Saturday, October 9, 2010

Tour bus fun.

Many silly things happen on a tour bus. Like somebody wearing a fake bare bum over his pants and running up and down the aisle. Or impromptu vocal stylings. Or random outbursts from a guy wearing loud headphones and not realizing that the one question he wanted to ask the person next to him was heard by everybody on the bus.

Here is a random silly that I was involved in, but sorry - it needs some context first.

Recently a few of my friends have discovered or rediscovered lolspeak. So we send many texts dat cud be kind of weerd 2 reed. The joke is starting to wear a little thin but honestly it depends on the subject matter, and cats and pirates (yes this lolcat is part of the context) are always good.

So I was napping on the bus. Lying across two seats, with my feet on the seat across the aisle, using my friend's pillow, I was happy. Then the friend I borrowed the pillow from decided to sit where my feet were so he could listen to music with the person sitting in that window seat.

So I decide to leave my feet there. Cuz nao I has a futwarmr. Iz gud. But I was pushing him around a bit with them at first until he very animatedly said "No! You're not a cat!!" It was entertaining. I then fell asleep. One of the best naps I've had on tour...until he gets up and my feet get cold. This is the conversation that follows via texts:

Me: Mah futwarmr left. I was havn hapy naps.

Guy: LAWL

Me: U laf at mai pane
At leest I stil has gud pillo. Is comfee.

Guy: hehehe no I laf at ur lawlspk
N DATZ MAI PILO!!

Me: Lol I no. I'ze jus bean ovrdramatiks.
No. Iz mine. I haf commandeerd an iz mah booty.

Guy: NO! UR NOT A KAT N UR NOT A PIRIT!

Me: Xcuse me? I was told dere wud be wenches an rums?
Yar.

Guy: UR DA WENCH I HAF RUMZ AT MAI PLAS
Yaaar.

Me: ROFLMAO!!!



Yes, it's silly. Yes, we were tired. This was the end of the last leg of the last tour. Home now. Need groceries. Will put up more tour stuff later.

Friday, September 24, 2010

I need home for a rest!

I know I seem to have fallen off the face of the earth, but after having the luck of being picked up by a ship powered by an infinite probability drive, I have made it home safely. There were many adventures had in the interim, but due to the classified nature of many aspects of them, I unfortunately can't blog about what happened.

In other news, I was on tour again! Touring is both good and bad, in the same way that my friends are both good and bad: decisions are more easily made, for better or worse.

Actually scratch that, touring just makes bad decisions easier.

For example: "Let's drink."

Or: "Let's drink again!"

Or: "Even though it's really late we should order pizza and watch a movie and drink more!:

Then there's the incredibly sneaky: "Taking a night off because you've drank the last three nights? But it's Friday night! You can't do that!"

There are also more subtle means of helping bad decisions along.

"Let's get blizzards! It doesn't matter since we're eating crappy all tour anyways, so you might as well enjoy them now!"

"Well, since McDonald's is the only thing open at this time of night, let's go get that!"

"I heard there were free drinks!"

Ok well maybe that last one wasn't quite so subtle, but I think you get the idea.

Ironically enough, on our second day of tour, some of us ended up going out for martini's (cause it was martini night at the place we had dinner, which was good.) then were convinced to go to the bar attached to our hotel afterwards. I managed to get my friend on the dance floor, since the song playing was "Home for a Rest". And thus we knew early on what kind of trip it would be.

I made out better than most of my friends, being able to resist blizzards and too much pizza and actually not drinking a couple of those nights. But it still adds up. 6 days on the road. The first 5 of those were traveling AND concerts. Too busy to have time for ourselves until after the concerts, when we'd get back to the hotel and stay up until 1 or 2. Get back on the bus at 9 or 10 the next day. I've only been home 2 nights and a day and already I'm feeling great. I think it's the sleep. Even though I worked last night until late (and got free drinks while there! Have I mentioned that I love my job?) and we watched a movie after (but no pizza, and only one gin and tonic), I've still had way more sleep in these past 2 nights than I got in any 4 of the nights we were gone.

And now I'm back. And have 3 days off. Well, 2.5 now that I've slept through the first half of one. Then 3 more days of work and I get to go on tour again! I'm sure this next one will be so much more laid back, since it's the last one and we're all so tired. No one will feel the need to make the most of our last trip out of town at all...

*Insert ominous music and tolling bells here.*

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Snake

Guys don't like snakes.

I don't know what it is, but the last few times I have come across snakes, all the guys have freaked out. Then they usually ask why girls like snakes. Of course, not all girls like snakes, so maybe not all guys hate them.

I like snakes. They're kinda neat. I think it's mostly because I don't see them very often, so it was always very cool to actually find one as a kid. It might also be because I only ever come across garter snakes which are harmless and little and kinda cute.

Still doesn't explain why guys don't like them. Like my downstairs roomie and landlord for instance.

This is what just happened:

I hear an obscenity from downstairs, then silence. A couple minutes later I hear the call of distress.

"Hey guys, can you come down here? I really need some help with this! Right now!"

I come downstairs to find Landlord wearing oven mitts and wielding a frying pan with a panicked look on his face. He was also in kind of stance you usually see in nature videos when some creature is trying make itself as large as possible in a last desperate attempt to defend its life.

His voice had an edge of hysteria. "There's a snake in my bag!"

I look down to see a backpack in the middle of the floor with a pile of computer wires beside it.

"I pulled out that bunch of wires, and one of them was a snake! Did you hear me freak out??"

In all fairness to Landlord, that would be extremely surprising. Like something out of a horror movie, or a bad dream - picking up something innocuous and discovering creepy crawlies. Not fun.

But that part was done. The snake was underneath the bag, and now just had to be dealt with.

"I was thinking that if we corral it into this frying pan, I can take it outside. Or maybe I should go get something with a cover, maybe that would be better."

"It it just a regular garter snake? Little guy?"

"Yeah, I think so, but it's under that bag! I don't want it getting away in my house!! If we go from either side, then between us and that wall, it's not going to get anywhere."

"Ok."

"You ready?"

He lifts up the bag.

The snake sits there.

I go pick up the snake.

"OH my gosh."

I go to take it outside.

"Wait, I need to get the camera."

"It's crawling up my sleeve!"

"Yeeeaaaghh! Never mind, I'll get the door."

"No it's ok, I stopped it. They just like dark hidey holes."

"Ok, I'm getting the camera."


Picture is taken. Snake gets put outside. Landlord resumes breathing.

"Oh my gosh...I hate snakes. I have to go call my fiancée now."

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Movies

I saw two movies last week.

