Procrastinate now. Don't put it off.

A few South Africa Pictures

2009-08-03T19:39:00.004-06:00

South Africa #1

2009-07-10T11:44:00.002-06:00

So as you can see I basically abandonned the blog for most of this year. I realize I should have taken it down, but I kept it up just for this reason! I finally have something exciting to blog about. I'm in South Africa!

I've been here for 4 days and so far the trip has been great. I met Kath in Capetown and did some touring around there for a few days. Yesterday we climbed Table Mountain and felt very fit. (Our driver Simon said it would take us 2 hours and it only took us an hour and fifteen minutes.)

Today we left Capetown and drove ourselves to Stellenbosch which is in wine country. It is a super cute little town and we are staying at a lovely guesthouse right between downtown and one of the main wineries called The Lanzerac (sp?) where Kath is attending a conference. We are planning to hike or ride some bikes or potentially some horses around the wineries tomorrow and then we have a night of wine tasting after that!

Sorry there aren't any pictures...I haven't actually remembered to take any yet. But don't worry, I promise to start taking some pictures tomorrow!

Skiing

2009-01-06T17:53:00.003-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Ski season! I didn't get much skiing in last year because I was still a student and $80 for one day of fun is a bit hard to take when you have no income. I'm hoping to get out a bit more this year. So far I've only been out once, but I just bought new skis and boots so now I'm very excited go try them. The cabin is out of commission due to renovations which puts a bit of a damper on my regular ski plans but hopefully I'll find some other fun ski possibilities.

In addition to downhill I've also been trying out skate skiing. I'm really not fit enough for it, but I've been having a lot of fun anyways. I'm hoping if I keep skate skiing it will make me a bit fitter and I won't get cut from my frisbee team in the summer!

Birthday!

2008-11-23T20:34:00.004-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm now 26. I feel sort of old. My big gift this year was a guitar from my parents. I'm pretty excited about learning how to play. I've decided that I will sign up for a few lessons to get me started and then I'll see if I can learn on my own after that. So far I can play e,f,and g on the first string. That's it.

* UPDATE *
I can now play Ode to Joy poorly. Really need to take some lessons in January!

My new bike!

2008-08-18T20:43:00.006-06:00

I got a new mountain bike today!!! I decided to branch out a bit from road cycling and give this whole mountain biking thing a go. I'm basically terrified of most of the more technical stuff but I'm excited to learn and hopefully I'll gain some confidence as I get better.

Accountability

2008-08-14T14:40:00.003-06:00

So far today my "contributing to the world" score is hovering only slightly above zero. Other than paying the guys at the bike shop for fixing my bike I have done little to make the world a better place. This isn't because I couldn't think of anything to do, in fact I have oodles of school preparation to take care of as well as household chores that I keep promising to do and don't. Unfortunately that debilitating beast known as procrastination has reared its ugly head yet again and forced me to sit around reading stupid things on the internet and hoping someone will update their blog. (Update: Thanks to Jenn for updating her blog!). As part of this procrastination I decided to take a look back at my own blog to see how stupid it all seems a few years later. So far I have discovered the following things:
1. My brain is going to mush and I am becoming less interesting over time.
2. I really haven't kept up with the initial intentions of my blog. Especially the part about rating other people's blogs.
3. People are losing interest (I realize this assumes there was a measurable level of interest to begin with). Comments are down considerably from 2006.

In the name of accountability I have decided that if I am going to continue to have this blog I need to address the above issues. Here is my 3 point plan:
1. Say "yes" to more stuff. I think that saying "yes" more often will make my life more exciting and result in more interesting blog entries.
2. Reference other blogs more often in my posts.
3. Make new friends. Perhaps blogs are really only interesting for the first year. New friends might still think the blog is a novel idea and I could have a solid year of interest before they realize that they have better things to do with their time.

Vancouver

2008-08-05T11:17:00.003-06:00

I spent the long weekend in Vancouver with Kris and Ath. It was super fun even though they had just moved into their new apartment and we had to unpack a lot of boxes. The trip met all the requirements of a good trip to Vancouver: Sushi at Toshi's, ferryboat rides, fish tacos, sea wall walks, waffles, mountain adventures, and lots and lots of yummy coffees.
Highlights of the trip this time:
1. Hiking "The Grind": We felt pretty fit considering it is sort of a fit people thing to do. Gimpy (my ankle) did well on the hike too...I was pretty happy about that.
2. Going for trendy dinner: We had to walk down a sketchy alley to get into the restaurant and we saw two people smoking crack AND a rat. I'd never really seen a rat before. (The dinner was also very delicious)
3. Meeting baby Nikko (My cousin's baby): Nikko is certifiably cute and not at all breakable...my kind of baby.

I will post pictures as soon as my sister sends them to me.

Cabin Vacation

2008-07-28T12:51:00.003-06:00

Just a few photos from my latest trip to the cabin. The weather was great and I had a great time even though I couldn't participate in any of the biking/hiking/golfing fun. Luckily I was still able to swim and canoe so I didn't go crazy!

My super fun summer

2008-07-15T21:35:00.003-06:00

One of the best things about being a teacher is having the whole summer off. It's great. This is my first summer of teacher fun and my plan had been to play frisbee, lawnbowl, go to the cabin, and head out on a few trips such as canoeing. So far things are not going exactly as I had planned.

