halloweekend

Jeremy and I did a pub crawl on Saturday with his friends and co-workers from Gabby’s. He went as Ozzy Osbourne and I was a bumblebee. We looked so cute, although some people thought he was Howard Stern or John Lennon. He loved his eyeliner a little too much. He said it opened his eyes right up. Ah well. We went to see The Grudge finally, on Halloween. Jer insisted upon going during the day because it was scary but we slept through all the show times until 7. It was very very frightening. Going into the movie I thought he would be more visibly scared than I. Now I am a horror movie veteran but I was cringing and actually almost closed my eyes at one point where Sarah Michelle was looking in a mirror (you know something’s going to happen there). Whenever I looked over at Jeremy he was calmly sitting, blank faced with his hands in his lap. I was worried he was bored for a while there. When we left the theatre I remarked upon this and he looked wryly at me then showed me his hands. One was red and chafed from the other gripping it tightly for the whole movie. He said he won’t go to any more scary movies with me, and that I’ll have to go with Maria. I think I just need to work on him a bit.

Since I'm always reading I'm going to put a section in my sidebar where I'll just note what book I'm currently on so if anyone's looking for a good book, there will always be a new title for you to try. Maybe i'll put a little post about each one when I'm done. We'll see.

second place baby!

Last night Maria, Ildiko and I got second place in the Flatiron’s pumpkin carving contest. Ildiko left before they announced winners but Maria and I got a free beer each. And a shot. You can go to the Flatiron and see it if you wish; ours is the cat with jalapeno peppers around it. It’s great; they said that they would email Maria the pics they took so you may get to see it soon.

nothing much

Not much going on. Last night I stayed late at work and was set for a night of csi watching by myself when Jeremy walks in the door. And he brings me fish and chips. I'm getting spoiled. And fat. Anyway tonight it's off to the flatiron for a pumpkin carving contest. Tho Maria just mentioned that we might each have to do our own pumpkins and in that case I prob won't do it. Oh I'll go, drink beer and be supportive but being judged as an individual in some talent competition.....not for me. If it's a group effort I'll participate. I've been looking at pumpkin designs all morning. I have it narrowed down to Mona Lisa or El Chupacabra.

no din

Yay I finally got a new comp at work. Now I have xp, more space and more ram. It’s way faster. Life is good. I can’t stop playing on this thing. Anyway last night no din so Jer and I watched csi and he managed to convince the lovely people at the duke to give us take-out which they normally don’t do. While there he found out that they are building a roof over the patio and putting heaters out there so it’s a year-round patio. Can you say ‘favourite place ever’? It makes me think of Guelph. The Trash had a heated patio and it was awesome, we’d be sitting outside in our tank tops with snow falling on us and be toasty. It was awesome.



also.....Happy Belated Birthday Ingrid!

the weekend

Ok, as I have no internet at home - here's the weekend rundown:
On Friday Maria and I went to the flatiron for some NTN goodness. I got to see my name up there twice as I won 2 games!! The first game I won on the last question so it was a big surprise, especially since some bar regulars who are really good were playing. There is this guy, gtw, who always gets –250 pts. We think he doesn’t know you can change your answer before the time runs out; I guess gtw doesn’t stand for ‘got to win’. When I got home Hayley was waiting for me ad she brought me goodies. Pies, spaghetti, soup and more. I love that she always works at bakeries. Saturday was a stay in bed and finish my book day and Sunday I watched a ton of movies at home. When Harry met Sally, A Few Good Men, and Hunt for Red October. All of which I’d never seen before. Of the three my fav was Hunt for Red October, which rocked. After that Jer came over and brought me fried chicken. Is it any wonder I love that boy?

just ducky

You must read Maria’s entry today, it’s great. Somewhat traumatic but great. It’s on par with Ingrid’s story where she ended up calling 911 after hours of debate with her family because of a spider in their closet that turned out to be her husband’s shoelace. Man I work with some great storytellers.