This in itself is unusual, since that's about the number of movies I average in a year - not including ritual rerunning of things like Monty Python, Princess Bride, or A Muppet Christmas Carol.

Even more strange was the fact that I didn't really want to see either one and was pleasantly surprised by both.

The first was "Date Night". Now I am immediately put off by anything that has "date" anywhere in the title. I'll admit that's a little judgmental, but in my experience - it's for the best. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It started out as a date and turned into a crazy adventure. This is always a good thing. I'd like to think that if I ever end up going on a date, it will involve some sort of randomness like in that movie. Hopefully not involving a crime syndicate or anything though.

Also it's Tina Fey - and she's pretty awesome. Watching some of the outtakes at the end made me realize that quite a few lines in the movie weren't really scripted. That off-the-cuff kind of thing is really what made it work. It was...funny! And not really a romantic comedy after all. Yay.

Movie #2 - not so much. Clash of the Titans. Do I really need to say more? It's a terrible movie. I saw the version from the 80's a while back, just to laugh at the animation, and I guess the CG in this version are better. But it's really just...kind of lame.

Oh, did I say I was pleasantly surprised by this movie? Right. It was nice, for a change...to see the guys wearing shorter skirts than the girls. 'Nuff said.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Yet another caucasian moment on vacation

K: We've done a lot of wine tasting, how about we go shopping this afternoon, you know, just to break things up a little.

S: Breakin' it up! [starts beatboxing]

Me: That's "Breakin' it down" Steve...

S: I am so white....

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Vacation days 4-whatever.

As I mentioned before, I am terrible at keeping things on schedule and doing things that I am "supposed" to be doing. Hence it taking forever to post again about my vacation. With several installments, and a set order, even a vacation is not random enough to keep me interested in writing about it!

But anyways, I did promise to at least write about the exciting part that happened the next day, so I guess I'd better do it.

DUNE BUGGYING!!! THE AMOUNT OF AWESOME HAD IN THAT HOUR CANNOT BE WRITTEN DOWN NO MATTER HOW LONG I HAVE CAPS LOCK ON!!!!

Yeah. I can't really describe it here cause I need too many motions and sound effects. But if you ever have the chance to go, even if it means driving 2 hours out of your way - DO IT. Just a thought.

Then we drove to Eureka. Lots more windy roads and bridges which I actually didn't sleep through. Must have been too wired from the dune buggying. We crossed the state line and somehow thought that being in, you know, California, we might get some use out of all the sundresses and tank tops we brought, but no. Still cloudy and even a bit of rain this time.

Eureka is a funny little town. I can't really describe it any other way. It had a strange, almost eerie feeling to it. Partly it might have been our hotel which was straight out of the 1800's (ok, it had phones and a tv in the room) and almost dead silent. Maybe it was the gloomy weather, or the many closed vintage shops that made it seem out of another time, or maybe...maybe it was just weird.

But we had a good time, and I'd like to go back. Aside from the subtle strangeness, and maybe even because of it, Eureka is a neat little town. There was an old bearded blues band playing (surprisingly really well) for an old bearded audience that was grooving along outside in the town square. We saw a whole bunch of seals off the boardwalk and so many neat little shops we would have liked to spend some time in, had they been open. It was kind of good that they were closed, since we were going for a run through town to work off at least some of the absurd amount of dairy we ingested the day before.

Also cool was the little place we had a late dinner called "Bon-Bonniere". Really neat 50's diner kinda thing going on, excellent fresh food and (what looked like) killer desserts. Katrina and I even went all girly when we saw the Shirley Temples on the menu and had to have them. They were as sugary and pink and full of maraschino cherries as we expected. It was a good night.

The next day's drive took us through Redwood National Forest and we took the scenic route "Avenue of the Giants". Wow...I've always loved Cathedral Grove on the island, and this was...amazing. At Steve so succinctly put it: "Those are big trees." Walking through them and looking at some of the massive redwoods, I didn't wonder why things like dryads and ents are a part of our collective mythology. I wanted to stay all day and just sit there, but we were on a schedule...and the next stop was a big one.

The Napa Valley. It was what everyone (else) was waiting for. It was a heck of a long drive, with the last stretch being the slowest and most winding. I think our top speed for the last couple of hours was about 40km/h. But we made it and went out for a most amazing dinner at Zuzu Tapas. Again, the restaurants were the highlight for me. We did three wine tastings the next morning, and although I enjoyed that a lot, and the wineries and buildings were beautiful, my favourite part was dinner.

At one winery, the lady who was serving our wine also happened to be a chef, and was recommending pairings to us for each wine. For one of them she happened to mention Thai food and when all our ears perked up visibly, she told us of a restaurant we had to visit.

It was called Little Mango, and there was a sous-chef for another restaurant sitting at the table next to ours. You'd think a so-called amazing place where chefs eat would be expensive, but I think the special was 16 bucks. Most things were around 10. It was amazing...and I know I say that a lot, but when you have 4 talkative people at a table, not saying a word for 5 minutes at a time - you know it's good. We usually share our food around so that we can all try more things, but no one suggested it this time. We were too busy eating.

Phew! Almost done. Napa Valley for a day and a half, then on to San Fran! I slept in the car again, but only for an hour. It's apparently a short drive to San Francisco, and I woke up in time to see us getting on the Golden Gate bridge. It's actually kinda orange. Which I guess is a lot closer to gold than the black or grey that most bridges are. Our hotel was close to the bridge, but not ready for us so we parked the car and went to check out nearby Chestnut Street.

It was fun, some little shops for the shoppers to enjoy, teletubbies wandering for the...kids? to enjoy and just generally a good feel. As soon as I stepped onto the sidewalk I said to myself "Yeah, I'd come back here." We found another great restaurant called the Grove which was fast and furious and fun. You pay and get your number, try and find somewhere to sit then and wait until the servers find you. They've got a short menu of maybe 4 sandwiches, 4 salads, 4 mains but everything was excellent so there's something for everybody. Fresh squeezed orange juice made my day. They claim the best bacon in the world, and if they're not right, they're not far wrong...and they actually DO have the best macaroni and cheese in the world. Or at least that we'd ever had. Ok ok, I know, enough of the food!

Once we put our stuff in the hotel room, it was back to wandering. We split into pairs again since Katrina and I tend to travel in a very random way (surprise surprise) just picking a general direction, or having one goal in mind and then happening across whatever we happen across, while Steve and Karen are far more specific and want to get to the things they want to get to.