The latest snag in my plan involved trying a little bit too hard at frisbee last week. The girl I was marking was going to get the frisbee and I tried to stop that from happening and ended up with a high ankle sprain. After a trip to see my favourite sports med docs I am stuck in an aircast for 2 weeks and will then need physio after that.

The strangest thing is that I am really quite sad that I'm not going to get to play frisbee for at least a month (my other activities aren't quite as dependent on a healthy ankle). I had no idea I actually liked frisbee that much. It's weird how you realize how much you like something once you can't have it.

The latest Brinkley saga

2008-07-04T13:20:00.002-06:00

As some of you have already heard Brinkley spent Monday and Tuesday at the vet hospital. He woke up on Monday morning and couldn't use his back legs. Needless to say I was completely freaked out and terrified he was going to be paralyzed forever. Luckily, after approx. $2000 in vet bills he seems to be doing much better now. The current diagnosis is that he had severe gastroenteritis and an injured leg all at the same time. The gastroenteritis resulted from eating 2 socks, 2 loaves of bread, and a whole bunch of deer poop. The injured leg is apparently a strained (hopefully not torn) ACL in his right hind leg. I am trying to figure out how to post the x-rays, no luck so far though.

All of this means that he is on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and isn't allowed to do any activity for 2 weeks. Those of you who know Brinkley will understand that there is likely to be a certain amount of destruction after 2 weeks of no walks. I will be sure to post any destroyed items for all of you to enjoy.

Workin' Girl

2008-05-12T20:50:00.002-06:00

I have now officially been a real live teacher for one week. I'm teaching grade 1-2 at a nice little elementary school not too far from home. So far it has been really really hard. But also fairly enjoyable. The first few days were pretty much just terrifying, but now that I'm starting to get my head around the grade, the kids, and the school it is becoming more and more fun each day. YAY!

Books!

2008-03-26T15:07:00.002-06:00

One of the best blogs out there is becoming a book!

Book deal

The Ants Are Back. It Must Be Spring.

2008-03-18T18:27:00.002-06:00

Well, Brinks is shedding like crazy, the days are getting longer, and the hoards of teenagers (aka the Ants) have returned to Riley Park. It must be spring!
For those of you who live near Riley Park you will know exactly what I mean. There are groups of teenagers (mostly smoker-goth-wastoid types) who congregate in the park during the spring and summer. Mostly they just sit around and smoke, swear and adjust their various piercings. I'm not sure what it is about Riley Park that attracts them in such large numbers? Perhaps us Kensington folk are just so cool that all of these teenagers can't help but want to join in!

Miss Boyer

2008-03-13T14:08:00.003-06:00

As some of you have already heard I will officially be "Miss Boyer" beginning in May. I will be a substitute teacher for May and June and then I will have my very own classroom in September. I am excited about having my very own group of kiddies for the fall but of course I am also somewhat terrified. Introducing a whole group of kids to school and helping them to like it is a big responsibility and I am still wrapping my head around the idea that they are counting on me to do it!

For those of you who live in Calgary it won't be long before I begin pestering you for art materials, ideas, and likely your expertise at some point. Start saving your egg cartons.

Miss Boyer

Dog Sitting

2008-02-19T23:58:00.001-07:00

Jon is dog sitting Brinkley while I am on vacation. As you will read, its going quite well. Jon is an excellent dog sitter.

Hey mer,
Just writing to let you know that brinkley is doing well. He came up with a new game yesterday that I REALLY enjoyed. Its called "keep the dead bird away from Jon". He was very good at it.

So....I let him out in the yard and he found a dead frozen bird. I thought at first i would leave him and at first it worked, he just wanted the attention for having it, but then it kind of looked like he was nibbling on it, so i thought i should take it away from him b/c i wouldn't want him to get sick. So I started chasing him. He really liked this part. I was able to get him cornered in the yard, but then at the last second he would get away. My first attempt to catch him didn't work, i lunged and touched his hips, but he was able to get away. So I worked at cornering him some more. AND THEN, I was able to dive at him and catch his back legs, only he didn't stop moving, he ran and dragged me through the snow while I hung on. he came to a stop and then we started a new game. Who can wait the longest. I didn't really want to touch the dead bird so i held his collar fairly tight and told him every command i could think of to get him to drop it. I think it took at least 15 minutes. I think the whole neighbourhood heard me. But he let go and the game was over. How disappointing for brinkley. We made up that afternoon though, I think we both just needed to cool off.

Hope you are having a great time in san fran .

See you soon,
Jon :)

Travel Karma

2008-02-16T07:21:00.004-07:00

I must have done something to improve my travel karma. I was supposed to leave last night for San Francisco but my flight was overbooked. I volunteered to give up my seat so they gave me $600 in travel vouchers. It is especially funny because my seat to SF was purchased with travel vouchers! United Airlines is officially losing money on me.

Now I just have to figure out where I am going to go next! With a $600 discount my options increase substantially! YAY!

P.S I realized I forgot to write on the 14th, so happy belated Singles Awareness Day. Love you all!*

* amount of love may vary

A bit depressing

2008-01-18T18:25:00.001-07:00

15,051

THANKS TO BRINKLEY

Photoshop

2008-01-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

I'm learning to use photoshop. In case my skillz are so good you can't tell this is a photoshopped image Brinkley doesn't actually have that crown....it belongs to the Queen.

