Three chocolate doors to open

Only three doors left on my chocolate calendar. I got all the shopping done last night and my bank account is now suffering the damaging effects of rapid weight loss.
I still have a little sewing and a lot of wrapping to do before I'm all done, but basically nothing to stress out about.

The big question today is to tip or not to tip. Generally I tip the Mail Carrier at Christmas time, but we no longer get mail delivered to our house, it all comes to a box down at the end of the Road on the other side of the Highway. I'm leaning toward no tip since I have to travel to pick it up and I've never actually seen the person who delivers it. At the office however, it's a different story. That guy comes right in and drops it off and he even bring cookies for the dogs everyday... so needless to say he's getting a card with a $20 bill enclosed. Do most people still give their mail carrier, paperboy, or garbage man a card with a small gratuity in it, or is that a lost tradition? My feeling is, I always tip the person who occasionally delivers food, so shouldn't I occasionally tip the person who always delivers mail?

Five More Sleeps

Monday we left work at 2 and went out to the Vortex (Dre's word for the malls and box stores in the McCallister area.... I'm adopting it into my vocabulary) to shop. I hit fabricville first for a few things I needed there, while Darrell went to Canadian tire. Then we both headed over to the mall and wandered around. We picked up a couple nice sweaters at Sears, then had dinner at Swiss Chalet. We had the garlic cheese bread which is always awsome, and chicken pot pie, which was kind of bland and nothing to write home about.

When we got home I had a message from my Sister, Amanda, looking for addresses, so I called her back and talked for about an hour. I also got to talk to Cole for a few minutes. For a three year old he's really quite chatty on the phone and has a pretty good vocabulary. I asked him if he was excited that Santa was coming and he told me Grandma was coming home in three sleeps. Mom has been working out in the boonies for quite a while and comes home for a few days at Christmas, so she should get a kick out of knowing Cole is more excited she's coming than Santa Claus.

After I got off the phone I got to work on finishing my robe and an hour later it was done. It is sooooooooooo warm. I won't need to keep my blanky on the couch for watching tv anymore.

I still have a bunch of shopping left to do today and our house is a complete disaster area so there's lots of cleaning to be done.

I finally posted apicture of the second painting I did: I used Winnie the Pooh in this one. I'm not crazy about the way they photograph so I may go back to scanning them in sections and piecing them back together.




Here's the young porcupine a few days before Darrell moved him to his new home. I actually got really close to him to take the pictures but he didn't like it and waddled away as quickly as he could.

The Weekend

We had a really good weekend. Friday night I got a lot of sewing done, and finished both pairs of PJs by Saturday. Saturday I almost destroyed most of what I touched, and managed to kill my standup mixer while making a cheesecake. It was one of those stupid things you do that you know is stupid while you're doing it and you can actually see yourself wrecking the machine. Needless to say I felt like a complete idiot.

I was making two cheesecakes to take to Brian Chisholms annual Christmas party that night and burned the mixer out on the first one, so I threw everything into the blender for the second one and that worked really well. I saw Bob and Deb at the Superstore doing their monthly groceries, at some point on Saturday, and got to visit with them in the isle for a while. Brian's party that night was fun as usual, but most of the people we knew left fairly early so we were home by 11.

There is a really young porcupine who decided to take up residence somewhere on our property, and if it wasn't for the dogs, we would probably let him stay. However one encounter with him could portentially result in a blind dog and a huge vet bill so he had to go. For a basically nocturnal animal this little guy was really quite brazen and Sunday afternoon he was wanderin around the yard without a care in the world. Darrell got a big cardboard box and a long 1x3 and headed outside. I put the box down on the ground and backed away like big wuss, while he used the long board to guide the porcupine into the box. We popped a couple carrots in there with him and Darrell drove him out to the middle of nowhere, with no houses for miles, and he now has a nice new residence with some wild Apple trees around, where he won't encounter cars, people, or our dogs. Our dogs can now go outside without us having to worry as much

Sunday night I started making myself a bathrobe out of the artic fleece I bought this time last year. I'm most of the way done and only have the left arm, closing the sides, and hemming left to do.

How to Spoil a Perfectly Good Day.

First off the weekend was a lot of fun. I got my painting all finished off, varithaned, boxed up and shipped away. I also got started on the two little sewing projects that I have for my Nephews. Saturday night we went out to the SJTC christmas party at the Summerset with the Bonds. It wasn't all it was cracked up to be in the e-mail but was really fun regardless. There was another group there having a Christmas party as well, so it felt basically like Karaoke Night at the Summerset pub, which it basically was. It was really nice to see everyone and sing a couple songs though.

The week so far has moved along very slowly. It seems like it should be over already but it isn't. I have 10 more doors to open on my choclate calendar before the big C. I'm still working on my sewing projects and really only just got down to cutting and sewing last night.... the weekend was basically prewashing and ironing. I didn't buy enough piping so I had to stop into Fabricville on the way to work.

So how do you spoil a perfectly good day? Turns out I had to kill some time because Darrell was recording a Voice over, so I popped into Michaels to see if they had any Batman buttons that I could use on Cole's Jammies, but they didn't so I headed to the Dreaded Walmart. Stepping into Walmart is enough to ruin any day, but try doing it in December in the morning... it's hell. I honestly hate going to Malmart for anything to tell the truth and we absolutely avoid the place the like the plague if it can be helped, but they are one of the only other places that might have had batman buttons so I had no choice. The worst part of the search was the fact that the sewing section is at the very back of the store.... so you have to navigate your way through all the completely clueless people wandering around looking for nothing imparticular. It shouldn't be that hard, since Walmart has big huge isles, except they piles islands of crap up in them so you can only get around them single file... heaven help you is someone decides to stop and chat with someone coming the other way. I could rant about how much I hate the place for hours, but suffice to say I hate the place and going there for any reason is like stepping into hell. They didn't have what I was looking for either so I soothed my pain at Futureshop by buying the Christopher Reeves Superman Collection DVD box set.

Friday December 8, 2006

Appetizer
Which language would you like to learn and why?
French. I live in a bilingual country and many of the projects we do have to be translated into french. It would make my life a lot easier if I had more than just a vague idea about what was being said.

Soup
What's the funniest thing you've heard or read so far this week?
I saw a picture on Garth Turner's website of Stephen Harper and George Bush, but it is made from the Brokeback Mountain Movie poster. I read a couple jokes in my e-mail that made me laugh, and I heard people on the radio debating the same sex marriage law again.... I find that funny because I'm stunned by the sheer ignorance of some people and the way they can wrap up discrimination and intollerance in a pretty little package and call it "Family Vallues".

Salad
Which movie was so bad you couldn't watch the whole thing?
Black Hawk Down. It sucked hard.

Main Course
If there were a holiday in your honor that didn't use your actual name, what would the day be called?
I don't know what it would be called but there would be lots of vodka.

Dessert
Name one movie which is coming out soon that you would like to see.
The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will & Jaden Smith. It's based on a true story and looks like a really good movie.

Raining

It's raining and 7 degrees...so bye bye snow. (For now)
There are seventeen unopened doors on my chocolate calendar until the big C.
Still so much to do and very little time to do it if I want to get stuff in the mail on time.

Snow & Ice

So the rain in the morning quickly changed back to snow and continued all day long and just like that it was winter in New Brunswick. It suddenly got quite cold to go with it. To be honest I really love the first snow fall, it makes everything so bright and clean looking. In fact I love the first snowfall of winter almost as much as I love the last snowfall of winter... now if we could just work that global warming thing into making them a little closer together that would be awsome.

Snow?!

Well it had to happen to us eventually. Thankfully the snow fall last night was no where near as bad as the western side of the country, and on the bright side everything looks so pretty with a nice blanket of snow on it. It's raining now so the snow is pretty much gone, but it was kind of nice to wake up to it.

The weekend was good and it started a day early. I didn't end up going into work on Friday although I had planned to. Darrell had a doctors appointment later in the morning Friday so he went in on his own to that and then stopped by the office to work on a DVD project that has been giving him grief. By the time he got home it was too late for me to turn around and head in so I didn't. Instead I spent an hour on my eliptical trainer (I can sing most of the Cabaret soundtrack while working out now although still a little breathlessly near the end) then puttered around.

Saturday I basically painted, and not much else. I got Seth's painting finished completely by the end of the day.



The photo is before a few little finishing touches, erasing pencil lines, and varithane, but it gives you the idea. Once the Varithane was on it the colour popped a lot more, but the shine reflects the flash on the camera. The painting contains all his information; the calendar has his birthdate, the clock has the time, Daisy Duck is sitting on a scale that has his weight, The Blocks spell out his name on the fronts and on top they have his middle and last initial.

Sunday I went to work on the painting I'm doing for my cousin and got most of it blocked out. I can probably finish in one more sitting.