Maria has gotten me involved in something called blogshares. It’s a fantasy stock market where blogs are money, so to speak. Anyway I started doing it just to claim my blogs but now inevitably, I want to be a top player and have lots of fake money. It’s like neopets, where I am strangely gratified by that icon that says ‘47 months’. Anyhoo a more experienced player was kind enough to gift me with some shares. I’ve blogrolled ValkingWinger to show my appreciation and I promise to help out newbies when I’m filthy rich.

watching tv

I really love Law & Order Special Victims Unit. I watch it almost every night but I realized last night as they lost another case that I’ve only seen them win once. It’s getting very frustrating, due to the nature of the cases they work on. I’ll still watch tho. Anyway The Apprentice is on tonight so yahoo!

dinner and a movie

Shepherd’s pie for din, with peas and banana cream pie for dessert. I couldn’t finish my pie on account of my generous second helping. *Preen, preen* anyway the highlight for me was the home movies. Tho I didn’t get to see wee baby Jeremy I did get to see some awkward, angsty teenage years and the jovial annoying pest years before. So adorable he is. I find it amusing that the facial expressions and body language I see all the time were present back then. Jeremy has always said that he’s got the same voice he had when he was 12, and I always insisted that couldn’t be the case as it’s so deep and manly. Now I have proof as I’ve heard the 12-year-old tenor personally. It’s not the same, tho the laugh is nearly identical. It’s just deeper now. My only complaint is that there wasn’t enough Jeremy on the tapes. It’s mostly Rebecca (naked Rebecca), with some Hayley thrown in and Jeremy on the side. I can’t wait for them so see home movies of me. I was an adorable child but I think the movies are all shot well into my awkward phase. Three words – big pink glasses.

movie and pageant

On Saturday Jer and I went to see forgotten. It was good, I jumped at a few parts but it wasn’t fantastic. I recommend seeing it but it’s not necessary to do so in a theatre. That night we met up with Hayley, Rebecca and Matt and went to the next Miss Universe® Canada prelims. Um, it was interesting. I’d say all in all this group of girls isn’t as hopeful as the last to do well in the finals. Actually some of the interview answers were downright funny. I’m sure hairagorn will be much more explicit when they write about it.Sunday was lazy and I read a few books, tho I actually left my house to get food at one point. Amazing huh? I had hoped to go shoe shopping tonight right after work as I’m still wearing open toes but I left my bankcard at home. I know it’s only a 15 minute walk but once I’m home that’s it man. I can’t do it tomorrow cuz it’s din with the in-laws so I’ll have to do it Wednesday. I hear it’ll warm up a bit so no one may yet say anything about my peekaboo toes. I’m sure you’re all very interested.

new rug and superglue

Last night I cleaned my apartment and put down my new rug. Well I picked up the garbage and organized the books, movies and purses into piles. Anyway it looks great. The rug clashes horribly with everything in my apartment but so does everything else so it’s ok. Then I settled down to watch the apprentice. I love that show. Now that I have such I nice open area at home I think I’ll do some crafts tonight. Time to bust out the superglue. I have to head to Dollarama for Maria anyway so I’ll pick up some stuff to glue stuff to. Like frames and um, I dunno some other stuff. It’ll be great.

girl's night out

I had a spontaneous girl’s night last night. It was great; Maria Ildiko and I did a little shopping then headed for the Duke. Had some pesto Joe balls and a couple pints of Creemore (and yes this time that means two). Ooooh I also introduced Ildiko to the deep fried mars bar. She said there were no words to describe it. A true fan.