Anyways, our hotel happened to be on Lombard St which had the block known as the windyest street in the world. It took an hour to get to that section of it, but we didn't care and yeah. It was pretty windy. We thought our drive to Napa was bad! But this block was basically a car length and a half of straight road before making a switchback in the other direction. Yeah, it was a steep hill. Even the other side of it was a steep climb to get up to that point. Later, we checked out our total distance of the night (7 miles) and with the hills we considered it a workout.

Next stop was Chinatown! Well, we didn't really plan to stop so much as move with the massive flow of people down the street. Yup, sure was a chinatown. Lots of produce shops, fish shops, dried everything shops, tourist traps, take out food...etc. It was anything special per-se but it was just so...condensed! Like taking Vancouver's chinatown, multiplying it by 10 and putting it in a space maybe twice the size. We wandered into a dried everything store just for the heck of it (and to see if they had a specific tea I like) and one of those EVERYTHING IS HERE AND MOST OF IT IS A DOLLAR AND IF YOU EVER THINK YOU WILL NEED SOME KIND OF JUNK YOU WILL FIND IT HERE stores, since Katrina had never done that. Then we ended up having some really good really cheap dim-sum at another random shop.

After that, we headed down to Union Square, which would have been a shopping heaven had it all been open. As it was, we made it Macy's and Katrina nearly had a seizure trying to look in every direction at once when we got to the shoe floor. It's probably a good thing most things were closed, since she stopped at every other massive expensive name brand window on the way back, looking like one of those commercials at Christmastime with the kid looking in the toy store.

We went back to the other extreme of prices on our wander back through Chinatown. By this time it was dark, so we got to see the other side of it. Lanterns across the street, musicians playing "Yankee Doodle" on traditional chinese instruments, tourist trap shops brightly lit up with bright gaudy shiny things. I almost got sucked in by a nice sushi dish set. Glad I didn't because I saw the same ones back home.

Didn't make it to Fisherman's Wharf, since it was so dark and late and we needed more food. (It was sushi, and yes it was again, really good. Hey don't knock it - I have the most amazing instinct for finding good food on the road) We had been thinking about going for Karaoke, since we saw a place open on our way out, but I ended up being a little too tired at 10pm after those 7 miles, and a little too worried about finding a way to the airport for me to enjoy it, so we just went back to the hotel.

And that, my friends, is that. The hotel had an agreement with a shuttle service, so I had no problem getting to the airport for my 7am flight back home to Canada. My 2 bottles of wine also survived the trip in the cargo section and were enjoyed thoroughly by all who imbibed. My week in Vancouver visiting family and friends was excellent and now I am back in Victoria, hard at work.

Yeah, really hard at work. Played 5 games of pool this morning.

I love my job.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

iWill

Scene: hotel room. Middle of great vacation. S is on laying apathetically on the bed, with iPhone again.

K: Wow, you sure look enthusiastic. This vacation must be so depressing.

S: Yes, I'm horribly horribly depressed and everything is terrible. I hate life. I would kill myself except that I'm too lazy to get off this bed. It's ok though. There's an app for that.

Vacation Days 2-3: "Today we will have adventures. We will have cheesy adventures. My favourite kind." - Steve MacDonald

Off to a late start, not only because of the ignoring of the alarm, but also because of a most excellent and huge breakfast at the hotel. It was also $20 for all four of us. Steve's 3 pound omelette was probably the most expensive, but had we wanted it to, it could have fed us all. Especially since it included hash browns. Being full lent to the "moving slowly in the morning" feeling for all of us, so it took a while to get on the road. Luckily it was not a hugely long drive that day, just a few hours with some stops for nice views. There were lots of nice views, so it took more than a few hours, but still not too bad. We went over the biggest bridge I have ever seen going into Oregon. It must have been a couple of miles long, and to make it even more fun, there was construction on it! Actually there was a lot of construction on bridges this whole trip, with one whole side closed so everyone has to stop a wait a bit.

We were very happy to get to Seaside, despite the fact that it was not Cannon Beach, as Katrina originally thought. But Cannon beach was only a few miles away, so easy to get to for us…but we decided on food first. This is typical of us. It happens when you hang around musicians. We had a surprisingly good lunch at a diner aaaaand then went to the fudge store next door. And then to the Taffy outlet. "Candyland!" it was called, with many many flavours of salt-water taffy. We bought…pounds…of taffy. And got our pictures taken with the Candyman! Cause we could.

I'm surprised we could move after all that, but we managed to walk back down the beach to our lovely avocado room at the Sandy Cove Inn. It was distinctly green and 50'sish. Which was awesome. It had a purple sparkly lava lamp. Which was also awesome. Just ask Steve.

Cannon beach was neat, though the tide was too far in to get out to the really great tidal pools, we still enjoyed walking in the surf, and watching people fly all sorts of interesting kites. And all sorts of interesting dogs. Well, the dogs weren't flying, but they almost were with happy doggy fun as they ran through the waters. We went back into the little town and discovered it to be mostly closed but found one interesting shop full of interesting clothing that we all liked, but only Katrina was successful in finding something to suit her. Although, I think her success was enough for all of us, since her…"garment"…was kind of 6 in 1.

Then came Dinner. It was a Delight.

We actually just wanted coffee…but it turned out the coffee shop closed in the afternoon and turned into an Irish restaurant for dinner. Then we saw what people were eating, and decided to come back when we were hungry. Again, we made a good food decision. The place had only been open a couple of months, but our waiter was the husband of the chef, who apparently had "decided to take some time off fine dining" to open this place. Well, a soup and a salad, a lamb stew, a pork chop, some curried mussels and a LOT of irish soda bread later, we were very glad she had made that decision. Nom.

Then back to the hotel for more wine, as seems to be our nightly custom.

Aaand up in the morning for more driving, which seems to be our morning custom.

It wasn't a hugely long drive to our next stop at the famous Tillamook dairy. This wasn't our final destination, but it was definitely a stop. And a half. Or maybe a half-and-half? Whatever kind of stop, it was one we had been looking forward to. There was cheese. And there was more cheese. And ice cream. Ice cream such I have never had before. It tasted of cream and caramel and deliciousness. The cheese was ok too. Hah! It was also amazing. We bought some habanero jack cheese to take with us to go with the ubiquitous evening wine later on.

But then we stopped at Blue Heron cheese, which was an import place where we tasted more heaven in the form of several kinds of brie. Of course, we couldn't say no to that, so we bought some smoked brie and baguette to be our lunch later on.

At this point, one has to wonder "Will she eat anything at all other than dairy today?"

Not the best idea for someone who is slightly allergic/lactose intolerant. But I LOVE CHEESE!!!

Ahem. Anyways...

