Phantom of the Opera

Went to see the Phantom of the Opera last night. Excellent movie/musical. Parts of it were rather cheesy, but as a whole it was great. Good story, great music, very handsome phantom :) I loved his eyes, a world of sadness in those eyes. Definately worth going to the theatre to see it. Now I should go and get the music for it, I love those songs. Just wish I had gone to see it when it was playing in Toronto.

Strange Dreams

I had a really strange dream last night. I was wondering around a department store. My teeth were feeling a little odd so I looked in the mirror and saw that two were loose. So I made a mental note to be careful and continued wandering about the store. A little while later my mouth started filling up with blood. I ran into the bathroom and spit the blood into the sink. Along with the blood came two of my teeth. Two from right up front too. I remember smiling into the mirror, and thinking, oh this is not good, looking at the two gaping holes in my mouth. I picked out my teeth with the intention of going to a dentist asap. Then I woke up, with all my teeth intact.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Yesterday afternoon, after a trip to the mall, I decided to deck the halls, so to speak. I put together a wreath for our door, and strung Christmas lights on the porch. But I still felt that something was lacking. So after a trip to Meijer, and much hemming and hawing, I picked out a Christmas tree (the kind that comes in a box :). Hauled it home with some other odds and ends through the quite icy streets. After some wrestling, I got the tree up, and decorated it with the meager collection of ornaments I have. Strung up some garlands, rarranged my little glowing village, and hung a couple of stockings by the "chimney" with care. Now the place looks much more Christmasy, just how I like it :)

Computer Virus

An email forward from one of my aunts:

I am sending this to everyone who sends me e-mail.

One of you sent a virus.

It is a very severe virus.

Look what it did to my mouse!

SinterKlaas

This past weekend, my roomie and I made a quick trip to my parent's house to celebrate SinterKlaas. The drive was pleasantly uneventful, no snow to contend with, just clear, dry roads. Saturday morning I woke up early, for some reason I can never sleep in when I'm at my parent's house. So I took advantage of the fact and wrapped my presents (you can't take wrapped gifts across the border).

By mid-morning we were up and out, visiting a couple of bookstores. Hit the mall briefly, but didn't stay long, way too busy with all the holiday shoppers. But we did make a stop at the pet store, and I found a nice marshmellow coat at Rikki's.

When we got back home, the house smelled great. My grandparents were there, and mom was busy cooking dinner. When my aunt and uncle, and a great aunt arrived, we all had a nice dinner. After dinner, we had lots and lots of great junk food. Mom had been to the Dutch store in town and bought all kinds of yummy goodies. Ate way too much :) The rest of the evening we unwrapped presents, visited, and ate some more. Ryan and I played two games of pool, and I got whooped both times. I blame it on the table, or maybe the rumbonen ;)

Sunday morning we went to church, visited with some people there, drank coffee. After church we went to my aunt and uncle's house for more coffee, and more goodies. Returned to my parent's house after a bit, where we packed up my car with all of our loot, including more junk food of course. Arrived back in GR before midnight, to our lonely little kitty.

Good ol' Bridget

Watched the sequel to Bridget Jones Diary last night. Bridget was up to her usual antics. Not quite as good as the first one, but still enjoyable to watch. I think that in this case, the book is better than the movie. I should read the first book, see how that one compares to the first movie. In Edge of Reason, Cleaver stoops lower and lower, driving home just how big of a jerk he is, and Darcy just seems to get cuter and cuter - and he looks great in a suit :) And if there's hope for Bridget, who is continually (almost painfully) awkward, there's hope for all of us, right?

Thanksgiving

We had our thanksgiving feast on Thursday with a small group of friends. It was nice, just four of us. My roomie and I cooked the whole shebang, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pies, and so on. After dinner we watched the Fellowship of the Ring, which seems to be becoming a thanksgiving tradition at our place. We even gave Nutmeg the cat her own thanksgiving feast. I gave her part of the turkey carcus to gnaw on. She really loved that. The only problem with thanksgiving is, now we have to deal with all the leftovers that are still residing in our fridge.

Home Again

I'm back safe and sound in GR once again. I feel as though I've been gone for a month, but it's really only been five days. I certainly feel like I could sleep for about a week. I was so totally and completely exhausted when I rolled in last night around 11:30. Unpacked a few things (had to find my toothbrush and pjs), then went to bed.

It was an emotional week, a time of laughter through tears, remembering, reminiscing, and telling stories. Had a chance to catch up with aunts, uncles, and cousins that I haven't seen in quite some time. But of course it's a bittersweet reunion. It's good to be back though, back to a regular schedule, and my own space.

Networking

This is great, the Comcast guy just came with our broadband cable box thingy. I installed, signed up, etc, and I hooked up the wireless router. Now I'm parked with my laptop on the couch, and I'm online. I love this. I don't have to go out to check my email, or get online. I'm very much liking this :)

Earphones

Yesterday afternoon I broke down and bought myself some new earphones. Not only do they look cool, but they have great sound quality and no leakage. They were definately worth the $39.99, though that's more than I would ever have imagined spending on a pair of earphones. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a great pair of earphones.


My new earphones.

Bumper Sticker: If this car is too dirty then you wash it.

Achooo!

Bleh. I hate being sick. Nothing major, just a stuffed up head, sore throat, the sniffles, and feeling extremely tired. But it makes the days even longer and the nights shorter. No matter how early I go to bed, its never enough sleep.

Took Nyquil before going to bed last night. That stuff is great. I could breathe, and I was out cold the entire night. I bet I wouldn't have woken up if a train went through my room. It was hard enough getting up to my alarm clock this morning. Here's hoping this cold will soon have run its course.

