Something Newer, and Awesome
They definetly didn’t loan me the ugly green egg hatchback car while my car is being fixed. They loaned me a 2007 Kia Magentis LS, fully loaded and I must say how impressed I am with this car. I love it! It would be rather nice if they went along with my decision to keep this car and let them have mine. But alas, it does not work that way.
They still haven’t found the problem with mine, but I am hoping that soon they will be able to and have it all fixed up. I really am not car savvy, and I really wish I was at times like this. They said a couple of things were not firing up properly, so they were going to put the vehicle up on a diagnostics test.
Anyways, I’ll be enjoying this loaner car until I get mine back. This is the type of car that once you’re in it, you just want to drive, and drive, and drive….and drive…and….
…..drive.
New and Cool and Hot and….not green!
I just watched my car being towed out of my driveway. My poor, poor baby.
“I Like Getting Lost”-Josh
Josh and I have been talking about our future together and have been doing a little bit of dreaming lately also. Yesterday we took a drive down to a place Josh can see us purchasing a house, having babies and making a nice life for us all. It’s fairly centrally located, but he seems to think it’s more centrally located than I do. It’s someplace I never considered moving to, even though it’s not far at all it just seems out of the way because it’s not someplace I venture out to a whole lot.
What fascinated me was the young couples we know who are purchasing homes out there, and starting their families. We know two other couples, friends of ours, who purchased homes and are living there. But that has nothing to do with Josh’s interest in the area, he has always liked it there. I have to admit, knowing other people our age who live in that area (not quite so much as the boonies we used to live in on the Island) it wouldn’t get too lonely. Another couple we know are currently in negotiations over purchasing a very nice home in the area as well.
We did see a few homes for sale, but nothing really caught our eyes except for a lone house with a small back yard. It looks vacant, fairly new and just the right size. I’ve been looking at online real estate websites to see if I can find a data sheet for it, but nothing is coming up. It’s more out of curiosity than anything else at this point, we aren’t going to purchase right at the moment.
It’s still fun to look and dream and know that one day, not too far away, we will find the house we are looking for!
Get Back on the Couch
I used to really love watching television. Not that I’m not a fan of TV now, but I just don’t really make much time to watch it because I’m usually (most often) on the computer.
In the past, and not so long ago, my favorite TV shows were as follows:
- Everybody Loves Raymond, Corner Gas, ‘Til Death’, Degrassi TNG, Weeds, Family Guy, The Simpson’s, King of the Hill, My Wife and Kids, Judge Judy, Entertainment Tonight, ET Canada, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, and much more.
Then, my one hour long tv show favorites were:
- House, Deserate Housewives, The OC, America’s Next Top Model, Canada’s Next Top Model, Kitchen Nightmares, 7th Heaven, Big Brother. On occasion, Survivor and The Real World. Very rarely, the American/Canadian Idol shows.
This is all not counting talk shows (Rachel Ray, Oprah & Dr. Phil) or Design shows or home improvement shows, or crime shows.
But now, I don’t watch much television. Reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond, Til Death, Corner Gas and Judge Judy are pretty much the only shows I watch these days. I make time three nights a week to watch Big Brother.
What is so important in front of the computer you ask? What do I do online so often? Twitter, Facebook, Hotmail, Gmail, WordPress and Google Reader. Over. And over. And over.
Oh, and chat on MSN. Of course. My msn is always, always logged on.
So, I think this fall, I will wean myself off of the computer and back in front of my television. Or better yet, just outdoors even. Walk, run, jog, go places. You know, just less time in front of my pc.
But I do want to try out some new shows this Fall on the boob tube.
How We Came to Name Her
A few years ago I was perusing the local bookstore at the mall, and stumbled upon a new book called The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. I bought it, read it and loved it. Loved it so darn much I bought the books that followed in the series. I also loved those, so I watched the Sisterhood movie. Something about this whole idea in the story really appealed to me at the time.
About two years ago a friend and co-worker hopped on the bandwagon and moved out West. She had two cats that she wanted to give away to a good home, and I was looking for a pet. So, I adopted my friend’s kitty. She is a tabby-cat who is extremely social and loves people. She loves to be around people, on people, next to people, under people. She is a people kitty. In her previous life, she had to have been a butterfly. But not just any butterfly, no. A social butterfly. Anyway, when she belonged to my friend apparently she was not so much a friendly kitty. She was your typical housecat, independant streak and anti-social but she was also in heat. So she was very out-spoken.