2008 resolutions

2008-01-15T19:20:00.001-07:00

I'm thinking of making some new years resolutions. Luckily, I didn't complete any of my resolutions from last year so I figure I can just roll them over to this year like unused cell phone minutes.
Here are my resolutions from last year:

Do 1 chin-up. Currently I can do 0 chin-ups.
Knit something other than a scarf
Run faster
Drink champagne for a whole night to see if i have a hangover the next day. (there is a rumor that you won't get a hangover from champagne if that is all you drink...I'm intrigued)
Read the Economist every week

Here are the resolutions that I will be rolling over to this year:

Do 1 chin-up. Currently I can do 0 chin-ups.
Run faster

I didn't actually accomplish the other resolutions. I've just decided I don't really care about them. In addition to these 2 resolutions I would like to add:

Learn to play the guitar
Develop a more exciting social life

So in conclusion here are my new years resolutions:

Do 1 chin-up.
Run faster
Learn to play the guitar
Develop a more exciting social life

On a lighter note I found my dancing twin. Sad but true.

I've created a monster

2007-12-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

My dad and brother in-law played Wii golf for 4 hours today. I don't think my mom is very happy that I took the Wii up to their house for the holidays. Whoopsies!

A poll

2007-12-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

I really like receiving christmas cards, but I have no desire to send out my own. Does this make me a bad person?

Brinkley's Latest Adventure aka my most recent embarrassment

2007-12-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on getting Brinkley to stop stealing things from the kitchen counter (I realize I've been working on this for over a year). This morning he decided to steal the dish scrubber so I kicked him out on to the porch. My mom built me a gate for the stairs so he is confined to the deck...or so I thought.
Just as I was about to let him back in the house he must have seen something really exciting (I suspect a rabbit) and he jumped over the gate and ran down the stairs. To make a long story short I found him in a house down the street. Needless to say the people who live there were a little shocked when he ran in the door but at least he didn't run on to 14th street and get hit by a car. My neighbors were also very understanding.

Video Games

2007-12-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

My housemate Sheena bought a Nintendo Wii and I've been having a lot of fun learning how to play. I wasn't allowed to play video games when I was a kid so in addition to my natural lack of hand-eye coordination I also have almost no practice.
As a fun little perk on top of the games designed especially for the Wii you can also download old Nintendo games like the Super Mario games. So far I've made it to game #5 in the first level of Super Mario 3. Apparently that's not good. I'm way better at the Wii specific games...not as many buttons, a lot more spastic moving around...much more my speed.
Inspite of my lack of skills I'm still managing to waste a lot of my time playing the Wii. I now understand how you can end up spending an entire afternoon playing a video game and not really realize it. Its just so much fun! So far my favourite time wasters are fishing, shooting, and cow racing. Classy, I know.

Trips

2007-11-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to think about what I am going to do after I finish school. I think I should go on a trip to celebrate, but I'm still trying to figure out where to go and for how long. A lot of my travel plans are dependent on how much money I can save up. I'm hoping to get a part time job next semester and then hopefully I'll be able to substitute teach in May and June as well. If that all goes as planned I'm currently considering the following destinations:

Australia: Not the most adventurous, but there are a lot of opportunities for fun activities and it would be a good introduction to solo travel.
Central America: A bit more adventure with the option of a side trip to the Caymans to visit my friend Nicole.
The Trans-Siberian Railway: Currently at the top of my list. Big adventure, but also big cost considering I'd be flying to Beijing and then home from somewhere in Europe.

Unfortunately all of this is purely fiction at this point until I know how things are going to work out in terms of jobs etc. but its always fun to plan! If you have any other suggestions send them along!

Soap

2007-11-01T21:39:00.000-06:00

I've decided to give bar soap another chance. I'm not sure exactly when it happened but at some point I started using bodywash and gave up on bar soap. So far the bar soap is working out pretty well. It is a lot cheaper and has way less packaging than bodywash which are both great features. The only problem so far is that the first bar went missing after about a week...I'm pretty sure the dog ate it. Whoops!

Back to School

2007-09-18T20:32:00.000-06:00

Well, it's that time of year and I'm back at Elementary school for one more practicum before they hopefully give me a degree. I'm at my old elementary school which is fun and a little bit weird all at the same time. I teach Kindergarten in the mornings and grade 2 in the afternoon. So far it is a pretty good mix. Here are a few things that have happened so far:

One girl cut her hair today while she was at the art center...I had to break the news to her mom. Luckily her mom wasn't mad. I swear it wasn't my fault...she knew better.
Three of my students asked me if they could join lawn bowling after I told them about winning the trophy this year.
I learned that duck, duck, goose is still a cool game if you're 5.

Lawn Bowling Champs!

2007-09-18T20:29:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday was our wrap up party for lawn bowling for the year. We had beautiful weather and everyone had a great time playing a few final games. Unfortunately the Cupcakes didn't make it to the final round of the tournament but it turns out we did win the league play for the year! London 2012 here we come! I'll post a photo of our trophy as soon as I take one. Stay tuned!

Stop Drinking!

2007-08-21T22:28:00.000-06:00

I think our obsession with hydration has gone too far. On the way to frisbee today I saw a woman wearing a fuel belt while walking her dog. Slowly. I cannot for the life of me imagine a scenario where she really needed to be wearing a fuel belt. Why did we become so obsessed with carry water? Are we becoming camels? Is the next step excessive spitting?

