Numbers

I've been thinking a lot about numbers lately . . .

1 - The number of biological siblings I have

2 - The number of televisions I have

3 - The number of days it took for me to remember that it's now April and I should change the calendar

4 - The number of step-brothers and sisters I have

5 - The number of the Level I teach in grammar class

(This could get boring really fast, so I'll skip ahead a little)

15 - The approximate number of telephone numbers I have memorized

19 - The number of pairs of new socks I just bought from Zellers (where they have mega-cute socks!)

20 - The number of pairs of socks I just cleaned out of my drawer

31 - The number of telephone numbers currently programmed into my cell phone

115 - The total number of pairs of socks I currently own, including the 19 new ones and the 20 I took out of my drawer. WOW! I could pretty much wear a different pair of socks every day until July 27th before I would have to wash them all and start again. May I say again . . . WOW!

Woot Woot for the Sun

So my dentist appointment on Saturday went fine. Apparently I have very nice teeth (said to me by both the dentist and the hygienist) and very strong enamel. That's nice to know. Since my appointment was finished early, I was able to get a couple of errands done before I was supposed to meet my friend for lunch. Long story short: we didn't end up having lunch as she got "detained" elsewhere. Actually, it really ticked me off as we were supposed to meet at 2 and she didn't end up calling me until close to 2:30 to tell me that she was running late. Since she just left a message on my voicemail, it was almost 3 by the time we actually talked and I was STARVING! Needless to say, I was more than a little irritated to find out that she was going to be able to make it after all. Grrrr.

How glad was I to finally see the sun on Sunday?! I have to say, I had no idea just how depressed I was starting to feel until the sun came out! My two favourite seasons are fall and spring. Both tend to be cool but not freezing cold. I love fall because of the changing colours and the excitement of "back to school" (well, before I started teaching year round). But, I love spring because of the feelings of renewal, birth, and the emergence of the sun! I love how seeing the sun again brings a fresh bounce to my step and a new lightness to my heart. In honour of the sun, I wrote this haiku today:

Saw the sun today.
Will it be back tomorrow?
I sure do hope so.

In honour of spring (and the rain forecast for later this week) I wrote this spring haiku:

The rain falls gently
As I walk around the town.
I am soaking wet.

Can you tell that the theme this week in my afternoon class is poetry? Tomorrow we'll go over the poem "In Flanders Field", which is a poem I happen to really like. I still remember most of it from when I had to memorize it in sixth grade (typed as I would say it):

In Flanders Field the poppies blow between the crosses row on row that mark our place and in the sky the larks still bravely singing fly scarce heard amidst the guns below we are the dead short days ago we lived felt dawn saw sunset's glow take up our quarrel with the foe to you from failing hands we throw the torch be yours to hold up high and . . .

Just for reference, here's the actual poem:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

(Turns out my memory ain't all that bad after all!)

Ugh

I have a dentist's appointment today. When I was younger going to the dentist never bothered me, but now . . . I'm sure it was the cause of last night's mild insomnia. I'm sure the constant rain isn't helping either. It's pretty much supposed to rain all week, which is too depressing to really put into words. So let me just say again, "Ugh!"

The Many Faces of Kim

I got this way cool idea from the way cool Vesper!

Kim . . . The Botticelli version.

Kim . . . The Manga version.

Kim . . . The Modigliani version (my favourite!)

Old Kim.

You can transform yourself here. Be careful though . . . as you can see, the results can be scary!

The Zzzzzzzzzzz Report

I don't know what did it, but this week I finally managed to get a decent night's sleep without any sleep aids! Ever since Thursday night I've had no problems falling asleep . . . or in getting a full night's sleep! I pretty much feel back to normal now, which is a relief. I'd forgotten how nice it was to be able to go to bed and fall asleep :-) Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sleep Review

Well, I tried the sleep CD last night. I can see where it would be helpful for people who have a hard time letting go of their worries or anger. It goes through certain steps to help a person relax, so it talks about deep breathing and relaxing your muscles. The spoken word is combined with relaxing music designed to help a person fall asleep and sleep deeply. Since I didn't have any worries or anger and felt relaxed, I don't think the CD particularly helped me. I listened to it for about an hour before I switched to one of my books on tape. All in all, I had a fairly decent night's sleep - it took me just over an hour to fall asleep, and then I only woke up once during the night to use the bathroom. I think I'll take a sleeping pill tonight and then that's it. I'm putting the pills away and only using them in an emergency.

And the Oscar Goes to . . .

I didn't actually think I'd watch the Oscars last night since I've lost interest in it over the years, but at 5:30 when it started . . . For the most part, I enjoyed the awards this year. I thought Ellen did a great job hosting. I really enjoyed her bits out in the audience with Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood. What made me laugh the hardest, however, was when Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt were presenting and taking about who was supposed to get Merryl Streep her cappuccino. Cut to Meryl Streep in the front row and the expression on her face is CLASSIC! I thought the men generally looked awesome in their tuxedoes, but not a lot of the women wowed me this year. Helen Mirren looked awesome, I loved Cate Blanchett's dress, Kate Winslet looked divine, and Maggie Gyllenhall looked great. I thought Jennifer Hudson looked wonderful (when she took off that stupid gold cropped jacket) and Jodie Foster didn't look too bad either. Oh, and I thought Emily Blunt looked fab too. Can't say I was thrilled with Anne Hathaway's getup, and I really didn't like Nicole Kidman's look, or Gwenyth Paltrow's outfit either. At 8 o'clock I did change channels and watch The Amazing Race, but I flipped back and forth and saw most of the major awards too. Way to go Jennifer Hudson for winning an Oscar for your very first movie! I was pleased that Helen Mirren and Forrest Whitaker won too. I haven't seen The Departed, but I've heard from many other people that it was awesome, so I'm sure it deserved to win Best Picture. All in all, a good evening.

Chinese New Year

Today at the mall where my sister works they had a Chinese New Year celebration. Stores had the option of hanging red envelopes containing money outside their stores and a Chinese dragon (which turned out to be a lion) would come around, collect the money, and bless the store. My sister's office took part and it was really cool! According to Yvonne, my sister's lovely Chinese coworker, I would share in the good luck since I was in the office during the blessing. None of us had cameras with us, but Yvonne and I both took pictures with our camera phones.
This is the best picture of the 5 I took. The lion was followed by some drummers, which you can see to the left of the lion. It was totally cool to watch the lion stretch upwards to reach the red envelope, which had lettuce attached to it. Then the lion threw lettuce at us and into the office for good luck. Way cool!

Sunday Summary

It's only Sunday morning so there isn't much to summarize yet, but I know what I will be doing today, so I thought I'd talk about that. First let me tell you about my knee . . . it's healing a little bit every day. I'm able to walk on it more and more, but I get tired more easily because my walk still isn't 100% back to where it was. So in my quest to go back to living my regular life yesterday, I went out with my best friend for lunch and then we did a bit of shopping (not a lot because a lot of standing around makes my knee hurt, and because it didn't take us long to find what we were looking for anyway). In the afternoon I stayed home and watched a couple of DVDs (Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas and Shall We Dance? with Richard Gere).

Today I will be going with my sister and brother-in-law to Maple Ridge to visit my dad for his birthday. His birthday isn't actually until Thursday the 22nd, but since that's the middle of the week, it's not practical for us to go then. We're also going to celebrate Chinese New Year by having Chinese food for lunch. I haven't had Chinese food for a while, so that should be good. Tonight is the season premiere of The Amazing Race so I'm looking forward to watching that too.

Woot woot!

Went to the doctor this morning and things turned out really well! When I told the doctor how much better my knee was feeling and how I felt like I could do more walking, he was really shocked, but pleased. The x-rays were normal, he said, and then he said that there was no reason why I couldn't go back to walking to work as long as I was careful (not about the knee necessarily, but about the neighbourhood)! May I reiterate . . . WOOT WOOT! As a result, I was able to walk to the bus stop this afternoon and take the bus the rest of the way home. Tomorrow morning I plan on walking to work. Life is good again!