After we finished with our cheesy adventures, we took the Three Capes scenic drive. Instead of following the highway down, it follows the coast directly - you guessed it - around three capes. It is long and windy and scenic. We stopped at each cape for some scenic pictures, then continued on the scenic drive to the next scenic viewpoint. It was very scenic.

Okay maybe I sound a little sarcastic, but don't get me wrong - I love the coast, and the ocean and trees and scenery. So it was really nice. There was just…a rather…lot of it…all…at once. Or maybe I was just still tired and therefore ornery. I don't see how, when I still was sleeping in the car all the time. Maybe it was getting woken up all the time that made me less than my usual chipper self. It was like constant morning, and a morning person, I am not.

The third cape was a real surprise for us. It was a busy little town, with a very busy beach that had lots of kids and dogs and sand castles and happiness. Maybe it was also the fact that the sun was kind of out for once. I picked up a tomato and avocado (Gasp in shock!) to go on our smoked brie baguettes. We found a lovely rock on which to have our picnic, and enjoyed lunch, while trying to keep it away from a very happy curious and probably hungry dog. And we saw a seal lying on the rock! It was alone and looked rather sad and tired. We asked later and it was apparently not even full grown, so hopefully it was not sick or lost. The parks guy with the bullhorn on his truck keeping people away from it didn't know either.

We also saw what appeared at first to be annoyingly obnoxious boats blasting their horns while driving at full speed towards the beach. But it soon became apparent that this was a standard practice to get the boats back on the beach without hitting small children. All in all, an entertaining lunch, but we weren't done with this beach just yet.

We had to go to the hill.

Did I forget to mention the other highlight of this stop? At the end of the beach, near where we ate, there was a HUGE hill of sand that was very very steep. At the top there were some trees and it gave way to a rocky cliff from which there were some more scenic views of the ocean, but it was the hill itself that caught our attention. And the kids running/sliding/wiping out/rolling down it. The shallower section of slope was probably 45 degrees. The steeper part, more like 60. Katrina and I looked at each other and said "Let's do it!"

We ran up the hill. Or rather, the first 30 feet of it. Then we walked. Then we crawled. It was one of the toughest climbs I've ever done, but we kept going. And then ran down. And nothing I say here, even if I say it ALL IN CAPS HOW AWESOMELY FUN THIS WAS WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! The point will never really get across.

And then we did it again!

I wished that I hadn't just eaten, that we had more time, that maybe I was 9 again, because I could have done that all day! But then, we had to get back into the car, but happily, refreshed, and filled yet again, with cheese.

More driving, more winding roads, more ocean, more driving, more sleep. There was a shopping stop at a little glassworks place, where we all bought stuff that was hugely cheaper than can be found in Victoria. Then more driving and more sleep. We finally made it to Reedsport, where we had our biggest hotel room thus far. It was an extra $10 to get the "suite" which was twice the size, and had a couch, bar, fridge, etc…an excellent place to have one more bottle of wine and …somehow refrain from eating our cheese with it. I also managed to avoid cheese (don't ask me how!) at the mexican restaurant where we had dinner. It was another excellent meal - definitely authentic and HUGE portions. Tastiness. I was happy.

It was a nice couple of days. Nothing particularly…eventful, but great anyways. And probably for the best, since we were looking forward to one of the big "events" of the trip, which was to happen the next morning.

But that goes on the next post!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Vacation Day 1: Having things inserted into your mouth is not the most pleasant way to be woken up. Though having said thing be tasty chocolate helps.

I didn't sleep last night. Was too busy visiting friends and meeting a fiance to get home early enough to pack before needing to leave at 4:30am. I was determined to stay awake on the ferry to Port Angeles, just because it's a different ferry going the opposite direction that I usually go. I failed miserably, hence being woken up by Katrina putting a piece of mint chocolate in my mouth. Apparently it was open. Apparently I should expect such things when travelling with my chosen accomplices.

Turned out not to matter that I slept, since there wasn't anything to see. Except a lot of water. Both in the ocean and the sky, but mostly suspended in between, blocking the view of everything. We arrived shortly after my sleep was disturbed by a ferry employee coming our little seating area and saying "Apparently we are in Port Angeles Bay." To which my only response was "Apparently we are in a fog bank."

Luckily, our first stop was a hike on Hurricane Ridge, and we ascended above most of the cloud. My temporary narcolepsy ensured I missed most of that 17 mile road. When we got to the top, it was a gorgeous day with incredible views of mountains in every direction. There were also views of very tame deer in the parking lot. The hike was pretty nice, but not too strenuous. There was snow, and lots of trees and wildlife. (For a complete listing, see Appendix A.) I brushed up on my sub-alpine vegetation, and learned to recognize some new types too. One of the neatest parts was when we followed the trail along the top of the ridge, and there was a warm wind blowing from inland which alternated with a cool breeze from the water. If we looked towards the ocean we could actually see Victoria and Sooke! Or at least some fog where Victoria is…

If we looked in the other direction, we saw the road we had driven up, and there were a few sights to see there. Very happy motorcyclists were one. There were both very happy and very unhappy cyclists on the road, depending on which direction they were going. Some of the cyclists we had seen on the ferry earlier like the guy Steve christened "Ugly Shorts". We also saw some more than slightly stupid tourists getting out of their cars to look at the bears. Wait, bears!? Yeah! We saw bears! A mother and cub black bear crossed the road as we were watching from the ridge, and that was really neat. Don't see those too often, and we're glad we saw them from that far away, even though it was slightly worrying to know that they were going in the direction of the trail we were on.

We also saw a raven. Well, we saw several, but this particular was talking, and Katrina decided to talk back. There was some discussion for a few minutes until the raven got a disgusted look on its face, and with one last contemptuous caw, flew off in a huff.

The trail was a really long one, but we had decided to not do the whole 4 miles out and 4 miles back, since we needed to get going. We did start getting the "just one more peak" syndrome going on, but we eventually stopped when we saw the one we dubbed Mt. Steve. When we turned around and started walking back there were a whole lot more people on the trail, and significantly fewer deer in the parking lot. A good thing to have gone so early in the morning.

On our way back down the road, I could see why the cyclists and motorcyclists were so happy. A very nice road, and steep so there was no need to pedal to get up to extraordinarily high speeds. It looked like more fun than being in the car.

But I could sleep in the car.


After a lunch of the MOST AMAZING SUBWAY SANDWICH EVER in Port Angeles (It was UltimateTurkey Bacon Avocado. I can't believe they don't have it in Canada.) I got in the car and woke up at the Hot Springs. They were…very nice. It was still sunny and the pools were hot, and there was a cold pool too, and room to sunbathe and…it was a happy couple of hours spent. It's the kind of happy that deserves more words, but doesn't need them, so I'll leave it at that.

