Tropic Thunder

Last night I went with a group of friends to see the movie "Tropic Thunder" starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. It was vulgar, crude, rude . . . and totally hilarious!! After spending the last 2 days sweltering in my apartment, it was nice to get out of the house and into an air-conditioned movie theatre! I was quite surprised at just how many "laugh outloud" moments there were in the movie . . . I was totally expecting something much heavier on action. I particularly liked Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. I thought his accents were great and he set the right tone.

Now it's off to the waterslides to celebrate my brother-in-law's 30th birthday. I think today is going to be a little cooler than the past few days, which will be welcome relief. I'm not sure I'll survive this hot weather much longer . . .

Family Reunion

It was really hard to boil down a whole weekend's worth of pictures into just 4 for this blog (if you are my friend on facebook, you can check out more pictures of the weekend on facebook)! The weekend was fun, though I did discover, or more accurately, confirm, that camping isn't my thing. I'm really not such a fan of having to leave the building to go to the bathroom, and it drives me nuts to sleep in a sleeping bag that shifts and move everything I do . . . Anyway, this first picture is of the two sisters walking together. Keeping in mind that this is my step-mom's family: on the left is my great-aunt Viola (who's 81 years old) and my grandma Evaline (who is 78). They are the only surviving siblings of the family.
Me and my step-mom Barbara. This is one of the few pictures I have of me since I was too busy fiddling with the settings of my camera to have anyone take a picture of me :-)
One of the many duck pictures I took over the weekend. At one point around the lake area there were about 20 ducks congregating. The colouring on some of the ducks was really pretty, so I was trying to get the best pictures I could. This particular picture I was really pleased with, so it's my new desktop background picture here on my computer. Yes, for the time being, a duck has displaced my usual picture of Hugh Laurie!
My five other campers! My grandpa, 85 year old Bob Bixby, was the only male in our group. Needless to say, he had to be very careful to knock on the door each morning before coming into our cabin so that he didn't catch anyone changing their clothes! From left to right: Grandpa, Barbara, Grandma, Viola, and Viola's youngest daughter, Kathy. Believe it or not, Grandma and Grandpa actually spent two nights outside in a tent while the rest of us stayed in a camper's cabin. The rest of us shared the relative comfort of a large room that held a queen-sized bed (which Viola and Kathy shared) and a pull-out couch (which Barbara and I shared) and electricity (which only worked part of the time). Although I didn't necessarily enjoy the whole camping aspect of the trip, I did enjoy seeing family and hearing all the old stories!

New Toy

Out with the old . . . my first digital camera, that is. This was the first camera I purchased for myself (I think it was about 3 years ago). At the time, it was a good camera. It's a Sony Cybershot DSC-P73. I took a lot of good pictures with this camera.

And in with the new! After much consideration and research, I finally settled on the Nikon Coolpix S550. I looked at several different models online and decided that if I was going to upgrade my camera, I may as well go with a "big" upgrade. It has 10 MP and 5X optical zoom. The LCD screen is 2.5 inches, which, compared to my old camera, is HUGE! I was close to getting a Canon camera, but then I took a closer look at the Coolpix by Nikon and decided that it was for me. It was, even without my $100 in gift cards from Future Shop, cheaper that my first camera, which just goes to show you how much prices on cameras have dropped in the past few years. I even got a 4GB high-speed memory card and a camera case to go with it. So far I'm pleased with it (though I've taken fewer than 10 shots so far, so I probably don't have a complete idea of how good/bad it is quite yet).

Well, I'm off to read my manual and discover all the things there are to know about my new toy!

Thoughts and prayers, please!

Please keep my friend Dianne, and her husband Chris, in your thoughts and prayers! They are in the process of adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia and have found out that their referral is sitting on someone's desk in Edmonton! I can't imagine what it must feel like to wait for something so important! Dianne is handling it beautifully though (you really are Dianne)! So like it says in the title of this post, please keep my friend in your thoughts and prayers this weekend!

More stuff I'm grateful for . . .