If anyone’s interested the new pics for the second Miss Universe® Canada preliminary are up at beautiesofcanada.com. Hayley, Rebecca, Jeremy, myself and two mystery guests (one of whom will likely be Trevor), will be attending the prelim on Saturday at the Isabel Bader theatre. This time I think the girls are bringing clipboards.

hairagorn

Hayley and Rebecca have finally decided to join the cool kids and start a blog. You may have noticed the lime Up The Muffins link to the right. Well that's the one. Check it out and prepare to be titillated, tickled and more than a little confused.

thanksgiving in the city

Now that I’ve had all my thanksgiving dinners the official weight gain count is in – 5 lbs. Not too bad, all things considered. Last night was great, even tho we had roast potatoes instead of mashed. We also had carrots, stuffing and a turkey named Tom. He gladly gave his life so we could have dinner (tho I hear Denise misled him into thinking he was the guest of honour. He wondered what he should wear and she told him she’d take care of the dressing). Plus we had pecan pie for dessert. Delish. I loooove pecan pie. It even looks pretty. Tho I bowed out of Balderdash and opted to read my book I still had a great time. I brought baby pictures of myself and have been promised videos of baby Jeremy next time I'm there. I can’t wait. If they’re anything like the video I saw last night of Hayley and Rebecca then it’ll be gold baby. Denise told me I looked like one of Botticelli’s angels. No one has ever said that to me before but I’m quite pleased with the compliment. On the way home David was kind enough to wait at Maria’s so I could pick up a rug. Maria’s going beige so I get the red with white polka dots carpet. I’m so excited; I’ll clean my apartment and everything. Sometime in the next three days as that’s my Jer hiatus. I’ll tell you all about it. I’m sure I’ll make some interesting discoveries while excavating.

thanksgiving on the farm

Thanksgiving on the farm was fab. Jer and I arrived in Niagara at 10:00 on Saturday. We walked down to Clifton hill and did the tourist thing. He was like a little kid and I really enjoyed it too. You grow up around something and you totally take it for granted, but going with someone for whom it is new and exciting, well you can’t help but get into the spirit of things. We walked up and down the hill a couple times and then stopped at The Great Canadian Midway to check it out. Now this is a newer addition to the hill so I’d never been there. We stopped just to look but then I saw my favourite game in the world – Twilight Zone pinball. I had to play. This led to many other games. We ended up getting 42 tokens and winning 155 tickets, which got us a shot glass and five stickers. Then we walked down to the Table Rock Complex, where I used to work. If you’ve ever been to Niagara Falls and stood right next to the falls you’ve been there. It’s the large building where you can go in tunnels behind the falls (Journey Behind the Falls). Anyway I visited the bus lot and saw a few of my old co-workers, they told me I had a job waiting if I ever wanted to come back. So cute. Later we called for a ride and headed to the farm. When we first arrived my niece didn’t remember Jer but after a few minutes I was told I could leave and he could stay to play with her. Imagine! Dismissing her auntie like that. They look so cute when they play together that I didn’t mind. That night Jer, my brother in-law and myself stayed out by the fire playing hedbanz. I love this game but we had to stop because Jer kept giving up and I could no longer force him to play. We technically he fell asleep in his chair but I think he was faking. So the next day Maria arrived and was introduced to my fam. She thought my mum was my sister and my Gran was my mum so they loved her right away. The rest didn’t take long and Maria, being Maria, said whatever came into her head and laughed at everything, won everyone over. My sister named her Countess Abrupto. Before the dinner Maria and I went around the farm looking for artistic shots to photograph. You can see some here and here. We went out to the forest for a cookout and sat on logs eating chili and pork tenderloin. Jer knew everyone from last time but at this point I realized I hadn’t introduced Maria to everyone. I went to do so and they would say, ‘oh I know Maria’ like they were old friends. The woman knows how to work a crowd I tell ya. Maria, Jer and I were in charge of making the paper lanterns to light the trail from the house back to the campfire. These ranged from cute to ‘what in the hell is that?’, the best one was my turkey silhouette. Ask anyone. Except Jeremy. So we all assembled around a wonderful fire (Maria has a pic). The kids played with glow sticks and ran wild, Spencer (the Jack Russell terrier belonging to my aunt and uncle) chased the children and snatched food, debates raged, recipes and baby stories were swapped, as were the babies themselves, and I was brutally tickled by my younger cousin who looks like Pocahontas, with a little help from Jer who sat on my feet, preventing escape. All in all a typical thanksgiving dinner. Tonight is dinner at the in-laws, where Maria will join us again. Tomorrow you’ll get details and a list of what I ate.

at last!!