Going to the Doctor

Well, in a couple of short hours I should be in the doctor's examining room to find out more about my knee. It is actually feeling much better than it was last week at this time. I feel like it has more mobility, it's not aching as much towards the end of the day, and my limp is disappearing as I'm able to walk more and more naturally. It's obviously still not 100%, but it's feeling so much better already that I really, really, really want to believe that it will heal on its own over the next few weeks. I don't know if that's a realistic wish or not, but there you have it. I've been trying to keep off my leg as much as possible, particularly in the past couple of days when I've been feeling better and wanting to walk more. I don't want to overdo it right now and set my recovery back. I mostly want the doctor to tell me today that it's okay for me to walk to work again in the mornings. That's been the biggest pain (and cost) of all - taking a cab to work every morning! I'm glad I live as close as I do and I've only had to pay around $8 a day, but still, it's added up fast! I can take the bus home from work more easily than I can to work, so I'll still be able to rest my leg a bit. Lovely blog readers, keep your fingers crossed for me today! I'll post again tonight and let you know what the doctor said!

Happy Heart Day

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I hate this holiday. I have never had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day and that just makes me feel like crap. Then I feel like crap for feeling like crap. This year I feel terrible because I usually get valentine cards for my students (sometimes little treats too) and this year I couldn't make it to the store because of my knee. At least one of the other junior teachers is bringing treats for her students, so now I feel really bad. All because of my stupid knee!!!!!!!!!!

The other night I started thinking about getting an MRI. I've never had one before (I've been quite healthy and relatively injury-free all my life, so my visits to the hospital have been minimal), but I've seen them done many times on tv shows like House and E.R. If the MRI is actually like what I've seen on those shows, it scares me a bit. Not the actual test itself, but having to lie still in such a small space for the duration of the test! I get chills just thinking about it! I really must be a bit claustrophobic because when I stop to think about it, it totally freak me out! I guess, if and when I ever get this MRI, I'll have to tell myself to just relax and breathe.

6 Weird Things About Me

I've seen this meme on several other blogs and I enjoyed all the little details I've learned about those people, so I'm doing one of my own.

One
I have this funny habit of talking to myself. You may not think that's weird, and normally I would agree, but it's gone beyond just talking to myself. I answer myself too. I also narrate the things I'm doing, particularly at work. It's not at all unusual to hear me say something along the lines of, "okay, I'm going to make 10 copies of this grammar package, then I'll send that e-mail to X, and now I'm looking for that worksheet I need for language arts class . . ." I have to tell the people around me to tell me to shut up once in a while or I won't stop!

Two
I once went to a Star Trek convention dressed in a costume. I'd do it again. 'nuff said.

Three
When I was younger one of my favourite snacks was a mustard sandwich. Not a sandwich with mustard on it, but a piece of break with nothing but mustard. Yummy!

Four
I'm 20-something years old and I've never had a drop of alcohol to drink. I never intend to drink alcohol either.

Five
I do not like the movies Bambi or Dumbo. I find them both incredibly boring.

Six
I am a teacher, but I have not yet developed an addiction to coffee. I'll have the occasional cup, particularly if I feel a headache coming on or if I'm really tired, but usually weeks can go by before I pour myself another cup of coffee.

My poor knee

Went to the doctor this morning. He believes that I've ruptured some cartilage and sent me for an X-ray. He says I need an MRI too, which with the state of our health care here in Canada right now, I will likely have to wait up to a year for. For now I'll be limping around a lot, and I may get some crutches next week. I have to go back and see the doctor next week, so hopefully things will become more clear then. Right now I'm not amused.

Sun Run Training Week 1

Once again this year, I'm doing the Sun Run. This year I'm actually training beforehand because I'm doing it with my mom and she really wants to train. Today, in the rain, wind, and near-freezing temperatures, we walked from Royal Oak Skytrain Station and Edmonds Skytrain Station (for those of you not from the Lower Mainland, keep reading as I'll be giving you actual numbers in a moment!). The walk took about an hour, roundtrip. Based on what I know about how fast I can walk and the distance I can cover, I estimated that we'd walked about 4 km. I was wrong. It was closer to 4.5! I felt good afterwards and I'm still not at all sore (yet! We'll seee how I feel tomorrow morning!) I still think setting the right pace is key. Anyway, before that walk I had spent a good 25 minutes walking in New Westminster (different story), so I'm guessing I walked about 2 km then. I suppose walking to and from work everyday has really done me good as even after mom and I stopped walking I felt as though I could have gone on much longer! We stopped for a couple of reasons . . . both of us had to go pee, it was really rainy and cold and we were getting pretty wet, and we were getting hungy! We had a good lunch of homemade soup and toast made by my stepfather - thanks Howie! Anyway, we're going to walk again next Sunday, and if the weather is decent we'll go down to the dikes in Delta and walk along the water. At this rate we should be in good shape for the April 15th Sun Run!

EDIT: It's now Tuesday morning (this post was originally made on Sunday night) and I haven't felt a bit sore from the long walk on Sunday. Things are looking good!

Geeky Post

This post marks a "first" for me . . . it's my first post using the Mozilla Firefox browser! Hopefully all of you reading this won't notice any difference ;-) Over the past couple of years many people have suggested that I try this browser but I always resisted. I figured that Internet Explorer was good enough for me. To a degree, I still think that. My school uses an online database for things like our progress reports and attendance records. In the last couple of months every time I tried to sit down at home and open the database website, I would get rerouted to the homepage of the school. A coworker recently experienced the same problem and told me this morning that after she downloaded Firefox she didn't have any more problems. Lo and behold - same thing when I downloaded Firefox at home! Unfortunately because my program uses a different version of the database that hasn't been finished yet, I'm still not really able to use it at home, but at least now I can access it! I've also discovered that Firefox is fun to play with, but I think I will still continue to use Internet Explorer as my primary web browser.

And the number one show on the planet is . . .

. . . CSI: Miami! I'm not even joking. I was reading this article in my TV Week magazine about CSI: Miami and at the end of the article was a mini-article about the top 10 shows on the planet, according to the research firm Informa Telecoms and Media. Here's the complete top-ten list:

1. CSI: Miami
2. Lost
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer (I Will Teach You to Love)
5. The Simpsons
6. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
7. Without a Trace
8. Inocente de Ti (Innocent of You)
9. Anita, No Te Rajes! (Anita, Don't Give Up!)
10. The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

5 Things

Here are 5 things you don't know about me (which I stole from here):

1. I can sing/rap the entire theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. What can I say? It's one of those songs that really sticks in your head!

2. I talk to myself. A lot. And I have been known to answer myself sometimes too. It's the way I organize my thoughts.

3. Right now I have a Barry Manilow song stuck in my head: "Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl . . ."

4. I love men with British accents! Let me reiterate: I LOVE men with British accents! Hugh Laurie, Hugh Grant, Patrick Stewart, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Clive Owen, Daniel Craig, John Hannah . . . the list goes on.

5. Although all my teacher training was with young children (five and six year olds), I discovered that I love teaching teenagers. They drive me crazy sometimes, but connecting with them is really worthwhile.

It's your turn! What don't I know about you?

My Dad

For some reason I feel compelled to write this post tonight. I don't talk much about my dad since it's difficult to talk about his current circumstances. You see, my dad isn't the same man I knew as I was growing up. He lives in a hospital now, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. As part of the disease, he doesn't really talk anymore and doesn't walk either. I don't think he recognizes me when I visit either, so it's hard to make those visits.

Anyway, usually I confine my thinking about my dad to early in the mornings when I'm walking to work. It's a quiet time when I can be alone with my thoughts. Since I walk to work in the morning, the fresh air and exercise reminds me that I can't dwell on any thoughts for too long as I only have a twenty minute walk. Usually I feel like it's the only time I can really allow myself to feel what I'm feeling. I try not to let my emotions show too much with my friends or other family members. I don't really know why. I feel like I have to carry this burden myself and be strong for others. My mom and dad divorced a long time ago, and even though my mom probably would understand a little bit of how I feel (her own mother had Alzheimer's disease), it's different for her since she lived in a completely different country from her mother and didn't see the daily/weekly/monthly progression of the disease. I guess I also think that it's not fair to make my mom listen to the feelings I have about a man she divorced and doesn't love anymore? After all, she is remarried now. I don't often share my thoughts with my sister either. She has her husband now to share her feelings with, and I kinda feel like I don't belong in that family group anymore. I definitely don't feel like I can share my feelings with my stepmother because she already assumes so much of the burden of taking care of my dad. She visits him daily and helps to feed him and attends his care conferences. I don't want to add to her burden by sharing how I feel. My friends know about my dad, but I can't talk to them about my feelings either since I hate to show any kind of weakness or strong emotions in front of them. I usually take the role of "caretaker" and advice giver in my circle of friends and it's hard to picture myself taking the opposite role.