At our next stop, we followed the trail of despair down to the abyssal beach in the cove of ruin. We stopped to take a picture under the tree of evil.

Actually it was called Ruby beach, and although it didn't look rubyish at all, it was still very cool. Breaking waves over jagged rocks was a highlight. So were the incredibly smooth stones that were so much fun to skip across the creek. We walked down the sand and I enjoyed the mist and the water and the rocks for a while. Karen didn't walk as far, and when we got back to her, we found out why: she had been watching some otters! There were 4 or so of them, and the adults went off after a bit, and left he 2 young ones playing on one little rock island. They were incredibly cute little water rats, slithering in and out of the ocean, and just generally being adorable.

Does that sound like a full enough day? Pretty much. We headed for our destination: Pacific Beach Navy Resort. It was 8pm by then, and definitely time for dinner. We had an hour and enjoyed it with some pretty good food, and a most excellent waiter named Kirk who appreciated and even shared our silly sense of humour. Of course, he couldn't really give us a good wine recommendation, but we could hardly hold that against him when he had just carded us and told us he was 20. Right. American drinking laws.

You think I slept enough in the car? Nah, still slept most awesomely. And didn't hear the alarm the next morning. Which was okay, because everyone who heard it, ignored it anyways. A most excellent way to start a vacation.

Appendix A:

Ravens, chipmunks, bumblebees, red-tailed hawk, tree swallows, house finches, robins, Oregon juncos, deer, black bear (and cub) western hemlock, douglas fir, cedars, yarrow, magenta paintbrush, indian paintbrush, alpine lilies, dandelions, bluebells, lupins, sickle-top lousewort, red mountain heather.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Oblivion, thy name is Roommate.

Yesterday, I cleaned ALL THE THINGS.

I go on cleaning binges once in a (very long) while, and when I get started, I just keep going. I got through the dishes, counter, stove, sweeping and was halfway through scrubbing the floor when my roommate woke up.

Roommate: Wow, you're amazing!

Me: I'm cleaning!

Roommate: You're amazing!

Me: Could you contribute, by perhaps taking the bottles to the bottle depot, since you have a car and that would suck on my bike?

Roommate: Sure! I'm going out anyways.

Excellent start to the day. It continued with laundry, vacuuming, putting roommates stuff in a pile, cleaning my room and my bathroom.

Then I was free. Went out for dinner with friends. It was nice.




Fast forward to 10pm. I get home.

Me: Hi Roommate! Wow, what smells like burning?

Roommate: It shouldn't smell like burning, I only put it in 5 minutes ago...

Me: Are you...cooking??

Roommate: Yeah it's a pizza a bought a while back and had in the freezer. Would you like some?

Me: Oh. No thanks. Just ate.

Roommate: By the way, great job cleaning! Everything looks awesome!




Skip ahead a few more hours to this morning.

I get up, go to the kitchen to make my breakfast. And there are things. All over my counter.

Now it's not as though there was a huge mess or anything, but it just happened to be spread out over all the available space: a cutting board covered in crumbs and knife beside the stove, a plate and cup beside the sink. A little plastic tab seal that you pull out of a new juice container in the middle of the other counter. And a loaf of bread (which is not unusual) and carton of eggs (which is...especially in summer) on the other side.


Now, it's not as though this is all completely terrible. I just can't comprehend how someone could comment so enthusiastically on all my cleaning and then forget all these....things! All over the place!

Of course, since Roommate only seems to cook about once a month, I guess it might be pretty easy...

Irony. Ur doin it right.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

I went to church today...

Today I found myself soul-weary and all strung-out, distracted and maybe just a little discombobulated. Family and long-time friends were unavailable (no offense to the most excellent friends I did have around, but you are all still too new for me to put you through my stupidies idiosyncracies) so I did something other people often do for this kind of sickness. I went to church, for the first time in a very long while.

Unfortunately, for lack of camping equipment and vehicle, my chosen places of worship were inaccessible. Thankfully there were other places nearby where I could find what I needed: my mountains and ocean and some solitude. I put on my walking sandals and half an hour later, there I was - sitting on a rock with my feet in the salt water and suddenly, life was a little better.

I mean, how could it not be? On a warm rock, with cool water; the sun hot on one side of my face with the wind brushing the other; seeing the sparkling reflection of the evening sun on the waves with the sound of them all around me. Those waves wash everything away. Even my barnacle-scraped toe was healed up by the time I got up.

Because the ocean is alive, you know; you can see it breathe as the waves curl up around the rocks. The regular breaths that keep things alive, with the occasional deep inhalation that submerges more of the rock and makes tidal pools disappear momentarily.

I love tidal pools. It didn't take me long to find a really neat one. It was maybe 10 inches long and 5 deep and had a dozen anemones, a few crabs, with the usual array of hermit crabs and barnacles. It was the perfect time of day to watch the miniature ecosystem at feeding time. One of the crabs was tiny - smaller than than very large barnacle right beside it! The large barnacles did not seem to be eating very much, but the tiny ones were almost continuously extending their feathered legs to catch whatever microscopic organisms were on the menu. I wondered if they needed to eat more often because they had a lot of growing to do, or just that because they couldn't reach as far, they had more competition.

Another pool had a far more aggressive breed of hermit crab. These guys were not the tiny ones I saw before, but were bigger - some almost as big as a quarter - with vicious looking yellow stripes and surprising amount of speed. They really dug into whatever they were eating, and a couple of them decided to attack each other at one point. "EXTREME HERMIT CRAB FIGHTING" came to mind. I thought it was pretty cool, but the rockfish seemed far less impressed.

After a few more tidal pools, I waded around and climbed to another, less protected area to sit on a significantly higher rock and watch the significantly higher waves. The tide must have been coming in because the heaving ocean created some impressive spray. I sat there for hours, just watching the waves come in and get sucked back out. If I really watched for it, I could see the interference patterns as the waves coming in crossed with ones that had already hit the rocks. Physics is beautiful. The world is beautiful.

A friend recently asked me whether I would miss the oceans or mountains more if I had to move away. My first thought was that I couldn't choose, but then I got to thinking that it might be mountains. Pictures of sandy beaches never did much for me, but I love mountain ranges. I've also always felt at home when in the Rockies, while the Prairies absolutely give me the heebie-jeebies.

But as per usual, my first impression was the right one. I can't choose. Growing up on the west coast, the two are inextricably linked to me. Take away the mountain rock and the coast is just...long and sandy. But without the ocean? Without the waves crashing around those rocks? Without that...life? It wouldn't be right either. Might as well make it a holy trinity and add forests. I can't live without those, and no that's not blasphemy, dammit. I live very close to heaven on earth and I doubt anyone who's spent any time at all on the rocky shores of BC will disagree.

