Tuesday, August 31, 2004

47 packets of hot chocolate...

UGH! Let me just say that doing inventory in the staff cafeteria at my work has got to be one of the least pleasurable jobs around. From weighing bananas, tomatoes, lettuce, potato salad, to counting chocolate bars and chips, it couldn't get much more ridiculous or tedious. My only saving grace was that this time I didn't have to count such things as sugar packets or tea bags (which I have done in the past...) But, as I was all alone, and closing the cafeteria at the same time, it made for a frustrating evening. Not to mention the freaking huge tub of pasta salad that some irritating girl from the dining room (one of the Garden's resturants) brought up. It hink it weighed around 29 lbs. and yes, I had to do it by weight - which is even more frustrating if you take in to account that the little scale I had at my disposal could only read up to 5 lbs. Harumph. (needless to say, I gave some away, and then still had 4 big containers of it full, and about 20 small bowls of it too!) But enough of the pasta salad. enough of the counting (no doubt I'll be doing inventory in my dreams tonight).
It was a lovely day outside, I had coffee with my roomate and her parents this morning, and it was tasty (for anyone who lives in Victoria, I highly recommend Cafe Fantastico on Kings and Quadra - they roast their own beans, and it's generally fair trade). Tomorrow, I plan on finishing my room (last little bit of organizing and decorating, and poof, it's a cute, cozy, bright little nook of a room), writing a poem, and eating a delicious breakfast. yum.

Sunday, August 29, 2004

friendship

... gotta great phone call today, and it made me think about what great friends I have, so I just thought I'd let all of you know how much I appreciate your friendship, and your uniqueness. friends are people who make you laugh and feel good about yourself, not people who put you down or say things that are completely untrue for no reason (for any reason). so thanks for being great friends. whether I see you often or not, you are all in my heart. my little pink mound of thumping flesh that magically holds so many things besides blood. (yeah, I realize this is super cheesy, but frankly i don't give a damn.) :)

silly me

... dyed my hair last monday, thought it was going to be a dark brown with some red highlights... not so... should have taken a warning from the colour name "crushed garnet" because that's how red it came out. a little bit of a shock, but I'm getting used to it now, and it's faded a little thankfully. I guess that's what I get for being impatient and using a box instead of going to the hairdresser's...

mmmmm sunday mornings...

... and the sound of yipping puppies at 8am, well, just one really, our next-door-neighbour's yellow lab who has that certain pitch of bark perfect for irritating those who wish to sleep in after a week of morning shifts and carpet cleaners arriving at 7:45 the previous morning. But I let it go and remained cozy beneath my duvet as the sun tried to slip inbetween my blinds and eyelids. After a week of rain, the sunshine is a welcome thing...

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

rain drops keep fallin...

Oh how I love the rain. I love waking up in the middle of the night and hearing it start. I love lying in bed listening to it. I love watching it through the window - falling on leaves, and petals, and grass, in puddles - it's so beautiful.
I do not, however, enjoy driving in it at 5:30am when it's still dark, and I'm in fear of hydroplaning. A little scary.
But, I also enjoy how it gets us (at work) off of setting up our hot dog and ice cream carts. which also means that I generally get to go home early (a mixed blessing). Like today, I went home at 10am and thus got to kick back and watch a few olympics - like men's 3M springboard diving where our 19yr old canadian Alex Desprite (sp?) won silver! yay canada. Have we, as a country, even managed to get as many edals as Micheal Phelps has earned as an individual? I'm not sure if we're there yet... a little sad. but you know, the atheletes themselves are getting personal bests and having a great time there, so there's more important things than medals (she says while still wishing we were doing a little better...)
Anyway, there is still time. meanwhile, I'm going to lay back and let the soothing patter of rain wisk me to sleep.

p.s. I recently noticed that I seem to write most of these fairly late at night, and am always on my way to bed... perhaps I should work on that...

Monday, August 23, 2004

a wedding, a car crash, and 25 pies...

