And smell the burning leaves in autumn driveways...

This post's title is taken from the song "Stop Joking Around" by my dear Hawksley Workman. He likes autumn and so do I. It's my favourite season. I even enjoy a gray fall day, just like today.

Anyway, here's a picture of the progress of the scarf I started to knit for my aunt.


No, I did not make a mistake and post an earlier picture of the scarf. Last night, while watching Gilmore Girls, I was trimming the wool from where I'd joined two balls together and the knot where I'd joined them had come undone. I'd just started on my third ball of yarn, so I thought it'd be no problem to pull out what I'd done and re-do the knot. Anyway, after I'd pulled out that work, I had to attempt to get my stitches back on the needle. Not so easy with the super fuzzy wool that I'm using. I just got frustrated and pulled out the whole damn thing and started over. I knew that I'd end up dropping and a stitch and making a hole... The perfectionist inside of me just wanted to start over. Anyway, I've learned to be more careful about joining new wool.

Argh. Isn't it ironic when the things we do to relax end up really stressing us out?

Oh, but I do still quite adore knitting and I'm looking forward to re-knitting my scarf while watching "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" tonight.

By the way, my fondness for knitting is pretty much my only flair of domesticity. I hate cooking. Once I finish this post, I intend to go microwave myself a nice dinner.

Yay! The week is half over. Tonight's homework is to start writing a test for one of my grade 9 classes. Tomorrow, my dear period 4 grade 10 class will have a unit test. So, I'm sure they'd appreciate any prayers you could throw their way at 1:40 EST. They need it, since they never crack open their books at home. The way most of the students at my school work is that they bomb quizzes/tests/assignments in the first few weeks of school, then all have nervous breakdowns when midterm marks come out and cry and beg teachers for second chances. So at least I have that to look forward to, and I'll try not to be too smug and say "I told you to study for your chemistry test" when they come crying to me.

Last night TB and I went to see Wallace & Grommit's "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". It was hilarious. We used to watch the old Wallace & Grommit shorts as stress-relievers in university. I think my favourite part of the movie was when the villian mistook a black rabbit for his toupee and walked away wearing the rabbit on his head.

Long weekend over :(

*sigh* The only positive thing I can say about the end of a long weekend is at least it is the beginning of a short week.

My weekend in Stratford was really good. Here is a run-down of my activities:

a) Did some shopping. Went to Giant Tiger and stocked up on knitting supplies. Since fall is here, I feel like knitting again! Yay! I already started knitting a scarf out of super soft fuzzy wool for my aunt for Christmas. Here is my progress so far:



I also got a new book ("A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey) and read quite a bit of it.

b) Went out for dinner at Falstaff's with some friends. Had a horrible dining experience because:
- the first drink I ordered was tasteless, so I had to send it back;
- I requested a salad without onions and they brought me one with onions, so I had to send it back;
- the second salad they brought me still had onions so I broke down and picked them out;
- after the meal, there was some stuff stuck in my teeth. How embarrassing.

c) Then we went to see Fallen Angels at the Festival. It was super funny. Think "Sex and the City" in the 1920s! It's a play by Noel Coward and quite shocking considering it was written in 1925.

d) After the play, we went to my pal V's house, had a couple beverages and played poker. My friend WJ introduced me to peach schnapps and coke. Yum!

e) On Sunday, I had coffee with my friend R and her baby. Then I had Thanksgiving dinner with the 'rents and went to T's house to watch Desperate Housewives. We are both rather disappointed with the new season.

f) I caught the 8:43 am train back to TO this morning. When I got back, I was super productive and did laundry, cleaned my room, fixed my desk and rearranged furniture. Then I read for a bit and did some work.

And that brings us to:

g) I blogged about my long weekend!

Randomness and Happy Thanksgiving

On Tuesday night, I walked over to TBs so that we could go out for coffee in her neighbourhood. I brought my camera with me especially so I could take a picture of the sign outside of the huge cemetary that I have to walk by to get there. This sign makes me laugh. I think it's a death pun on the level of the funeral home on the Simpsons that proclaims "We put the fun back into funerals."

Yesterday, I noticed that I had a scratchy throat that has now developed into a full-blown annoying cold. I felt like crap today but dragged myself into work anyway. I wanted to start some projects in a couple of classes today, and there was other stuff going on in the school that I didn't want to miss. One annoying thing about teaching is that it's actually more work to not come into work so I always end up never using my sick days unless I'm on death's doorstep. Anyhow, I think I'm feeling a bit better now and I'll be OK tomorrow as long as I remember to stay hydrated at school and take the cold medication that I bought.

After school tomorrow, I'm going to catch the train to visit my parents in Stratford for Thanksgiving weekend. I'm not dragging my laptop home, so I won't be blogging until Monday. On Saturday night, a few of my friends and I are going to see Fallen Angels at the Stratford Festival. Should be a fun weekend and I'm really really looking forward to the break.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A fist pounding on a vending machine, toy diamond ring stuck on her finger

What's up with this crazeee summer weather in October? It was freakin' 27 degrees outside today. Hence I'm using a line from a laid-back summer song ("Girl" by Beck) to start this post.

Anyhow, nothing's better than being stuck in a sweltering classroom with 20-odd teenagers on a beautiful Indian-summer-like day. I hope you all have your sarcasm detectors switched on.

But really, I do like my job. That period four class of mine are always good for a few laughs. Today one of the kids, who frequently gets detentions for being a little too chatty and disruptive during class, hung back after class. He had gotten pretty used to getting detentions and forgot that he didn't have one today. Actually, I think he's gone about four classes without getting one. Anyway, my assistant and I laughed at him staying back.

Also, I got a kid in trouble for not doing anything at all. We were discussing "useful" acids and one kid said "I can think of an acid that is useful" in a tone that made it sound like he was talking about something totally sketchy. I told him he was being inappropriate and he was like "I'm talking about paint thinner, Miss. What did you think I was talking about?" I admitted that I didn't know, it just sounded like he was talking about something bad. Yeah, I love it when I get kids in trouble for nothing. The other day I yelled at some kid for swearing and he was like "I just said something was shiny." I apologized and explained that when people are as ancient as I am, they tend to be a bit hard of hearing.

Random picture of my marking pens. I love these suckers.

Sadly, the manicure I got on Saturday is getting a bit chipped, so I think I'll remove it tonight.

I stole this cartoon from Raymi's blog awhile back. It kills me.

Pictures for April and Raina

Okay, after checking out some buddies' blogs today, there are a couple of pictures I need to post for them.

April posted pictures of her new place at the beginning of September. She pointed out that she had an absolutely fugly dining room light. Now this light has become central to OHFG (Operation Hot Fence Guy). I have the identical fugly dining room light, so I've decided to post a pic of it for April. So April, if you are ever really missing the fugly light once you get HFG to replace it for you, feel free to travel to Toronto to visit its twin. ;)

Today Raina had a great post about how you can learn a lot about a person from their wallet. So here's a picture of my wallet for her:

Here's the story of my wallet. I used to have a very respectable black wallet from the Gap that I really loved. After 4 years, it got pretty beat up and I was in search of a new wallet and I could never find one I liked as much. Anyway, my friend FF took TB and I to an Asian mall in the suburbs so we could go to a cutesy Hello Kitty store. I saw this wallet and really liked and decided to buy it to use for a couple of months until I got sick of it and found a new grown-up wallet.

Well, that was a year ago and I'm still using it because it's such a fun conversation piece. I love when cute boys in music stores and book stores comment on my wallet! *sigh* I just can't give it up because of this. Anyway, a "Nightmare Before Christmas" wallet is a million times better than a Hello Kitty wallet, right Raina? Hee-hee.

Autumn's here... So find a sweater, and you'll be better...

Happy October everyone!

I started my month with a 10 am manicure. In August, I bought this package from a beauty salon near my place. For about $50 I got four visits: one for a haircut, one for a manicure and eyebrows, one for a facial and one for a hair follow-up with 5 accent highlights.

I bought my October Metropass on the way to the salon. TB and I have been arguing about the colours of October Metropass. She thinks they're hideous and I think they're rather fun and a good attempt at being a bit festive. Here's a pic of my newly manicured hand holding my spooky new Metropass:




Starting a new month is always fun when you have a cool Muppet calendar like I do. (Man, I'm geek.) This month it's Sam Eagle who is definitely one of my favourite American patriots.


