Welcome, 2008!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays . . . I have! So, how did you spend New Year's Eve? I went to see a movie with a friend and then came home. Since we were both rather tired, we skipped the whole "watch the ball drop on tv" thing and headed back to our respective homes to try and get some much-needed sleep! I was in bed reading (I'm re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if you're curious to know what's on my nightstand) when it became 2008 :-) I'm looking forward to a 2008 that's full of more adventures, friends, and family. Since I don't make New Year's Resolutions, I don't have any to share with you today. I hope we can share the adventure of 2008 together!!

Mooning Santa

Here's the Santa that I gave my mom for Christmas! This is also the first video I have ever uploaded to YouTube :-) Enjoy!

Wow! Two posts in one night!

I know, you're shocked! I'm posting twice in one night . . . and both my posts include pictures!! Just wanted to share the most recent cross-stitch project I finished. This is the first project I've finished in ages. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if it's the first one I've finished in a year. I started it on Friday. It's quite small (about 2.5 inches square), which is why I was able to finish it. Without further adieu . . .

Britney Spears

In case you're one of the 10 people on the planet who hasn't heard the news . . . Britney Spears has lost custody of her two young sons. This was front page news on the CNN website, and I heard it mentioned as a headline on a local news broadcast too. Why is this headline news?? Is there nothing else going on in the world that's more important than a 25 year old young woman who has clearly made some mistakes in her life? Seriously??! I think, if even half of what I've heard reported is true, that taking her kids away from her was a good move. I applaud the judge who had the guts to say "your actions and behaviour around your kids is not acceptable and until you clean up your act, your young children cannot live with you!" I hope this makes her get the help she needs because she clearly needs some help! I also hope that her family and friends (not the people she parties with, but the people who actually want to still know her when she's a paunchy eighty-year-old) put her on suicide watch. I do object to the fact that our reputable news agencies think that this news is more important than anything else that happened in the world today. What does it say about the state of our society today that the latest celebrity scandal is front page news??

re: TV

It's been a busy week catching up with all the shows premiering this week. On Monday I watched Heroes . . . it was good but I'm not sure if it will stay in my weekly line-up or not. On Tuesday was the much-anticipated premiere of House. Totally, totally WORTH IT! I loved every second of the episode. I thought it struck exactly the right balance between the humour and the medicine. I also watched the season premiere of Law and Order: SVU. It was good too. On Wednesday was America's Next Top Model. I have to say I was quite surprised and impressed with this season's emphasis on going green and banning the models from smoking. I will only be fully and completely impressed if the emphasis on going green is a theme for all future cycles as well and not just a "hook" for this cycle. I also watched the premiere of the new show Dirty Sexy Money. It was . . . . interesting. It might be a little too out there, even for me. On Thursday was the premiere of Ugly Betty. Again, totally, totally WORTH IT! I even skipped Survivor to watch it and I'm so glad that I did. I also watched the premiere of Grey's Anatomy. It was good, but not fantastic. I think this year they may struggle a bit in the ratings against the juggernaut that is CSI. Tonight I will watch the premieres of Numb3rs and Las Vegas. All in all I have been pretty pleased with the shows I have watched and I'm looking forward to the fall season immensely. The only thing I'm disappointed about is that there won't be a new season of The Amazing Race until winter!! That totally sucks, but hopefully it will be a kick-ass season and worth the wait!

Five Things Meme

FIVE THINGS
I was tagged by Dianne to do this meme. Honestly since I enjoy doing these so much, I would have done it anyway :-)

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago:
- Finishing high school
- Starting university
- Working at a gas station. Definitely NEVER doing that again!
- Looking for a social life
- I can't remember! I'm getting old . . .