Let me tell you a story. It involves a girl (me), a wedding (my friend's sister Karma's) and a stretch of road between Victoria and Cobble Hill (the malahat).
It begins early, 6am to be specific, the girl wakes up and prepares for her 7:30 shift. Her hand is still slightly swollen from the wasp sting she received on thursday afternoon. (it's now saturday). She dresses, eats breakfast, and is on her way. everything is on track. Her 4 hour shift goes by fast, nothing too exciting, she's happy to be out of there by 11:30. She gets back home, showers, eats lunch, packs for her overnight stay in Cobble Hill, and writes down the directions to the farm and hall where the wedding is taking place - she is to be there for 2:30. It's just about 1:30pm. She loads her stuff into her bronco (affectionately dubbed Ticki), and is off. It's a 45 min drive.
The weather hasn't been very nice so far, heavy rain, wind, clouds, she's hoping that the ceremony won't be forced inside.
Her biggest worry is the puddles on the road, and her windshield wipers sliding off (as they like to try occasionally).
So she's driving along listening to a cd, hoping she finds the right turn off, when she has to pull up suddenly because traffic has stopped. "What's this?" she thinks, as she shifts into first and then comes to a complete halt. Perhaps construction? But there have been no signs. She's hoping they'll start moving soon.
Traffic is moving, but it's only inching along, and she comes around a corner only to see a line of vechicals stretching as far as she can see. Cars are turning around. It's 1:56pm.
After about another 10 minutes, the girl realizes that she should probably turn on the radio if she wants to find out what the congestion is all about. So, she puts on the Q fm, just as the announcer says: "If you're stopped on the Malahat, there's been a head on collision just near bramberton, and the whole road is blocked. Traffic has come to a complete stop and this was nearly an hour ago. So if you've got a wedding in a half a hour, chances are you're going to be late." (well, It was pretty much what he said - he did mention a wedding at 3pm)

Every once in a while the line inches forward as vechicals (or their drivers I should say) decide that the wait isn't worth it and turn around. 2:30 rolls around, she's late. 3pm clugs by, and she's not going to make the ceremony.
3:45pm and she's hoping that she'll make it to the reception.
Needless to say, she was on that road for three hours. Thank goodness for a couple plumbs, and apple, and the novel, "Life of Pi".

Finally, at around 4:48 the line starts moving, so she's hoping she make it to the reception on time to help serve the dinner.
But, the directions she'd written down were for heading first to the ceremony site, and then heading to the reception from there, so she's not confident where to turn. And sure enough, she turns too early and ends up on an unfamiliar road cursing herself. Finally she pulls over at a little store near Shwanigan Lake Village and asks for directions. And it's here that the stress of being late finally takes it's toll. She can feel the tears well up as she's trying to understand the woman's directions. As soon as she gets back into the bronco, yes, the tears start a flowing.
By the time she finds the hall, (yet a couple more wrong turns later) she thinks she's got them under control. It's just 5:30. But, as soon as she gets out and starts walking towards the bride's father there they go again. Fortunately he's a kind man who gave her a big hug and told her not to worry that everything was okay, and they were just glad she'd made it. He ushered her into the hall and over to his wife who promptly took her to the ladies room (as the tears were still gushing) an helped to get the girl calmed down.

to be continued...

Friday, August 20, 2004

Wedding nibblets...

I was checking up on my cousin Dylan and Fannie's wedding site (they just got married on July 31st!) and I found some of their photos already up, so I thought I'd borrow a few and post them for your viewing pleasure (hopefully that's alright). That wedding was one of the most beautiful ceremonies I have ever seen. It was elegant, simple, thoughtful, and gorgeous! (and heck of a lot of work!) Enjoy!



It was great to watch this photo being taken, I'm really glad it turned out so well. Posted by Hello

Mother of the groom (auntie Deborah), looking stunning, along with a tearful uncle Perry. It was a beautiful ceremony. Posted by Hello

This photographer did a great job! These photos are magazine worthy. I mean, can you say Hallmark? (in a good way of course) Posted by Hello

Aw, what a loverly couple. They really are two of the nicest people.  Posted by Hello

Dylan and Fannie's wedding cake - it doesn't get much nicer than that. I swear it looks exactly like it did in the magazine! Way to go Dad!  Posted by Hello

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Calling 202...