So anyway, for the remainder of the afternoon I plan on lounging about watching Desperate Housewives and then eventually clean up the mess of wine glasses from yesterday evening. TB came over and we played Cranium with my roommie and her bf. Good times although TB got a little mad at me when I kept insisting that the supposed stretch limo she was sculpting looked like a handgun.

Tonight my pals the Ws, who I helped move at the end of October, are having a housewarming party. I'm looking foward to it.

p.s. The title of my post is from my all-time favourite fall-related song "Autumn's Here" by my dear Hawklsey Workman.

I tried to focus my attention, but I feel so A-D-D.

Well, I'm another day closer to the weekend.

Actually, I can't complain. I had a pretty good day today. My often troublesome period 4 class of jokers almost gave my assistant and I a stomachache from laughter. We were doing a little experiment in class today which required me to cut an apple into slices and put the slices in different liquids to see which was the best preservative. Anyway, as I was cutting the apple, I was talking and I think I started to gesture with the knife (just an everyday bread knife from home - not sharp at all!) and one of the kids was like "Whoa! She's got a knife! We'd better be good today!" and then they were all quiet, except for me and my assistant who started to crack up.

Tonight I was productive and got some cleaning done and had some ice cream with my roommate as we watched a bit of Desparate Housewives. Here's my sad ice cream story. When I went grocery shopping on Sunday, they had Ben and Jerry's ice cream on sale so I bought some. Well, I decided to be healthy and get yogurt instead of ice cream. Unfortunately, they only had what I though was vanilla yogurt but I decided to be good and get that. Well, I got it home and noticed it was not yogurt like I thought, but vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ice cream is soooooooo boring! What's the point? I cheated myself out of a fun flavour and I'm still be unhealthy. Flibberty-jibbet!

Lastly, I snapped a pic of my new iPod case. Here it is:

Wake me up when September ends...

...although it is coming quickly to an end... I resolved that I'd have to give that title to a post in September, and honestly, I thought I'd be thinking that much sooner than this. Even though September has really been too busy for me to complain too much.

Anyhow, the rest of my weekend was good. Saturday was busy. After getting to bed at much past 3 am, I met up with TB and FF for brunch. Then FF and I went shopping on Queen St. where I bought a new purse and a new iPod case! It's black and has sparkly silver stars on it. I'll take a pic tomorrow and post it... Then we met up with a friend from Stratford who was in town and did some more shopping at the Eaton Centre. I got home at about 8 pm and I was absolutely exhausted. I could barely stay awake while watching Desparate Housewives DVDs that evening.

On Sunday, I went to the "Word on the Street" book festival at Queen's Park. This is actually the first year that I've attended. It's super cool - goodness knows why I've always missed it. I got three books for my dad for Christmas, a bag of Canadian fiction for $5 and some super cool subway station buttons from a magazine (spacing.ca I think). I got one for TB and three for me (one work, one home and one for the Christie subway station, which I think has the best subway station name of them all). I'll take a pic of those too and post later. Oh and I also saw Jack Layton milling about. He was carrying a thermos of coffee. Hmmm, is my blog quickly become a source of political gossip? Perhaps!

Today was a pretty good day. No dramas. My period 4 class are still quite the bunch. Even though I think they may be raising my blood pressure and turning some of my hair gray, I must say they're growing on me. They're a bit funny. Although I often have to be careful not to crack a smile lest they see that as a sign of weakness.

I ended up staying at school pretty late today prepping my emergency lesson plans so I wouldn't get in trouble from the VP.

This evening I came home and watched more Desparate Housewives. Last week I bought season 1 on DVD and my roommate and I are totally hooked. TB came by later in the evening. Our plan was to read at a coffee shop (an old tradition) but we just ended up chatting the whole time.

Well, I think I'll watch one more episode of Desparate Housewives then hit the hay.

Edit - Here's a picture of the entire subway button collection. Click here to enlarge it and see if you can find Christie station (which I pass through everyday on my way to work!) By the way, they are missing the new and rather useless Sheppard subway line. Bet people hardly notice. Although I must admit, I do require the Sheppard line for my trips to Ikea.

They all split town and left me sitting with a bottle of wine...

Tonight TB and her roommates had a much-belated housewarming party. She moved in at the beginning of June, I believe. Anyway, it was a very well attended (at least 60 people!) wine and cheese gathering. Here's a crappy camera phone pic of the pile of shoes by the door, that actually extended down the stairs.


Anyway, I had a really good time. I got to see a lot of my Toronto friends who I really don't see that often. I find that I have the tendancy to just get caught up in the daily grind of work and life that I do not see my friends as often as I'd like. So yay for parties! Next week, the Ws (my friends who I helped move at the end of August) are having a house-warming party, so I'll be seeing a lot of the same people. It will be nice to have just a week go by between meetings instead of several months.

I'm hereby resolving to make more of an effort to get together with people. I want to throw a board game party sometime after Thanksgiving. That will be a good start.

Oh, in other news, my roommate is so freaking funny. She came along with me to the party. I guess she was only planning on staying 'til 10:30 and then meeting up with her bf. Well, she totally lost track of time and before she knew it, it was 12:00. She called him and he was well on his way back to the 'burbs. I guess he'd waited at the Starbucks near our apt. until it closed and then headed home. She said to me "I'm such a bad girlfriend. Christielli, make sure you never date me."

I swim with the fishes 'cuz the fish are alright... oh my my..

The title of my post is from the new Matt Good song "Big City Life" which I am so digging and listening to over and over again. Here's a picture from when we were snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef. I decided to add this pic to today's post since it goes with the song and today I've been wishing I was back in Australia, most notably in tropical Queensland.

Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain.

I spend about 40 minutes a day on the subway per day, as long as things are running smoothly. I'm not much of a subway reader, except for the entertainment/gossip pages of the Metro (Toronto's free commuter paper). Usually I spend my time listening to my iPod, dozing off, thinking and looking at ads.

So, I was happy today when the subway was stopped long enough at St. George station so I could snap a picture of the ad campaign by Global TV that makes me smile. Check out jogging Homer in the background!

And yay for JD for winning Rockstar!

Tonight Martha Stewart's Apprentice is starting. I'm a sucka for reality tv!

L is such a loverly letter for words like licorice and lace...

A couple of nights ago I was bored and searching through iTunes for some new stuff. I came across a 2002 compilation by Nettwerk called "For the Kids". It has some fun stuff on it. I got "The Rainbow Connection" sung by Sarah McLachlan and "La la la la lemon" by the Barenaked Ladies. Does anyone remember that song from Sesame Street? It was a bit sung by Ernie and Bert. Hilarious. I love it.

So I've survived 2/5ths or 40% of my week. Now, 2 of my 3 classes are still really good but my 4th period class is quite the challenge. They were especially bad yesterday, so my assistant and I really came down hard on them today. Honestly! Can they not grow up? I hate having to be bitchy. Argh. Anyway, they were better today, so hopefully some bitchiness will train them and I can go back to being my sweet self.

I'm excited because the English dept. has decided to start a book club. I've always wanted to
join a book club! I think the goal is to read one book per semester (we're teachers so most of our time is spent marking, not reading...) and we're supposed to do one fiction and one non-fiction book. We're supposed to make some suggestions. Hmmm, I pretty much read everything that I want to, so I really can't think of something off the top of my head. I hope they don't pick something I've read before, I'd really like to read something new. Suggestions anyone?

(Aside - April, I'm reading "Shake Hands with the Devil" right now and finding it fascinating. Have you seen the documentary? My roomie's bf is going to lend it to me...)

In other news, tonight is the finale of Rockstar: INXS. I hope JD wins because he is Canadian and, let's face it, he's the edgiest of the three and therefore the most rock-and-roll. I'm pretty sure they'll pick Marty. I have a friend who says that Marty looks like a serial killer - I tend to agree. I'm still sad they offed Suzie though.

Before I watch that, I have other rock-n-roll business to attend to. In A Coma, Matthew Good's best-of collection, is out today. Apparently it's only $22.99 at FutureShop. Now, I do own pretty much every MG(B) CD (I think I'm missing one EP) so the collection isn't really necessary for me, but there are two new songs on it plus it comes with a second disc with acoustic reworkings of selected songs and some rarities PLUS a DVD with the collected music videos. I love when artists put out best-of collections that have enough candy to make it worthwhile for fans who already have the collected works.