My new goals

2007-08-12T22:12:00.000-06:00

Now that we're getting to the end of the summer I've decided it's time to set some new goals. I guess I've decided that I need goals in order to keep myself from spending all of my time napping. So, here it goes:

Learn how to play the guitar. I think this is an important skill for an elementary school teacher. My playschool teacher, Brenda, played the guitar and I still remember that.
Get better at frisbee. If I'm going to keep playing this game I need to be better at it...it's starting to become embarrassing.
Be more organized. I'm basically a complete disaster. It is a complete miracle that I am able to pay my bills on time.
Learn about moderation. I need to learn how to buy a box of fudgsicles and not eat them all in three days.

I think I better stop there. That seems like a lot of stuff to accomplish. I think I need a nap.

2007-07-05T22:32:00.000-06:00

Oh Brinkley! What a star. My housemate's super computer is awesome...I wish I was fancy enough for a Macbook Pro! Make sure your sound is turned on, it makes the video way funner.

Pooch loves the sun

2007-05-15T22:02:00.000-06:00

Rap for the Hearing Impaired

2007-05-08T21:08:00.000-06:00

It could happen.

How about a hobo?

2007-04-18T22:17:00.000-06:00

I am watching TV right now and a Dairy Queen commercial just came on that is yet another example of a trend that has taken over TV. This isn't really a new trend but I haven't ranted about it yet. Apparently TV has decided to try to disrupt the natural order which tends to match up people of equal hotness, intelligence etc. Most of us know this as the number system and frankly I think it has worked fairly well thus far.

There are a lot of TV shows on right now that have a super hot wife and a painfully average husband and we are supposed to believe they are an "average couple". In addition to looks the men on these shows are generally sort of dopey and the wives do a lot of sighing and eye-rolling. In reality this is an 8 married to a 3 which we all know is basically crazy.

The reason that these shows bother me is that if these super hot women are supposed to date/marry the chubby-average-dopey guys, who is an average girl like me supposed to date? A hobo?

Seriously.

Really?

2007-04-02T17:33:00.000-06:00

Dear annoying girl on the train,

No matter how nice your lulu lemon pants are they are not dress pants. This means that they should not be worn with stilettos, even pink patent leather stilettos. In addition, you really only need to carry one bag. I realize you think you look extra stylish when you carry your fake Chanel purse but when you put your superman backpack over the other shoulder it kind of ruins it. Finally, the jewel you had put in your front tooth, really not cool. Unless your name is Chingy it pretty much just looks like you have food in your teeth.

Thanks for understanding

Hair Cut

2007-03-30T19:58:00.000-06:00

I was having a low self-esteem day today so I got a haircut. The jury is still out on this one...it involves bangs. Here are the pros and cons so far:

Pros:

My forehead doesn't look as big
I think I look less like a librarian
Sheena says I look less pointy
I think its a bit "trendier"

Cons:

Bangs can be unpredictable
I think I'm going to have to shower more
I may not be able to see the frisbee at ultimate
I'm not sure I can pull off "trendy"

Science

2007-03-12T21:40:00.000-06:00

Welcome to grade one science.

GlaS Petl
we mebit into a god shap we pot wois on it and slakrKs.
we taPt the GasPetl to the stro sothaT itworodFlot bek Holbti to Flot. wekivroThe ois
we kitthe plat and pota rok on The Plae metle woshrs Aad tiis.

Hint: We were doing an experiment where they had to make objects that float sink, and objects that sink float. Have fun!

Home Alone

2007-03-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

My housemate went to visit her sister for a few days so it's just me and the dog at home this weekend. I'm really bad at living alone. Here are a few reasons why:

I'm not very good at entertaining myself.
I start talking to the dog (more than usual).
I watch too many home improvement shows and then feel bad about what my house looks like.
I get a bit too chatty with strangers at the coffee shop.
I get scared when its dark and have to check for bad guys around every corner like the cops on TV.

I'm always curious what percentage of the population prefers to live alone? I guess it would have some advantages such as not having to worry about your dog ruining other peoples stuff and being able to walk around in your underpants, but at this point I'm willing to forgo those potential benefits for the piece of mind that comes with knowing the bad guys only have a 50/50 chance of getting to me first.

My skinny dog

2007-02-25T19:28:00.000-07:00

I took Brinkley to the vet this week. He had to have blood taken so that they could check his thyroid levels again. He has hypothyroidism which resulted in low energy and some weight gain for the poor guy. I'm happy to report that his thyroid levels are fine and he has lost 5kg! He is now pretty much at his ideal weight at 41kg (~90lbs).
I also purchased the FURminator last weekend and I have been having a great time getting rid of all of Brinkley's loose hair! (I know, I really need to get a life.) I was a bit skeptical about the Furminator, rarely do products work as well in real life as they claim to in the demo, but the Furminator has been worth every penny, its amazing! I highly recommend it.
A few other things that I have discovered about Brinkley over the past few weeks:
- He's scared of Snowmen. We saw one on our walk a few weeks ago and we had to turn around because he wouldn't walk past it. Then some kids built a snowman across from my house and he spent a full night barking at it while I was trying to sleep. I tried closing the blinds, but then he ate them.
- He loves raw potatos. He stole one the other day while I was cooking and apparently he's found a new favourite food. A bit weird. But a lot cheaper than TV remotes (the count is up to 12) and rawhides so I'm all for it!