What goes bzzzzz bzzzzz silence ouch! me being stung by a wasp. Yes an angry brute declared me lunch today at work, and now I've got a hand the size of a baseball glove. (okay, it's not that bad or I wouldn't be able to type, but there is a pretty nice swollen lump on the back of my right hand that doesn't want to go away despite repeated icings). I had to call first aid so some one could bring me up some "sting stop", which didn't really help that much anyway, and the guy had to fill out all this paper work, just for one little sting. But I guess for insurence purposes... I kept working anyway, although it was hard to serve ice creams because I was trying not to bend my hand. I guess the sting was payback for the many wasps I've sacrificed to hot water for the common good (and our sanity up at the Soda Fountain!) but I think I would have rather slammed my finger in the door - oh wait, I did that too! Not having much luck with my hands today... at least I'm about to sleep so I can endanger them with knives and other potentially hazardous items. Words of Wisdom: stay away from wasps drunk on sugar, and angry because you've just tried to drown them in really hot water, and when shutting doors behind you, hold firmly to the handle. That's all for now. :)

p.s. I'm really not a bad person, I only killed those wasps because they were a danger to us and the visitors, and our (by us and ours I mean me and my coworkers) mental health - have you tried to pour a pop with five angry wasps buzzing around your head and hands? not a fun activity!)


Wednesday, August 18, 2004

three stacks of plates, two oversise mugs, and a toaster oven...

Whew! While moving upstairs has been great because we don't have to repack and then unpack everything, it's a little like a bloody 5-day marathon! Okay, we've only been moving stuff up since monday, and it's been up and down those freaking stairs I don't know how many times with books shelves and beds and laundry baskets full of plates and food and blenders and more! Not to mention that my previous bedroom now looks like a closet threw up on it - clothes everywhere. I am definately going to have to do some weeding in that department because I don't think i can fit them all in my "quaint" new closetless bedroom. And I still can't decide which door to leave and which one to put my bookshelf in front - the door leading to the kitchen (closer to the food and the bathroom), or the one leading to the living room (potentially a quieter way, closer to the front door) ... any suggestions? I am still enjoying my colour choice, and the few pictures I have put up go very well with it. (yay) But it's late and I have to work, again, early... so goodnight

Monday, August 16, 2004

doin' the happy dance

Yay!!! Who gets to move upstairs today??? We do! Yep, we just did the "walk around" with our landlady and now the floor is ours (and by floor i mean the main suite of the house). We're pretty excited, and danced down the stairs. It's time to start packing and hauling stuff up to our new abode. Wahoo!

sundays are great, obviously

Horray for having the same days off as my roomates, finally! today was splendid - we started our morning with blackberry infused pancakes (need i say yum?) and then headed out to the Sooke Potholes, a 45min drive and 20 min hike away. It was glorious - the water was cool, but oh so refreshing, and when we came upon Crystal's favourite swimming spot, there was not a soul in sight... soooo nice, just us, the sunshine, and the water. But then, 2 minutes later a rather large group of people ambled down the path... sigh, so much for solitude - but what can you expect from such a divine swimming place? After swimming up the river aways and watching some boys jump off cliffs into the water (yikes - i just keep picturing my cousin with his lacerated spleen from landing badly off a 30 foot cliff a couple weeks ago), we swam back an prepared ourselves for some much needed sunbathing. (well that only lasted for a little while until we had to break open the food bag and munch for a while - mmmm more good food like samosas and veggies and trail mix, and crystal's homemade candied ginger, oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies!) It was a wicked way to spend the day. When we arrived home, it was time to check out some of the summer olympics - rowing and gymnastics to be specific (those gymnists can do some crazy shit i tell you). Then my good friend Oona came over and we got ready to go dancing at Steamers Pub where Velvet plays dance music with some funk every sunday night. Good times were had. All in all I'd have to say it was a pretty stellar day, obviously (sorry, but that's been the word of the day). :)
But sweet dreams are awaiting me, and my eyelids are going on strike....
p.s. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Saturday, August 14, 2004

ode to cinnamon buns...

early morning delights:
Arriving at work for 7:30 or 8:00 am rarely has any perks (besides that of getting off by 4 or 4:30), except on those glorious days where I get to ice the cinnamon buns. Yes, spreading soft cream cheese icing on still warm, gooey, sweet buns, and then swirling it with my fingers (gloved of course) to make it look simply irrisistable, is one of my favourite jobs.
The funny part is that I don't even like cream cheese icing, and our cinnmon buns are made with corn syrup, not honey, so they're way to sweet. But making food look asthetically pleasing is something I love to do... perhaps I should go into the culinary arts? I think I'd probably have to expand my tastebud tolerance if i were to do that because I could make everything, but then I wouldn't be able to tell if it was good because I would probably dislike most of the ingredients I put in it... sigh... I'm working on it. My roomate Crystal provides tough love when it comes to trying new things so I've now aquired a taste for previously untouchable items (according to me) like peppers (although I mostly like the orange and yellow ones), lentils, zucchini, spanikopita, and soy milk. I'm sure most of you are shaking your head at me right now, but at least I'm trying right? :) However, I think that tomatoes are always going to be on my ewww list - I've tried to eat them, but there's just something about the combination of juicyness/watery flavour/peel texture that I can't deal with.
But I was supposed to be giving an ode to cinnamon buns. Now, if you want to treat yourself to a truly divine example of what a cinnamon bun can be, you should take yourself over to the Kooteney Bakery Cafe in Nelson, BC (a long treck for some of you I realize, but I'll put it out there anyway) where my dad makes a delectable pecan cinnamon bun with a buttercream icing. And so I shall leave you with that scrumptous vision.
I think I'm drooling a little... ;)