Superhero test

This is kind of fun

You are Spider-Man Spider-Man - 90% Hulk - 75% Green Lantern - 75% Iron Man - 70% Superman - 65% Robin - 60% Catwoman - 60% Superboy - 50% The Flash - 50% Batman - 45% Wonder Woman - 40%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky & have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Halifax

The curse is broken! I traveled to Halifax and back at the end of November with no snow! Or rain for that matter. In fact you couldn't have asked for a better day to drive. My appointment was for 12:20 so I left at 7 am to get there early. I stopped in at Aqua creations on Quinpool road once I got to Halifax and had a look around at the various salt water fish etc. (We're still considering doing a salt water tank). I picked up a really good book on reefs and equipment that will help make our descision easier. Then I headed over to the hospital and up to the Clinic floor. I was about half an hour early but lucked out and went right in. I also lucked out at the hospital pharmacy and got my medications right away so I was back on the road home by 1 O'clock. I didn't even have to drive in the dark this time around, I made it home by five.

I've been seeing the doctor in Halifax because of the drug coverage program that allows me to get all those extrememly expensive drugs for just a dispensing fee, but that is now a thing of the past. This is the last time I will be able to do that. The NB government has started paying for antirejection drugs now so NB patients don't have to go to halifax. Most NB patients didn't have to go for quite some time now, but I had to because I'm not on welfare medical so my drugs weren't covered that way. So that was my last trip to Halifax to see the doctor and I will start seeing him when he does clinics in Moncton.

Darrell ended up having to work an all nighter last night to get the Outstanding Business Achievement awards videos done intime for tonight's ceremony, so I popped into the office and picked up the dogs, then stopped at Future shop and got the Superman Returns DVD. I never actually went out and saw this movie at the theatres so last night was the first time through for me. I'm generally a pretty easy sell when it comes to comic book movies though... so long as they don't really screw with the chracters. Generally the movie was pretty weak in my opinion. I liked the characters but could've done without the Lois Lane with Superman's kid thing... that was completely unnecessary. Lex Luthor was portrayed too much like the old 1960's lets keep it light and simple comic villan and his plot to build a new continent so he'd own all the property was pretty lame. I'm wonder why they even bothered to try and make this a sort of continuation of the other movies... why not just pull a batman and start over with a more modern style Superman closer to today's comics? Having him "Gone" for five years without so much as a goodbye is stupid, because Superman wouldn't actually do anything that selfish to begin with. Oh well... I score it a 6... a little better than average and a good moive all things considered, but I'm glad I didn't blow the money on it at the theatre... plus the DVD has so many extras.

I managed to catch the Mercer Report before putting in my Movie and they used my picture on the show which was really cool. They don't say your name or credit you in any way, but it's still neat to see something you whipped off in photoshop in half an hour make it on TV over the other submissions that came in. Especially considering I've only actually done the Photo Challenge three times and Twice they've used my image on the air!


Here's the original Howard Dean Image

Here's what I did to it (It's actually elements of about six or seven images combined)

Little Hamster

I had a very productive weekend. I managed to get the house all cleaned up after a week of total neglect on Saturday and get started on a couple paintings I have to get done in time for Christmas.

Friday while I was at the gym running, I couldn't help but think of a little hamster I used to have when I was kid. His name was Lee and he had a little wheel in his cage and would get on there and just go forever never getting anywhere. Of course then it hit me that I have turned into that little hamster...running my ass (and hopefully my gut) off on the treadmill and going nowhere. So, it prompted me to hook the leashes on the dogs Saturday afternoon, and take a walk up the road. I figured it would be easier to walk to the end of the road and then run back since the dogs would have time to get over their "oh what's that over there" phase of the walk. I didn't go to the end of the road though, because it occurred to me that there was a house with two dogs that weren't always contained and I had no desire to deal with that, so I stopped before I got within range of their driveway and ran the rest of the way back home. Running outside on the pavement, with the hills, and the wind, and two dogs who don't understand what's going on yet, is considerably different than running on a soft treadmill in the gym, but I really enjoyed it. As long as the weather allows it I may make a habbit of it. It is a little disheartening though, when you're going along, out of breath just trying to get to the end, then you look down and the dogs are trotting along beside you completely unphased and not even having to break into a run to keep up. But they seemed to enjoy it and I can't complain to much since I'm new to the whole running thing.

Sunday I cleaned the kitchen and then I sat at my painting table and worked away at the first of two baby announcement paintings on my list. I got a lot of it finished and I can probably get it done in one more sitting. It's amazing how fast the time goes when I'm painting. I get so lost in it, that I feel like I've only just started and a couple hours have passed. I should do it more because it's very relaxing, and I probably will do it more, now that I've managed to clean a path to the table and get everything set up.

I went onto Rick Mercer's blog, followed the link to his show last week, and took the photo challenge. This weeks picture was of US Democrat Howard Dean, so I downloaded it and using elements of about 6 other images I did a picture of him doing George Bush's Hair. On Friday I got an E-mail from Nik Sexton at CBC that said they liked the picture and might use it on Tomorrow night's show, so I had to fill out a release for them. If you're a Mercer Fan watch the show and you may see my picture. I'll post it on my blog later.

I'm off to Halifax Tomorrow for my regular check up, so expect snow. If it can snow when I have to drive to Halifax it usually does, so be prepared just in case. Hopefully I will be home in time to Catch the Mercer Report.

No Walkin

I don't know why I bothered calling the last post new personal best, because it occurs to me that I will be shooting for a new personal best everyday, and today is no exception. Today I made it the entire 20 minutes without walking for a total of 1.4 miles. The odd thing about it is, I actually found myself looking forward to getting my run in today....who even knew that was possible?

New Personal best

Yesterday at the gym I managed to run five complete laps on the treadmill before walking out the last of the 20 minute timer. A total run of 1.25 miles with about a half lap walk at the end. Okay if anyone would have told me I would be running without something terrible chasing me and actually liking it I would have told them they were out of their minds, but there's something kind of addictive about it.

Friday Feast, November 24, 2006

Appetizer
Have you ever changed a flat tire by yourself?

Yes of course. If you can't change a tire by yourself you shouldn't be driving by yourself.

Soup
Do you have an "innie" or an "outie" belly button?

Innie

Salad
Name a new paint color and describe it.

Emerald Sea - Named for the Pacific Ocean around Vancouver Island a deep green with a dark blue base (Would make a great wall colour in a bathroom with white marble tiles)

Main Course
What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Since we moved to the East Coast and it's only the two of us, we don't really have any holiday traditions. New Years Day I usually make Eggs Benny for brunch.

Dessert
If you were a cookie, what kind of cookie would you be, and why?

Oreos with double stuff... if you gotta be a cookie you might as well be the best cookie!

Welcome to the Jungle

I'm back to work today after taking yesterday off to recover from tuesday's Guns N Roses Concert. I'm not really a fan of the group, but Darrell is, and we got free tickets. It was a really really long night. The concert was good but Guns and Roses never even hit the stage until midnight. The first of three opening acts was called Die Maniquin and they may have a been good, I don't know for sure because the sound was so bad you couldn't hear a word she sang. The drummer was really good though and you could certainly hear him. Their stage show was stiff and contrived with no real spontanaity to it.

The second act I could have done without completely though I'm sure the rest of the guys in the audience would disagree. It was a burlesque act called Suicide Sisters. Five girls with pasties doing various strip teases.. blah blah blah.


The Trews were on Third and they gave a really good show. I didn't realize I knew so much of their music until I heard it. Then there was a huge long delay between them and the resetting of the stage for Guns n Roses.

When Guns N Roses finally hit the stage the crowd went insane and they really rocked. It was a good show, but I had a hard time getting past all the compression and effects on Axel Roses' Microphone. He sounded like you hear on the albums, but without all the studio tech etc it all sounded computerized, so now I'm curious as to whether or not he can actually sing. Considering that with modern technology in the studios most of today's "singers" are mediocre at best.

Don't get me wrong I was ultimately able to get past it with the help of several beers, and have a good enough time I had to take the next day off to recover.

Weekend

It was another rather quiet weekend. I started it off with a personal best at the gym. Since I've only just started running, I've been taking it easy and not overdoing it by running a lap then walking half a lap, running a lap... walking half a lap and so on. Friday however, I hopped on the treadmill, started running and four laps later (1 mile) I walked half a lap before running out the rest of the time on the clock. Today I will try to forgo the half lap of walking all together.

The weekend itself was fairly uneventful. Did a little house cleaning, got the baords up for the closet door frame, and caught up on laundry.

Opening Night

I went to opening night of Noises Off with Brian and Helen last night, and I can honestly say I'm glad I didn't participate in the show this time around, otherwise I would have missed the opportunity to just sit in the theate and be totally entertained. The show ran smoothly which is a testament to the crew, and the cast was fantastic. It was hilarious and well done. There was so much going on on stage that I almost think I should go see it again to catch all the little things I missed the first time around. Plus it was nice to watch a show without being behind the sound board with voices wispering in you ear through the headset the entire time. I could have done with the woman sitting behind me chawing on her gum in my ear throughout the entire first act, but short of shotting her a couple dirty looks there wasn't really anything I could do about it.

Brain and Helen were sitting in row K and my ticket was row J, but there was an empty seat beside Helen so after the first intermission I escaped the gum lady and sat beside Helen. Unfortunately I had a guy witha giant head, who kept lifting his arms up into the arm for some unknown god forsaken reason, sitting in front of me there. I simply could not win. We need to educate our audiences better about theatre etiquette. If you have big hair tone it down and maybe slouch a little in your seat, if you can't chew with your mouth closed... don't chew period, if you have a cold... stay home or come with already unwrapped cough candies so you aren't coughing through the quiet parts, if you have a cell phone leave it in the car... you're not that important, And go to the bathroom before the show starts for Chirst's sake. Just a few simple little things that would make the experience better for everyone.