(Between you and me, I think that’s a big reason she wanted to give the cat away.)
When Josh and I decided to adopt the cat she’d named “Kitty” or “Baby” or whatever she felt like calling it at the time, I promptly sat at my desk in the lab where I worked and started looking at names. I came across some doozies, but along my quest I found the perfect name. I called up Josh and asked what he thought of the name ‘Tibby’ and he liked it. Said it was fine to him.
Tibby also happened to be the name of my favorite character in the book AND movie, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. So, I thought, with what my friend told me about the cat already that Tibby was a great name for our kitty.
And that is how we came to name her.
Here she is: Tibby!
Potluck Queens, and “Best Cooks in The World”
I don’t know too many people who don’t love a good potluck. Sure, for some it may be a chore to figure out what to cook and gather up ingredients and make a contribution. But chances are, if you’re a foodie, a food lover, connoisseur or just love to eat then a nice potluck does the trick. You get to make something you love and share it with others and try out everyone elses favorites. You know the potluck has been a success when plates have been swept clean and everyone is asking each other for recipes.
I love potlucks. Whether they are family potlucks, potlucks at work, barebcue potlucks, community potlucks, etc., I enjoy them and participate in every one I am invited to. I don’t like to repeat contributions a whole lot, so if I made a rice pilaf for the last work potluck I will likely make something different for the next one. However, you have the queens of potluck repetition who always make the same thing for any and every potluck they attend.
This brings me to the point of this entry. One of the ladies at work always contributes homemade chocolate cake(s). Always. We tend to have more sweets at our work potluck than anything else, because the same people always contribute the same thing. I can handle repetition, but what I can’t handle are people who only contribute the same thing and refuse to eat anything but their own contribution. Some people do not like to eat other people’s cooking. And I think this is very rude.
Two women at this week’s work potluck baked cakes. One woman made two homemade chocolate cakes, and even though she said she would not have a piece of her own, had 2 big pieces. The other woman made a giant slab cake with homemade frosting, that looked, well, nothin’ fancy. The Famous Chocolate Cake lady (or FCCL) refused to eat the other lady’s slab cake because she didn’t like the frosting recipe she used. Then the FCCL refused to eat any other desserts or sweets, because she simply didn’t like the people who made them.
Of course, at a potluck there will always be dishes you aren’t a fan of. So, you don’t take what you don’t like and you move on. You never, ever should say “I hate their frosting” or “She drives me crazy, I’d never eat her cooking”. You don’t insult the person just because you don’t like what they made. It’s very, very rude, in my opinion.
What also grinds my gears is when someone invites you for dinner, and you ask if there is anything you can bring and they say something like, oh, bring rolls. You make rolls and everyone but the person who prepared the meal eats your rolls. For some reason, it irritates me. And then this same person tells you what a great cook you are. How can they say this when you have never seen them eat anything you made? I’m not sure whether to call it passive-aggressive or not.
I have noticed many older people tend to think they are the best cooks they know. Because they’ve been cooking since they were teens. The thing is, when you get to talking to them, they’ve been cooking the same meals and sweets and breads their whole lives. And these are the same people who refuse to eat anyone else’s cooking, and who make snarky comments at potlucks.
If people take the time out of their busy lives to make something for someone, you shouldn’t be rude about it and refuse it simply because you think you’re the best cook there is. Seriously, where is the harm in trying out something different?
Oh, by the way, between you and me and everyone on the internets- FCCL’s cake wasn’t as good as the other lady’s homemade slab cake ;).
The Book and Hobby Fiasco
Every once in a while it hits me that I want to read, and I pick out a book on my shelf that I have yet to dive into, and get right down to it. But lately, I’ve been feeling my penchant for reading has been dwindling away quickly and I’m not all that interested in rekindling the reading flame. I’ve been thinking of different hobbies I would like to pick up, but I don’t really have the spare funds to do anything too fancy shmancy. Reading is pretty unpricey, if you think about it, but since I’m not in the book mood I need some suggestions for hobbies to take up.