Anyway, today during my third class my students were listening to a song by Beyonce called "Listen". The song kinda reminds me of some of Whitmey Houston's songs, and that made me think of the movie "The Preacher's Wife". Then I remembered that when I went to see that movie with a friend, my dad was in the same theatre watching the movie too and we ran into each other on the way out! It was such a random, chance meeting and it was really special since we only got to see our dad on weekends after my parents got divorced.

I thought of my dad again during my lunch break as another teacher and I were talking about our skiing experiences and I remarked that both my parents enjoyed skiing when they were younger. That reminded me of a picture I have of a ski trip we took one year to Big White. My sister and I are on a tobaggon with my dad. He looks so young - he has hair! It's brown. He even has facial hair. (ALTHOUGH YOU WOULDN'T HAVE NOTICED THE ABSENCE, BLOGGERS, I'VE HAD TO STEP AWAY FROM MY COMPUTER FOR 15 MINUTES AS I WAS CRYING TOO HARD TO CONTINUE TYPING. I THINK I'LL BE OKAY TO CONTINUE NOW.) Now I'm remembering that one Christmas Eve, before my dad married my stepmom, we had Christmas Eve dinner at my dad's place. He lived in a converted "apartment" above the mechanic's shop he owned (it wasn't zoned to be an apartment, so it was very cold and made of concrete). We had fondue and went to Church. We decorated his place with candy canes. I also remember my dad taking me to Star Trek conventions, including two in Seattle! I remember being in a campground with my parents when I was really young and my dad taking me by the hand and walking me to the bathroom. I came out of the girl's washroom and turned in the wrong direction and got lost. I remember my dad and sister going out skiing and walking the Sun Run together one year. I wish I had gone too. My parent's came to my grad dinner dance and I got to dance with my dad . . .

You know Bindi Irwin, that cute little daughter of the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin? Ever since he died, I can't watch little Bindi on tv. Every time I see her, I just cry. It's like that with the Amanda Bynes/Colin Firth movie "What a Girl Wants" too. Each time Amanda Bynes's character Daphne talks about not being able to dance the traditional father-daughter dance at her wedding, I think about how I'm never going to be able to do that either. It makes me cry every time. Then, at the end of the movie, when (for those of you who haven't seen it, I won't spoil it for you) we discover the happy ending, I cry even harder 'cause that's not going to be me.

I hate this disease! I hate that I'll never be able to walk down the aisle at my wedding on my father's arm. I hate that I'll never be able to dance with my dad. I hate that he won't be able to hold his future grandchildren in his arms. I FUCKING HATE IT! It's so bloody unfair! I know the politically correct thing to say is something along the lines of "I just count my blessings that I had a good father growing up. I'm so much luckier than all those people who didn't have a father, or who had abusive fathers." Even though that's true, that's not how I feel! I want my father back! I feel like Alzheimer's disease is a long, long, long period of mourning for the death of a person you used to know. At least when a person dies you can mourn and then get on with your life. With Alzheimer's disease, the person you love is gone, but their body is still there. Honestly, it's like living in purgatory.

Two

Seen this on several blogs recently, but stole it from Vesper!

Two names you go by:
1.. Kim
2.. Teacher


Two parts of your heritage:
1.. German
2.. Prussian


Two things that scare you:
1.. Heights
2.. Being told by my strata council that I am responsible for paying a special levy that totals thousands of dollars that I don't have!


Two everyday essentials:
1.. Attendance/Marks book
2.. A good book to read


Two things you are wearing right now:
1.. Woollen socks
2.. Jeans

Two of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment):
1.. Rascal Flatts
2.. Avril Lavigne

Two things you want in a relationship (other than love):
1.. lots of laughs
2.. respect

Two truths:
1.. I am a worrier (but I've gotten a lot better over the years!)
2.. I am a wee bit messy (okay, maybe take out the wee bit part!)

Two favorite hobbies:
1.. Surfing the internet
2.. Reading

Two things you need to do this week:
1.. Finish my progress reports!
2.. Clean my bathroom

Two stores you shop at:
1.. Chapters
2.. Payless

Two favorite sports:
1.. Hockey
2.. Volleyball


Two shows you like to watch:
1.. House
2.. Ugly Betty (I just started watching this show and it's awesome!)

Two things you’d buy if money were no object:
1.. First and foremost I'd pay off my students loan and my mortgage
2.. A piano and organ. I know how to play the organ, but I want to learn the piano!

Two wishes for 2007:
1.. A house-elf to do my cleaning for me
2.. More 3-day weekends!
(I made silly wishes on purpose! I'm in a silly mood!)

The obligatory "Happy New Year!" post

Happy New Year!

Now that's out of the way . . . let me tell you what I did tonight. Normally I don't really do anything for New Year's since to me it's just another day. Today was going to be more of the same, and if I was still awake at midnight, maybe I'd say happy new year to myself. That all changed at 4pm this afternoon however. My best friend called me to tell me that her asshole boyfriend had bailed on her at the last minute. She was pretty upset with him; they were supposed to go out to a function and he opted to go out with his friends instead. They have been going out for nine years and are on the verge of getting married (more on what I think about that at a later date). Because of how late he ended up calling to cancel on her, she couldn't get tickets to go out with some of her friends from work, so she called me. I had already told her I wasn't doing anything, so I invited her over to my place for dinner and Nintendo. We ended up having a really good evening! We went to White Spot for dinner. During dinner she said she wanted to see "Blood Diamond" with Leonardo DiCaprio. Since I wanted to see it to, I said "let's do it!" We drove over to the nearest theatre afterwards to discover that it was starting in 10 minutes. We never experience such awesome timing, so in we went (good movie, but very violent! Leo was really, really good in it. It's hard to believe he was once the "king of the world!"). After the movie we went back to my place and played Mario Party on my gamecube. The game finished about 5 minutes before midnight so we turned on the tv and watched the ball drop in Times Square. Then, because the First Night celebrations were happening at my local mall, the office tower of which I can see from my windows, we watched the fireworks (Jennifer, we had an awesome view! I told you I face the right direction!). Then we chatted for a while about the asshole boyfriend, then she went home (we weren't drinking so don't worry, no drinking and driving happening on our part tonight!) As a bonus, I spent close to an hour cleaning my apartment while she drove over from Vancouver, so the tidying I thought I wouldn't end up doing over my vacation did kind of get done! Sweet! Now, since I'm so awake still, I'm going to go to bed and watch an episode of "House" on DVD. Tomorrow is my last morning to sleep in before I go back to work on Tuesday :-(

Luigi's Mansion

One of the best gifts I got this Christmas was a copy of the video game "Luigi's Mansion" for the Nintendo Gamecube from my best friend (thanks Sonja!). Yes, I enjoy the occasional video game, particularly if it comes from the Mario (or in this case, Luigi) genre. I also enjoy the Donkey Kong games, but I digress.

I had tried the game a couple of times before (my sister owns it) and hadn't really liked it since I found sucking up ghosts with a vacuum cleaner a wee bit difficult. Owning the game myself allowed me to practice a lot more and I really started to enjoy it. Anyway, I've pretty much been playing the game non-stop since Wednesday, and today I BEAT THE GAME!

Now I have to confess, I had some help. A lot of help, actually. I downloaded a walk-through off the internet (hey, they publish whole books on how to beat the games, and I got the information for free!) and have been using it to help me figure out exactly where to go for each stage of the game. It also contains a handy map so I know the names of each of the rooms I have to go to. I could have figured out the game on my own, but it would have taken a lot longer.

The game was a lot of fun, but I found it a little too easy in some instances. I read an online review of the game that said that because it was one of the first games released for the gamecube, it was mostly designed to show players exactly what the gamecube could do. In some cases I really found this to be true. It was still really neat, so I'm not complaining. Apparently if I restart the game now, I'll have the option of trying a harder mansion, so I'm eager to explore that option. And this time I'll do it all on my own . . . maybe!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

In a short while I'll be heading out to spend the holidays with family and friends. I don't know how much I'll be blogging over the next few days, so I thought I would take this opportunity to wish all my blog buddies a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope that whatever your particular circumstances are, you are able to enjoy all the best the holiday season has to offer!

Movie Review

I promised a review of the movie "Goal" and I always follow through on my promises . . . For those of you who don't know the movie (I hadn't heard of it until a few days before I borrowed it from a friend), it's about a young man, originally from Mexico but living in Los Angeles, who dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. He meets a man from England who comes to see one of his soccer games, and the man talks him into going to England to try out for Newcastle. I'll let you watch the rest of the movie to see what happens.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie. I'm not much for sports movies since I don't play any sports, but I hear so many people talking about soccer at work that I figure it's as good a sport as any to make a movie about. I ended up falling in love with the story though, it was very uplifting. It was nice to see this kid making the most of his abilities. The main character, Santiago Munez, has some challenges to overcome, and the requisite "parent who doesn't believe in him" plot line, but overall the movie was quite effective. Effective enough to be spawning two sequels in the coming years!