Thankfully Noises Off was so well done and such a good show that the seating unpleasantness was only a minor distraction. It was a long show though so I didn't get home until 11:30, then I stayed up to watch the new episode of Smallville (it just isn't Thursday without a dose of little Superman).

Noises

Yesterday I got a good workout in, I ran a mile then worked on legs and shoulders. I weighed myself at the gym and have lost that unwelcome ten pounds....yay! Now I'm at the perfect weight for my height, and all I have to do is move it all around so it's spread out better, and not contained in my stomach area.

After work we met up with Brian and Helen for dinner at Romanos and then later on that evening we popped out to Dairy Queen for a sundae. I know it sounds like a quest to refind that unwelcome ten pounds again, but it's okay to do that kind of thing Occasionally. Occasionally being the operative word.

Tonight I think I'll tag along with Brian and Helen and see Noises Off. I know everyone is working really hard on it so it's bound to be a great show. It's kind of strange, I thought I would be happy to not be doing sound this time around, but I'm actually feeling a little out of touch with everyone. Maybe I'll throw my hat in for Sound on the Glass Menagerie.

Congratulations to Stephen and Sandra on the safe arrival of their new son Alexander Frederic Jamie Tobias..... and congratulation to Mister Bill on becoming a big brother.

Quiet Weekend

We had a very laid back weekend. We took Friday off and really didn't do too much. Brian and Helen came over Friday night and we all watched a movie.

Saturday we got to work at pulling the drywall otuof the closet door frame and cutting the wood to go into it. Darrell started cleaning out the little back room and sorting out what would be returning to it and what would not... no small job there.

Sunday we stained and urithaned the wood for the closet doorway. I'm still in the middle of the urithaning process and will do the third coat tonight after work. You get the best results if you do several coats with a light sanding in between each.

Monday we came into work and it was a very quiet day since most people were off. Darrell rearranged all the wires and connections in his editing suite and I worked on my 3d model of canaport.

My nose is still alittle stuffy but for the most part the cold is basically gone. I'll be getting back to the gym today. I went once last week but was still so stuffed up I could only do tenminutes onthe treadmill before callin it quits and heading home.

Found these

I was going through some old backup disks looking for a particular picture of Darrell with his Camera when I came across these images.

This one is of Darrell and me on my 27th Birthday, May 19,1998. I was in the BMT Isolation Ward in Halifax and had just finished three days of High dose Chemotherapy, followed by three days of full body radiation, followed by the transfusion of my Donor Bone marrow on May 14th, five days before this Picture. My hair hadn't even started to fall out yet. Tragically it is also the day of the Columbine shootings in the States.

This one was taken a couple weeks later when my Mom flew out from Calgary to stay with me for ten days

It seems so long ago now.

Nothing going on

It's Thursday and that's about all that's going on. This cold is still hanging on no matter how I try to shake it. I haven't been to the gym this week, although I want to go... I just don't think the treadmill would be nearly as glamorous with my nose running faster than me. The dark circles under the eyes persists, but not as bad as last week. I actually had to put a little coverup on for a picture Darrell took of me last night to hide the dark eyes. I really don't like being confronted with pictures of myself anymore. All I can see when I look at them is the damage inflicted by graft vs host disease.. the tightness of the skin makes me look alot older than I am, and when I see it in a picture for some reason it's a lot more prominent than just seeing myself in the bathroom mirror. I see the dermatologist on Dec 5 to talk about starting light therapy. It is designed to break down the swelling under the skin that cuases the tightness and the choking off of the hair folicles. I may be too long gone for any of the hair to come back, but it would be nice to see some elasticity restored. I was supposed to have the treatment in the summer, but it involves drugs that make you light sensitive, and you have to stay covered up and try to avoid the sun... Summer is not the season for that.

In the mean time there's nto much going on. We're taking tomorrow off because of rememberance day on Saturday, and have no plans for the weekend so far. We may actually get around to turning al lthat planed wood into moulding for the bedroom.

Beginning of November

So far November hasn't been too bad. This weekend was quite productive, although I still haven't been able to kick the nasty cold. I am feeling a lot better, but still haven't been to the gym (no good spreading it around)in over a week. Maybe Tomorrow.

We did very little on Friday after work, basically kicked back with the TV. I called my sister, Amanda, to say happy birthday and talked to her for about an hour. She is now officially a quarter of a century old.

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we hauled the planer up into the driveway and finally started planing all the wood we bought for the moulding in our bedroom. We bought it all last spring, but got so busy in the yard over the summer that all in house projects were put on hold for fall and winter.

We got a pretty big pile of shavings by the end of it, but luckily our neighbour Sylvia has a horse and a pony so she wanted them for bedding. I ended up taking four wheel barrow loads full over to her which the horses should enjoy.

Sunday was my Grandpa, Joe, and my Brother, Lorne's birthday so I called both of them. Lorne wasn't home (Never is) so I left a message, but I got to talk to Grandpa for a while.

Sunday was also the 400th Anniversary of Guy Faulks Day, and Helen, being a Brit, celebrates it every year. This year was no exectpion. She and Brian made up a dummy Guy Faulks who hung out with all of us last weekend during all the Halloween stuff. Then Sunday we went over to the Bonds, (Bertis was there as well, but Chad and Nancey couldn't make it), lit a big fire, and tossed Guy on.

Then we lit some sparklers

Darrell videotaped the whole thing

Then we had baked potatoes, Hotdogs, and a cinnamon bun

It really was alot of fun. I think next year we should dress guy up in a George Bush mask and kill two birds with one stone...hahaha.

If you're unaware of who Guy Faulks is, he tried to blow up the British Parliament 400 years ago and was caught and executed for treason. These days I don't know if we celebrate Guy Faulks day because he was caught and executed, or because he tried to blow up parliament (Which I'm sure many people have want to do from time to time)

Take the test

Found this on Christa's Blog... I'd say it's mostly right. I'm closer to the end than the beginning but everyone had to start somewhere...hehehehe

The Bachelor Deliberate Gentle Sex Master (DGSMm) Straight-up. Studly. Congratulations, you are The Bachelor. You're an honest, good-thinking guy, and though you're very sexually active, people don't perceive you as a male-slut or man-whore or guy-dick-putter-inner or whatever. You have a sterling reputation. You're a careful person, perhaps too much so for your friends' tastes, but guys like that in you. You probably don't kiss & tell. And you definitely don't brag. You know you don't have to prove anything to anyone. It's as if you believe in monogamy, so long as it's with lots of different people. Our guess is that you've got some kind of word-of-mouth going with the boys out there, and that in the future, your sex partners will get even more plentiful, and more attractive, too. You will settle down eventually, and make an excellent husband. You seem like the type who is into the idea of making copies of yourself, so you'll probably adopt lots of kids. Bear in mind, meanwhile, this can get expensive. ALWAYS AVOID: The Manchild CONSIDER: The Bachelor, The Backrubber Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.

Getting Better

I'm feeling alot better today. Still stuffy and sniffley, but not all dragged out and generally yucky like the past two days. I really should have taken yesterday off too, but couldn't justify it. I looked awful. Lately when I get sick for some reason the area around my eyes gets really dark like a racoon. It's something in the past couple years, but nothing my doctor has any concern about. Just not getting the rest required for this body which is a lot older than it used to be and doesn't bounce back as easily. Apparently it only gets Worse...so I've got that to look forward to. YAY.

I did manage to get a bunch done yesterday, despite the cold. I've got a long way to go..... and a short time to get there. (Couldn't resist)I think I'm okay for time as long as nothing large, surprising, and immediate comes through the door. Although with Christmas ads starting there's a good chance I'll be bogged down pretty soon.

Day Off

I took the day off yesterday and spent the majority of it wrapped in a blanket on the couch in front of the TV. Rosie O'Donnell is on The View now. Just thought I'd throw that in... I used to love her show when I was recovering at home.

We got absolutely no Trick or Treaters to the door last night. There's only two young kids on our street. Yet somehow the candy bowl kept getting emptier and emptier.

I'm not anywhere near 100% today, in fact 80% is something to aspire to at the moment, but I couldn't afford to take yet another day off. I would fall way to far behind and not get things done. The nice thing about a job like mine is that most everything works on a deadline, so as you can take a personal day here and there as long as you hit your deadline.... the drawback is that deadlines don't care if you catch a nasty cold.

Great weekend

We had a really good weekend. Friday night we went to Brian and Helen's place, for Bertis' freedom 36 party. He is leaving the law world and going back to something he loves, teaching piano. Of course he was there as well, and Chad and Nancy also made it out. Helen had goody bags made up and games picked out to play. We played pass the bag, where we all sat in a circle and passed a bag full of various wardrobe items around and around until the music stopped and the person left holding the bag had to pull something out and put it on. The person wearing the most items at the end (Which was me) won. The bag had lots of lovely ladies undergarments and scarves and various knitted things, it was really quite funny, especially watching Chad squeeze into a shirt that was Helen's size. We also had a game of Pin the tail on the donkey, which ended with a tie breaker round between Chad and Bertis. Some of the goody bags had bubble solution in them and that was alot of fun. We were blowing bubbles and the dogs were trying to catch them, well Elton and Yorky were trying to catch them, Tiff was having nothing to do with it. Lots of lovely coctails, laughs, and good conversations = really good time.