So I'm feeling a little "blah" these days and I'm trying to NOT get into a bitchy, dark mood and end up yelling at people for no good reason, so I've decided it's time for another "things I'm grateful for" list. In no particular order, here it goes:

1. My iPod. It may sound materialistic, but I'm glad that I have a reliable device that I can use to listen to music in the mornings when I walk to work. It just helps me stay in a happy mood to start the day :-)

2. Free newspapers. This morning someone was giving away free copies of "The Province" at the skytrain station this morning. I took one since I love doing their word puzzles. Once when I was in university, we got "The Province" free for almost a year. I don't know why, but every morning, no matter what we did, there was a copy of the paper waiting for me at the door when I left to commute to school.

3. My new, yes BRAND NEW, computer at work. It is so fast!! It is so . . . shiny!

4. Judge Judy. Strange, I know. But where else would I get phrases like "beauty fades, dumb is forever" and "don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining" from?

5. Big Brother. Hey . . . it's not a rerun! Besides, I think it's kinda cool that a 75 year old man is competing this summer.

6. My new camp chair. It's very comfy to sit on - it has an air pocket for lower back support and it only cost $13 at Superstore.

7. The new camera that I'm going to buy soon. I think I've decided on which one I'm going to get and I can't wait to start using it!

8. My friends at work. They know who they are!

9. Turning 30. Okay, so maybe I won't always feel grateful for this, but right now I feel happy about turning the big 3-0. I really and truly feel like I learned some valuable lessons in my twenties and I'm happy with where I am right now. Now I'm not saying this won't change . . . but for now I'm cool with this milestone.

10. "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. I've read this book before (it was wonderful and made me cry!) and now I'm listening to the audio book :-)

So my dear readers, what are you grateful for these days?

Explosions Galore!

Went to the fireworks last night. Now that I think about it, I think it's the first time I've ever actually gone down to English Bay to watch them! I've seen them from a friend's balcony before, and I think one year we watched them from a boat, but never at English Bay. Anyway, the U.S. put on a lovely show. I would have taken pictures, but my camera batteries died early in the evening :-( I went with my friends Corinne and Rachel. We got there just before 8pm and even then it was CROWDED! It wasn't so bad until the bathroom line up started snaking past our spot, which caused a lot of people to step on our blanket and generally be annoying. And yes, I actually did see a student. I know, it seems amazing as there were literally thousands of people there, so what are the odds that you'd see someone you know? But that's my luck ;-)

After hearing some "coming back on the skytrain" horror stories from other people who have gone this year, I was a little nervous for the ride home. I was pleasantly surprised on this front. It took about half an hour to walk back to the skytrain, and if you follow the crowds, you can't possibly get lost! We only ended up standing in line for about half an hour before we got on the train - bonus! Even after we got on the train, I think we really lucked out with our timing because our car was never super-full and I only had to stand for about 5 or 6 stops. Anyway, I got home safe and sound around 12:30am. I slept in this morning until almost 10am, which is a little later than usual, but it was much needed! Now it's time to get mentally prepared to go back to work tomorrow.

The Dark Night

I saw "The Dark Night" today. Wow. That's my one-word review: wow! It. was. FANTASTIC! Heath Ledger as The Joker totally blew my mind. If he doesn't get an Oscar nomination (scratch that, if he doesn't WIN the Oscar) for his performance, I'll be shocked. He was the perfect crazy, weird lunatic . . . from his voice to his facial tics . . . AMAZING!

Overall I thought everyone's performance was great. Christian Bale makes a dark, sexy Batman - hubba hubba! Oh, and Maggie Gyllenhaal made a far better Rachel Dawes than Katie Holmes.

I hear this movie is breaking all kinds of box office records. If you haven't already, you should go see it too!!

Weird (and not so weird) things about me

Did you know . . .

- I can't sleep with the door that separates my bathroom from my bedroom open?

- I dislike oranges, but I enjoy orange juice. I only like orange juice without the pulp, though.

- I walk the same way to work every morning. By the same way, I mean I cross the street (jaywalking) at the exact same spots, and cut across the Safeway parking lot in the same diagonal path each time.

- I can only get into tv shows after they've been on a for a little while. This is how I became addicted to many of my favourite tv shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, House, Gilmore Girls, Bones, Numb3rs, most reality tv shows (Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother).