So off I go to bask in the glow of commercialism!

And I broke like a bad joke somebody's uncle told at a wedding reception in 1972...

Well, I've just returned from my cousin's wedding. Hence the wedding-related-song-quote-title of this post. It's from the Weakerthans song "Reconstruction Site" which is my very favourite song in the whole wide world. This luckily meant that I didn't have to rack my slightly wine-addled brain very much for a wedding-related-song-quote.

So, the wedding was very nice. My aunt from Stratford has been staying with me for a few days and I took the GO Train out to Mississauga for the wedding. My relatives from Ottawa were also at the wedding. My parents couldn't make it, so I was sort of sent as their representative. I don't even really know my cousin that well.

Anyway, I'm just sort of in a melancholy mood right now. Weddings always make me this way. I guess that's because I'm at the point in my life where get married is the next logical big step, since I've done the whole education thing, and now have the career that I want. But, I'm totally NOT ready to get married. Which works out okay, being as I really don't have anyone to marry at this point. I'm lucky that my family doesn't pressure me about my total lack of marriage inclination or prospects. I was totally expecting to hear some comment about me being the next in line to get married, since I'm the next oldest cousin. But I didn't. The worst I got was having to get up to catch the freaking bouquet. Whenever the bouquet is tossed, I always make sure I'm standing in some spot where the bride could never toss it. My 16 year old cousin did catch the garter however. So I guess the poor sucker's next. Ha! Hmmm, if said wedding occurs anytime soon, it would totally be a family scandal so at least I'll be amused.

Well, another reason for my melancholy could be that I haven't done anything very fun in awhile. I need to go out or something. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride has opened early here in Toronto at the Paramount Theatre, so I think I should go see it one night this week. And top it off with a round of martinis. That would be good.

Edit: I just thought of something funny that happened. I was talking to my 16 year-old cousin and grilling him about what kind of music he listened to (I always fear for my little cousins' musical souls). He asked me "Have you ever heard of Green Day?" I laughed so hard at the child. "Of course I have heard of Green Day," I said, "I've been listening to them since 1994!" Then I proceeded to give him a long lecture about how he'd better make sure he listens to albums as a whole because downloading has lessened people's appreciation of albums as a whole - which is a sad, sad thing.

Live through this and you won't look back.

I decided to quote a line from my most-listened-to-song (see previous post) for the title of this post.

Now I really really do love my job. In all honesty, I could never see myself doing anything else. But some days...

Today was picture day (pain in the ass), another teacher broke my desk in my classroom (don't ask), I had to give a kid detention for writing on a desk, two of our three photocopiers are down and my last period class were incorrigible. One of them banged her head on the wall while goofing off and I kicked another one out for throwing paper while the rest of them were overstimulated by the broken desk and the injury.

But, on the bright side... most of them are going to be away tomorrow for the Terry Fox run. They become so socially conscious when it means a day off school.

Thank God tomorrow's Friday.

Evolution Schmevolution...

Wow, I can totally tell that summer vacation is over by my lack of posting. So far it's been a good start to the year but I'm soooooooo tired. It's been really hot too (30 degrees plus humidity today) so that sucks. I'm actually in a classroom with air conditioning but even it was boiling in the afternoon.

Anyway, I was so exhausted that came home a bit earlier and had a nap. Now I'm spending time getting reaquainted wtih my good friend television. I watched the American version of The Office, a bit of the final Cdn Idol and right now I'm watching what I think is the final episode of Tommy Lee Goes to College. That show makes me laugh. Poor Tommy's having trouble in chemistry. Now it's time for Rockstar. Go Cdns go!

So I don't have too much else to say, unless you want to hear about how I really need to be prepping a lesson on drawing Bohr diagrams of atoms.

On another note, one thing I really I love about my iPod is that keep track of how often you listen to songs. Here are my top 10 listened to songs:

1) Your Ex-Lover is Dead - Stars
2) Souvenirs - Christine Fellows
3) Sleeps with Butterflies - Tori Amos
4) Natural Disaster - Joel Plaskett
5) Every Day is a Holiday - Esthero
6) Mushaboom - Feist
7) Reunion - Stars
8) Lola Stars and Stripes - The Stills
9) All That I've Got - The Used
10) Agoraphobe - Matthew Good and Ryan Dahle

I can't believe that I've listen to that Used song that much. That's the only song of their I know. Their lead singer kind of grosses me out from when he was on The Osbournes.

p.s. Everyone in the world shoud be watching the Daily Show this week for their "Evolution Schmevolution" special!

Affection has two Fs, especially when you're dealing with me.

Week one of the 2005/2006 year is finito. It was a pretty good week. I can't complain. 2 out of 3 of my classes are really good and the third isn't so much. I've had worse though.

On Friday night, Sloan was playing Frosh Week at U of T. In 1998, when I was a frosh (oh God, I'm old) , The Killjoys played. Anyone remember "Today I Hate Everyone"? TB and I both decided to go to the show. It was on Back Campus and open to anyone who knew it was going on. We figured we were totally entitled to it after all of the $$ we've funnelled to U of T over the years. It was a really good show. Nothing's better than Sloan on a sunny day.

Of course, of course, of course I neglected to bring my camera but I did snap a couple shots with my phone. The first is a nifty juxtapostion of the stage with the UC Clock Tower in the background. You can kind of make out Chris Murphy in the second.




Anyway, today I slept in until noon. I needed it since I was averaging about 4 hours of sleep each night last week. My roommate has her bf's car today and she was nice enough to drive me to the grocery store. I dropped $100 on heavy stuff that I don't normally buy since I have to lug my groceries home.

TB came over this evening. My roommie baked a tasty dessert (it was kind of like a cake with plums in it) and we drank red wine and watched the Phantom of the Opera. I loved that musical when I was in grade 6 and my parents were nice enough to take me to Toronto that summer to see it. We went to the Eaton Centre and I was really impressed by its vastness. Little did I know that one day, the Eaton Centre would become "the mall" in the sentence "I'm going to the mall."

Well, tomorrow I've marking and planning to do. Oh, and I guess it's the season premiere of The Simpsons. Woo-hoo!

Skipping the TIFF

I used to live in the heart of the Toronto International Film Festival district. Every year at this time, I'd have to weave around long lines of Festival Patrons while trying to complete my daily errands. However, it was always very exciting since you'd never know when you'd see a famous person like Sarah Polley just passing by or Jason Biggs sitting by the window of a hotel bar.

Anyway, now that I've moved a bit north, I barely even know that the Film Fest is on. TB and I were thinking of taking in a flick this year and I spent about an hour looking for a good movie that had available tickets and would fit into our schedules. Lamentably, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride was sold out (no surprises). A lot of the big name movies were sold out or had tickets left for a weekday morning show. I was very excited to see that there were tickets available for a Saturday am showing of the new Wallace & Grommit moive, but it's for next Saturday when I have a cousin's wedding to go to. *sob*

There were a few questionable movies that we could have gotten tickets for, but $22 is a lot of money to spend on what could be a crappy movie. I've been burned by the Festival before. In 1998, I saw some Billy Baldwin movie that was the most pointless, confusing thing ever. It was called Shattered Glass and I doubt it was ever released. One of the movies sounded okay and had some stars in it, but then I read the phrase "alternate reality" in the synopsis. Warning bells for a far-too-cerebral-artsy-type film went off in my head.

So I think we're just going to have a drink in Yorkville and keep an eye out for celebrities and skip the movies this year.

Day One

Well, I survived day one. I won't even say how many more there are, even though I know.

It was only a half day, which was sweet and then we had meeting in the afternoon.

It's nice to see all my colleagues again. Although it almost feels like I never left, and the last two months didn't even really exist.

My wrist is sore from helping poor little grade nines figure out how to work the locks for their lockers.

Right now I'm watching Rockstar and cheering for the Canadians. Then it's off to bed. I don't like this waking up at 6 am.

Remember how I complained that I didn't get Death Cab for Cutie tickets? Well, it was just announced today that Matt Good is playing the same night. So it worked out! Also, my pal told me that Jon Stewart is doing stand up at Massey Hall. I want to go! Tickets are kind of expensive so I don't know if I'll find someone to go with, so we'll see if I end up going...

Then Labour Day came and went and we shed what was left of our summer skin.

The title of my post is from the song "Summer Skin" from the new Death Cab For Cutie CD. Did I mention I love that CD?