Saturday was a quiet morning. Our bookkeeper Trish dropped her computer by so Darrell could have a look at it, then we popped out to do some browsing. We found a nice throw rug for under the Dining room table on clearance. It's absolutely perfect as it has varying shades of green and a bamboo pattern on it, so it goes perfectly with the vase and giant bamboo plant in the center of the table. The rug helps break up the flooring a little for the eye. The flooring looks really great, but it was feeling pretty sparce with all that open space between the living and dining area, so this just breaks it up a little. We spent the rest of Saturday basically cleaning, trying to get rid of the thin layer of green dust created from cutting the flooring. Just when you think you've got it all, you move a pot or something and there's more.

Sunday I tried to get caught up on all the other household chores that fell by the wayside because of the new floor, like Laundry. I got most of it done, but we headed out around 5 to Bertis' place for dinner and a horror movie. Brian and Helen were there as well and Bertis and the Bonds dressed in Costume. Darrell and I were the spoil sports who arrived costumeless. Altough I was wearing faded jeans and a button up moosehead shirt over a t-shirt so Helen said I may have been dressed as a lesbian. Helen was dresses as a black cat with a feather boa, and in true cat fashion was shedding all over her chair... hehehe, Brian was dressed all in black with bat wings and black face paint, and Bertis was dressed as Clark Kent. Clark Kent You ask? yes, he was in a suit with the top buttons of the shirt open to reveal his superman shirt below. He had gone above and beyond decorating the inside of his house with carved pumpkins and candles everywhere, it was really nice. And he made "rest in peas" and "Rigga-mortis" (Named by Darrell) for dinner. The first was peas in a creamy sauce with a tombstone piece of toast and the second was a nice riggatoni pasta dish. Darrell & I brought everyone treats (Double thick caramilk Bars) and handed those out, then we watched "Scream", and had cake. We called it an early night being Sunday and all, and were home in time to catch Desperate Housewives then call it a night.

I've developed a runny nose today, so I'm not enjoying being at work, and hopefully I can get enough done that I may be able to stay at home tomorrow and get over it.

Friday Feast October 27, 2006

Appetizer
Create a new candle scent.
bacon... who doesn't love the sent of fresh cooked bacon? Or Chicken Soup. Or Banana Bread.

Soup
Name one way you show affection to others.
I'm a hugger.

Salad
What is your favorite writing instrument?
Just your basic ball point pen.(Not that I actually write much anymore, I mostly type and print)

Main Course
If you were given $25 to spend anywhere online, from which site would you buy?
Chapters.ca

Dessert
Are you dressing up for Halloween? If so, what are you going to be?
No I'm not. I don't normally go in for the Halloween dress up thing. I guess I could mismatch my belt and shoes and go as a straight guy.

Tis Done!

We got the last of the Transition pieces put down last night and the floor is now completely finished. I still have to paint the walls and ceiling sometime this year and replace all the awful old moulding, but the floor is done. There are now only two rooms on the main floor of the house with their original flooring... their days are numbered...it's a big number though because we have a pretty major renovation planned there and won't be able to afford it in the immediate future. It involves breaking through the bathroom wall into the spare bedroom closet and closing that off to extend the bathroom. Then the installation of a big whirlpool tub and separate shower... as I said, can't afford it now, in fact it may be a couple years off, so in the mean time some paint and little crack fill will have to suffice.

That's the thing about owning a home, you just finish one project and you're already planning the next five. I think if I ever came into a big chunck of money I would get into flipping houses. The market in Saint John is growing rapidly and I think someone with the right know how would make a lot of money. I love doing all that cosmetic type work, the tiling, flooring, painting... all that stuff is really fun to me, but I'd definitely need someone with more knowhow when it came to the big structural stuff... I mean I'm pretty good with the crack fill, but I've never tried or been shown how to actually do drywall... and while I'm good at changing a light fixture or moving a junction box...I'm certainly no electrician. I really like the idea of house flipping though, I don't know how the actual practical would go if I ever got into it, but the idea is nice.

I had a really good cardio workout yesterday and structured it differently than in the past. I started on the treadmill and alternated, running one full lap, then walking half a lap, running another full one. I actually managed to run an entire mile and walk another half mile in 20 minutes. Then I figured I'd try out the stair machine (never used it before)and did pretty good on it for a first timer. If I'd have known exactly how hard it was, I may have done it first instead of after the treadmill, but I got through the entire 20 minutes, 60 floors, set to random, and only having to pause a couple times near the end.

I bet I could head into our basement, hop on the eliptical trainer and sing "Willkommen" all the way through at this point even with the german accent and all the dialog. Maybe even get partway through "So What".

Flooring is Finished !!! Mostly

Well we got it all down with the exception of three transition strips that we will finish after work today. The channel for one of them needs to be widened a bit and there needs to be a slight riser put in all of them because we used the 12mm flooring. Incidentally if you are thinking of putting laminate flooring in your house, don't cheap out and buy the 7 or 8 mm stuff for 99 cents a square foot. You really do get what you pay for. This is the third time we've done laminate, the first was the bedroom and we used the 8mm it was pretty good to work with and we were mostly happy with the way it turned out, the second we also used the 8mm in Mike and Kathy's living room... it was a different brand and wasn't as easy to work with, but the 12mm is by far superior to either time. Spend the extra dollar a square foot, buy the brand name stuff, and don't use anything less than 10mm flooring and you'll have the best results.

As promised pictures.......

Saturday (Day 01) ripping up old flooring and cleaning floor

Sunday (Day 02) Laying the Laminate

Monday (Day 03)finshed the hallway

Got past the odd angle and called it a night

Tuesday (Day 04) Finished just about everything

Under the dog pictures is where the Aquarium will go

Installing transition strips

It passes the Tiffy test

There is still a channel to widen at the entryway for the transition strip to go down, and a riser to put at the top of the stairs for that transition to be glued to. We have enough left over to do the landing in the stairway, so I am going to get some white semigloss and some red oak stain, then paint the backs of the stairs white and plane the existing paint off the stair treads and stain them to match the flooring (At least that isn't an expensive undertaking).

OWW my knees!

We had a surprising weekend. Friday we left work early and hit O'Leary's for a beer, then went home had a little dinner, and popped over to our neighbours Dave & Kathy's place for a couple more beers.

Saturday we got up and really didn't have a plan of what we wanted to accomplish for the weekend. It was Darrell's first real chance for some down time since we got back, because he had to work last Saturday, so we intentionally didn't plan anything. We ended up taking a fateful trip to Kent just to look around and see what we could see. Well we saw 12mm laminate flooring on sale for $1.99 a square foot. From the moment we moved in, our plan was to take up the carpet in the living room, linolium in the hallway and dining area, and do the entire space with nice laminate flooring. Since it's an open concept house it is essentially all one floor. Once we did the ceramic tile in the entryway and kitchen we actually had five different sections of flooring from the kitchen to the hallway... we had tile in kitchen to linolium in Dining area, carpet in living area, tile in entryway, and linolium in Hallway... I hated it, but we weren't financially prepared to change it just yet. Well anyway, the flooring was on sale, so we bit the bullet, pulled out the Kent Card and took the plunge. After all we've redone six floors in the past couple months and none of them were ours... we really should have something to show for the bruises on our knees.

We got the flooring home and unloaded and proceeded to get right to work pulling up carpet and linolium, which was alot faster and easier than anticipated since the linolium was only partially glued in the Hallway and not glued at all in the dining room. Once we got all the floors stripped and cleaned we sat and watched a little TV then headed for bed.

Sunday we got up relatively early for a Sunday, and started putting the floor down. There were a few trips to the Kent store for various supplies (thank God for Sunday Shopping.... it was 20 years ago in BC), but we made it to the dividing wall that has the big dog pictures on it (Basically the edge of the dining area) and most of the way across the hallway, before stopping for the night.

Monday we headed into work as usual. I forgot my gym bag so I didn't get my work out in, but will make up for it today. Then stopped at Dolan Road Irving for some turkey Vegtable soup on the way home, then back to work once we got home. There was a bunch of stuff that needed to be done with plants etc since they were all sitting on the dining room side while we did the living room and that took a little while. I got to work finishing the hallway while Darrell starting on the dining room, then he popped out for more glue (yes we are actually using glue even though you don't have to... we found that some of the end joints in the bedroom laminate tend to pull a little and leave a very tiny gap... so the glue will stop this from happening), and then the power went out. So being stumped with no power, we decided to drive into Rothesay and get a coffee (surely there would be power there)... no good, they were also blacked out. We turned around headed back toward the airport (maybe that side would have power) it was all black up that way to. The glow from the city could be seen in the sky so we headed down Loch Lommand toward town figuring we'd eventually drive back into the power and find an Irving for Coffee. Just past Churchland road the lights came back on, so we aborted the mission, turned around, headed home and made coffee there. It must've been a big blackout though, from what we could tell it took out Rothesay and a huge chunk of East Saint John. At any rate we got back to work. I was on the very last row of the hallway when the lights went out so I finished that and started helping Darrell with the dining room. The part of the cabinet that juts out pastthe kitchen is on and angle and so is part of the kitchen floor, so the dining room wasn't a case of chop the end off the board and use the left over to start the next row. It required some extra attention and thought and was a lot slower going than the rest of the living room. We didn't actually finish either. It got be midnight and then started rounding on 1 O'clock by the time we got all the rows with the angles done, and instead of pushing on even later to finish the square section we called it a night.