Kuno Becker, the actor who played Santiago, is quite talented and very HOT! It was a real treat watching him play soccer. I would absolutely watch this movie again and recommend it to my friends!

Song Survey

I've seen this on a few different sites and just felt like playing along . . .

Simple Song Shuffle Survey
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.
NO CHEATING...

What does next year have in store for me?
Pieces - Rascal Flatts

What's my love life like?
Long Slow Beautiful Dance - Rascal Flatts (wow, so not! But okay . . .)

What do I say when life gets hard?
That's the Way it Is - Celine Dion (close . . . very close)

What do I think when I get up in the morning?
These Words - Natasha Bedingfield

What song will I dance to at my wedding?
Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera (somehow I doubt it. I like the sentiment for a wedding song, but this isn't exactly my kind of wedding dance music)

What do you want as a career?
Mercy on Me - Christina Aguilera

Your favorite saying?
Without You - Christina Aguilera (okay seriously, I don't even listen to Christina that much! I know it's set to shuffle, but is this a joke?!)

Favorite place?
When the Sand Runs Out - Rascal Flatts

What do you think of your parents?
What Hurts the Most - Rascal Flatts

Where would you go on a first date?
Reflections - From the Mulan Soundtrack, sung by Lea Salonga

Describe yourself?
My Wish - Rascal Flatts

What is the thing I like doing most?
Cloud Number Nine - Bryan Adams

The song that best describes my school principal?
Welcome - Christina Aguilera (is it just me, or is this a totally random question?)

What is my state of mind like at the moment?
The Right Man - Christina Aguilera

How will I die?
Hurt - Christina Aguilera (interesting . . . )

Out Wit, Out Last, Out Play

Why do I freakin' cry EVERY SINGLE time there's a Survivor episode on featuring the Survivors seeing their loved ones? Seriously, I'm bawling right now as I watch it! Why am I such a sap?!

My Tarot Card

Very interesting . . . and very true!

You are The Hierophant
Divine Wisdom. Manifestation. Explanation. Teaching.
All things relating to education, patience, help from superiors.The Hierophant is often considered to be a Guardian Angel.
The Hierophant's purpose is to bring the spiritual down to Earth. Where the High Priestess between her two pillars deals with realms beyond this Earth, the Hierophant (or High Priest) deals with worldly problems. He is well suited to do this because he strives to create harmony and peace in the midst of a crisis. The Hierophant's only problem is that he can be stubborn and hidebound. At his best, he is wise and soothing, at his worst, he is an unbending traditionalist.
What Tarot Card are You?

Take the Test to Find Out.

Christmas Shopping

I began my official Christmas shopping today. As long as I don't have to spend too much time in the malls, I don't mind the crowds associated with Christmas shopping. I think today I got about half of it done. I have gifts still to buy for my sister and brother-in-law, but they sent me a list of stuff they wanted and they have a price limit, so it's not going to be too difficult. I also have my mom and step-dad to buy for . . . They don't feel they need much, but my mom has an impressive Santa collection that I've been adding to for the last few years. I always look for non-traditional or funny Santas. Thought I'd found one today, but I didn't want to buy the display model and two other Zellers were out of this particular Santa. So it's back to the drawing board. But I've discovered that finding a non-traditional Santa isn't really that difficult if you know where to look. I have a couple of friends still to buy for, but unless I've radically miscounted, I think that's about it. It feels good, and it was fairly easy on the wallet too!

Hope your December has started off as well as mine!

Early Christmas Present

I got an early Christmas present this year! Yesterday I was invited to my sister's company Christmas dinner . . . by her coworker Yvonne! Technically speaking it was Jennifer who called me to invite me, but she did it on behalf of Yvonne. It was a very nice gesture and a wonderful surprise. Ever since my brother-in-law Lance has been working for the insurance company, I've been hearing about the Christmas dinner from Jennifer. This year I will actually get to go! It's an all-expenses paid dinner at the Royal Oak restaurant :-) It's the same week as my own company's Christmas dinner, which happens to be the same week that I'm getting together with some friends to get some Christmas crafting done. It's going to be one busy week!

I'm very excited about this coming Christmas. I'm going to be spending Christmas day with my mom, sister, brother-in-law and step-dad at my step-sister's house. On Boxing Day I'll be with my step-mom, sister, brother-in-law and step-sister. We'll go visit my dad that day too. On New Year's Day I'll have dinner at my mom's house . . . and she's promised some delicious German food! Among the dishes being served: Rouladen and Spaetzle (German noodles). I've been promised leftovers to take to work the next day. It's going to be a big crowd that day - mom, step-dad, sister, brother-in-law (and his parents), step-brother and step-sister-in-law, possibly my step-sister and her family (including her in-laws), close family friends . . . I've lost count already!

Now I just have to get through the last few weeks of work for the year!

Can I get a "woot woot?"

It's a snow day! I managed to get halfway to work (walking) before I got the call telling me that school was closed today. Really, it's for the best. I was awake until about 4am last night (this morning), and during that time I watched two cars try to drive down my back alley. It took one car about twenty minutes to drive approximately thirty feet! I don't know where that person was going, but they were very determined to get there!

I'm off to take a much-needed nap. Enjoy the day!

SNOW!

I don't think these pictures do it justice, but it's snowing like crazy outside! This is the scene I can see out my window. That's not a major street, in case you're wondering. It's more like a back alley if anything. It's been snowing here since yesterday afternoon. Last week when people said it was going to snow on the weekend, I actually scoffed at them. I didn't think there was any way it was going to snow before December. Boy, was I wrong! If it continues like this all day, we're going to have a massive accumulation (massive by our westcoast standards, anyway). I'm starting to wonder what's going to happen in terms of work tomorrow. We've got people coming in from as far away as Abbotsford and Langley. What happens if they can't come in to work? What happens if our students can't come in? How much snow has to fall before we officially call tomorrow a snow day? Interesting question to ponder.

This is another picture of the snow outside. Actually, I was trying to take a picture of the snow falling, but I guess that part of it didn't turn out. To be honest, I don't particularly like snow all that much. It really throws people for a loop and it's wet and cold and difficult to walk through. One thing I do like about the snow is how beautiful and peaceful it makes things look. I also like how quiet it makes things seem. All the usual noises are muffled and it feels really calm. It's like nothing can get through the insulation. It'll be a different story after a few days when the snow looks more gray than white (or yellow in some areas, if you get my meaning).

On Friday when it became more and more apparent that we actually would get some snow, I taught my students a very valuable expression. I was asking them what kinds of things they could do in the snow and one of them said they could eat the snow. So I had to teach them "never eat yellow snow!" I thought I'd have to explain the meaning of the expression, but they got it right away ;-)

I LOVE Electricity!

My power is back on now - woot woot! It was out yesterday night when I got home and it stayed out until shortly before midnight. After I got all my clocks reset at 2:30 in the morning (what can I say, I was awake and it needed to be done!) I lay awake in bed until nearly 4 in the morning. Sigh. I left the house early this morning to deal with all the early morning "is school open?" phone calls at work and as I was walking down the stairs towards the door, the power went out again! Grrrr!

My power didn't come back on until two minutes before I arrived home. Yeah! Even though we had electricity all day at work, it was still nice to come home to a house full of electricity :-)

I think I've caught up on all your blogs now my friends. Have a good (outage free) evening!

Wishlist

My sister, the technogeek, has turned me onto a new online service called Wishlistr. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like - an online wishlist. With Christmas quickly approaching I thought I would set one up and add a link to my blog. Hopefully my family will stumble across the link and it will make Christmas shopping a little easier ;-)

Rain, rain, GO AWAY!

Normally I enjoy rain, but there comes a point where it gets to be too much! This morning I woke up to another rainstorm similar to Monday's. I opted not to go for the rubber boots this morning and decided to take the bus to work - something I haven't done in about a year. I did manage to stay drier, but I got to work twenty minutes earlier than usual. Since I had done all my prep already, there wasn't much for me to do. C'est la vie! At least my pants remained relatively dry!

On the agenda for this weekend: lunch with my best friend tomorrow (mmmm, back to White Spot with the hot, competent waiter and the delicious sweet potato fries!), and a visit with my dad on Sunday. Monday is reserved for sleeping in and doing laundry since it's a holiday.