Anyway, it's quite aproppriate, since Labour Day is almost over. And it was a pretty good one. For the second year in a row, TB and I attended Beachfest down at Sunnyside Park. This year we had our good friend ML in tow, which was great, since I haven't seen him in forever and a day.

Last year we went mainly to see Hawklsey Workman and ended up catching some Canadian Idol finalists and took off after that because the last band was The Calling, which none of us had a calling to see (insert groan here).

This year the line-up kicked ass! Sarah Slean, K-OS, Ron Sexsmith, Stephen Page of BNL, David Usher, Kathleen Edwards, Tom Cochrane and Blue Rodeo! Did I mention it was *free*?!? Now, unfortunately we missed K-OS because the website said he was on at 1:40 but then they switched it 12:45. Anyway, let's never speak of that again. Also, we didn't catch Sarah Slean because she was too early. We'd have to leave before noon to see her, and that was too early for all of us - ye gods, how am I going to survive going back to work?

Anyway, it was such a good concert and the weather was great. It wasn't too hot (like last year). We also had a really great spot (last year we were really far back.) Everyone was great and Blue Rodeo was fun because they had Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Slean, Kathleen Edwards, Tom Cochrane and Stephen Page come up and sing along with them. I love that.

The other thing I like about Beachfest is that the airshow is going at the same time, so you get to enjoy the music while watching the Snowbirds. Kathleen Edwards was the (un)lucky performer who got to play during the airshow; she was great - she said that she was happy just being their background music and joked that the guys in the sky must have definitely graduated high school, whereas she'd just scraped by.

Poor David Usher! He had walked from his hotel to the park and got hit by a car on the way! But, the show must go on, and he put on a great show. ML pointed out that wouldn't it be funny if you were the person who hit David Usher; it would make great conversation every time a David Usher/Moist song was on.

Quote of the evening goes to ML. David Usher asked if people would prefer an up-tempo song or a slow song for his last and everyone was all for the up-tempo. He said "I guess you don't want to be intimate with me." ML yelled "I'll be intimate with you David!"

Well, that's my long rambling review of my afternoon. What a great way to end the summer. Oh, I of course neglected to bring my camera, so I snapped some pics with my phone. Here's an example. This one's Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, believe it or not. Honestly, why did I buy a digital camera when I leave it at home all the time? Welcome to my blog, home of crappy camera phone pics.

Well, that's it folks. Gotta get ready for work tomorrow.

p.s. I'm totally digging this mash-up of Green Day vs. Oasis vs. Travis vs. Eminem. Look on the right hand side of that page to download it.

So why are you alone wasting your time when you could be with me wasting your time?

Have I mentioned that I absolutely love the new Death Cab for Cutie CD? Good on them for making me happy after Transatlanticsm. I was in love with that CD and I was totally expecting their follow up to most likely disappoint me. But it hasn't! It's not as grand nor as sweeping as Transatlanticsm, but it's a fun little disc.

Anyway, I have been spending far too much time today reading articles about the situation in New Orleans. This one made me sad that I've never visited New Orleans (make sure you read reason #15). I read another article that described how so many people couldn't leave the city because they were living paycheque to paycheque and couldn't afford a way to get out. I wish I could remember where I read this article since it was very well done.

Make sure you read Michael Moore's letter to Bush if you haven't.

Well, this afternoon I went and got myself a new pair of shoes for school. I can't believe it starts on Tuesday. I really wanted to get a new pair of running shoes, but I figured since the kids have to wear black dress shoes with their uniforms, then maybe I should too. Then, when they try to get away with wearing running shoes, I can tell them that I'd like to wear running shoes too but out respect for them, I am not, so they'd better go get their proper shoes on their feet. So instead of getting fun black comfy runners, I got this fun chunky pair of black dress shoes. Here they are in all of their dress code glory.

Gets me frustrated...

I am very angry at myself. Today I went to run an errand, and I managed to lose my subway pass. Argh. It either fell out of my pocket or purse or wherever I'd put it. So I'll have to go buy another one tomorrow. I only hope that whoever finds it can use it and will benefit from it.

Anyway, that put me in a bad mood, so I've decided to cheer myself up by watching a tape of the Muppet Show that I have. I love the muppets. I just watched an episode with Peter Sellers. Last night I watched "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" which was all right, although I find biopics are never my favourite types of movies, since normally the protagonists aren't extremely likable. But, Geoffrey Rush was excellent in the role of Peter Sellers. Now I'm watching an episode with John Cleese and he's stretching poor Gonzo's arms out of shape.

One thing I was rather shocked at was that they had a little skit where Ms. Piggy was dressed in a wedding dress and was obviously pregnant and singing a song about how she was left at the altar. Then Kermit comes out and sings "I can't get to church to marry you today. My wife won't let me." It was funny but a little shocking. Can you imagine what the religious right would say about this today? They pick on the Teletubbies and SpongeBob for supposed homosexual references, so what would they say about inter-species -pre-martial-adulterous sex resulting in an illegitimate pregnancy? Good thing this was safely aired in the simpler days of the 1970s.

I love the old critics on the Muppet Show. My pal TB and I have decided we're going to be roommates in the nursing home and totally act like these guys. They're also my calendar boys for September (I have a Muppet Show calendar).

On another note, I just read about how Kanye West blasted George W. Bush's "response" to the hurricane. A poignant quote from West: "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, they say they're looting; you see a white family, it says they're looking for food." Here is an article claiming that our dear friend Bill O. at Fox News has been doing the same thing. Another interesting thing is that the Rev. Jesse Jackson has been saying the same thing about the response to the hurricane, but as always, statements from celebrities will always garner more attention than from prominent community leaders.

Well, as my friends the Muppet critics just said, "See you next time - unless I break a leg! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

Which one of these things doesn't belong?

Let's play a very fun game of match the website headline to the news organization!

Here are yesterday's morning headlines from the websites of MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN:

"Where's the Help?"

"The Agony Goes On"

"Personal Attention"

Can you match the headlines to the networks? Betcha can't guess which one is Fox! For the answers, click here.

(Found this at Antonia Zerbisias' blog. She's the media critic for the Toronto Star. She's great; she actually went on Bill O'Reilley's show and showed him a thing or two.)

Those sneaky devils at Apple are so good at marketing...

There are currently several subway cars painted with iPod ads. I was bored while waiting for my train today so I snapped this picture.

A certain cable company be damned!

So, I spent most of my last official day of summer vacation by first sleeping in and then just lounging about reading a lot of news articles online.

I was quite dismayed when I turned on the TV this afternoon to find a bunch of channels missing. When I'd first gotten cable, I'd called the cable company and asked them if there was any way I could avoid paying the $75 installation fee. Turned out that I could sign up for digital cable for free for the first month, and then downgrade afterwards. So, we did that and after that month (or was it two?) of having far too many channels, we downgraded to basic cable, since neither of us really spends that much time watching TV (I just require the Daily Show, Simpsons reruns and a good dose of cheesy reality shows - all available via basic cable). Anyhow, after I'd switched to basic cable, we still got about 6o channels! Sweet! And I was being charged for basic cable, so there were no complaints from me.

Well, I guess the so-called jig is up. I feared this day would come. I'm actually finding myself missing CNN (good background noise since the CBC is on strike), MuchMoreMusic and Showcase, since the subway has been full of ads for cool shows on that channel. Oh, and I'll miss the Comedy Network since they show the Daily Show at 11 pm versus CTV's 12:05 am.

So, if that wasn't enough hassle from that company (how dare they take away something that I didn't deserve anyway?), I went to the video store chain that they own to rent a movie and they claimed I had a late fee of $20 for a movie called "Lost in La Mancha"! Has anyone heard of that movie??? I don't even know if such a movie exists and I know for sure I didn't rent it. Anyhow, I had to argue with the poor cashier, who seemed pretty new to the job, but finally one of her co-workers told her to wipe the fee off of my account.

(Edit: I just googled "Lost in La Mancha", it does exist but it definitely is not something I'd rent!)

Unnatural Disaster

Normally, I'd be posting about the trivial events of my day, like how I got my hair cut for back to school and that I went to a Blue Jays game in the evening (they lost).

But, I've just been reading up on the effects of Hurricane Katrina in the Southern US and I just can't be bothered to write about those non-entities.

I found it unbelievable a few days ago that New Orelans had to be evacuated.