5 Snacks I Enjoy:
- Chocolate
- Crackers
- An apple
- Ice cream
- Popcorn

5 TV Shows I've Seen Every Episode Of:
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- House
- Friends
- Full House

5 Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire:
- Travel to Europe!!!!!!!!!!
- Buy a second home in Whistler (okay, I'd seriously have to be a mulitmillionaire for that!)
- Pay off my mortgage
- Pay off my student loans
- Pay for a friend to go back to school

5 Bad Habits:
- Not eating when I'm super-stressed out
- Eating too much when I'm only moderately stressed
- Watching tv when I should be doing something more productive
- Not cleaning my apartment regularly
- Talking with my mouth full

5 Things I Like To Do:
- Read
- Watch tv
- FACEBOOK!
- Go shopping
- Sing

5 Things I Would Never Wear Again:
- The tiger-striped bright pink bathing suit my mom made me one year (sorry mom!)
- My barbie t-shirt
- Toe socks (I had high hopes for them, but my toes are too short for them to be comfortable)
- Glasses with large frames
- My purple jeans

5 Favorite Toys:
- My MP3 player, which I hope to upgrade to an iPod one day :-)
- My digital camera because it has encouraged me to take more pictures
- My computer
- The CD player next to my bed
- My cell phone

5 Things I Can't Stand:
- Sleeping in a warm bedroom!
- Having the door between my bathroom and bedroom open while I'm trying to sleep
- Incompetence
- Laziness
- The smell of rotten food

Now it's my turn to tag 5 people. Hmmmm . . . Jennifer, Megan (you've been tagged twice, now you must do it!), Heather (let's see if you're reading this), Janet (now you've been tagged twice too) and anyone else reading this who hasn't done this meme yet!

Sexy

My new haircut is awesome! It's a little shorter than I had intended, but I'm okay with that because my hair grows very quickly. When the stylist started cutting it she said "when was the last time you were in here?" I said "I don't really remember. It was in the winter some time though." She said "was it a year ago?" I was like "oh no, not that long ago!" She replied with "are you sure? Because I'm cutting about a year's worth of growth to get you to the length you were last time!" Yeah . . . my hair grows very quickly. Anyway, after a very reasonably-priced haircut (just under $20 for a shampoo and cut), she was able to talk me into highlights too. It's something I've been thinking about since the last time I was in there. Anyway, I decided that it's now or never, so I've made an appointment for next week . . . pictures to follow after it's done!

The ARK

Last night I went with some friends to see the movie "Evan Almighty". In the movie, God (played by the brilliant Morgan Freeman) commands Evan Baxter to build an ark for the imminent flood. Without giving too much away, let me just say there are some truly, truly funny parts in the middle of this movie that had me choking on laughter for a good 15 minutes. Don't be mistaken however, this movie is not the best thing I've ever seen. The setup at the beginning is completely obvious and they really hit you over the head with the message. There were a couple of comedic gags that are very obvious and hit completely "below the belt", but otherwise it was a pretty good movie. During the previews there was another Steve Carell movie that looked really good too . . . Dan in Real Life.

One of the things I discovered last night was the idea of the ARK. No, not the boat, an Act of Random Kindness. A lot of people probably call these random acts of kindness, but I rather like the acronym ARK and how it all ties together with the bigger message of the movie. Last night on the skytrain on the way home after the movie, I experienced a real-life ARK! I was sitting on the train feeling really tired (it was past midnight) and just wanting to be home. When the train pulled into Gateway station (one stop before mine), I saw a transit officer outside the train. Thinking he was going to get on and check fares I bent down to dig my bus pass out of my purse. When I looked up, the officer was standing in front of me, holding a white rose bud to me (it looked as if it had just been picked off a rose bush). He said to me "have a good night!" and then got off the train just before the doors closed. It was so random and sweet and totally made my evening (which had already been pretty darn good to begin with). Anyway, the picture above is of that rose, which opened this morning. That simple gesture brought me happiness and I've been in a good mood ever since. I want to perform an ARK for someone else now . . . and I strongly encourage everyone to perform an ARK this week!

Happy Canada Day!