In technological news . . . I just downloaded Internet Explorer 7. It is very similar to Mozilla Firefox which I don't personally use but have seen in action a lot. I'm quite pleased with it so far. I particularly like the idea of tabbed browsing. I think I'll download it on my work computer one of these days. Speaking of work, it sounds like we're going to be getting new computers soon! My computer has actually held up quite well, but newer sounds better to me! We're getting flat screen monitors, which is really cool. As with all things though, I'll just wait and see.

Have a wonderful weekend lovely readers!

The secret to happiness is . . .

. . . dry pants! If you live anywhere in the Lower Mainland (and if you have to ask where that is, then you don't) you know that we got completely soaked today!

As I do every morning, I walked to work. I thought I was prepared. Clearly, I thought wrong. Let me paint you a picture. The walk to work is 20 minutes. I was wearing a t-shirt, a pair of brown pants, a sweater, my jacket, and rubber boots. I was carrying an umbrella. I knew I would get wet, but by the time I got to work I was TOTALLY DRENCHED! The entire right side of my body was completely soaked. I had to take off my sweater and leave it hanging over the back of my chair to dry (which took ALL day!) The right side of my pants were soaked through . . . and didn't dry until mid-morning. It was a very wet, uncomfortable morning. Luckily it stopped raining in time for my walk home.

In summary I repeat: the secret to happiness is dry pants!

Looking back

Seriously don't know what has prompted this post, but I was just sitting here in front of my computer thinking about the upcoming holiday season and how different this year is from last year. At this time last year I was suffering under the regime of "Dragon Lady" and pretty much just miserable at work. Now I have a wonderful boss and an awesome group of coworkers and the laughter is back in the school! There are a lot of new teachers, but as a staff we have managed to bond really well and have an awesome working relationship.
At this time last year I had just recently moved into my condo and was trying to unpack and organize. Haven't made a hell of a lot of progress in that area over the past year, but I don't really give a damn.
Right around this time last year I commented in a post that I was actually enjoying all the early holiday advertisements and things because it helped to lift my mood. Now I have a confession to make. It's probably as a result of all the subtle brainwashing by marketing experts over the years, but I really rather enjoy seeing all the holiday commercials after Halloween! It helps to build anticipation for the Christmas season!
I was reading some of the posts I made last year around the time I moved and I realized that I never posted the story of how I knew that I was meant to live in this apartment. My realtor had already shown me a few places and I wasn't really seeing anything I liked. I was getting a sense of what I definitely did NOT want in an apartment or an apartment complex though. I didn't want to live in a huge, impersonal building. I didn't want to live on the other side of the city close to Delta, and I didn't want to live on the first floor. One day after school my realtor picked me up from work so that we could go look at this place. I was quite interested in seeing it because for the first time after reading the address of a place I was going to look at, I could envision it being my address. When we pulled up in front of the building, I just knew. It looked exactly right for me. When my realtor realized that she didn't have the right keys for the front door and that we'd have to go to her office to pick them up, I was very disappointed. I actually wanted to say "hurry up! I have to see my new home!" We retrieved the keys and came back to the building. We came up to this suite and looked around inside. Since it was vacant at the time there wasn't a whole lot to see, except the giant dehumidifier set up in the kitchen to clean up some water damage left by the previous tenant. We walked around and my realtor said "so, what do you think?" I said "I love it!" She said "do you love it enough to make an offer?" I said "let's do it!" A couple of days later, it was all mine! I have not regretted the decision one bit over the past year. Interestingly enough, almost exactly a year to the day I moved into the place, a few of us were talking at work one day about buying property. The topic of conversation had to do with those home improvement shows and how there was one of HGTV that talked about how to set up your house to sell it. Pretty much all the stuff that they said was in the show about how to set up your house to sell it (new coat of paint, furniture in the house to help people envision what their furniture would look like in the house, etc.) was the exact opposite of what this place looked like when I bought it! I. just. knew. I knew that this place was meant to be mine!
I hope you have a lovely weekend my fellow bloggers!

If I Could Turn Back Time . . .

. . . I would have remembered to turn back my clocks last night before I went to bed! I woke up this morning and merrily started my laundry, thinking it was 8am. I watched a Star Trek DVD that my sister loaned me, and then prepared to watch Judging Amy at 9. That's when I discovered that I had forgotten to turn back the clocks! All I could do was laugh . . . and be grateful that I got an early start on my laundry.

Plans for today: head over to Penningtons and see if I can find some more long-sleeved shirts and sweaters (at reasonable prices) seeing as my classroom is really, really cold these days, and outside is cold too. Wish me luck!

Potluck Potpourri

Last night I went to an Italian potluck dinner. It was very, very yummy! I got to see some friends that I hadn't seen for a while - so hooray! I have to admit that I was a little concerned about going after having lunch with two colleagues from work on Tuesday. They were talking about all the times people go to potlucks and get food poisoning. One of the guys told us that his wife got sick two separate times after two separate potlucks. That's when I chimed in and said "gee, I'm going to a potluck on Friday" to which both guys just laughed. Sigh. Thanks M and B!

You'll notice that I am posting these thoughts on our potluck the day after the potluck. I didn't want to gross anyone at the potluck out, particularly after my friend Amy told me that she has been reading my blog. Hi Amy!

Once again I wished for my camera last night. When Jennifer and I took the bus to her place last night we passed by several houses who had gone all out to decorate for Halloween. I LOVE halloween and I really, really wanted to take pictures of the spookiness. Jennifer reminded me that I have a camera phone, but the quality of those pictures leaves a lot to be desired.

I also wanted to take some photos of my friends at dinner last night. There were LOTS of "kodak moments" when Jennifer and Lance broke out the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) video game for little Kazzie to enjoy. He danced the night away with various dance partners including Lance, Jerry, Amy, daddy Koji, me, and Jennifer. Watching everyone dance was lots of fun.

Before I leave you all for the day, I want to share this pearl of wisdom from the four-and-a-half year old Kazzie: "my head gets really long when I jump!" It took me forever to figure out what Kazzie was talking about! We were standing in front of the stove checking on the progress of dinner. There was a big, shiny pot of water boiling on the stove for the spaghetti. The image in the pot was really distorted and lengthened everything! When Kazzie jumped up and down his head got really long. It was the first of many previously mentioned photo opportunities!

The new and improved me!

My hair before the cut. Notice how the length really drags me down. When I told me stylist, the uber-fantastic Daphne, that I had had this cut for the past ten years and that I really needed a change she got all excited. This is only the second time that Daphne has cut my hair, mind you, but she said she lives for days when someone tells her that they aren't sure what they want to do and asks for her help. I was very pleased with her suggestions, so I will definitely continue to see her. We discussed putting some highlights in at some point in the future. When I explained that I was very low-maintenance with my hair, Daphne told me about something called peekaboo highlights, which don't go over the top of your hair and lie under the first layer of your hair. I'm definitely thinking about some of those for the future!

Voila! I LOVE it! She cut side bangs into it, but I'm not so sure you'll really be able to see them unless I part my hair the opposite way. When she was asking me about my part I got flustered and told her the opposite of what I usually do (hey, cut me some slack! I was nearly blind 'cause I wasn't wearing my glasses, and I was looking into a mirror!) She cut the bangs opposite to how I usually wear my hair, but that's okay because I discovered that it looks good either way! Daphne told me that if I blow dry my hair and put some mousse at the roots that I'll have lots and lots of volume and it will look like porn star hair! I might have to buy some mousse and and a blow dryer in order to try that out!

Sexy, no?

Okay, seriously . . .

what's up with Lorelai this season on GG? She is supposed to be with Luke, NOT Christopher! I get the fact that he's Rory's dad, but this is just weird. C'mon, we're supposed to believe that all that sexual tension and chemistry over the last six years was leading up to Lorelai and Christopher getting back together?! Does anyone else have any thoughts on this new season? I'm thinking that the episodes have been fairly lacklustre so far. I miss all the snappy dialogue. There have been a few flashes of it, but not really enough to justify a full hour's worth of show. What do you think?

Now House is a show I've missed lately. I'm currently watching a rerun. Someone, in their infinite wisdom, decided that while the World Series was on we shouldn't have any new episodes of House. Who the f*ck thought that was a good idea? There won't be a new episode on until Halloween! I don't know if I can last that long! Today is the first day in three weeks that I've watched House. I'm surprised that I didn't experience withdrawal symptoms. I think it's because Hugh Laurie is one of the pictures on my sexy British men mug and his is the display picture on my MSN Messenger.