Painting, Ping Pong, and Rec Rooms!

2007-02-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

It has been a very busy weekend. Since Sue moved out Sheena decided to move upstairs, but before she did we had to paint the room. As it turns out I am the world's worst painter. You might think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. I managed to mess up the trim, cutting, and I even got paint in my eye...and all I had to do was paint three walls white. Not to worry though, once I stopped trying to help Sheena got all the painting done and it looks great.

So how that we have the whole basement empty we decided to turn it into a rec room! First step in creating a rec room: A ping pong table!! I found one on craigslist and picked it up today. It is soooooo fun!!! The next step for the rec room is the purchase of a Nintendo Wii (Sheena is buying it, not me. I'm a poor student, I can't afford stuff like that). We have a couch and chair all setup with the TV down there just waiting for the Wii. Unfortunately it is IMPOSSIBLE to find a Wii! Oh well, we'll find one eventually and then the rec room will be close to completion. After that it'll be time for a party!

Unhibernation League...again

2007-01-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

Unhibernation league is going to start up again the first week in February. Thanks to Ali and Andrew for hosting the first event in December. For those of you who couldn't make it we had a great time decorating gingerbread houses...well until Jon accidentally stepped on Maarten's gingerbread house, that part was pretty sad...especially for Maarten. I have too much homework to get anything planned for this week but it is definitely starting the week after because I really can't handle too many more nights hanging out at home with my dog. (wow, that sounds even more pathetic in print than it did in my head). Anyways, for those of you who are interested I'll be sending out an email with an event sometime this week. If you don't hear from me send me an email to remind me to plan something...I'm a bit forgetful.

oh, also an update on my new years resolutions...I'm switching it to one chin up...they're REALLY hard!

The Golden Globes

2007-01-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

Phrases uttered in my house while watching the Golden Globes:

My dog's life is hard like Beyonce's
If you're Diddy, I'm Chingy
It must suck to be that one non-funny British person. Everyone would have such high expectations and then nothing.
I'd hate to go to an awards show. I'd feel so homely. I mean, I realize these celebrities have a lot of people helping to make them beautiful, but I don't think they're exactly uggo's when they wake up in the morning.
I wonder if they use paint chips to match the colour of their spray on tans to their dresses
Why is that guy from that movie with Jessica Simpson presenting at the Golden Globes?

Resolutions

2007-01-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

I think I'm generally against the idea of new years resolutions. Primarily because I have a hard time wrapping my head around a period of time as long as a whole year. So I think this list is really more of a list of general things I'd like to be able to do in the next little while...let's say 3 months-ish.

Do 5 chin-ups...in a row. Currently I can do 0 chin-ups.
Knit something other than a scarf
Run faster
Drink champagne for a whole night to see if i have a hangover the next day. (there is a rumor that you won't get a hangover from champagne if that is all you drink...I'm intrigued)
Read the Economist every week

I think if I can accomplish at least 3 of these I'll be pretty happy.

Hawaiitis

2007-01-01T01:56:00.000-07:00

I seem to be suffering from a fairly severe case of hawaiitis. It is a pretty debilitating disease. The symptoms are as follows:

Lethargy
reddening (or browning) of the skin
increased body temperature
cravings for alcohol and "tapas"
inability to make decisions

I've been doing my best to work through the disease but its pretty hard. Anyways, happy new year!

Mele Kalikimaka

2006-12-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

A few pictures from Christmas day here in Hawaii. Luckily Santa was still able to find us here and mom cooked a great turkey! (I was responsible for making the Hawaiian eggnog aka Pina Colada's and I'm happy to say they were very well received.)

The pastiest people in Hawaii. We're working on it...I promise.

The girls wearing some festive jewels from Grandma

View from the Lanai

Hawaii bound

2006-12-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

Off to Hawaii tomorrow morning! I'm really excited. I hope I don't get eaten by a shark.
Merry Christmas everyone (or other holiday wishes if you don't celebrate Christmas). See you in two weeks!

Unhibernation League

2006-12-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

It's time to start up the unhibernation league again. Really it was time to start up the league in October, but I was lazy and busy getting used to being in school and didn't get my act together. So, I think the league should start after January 7th. Here are a few ideas I have so far:

Climbing
Speed Skating (either Steph or Maarten will need to be recruited in order for this one to work I think.)
Roller Skating
Skeleton
Andrew's annual scavenger hunt

I'm pretty excited for the league to start up again. I had a lot of fun last year!

Wii

2006-11-30T20:34:00.003-07:00

I'm thinking of buying a Wii. From what I've heard the sports games are supposed to be pretty fun (not to mention the potential of "Dance Factory") and you don't have to be one of those "gamers" to have one. I'm waffling about it though because they are still a bit expensive and I'm a poor student. Seems like fun though!