Tonight we finish.....Tomorrow Pictures

Walk it off

Okay.. Today... Legs.... soooooooo Stiff and achey. But not so stiff and achey as in I overdid it, just stiff and achey as in stretch it out and walk around a bit.
It's all good.

Friday Feast October 20, 2006

Appetizer
What is your favorite beverage?
I don't know if I'd call it my favourite but I have it first thing everyday.... Coffee. The rest of the day I drink water. Every now and then I get a craving for a really really cold chocolate milk.

Soup
Name 3 things that are on your computer desk at home or work.
There's not a lot of room on my computer desk for much more than my computers. there are five moniters, a mixing board, a television moniter, DVD and VCR, stacks of blank DVDs, stacks of full back up DVDs, and more paper with scribbles and doodles and incomprehensible to anyone but me writing than you can imagine.

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how honest do you think you are?
I'm goning to go with a 9. I'm pretty much a call em like I see em kind of guy.

Main Course
If you could change the name of one city in the world, what would you rename it and why?
At the moment I'd rename Barrie Ontario to "Hell"... but that's just me being bitter from recent bad experiences there ... it's actually a very nice place.

Dessert
What stresses you out? What calms you down?
STRESSES ME OUT....People with no regard for others. People with cell phones clutched to their ears when they're driving... No one needs to talk to anyone that badly and if you do pull the hell over. There is a lack of basic courtesy and manners infiltrating society.

CALMS ME DOWN......... Singing, Reading, Painting, The Dogs, Soaking in the Tub, 20 Minutes on the treadmill

Tore it up today!

Okay I don't like to brag... who am I kidding I do too, but I really tore it up onthe treadmill today despite aching thighs and calfs. I actually ran the first two laps... that's right all the way through at an incline of 3.5 no less, but that's not all. I wlked the third and then... wait for it.... yep you guessed it, ran the fourth, and walked out the rest of the twenty minutes. Then just for good measure moved it over to the eliptical trainer and did another 20 minutes on random level two. Those of you superfit cardio nuts will be saying to yourself big deal... but to mister 35 year old, only runs from danger, gut hanging slightly over belt... it's a pretty big deal.

Busy being Busy

I have been trying to stay busy, working on my Animation project primarily. It's still in it's infancy stages and hasn't taken hold of me yet, but I wish it would soon as it is too easy to be distracted from it. I'm sure it will click any time now.

I've been burning up the treadmill at the gym. I read some really helpful stuff on Amber's Blog "Cafe Physique" and realized I wasn't getting the best bang for my buck on the eliptical trainer, so I switched to the treadmill for the gravity resistance aspect of the workout. I've been pumping the incline up to 11 and power walking on a speed varying from 3 to 3.5 for twenty minutes at a time and I really do feel a huge difference over the Eliptical trainer. Yesterday I even ran the first lap.(which is kind of huge for me since I don't run unless I'm being chased by something.) This is really my first week back to my routine at the gym since we got back. I didn't do any weights at all last week, so this week I'm feeling that ache and throb a little more acutely. Mostly in my left shoulder which has been kind of gymped since I was just a kid. It's where I developed a cancerous tumour of the gland under that arm when I was six. It was cut out and I had big doses of radiation there, so it hasn't developed and is considerably weaker than the other side. My left bicep tries to compensate but it's not good enough when I do legs and shoulders like I did yesterday. I can pretty much only tone at the gym and not build since my shoulder is never going to be proportionate and all the muscles connected to it (Chest, Back, Arm) aren't going to develop proportionately either, so I'd start looking pretty lopsided after awhile...haha.

Last night I made a big dinner of Chicken Stroganoff (Not going to help get rid of the gut, but soooooo good) with red and yellow peppers.... yummy. Then we popped over to Bond's for a visit with Bertis and the Bonds. It seems like we haven't all been together in ages and I really missed them so it was nice to catch up and compare war stories of the last two weeks.

Weekend Update

We had a really great visit with Darrell's uncle Ken last week. After work on friday we all went out to Swiss Chalet for dinner and ate way too much. This is the first time Ken has been to visit since we bought the house last year so he wanted to get us a house warming gift and bought us a 55 gallon aquarium from Walmart before we went for dinner. Darrell was torn between the aquarium and a dvd recorder, but Futureshop was out of stock on the recorder model he wanted so fate made the decision for him. We've actually wanted to get an aquarium for along time now, so we're really happy, and besides when someone buys you a housewarming gift that expensive and extravagant it should be something people see when they come to your house. A dvd recorder would have just sat on the shelf, and while it would have been useful it is ultimatey just another component in your stereo/tv stand... an aquarium on the other hand is hard to miss. It also gives us a project we can work on together over the next couple months because the Aquarium kit comes with all the filters etc but no stand. We are planning to build our own stand and tank topper so that should be a really fun project. We looked around at the Aquarium Store in Barrie when we were in Ontario and found lots of stuff we really liked, and I took a lot of pictures of stands and toppers with my camera phone to give me ideas. We will probably stick with fresh water to start with since Salt water tanks are a lot of work and require a lot more equipment...not to mention that in a small market like Saint John with no real outlets the cost of salt water fish is outrageous and the selection is awful. In Ontario there are stores that specialize in just aquariums, fish, equipment, and extras so the selection is excellent and the prices are great too. You can get living corral, lion fish you name it. One of the stores we were in had a 2000 gallon tank with two black tipped reef sharks in it, unfortunately I think the skarks were way too big for the tank and it seemed really cruel once you got over the initial excitement of seeing them so close.

Saturday Darrell had to go to Miramichi to shoot an interview for CTV. He had to get up really early so Ken decided to get up and head on his way home at the same time. I got up and said goodbye to Ken, it was around 7am, then once everyone was gone I went back to bed. I slept in until 10 ish when our neighbour down the road rang the doorbell with his son selling apples for Beavers. The only cash I had in the entire house was a Quarter so I gave it to him (No I didn't take an apple). Turns out Little girls are now allowed to join Cubs and Beavers... what the hell? I thought we had girl guides so they could have their own club. Why is it that Men and boys can no longer have clubs for just men and boys without some Bull feminist trying to break the door in. There seems to be no shortage of Women's only fitness and women's only this and that... hell even the gym I go to has a women's only section... but heaven forbid you try to open a men's club. And really, what sick parent would want their little girl joining a club called "Beavers" anyway? It's the kind of Irony only Larry Flynt could enjoy. But... I digress.

After Marshall and his son left I stayed up awhile to watch Saturday morning cartoons unfortunately they were all repeats of the ones I watched three weeks ago so I switched over to trading spaces or one of those other design shows on TLC. I just relaxed and watched TV until about 3 with Elton and Tiff lazing beside me on the couch, then Elton hopped up and headed into the bedroom, jumped up on the bed and curled up for a nap. It seemed like a good idea so I joined him and slept until 6. I really needed it.. the last two weeks of traveling and visiting and late nights tiling really wore me out. Darrell called a few minutes after I got up and I drove in to pick him up at CTV where he was dropping off their cruiser, then we headed home and basically flopped in front of the TV again until we went to bed at 10.

I slept in again on Sunday morning and for the first time in two weeks I actually felt like myself again. We did a bunch of those mundane chores around the house like laundry and cutting the grass, then we headed into town and wandered around the Kent store. They had a bunch of large area rugs on clearance and we found a really nice one for the bedroom. Then we headed home and cleaned and rearranged the bedroom. There's still a bunch of chores and stuff that need catching up, but all in all everything is back to business as usual around our place. We ended up with a three hour TV block consisting of the New Show.. Brothers & Sisters, The Amazing Race {(The girl with the amputated leg and her husband or boyfriend whichever came in first last night) I was pulling for them in the beginning but he's starting to annoy me}, and Desperate Housewives to cap it all off.

Today I have a commercial to produce and some work to do on my Canaport animation, then a trip to gym on my schedule.

Settling in

We are slowly settling back into our routine this week. It's nice to be home and back to something regular. I'm still pretty bitter and angry about the events and expense of our wasted vacation, but I'm thinking of it less and less as the days pass. It wasn't a complete waste but it ended so badly it tainted the entire trip. It's certainly not completely over either... Darrell is eventually going to have to find a way to forgive his mother for the hateful things she said and reestablish some kind of relationship with her... she's his flesh and blood after all. Lucky for me I don't share that connection so if I never see or speak to her again I won't lose any sleep over it, and if I do, for Darrell's sake, I will be polite.