I’ve tried:
- Card making
- Scrapbooking
- Cross stitching
- Photography
- Writing
And I still love all of those, but would like to try something new for me. So far the only ideas I have are:
- Tole Painting
- Knitting
The problem is, I have no two sweet clues how to knit or even where to start. Someone once showed me years ago, but I can’t remember a thing.
What would you suggest?
TV and Spare Time
Wow, tomorrow’s already hump day. How marvelous is that? Pretty darn marvelous, if I do say so myself. It’s the halfway mark through the work week, it’s the point of the week where you tell yourself if you can make it through that day that the week will fly afterwards.
So come on week, fly by already, because I want some time to sleep in lots and lots. What else are weekends for?
On an unrelated topic, I’ve noticed that I don’t watch as much television as I used to. I used to have a tv routine, certain shows that I’d watch regardless to how old the reruns were. When I lived in the states I rekindled my affection for the Cosby Show and the Golden Girls. There I was, nineteen years old in a large city, watching old sitcoms from back in the day just so I could get to sleep (my roomie at the time was basically a shut-in). These days, the only thing I watch on tv is Big Brother, and occasionally Corner Gas and Everybody Loves Raymond. I used to be a fan of House, America’s Next Top Model, the Simpsons, Family Guy, Degrassi TNG, Desperate Housewives, The OC, etc. I do love to watch Weeds, but the new series isn’t on Showcase for some odd reason. I think if it comes on Showtime, it should come on Showcase. I’m missing out! But, my point here is, there is absolutely nothing to watch on the tube. What happened to television? I need some good new show to watch. Last night we watched bits and pieces of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and it seemed decent enough (if you’re into that) but still nothing I was interested in seeing.
What do you watch on tv? If you’re not a tv kind of person, what do you do with your spare time?
A Blast From The Past.
I ran into an ‘old friend’ today. In a bit of an awkward situation, one that neither one of us looked at each other and just kept walking. To make a long story short, I went to elementary school with this guy who as it turned out had a crush on me. The feeling was not mutual, but we remained friends anyway. I tried to wean his interest away from me and to this other girl who was nuts for him, but he was not interested in her. After a different guy asked me out on a date, and I accepted, this ‘friend’ stopped speaking to me. He passed me a note in the hallway that said he was sorry I chose to date someone else, but that his new ‘girlfriend’ wanted me to know that since I chose not to date him that it was ‘my loss’ and that I was the one who was ‘missing out’. He chose to date the girl he claimed to have no interest in. I tried to say hi to him in the halls at school, but he always looked away. Then when Josh and I started dating two years later, he tried to tell Josh all sorts of nasty things about me out of bitterness. Josh told him to shove it, basically, and the ‘friend’ no longer mentioned me. They ended up in the same course at college, and the ‘friend’ was still with the same girlfriend. Josh would come home with stories about how the ‘friend’ was complaining about his girlfriend, about cheating, about being engaged to a girl he did not want to marry. He eventually did marry this girl, and now they have two children. But ‘friend’ has never spoken to me since that note he passed me in high school.
Throughout all the nasty things this ‘friend’ said about me out of bitterness, I still would have been open to talking to him even casually. You know, the ‘hey, how’s it going?’ manner. But everytime we run into each other, which is usually at the supermarket (like today) he still looks the other way. It’s especially awkward when we’re the only couples shopping in the same aisle over and over again, avoiding eye contact and pleasantries. Josh said hello to him, because Josh is the absolute most politest person you will ever meet. Everyone loves him or likes him, or knows him. Particularly because Josh is a friendly jokester who can make everyone laugh. So, he said hello as we passed by and the old ‘friend’ just mumbled gruffly ‘hhhey’.
The thing that irks me is this, why after so many years (10 at least) will this guy not give it up? I was never mean to him, no matter what he said about me in his efforts at machoism. I did not mean to hurt him, I never made personal character attacks at him or his girlfriend/wife, even when I knew he was not with her out of attraction. So why is it that he still can’t get over his hurt feelings so many years ago? The only thing I can think of is he doesn’t get over things easily. He holds grudges. I don’t know. But I think it’s pretty lame to let high school (9th grade) be up front in your current thoughts on a person you once thought was crushworthy.
I don’t know. All I do know is it was pretty awkward to see that this guy still had never changed. I guess some people just don’t.
Mes Cheveux
Before:
After:
It’s difficult to show the highlights in a picture, but here ya go!