Friday, August 13, 2004


hot hot hot (no really, it was swealtering in there!) Posted by Hello




victory! a concert to remember. Posted by Hello


Thanks to Tara's friend Jordon for the photos (hope it's okay I posted them) :)

Thursday, August 12, 2004

a flailing body, a half a glass of beer, a drumstick, and a set list...

People who can hack being in the front row of a concert shouldn't be there in the first place!
Ah Matthew Good, a great show, a great band, a great location, and a stupid audience - what else is new. This is not to say that I didn't throughly enjoy both the opening act, Wil, and Matt Good, they were amazing - especially from our hard won front row spots, but why do people think that shoving as hard as they can the people in front and to the side of them is going to make anyone's experience any better? I seriously had to elbow this guy a few times because he kept pushing up against me, and believe me, I wasn't planning on moving anywhere - we were about as close as you could get without being on stage. I understand that with a rock crowd in a bar, there's expected to be a little pushing and such, but three people body surfing in a not so large venue, come on now that's just a little ridiculous. I think that the aggressive side of me comes out when placed in those sorts of situations, I was just as ready to shove back, and I don't think that me and Tara moved more than a couple of inches the whole night. I certaintly wouldn't want to be a security person at one of those things! When it started getting rowdy, the girl next to me started freaking out a little, and I thought she was going to throw up, so we had to let her out - the security guys were pretty good at making sure the smaller people were doing okay (not that they asked us - we must have looked pretty determined). But I'm ranting. The music was great, he played mostly from his new album and a couple well chosen older songs like "Picture Yourself" (forgive me if I have the title wrong...). And at the end me and Tara managed to pick up one of the set lists and a drumstick (yes, it's a little obsessive, but fun nonetheless) which we got signed by the man himself! Tara was tempted to stalk him back to his hotel, but we decided that would be way too creepy as the streets were fairly deserted and he was walking with two body/security guards... I swear that we're not that obsessed (disclaimer - I was mostly following Tara... really...). One girl asked to have Matt's half finished glass of beer and she got it! ewww, what would you do with that? What ever tickles your fancy I guess (well, not like I can do much with a drumstick, but at least it's keepable). Anyway, if you're a Matthew Good fan, I highly recommend you see him live, but just be prepared to stand your ground if your in the throng.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

item number two: paint brush and spatter

Well, upon contemplation, neither previously mentioned colours fit, and so I ended up with a light green titled "spring fest". Me and my roomate then proceeded to apply said paint to the wall at 9:30pm - not bothering with a coat of primer to help cover the dark purple currently covering the walls of my soon to be bedroom. Needless to say, we were tired, the purple showed through, and I realized how small this room really is. It shall be me, and my bed, and then the walls. Okay, it's not that bad, but it's definately the smallest room I've ever inhabited before! (It does, however, have nice big windows, a cool built in cupboard, and a funky old light fixture - having been designed as the dinning room).
The colour is bright, but I think once I get everything in place it will be a happy medium. I think that the idea of painting and choosing colours and decorating etc is always more exciting than the actual hard labour (big surprise there), and I am happy it's finished. one more week and then we can be moving upstairs! Yay for hardwood floors, a plethora of cupboards and shelves, a fireplace, and our own mailbox! I'm planning on having a "moving up" party around then, so anyone living nearby who wants a nice dinner for the price of carrying a few items up the stairs, please give me a call. ;)
Well, it's time to remove the tape from the walls of my affectionately dubbed "medicine cabinet" room, here's hopeing no paint bled through!

Monday, August 09, 2004

item number one

i've discovered the joy of blogs.
blog blog blog.
If only I could remember all the great things I wanted to write about...

Today my biggest problem was choosing a colour to paint my room, I'm waffling between "windy hill" and "tropical mango" any suggestions? (windy hill is a lighte bluey colour).