I found it unbelievable that thousands of people had to camp out in the Superdome.

I can't describe what I feel when reading sentences like: "He described scenes of lawlessness and desperation, with people simply dragging corpses into corners." Or: " 'They have quite a few people running around here with guns,' he said. 'You got these young teenage boys running around up here raping these girls.' " (Both of these come from a CNN article.)

I looked through some other blogs to see what others are saying. I think April's post today was excellent. Here is an interesting post from Matthew Good.

I'm beyond sad to watch how this tragedy is unfolding. I can't believe that there wasn't better preparation put in place for this hurricane that was ample warning about. There's nothing more I can really say.

I've been tagged!

Yay! Just as I was going to go to bed because I couldn't think of anything to blog about, I got tagged by April. (Although I did go see "The 40-year-old Virgin" tonight and it was freaking funny.)

Okay, so 5 fun facts people just might not know about me...

1) The first concert I ever went to was a Melissa Etheridge concert when I was 15. I wasn't really a fan but for some reason my friend had bought tickets for the concert and invited me. I really wanted to go because I'd never been to a concert before. It was fun, even though it was totally random and I don't feel the need to ever see her live again.

2) My favourite movie of all-time is "The Wedding Singer" with Adam Sandler.

3) I have a crush on Jon Stewart.

4) Every Monday morning as I'm taking the subway to work, I listen to the song "Manic Monday" by the Bangles.

5) I re-read Harry Potter books when I'm stressed out or working toward a deadline. When I was in university, you could tell it was exam time because I'd be reading Harry Potter. My strategy was to reward myself with a couple chapters for every hour I studied.

Okay, not these aren't very deep things but I suppose they're marginally interesting.

To be proper, I'll tag someone else - Matt.

So Brown Eyes I'll hold you near 'cause you're the only song I want to hear

So, I'm seriously loving the new Death Cab for Cutie CD, Plans, that I picked up yesterday for the low low price of $9.99. I'm addicted to the first three songs and I'm listening to them over and over. Souls Meets Body makes me want to have a couple drinks and dance (most likely it would be bad dancing).

Last night I helped my friends, the Ws, move. It was the most chaotic move I'd ever participated in, but I had fun anyway. It's pathetic; I moved back to Toronto so I'd see my pals from university more often but it seems like we only get together for birthdays or other occasions and when someone needs to move.

I survived the move despite the late hours (I didn't get home until past 2 am) and the rain. On our last trip to their old apt, WJ had left me in the car with the door open and the keys in so that the alarm was going off.

He came back and said "Are you annoyed yet?"

"No, I'm a teacher, I'm very good at blocking out annoying sounds."

"Well, I'm a father, I bet you I'm better. Let's have a contest." (The Ws have a 3-month old baby who is so cute and didn't cry at all during the move. What a help!)

So we sat in the car while the keys-in-the-ignition-door-open alarm went off for quite a long time laughing our heads off. I guess that's what late chaotic moves do to people. In the end, we had to call it a draw. Neither of us were prepared to lose that battle.

Batten down the hatches.

I wrote off Sunday and Monday and just relaxed, read, and watched TV. I really can't remember what else I did.

Today, I went to school to pick up some books and binders and things. It was nice to see some people. The plan is, tomorrow I'm going to spread out on the dining room table and start doing some planning while what's left of Hurricane Katrina comes to town. According to the Toronto Star, we're in for a soaking all day tomorrow.

Tonight I'm helping some friends move. Yuck. I hate helping people move, although I have to admit I once had fun moving. I'm sure this will be okay.

Well, I think I am going to have a nap and then wander up to Grand and Toy and buy some binders so I can spend tomorrow getting organized.

p.s. Does anyone watch Rockstar: INXS? Go Suzie! And she's from Toronto!

I must be psychic.

Here is evidence to support my hypothesis that I may possess psychic powers. Okay, so there is only one piece of it right now, but perhaps it will grow.

Tonight was the Tori Amos concert. I planned to meet my pal OE there. He was going to be a little late because he was showing a house. (He's in real estate.)

When I got there, I decided to check out the merch counter. I saw the cute little bag that's pictured below. I decided to splurge on it, even though it was ridiculously priced.


Anyway, I sat through one of the opening bands, The Ditty Bops, and no OE. (They were delightfully eccentric.) Then, the break between said band and Tori. Still no OE.

Then, Tori graces the stage wearing a gorgeous peachy-pink dress. Still OE. I'm so sad, this would be his favourite part of the concert - just seeing her entrance.

About an hour into Tori's set, still no OE. Finally I get a call saying he got swamped at work and cannot make the concert. I'm so sad! First of all, it must have been a really bad situation, since Tori is to OE as Ben Folds or the Weakerthans are to me. Plus, seeing Tori without OE is like apple pie without the ice cream. We always go together when she's in Toronto. It's tradition. I hate when tradition is messed with, especially by the whims of the housing market. Finally, I'm rather sad that I'm at said concert alone, feeling a little losery. But still, better to be the loser-y one in the stands, as opposed to the one missing their favourite musician because of stupid work.

So how does of all this prove I'm psychic, you ask? Well, the fact that I indulged in retail therapy before my sad situation occured may strongly point to clairvoyant powers on my part.

If Hogwarts existed, you'd better believe I'd be applying for the post of Professor of Divination.

p.s. There is also some evidence that Tori herself possesses some mindreading powers (or Legilimancy as it is called in the Harry Potter world). After OE phoned me, and I was sad, she started playing all of my favourite songs. Hah! We could be co-workers at Hogwarts!

Odds and Ends

Well, the new bed arrived last night and I had a great night's sleep on it. The ol' futon is now in the living room.

Saw this picture yesterday on the CBC website and it made me laugh hard. It's a snow leopard cub at the Berlin zoo and this was his reaction to his first public appearance. I often feel the way he looks.





Check out this post from mblog. I had to call my mother and tell her about it.

Tonight is Tori Amos. I was feeling a little stressed because my buddy OE and I are were supposed to go and I was leaving messages on his phone all week to remind him of the concert and I hadn't heard from him which worried me that he may have forgotten about the concert. I finally got in touch with him today and it's all good. Phew.

This afternoon I have to put together a new CD shelf that I bought.

Pics of Aussie Fauna

Since Alexandra mentioned that she liked pictures of Australian animals, I thought I'd post some more from my trip.

(From top to bottom: a clown fish [perhaps Nemo?], a dingo, a hairy-nosed wombat, a crocodile that we saw in the wild, a kangroo lazing about, a tasmanian devil, a cassowary, kookaburras, a koala with her baby)

Happy 100th Post to Me!

I had orginally had a different title for this post, but then I noticed that this was my 100th Post. I'm quite surprised that I've made it this far. When I started my blog, I was so sure it'd be something I'd do for a week and then abandon.

This week I've been engaged in an end-of-summer-mad-scramble. Even though I still have one week left of holidays, I've been spending this past week trying to get a few errand-y type things done. Next week I'll have to start doing some work, so I won't have time to do things then. I know that once September starts, I'll be super busy I won't be able to do very much. So, if it doesn't get done this week, it may have to wait until next summer.

My projects for the week have consisted of some back-to-school shopping, putting together my Aussie photo album, and buying a bed. Today I got the bed; it will be delievered this evening. I still have my futon from university and it's time that I grow up and get a real bed. There really isn't anything wrong with the futon - it's super comfy but it drives me insane because it's really low to the ground. Some mornings it just takes too much effort to get up from that thing. Anyway, dear ol' futon will now have a new role in life - being a couch and a place for guests to sleep.

So I get hang out tonight and wait for bed - they say it'll be here sometime between 4 and 10. Worse than the cable people!

Tomorrow night I'll be making my return to the venue of last night's show. This time I'll be seeing Tori Amos. I'm excited!

I have a headache, I have a sore back, I have a letter than I can't send.

Well, I'm back from the *free* Clay Aiken concert with a headache from the screaming of all of the middle-aged women.

His current tour is called "The Jukebox Tour" because dear ol' Clay goes through pop music hits from the 50s to present. It actually reminded me of the format of the class in popular music that I took in university. It was all right and, as expected, quite high on the cheese factor. After my initial shock of actually being at such a concert (it was after all, my very first pop concert; I define a pop concert as one where there are wardrobe changes), I let go of my inner snob and had a bit of fun singing along.