- I can totally tell the difference between coke and pepsi.

- I way prefer being cold to being hot. I love to snuggle underneath a blanket if I'm chilly, but there are only so many layers of clothing I'm willing to remove if I'm too hot!

- It really, really, REALLY irritates me when I see people not using common sense or seeing a problem that needs fixing and not jumping in to fix it. If I'm standing there trying desperately to manage getting the 40 people in front of me to their classes and you see them standing around looking lost, why do you have to wait for me to ask you to help them find their classroom?

- When I'm motivated to do so, I'm really good at finding things at work to keep me busy. Not so much at home.

- Selfish people bother me. Get over yourself already!

- I love buying socks and shoes :-)

- I have never consumed a single drop of alcohol

- I have never smoked a single cigarette

- I have never tried, nor wanted to try, drugs of any kind

Yeah, I know

I know I promised to post more often, and I know I haven't posted for a few days, but I have a really, really good reason! I've been alternating between watching the first season of Gilmore Girls on DVD (must get more!) and playing Wii. Oh yeah, and I have that pesky "work" thing going on as well ;-)

Wheee with my new wii!

Yup, I got a Wii today!! I've been thinking about getting one for a while now. At first I hoped to get one for my birthday in August, and if not then, I figured I'd save up for it and get one at the end of the summer. This afternoon I was walking through the mall and thought, "why not just pop into Future Shop and check and see if they've got any in stock?" They didn't, and they said it would be at least a couple of weeks before they got another shipment. So I bought the first season of Gilmore Girls instead. Then I popped into Zellers and stopped at the electronics counter, where my favourite electronics guy was working. I asked if they had any in stock and he said "no, I wish we did. Oh wait! I do have one Wii Sports Edition left!" Lo and behold, he pulled it out from behind the counter, scanned the price, and since it was cheaper than what I was expecting, I bought it! I was very good though - I waited until after my marking and other chores were done before I set it up and started playing! So far all I've got is the Wii Sports game, but I have plans to get some Mario games in the future :-) If you hear some squealing from my apartment, it's probably just me playing on my "Wii!!"

The phone I want

I want a new phone. A coworker recently pointed out that my current cell phone isn't exactly a nice, sleek, sexy top of the line phone. I was already well acquainted with that fact, but ever since then I've been seriously thinking about upgrading. Now that I have some disposable cash from my dad's insurance, I've been thinking about ways to spend it (Wii, here I come!). I'm definitely not planning on blowing it all on various toys . . . in fact a portion of that money is defnitely going towards paying off my student loans, etc. But I can't help wanting this new phone . . . the pink blackberry pearl:

Sexy, isn't it?

Sex and the City

Saw the movie yesterday - LOVED IT!! We went to the theatre at Metrotown and were pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't that busy at all . . . nice! Anyway, we laughed, we groaned, we clapped . . . it was awesome!

Hot Hot Hot

Have I mentioned lately that I'm in love with this man?

This is the picture on my desktop at home. If you can't read the words, it says "Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face?"

Sigh . . . That's sexy, right there. Why doesn't he have an unmarried twin brother??

Gangster Rap

While I was preparing my previous blog posts, I got interrupted by some extremely loud gangster rap emanating from the street. My initial thought was "damn teenagers! Why can't they turn down their music when they're driving in a residential area?!" I looked outside to discover that the music was not coming from a car full of teenage boys, but from a toy car being driven by a pre-schooler! I ran for my camera to take a picture. My first shot didn't capture much except daddy walking next to a vehicle that's being blocked by a tree.
My second picture turned out much better! I had to use the zoom on my camera to capture this image since that little car was moving quite quickly. I still can't get over how loud the music was (not to mention the choice of music) coming from this little car!

Crocs!

One of the things I was hoping to find by going down to the outlet mall in the states was inexpensive Crocs. They had Croc-style shoes, but no real Crocs. Today, after seeing the new Indiana Jones movie (enjoyable, but not as good as the original 3) I walked past Sport Chek. On impulse I went in . . . to discover that the Crocs were on sale - buy one, get one 50% off! They had several different pairs, but I settled on these ones, the Cleo style, in two different colours. These will come in really handy for weekend use . . . and for my August visit to the states for the Bixby family reunion!