I've spent the better part of the this fine Canada Day watching the first season of Lost on DVD. It's very addictive. A while back I had a dream in which several Lost characters appeared and after that dream I started getting a very strong urge to start watching the show. A friend from work happened to have the first season on DVD (she bought it in Korea) and she was kind enough to loan it to me. Because it's from a different country I wasn't sure it would work in my DVD player, but it does so hooray! Anyway, I want to try and watch as much as I can today and tomorrow because I'm not sure when I'll have time to watch the rest after this long weekend. So I guess what I'm trying to say people is if you need me, I'll be LOST :-)

Moving

Nope, I'm NOT moving just in case you read the title of this post and went "What?!" This past few days I've been trying to get our Juniors program organized so that we could move to our new summer campus. The move happened yesterday and it went quite smoothly actually. But that's not actually what this post is about. Today I helped my best friend unpack and organize her boxes in her new classroom at school. It was a bit of an overwhelming job for her and I was happy to go and help her. I would have helped her move all the boxes too if she'd needed it, but there were two teachers (only TWO, out of a school of at least 12) who kindly helped her move them on Thursday and Friday. Anyway, we spent a good 3 hours unpacking, organizing, and throwing things away. In return she bought me lunch and drove me all the way home. She didn't even need to do that; I was happy to help. But I did learn something in all of this. I think we both did. Both of these recent moving experiences has taught me that anything having to do with moving really shows you who your real friends are! Moving is such a grubby, yucky, exhausting experience that it seems like it really takes true friends to offer to help you. To my true friends who have helped me move in the past: THANK YOU! To the people who helped us move boxes and desks yesterday in anticipation of summer: THANK YOU! To the people who may potentially help me move at some point in the future (at an undetermined time as I have NO PLANS to move ANYTIME SOON): THANK YOU! To all of my friends and family reading this blog: if you are planning to move, I will help you. That's what friends are for!

All About Me (for the umpteenth time)

As most of you know, I'm kinda a sucker for these kinds of surveys, so when I saw this on Jay's blog, I couldn't resist adding it to my own:

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? My middle name, Wilma, is after my maternal grandmother, Wilhelmina
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? A few weeks ago I guess, when some of the stress of dealing with the upcoming summer got to me
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING Yes!
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? I don't eat much lunch meat since I'm not big on sandwiches, but if I had to choose, I guess I'd say roast beef.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Nope.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? No, never (heavy sarcasm here). You're reading the blog of a person who was once called a "sarcastic wench" . . . does that answer your question?
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Most emphatically no!
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Normally I'd say Cheerios, but the past few times I've purchased cereal it's been Lucky Charms 'cause I love those marshmallows!
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes I do.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Depends on what kind of strength you're talking about. Physically I'm okay . . . I can carry heavy grocery bags home and lift the things I need to. I think I'm strong mentally, though. I'd like to think I have strength of character too.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Plain old vanilla.
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their faces and their sense of humour
15. RED OR PINK? Definitely pink!
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My weight.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My dad.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Well, I want to see it on lots of people's blogs . . .
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? blue jeans and no shoes, but green woollen socks.
20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? a chocolate chip cookie
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Sense and Sensibility (I've got the DVD running in the background)
22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? pink
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? the Honeysuckle Belle body wash I got from the States, grass, storms
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My mom
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Well, I got it off Jay's blog and I can honestly say that she's a wonderful person whom I have yet to actually meet in person!
26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I don't mind watching hockey . . . and soccer
27. HAIR COLOR? Light brown (some might say dirty blonde, but I don't)
28. EYE COLOR? Hazel
29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No. I wear glasses, but have never really wanted to try out contacts.
30. FAVORITE FOOD? Chocolate
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I like both, but I'm a sucker for a happy ending at the end of a romantic comedy :-)
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? The Incredibles . . . I was watching it just before I popped in Sense and Sensibility
33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Blue
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? I like aspects of both . . . but probably I prefer winter a little more because I don't do well in the heat.
35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Cake.
37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Have to agree with Jay on this one . . . Dianne (hint, hint)
38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Jennifer
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (have to refresh my memory before the next book comes out!)
40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Just the mouse . . . guess I'm boring!
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? Debbie Travis: From the Ground Up
42. FAVORITE SOUND? Hugh Laurie's voice . . . both his normal accent and the fake American one. I also love the sound of laughter, especially when I've said or done something to make people laugh!
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? The Beatles
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME??? Germany, but that was a long, long time ago (close to twenty years!!)
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Making a fool of myself (on purpose) in front of teenagers. Seriously, I have no fear anymore, which is good since during the summers I routinely speak to LARGE groups of teenagers (think 200!)
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Burnaby, B.C.
47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? Everyone! I love reading these things and filling them in!