Clay scored some points for a) singing "O Canada" when requested; b) knowing the lyrics to "O Canada"; c) an excellent choice of back-up singers; and d) a display of some self-deprecating humour.

Clay lost points for a) some song selection - most notably his choice of 80s songs. I thought if he'd sung "Material Girl" it would have been a riot; b) his attempts at dancing like Elvis; c) NOT wearing any plaid during the songs about the 90s; and d) singing a few too many ballads (snore).

Oh, he lost and gained points for acting very teachery when interacting with the crowd at times. Point lost for, well, acting like a teacher. Points gained because I grudgingly admit that I could learn from his classroom managagement skills.

Below are some pics I took using my phone (hence the quality). The first shows the stage during the Elvis montage. The second is the video dislay of Clay; most likely taken while he was earnestly singing a ballad. You can totally tell it's him by the hair!

A strange, but enjoyable, evening...

As promised, I will fill you in on the strange event I went to tonight. But, a strange event occurred at the prelude to the strange event...

Anyway, TB, her friend A, and I went to a restauarant in Little Italy to hang out for awhile. While we were eating, Zack Werner, the "grumpy" judge from Canadian Idol came in and sat down at the long table that was beside us, where a large group with children and adults of various ages were seated. It's always funny seeing someone from TV in person. They look the same and sound the same but I guess it's just the shock of seeing someone out of their usual environment that makes it strange. I had the same sensation when I was taking a few large courses with hundreds of students in university. When I'd see the professor walking around campus, I'd feel like I was seeing someone famous. I knew them, but they didn't know me.

TB commented that she wouldn't want to be Zack's server; she'd feel like he was judging her. Sure enough he gave the waiter some comments. However, they were all positive. It appeared he was picking up the tab for the group. He told the waiter that'd everything was really good and that he'd done an excellent job. So, maybe the grumpiness is just a front for the show.

Anyway, the "strange" event that we were on route to was a private party for a member of one of my favourite bands. It's not that it was strange in itself, it was just strange that I somehow got to go. Obviously, I'm just a fan of the band and don't know the guy. TB's friend A is friends with this musician and was invited to the party and told him to bring some friends along. He knew TB and I (we'd met a couple times before) were fans and invited us.

Anyhow, we assured him before we wouldn't embarass oursleves by quoting lyrics of our favourite songs and we'd leave our band T-shirts at home (don't worry, those thoughts wouldn't have occurred to us anyway). We'd lay low and be cool. We requested that he would not introduce as his friends who were big fans of the band. We were just some random friends that had come along for a good time.

The party was a cool little club that is reserved for private parties during the week. It was pretty nice. When we got there, A went to talk to his pal and introduced us and we shook hands. So far so good. They talked for a bit and then A brought up we were fans, which was kind of embarassing. I couldn't really hear what he was saying since it was loud, so I didn't know that he had done that until after the fact. A had told his musician friend that he had friends who were friends of the band to which the musician said "that's cool, you should introduce me sometime" or something rather nice like that. So, A decided he should specify that we were the friends. It was okay though. A apologized afterwards and explained his rationale but we were cool; I mean he had brought us there.

For most of the party we just hung out and chatted and had some beer. It was an enjoyable evening. We were wondering if other members of the bad would be there, but they weren't. There were a couple other musicians that I recognized, but mostly regular people. Still, it was cool. It's not every day that I get to go to a private party of someone from a band I love.

(Un)intelligent Design

In my daily blog skimming, I came across this post from Philogynist, which got me to pondering and googling the "theory" of "intelligent design", championed by George W. Bush.

I majored in biology in university and I focused in the areas of evolution and the evolution of animal behaviour. I've always been interested in ongoing creationsim vs. evolution debate that still rages, mainly in the U.S.

Anyhow, I find intelligent design particularly disheartening, since it's being touted as scientific and many states are requiring that it must be taught in the science classroom alongside evolution. There is no way to scientifically test whether or not an "intelligent designer" is behind life so please don't call it a "science". I found an excellent critique of intelligent design in the New Yorker. Thankfully, I teach science in Canada, where I don't have to worry that I'll be required to teach ID. Phew.

On the lighter side of ID, here's a really funny article from The Onion and one from the Toronto Star. The article from the Star is written by Linwood Barclay who postulates that theory of "unintelligent design" could very well explain Dubya et al. I'd recommend going to the trouble of subscribing to the Star's website (it's free) just so you can read Barclay's columns. They're usually pretty freaking hilarious.



Oh, and here is a picture of Harriet the Tortoise who I saw at the Australia Zoo (home of Steve Irwin, the infamous Crocodile Hunter). She's 174 or so years old and is the oldest living animal in captivity. Charles Darwin himself brought her from the Galapagos to England and somehow she's now in Steve Irwin's hands. I bet you she does not support the theory of intelligent design either.

p.s. Tonight I'm going to what I think is a rather strange event. I'll blog about it after the fact. This post script is just a teaser.

Ideal Waste of Time

Here's a fun waste of time that I came across the other day. I've played with the physical 20Q toy in a store before; it's a little ball that will guess what you are thinking of by asking you 20 questions. Anyway, now there's a website version.

I thought about a potato, and then a rose. 20Q got them in under 20 questions.

I decided to think about an 8-track tape. It took 20Q more then 20 questions to get it, but I was impressed that it was schooled in retro technology.

My thoughts drifted to a duck-billed platypus. The closest 20Q got was to guess an echidna, which I think was pretty good. Duck-billed platypusses (platypi?) and echnidas are examples of egg-laying mammals. Egg-laying mammals are evolutionary relics; there are only three species around today, two of which are found in Australia. (I learned about all of this when I took a mammalian diversity course in university.)

Being the geek I am, I was very excited to see echidnas and playtpusses when I was in Australia. Here are pictures of the spiny echidna (taken at the Taronga zoo in Sydney) and a duck-billed playtpus (taken at the Sydney Aquarium).

Do they know it's Halloween?

Chart magazine reported today that Beck, Chris Murphy from Sloan, Feist, and members of the Arcade Fire among others have recorded a UNICEF benefit song called "Do they know it's Halloween?" The song is intended to be a satire of all-star benefit songs.

It's cool. You can listen to it here.

I'm going to do a bad, bad thing.

Today my roommate called me from her work. She told me that she was offered free tickets to a concert at the Molson Ampitheatre and accepted right away; even before she knew what the concert was. Here is sort of how the conversation went.

"You sometimes watch American Idol, don't you?" she asks. The danger of having a roommate is that some of secrets you're really not proud of get out.

"Ummm, on occasion. When nothing else is on... Oh no, it's not the American Idol tour where it's all of the finalists??" I don't think I could handle that, even if is was free.

"No, no he didn't even become American Idol."

"Oh dear Lord, it's not Clay Aiken is it? "

So there you have it, I'm going to see Clay Aiken just because it's free. I actually think it will be hilarious and we'll get a good laugh out of it. A pal of hers and a pal of mine are coming along so I think we'll have a good time, and I really hope that there is some alcohol served. Oh gosh, I bet there are going to be a lot of teenage girls holding up signs. The only time I've ever been to a concert like that was when I saw Dashboard Confessional. I think the reason why I like Dashboard is that they totally bring out my inner teenage girl.

My pal TB is going to come along too. We actually watched the American Idol that Clay was in and were very angry when he didn't win. That was back when we were in university and it was okay to watch any tv show, no matter how lame, as a procrastination tool. TB suggested that we make "I Love Clay" T-shirts to wear.

(Aside - My roommate just came home with the tickets. They're worth $60 each! Ye gods! We also have VIP Lounge tickets. We're hoping they will be serving drinks, and lots of them, in said lounge area. We also discussed why she couldn't have been offered tickets to a good show, like the Foo Fighters show that just passed.)

Anyhow, the concert is on Thursday.

I recently got the sixth season of Them Simpsons on DVD. I've been watching it in bits and pieces. Such a good season. Today I watched the deleted scenes and there was one that killed me. There's a little kid eating a popsicle and Homer leans over and takes a huge bite of it. The kid says "Hey - that's my popsicle!" and Homer replies "I'm aware of that." Oh, they should have left that in.

You took a wild orchid and turned it blue.

I'm totally into that White Stripes song right now. The first time I heard a clip of it, I thought it was awful. Goes to show you that first impressions aren't always right.