Outlet Shopping, Part Two

The spoils of two day's worth of shopping. I know it doesn't look like much perhaps, but I was on a budget! I ended up with 3 pairs of shoes, 4 t-shirts, and a bra. The striped shirts are all from the Lane Bryant outlet, as is the bra. The blue shirt is from Target, as is the brown pair of shoes on the far right. The other two pairs of shoes are from the Easy Spirit outlet store.
The light-coloured pair of sandals from Easy Spirit. The straps are velcro, and I love the fact that I can adjust the band across the toes as well as around the ankles. I think the strap around the toes will need some adjustment as wearing them today did give me blisters on both my big toes! Oh, and did I mention that they are a size 8.5? I don't know if American sizes are different from Canadian or if my feet are shrinking, but that's fine with me!
The black pair of sandals, also from Easy Spirit. I haven't worn them yet, but I may wear them tomorrow if the weather is nice. They also have velcro closures, which is super nice. Again, the size that fit me the best was 8.5. I think these will be a really comfortable pair of sandals that I will end up wearing most of the summer!
The brown pair of Mary Jane-style shoes I got at Target. I think they'll be really cute for Fall :-) They're size 9.5.

I had to limit myself to 3 pairs of shoes during our shopping trip. There was another pair of blue shoes that I really, really liked and would have purchased, you know, had I been a millionaire! I ended up walking away from them, but it was hard!

It was also hard to walk away from the merchandise at the newest store at the outlet mall . . . Kate Spade!! We went there first thing in the morning, thinking that since it was new and so popular that it would be as crowded as the Coach store usually is. It was practically empty when we walked in, so we got a really good look at the bags they had in. They were absolutely gorgeous! Very pricey, but very stylish. There was a beautiful little black bag that was only $60 and it was very, very tempting (it also came in pink). What ended up stopping me was that it was really too small for me to be practical. I carry so much stuff in my purse every day that I just wouldn't be able to carry a small one too often. Anyway, if I ever become rich, I'll definitely be heading back to Kate Spade to buy a bigger, more useful bag :-)

Outlet Shopping, Part One

Got back last night from our stateside shopping extravaganza :-) It was a long couple of days, but it was fun. Going down across the border only took 25 minutes - it was awesome! We took the Peace Arch border crossing and it was easy-peasy. We stopped at the Duty Free first in order to get some alcohol that my sister requested. Unfortunately we didn't know at the time that you had to stay 48 hours, not 24 hours, across the border before you could bring alcohol back! The duty on the alcohol turned out to be over $100, so we ended up abandoning it at the border. I feel really bad that it happened, but that's life, I guess. Anyway, this time around, my friend and I ended up staying at a different hotel. Last year we stayed at a Best Western right by Bellis Fair, but this year we stayed a little closer to the Outlet Mall, at the Best Western Navigator (exit 189 off the I-5 in case you want to go there yourself)! It was a really nice place, as you can see on the left.
I had to take a picture of the name of the hotel . . . anyone who works for the school I work at would understand why ;-) The propellor logo was EVERYWHERE in the building. There was even a real propellor behind the desk where you check in. Not sure I like the logo much . . . I think a compass, perhaps, would have been a better logo ;-)
Our room. Two queen-sized beds with 4 pillows each. The room was large and gorgeous . . . and had a tv that accessed HBO. What more could a girl want?
The kitchen in our room. Not quite sure we needed this kitchen for our overnight stay (particularly as the hotel has a free continental breakfast every morning that we enjoyed on Saturday), but it was pretty cool.

I didn't take a picture of the bathroom, but it was nice too. It had INCREDIBLE water pressure. Flushing the toilet startled us every time 'cuz the water pressure was so strong. Seriously, it was a little freaky! Stay tuned for some pictures of what I bought . . .

Shoes!

Yeah, I know. This is my third post today. I meant to post this earlier in the weekend, but time got away from me. I wanted to introduce you to my newest pair of shoes. They are supremely comfortable, and two sizes smaller than my normal size 10. They are Crocs and this particular style is called Malindi.