And so, when I found myself at that most massive of cathedrals, I knew I'd be there a while. It's a growing place, a healing place, a place of life. The kind of place I know I need to go back to again, and again, and again.

What will I miss if I have to leave the coast again?

I'll miss being alive.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Labels

Never believe a label that says "Healthy Choice".

Especially when you get home, notice it doesn't taste very good or healthy and check the ingredients list to find that the first few ingredients in "Healthy Choice" pasta sauce are tomato paste, glucose-fructose, corn syrup, salt, dehydrated onion, and sugar...

Monday, July 19, 2010

How To Catch a Man

Overfeed him to the point where even if he tries to run, you will catch him.

No wait, that's not the kind of catching I meant...

Anyways...

I have recently decided that it is high time for me to think about dating again. It's been a few years - great years actually - and I'm feeling a little out of practice on how to go about this, so I decided to do my research.

It seems that one of the more popular methods is the miniskirt method. It goes as follows:

1. Wear short skirt
2. Walk around near object of intention
3. Wiggle appropriate protrusions (The question of T or A will depend on your own particular endowments and object's preferences - research the latter, if possible)


Another popular method, especially with the late high school to early university crowd is what I call the "liquid courage" method. It involves:

1. Drink alcohol
2. Make out

At this point there are variable outcomes with quite different degrees of success. Much like a choose your own adventure novel, your actions will decide the fate of this method. Some possibilities are:

3. Sex (which can lead to an even greater number of outcomes, with more extreme consequences, for better or worse)

3. Intense Awkwardness (which can also follow Sex)

3. Guilt and Recrimination (which can follow both sex and intense awkwardness)

3. Never talking to object ever again

3. Absolutely nothing

3. Smug looks from one or both parties at future encounters.


Now, neither of these methods seemed quite right to me. It's true that they work, and I have seen it and known people to have succeeded with them, but they are fairly hit-and-miss, with potentially embarrassing fallout.
At this point, I knew I would have to broaden my research beyond things I could see myself, and go to some legitimate sources of information.

Cosmopolitan had an informative article entitled "How to Win a Guy in 10 seconds" which might be useful. It included such tidbits as "Insult everything about him so he thinks you're better than him. That's a huge turn-on" and "Ask to borrow his phone then erase all the numbers but yours. He’ll know you mean business. He may be mad now, but he'll appreciate it later." as well as my favourite "Begin sobbing uncontrollably out of nowhere, and refuse to explain why. Men love mystery."

There is of course, one more way that I seem to hear about extraordinarily often, considering how rarely I've seen it or read about it. It goes as follows:

1. Talk to guy, tell him what you feel and ask him out.

Now, I find this to be extremely suspect. It just seems too simple. Talk to him? Be honest? That can't be right, or there wouldn't be so many sources telling us to do otherwise. What about all those magazines? Those helpful "Ask Annie" type newspaper columns? If it was so easy, why do we even need to ask? If it's so easy, why haven't I done it and why am I wondering about it?

Obviously, because it doesn't work.

This method is a myth.

Guess I'll have to go with the scientific method and try each way. Or maybe just feed everybody cookies until one of them is too slow to run away.

Monday, July 12, 2010

For The Record

#13 Turned out to be packing.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Procrastinating Packing

...but what else is new? I procrastinate at everything. Besides, I know I have not reached the critical mass of procrastination - I have yet to clean my room.

What have I done in the last 6 hours instead of packing?

1. Gone shopping. Well, that was an intended part of my day, but I did extra unnecessary fun shopping too...

2. Checked Facebook

3. Eaten sushi. Dinner is important, yes...but adding beer and episodes of Battlestar Galactica is not conducive to getting things done.

4. Did the dishes. In high heels. And a miniskirt. (I had to try out my new sandals I got while shopping...)

5. Checked Facebook

6. Worked out. For 4 minutes. One of those crazy new Tabatos thingys. It was hard. I gave up on going to bed early at this point.

7. Had a bath. A long bath. I exfoliated.

8. Checked Crackbook

9. Had conversation with Roommate about procrastinating packing. Roommate also spent evening drinking beer and watching internet videos. Roommate will pack tomorrow.

10. Made another drink.

11. Checked Facebook

12. Commenced blogging.

13. ?????

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Random Silliness

Did I mention that an excellent and silly time was had by all on this tour? Here is one of my favourite exchanges.

Scene: A private tour bus filled with 30 odd musicians (pun intended). Driving near the water, the bus passes large, distinctly conspicuously yellow piles of sulfur.

Q: I wonder what do they do with all that sulfur?

A: Make Sulphites
A: Make matchsticks
A: Make lots and LOTS of matchsticks
A: Sulfur Sandwiches

"You guys really can't give me a serious answer, can you?"

No...sorry...we really really can't.

Tourist in my own town

So we have been on tour with the band, back to my lovely home city of Vancouver. Many excellent and silly times were had by all. I had a particularly lovely time as I was living in a hotel downtown and getting my meals covered. This is a distinct improvement over living way out in the burbs and having to somehow scrap together the cash to go out.

I got to go out and eat at all the restaurants I never could when I actually lived there.

Okay, well maybe that's an exaggeration. We were only there for a couple of days and sometimes were too busy to go spend a good amount of time enjoying a meal, but I enjoyed a few places.

Good:
Moonpennies (Moonpenny? Moonsomething?) Cafe. Brie baguette for the win. Also excellent service.

Roxy Burger. REALLY GOOD burger and wings. I actually only tried the wings but the rest looked awesome and was raved about by several people. Not bad drink specials either. Good job by the manager chick to break up a potential fight. (okay, so it's not the swankiest place, but it's Granville street, whaddya expect? It's also one of the few places that will serve drinks extremely late at night. NOT THAT THAT'S THE REASON WE WERE THERE. AT ALL)

Guu. Japanese people yell everything all the time. They yell at you in welcome. They yell your order across the restaurant. They yell goodbye to you. At least I hope that's what they yell...it's all Japanese. They are wearing cargoes and crocs. It is a warm happy silly kind of crazy. The food is pretty good too. Scratch that...the food is amazing. Some of it is weird and funky, some is more 'normal' but all of it is good. I was made extremely happy by that restaurant.

Will Skip Next Time: Elephant and Castle. Cardboard burgers and soggy sandwiches were had by all. The fries and yam fries were okay. Drinks were...drinks. Oh, except the "Red Ruby" which was not a drink, but antifreeze in disguise.