I finished the Dracula book I was reading (The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova) yesterday. I really, really, really liked the book when I first started it but it proved to be about 200 pages too long for me - I got a little bored with the story and just wanted to know what was up with Dracula and where exactly his tomb was. When the protagonists actually meet up with dear ol' Drac and discover his diabolical plan, I thought his plan was very lame. I'd give the book 3.25 stars out of five, since the first 2/3rds of it was amazing, but it lost a bit steam at the end. I'll have to lend it to my dad and see what he thinks.

As I was walking by a Toronto Sun newspaper box today, I saw a headline that I decided to investigate further. A boy fell out of the Zipper ride at the CNE yesterday and into the arms of employees. He was not hurt. It turned out that the door of his cage was not closed properly and it opened while the ride was in motion. I find that freaky, since when I was in grade 7, the Zipper was my favourite ride. The thought of being on that ride while the door opens sends shivers down my spine.

I need to go the CNE this year. I've never been. I say this every year and I've done nothing about it.

P.S. I really hate the Toronto Sun and don't even like mentioning one of their articles in my blog, but said article caught my attention and I ended up blogging about it, so what I am gonna do? Close my eyes while I walk by their newspaper boxes? Perhaps, but that might result in me walking into a hydro pole or something and injuring myself.

Oh God. I just realized that I was belting the song "Natural Disaster" (by Joel Plaskett) along with my iPod. If my neighbours were in the hall, they could totally hear me. How embarrassing that would be since I'm the worst singer in the world. If I tried out for Canadian Idol I would totally be a shoe-in get on tv - I'm that bad.

Now and then I must aspire to go out of the ordinary and set the world on fire.

Well, I went to the Joel Plaskett Emergency show and it was extraordinary! It didn't rain either. If you've never seen Joel Plaskett, either playing solo or with the Emergency, you must go.

The Harbourfront was a pretty cool place to see a show. I love seeing music outdoors. I also haven't been down there since last summer, so I guess it was nice to walk beside Lake Ontario, despite the slightly odd odour. I should have taken some pictures of the Lake but I was thinking I'd do that after the show, but my stupid camera batteries died. I have Duracell rechargable ones, but they die soooooooo quickly. When I was in Australia, I used the Energizer Lithium batteries and they would last for a week and a half of picture taking. Far, far superior, even though they're not rechargable and quite expensive. Now I'm stuck with these crappy Duracell ones.

I was quite excited to see Chris Murphy from Sloan at the concert. He was sitting a couple of rows behind me. A few people (mainly university aged boys) were going up to him and shaking his hand. He was very polite about it. I kept myself quite composed and dignified; I just text messaged TB to tell her what she was missing.

Anyhow, here are a couple of pics I took. They're not very good, but whatever.

Insert Curse Words Here

Argh! It appears that Death Cab for Cutie tickets are sold out! (They're playing here in October.) Now, they didn't sell out in 20 mins, or some ridiculously quick time like that. I checked earlier this week and there were still tickets left and I thought "Oh, I'll get them later..." Well, I forgot until today, and I just checked Ticketmaster and no luck. I am sooooooo not pleased with myself. Why didn't I get them right away??

Anyhow, I survived the crazy weather of yesterday. It's pretty humid today (but not too hot) and looks like it's gonna rain at any second. This evening, there's a free Joel Plaskett Emergency show down at the Harbourfront and I'm planning to go, but I'm not liking the looks of this weather... But, I think the fact that I don't have Death Cab tickets is going to make me go, rain or no rain.

From Environment Canada

A weather warning:

Environment Canada's Official Weather Warnings

Warnings City of Toronto 3:31 PM EDT Friday 19 August 2005

Tornado warning for City of Toronto continued Radar is detecting a line of severe rotating storms in the Torontoarea. There ha ve been several reports of tornadoes and damage within this line of storms. These storms are moving eastward at 70 km/h.

City of Toronto 3:31 PM EDT Friday 19 August 2005

Tornado warning for City of Toronto continued Radar is detecting a line of severe rotating storms in the Toronto area. There have been several reports of tornadoes and damage within this line of storms. These storms are moving eastward at 70 km/h.

Somehow this post about shopping and plants turns into a post about tattoos.

When I get tired, I end up staying up far too late. At about 9 pm tonight I was exhausted from a long day of shopping with my crazy high school friend (CHSF). I almost passed out in the Eaton Centre. I was still pretty tired when we made back here, and she left at about midnight, so you'd expect I'd be in bed by 1:43 am, but alas, I am not. I'm sad that summer's waning, but I really do think I'm almost back to get back to a routine. I'm a creature that thrives on routine.

But anyhow, had a good shopping day. Got some threads for back to school and a new plant for the apartment. Hopefully this one won't wither away and die. My old plant was a beautiful Ficus benjimina; alas, it was quite a high maintenance plant and it withered and died under my care. I don't think my new plant is as fussy. Or at least I hope. If it is, I'm just gonna have to resign to fake plants.

(Note: After reading over my sentences about my old plant, I have to admit that I totally sugar-coated our relationship. It kept dropping its leaves all over the place which infuriated me. Nothing sucks more than having to constantly pick up after a plant. After it was down to its last hundred leaves, I decided that I was not picking up any more leaves and I put it out on our balcony.)

I brought CHSF to the cheap book store and made her buy the first Harry Potter book. I was quite proud that I did not succumb to buying any books there. That place is dangerous for me.

CHSF has about 8 tattoos. Today when we were in a kitchen store, I found a set of coasters that matched the sun tattoo on the back of her neck. I said "Look, you can get coasters that match your tattoo!" She replied "I don't need coasters that match my tattoo." An employee overhead and laughed and said "Yesterday a lady bought some placemats that matched her purse." So, which is more logical - coasters that match your tattoos or placemats that match your purse? I argue the former, since I'm sure your tattoo will be around the coasters much more often than a purse will be around placemats.

CHSF has a band of pink elephants tattooed around her arm. They have been mistaken for pigs.

Speaking of tattoos, an old internet friend was chatting to me tonight and showed me a picture of his new tattoo. It's on his leg and says "Do you like robots?" It's in black writing and I had to ask him a billion times if it was real.

A friend of mine told me that my old grade eight teacher, his wife, and his kids all got matching tattoos.

I was watching "Tommy Lee Goes to College" the other night, and although Tommy Lee is totally scuzzy, he is attractive, in a dirty, dirty sort of way. I think that I enjoy the whole guy with lots of tattoos on his arms oddly attractive.

P.S. I'm a blank canvas.

It's all Dracula's fault.

I think I am the procrastination queen. Especially in the summer. At least when school's on, I have deadlines and other things to keep me going.

I have had to a) clean my apartment and b) do laundry for a dog's age now. I swear, I've been putting these two tasks off for over a week now, because when it's summer vacation I can always say "Does is make any difference whether I do it today or tomorrow?" to myself and honestly answer no.

Luckily, my craziest friend from high school is coming to visit me tomorrow. She's cleaned up her act since then, so I decided I should clean my apartment in her honour.

But the procrastination hasn't ended there, I still haven't done the laundry. I've argued that it really makes the most sense to do that at 10:30 tonight, since I'll be guaranteed to get four washers at once.

I blame Dracula for all of this. I'm so addicted to the book "The Historian" that I mentioned before. I highly recommend it, even though I find I'm reading it at a slower pace that I usually manage. Which is okay, since if I read a book slowly, I feel I've gotten my money's worth out of it. The past couple of nights I've been staying up until about 4 am reading which means I'm not the quickest person in the am/early pm. Hmmm, perhaps my late nights indicate a natural inclination toward vampirism in myself?

Well, I've got three hours until I have to do my laundry, so it's back to the book for me!

1 girl movie (return to me) + red wine + chocolate chip cookies + nail polish + roommate = 1 enjoyable girls' evening!

Now it's time for the Daily Show. Steve Carrell is on!

The hours get shorter as the days go by.

Yawn. What a sleepy Sunday.

Today I wanted to go to a little get together that a friend of mine was having in Mississauga but I couldn't score a ride out there. Oh well, c'est la vie. I'd also used said get together as a reason not to go to another friend's housewarming party in Stratford, but really, the main reason I didn't go to the housewarming party in Stratford is that it is out in Stratford and I was there last week.