This week has been fun having Darrell's Uncle here on his vacation. We are both wishing we hadn't gone to Ontario at all, and just taken our time off now while Ken is here instead. Ken brought his dog Jake with him and Jake is getting along well with Elton and Tiff. We had a nice dinner out at Swiss Chalet on Wednesday evening (I've never been to Swiss Chalet before believe it or not.) It was so good we plan to go back tonight for dinner. I made a big feast of Fetucinni Carbonara with some red and yellow bell peppers, and mushrooms for dinner last night. I usually make fetucinni when we're having someone for dinner it's one of those things that never misses.

We don't have any set plans about what we're doing this weekend yet. I think Ken may be heading back to Ontario on Saturday or Sunday, so we're playing everything by ear.

Finally Home!!

We are finally home from Ontario, or Hell whichever you prefer.
We left last Wednesday and drove strait through to Barrie. We spent the first night(and every night after) at Darrell's Uncle Ken's and then went out to the school where Darrell's dad works for the retirement party the other janitorial staff was throwing the next day. Friday was his official last day of work and we were all suposed to go out for a big fancy dinner, but Darrell's sister's (Steph) asthma kicked up a fuss and we got a bucket of KFC instead. Saturday we drove around a bit and checked out some of the stores we don't have in Saint John, and basically took it easy.
Sunday we got started on the tiling of the kitchen floor. We were originally only suposed to do the kitchen floor and the front landing but by the time we had got to Ontario somehow it had evolved into the Kitchen floor, Front landing, Upstairs Bathroom, Steph's Kitchen, and Steph's Bathroom. We spent the next four days on our hands and knees like Hebrew slaves tiling the various floors. It was hard work and we were up until roughly 2 am each night completing it. Needless to say there wasn't really an oportunity for visiting.
Thursday we headed into Toronto and spent the day wandering the downtown. We found the jewellery emporium where we bought Darrell's chain a while back and picked up another for me. Then we headed out to Sheridan Nurseries in Oakville where we got a really really great deal on a couple palm trees and a jasmine vine (as if we need more plants) all for just $25.
We were planning to leave on Saturday Morning, but Friday afternoon Darrell's Mother and Sister started a big ugly scene that I won't even get into on this blog, so we grabbed whatever we had at the house (We had been staying at Ken's so it wasn't much), headed back to Ken's, packed and were on the road between midnight and 1 O'clock it's all a bit of a blur. Ken followed us out (He's on vaction and was planning to come out with us anyway he just hadn't planned on it happening quite the way it did.) We drove strait through again with several stops along the way to rest and get coffee. We've always noticed that every coffee place in Ontario serves coffee so hot it's like it's been brewed through a thermonuclear reactor, but I have come to the conclusion on this trip that it is that hot because it is pumped strait from Hell.
We finally pulled into our driveway around midnight on Saturday, unpacked a little and hit the sack. We spent Sunday unpacking and picking up groceries etc, and Monday was a fairly laid back day. Now I think I could use an actual week off to recover from our "Vacation".

Another Monday

Another Weekend has come and gone. Friday night I went out to the Blue Olive to hear Opa and wish Alex all the best on his theatre tour. There was a good turn out of people and I had a really good time.

I spent Saturday morning watching Cartoons.I haven't done that in such a long time, but one of my favorite comics growing up (The Legion of Superheroes) has been made into a saturday morning cartoon and I just couldn't help myself. I ended up watching the new Shaggy and Scooby Doo and Batman before I finally got up and started cleaning the house.We spent the remainded of Saturday and most of Sunday cleaning the house and getting ready for our trip to Ontario. We're heading out Wednesday and won't be back until around the 9th. There's still some stuff to do between now and then, but thankfully not too much. We parked infront of the TV on Sunday night about 8 pm and watched a new show called Brothers and Sisters (which I really enjoyed), Followed by the Amazing Race (My favorite couple came first this week), then the season premiere of Desperate Housewives (Nearly pissed laughing over Bre's Orgasm bit), And then finally ended the evening with an episode of Footballer's Wives on the BBC. Wow what a way to waste four hours.

Today has been pretty good so far. I just got back from the gym after an hour and half long Upperbody workout and cardio. It kind of sucks I'll miss a whole week, but thankfully I'm only just getting back into it so it really won't be that big a deal in the long run. I still have alot of work to get finished before we take off so today and tomorrow are going to be busy busy days.

Friday Feast September 22, 2006

Appetizer
Measured in minutes or hours, how much exercise have you had in the last week?
It will be about 8 hours when I get back from the gym this morning. I've spent about and hour and a half a day for five straight days.

Soup
If you had to change your blog title to something else, what would it be?
Here I am

Salad
Name one television show you watched when you were 9-12 years old.
Superfriends

Main Course
If someone gave you $50 to spend with the one condition that it had to be educational, what would you purchase?
guitar lesson books

Dessert
Do you tend to prefer dark colors, neutral shades, or lighter/pastel hues?
I like bold strong colours. Deep reds, bright blues, dark greens.

Still a little sore

I'm surprised how easy it has been to fall back into the habit of hitting the gym everyday again. Granted it's only been a week, but I haven't missed a day or felt like missing one. I'm still a little sore in places, but it's a good sore. I did a day of Cardio & abs Friday, Chest & Back workout with some cardio and abs Monday, Cardio and abs Tuesday, Legs & Shoulders with some cardio and abs Wednesday, and am scheduled for cardio and abs today. Now I just have to wrk at adjusting my diet to get rid of my gut... no point having firm abs if they're hiding under a layer of flab.

We're off to Ontario next week for Darrell's father's retirement so I won't get a chance to make it to the gym and the diet adjustment is probably a no go for that week as well.

Monday

We had a pretty layed back weekend. Friday night we went out for dinner with Bertis and the Bonds at the Vitos in Rothesay. Saturday we popped over to Mike's for a few drinks, and Sunday we did not much at all. I started getting the fabric ripped off the chair and sofa set we got from Mike and Kathy. There are a lot of staples and the fabric is really dirty from ten years of Hound dog living on it, but the frame and springs are good. I found a couch I liked the look of in the Leon's flyer and am thinking I may try to reconstruct Mike and Kathy's in that style. It will mean taking the frame apart and rebuilding parts of it, but I think I'm up to the task. It's not something I'll be completing in the immediate future anyway, since I can't afford the fabric at the moment, but I can start planning and mapping it out, and maybe even get the wood I need to change the frame. I had thought of doing it in a combination of vinyl and suede, but the style I want to use calls for stuffed cushions and the covers can't be removed to wash them. So considering how bad it smells from one dog being on it all that time I don't think I'll use a fabric that can let in the smell of our two dogs. Granted Hound dogs have a very strong aroma compared to Larbador retrievers and ours are very clean dogs, but I just think I'll avoid the whole problem of cleaning by using all vinyl.

We tuned into the season premier of the Amazing Race last night and really enjoyed it. There are some really stupid people on a couple of the teams, and there is one couple where the wife is an amputee with only one leg. At the moment I'm pulling for them because she's a real sport. She scaled a rope up the side of the great wall of china... I think I would have a hell of a hard time with too legs but she did it with one, and they came in third.

We also caught the series premiere and second episode of Men in Trees, which was quirky and fun, so I will probably stick with it for awhile.

I popped into the gym this morning for a good upper body workout. My first in a long time so I will probably be pretty stiff later this evening and tomorrow morning.

Friday Feast September 15,2006

Appetizer
What was the very last song you listened to?
Something by Phil Collins.... His Greatest hits cd is playing in the truck.

Soup
What is one company/store/corporation you would recommend that people stay away from?
Walmart!
1) When Walmart comes to a town all the little mom and pop stores etc can't compete with their low prices so they go out of business.
2) Walmart takes more jobs out of a community than it puts in. They are so powerful as far as pricing and distribution that companies have to jump through hoops to have their products sold in Walmart. Companies have to lower their prices often to the point of making almost no profits for themselves, and Walmart execs even go so far to encourage or hint to these manufacturers to take their plants overseas for cheaper labour to lower costs. This takes plants and jobs out of our countries.
3) Walmart pays it's employees minimum wage with no benefits or overtime. They are not union and if a store such as the one in Quebec does unionize they close it.
4) Walmart may bring a few minimum wage jobs into our communities, but their bottom line all goes across the border to the United States in the pockets of their shareholders. Meanwhile actual Canadian owned and operated corporations that pay their employees union wages and benefits like "Zellers" can't compete.

I could type all day because there's alot more than that. Watch the documentary "The Age of Walmart" to see what kind of a corporation you're dollars are supporting.Maybe the extra couple dollars at Zellers or Canadian tire won't seem such a high price to pay to avoid shopping at Walmart afterward.

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy having your picture made?
5

Main Course
Besides a bookmark, what is something you've used to keep your place in a book?
Usually if it's a hardcover I use the inside flap of the dust cover. Soft cover books I usually use the receipt from the bag they came in

Dessert
Name a food that you like that most people don't.
I can't think of one. I could probably name a food I don't like that most people do like green peppers (too bitter and their strong flavour takes over any dish they're in), or Mushrooms (Fungus grows inthe dark in shit).

Canadian wins again!

Two seasons of Rockstar, two Canadian winners! Woo hoo! I'm glad Lucas won, but personally I prefer to listen to Dilana sing. I think she's going to have a really great career if she doesn't self destruct. I don't care for the growly gutteral Lucas sound so it's pretty safe to say there won't be any Supernova CDs in my collection, but there will probably be a Dilana CD provided she goes ahead and makes one.