Will Make Time For Next Time: Steamworks. I always like it. I'll get there this fall no matter what. I was sad to have gone there last October and found them to bein between batches of pumpkin ale which I hear is one of if not the best pumpkin ale in the world.

The Cambie. I can't believe I didn't take people there this time.

And tomorrow I'm on my own and on my own tab, but I'm still heading out to one of my favourite sushi places EVER. If you're ever if Fort Langley, go to Tokyo Garden. It's cute and little and wonderful and I'm looking forward to it extremely much. Mmmm...now that will make for sweet dreams for me! Goodnight!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Cooking update:

Cookies are awesome. Well, some are. It depends on how long they were in the oven. Some batches were in longer depending on how exciting the part of Battlestar Galactica I was watching was.

Veggie fritter thingies are also amazing, though less amazing now that they are no longer hot. I'm sure it will all be appreciated at potluck party today.

Does anybody else stay up until 2:30 making things for a potluck where you know the only reward is to have a few coworkers come up to you and say "oh those _____s are quite lovely."

No? I must be crazy. Then again, not everyone's coworkers are musicians...and everyone knows how much musicians like food.

Monday, June 28, 2010

=D

La la la la la la la la la....

I am in the middle of cooking something that is not cookies while waiting for roommate to arrive home with my cookie sheet.

The cooking of said "not cookies" is another awesome recipe but takes a long time and requires lots of grating and mess, so I decided I deserved a beer. Which, being thirsty, I drank rather quickly.

Don't worry, I waited until all the graty and pointy implements were finished with. Now it's just the frying pan. No problem.

Better go check on it.

Edit: Things are turning out awesomely. I totally deserve another beer.

Correlation vs. Causation

I couldn't sleep last night, so I'm thinking I should have stayed up to make the second batch of cookie dough. Unless it was the midnight snack of cookie dough that kept me awake.


(I made that second batch this morning and it was significantly faster, having learned something from last night. Except I still wore a black shirt...#@*%)

COOKIES!!!

As a fair number of people could tell you, I am not a bad cook. In fact, I am a rather decent cook. I might even be a good one. As a somewhat fewer number of people could tell you, I am a messy cook.

When I am in the midst of a project, the kitchen invariably appears to have had a small flock of geese go through and pull things off shelves, chewing packages and leaving a medley of ingredients...well, somewhere in the kitchen. But of course, I know exactly where they all are (cough cough...really, I do) but no thank you, I don't need any help. No matter how many times one might hear me mutter "Now where did I put that spatula?"

Because I like to cook. I enjoy the insanity that I go through, whirling from counter to counter, checking the recipe then going "meh, let's do something else anyways", mashing and spooning and smashing and beating.

Food processor and electric mixer? I don't think so. We're doing this the hard way.

Because chocolate chip cookies are worth it.

And not just any chocolate chip cookies. These are the Consummate chocolate chip cookies! Of doom.

Someone actually went out and researched chocolate chip cookies. (Tough life, eh?) And experimented combined the elements that seemed to be the most successful. I thought it might be a good idea to try to make them.

Unfortunately, I cheated on the first ingredient. I don't have cake flour or bread flour. I used all-purpose flour. Gasp! The horror! Then I discovered that when sifting the dry ingredients together, the coarse salt called for doesn't actually make it through the sieve. Hmmm.

I threw it in afterwards.

I also discovered that it is a good idea to check the cupboards to see what kinds of bowls are available. Metal salad bowls that are slightly too small are not the best. But when that is all your roommate has, well...yeah maybe I should go buy bowls.

Creaming butter and sugar together in a slightly-too-small bowl is a challenge. It is necessary to either be extremely careful and therefore go slowly, or make a huge mess and get it everywhere. Or in my case, both works.

Tip: Make sure to note which ingredients get put into each bowl. It is not a good idea to sift the dry ingredients into the larger bowl because there are more of them, then cream the butter and sugar in a smaller one when you have to put the dry ingredients in the butter/sugar bowl.

When you're doing it by hand, "Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes." means "BEAT THE HELL OUT OF IT for 20 minutes."

Also "Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds" translates to "Stir very slowly because your bowl is too small and you will get flour EVERYWHERE until it's all mixed together which will take 8-10 minutes."

Very important: When they tell you to add the chocolate pieces, eat some. And when the dough is done, eat some of that too.

Slightly less important: Don't wear a black shirt...



No you don't get to find out how they turn out. At least not yet. The dough is in the fridge, where it will remain for "at least 24 hours" which means I will be baking at midnight tomorrow! YAY!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Here's hoping for a more educational fin du semaine.

It's only Friday (ok, Saturday morning...) and I've already learned that waxing legs is really not worth the effort. It takes too much time, although I can't really decide whether I'm annoyed that I ran out of Battlestar Galactica episodes before I finished, or if it just would have been a hell of a lot faster had I not been watching BSG in the first place...

In other news, I learned stuff during the week. Like that "Let's go out for a beer. Just one." really means "Let's start by going out for a beer, and finish with getting home at 3am."

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Lessons learned this weekend:

1. When making mojitos, it is beneficial to make the simple syrup BEFORE commencing with the drinking. This prevents sugar from getting all over the kitchen.

2. Also when drinking, it is better to choose snacks that are not orange in colour. Especially when you have beige carpets. People tend to be a lot more careful about their drinks than the snack bowl.

3. When going for a day trip somewhere (especially with musicians) always plan to be on the road an hour later than you thought.

4. When hiking, do not take the least experienced hikers' estimates for trip times. Just because they can walk 10km in 3 hours, does not mean it takes the same amount of time when lots of hills and difficult terrain are involved.

5. Never leave your facebook logged in on someone else's phone.


Actually that's not a hell of a lot. I only learned 2 things each day (1 for friday evening). I shall endeavour to have a more educational weekend next weekend...or some other time.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

If I could train spiders...

Think of the possibilities! Spiders would be so useful if they could be trained.

Obviously the first use that comes to mind for trained spiders is to have them make webs across your windows to keep out bugs. You might need more than one spider, depending on how big your window is. But really, everyone wins. Spider gets bugs, you don't. And unlike most window screens, completely organic! It wouldn't even matter that it would break every time you threw your cat through it, because the spiders would just build it again. Happily! They kind of expect it anyways.

The next best use for trained spiders is to have jumping spiders patrolling the kitchen. I wouldn't have to worry if I left food out, because the spiders would eat any bugs that got in. They could also patrol around my bed. If I lived in a basement they could just patrol the entire place. So long as I could train them to stay OFF the bed. I wonder if a spray bottle would work like with cats.