The only tiny complaint I have with them is that they leave my feet pretty dirty by the end of the day. But since all my sandals have the same effect, I'm willing to live with it!

Woot woot for long weekends!

I can't believe what a busy weekend it's been! It all started on Friday night . . . a group of us from work had made plans to go out for dinner to a local restaurant to see a former coworker who had been transferred to another location. It was meant to be a reunion, but as it turned out, our former coworker couldn't make it :-( The six of us who went out still had fun though . . . well, mostly. Have you ever had one of those friends who just drives you crazy all the time 'cuz she's competitive with you (for no good reason)? Well, one of the women at the dinner on Friday night was one of those kinds of people. I don't even think I can describe her as a friend anymore since her behaviour is just so thoughtless. Luckily, we don't work together anymore. Anyway, all evening at dinner, her stories had to be the biggest and best. She had to display her "intelligence" continuously throughout the evening by saying things she thought were clever and funny, but were really just annoying and rude. I got annoyed by her early on when I was answering some questions posed to me by a friend on the other side of the table. The woman asked me if I had had my hair highlighted when it was cut. I answered her, and immediately this annoying woman, who was sitting right next to me, turned to me and said "did you get highlights too?" as though she hadn't heard my friend across the table ask the question. This happened a couple of times. A friend of mine who was sitting across the table from me told me yesterday that she had noticed a couple of times when this woman (who is her roommate, coincidentally) had literally cut me off mid-sentence to say something "witty." I didn't notice that, which I guess is a good thing because it may have made me exchange words with her and that might have wrecked the evening.

On Saturday afternoon I had my usual Saturday lunch with my best friend. We ate at our usual Cactus Club, where I was disappointed to find out that they're taking my favourite meal, the smokehouse quesadilla, off the menu :-( At least they will still serve french fries with garlic mayo . . . Anyway, she and I made plans to go down to the States to go outlet shopping next weekend. Soooooo looking forward to that! On Saturday evening, I went over to my friend Sheryl's place for her birthday dinner. It was a very enjoyable evening spent with good friends and eating good food and enjoying the gorgeous weather outside. We chatted and watched the kids play and soaked in the sun. I discovered that it only takes me 20 minutes to walk to her house, which is very cool. Anyway, I didn't get home until just past midnight so it was a pretty tiring evening.

On Sunday morning, I had plans to meet my friend Anne and her boyfriend Shawn at Joyce Station so that we could go to a restaurant (which I think was called "Fantastic Restaurant") for dim sum. It was such a nice day that we walked from Joyce Station to the restaurant. A very enjoyable 10 minute walk up the street, which was much nicer than taking the bus. I ate some delicious food, but had to draw the line at finishing the chicken feet. It wasn't that they tasted bad, in fact they tasted just like chicken, but they had a lot of small bones that I kept having to spit out and it was making me gag slightly. Anyway, we got nice and full and then went back to the skytrain station. I headed home to start my laundry and rest for a few hours before heading out for my next event. Some of the adult students at my school had organized a birthday dinner for Angela, one of the teachers at the school and a good friend of mine. They invited me and another teacher, Leanna. The plan was to meet at an Italian restaurant, Marcello's, on Commercial Drive at 5pm. I had never been there before, so I met up with Leanna at Columbia Station and we went together. She's spent a lot of time on Commercial Drive, so she knew exactly where she was going. We made it to the restaurant by 5 and the students joined us shortly after. The birthday girl, Angela, was late because she was coming home from Cultus Lake and got a late start. Anyway, the students were a lovely group, very fun, and we were kept entertained all evening. After dinner we went to another restaurant (we were looking for a place with a patio, but quickly realized that we'd never find one on such a gorgeous evening) that had a large open window, and had drinks and snacks. After that, we walked over to a gelato place and got some gelato - delicious! By that time it was past 9, so we decided it was time to head home. All in all . . . a great evening!

Today will be devoted to finishing my laundry . . . and if I get it together on time, going to see the new Narnia movie. I think right now I'm going to go back to bed and read more of my book and wait for my current load (pinks and purples) to finish drying.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just wanted to wish all the mothers in my life, and mothers-to-be, a wonderful Mother's Day!