Farewell to Milton Friedman

2006-11-21T19:49:00.000-07:00

Milton Friedman passed away last Thursday. I'm really surprised how little I've heard about it in the media. Maybe I'm just watching the wrong shows, or perhaps things have gotten so bad that the death of one of the most significant economist of the 20th century isn't important enough to interrupt the 24/7 coverage of the "TomKat" wedding. Either way it's always sad to lose a smartie.

procrastination strikes again

2006-11-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

Procrastination has been getting the better of me lately. I just can't seem to convince myself to get anything done, especially school work and laundry. If this keeps up I may just have to buy new clothes. In addition this blog has also taken a bit of a hit due to my procrastination. So, in an attempt to rectify the situation here are a few things that I've been thinking about lately but haven't managed to get into print:

Short people. Short Pants: Why do I keep seeing short people in excessively short pants? Inevitably the people in short pants are also wearing white socks and bad shoes which only makes things worse and apparently these people are completely oblivious to the breeze on their ankles. I mean I can understand that tall people who don't care about their clothes sometimes end up with short pants because their legs are just too long for regular pants, but these short people actually had to put in effort to make their pants too short...they had to get them hemmed like that! Is this some sort of sick joke being played by tailors all across Calgary?
Bathroom reno: I'm renovating the bathroom. Today I had to go choose tile at the contractor approved tile store. The lady who was "helping" me was horrible...she was one of those people who is determined to do the least amount of work possible while at work without any consideration for the difficulty this will cause for the customer. Here's how our conversation went: I said: " I'm renovating my bathroom. My contractor said I needed to come here to choose tile. I think I like this tile here but I would like to take it home to see what it looks like in my bathroom. Can I do that?" Her response: "Well, I can't let you take the sample we have out here, so I'd have to check in the back for another sample" - awkward pause - Then I said: " Ok, I can just keep looking while you go check" -awkward pause - Then she said: "Oh, well I guess you can probably take the one out here if you can bring it back on Monday". Then i said:" Ok, could you tell me the price on this tile?" and she said: "Well I'd have to go to the back to get that"...I think you get the idea. This is when you really start to see the negative effects of the labour shortage...I think I'd prefer if they just hired monkeys or something.
I had more things I was going to write about...procrastination and juvenile alzheimers is not a good combination.

Football and Climbing!

2006-11-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

I went to the Stamps game yesterday. They lost. I'm not really that committed to football though, so I wasn't too upset. Plus, the Roughriders are really all that people in Saskatchewan have to cheer for, so the least we can do is let them win once in a while.

I also had my first climbing lesson last night. Wow is it ever fun! (also a lot less hugging than football). I'm taking the class with my friend Stephanie and we are both at about the same level which makes it much less intimidating. The first climb up the wall was a bit scary, but after that we made it to the top a few times on one of the easier walls and we were sufficiently tired by the end of the two hours. I can't wait for next Sunday!

If I won the lottery

2006-11-01T21:14:00.002-07:00

I had a dream a while ago that I won 300 million dollars in the lottery. In the dream I mailed a plane ticket to Hawaii to everyone I know with a sticky note saying "hope you can make it". Needless to say I woke up in a really great mood and I started thinking about what else I would do if I won the lottery. Here is my list so far:

take everyone to Hawaii (as mentioned above)
buy an iPod
renovate my condo
pay off the mortgage on the condo
buy a house
renovate my new house to include a room for Brinkley made entirely of that stuff they use to make Kong dog toys, and add a climbing wall to the kitchen
hire a professional pooper-scooper to follow Brinkley around outside
hire a dog nanny like Oprah

That's all I have so far...I'll add new items as I think of them. Suggestions welcome.

"Feelings"

2006-10-25T14:29:00.000-06:00

I don't want to write the paper I should be working on right now. The main challenge with most of the writing I am expected to do for the teaching program is that I am supposed to express the "feelings" that the topic brings out in me and relate this to my past experiences. Now I realize that this doesn't sound that challenging, and in a lot of ways it isn't. For one thing, the amount of research required is minimal. However, the problem with this whole "feelings" thing is that I generally only have 2 feelings about the topics discussed in our classes. Feeling #1: That was pretty fun, I liked it. Feeling #2: That wasn't very fun. I didn't like it. This is completely the opposite of a lot of the people in this program who have WAY too many feelings. One girl even cried. It was ridiculous.

In an attempt to try to fit in better with some of my classmates (not the crier though...she's just insane), I have decided to start practicing the different emotions so that I can bring them out on command in my classes. The emotions that seem to be used the most by my classmates are: insulted, angry, overwhelmed, sad, and happy. I'm already pretty good at happy, so I'm going to start off by focusing on the other 4. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

A girl on the train

2006-10-19T17:19:00.000-06:00

A girl sitting across from me on the train today took off her shoe, smelled it, and put it back on. I don't know how to respond to that.

Overwhelmed by toothpaste

2006-10-11T22:28:00.000-06:00

I saw a toothpaste commerical on TV today that I can't stop thinking about. The toothpaste is Aquafresh White and Shine. Basically the message of the commercial is that this toothpaste will not only make your teeth white, it will also make them shiny! So apparently now its not good enough to have white teeth, they have to be shiny...go ahead and start feeling unnecessarily self-conscious now. At first the only goal was clean teeth, then they threw whitening in their and now they've added shiny. Based on this trend, I'm guessing the next step is tooth glitter. I can't wait.

Update on the TV remotes

2006-10-09T22:35:00.000-06:00

So about an hour after I wrote my entry about the TV remotes Brinkley got another one! This time it was the remote for Sheena's DVD player...whoopsies! I was searching for a sock in my closet and he snuck downstairs and took the remote. As it turns out I think the reason I couldn't find the sock was because Brinkley ate it. Also, Sheena and I recounted and between the remotes he has destroyed at my house combined with the remotes he has destroyed at my parents house the count is actually up to 8.