And finally I thought I should remind everyone that I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. If my students drive me totally nuts maybe I'll get her to shave my head bald so that I can go get an awesome wig and go to work dressed as someone they don't know. Then they can't bug me. Yeah, right!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Or in my case, Wednesday evening! I was supposed to get a haircut this morning, but when I arrived at the salon I was told that my stylist had called in sick. They couldn't call me because I was the first appointment of the day and my stylist called in right before the appointment. Anyway, I opted to make a new appointment than have my hair cut by someone else. I'm looking forward to possibly getting a new look (or will I chicken out and just ask for a trim?) - I've had my same hairstyle with varying lengths for at least 10 years now. All I want is something easy to maintain. I've even started to think about dyeing it (my students all think I dye my hair anyway, so I may as well!) or getting some highlights. I hesitate though because I don't want to have to return to the stylist all the time to maintain the colour. We'll see. Definitely won't be dyeing it on Wednesday, but it's something to think about for the future. I have this fantasy of sitting in the stylist's chair and saying to her "it's just hair. Do whatever you want to it, it'll grow back." Anyway, if my hair turns out really different I'll try and post some pictures after it's done :-)

Tipping

Ever had this experience? You're sitting in a restaurant with a friend. You order your beverage and it seems to take forever until it arrives. It's not a fancy drink, just a regular coke. You order your food and wait and wait for it. While you and your friend are talking you see your waitress standing around and chatting with the other servers, even though you could use a drink refill and you're wondering where the hell your plain ol' burger is. When your food finally arrives you attack it, starving, only to realize that your glass is empty and your waitress never offered you a refill. You spend the next five minutes trying to flag down your waitress to ask for a refill, which predicatably, takes five minutes to get to your table. After you finish eating, a good hour at least after you've entered the restaurant, you wait for your bill to arrive. It comes and you and your friend put your money on the table. You now have to debate the eternal question, "how much of a tip should we leave?" The standard seems to be about 15 to 20 percent. You wait and wait for the waitress to return and ask you if you need change. You ask for a certain amount back and you wait and wait for her to return with it. Does any of that sound familiar to you? More and more often it's situations similar to the one I've just described that I encounter when having lunch with my best friend. We have a standing date every Saturday afternoon for lunch and one of the few constants it seems we can count on is crappy service. We always leave roughly a 15% tip, but there are times when we debate leaving a tip at all. I can't speak for her (though I'm sure she shares these thoughts), but I'm getting sick and tired of tipping for sub par service. Don't get me wrong, I understand that service people like waiters and waitresses rely on tips to make ends meet. I have no problem tipping my waiter or waitress, but in return I expect some service that's at least halfway decent. I'm tired of my waitress walking right past me multiple times when I clearly need a beverage refill. And why does my waitress always seem to disappear for her coffee break at the exact time that I'm ready to pay my bill and leave? Would it kill my waitress to stop by the table once in a while to see how I'm doing with my meal? Today my friend and I experienced our usual level of poor service, so we decided to do something a littler different. We always split the bill 50-50. Since we've usually just been to the cash machine we always only ever have $20 bill, nothing lower, so we always need at least a couple of dollars in change. Today we were debating about whether to each leave $1 as a tip (which would have been approximately 12% of the bill) or $2 (just over 20% of the bill). Our money sat on the table for a little while. Our waitress walked past us a couple of times and we decided that if she came for our money within a couple of minutes we would give her the higher amount, but if she continued to walk past us we would give her the lower amount. We ended up giving her the lower amount and she looked quite peeved as she gave us her change. I really didn't care since she could have quite easily stopped at our table to pick up our money any of the 3 or 4 times she walked past us. What ever happened to the days of decent service? Or service with a smile? Seriously, why should I tip you for crappy service? A tip is meant to be a thank you for a service performed. I'm not willing to give you a generous tip unless you've actually given me some decent service! My friend and I even had a waitress take her own tip out of our change once. We gave her our money and asked for a certain amount back in change, which included roughly a 15% tip. The service had been okay, but nothing special. When the waitress returned a few minutes later with our change she said that we must have made a mistake on the tip and that she had corrected it by bringing us the "correct change", which was a couple of dollars less than what we had asked for. At the time were so shocked by her nerve that we left without saying anything, but I often wish I could talk to that waitress, whom we never saw again, and give her a piece of my mind.

To those bloggers reading this who currently work in the service industry or have in the past, I just want you to know that I do respect the work that you do and I know that crappy service sometimes isn't your fault. I have never not left a tip, even after really crappy service. But as someone who eats out on a weekly basis, I feel perfectly justified in asking that my waiter or waitress not ignore me or repeatedly walk past me when I'm trying to pay. Is that really too much to ask?

Happy Turkey Day!

I had my Thanksgiving dinner last night at my mom's place. The kids and spouses and two grandkids were all there. I'm the only single one now . . . but that's okay. I do have to say that watching the two newlywed couples (my sister and her husband, who have been married for a little over six months, and my step-brother and his wife, who have been married for two months) was a little uncomfortable sometimes. All the gazing into each other's eyes and private jokes and sweet nothings . . . yuck! Whatever. You're talking to someone who's ALWAYS been single, so I really can't relate to people in love.

Dinner was delicious! And abundant . . . ham, turkey, vegetable casseroles, stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, perogies . . . enough to feed an army! Even for dessert . . . we had pumpkin pie, plum cake (yummy!!), and apple pudding. Not to mention ice cream and whipping cream to put on top. I ate so much, but it was worth it! All the kids were counting on taking home leftovers and we weren't disappointed! I took home three chinese food containers (the large round foil containers with cardboard lids) full of leftovers so I don't have to worry about what I'll be eating for lunch or dinner tonight!

I woke up this morning briefly contemplating a day spent cleaning. I know it should be done, but screw it, I want to enjoy my day off so I'll leave the cleaning for another day. I'm done everything I have to do for work tomorrow so today I can do whatever I want. Unfortunately I don't know yet what I want to do. Goodbye for now blog buddies!

Walk a mile in my . . .

. . . new shoes 'cause they are so freakin' comfortable! I would post a picture of them, but I don't feel like hauling out my camera right now. So I'll use my English teaching skills to describe them to you instead. They look a lot like bowling shoes actually. They're tan in colour with a couple of olive green stripes along the side and a couple of darker brown patches near the toes. They have olive green laces. They look and feel like suede, but I'm not sure that they really are. I bought them this weekend at Payless Shoes (LOVE that store!) I hadn't planned to buy anything new this weekend, but I after I got dressed to go out on Sunday I realized that I didn't have any kind of casual shoes in brown to wear so I headed off to the store to see what I could find. I'm glad that I don't have to wear my running shoes every day :-)

Now for a complete change of topic . . . I've had to make some new bug juice to put next to my sink in the kitchen. The fruit flies are getting annoying again. Karen was able to kill 30 of the little beasties when she made the bug juice last week. I'm torn between wanting to find 30 in my mug (though EEWWWW! That means there were 30 of them flying around my apartment) or wanting to find only 8 or 9 (though that seems vaguely disappointing since it's much more fun to think I've killed lots of yucky fruit flies!) Okay, you can't tell this just by reading this post, but I stepped away from the computer for a moment to do something in the kitchen and I noticed that I already have two flies in the mug! The bug juice has only been sitting in the kitchen for half an hour. Wahoooo!! Die little buggers!

Before you think I'm completely bloodthirsty let me assure you that I'm not. I usually don't experience the overwhelming urge to kill any living beings except for fruit flies and squirrels. Fruit flies because they're completely gross, and squirrels because they're nasty rodents who destroy nearly everything they come into contact with. Trust me, I know. About 4 or 5 years ago a squirrel got into our attic and it started to chew through the ceiling . . . right over my head while I was sleeping! I woke up one morning to find a small pile of plaster from the ceiling on the pillow right next to where I was sleeping! Luckily no squirrels ever fell on my head, but now I have an extreme dislike of squirrels. And I do mean EXTREME!

Now my lovely blog buddies, I'm off to read some of your blogs. Have a good night!

She's at it again!

Yup, I've made a few changes to my blog again! I talked to Jenn and she gave me some good advice about how to make some changes. The new blogger seems very easy to manipulate and I'm hoping that it will attract a bit more traffic to my site. As I figure out how to get more and more sophisticated with my blog I'll make a few more changes.