Then there's the spider silk. Man, get some spiders working on that, and you'd have super strong string, which would be awesome for reed making! Not to mention the million other things we use string for, like venetian blinds and garrotes. You could even teach them a dance so they could weave fabrics. Think of it! 6000 thread count spider silk sheets! Actually that's kind of creepy. Never mind.

But things like uber-strong cables for bridges and space shuttles and stuff would be useful. Engineering, military applications, who knows! It would make so many things possible that I can't even imagine.

Of course, then it would make lots of money and there would be people breeding spiders specifically to make the silk and they would probably live in horrible conditions and just work in tiny spider sweatshops all the time with nobody to stand up for their rights, until some protesters decided to take up the cause and have demonstrations at companies' doors all covered in spiders that would be trained to jump on executives and weave really strong webs across the doors so nobody could get in to work then when public awareness was raised they could take it to parliament to get a spiders' rights' bill passed or something but there would still be all those protesters with attack spiders out there attacking people and someone would get the idea of using poisonous ones and you would have to be really careful walking down the street and IS THAT THE KIND OF WORLD WE WANT TO LIVE IN??

Not really. Now I'm kind of glad it's not possible.

Yes, I'm sober.

Off Topic

Ok, so I give up. I am terrible at blogging and will not post here at all. Ever.

If I make it something like work, which I have.

Having a theme is too organized. I'd rather just write about random crap when I feel like it. But a blog needs a theme. So my theme is random crap. Which is pretty much like every other blog out there. But it's ok. I'm amused.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

On Topic

Wow, I really haven't written much at all about books or music here. I guess I should remedy the situation.

I finally read Scott Westerfeld's "Midnighters" series. I had been really looking forward to it, since it seemed like a neat idea and a good friend had recommended it. Unfortunately, it appears my tolerance for Young Adult reading has gotten abysmally low.

Don't get me wrong. They're good books. The plot pulled me along, and I cared about the characters. But I really just can't handle Angsty Teenager much anymore.

It's kind of a shame, because there are so many good YA books out these days, and so many new ones coming out. I've read a few in different series that I would counting down the days until new ones come out, if only they weren't written for high schoolers.

I guess I'm getting old.

Hah! Tell that to the waterslides I went on last week. (more about that later)

No, I think it's just that I only like novels for younger people that are really excellent and don't treat their readers like TV audiences. But I guess that's what teenagers want now, so it sells. I'm glad that more kids are reading and absolutely devouring my favourite genre. I guess I'm just disappointed that they don't fill me up the same way! Adult books take so much longer to come out. What the heck do I read next??

Friday, May 7, 2010

Quote of the Day

"They say curiosity killed the cat, but...you only live once!"

Talk about mixing metaphors.

A Paucity of Water

Scene: I sit on the living room floor, working on my laptop. Having just finished a run, I am now waiting for the shower which is in use by roommate who has just woken up. The time is 1:14 pm.


Enter Roommate


Me: Oh, so you aren't dead.

Roommate: No! But I had the most excellent sleep, and a great shower. I definitely just used up all the hot water. It was amazing!

Me: Sounds like a good morning

Roommate: It was awesome.

Me: Well, glad you enjoyed it. I don't feel so bad for not waiting for you this morning. I went for a run.

Roommate: Yeah, I noticed.

Me (carefully not giving "the look"): Ha ha.

Roommate: Not that you smell! I mean...you just...look like you've gone for a run.

Me: Right. Regardless of smell, I should still probably have a shower.

Roommate: Yes. Yes you should.

Me: ...

Roommate: ...I just used up all the hot water.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Moving!

I love moving!

Sounds a bit weird, I know, but I do it so often that it's not a bother - just something to force to get rid of a bunch of stuff. Actually, it's pretty much the only thing that will get me to go through all my crap, period. It's my spring cleaning. Or something like that.

I just moved into a new place today, and this move was more exciting than usual. Why, you ask? Well, this time, I had movers.

In my former starving student/starving musician days, I've moved everything myself, usually limiting my allowable amount of "stuff" to what can be fit in a minivan. At first this was because that was the vehicle my parents had, but later I decided it was a good amount of not-too-much stuff. (Okay, so I strapped the bed to the top.) I didn't even know it was possible to hire people to move things for you!

But it is, and now that I have a job that pays for things like that, people were hired to move things for me.

AND IT WAS SO EXCITING!!!

There were so many boxes, with random labels like "clothes, shoes" "kitchen" "knick-knacks, instruments" "garage" "baskets" that I usually had no idea what I was unpacking. To make it even more of a surprise, the movers used so much paper to wrap every single thing I owned that there was no way to tell what anything was. I would begin to unwrap what I thought was a mug, to find...paper!...and more paper!...and...a tealight!

It was like Christmas! I didn't care what anything was, but I had so much fun unwrapping it all! And there was so much to unwrap.

"Wow this thing is heavy, and huge! I didn't think I owned a mace...hold on...it's...my lamp! Awesome, I LOVE that lamp!"

"Hey look, candles! No wait, it's...chapstick! YAY!"

Shut up. I had fun.

And you should have SEEN the pile of paper I had going! It was like in the fall when you rake leaves and then jump in them! Except it was paper, and I didn't jump in it. I wanted to though. The pile came up to my waist - out of a box as high as my knees. These guys work some serious magic, I swear. I couldn't even fit the paper back in the box without the dishes and mugs the paper was wrapping.

Or maybe it was a box of holding and I should not have cut it down for recycling....

Crap.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Quote of the Day

"You don't need to practice, you've already got the gig!"


I know it's an old joke, but...sigh.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Procrastination wins again.

But when does procrastination ever not win? Certainly hasn't happened in my experience, especially when it involves reeds. I just got new ones. (Yes that is how sad I am right now...not even making my own!) This means they need to be broken in before I can actually play on them. I'm not looking forward to sounding that terrible.

UPDATE: It's been an hour and I've exhausted my capacity for annoyance while trudging through the internet. There was this one spot though, where the view was totally worth it.


Friday, April 23, 2010

Breathe!

Breathing is important. I need to remember to do it. You know, like when playing the bassoon. That's a good time to breathe. Also when watching the playoffs. I must remember to breathe then too.

Oh and case you wandered over here from my basic training blog and are therefore unlikely to know what a bassoon is, here you go!

Yes bassoonists are nerdy. Here is a rare example of one who is not nearly so nerdy.


He is kind of my hero - but so is Alton Brown, so maybe he really is that nerdy.

Nerds! Nerds! Nerds! You can find them everywhere on the internet. This is the little corner where I can be found. Actually I can be found lurking in many corners of the internet. I do that alot. Sure beats street corners.