I'm finally done my work!! I didn't have to stay late but I really wanted to get everything done. It's been so busy it's been piling up. Plus my computer is ancient here so it takes twice as long to do anything. Ah well, I'm finished now, time to go home. Man it feels good getting to the bottom of a huge pile of paperwork. Here's me.

grinchala

I put something new in a work in progress… if you’re interested. I think it’s a little highschool English class but ah well. If you don’t like it, suck it.

it's not that cold people

It really kills me how people react to the weather. Sure I might not wear flip-flops given the choice but it wasn’t a cold walk to work. I still have bare legs with a skirt and I’m passing people with winter coats, scarves and gloves. C’mon people it’s going to be 20 degrees today!! Gimme a break.

Anyway we had chili and mashed potatoes for din. Denise made a bowl out of the potatoes and filled it with chili. Functional and delicious, that’s potatoes. That’s Denise too. Bern and Marcie came as well and were extremely disappointed that I did not finish my plate. I’ll try to do better next time guys.

If any of you have been following the fat man saga you must read Maria’s entry today.

In case you missed him the first time, take a step back in time and get to know the fat man.

June 10th
June 19th
June 23rd
June 24th
July 8th
July 20th
July 26th
August 20th
August 21st

almost spat upon

This morning some homeless guy asked me for a smoke (he was like the fifth one). I answered with my usual ‘sorry’ and continued on my way. Then he spat, I heard it as I passed him and I spent the rest of my walk to work in paranoia that I had spittle on the back of my leather jacket. Turns out I didn’t but still, good story. My philosophy on giving street people smokes is this: if I’m walking usually no (unless I know them, like Michelle), if I’m standing usually yes unless I’m standing in front of work or a place where I routinely smoke. If I do then they come back everyday cuz they know I’ll be there. And lastly I never, never give a smoke to kids/teens or pregnant mothers. I mean c’mon who does that? Also I would never actually take the quarter that is sometime offered to buy a smoke. I don’t think they ever expect anyone to take it, especially some business chick in a blazer. I wonder what kind of reaction I’d get if I did accept the money. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll try it next time. Not near work tho, the smoking regulars will think me cruel. Or poor. Which I am but I don’t want them knowing that. I want everyone to think I’m still wearing sandals because I’m a hardcore trendsetter, not because I can’t afford new shoes. Anyway free meal tonight so yahoo!

congrats tracey & gerry

On Saturday Tracey & Gerry had their engagement party. From work Maria, Ildiko and Margaret were there. It was so nice, tons of food, steak and salmon for dinner and an open bar. Hee. At the end of the party I even let Ildiko try and teach me to dance. Thanks a lot open bar. Think lumbering bear. Yeah, at the time I thought I was doing wonderfully. I just hope no one was videotaping it, tho Margaret assures me everyone thought I was quite funny. Fantastic. Anyway seeing as how I’m very hermit-like that was my only foray outside my apartment this weekend. I did read lot tho.

victory dance - year one

Flatiron was so much fun last night. It was totally packed but only in the main bar area where we were sitting. There were like eight guys in suits who refused to sit at a table, they just loitered in the main walkway and blocked the TV screen for us avid NTNer’s. And they had to nerve to keep checking us out. We haughtily ignored them and made a big production out of leaning way over to see the TV. I had bruschetta, it was fabulous.

Anyway today is my one year anniversary of living in Toronto. I really wanted to do something special, something that involved drinking too much, but it just kind of snuck up on me. Maybe I’ll just walk around the city a bit after work. I will be accepting gifts however if anyone’s interested.