Mourning the loss of TV remotes #4 and 5

2006-10-08T20:01:00.000-06:00

Brinkley destroyed 2 TV remotes today. The first one was my fault. I accidentally left it sitting on the coffee table and went into the kitchen for a few seconds. I was going into the kitchen to get a handful of chocolate chips, yes I eat chocolate chips right out of the bag...don't try to pretend you don't do the same thing. In Brinkley-land leaving the TV remote on the coffee table is apparently a clear invitation to take the remote. It really only takes him one good chomp to destroy the remote...I wonder if they make titanium TV remotes?

(The second TV remote lost its life while I was having a shower. Brinkley managed to open the drawer where I keep the TV remote and destroyed it along with a pen. There is also a pretty good chance he ate a hair elastic.)

Winter Activities #2

2006-10-05T19:03:00.000-06:00

Winter activity #1 is taken care of. My friend Steph and I are going to take climbing lessons! I'm really excited about it. From what I can tell climbing has some of the same benefits as yoga (makes you stronger, bendier, more coordinated) but without all the standing still and crazy breathing. I'm still looking into Skeleton as the other potential activity. The COP website doesn't have any information on it anymore, but a girl that I go to school with knows some of the bobsledder/luger/skeleton-ers so she's going to try to find some info for me.

YAY! So excited!

Winter Activities

2006-10-02T20:26:00.000-06:00

I'm in the process of trying to sort out my activities for this winter. I figure that with school and the dog I can probably manage one evening activity during the week and then another activity on Friday and potentially something else on the weekend. Here are the ideas I have so far:

(un)hibernation league
skeleton
pottery
yoga
pilates
skate skiing

At the moment I think that I will forsure have (un)hibernation league, and maybe yoga during the day on Friday, and then hopefully skeleton or skate skiing sometime during the week.

Skool!

2006-09-20T21:05:00.000-06:00

This week is immersion week at school. That means that I get spend the whole week with my grade 1-2 class. So far its been a blast and I am slowly getting the hang of things. Here are a few things I've learned so far:

1. If you wear shiny shoes, people are going to feel a need to touch them.
2. Never take someone's eraser without asking AND waiting for them to say yes...they may burst into tears.
3. Recess is seems even shorter when you're a teacher.
4. It's hard to sniff smelly markers without colouring your nose.

I'll keep you posted on what else I learn!

Back to School

2006-09-12T22:30:00.000-06:00

I started school on Monday! It's hard to believe it's finally here. I'm a bit nervous since its been a while since I had to do homework, write papers etc. but I'm also pretty excited. For my field placements I'll be in a grade 1/2 classroom until November-ish and then I'll be at the Alberta Wilderness Association which is conveniently located up the street from my house! I think it'll probably take a few weeks to get used to being back at school but hopefully I'll catch on quick!

I wish I went to Stanford

2006-09-06T22:52:00.000-06:00

I went to visit my sister in California over the long weekend. Well, to be fair since I'm "retired" I took an extra long weekend (Thursday-Tuesday). Being the organized sibling Kath had a whole itinerary set up for us so we got a lot of great tourist work done. A few highlights from the trip:
- The monterey aquarium: the otters are hillarious and they had a brand new Great White Shark! oooooh! To be honest, it was a baby Great White Shark...so not exactly Great...more like pretty big for a baby.
- Shopping!: J.Crew and DSW officially have all my money.
- Visit to the redwood forest: We totally won the hike. estimated time: 2 hours, our time: 45 minutes. Woohoo!!
- Sea Lions at the beach: We saw Sea Lions at the beach!!! at least I think they were Sea Lions...I'm not sure I totally know which one is a Seal and which one is a Sea Lion...

Lesson learned

2006-08-25T00:28:00.000-06:00

I think it's only fair to post any lessons I have learned to my blog in the hopes of helping others (I'm convinced "Karma" is going to get me if I don't). So, here is my latest lesson learned:

Even if you've only had 2 double g&t's putting you duvet inside the duvet cover is going to be harder.

Hope that helps.

The Cabin

2006-08-25T00:20:00.000-06:00

So I was going to write a blog entry about the trip to my cabin this past weekend, but it feels a bit redundant considering both Andrew and Justin already posted entries about it. Sooo I guess I'll just say we had a lot of fun...too bad the rest of you suckers couldn't join us aaaannnddd one batch of waffles is never enough.

(Justin and Andrew thanks for taking pictures!)

Brinkley and Lucy

2006-08-17T14:05:00.000-06:00

Brinkley and Lucy hangin' out.

Door!

2006-08-17T11:21:00.000-06:00

It's a good thing my parents are very understanding people. I dropped Brinkley off at their house last night when I went to lawn bowling so that he wouldn't have to go in his house for the evening. Brinkley and I had quite an active day yesterday so I didn't think he'd cause too much trouble for my parents...but of course I was wrong. Within an hour of being at their house he had dug a major hole in their garden and then got so excited about the hole he dug that he ran head first into their back door, shattering the glass part of the door with his head. Luckily there was a screen between his head and the glass so no trip to the vet was required, although considering his behaviour perhaps a CT scan wouldn't be the worst idea.

1 year old

2006-08-15T10:56:00.000-06:00

Well, Brinkley is officially 1 year old (his birthday was actually on August 9th but it took a while to get a current picture)! Now only 2 more years until he will start to act like a grown up! Woohoo!