I finally took the plunge and reinstated my gym membership yesterday. I found working out at home just wasn't working out. It's too easy to come home, make dinner then park in front of the tv. I can go back to getting out of the office for an hour everyday and hitting the gym. I'm usually pretty good at sticking with it that way, and since my work is so flexible I can go at times when the gym isn't really busy. What would be perfect would be to find a workout buddy whose schedule is as flexible as mine.

Nice Weekend

I had a pretty relaxing and quiet weekend. I putzed around the house doing little chores but nothing major.
Darrell was pretty busy though, he had to do some work for the CCMAs over the course of the weekend. They had various events & Presentations happening all weekend long and he and Mike were out shooting at some of them. There is another show later in the week in Vancouver to name a theatre after Red Robinson and Darrell was called to film a congratualtory message from one of the Celebs attending the CCMAs who couldn't make it to the Vancouver presentation. The person he was tapeing is someone I've been a fan of for about as long as I can remember so I invited myself along to help out on the shoot. We headed over to her hotel room at the hilton around 6 and shot the video message then came back to the office to edit it and get it ready to be sent off. We didn't get home until almost 9 last night so it made for a very long work day, but it was worth it...

Not the best picture of Darrell and I ever taken but Anne Murray looks pretty damn good!

My New Nephew

Finally some pictures of the latest addition to our family. Seth Lee Loiselle, born August 26, 2006 at 11:30 am and weighin in at 7 lbs 11 oz.

Here is my Sister, Amanda (who may kill me for posting this pic) and her new son right after a very long labour

Both are very tired

The Whole family; Daddy James, Mommy Amanda, Big Brother Cole, and New baby Seth

The Loiselle Men

How cute is this?

One week old!

Nice Long Weekend

We had a really nice long weekend. We mostly took it easy and relaxed. On Saturday we went to Kizzy's BBQ, which was awsome. I made a couple blueberry pies to bring along on Friday night. I got to see a lot of people I don't see nearly enough of, and later everyone was sitting around the living room singing while Kizzy's Uncle Gord and Jeff Scott played guitar. It was a really nice evening but ended way too early, most everyone was gone by 9 O'clock.

Sunday and Monday were just kick back and relax days with a little house work thrown in.

Tuesday

Not much going on today. I have alot of work to do on a project I can't seem to get inspired about so I'm very easily distracted by just about everything, like updating blog entries etc. This is going to be one of those projects that is just excruciating in the the beginning and then eventually (Soon I hope) something will click and I will be going full steam ahead.

Aside from a lot of work to do, there isn't much else going on. I have to travel to Halifax on Thursday for my regular every three month check up with my transplant doctor and that's about it.

I noticed that Survivor is entering into it's death throws this year. They are splitting the teams into races this time around, ie White, Black, Asian, Hispanic. It's offensive on every level and causing quite a controversy which tells me they are very desperate for ratings. I'm not surprised, the show was really different and interesting the first season, but by the end of the third season I was over it, and even if I wasn't completely over it, Survivor Allstar definitely drove the final nail into the coffin. When you get right down to it, it's a very boring show.. it's a bunch of people camping and scheming. You can tell which team is going to lose the immunity challenge by which team's drama is featured most prominently in that episode. It's no wonder it's tanking in the rating, and they are so desperate to revive the poor dying thing that they are willing to piss off every special interest group in North America, just to get the show in the public eye again. They claim the reason for the races idea... too many complaints that minorities weren't well enough repersented on the show. Oh well, if nothing else they got people talking about them again (even posting on their blogs about it.) There's my contribution to the Hype ... Survivor R.I.P.

Awsome Weekend

The weekend was awsome. I went to the Blue Olive Friday night to see Kizzy sing with Opa. She looked and sounded great as always. She had a few new songs from the last time I heard her as well, which was great. I especially enjoyed Time after Time. Chad dropped by around midnight and after the band was finished we headed over to the Dolan Road Irving for a bite.

Saturday we had a corn boil with Bertis and the Bonds over at Brian and Helen's place. It wasn't your regulation corn boil where you drink until you can't see and eat only corn until you turn yellow. There was steak, salads, potatoes, deserts, and of course corn, lots and lots of corn. We had a fire and made some smores later on and it was a really great evening. Being Helen's first Canadian Corn Boil she was the only on of us to actually achieve the onjective of drinking until you can't see.

Sunday was a lazy day for me. I couldn't work up the enthusiasm to do much more than clean the kitchen a bit and do a little weeding in the flower boxes. Darrell worked on his truck trying to discover what is wrong with it. It quit on him coming back from a shoot in Amherst and he had to be towed all the way home from Moncton. Thankfully we have CAA.

The best part of the weekend though was the news that I am an uncle for the fourth time. My sister Amanda gave birth to a healthy baby boy (Which surprised us all because we thought for sure it would be a girl) on Saturday. He weighed in at 7lbs 11 ounces and his name is Seth Lee Loiselle. His older brother Cole got to spend five days with grandma because Amanda started having slight labour pains around Monday. She didn't go into the hospital until Friday, and Seth arrived Saturday morning. Needless to say everyone is a little worn out at the moment. I am expecting picture any moment (hint hint) since I know that Amanda and James had Mom's digital camera at the hospital with them. In the mean time here are pics of my other nephew and neices.

This is a Shot of Cole from Dec 2005 he is two in this one and will be turning three this September.

My neices are my Brother Lorne's Daughters. This is Brooke. The picture is From August 2005 (She was 3 about to turn 4).She will be Four this October.

This is Sydney also from August 2005, she had just turned 2 the month before, and just had her third Birthday last month.

Last Weekend of August

I can't believe we are already heading into the Last weekend in August. It has been such and hit and miss summer weatherwise that I feel kind of ripped off. It is already starting to cool off and we will be seeing changes in the leaves very soon. At least the forcast this weekend is for good weather. Fall is actually usually very nice in New Brunswick though, and the first part of September can sometimes be the best part of the year. I just can't believe how quickly the time flys by once the snow is gone. It felt like February/March was going to last a lifetime and now suddenly we're staring September in the face.

We are planning a trip back to Ontario in September for Darrell's Dad's Retirement, and then his Uncle Ken may drive back with us for a visit. I'm so far not committed to doing anything for Noises Off, but will leave myself open in case Bob needs a sound guy. I don't have any plans of auditioning for Glass Menagerie in March but may work backstage. I'm definitely still working toward Cabaret in May, that's the show that's number one on my list of things to do. If I have to, I'll show up at the auditions dressed as the Emcee in an effort to show Stephen I'm the best suited to that part. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I'll keep it in mind just in case. Whatever part comes along it will be a fun show to do.

I've been arranging all my online comic books into PDF files and posting them in my rapidshare folder. I don't know if anyone who reads this actually uses rapidshare or not, but if you do here's the link: Rapidshare Folder They allow non subscribers to download stuff, but there is an hourly limit.

Kizzy is singing at the Blue Olive tonight so I think I will pop in for a drink or two and cheer her on.

Friday Feast August 25,2006

Appetizer
If you could have a free subscription to any magazine, which one would you like to have?
There are a couple woodworking magazines that used to get delivered to our old address by mistake, and I always had a flip through them before returning them to their rightful owner. I would enjoy a subscription to something like that. I would prefer an online magazine subscription though, so I don't have a bunch of magazines needing a home and taking up space.

Soup
Describe your living room (furnishings, colors, etc.).
Our living room is on our things to do list. We've been saving the painting etc for fall/winter when the weather is not condusive to working outside. At present the walls are off white. Our place is open concept so the Livingroom/Diningroom/Kitchen all sort of run together. We have a vaulted ceiling that makes it feel even more open and gives the illusion that it is bigger than it really is. We have ceramic tile in the entryway (where you come in from outside. We put it down oourselves) and the same tile in the kitchen. The living room has a hideous blue carpet that ends at the old linolium in the dining room. Both those floors are going to be Maple laminate flooring like we used in our bedroom by this time next year. We have a great big picture window in the livingroom that provides light for our forest of house plants. Just in the living room itself we have; Cashew tree, Phoenix date palm,coconut palm, canary ilsand date palm, Fig tree (real fig tree that grows figs), Ponderosa Lemon Tree, Gold rush bush, corn tree, regular lemon tree, Weeping fig, another larger corn tree, and a banana tree. That's not counting the plants in the dining room where the sliding glass door is. As far as furnishings go there is a dark blue vinyl couch (That I reupholstered myself), a glide rocker and ottoman, a really cool coffee table that the top raises up and acts like a tv tray and matching end table, tv stand and Tv plus stereo, and a DVD holder.