I hope everything is going well in your world! I've been to a funeral today and was feeling kinda low. The funeral was for someone that I used to sing with in my church choir. I haven't been in the choir for the last year or so (moving and stuff made me lazy). When my sister and I arrived at the Church we were asked to join the choir to sing for the woman who passed away. It was nice to be back in the familiar territory again, and the choir sounded lovely. The song we sang is one of my favourites and was meant to be a solo, but the woman who had agreed to sing it couldn't get through it without a little help today. I received many compliments on the singing, and was asked by many people when I would be back in the choir, which lifted my spirits considerably. We'll see if choir makes it back into my routine!

It's All About Meme

I can't help it, I'm a sucker for these memes!

ARE YOU:

1. A Cuddler?
Sometimes. It depends on the mood I'm in. Sometimes I just don't want to be touched.

2. A morning person?
While I can't really say I love getting up early in the morning, I am definitely able to get more stuff done in the morning than in the evening.

3. Are you a perfectionist?
In a way. I'm passionate about certain (stupid) things getting done right.

4. An only child?
Nope. I have one biological sister, two step-brothers (one on each side) and two step-sisters (one on each side).

5. Catholic:
No. I view myself as a Christian, but I don't think I could ever join a Catholic Church. Too rigid in its views.

6. In your pajamas?
How did you know?

7. Currently suffering from a broken heart?
Nope.

8. Okay styling other people's hair?
Don't have a lot of practice with my own hair, let alone other people's hair!

9. Left handed?
Yes, and damn proud of it!

10. Addicted to MySpace?
Addicted, no. Interested, yes.

11. Shy around the opposite gender?
Sometimes. It depends on how well I know the person. The guys I work with I tend not to be shy around. All the others . . .

12. Loud?
Sometimes. I have been known to get loud in my classroom when I'm mad at my students!

DO YOU:

12. Bite your nails?
No. I pick at them sometimes, but never bite.

13. Get paranoid at times?
Oh yes. Definitely.

14. Currently regret something that you have said/done?
Right now, no. Past regrets, sure.

15. Curse frequently when you get mad?
I guess that depends on your definition of frequently. If I'm really pissed, sure. Otherwise I try not to curse that often.

16. Enjoy country music?
Only new country. Rascal Flatts, Shania Twain, The Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill.

17. Enjoy jazz music?
Not particularly.

18. Enjoy smoothies?
Yes.

19. Enjoy talking on the phone?
Not really. There are a few people I really like talking to, but otherwise I prefer e-mail.

20. Have a lot to learn?
Yes!

21. Have a pet?
Not right now. I'd like a cat one day.

22. Have a tendency to fall for the "wrong" person?
Perhaps that's my problem! My past few crushes have been on married men, and therefore "wrong" in terms of their availability.

23. Have all your grandparents died?
My biological ones are all dead. Fortunately I have lovely grandparents living in Oregon. They are the parents of my stepmom.

24. Have at least one sibling?
Yes. Weren't you paying attention earlier?

25. Have been told that you are smart?
Yes.

26. Have had a broken bone?
Nope.

27. Have Caller I.D. on your phone?
On my cell phone.

HAVE YOU:

28. Changed a diaper?
Not recently, but yes. I used to babysit.

29. Changed a lot over the past year?
I'm not sure. I don't think I've changed a lot, but some.

30. Had friends who have never seen your natural hair color?
Except for one brief period in 1997, my hair has always been its natural colour.

31. Had surgery?
No.

32. Killed anyone?
No, but I have thought about it before ;-)

33. Had your haircut within the last week?
I haven't, but I wish I had.

LAST PERSON WHO:

1. Slept in the bed beside you?
I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that sometimes my family reads this blog! Hehehehe. Just joking . . . or am I?

2. Saw you cry?
Some people I work with last week when I found out that a friend had died.

3. Went to the movies with you?
My best friend Sonja.

4. You went to the mall with?
See above. My best friend Sonja.

5. You went to dinner with?
My friend Shannon.

6. You talked to on the phone?
My mom.

7. Said 'I love you' to you and meant it?
Don't remember . . .

8. Broke your heart?
Honestly? My students are currently breaking my heart because most of them are currently wasting their opportunity to learn English.

9. Made you laugh?
My friend Shannon.

WOULD YOU RATHER?

1. Pierce your nose or tongue?
Nose, I guess.

2. Be serious or be funny?
Funny. Definitely funny.

3. Drink whole or skim milk?
I usually drink 1% milk.

4. Die in a fire or drown?
Drown I think. I don't think I could tolerate the pain involved with burning. *shudder*

5. Spend time with your parents or enemies?
My parents.

ABOUT YOU!

1. What time is it?
10:22pm

2. Name?
Kimberly Wilma F.

3. Nickname(s)?
Kim, Teacher, Kima

4. Where were you born?
Burnaby, British Columbia

5. What is your birthdate?
August 8, 1978

6. What do you want?
Happiness. Love.

7. Where do you want to live?
Exactly where I am right now.

8. How many kids do you want?
At this particular moment in time, none. But I've always wanted to have one daughter.

It's a Woman's Prerogative . . .

. . . to change her mind about her blogger template! Yup, I've decided that the pink was too much pinkness. I love the simplicity and cleannes of the white. I've also added a few new links to my sidebar. I'm planning on making a few other changes over the next week or so, depending on how bold I get. Now, I think I've blogged enough for one day :-)

Back Home Again

I'm back from Maple Ridge! Taking the bus turned out to be very easy. It seemed to take a long time, but that was mostly due to the wait at Braid Station - I was 25 minutes early for the bus! Anyway, I listened to my tunes most of the way and my MP3 player worked extremely well.

When I got to Maple Ridge I got to see my stepmom's photos of her trip (along with my stepsis) to Nova Scotia to visit my stepbrother Sean and his wife Holly. They got some great pictures! I also found out that my stepsister has a new, serious boyfriend, which is great. After looking at the pictures we went out for lunch at ABC - Yummmm. Afterwards we decided to stop at London Drugs to look at picture frames. We couldn't find any we liked there, so we went to Zellers and each bought a few frames (I need some to hang my degrees, and I want to FINALLY hang some family photos around my apartment).

After shopping, we went to the hospital to see my dad. He has a private room in the new building and it's really nice! Lots of wood and muted colours. Each room has a "memory box" outside - a locked wooden cabinet with a glass door and three glass shelves for families to put mementos and stuff in. My stepmom wants to put some of my dad's prettiest beer steins in the box, which I think will look really nice. The room inside is a little plain right now, but Barbara and I decided where to hang some photos and stuff, so soon it should have a little more personality. We stayed and fed Dad his dinner, then we left and Barbara drove me home. All in all it was a good visit. Jennifer and her husband are going next Sunday. Hopefully the pictures will be up by then and there'll be a plant in the room.

I didn't even think about it until we were halfway home, but while I was in Maple Ridge I should have stopped to buy some of the delicious lox that my stepmom gets at the German butcher. But we came to an agreement in the car that she would stop during the week and buy me some and send it home with Jennifer next week. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. The only slight wrinkle in the plan is that Jennifer HATES fish, so I don't think she'll be overly thrilled to have to take it home with her and then possibly bring it to work with her one day in the middle of the week in order for me to pick it up from her. Jennifer, you'd be the best sister in the world if you helped me out with this!

Going to Maple Ridge

In about 15 minutes I'm going to walk out my door and head to the skytrain station to begin my skytrain/bus journey to Maple Ridge. I'm going to go visit my dad and stepmom. My dad lives in Maple Ridge hospital due to his Alzheimer's disease. He recently got moved to his new room, which I will get to see today.

Yesterday I went to Future Shop and "impulsively" bought an MP3 Player. I say impulsively because I just up and decided to make my purchase yesterday, but in actuality I've been looking into making this purchase for weeks now. I'm really looking forward to having some music to listen to on my long bus ride today, and to having some music to listen to on my walk to and from work each day!

Now I'd better get moving, I have a skytrain to catch! If I have time I'll post later and let you know how the visit went!

60 Questions

1) Do you talk in your sleep? I have been known to in the past. I've even argued with people in my sleep.

2) Ocean or pool? Pool

3) What song is on your iPod right now? I have an iPod? COOL! Oh wait, no I don't . . .

4) Current crush? Yeah, like I'd tell you. But yes, I currently have a crush on someone. It's a new/old crush and this guy makes me feel happy and tingly inside whenever I see him.

5) What's your favorite color(s)? Pink, blue and purple.

6) Window seat or aisle seat? Hmmmm. While it's sometimes cool to look at the view, I do like sitting on the aisle better.

7) Ever met anyone famous? Nope. But I'm pretty sure I saw Kelly Osbourne once in Vancouver.