Ricky's Blog

2006-08-09T15:01:00.000-06:00

Ricky has asked me to include his blog in my rating system. Since I know Ricky, and his current blog is going to give me a lot of material to work with I've agreed to add him. So here we go:

Ricky's latest blog entry is pretty awesome. It doesn't exactly present Ricky in the most flattering light, but I like that kind of honesty. As far as Ricky's current problems with the ladies go I think I may have identified the main problem.

Ricky, you need to take on a more active role. By giving girls your number and expecting them to call you you're putting all the power in their hands...if they don't call, there's nothing you can do about it. Also, you're placing them outside their comfort zone...I hate to break it to you, but girls don't call boys. Boys call girls. Take their numbers...at least that way you have some control over the situation. Rating: 4

My Last Day

2006-08-04T10:02:00.000-06:00

Today is my last day working at Korn/Ferry. I've had a chance to meet some pretty interesting people and I've learned a lot about the business community in Calgary over the past year. Overall I would say this job has been a great experience and it could have led to some other great opportunities had I decided I wanted to stay in the corporate world. However, I'm still VERY excited to be done! I can't wait to have the rest of the summer off and to start school in the fall.

Now I'm in the process of figuring out what to do for the rest of the summer. Here are my ideas so far:
- Go to the cabin
- Visit my sister in California
- Play tennis
- Go golfing
- Go to the zoo
- Bake pies
- Hang out with Brinkley
- Play frisbee
- Watch seasons 1 and 2 of the Cosby show
- Ride my bike

Thoughts? Feelings?

My first review

2006-08-03T08:47:00.000-06:00

I've decided that my blog reviews will be based on a 0-5 rating system. 0 meaning the author is being one of those jerks who hasn't updated their blog, and 5 meaning the author has really outdone themselves. So, here we go:

Andrew's Blog: Well, I tend to think that just posting pictures is cheating, but at the same time the photos that Andrew posted are pretty good and commentary might have taken something away from them. Overall I'm going to say that's a 3, partially because he's still earning points from the excellent folkfest rant from last week.

Justin's Blog: Ok, so I'm pretty sure a picture of your excessively messy bedroom should not count as a blog entry....unless the next entry is going to be a picture of the same bedroom magically clean with some sort of explanation of the cleaning process (how many elves it took, what kind of living creatures were discovered etc.). But considering this is review #1, I'm going to take pity on poor Justin and say that the entry about unemployment was enjoyable. Probably because I can't wait for this week to be over so I can start my own brief stint of "retirement"! Rating: 2

Mic's Blog: Mic's latest blog entry has a lot of things going for it. It's thorough, stays within the main "what has Micaela been up to lately?" theme of the blog, and provides a promise for future entries that procrastinators such as myself can look forward to. However, it's not the "feel good" blog I would have hoped for. The main reason for this is that it makes me feel both jealous and lazy. Holidays? 49*C? Cottage country? all the makings of a jealousy inducing blog. Pilates twice a week? weeding your garden? Dog Sitting? yup, now I feel lazy. Overall though a great blog entry and the fact that I feel jealous and lazy is probably more my issue than her's. Rating: 3.5

Mike's Blog: Seriously? Are we still expected to excited about the fact that Mike couldn't wash his car in May? Come on Mike, you work part-time....from home..take a few minutes to update your blog! Rating: 0

The Dilbert Blog: Ok so this is a bit of a tricky blog to rate. Mostly because he has a serious advantage over our other bloggers: 1. He is a professional writer/funny man 2. I'm pretty sure he gets paid to write the blog and I think even Mike could probably take a few minutes to update his blog if someone was paying him. That said this is a great blog that everyone should read.

I'm going to cut Scott Adams (Dilbert creator) a bit of slack for not updating his blog lately because he just got married and frankly I'd be a bit concerned if he was updating his blog on his honeymoon. His latest entry "Heat Wave" is both hillarious and it provides a solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Not too shabby. Rating: 4.5

My Blog

2006-08-02T08:26:00.000-06:00

Well, its finally happened...I've started a blog. Whoa. Scary. To be honest I'm pretty nervous about the whole idea. Rationally I know that very few people will actually read this thing and compared to the other idiots out there ranting away on their blogs chances are this will come out somewhere in the middle in terms of humour/interest/proper spelling. But despite knowing that I'm still pretty nervous. Here are the main reasons why:

1. I'm lazy. This means that there is a pretty good chance I won't update this thing as often as I should, and we all know there's nothing worse than those jerks who create a blog and then never update it.
2. I'm pretty sure I don't actually have that much to say.
3. I'm not that funny in print
4. I'm not good at taking pictures (from what I've seen pictures are a key element to any half decent blog)
5. There's a pretty good chance that at some point my dog will decide to eat my computer and then I won't be able to update my blog and you'll all think I'm a big jerk even though it’s entirely beyond my control.

Despite these fears, I'm still committed to giving this whole blog thing a go. I have a few main plans for my blog so far:

1. Rating other people's blogs. I am an excellent procrastinator (one of my best features really), which means I read the 5 blogs that I know about everyday. I've linked these blogs to this one so that all of you can decide if you agree with my ratings or not. Basically I'll be rating these blogs on the quality of their latest update, or lack of update.

2. Letting you know what bizarre things my dog has eaten/done today.

3. Random updates about anything I feel like. I'm really trying to embrace the true spirit of blogging with this one. So far this is the part I'm the most nervous about.

Enjoy!