New Work Life

It's been a long time since I've been blogging. Work has been quite busy lately. Last Wednesday we packed up and moved the office to north Monroe. We had a couple of guys come with a uHaul, and we loaded up and drove across town to the new building. I got to ride in a freight elevator...that was kinda cool. For the first couple of days we worked on folding tables setup about the office. No walls or anything, just a big open space. That was rather loud, you could hear everything.

On Tuesday some guys came to setup our cubes. Bang, bang, bang all day. That was loud and very hard to concentrate. But now I have a cube, and even a window! I really like our new office. It's great in the morning when the sun is shining in. We have six large windows. Much better than the basement. We still don't have our phones set up quite right, and our networking is not quite done yet, but all in all, its a great improvement from our somewhat damp basement office.

GEMS Update

Last night was our second GEMS meeting of the season. This year's theme is "Search for Truth" so for the past two weeks we've been having a mock trial about truth. Last week's lesson asked the question, "Is there such a thing as absolute truth?" and last night we discussed, "Does absolute truth matter?" The girls are the jury, and they have a trial folder where they answer questions to come to a verdict. Its pretty fun.

After the trial, I took my 3rd graders to our classroom where we spent some time getting to know one another. I had six girls last night, and it looks like it'll be a good group. There's pretty good dynamics in the group. After chatting for a bit we constructed a "Friendship Tree". I glued a tree made out of construction paper on a piece of bristol board and had each girl trace her hand on a coloured piece of paper, and write her name on it. Then each girl taped her hand onto the tree. The hands are the leaves on our tree, and every week the girls will put a happy face sticker on her hand. So by the end of the year, our tree's leaves will be covered in stickers. We ended our evening with a game of Telephone, which seems to be a universal favorite.

Church Picnic

It's been awhile since I've been to a church picnic. Saturday afternoon/evening we went to the Fellowship Greens for food and fellowship. We arrived a bit early and watched the some of the kids games. The usual, clothing relay, egg relay, water balloon toss, and fishing. I think my favorite one was watching the boys dress up as "fairy princesses" for the clothing relay. They were horrified when they saw the clothes that they had to wear. It was so funny.

After the kids games, and the rest of the people returned from golfing, everyone sat down for dinner. We had BBQ chicken, many, many, many salads and a wide assortment of desserts. There was so much food, but by the end, most of it was gone. The best part was meeting new people and getting a chance to chat and get to know them better. Its hard, and I'm terrible at remembering names, but I'm slowly getting to know some people at church.

Nutmeg

Last night Raisin (the hamster) did not have "wings" (food stuffed in her cheeks), so I put her in the ball to run around. I left the door to her cage open. After awhile, I began to wonder where Nutmeg had gotten to. She'd been terrorizing me the whole evening, but now she was nowhere to be found. Then I noticed a dark shape in Raisin's cage. The dumb cat had climbed in and was sniffing around. I had to go pull out my camera, this one was too good to pass up.



What a silly cat. So we have a hamster that thinks she's a monkey and a cat that thinks she's a hamster.

Worms

What's worse than finding a worm in your apple? Half a worm.

Bleech, I was crunching away at a necterine, when I look down to see a little crawling thing on the pit. Gross! At least he was whole, so I hadn't bitten him yet. *shivers* So gross though. *shudders*

Tools

The other day I wandered about Lowe's in search of a new tool. I brought my little desk home from my parent's place, and plan to sand it down and refinish it. As a kid, I always wanted to do that and now is my chance. I considered doing it by hand, but thought, that will take a very long time. So I went in search of a power sander. I found a nice little palm sander, yellow and black, with a carrying case to boot. Last night I hauled the sander and the desk out to the garage for a test drive. I have to say that using the power sander is pretty sweet. In a matter of minutes, it gives you a decently smooth surface. Not to mention the fact that its a lot of fun. I know where I'll be this weekend :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am now officially 24 years old. I've been around for nearly a quarter of a century. Funny thing is, I still feel 19 or 20. I can totally understand how shocking it must be to turn 30 or 40, but still feel like you're 20.

Even though today is my birthday, this year I've had a birthday week. Kinda cool. On Sunday, my mom made me a cake that we took to my grandparents house to share. Then on Tuesday we had dinner and games at our house. Mmmm...dark chocolate... :) Last night my roomie produced an assortment of rather random packages. Rather interesting gifts for a 24-year-old, but fun nonetheless. Ranging from a fun bread shaped tupperware and a kids book, to a bar shaker.

So now I have two new books to add to my collection:

The Berenstein Bears and the Messy Room, best book ever :) When I was about 8, I borrowed this book from the school library many, many times. I just loved it. I always wanted a bedroom that looked like brother and sister's when they were finished cleaning it up. Since I loved this book so much, my mom finally bought it for me. The sad thing is, I lost my copy of the book. A few months ago I searched my parents bookselves but couldn't find it anywhere...that was a sad day. But now I have my own copy again, and all is well with the world :)

Alton Brown has a great show on the food network, Good Eats. Kinda like Bill Nigh the Science Guy, but with cooking. This'll be a fun book to read, and then add to my collection of cookbooks.

Driving

Its interesting the things you see while driving. Friday night I hopped in the car and drove to Ontario for the weekend. I was motoring along quite nicely when, boom, major traffic. Stop and go, stop and go. I'm watching the bumper in front of me when I notice a white pickup truck pulling up beside me. I glance at the truck and see this guy in the passenger seat looking at me. And not just looking, craned around and looking back. As the truck passed me, the dude in the passenger seat blew me a kiss. Very strange, never had anyone do that before...but brought a smile to my face (the guy was cute too :P).