8) Do you feel that you've had a truly successful life? Had? My life is just beginning baby!

9) Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it? I cut it. Does that freak you Italians out?

10) Ricki Lake or Oprah Winfrey? Neither. It I absolutely had to choose . . . neither.

11) Baseball or Football? To watch, football. To play, baseball.

12) How long do your showers last? Maybe 10 or 15 minutes?

13) Do you know how to drive a stick? You can drive sticks?

14) Cake or ice cream? Cake. Or cake with ice cream.

15) Are you self-conscious? Yes.

16) Have you ever given money to a bum? No. I work in an area with a lot of them, and while I do feel bad for them, I wouldn't give them money.

17) Have you been in love? Yup

19) Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? Only in the front seat when my mom went to the hospital for her kidney stones.

20) Can you tango? Never tried, but given my poor dance abilities . . . probably not.

21) Last gift you received? A belated birthday present from Sheryl. Some lovely body milk that I've already started using.

22) Last sport you played? Baseball I guess, when I threw a paper ball at a student and he used his water bottle to bat it back to me. Oh, and I walked home from work today.

23) What would you like to spend a lot of time doing? Reading, relaxing, travelling.

24) Last wedding attended? Brad and Janine's wedding at the end of July.

25) Favorite FAST food restaurant? Gotta agree with Vesper on this one, Tim Horton's!

26) Most hated food? Tomato soup. I know . . . I'm weird.

27) Can you sing? Yes! And I love to sing!

28) Last person that called you? A woman from church to let me know about a funeral next week.

29) What're your least favorite chores? vacuuming!!

30) Favorite drink? Coca Cola.

31) Are your parents married or divorced? Divorced from each other, but both married to other people.

32) Are you a vegetarian? No.

33) Do you believe in Heaven? Yes.

34) Favorite Show? Right now it's definitely House. Of all time, Star Trek: The Next Generation.

35) What jewelry do you wear? none. I wear a watch every day (I have four different watches in regular rotation).

36) Are you eating? Not right now. But I likely will later.

37) Do you eat the stems of broccoli? Yes.

38) Do you keep commitments? Yes, otherwise I feel a great deal of guilt.

39) Can you dance? No.

40) Would you ever have plastic surgery? It depends on what kind of surgery we're talking about. Probably nothing too invasive . . . or maybe not.

41) What do you wear to bed? 99% of the time I wear pajamas. I have some really cute and comfy ones.

42) Have you ever done anything illegal? Little minor things such as jay-walking.

43) Can you roll your tongue? Yes

44) What kind of shoes are you wearing? None right now. I was wearing my brown slippers earlier. They aren't a fashion statement, they are just the best pair of slippers I've ever owned.
45) What is your hair color? My black-haired students describe my hair as blonde, but I myself call it light brown.

46) Future child's name? Maybe Emily or Laura. David or Michael for a boy.

47) Do you snore? I don't think so.

48) If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be? Many, many cities in Europe. Paris, London, Venice, Rome, etc.

49) Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Sometimes if I'm lonely.

50) If you won the lottery, what would you do first? Pay off my mortgage and student loan. Then I would go on a nice, relaxing vacation!

51) Gold or silver? I think gold suits me best.

52) If you could meet anybody in history, who would it be? Hitler. I'd slap him upside the head several times.

53) City, beach or country? To visit, probably the beach first and then the city, like New York.

54) What was the last thing you touched? Remote control.

55) Where did you eat out last? Had a burger from A&W today.

56) When's the last time you cried? Last week when I found out that a friend from Church passed away.

57) Do you read blogs? Yes! I love reading blogs. I've added a few more to the list of blogs I read.

58) Would you ever go out dressed like the opposite sex? Sure. Why not?

59) Ever been involved with the police? No.

60) Do you have pets? Not right now. I wouldn't mind getting a cat one day though.

New Shoes!

I have recently had some wonderful success with new shoes. I mentioned a while ago that I purchased two pairs of black shoes at K-Mart in the States. Well, yesterday I bought the perfect pair of brown shoes for this coming fall season. I actually spotted them for the first time last weekend at a Payless in Metrotown. I tried them on and fell in love with them. Unfortunately the only ones they had were a 10W (wide), and they were just a touch loose. They were also a bit pricier than what I usually pay as they were marked at $49.99. Anyway, they did a check for me to see if any other stores had a size 10 and I mentally prepared myself to spend a bit too much money for a great pair of shoes. They told me there was one size 10 left at Central City, which worked out really well since I always stop by there to visit my sister on the way home. I ran in and found the shoes. To my surprise, the pair was marked at $24.99! When the clerk rang them into the machine they came up to $49.99. Since the manager was standing right next to her she asked her what to do about the difference in price and they ended up giving me the shoes for the (way) lower price. SCORE! Anyway, here are some pictures of my new shoes:

A Reason, A Season, or A Lifetime

“Friends are in your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.” Dr. Joy Browne.

I first heard that quote on the radio a long time ago and it’s stuck with me for years. I think it’s because for me it really rings true. When I think about all the friends I’ve had in my life I can identify the reasons, seasons, and lifetimes. I would also add to that category those friends who are so close to you that they are members of your family.

When I was in eleventh grade I met a guy named Chad. We became friends and stayed friends for over 3 years. He was the type of person who was always late to meet you, lied to you, and all the while tried to protect himself by hiding behind him mommy’s apron (yes ladies, he was a true “momma’s boy”). For some reason, even after he lied to me, showed up late for every single one of our outings, was inconsiderate and generally just a jerk, I continued to be friends with him. Finally, during one of my last years of University, I “woke up” and realized I deserved someone who treated me way better than he ever could. I basically “dumped” him and told him never to get into contact with me again. He seemed shocked that I could do such a thing, and I believe he said something along the lines of “doesn’t the word ‘friendship’ mean anything to you?” He was what I would call a friend for a reason. He taught me that I am a valuable person and I deserve to be treated with respect.

I have had many seasonal friends – people I hung around with for a while because we had classes together, but lost touch with once we finished the class. They were all good people and I sometimes wonder what they are up to now. My seasonal friends helped me explore different sides of my personality and made me just a little more adventurous.

There are a few people that I consider to be lifetime friends. These are special people who I know, no matter what is going on in our lives, I will always be in contact with. They are the ones, like my closest friends Sonja and Sheryl, who cheer me up when I’m sad, pick me up when I fall, and keep me from becoming a gigantic jerk. They mean more to me than anything and I know I can count on them whenever the chips are down.

In addition to those reason, season and lifetime friends I think I need to add a new category that I’m going to call blog buddies. These are the people whose lives I get to know through reading their blogs. Those people who I care about, cheer for, and pray for, but in many cases have never met. Some of these people you will find on my sidebar, others I have yet to discover. I'm sure they are out there though.

Blog Changes

Does this blog look different to you? I decided to hop on the beta bandwagon (which started with my sister) so that I could post comments on the blogs of friends who have already hopped on the bandwagon. Since I was making that change I figured I may as well change my template while I was at it. Pink is my favourite colour, but I don't know how long this template will last since it is a bit bright. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

PS Watch for a couple of new posts in the coming days about new shoes and a philosophical post about friends.

Barry Trotter And The Unauthorized Parody

I guess I should have added this to my previous post about the 100 things about me:

102. I like to listen to audiobooks as I fall asleep at night.

Today when I was in Chapters I started browsing through the discounted audio books bin. I've gotten several good audio books from this bin so I was hoping for another good deal. Imagine my surprise when I came across the following by Michael Gerber: "Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody". My interest was immediately captured because I love the Harry Potter books. I own all of them and I've read each of them at least three times. I have a good sense of humour, so I tend to enjoy parodies of things I like. This is how the book is described:

"Stop that movie," Headmaster Alpo Bumblemore said, "or Hogwash is history!" After someone sells directions to the school to a sleazy Muddle tabloid, Barry Trotter, Ermine Gringer, and Lon Measly are hauled out of retirement to face their toughest challenge yet. Not only do the 22-year-olds have to elude packs of rabid fans, outwit Barry's sponging Uncle Serious, and vanquish their old foe Lord Valumart, they have to face the most powerful enemy of all: Hollywood!

Totally bought it and plan to listen to it soon. I'll let you know how I enjoy it when I've finished it. I should warn you though: I listen to these books at bed at night so I tend to fall asleep part way through a chapter and have to rewind back to where I left off the next night. Unless I'm experiencing a bout of insomnia, it usually takes me a few weeks to get through a book, so don't look for a review too soon!