Salad
What does the shape of a circle make you think of?
Infinity, no beginning no end

Main Course
Name 3 things in your life that you consider to be absolute necessities.
Family, Friends, Music

Dessert
What was the last really funny movie you watched?
I can't recall... it's been a really long time since I've watched a comedy movie. most of the new ones are that over the top absurd, lowest common denominator kind of humour. I don't need to be bashed over the head by a joke. I appreciate more subtle, intelligent, dry humour. Although that doesn't mean I haven't been laughing my ass off in a theatre lately, it's just been to live theatre not movies.(see posts about winging it)

Winging it 2

It was very hectic weekend. We were up until 2am Friday working on our script for winging it and back at it by 11 am Saturday trying to get everything together to perform the show at 8pm. At 8pm four teams of four were as ready as they were going to be to take the stage at the Mary Ohland theatre and perform for a live paying audience. It was hilarity from start to finish. I can't remember ever having quite that much fun at a theare event. The fun thing about it was that people knew these plays were all thrown together, created, learned, and performed in the course of 24 hours, so the bar wasn't really all that high. Although once teams started taking to the stage the bar really was a lot higher than one might expect. All the plays were clever and funny and the inevitable mistakes were even funnier. Being new to second stage I didn't know about the no food or drink rule and used beer as a prop which inevitably got spilled on the stage... Luckily it was a moosehead product so as Jay Pointed out we christened the Mary Ohland Stage with an Ohland Product. I just hope no one gets in trouble.

One of the neatest things about it (I found) was that some of the participants had never done anything with the Theatre company before.. talk about jumping in to the deep end. All in all it was a very fun and funny night and I know next year it will be bigger and better. There were a lot of people leaving the theatre who were kicking themselves for not signing up, but I know they'll waste no time signing up next year... I'll definitely be doing it again. (Maybe next year we'll try a musical...hahahaha)

The cast party for all the festival events was a really good time. A lot of the Winging it crowd left early, some of them were pretty exhausted. I called Darrell at 1:30 and asked him to come get me since I had pretty much finished off the rest of the props in the case. He met me at the office at 2 and we headed home.

Sunday we got up and had a late breakfast.... If you can call it breakfast at 1 in the afternoon. Then we met up with Bertis and the Bonds and headed to deer Island for cake. No really we went for cake. This was my first time to Deer Island, and we toured around a bit & went to see the Tidal whirlpools, which weren't very active since it was low tide. Then we went to the little diner that is on the right side of the road just after you get off the ferry. I can't remember the name of it...Island something. It's owned by a really nice French couple, they are super friendly, their food is really good, and their cake is worth traveling for. The prices are pretty good too. They were really flatterred when we told them we traveled down specifically for their cake and said they'd had lots of people say they had come for the food, but we were the first to say we came for the cake. Bertis, Helen and I all had the three layer chocolate cake with white (Butter) Icing. Darrell had the White/Vermouth cake also with Butter icing, and Brian had the Blueberry peach Cheesecake. Brian always orders something different than Helen because she usually doesn't finish and he gets the last quarter of her deserts. Very smart strategy.

Winging It

I went to the Museum last night for the first meeting for winging it. We were divided into four groups of four. I am grouped with Doug Fillmore, Vincent greg, and Andy Steeves. Then each team was given a prop and a line randomly picked by audience volunteers. Our Prop is a male head from a hairdressing school, and the line we have to incorporate into our play is "We are serving doughnuts on another Planet". So off we went armed with our porp and our line and 24 hours to come up with an original work of theatre. We stared writing a script right away, then left the museum and met back up at my house, where we worked away at it until 2am. With a draft script in the bag, we called it a night and met up again the next morning at 11. We made some revisions to our script, and started blocking the scene and learning our lines. It is now 3:44 and we are still learning our lines and marks. All our props are in place, we have our costumes and we will be able to do a technical run at 7:20 this evening before we perform for our live audience at 8. This is soooo much fun.

Reality Shows

I try to avoid reality shows like the plague with the notable exception of the Amazing race, but I have been watching Rock Star (I got sucked in last year just because I'm a huge INXS fan)and while I'm not a big Tommy Lee fan, the show is actuially pretty good. I think Dilana has a really good chance of winning. She's the most memorable each week and the most consistent. My onlu problem with the show... they want too much of my time, I mean really three nights. I normally watch it on NTV on tuesday so I get the monday show right before, and more often than not I don't watch the results show.

Another one that sucked me in was America's got Talent, which was really surprising since I have no patience for flat singing etc, and don't particulary care for Regis either. They sucked me in with the buzzers and the gong show feel of the early shows, then when the gong show part went away I was already invested. They asked the question Does America have Talent and the answer was a resounding yes. The variety of the acts was really good. There is no question now, America's Got Talent, although after the results of last nights final vote one might wonder if America has Taste. I found the performance of the girl who won terrible. She was 12, she was cute, she really wailed on the big high notes that get the crowds cheering, unfortunately that's all people seem to remember because her enunciation was awful, I barely understood a word she sang, and on every other note in the song that wasn't a huge show stopper she was pitchy at best and downright flat most of the time. It was painful to listen to. The little Yodalling girl was a much better singer so far as technique and vocal control are concerned and she had a better stage presence. The clog dancing groups were both awsome, especially those kids who also played the fiddle while they were dancing... very Leahy. I really liked the Quick change act, but have to agree with the arrogant English judge that they showed the exact same routine everytime and I was frankly bored with it by the end. He went about saying it all wrong when he critisized them, but the point he was trying to make was, if they had an hour long show.. there must be other elements to it that they could bring to the stage and show the audience instead of just doing the exact same routine over and over. The routine they did was really good, and really quick but based on it alone, I would call them a great opening act for a million dollar headliner. It was an interesting show all in all, but I doubt I'll be tuning in for a second season.

Friday Feast August 18, 2006

Appetizer
What color is your car?
I drive a dark Blue Olds Alero, that I purchased last year from Al's Ultracar, specifically so I could be inthe cast of Evita without spending a tonne of money on gas in Darrell's Blazer driving back and forth to rehearsals.

Soup
If you could wake up tomorrow with full training in another occupation and a job in that field, what would it be?
I would return to the field I left when I developed leukemia... Music. I would love to wake up tomorrow and have full musical training in piano, guitar, voice.. you name it.

Salad
How many times in your life have you had the flu (or something similar)?
I've had Cancer twice.. I don't pay attention to flus and colds.

Main Course
What is something that has happened to you this week that you didn't expect?
Nothing really unexpected happened to me specifically, But Saint John Theatre Company announced their plans for their new building this week, and although that wasn't unexpected the total on their funding drive so far was... they are over half way to their goal of $950,000.00. It's very exciting for everyone involved in theatre and the arts in this area.

Dessert
How old were you when you had your first kiss?
That's a tricky question. If we're talking innocent peck between two blushing kids.. I was probably about 7 or 8 with Debbie from down the street (I don't really remember). First time making out, I don't exactly remember that either, it may have been at Deanna's Party in junior high, or on a band trip. Being that I'm gay, it all felt fake to me anyway, so that could be why it's not that memorable. My first actual "passionate kiss with intent" was when I was 16 and working at the Double Day Mini Market, it was with the guy who worked int he aprts department of the Ford dealer next door... whose name I won't mention for privacy reasons. (and no he doesn't still work there)

Setting the Stage

Yesterday I managed to make it out to the Setting the Stage event at the new SJTC building. I almost didn't make it, I got in the Zone while working on an ad and when I glanced at the clock it was 11:56. Luckily the building is only about five doors up from us.
It's a really exciting time to be part of SJTC and I can't wait until things really start happening in the new space. There will be administration and rehearsal space, as well as set building, prop & costume storage areas, and basically anything else a flourishing theatre company could need. My hat's off to the board of SJTC and especially to Stephen Tobias for his vision and tireless hard work on all our behalf. Without them we wouldn't have a theatre club to be part of, and I really appreciate everything they've done and the years of hard work and dedication that went into making it happen.
I also managed to get my registration for winging it filled out and sent in yesterday. In case you don't know, Winging it is part of this weeks Theatre on the edge, where participants will be broken into groups, and each group given a line and an opject. Their task is to take these things and come up with a ten to fifteen minute original play... written, rehearsed, off book, staged, costumed, props, sound, and tech... to be performed in front of a live audience within 24 hours. Okay how fun is that?
I have avoided getting involved in any plays etc over the summer because I just don't want the commitments. We're working on our yard and the weather has been so unpredictable that it's just nice to be able to drop everything when the sun comes out and not worry about having to be someplace or do something specific. But taking 24 hours to put together a play with a group... that's just toooooooo fun to pass up.

Darrell's B Day

Yesterday was Darrell's actual birthday, even though we celebrated on Friday. He was in Halafax all day and didn't make it home until about 8 o'clock in the evening. Surprisingly I walked into the house about ten minutes before he did. I didn't get away from the office until just after 6, then had to stop at Home Hardware to pick up his present (A Bench Grinder). I popped home quickly to wrap it and then headed right back out the door to Dairy Queen for an ice cream cake. Since I hadn't eaten anything by that point I also got a double cheeseburger (I like Dairy Queen Burger way better than any of the other fast foodplaces with the exception of maybe Burger King). I got home and was just sittign down to my burger when Darrell pulled in. He hadn't eaten either so we hopped back in the truck and got another burger from Dairy Queen. In the place we used to live before buying the house that wouldn't have been possible, but now we live 10 minutes from everything.

I am hoping to get away from work and attend the launch of the new SJTC Capital Campaign this afternoon. I have a lot on my plate today and tend to lose trackof time when I get in the zone, so Hopefully I will remember to come up for air at noon and toddle down the street for the festivities.