 2009

Robyn comes a-rumpusing.

Ok, so Robyn came out for a few days of low-key shennanigans, mostly involving many games of Jeo-party and a Canucks victory (le woot).  Because we are the UNDISPUTED CHAMPIONS of errand-running, we set out to eat breakfast, buy a black coat with a hood for Robyn, some sweat pants for me, an unnamed something for Robyn's brother (who probablydefinitely doesn't read this blog, but JUST EEN CASE), and unnamed something else to complete my sister's birthday present, and to get my stitches taken out.


Breakfast was, at always (at John's Place) a triumph.  Robyn had (as everyone does always all the time ever) the eggs benny and I had some french-toasted-banana-bread with sauteed bananas and cashews and banana liqueur, all drizzled with cream cheese icing.  Gutenness, John's Place.  Is there anything you won't french-toast and then let me pour sugar-goo on to?

Ok, but the errands part of the errants.  Alas!  Alas.  We found a black coat, but it looked no good on Robyn (it looked amazing on me, though, so I bought it).  We found no sweat pants, due to the dearth of Urban-Planet-Garage-Dynamite-Sirens at the mall we went to.  We forgot entirely to find the unnamed thing for my sister.  We DID get the thing for Robyn's brother, AND got my stitches taken out.  So...the imperative things got taken care of, but not the fun things.  Also, we got a parking ticket.  In Victoria.  Where, previousmente, I was convinced they didn't give out parking tickets.  Robyn has some sort of parking-hoodoo on her.

And then we went home and made the World's Worst Candy but also an amazing shepherd's pie.

And then we went and saw Where the Wild Things Are, for which I had incredibly low expectations, but for which I SWOONED!  A review will be forthcoming later at a place that is not here, but suffice it to say Squeee!  And also, awww.  Overall we called the day a win.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

If I'm going to keep this up all month...

...I'm going to have to start blogging in the mornings.  I crawled into bed at 6:30, and only just got up to microwave a heat bag because I'm basically a lizard now and make no body heat and Joel's off somewhere learning how to suture people.  Remind me to tell you a funny story about that.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Festive things!

Ok, so Joel's class carved pumpkins for their secretaries about a week ago, and it was the first time I had to miss out on something because I was just too damned tired to go.  Cue the tiny violins.

You'd think what with the disappointment and all that I'd be all for it on Saturday when Joel was like, We should carve our own pumpkins!  But I am recalcitrant that way, and I wanted nothing to do with this fun-having.  By now, though, Joel knows that if he just gets excited enough about something, that eventually I'll agree to do it, and that after I've acclimated myself to the idea of doing it, that I'll actually get excited as well.




By the time we hauled ourselves out to ye olde produce mart to pick up some fleshy canvasses, I'd come around.  I love festive-flavored things.  I thrill to traditions.  We used to all carve pumpkins up at my aunt Syl's place in Kamloops, and there were so many of us that we had to do it outside and our hands would freeze from the chilly pumpkin guts.



I had wanted to go as the swine flu this year (I was thinking of affixing a few hula hoops to myself to represent....I don't know, a molecule of contagion, or something, and then glueing plastic piggies to my torso) but we weren't going out and also I am a wreck of uselessness.  Instead we represented the scourge in pumpkin form.



The fellow on the right is making a break for cleaner doorsteps.

Monday, November 02, 2009

Hallowe-eats.

Ok, so I more or less range from vaguely tired to convinced that there is not enough sleep in the WORLD for how exhausted I am.  I take many naps.


I am still up to shenannigans, though, between said naps.  We had a quiet Halloween evening at home with some friends and a few rather violent games of Cranium Pop 5 (aside: I am the UNDISPUTED QUEEN of sculpturading.  You have no idea.  If it exists, I can make it recognizably from a lump of purple plastercine).  But this post will have nothing to do with my Cranial skillz, and everything to do with tasty treats.

So Robyn came over for a visit (more about which later.  I do have 30-odd days of posting ahead of me) and I capitalized on our previous success as bakerettes to talk her into helping me make caramel-apple-candies.  Which I invented.  It turns out that I know shit-all about candy-making.



There are those who think I can do no wrong in the kitchen.  To them I say, take a gander at this nasty crap!



They were not long for this world, the soupy, skeevy bastards.

At any rate, I sort of threw in the whole holiday-treat-themed towel because this epic fail depressed me so much, but then I came across a recipe for chocolate bones that didn't look like too much work, and DUDE!  THEY ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE LITTLE BONES!!



That is a nommable plate of bones, you might say.  Triumph!  And then I got all back in the groove and wrapped some apple slices in strips of puff pastry, and they actually sort of looked like little mummies before I cooked them:



But then they totally looked like little mummies after I cooked them:



And then they looked even more like mummies after I drizzled them with The Decay of the Ages (i.e. leftover caramel from the CandyFail):



And then I made some snot rolls:



And then I made a big bowl of Phlegm To Be Eaten With Chips, and there are no pictures because we ate it all IN SECONDS and I promise, if you ever throw a party and invite me I will make this dip for you and I promise to call it something more acceptable like Jalapeno Popper Dip, which will not take away from how much it really does look like a big bowl of phlegm, but which you will love anyways.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

NaBloPoMo

Ok, so I've been meaning to come on here and tell you all about Surgery 2.0, but then I was so tired and then time passed and I continued to be tired and also the amount of things I had to say was accruing interest and I sort of got overwhelmed.  But it's officially National Blog Posting Month again, so I thought I'd dust off the old typing fingers and get at her.  Unfortunately, a late night last night + daylight savings time + night-church = early sleeps.  So, anticipate things in the days to come.  Until then...how about that bag of popcorn!