New and Improved Kill Count

The new number is 18. Yes people, 18 dead! It's a glorious day when you can brag about killing 18 fruit flies. Now I have to get back to my important ninja work (wait, that reference probably doesn't make sense to you unless you were with me on Friday night).

The First Kill Count of 2007

At least I think it's my first! Anyway, I put out the secret fruit fly death formula only a few hours ago and I've already claimed five victims! Woot woot! Fruit flies will tremble at the mere thought of coming anywhere close to my sink ;-)

Weird Dream

I just woke up from another really weird dream. It was a little scary and had a really cool ending. In my dream I was in my room, lying in bed. My room pretty much looked like it does now, but bigger and with stuff (like kids' art projects) hanging from the ceiling. I was lying in bed thinking about the stuff I had to remove from the room so it could be painted (I know what prompted that part of the dream!). Anyway, as I was lying there, a HUGE spider (the size of my hand or bigger) crossed the wall that I was staring at and then crossed the room on black webbing! (Hmmm, I did watch the second Harry Potter movie last weekend) Anyway, I jumped out of bed and started freaking out and screaming. This was one HUGE and menacing-looking spider. My sister came over at that point. She was going to help me clean out my bedroom. I told her about the spider and she said she would help me get rid of it. We found some raid and I started spraying close to where I had last seen it. The spider came out of the closet and I blasted it with spray. It went into death throes and ran back into the closet. I kept spraying it and it came back out of the closet. My sister, who was holding a fly swatter, handed the spider the fly swatter so that it could take it's own life with a little dignity. Then the spider started TALKING to my sister! I can't remember what they were talking about though. A few seconds after that, my attention was attracted away from this sight by the sounds of talking outside my window. I looked outside and I saw Harry Potter flying towards my window on his broom! Hermione was with him, and she had just landed on the sidewalk down below my window. I remember saying something like "Jennifer, forget about the talking spider for a minute, you gotta come here and see this!" and that's when I woke up.

On Saturday Afternoons in 1963

I've fallen in love with a new song. It's called "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963" and it's sung by Rickie Lee Jones (whom I had never actually heard of until I heard this song). I first heard this song on a first season episode of "House" called Paternity. It's played at the end of the episode when you see House watching his patient play lacrosse. It struck a deep chord in me the first time I heard it, and not too long ago as I was rewatching the episode on my House DVD, I decided I had to find out what the song was called and download it (perfectly legally through iTunes, so relax people!). The official House website has this cool feature where you can look up the songs played in any episode of House . . . for the second and third seasons only! Do you have any idea how freakin' annoying that was?! Anyway, I did a little internet research and found the name of the song. I downloaded and have been listening to it ever since. It makes me feel nostalgic and happy and sad at the same time. The melody is haunting. Anyway, the lyrics are below. If you have the chance to listen to it, I strongly suggest that you do!

The most as you'll ever go
Is back where you used to know
If grown-ups could laugh this slow
Where as you watch the hour snow
Years may go by

So hold on to your special friend
Here, you'll need something to keep her in :
"Now you stay inside this foolish grin ... "
Though any day your secrets end
Then again
Years may go by

You saved your own special friend
'Cuz here you need something to hide her in
And you stay inside that foolish grin
When everyday now secrets end
Oh and then again
Years may go by

Crazy for Hugh

I might be a little, no, a LOT, crazy about Hugh Laurie. If you don't know who I'm talking about, this blog is clearly NOT for you. A little while back, the picture on my MSN screen became this:

This picture alone wasn't enough to feed my addiction. I changed the desktop of my computer at work to this picture:

To be 100% fair, I didn't actually set out to find this picture when I did my search at work. I typed the phrase "Baby Blues" into google, intending to find a funny cartoon panel from one of my favourite cartoons, "Baby Blues." It must have been fate (or destiny, I'm not sure) that lead me to this picture. I don't think I'll be changing it, unless I find another picture of Hugh. A few minutes ago I decided it was time to find a Hugh Laurie picture to spice up my desktop at home. This is what is now on my home desktop:

Excuse me while I take a moment to wipe the drool off my keyboard. So, do you think I'm addicted?

Renovations

I know it's been a while since I posted, but I've been quite busy with my latest project: renovating my apartment! I guess renovations isn't quite the right word since I'm not knocking anything down or making many major changes. The painting that I had planned to do in the living room/dining room area is done. I wanted to take this week to paint the living room/dining room area and my bedroom, but it wasn't meant to be. Instead, EVERYTHING is getting repainted! My bedroom will have to wait until after I choose fabric for curtains, however . . . boo! This is what's been done so far: We've selected and purchased fabric for slipcovers and throw pillows, the paint has been purchased and put on the walls in the living room/dining room, and new light fixtures have been purchased for the kitchen and hallways. The exisiting light fixture for the dining room is going to get painted to match the decor. Eventually we'll paint the table too. Oh, and I purchased a new showerhead and a new towel bar and toilet paper holder for the bathroom. It's been an expensive week already! Anyway, once everything is done I'll be posting pictures of before and after! Stay tuned . . .

Outlet Shopping

Got back from outlet shopping down south a little while ago. We had a BLAST! We didn't actually make it all the way into Seattle, instead we stopped at Seattle's Premium Outlets in Tulalip. Picture it . . . a huge complex with about 80 brand name stores, and only 5 restaurants in the food court! Oh well, the mission was to shop, not eat, right? Anyway, we spent about 4 hours walking around and shopping, and we got some fantastic deals! I got three pairs of shoes, all for the summer, for about $75. The first pair of sandals came from Nine West and the other two are from the Shoe Pavilion. The second two pairs are identical, just different colours. They are easily the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned. Putting them on my feet was an almost sexual experience. Anyway . . . I also bought a pair of capris and two t-shirts from Lane Bryant. My friend got a pair of sandal from Nine West that are identical to mine, a denim skirt, two pairs of capris, a couple of shirts, several panties and a couple of bras, as well as a new Coach wristlet. By far the busiest store was Banana Republic. The line-up for the change rooms alone was easily as long as the border line we encountered heading south (about 90 minutes). Then there was another long line up for the cashier . . . it was just too much. Anyway, after we went shopping we decided to head back towards the border to find a hotel so we didn't have to hurry this morning. The first Best Western we stopped at was full, so we kept going towards Bellingham. We stopped at the Best Western Heritage Inn right next to Bellis Fair. It was a perfect location . . . we even managed to go into Bellis Fair for a little while (where we made a couple of purchases as Victoria's Secret). We had breakfast at Denny's this morning and away we went. The line up to get back across the border only took about 5 minutes, which was nice. We declared about a third of what we purchased, so technically speaking, we are guilty of smuggling ;-)

Meet my new Hollywood boyfriend

His name is Sendhil Ramamurthy. He can currently be seen on "Heroes". Need I say more?

My Spidey-Sense

Last night I saw Spiderman 3. It was good, but not as good as the previous 2. The theatre was packed so I had to sit quite close to the front, but I didn't mind. What I did kind of mind was the fact that the two kids next to me wouldn't stop talking! Their parents would shush them once in a while, but not often enough for my taste. I think they were probably too young to be at an evening movie (though it wasn't really late - it started at 7) since about halfway through the movie they started asking to go home. The other thing I didn't like was about three-quarters of the way through the movie a guy's cell phone went off. The man actually answered the phone and had a five minute conversation right in the theatre!

Anyway, I thought the special effects with the Sandman villain were superb. The other villains, I'm sorry to say, were a little disappointing. The black goo that takes over Spiderman for a while made for some very interesting personality changes in Peter Parker though. His "new" personality made for some of the funniest moments of the film. The other funny parts came from Bruce Campbell's character and Ted Raimi's character. On a scale of one to ten, I'd rate Spiderman 3 a solid 6.5 to 7.