Soooo, instead I lounged around the house, my lounging interrupted by a couple of phonecalls. Then I wandered up to Yonge and Eglinton, where I looked around in Indigo and read a few chapters of Motley Crue's The Dirt. It's a pretty interesting, and often disturbing, read. I might just buy it, I dunno. It's pretty thick and it would take me forever to read it at the bookstore. I don't think I could actually shell out the money for that book though. I'd feel guilty owning it. I guess that's what so many years of Catholic school does to a person.

Hmmm, I should really get that book at the library, then I can finish it for free. I still haven't gotten around to renewing my Toronto library card since I moved back to the city. I think it's because I haven'te needed to go the library because I have a huge pile of books at home that I still need to read and I keep adding to the pile by adding more book. Today I added to that pile yet again. I picked up The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova which looked too interesting to pass up, plus it was 40% off. It has something to do with finding out the story behind Vlad the Impaler, the man behind the Dracula legend. I am going to start reading it tonight and I hope it's really good. I'm going through post-partum Harry Potter syndrome. It occurs after the latest Harry Potter book comes out and I read it twice and then I have to find another book to read when all I want is the next Harry Potter book. Sigh. Only two more years if I'm lucky.

Last night I took a picture of the night-time view out of my bedroom window. Not too shabby. When we moved into this apartment, my roommate and I flipped a coin for the bedrooms. This one has the view, the other has an ensuite bathroom. I lost and got the view. I can live with it.

Trouble and strife trying to get to sleep...

For some reason sleep just isn't happening for me tonight, so I decided to take some time to stare at my computer screen, hoping that will make me sleepy.

The Sloan concert was good! I got there just in time to see David Usher, who always puts on a good show in my opinion. Then I had enough time to grab an overpriced bottle of water and make it down to the floor to see Sloan. We got wristbands to get down to the floor with our free tickets - Sloan sure does take care of their fans. Luckily my concert-going pal made it a few songs into Sloan; he was a bit late since he was working in Cambridge.

It's too bad my pal TB was out of town for the free Sloan show. We normally take a trip up to her cottage every summer to see Sloan play at the Kee-to-Bala, but this year we missed it since I was in Australia. I'm glad that the summer didn't go by without at least me getting a chance to see Sloan. I'll have to give her the update that Chris Murphy's cut his hair a bit but was still up to his old tricks of scissor-kicking and licking the mike.

Anyhow, I found a new toy to add to my blog:

Music Video Codes By VideoCodeZone

They seem to have quite the range of videos to choose from as well. I can see I'll have to make sure I don't overdo it.

My favourite concert moments

When Ben Folds reminded me of the time that Ben Folds Five brought Snow on stage when I saw BFF at the Warehouse in 1999, I was inspired to compile a list of my all-time favourite concert moments. Here they are in no particular order:

• The first time I ever saw Hawksley Workman play and he came out and sang the song No Beginning, No End. His amazing voice hooked TB and I immediately. We had just randomly gone to the concert because a pal of mine loved Hawksley and put some of his older songs on a mixed tape (remember those?) for me. (Rivoli, March 2001)
• The second time I saw the Weakerthans live, they sprinkled confetti on the crowd at the end of the show. When got home we still had confetti on us and it made for a good apres-concert picture. (Lee's Palace February 2002)
• The "Other Man Dancers" - Sloan had some people dressed up in animal costumes doing an interpretive dance during The Other Man when we saw them at Sneak Peak. Bonus - we'd gotten free tickets to the event. (ACC, May 2003)
• The Joel Plaskett Emergency doing a medley of pop songs including and Avril Lavigne song and R. Kelly's Ignition. (Horseshoe, Spring 2003)
• Hayden having the Elk Lake Serenaders (aka Cuff the Duke) back him up. (Lee's Palace, Novemeber 2004)
• A random guy asking Hayden to marry him, followed by another drunk guy being kicked out of the show, then Hayden playing "Woody", a great song about his cat. Catch it on the double CD set Live from Convocation Hall. Glad that I was there. (Convocation Hall, Fall 2002)
• The moment the giant light-up W stage appeared during the song Only in Dreams when I saw Weezer. (Molson Ampitheatre, Summer 2002)
• The Constantines and Weakerthans covering the Travelling Wiburys' End of the Line together. I love happy moments where two bands come together. Cheesy? Perhaps. But definitely enjoyable. (Lee's Palace, April 2005)
• Ashley MacIsaac playing "Stayin' Alive" on his fiddle when he opened for the Tragically Hip at their now-defunct Another Roadside Attraction festival. (Molson Park in Barrie, Summer 1997)
• The Smashing Pumpkins' "Farewell to Canada" performace at Summersault 2000 and they played my all-time fave Pumpkins song "Mayonnaise". (Molson Park in Barrie, Summer 2000)
• And of course the aforementioned BFF/Snow collabo...

Well, I don't think that's definitive but it's a good list of concert moments that have made me happy. I tried to only include specific moments as opposed to a whole show. I've seen many whole shows that are beyond enjoyable.

Anyway, perhaps I will have to update the list tomorrow after my free Sloan show!

If I'd worn socks, they would have been rocked off.

First of all, the Ben Lee/Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright concert was great! Ben Lee was all cute and charming and proceeding to rock the socks off of the crowd. Some guy actually threw his smelly socks on stage.

Ben Folds followed with an awesome performance. This is the fourth time I've seen him and I think perhaps it was the best show that he'd put on. He played some old BFF songs, including Brick, Philosophy, and Army, where he led the crowd in singing the trumpet parts (if you've heard Ben Folds Live, you'll know what I mean). He also did a really hilarious cover of Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit" and a very good version of "Rockin' the Suburbs". I think my favourite was when he played the song Gracie from Songs for Silverman, which is a very sweet song for his daughter, but played it very up-tempo.

Ben brought up the last time he played at the Kool Haus (which was in 1999 and I think the venue still had the more respectable name of the Warhouse) and he'd brought Snow onstage. Oh yes, I mean Snow of "Informer" fame... This was before his comeback too, so it was quite entertaining to see Snow play informer with Ben Folds Five. I'm so glad that Ben reminded me of that!

Anyhow, after Ben's performance, a good 1/3 of the audience actually left. I rolled my eyes. Ben and Rufus are very different, but I honestly don't understand how people who obviously appreciate good music if they like Ben would leave and not see Rufus. Rufus was really good and played a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" which was great. I think my favourite song was "Beautiful Child". Seeing that song live has given me a new appreciation for it, and I think it's now my favourite Rufus song (at least for the moment).

Anyway, TB and I met up with a friend of hers at the concert who had brought her camera and got some awesome shots which I will post as soon as I get them. Which might not be really soon because she has to get a new cable to connect her camera to her computer...

So next on my concert-going agenda is a Sloan/Finger 11/David Usher show that I won tickets to. Yeah, I seem to be having quite the winning streak this week considering I never win anything. Perhaps I'll go find some more contests to enter online...

I've also found myself a new musical boyfriend. A couple of months ago I'd downloaded the song "Unplayed Piano" by Damien Rice. This song was written for Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has been under house arrest for 10 years. For more info, you can go here. Anyway, I bought his album O on Tuesday and it's excellent!

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket - I'm luckier than I thought!

Well, it's been awhile since I've update the ol' blog. It's not that I've been extremely busy, but since I was at the 'rents for a bit, I was confined to using very dial-up which was slow and I had to pay for it by the hour.

I took the the train back to Toronto this evening and was greeted by a good phone message. A couple weeks ago, my roommate convinced me to enter a contest in Eye Weekly and I won! My prize? A Death Cab for Cutie DVD and poster! Not too shabby! Anyway, I'll probably end up spending $4 tomorrow on the subway to go collect my prize. As Homer Simpson has been known to say: "Ya gotta spend money to make money!"

So the rest of my trip home was pretty relaxing. On Saturday, a couple of my high school pals and I went to our friend's family cottage. We had a few pretty good parties there back in the day. We had a bit of a tamer evening though; we played a couple of games of Cranium. If you like party board games, be sure to get it! A warning: if you have a drama queen friend, she may end up showing a bit too much skin while acting out things like strip poker and the Barenaked Ladies...

On Sunday, I ended up running over to Zellers to get some stuff for my mom and boy, was that trip a fiasco. Here are the things that annoyed me:

1) One my way there, I was driving behind a tourist who slammed on his brakes and almost caused me to hit him. (In Stratford, if it's summer, and you encounter a really bad driver, conventional wisdom dictates that this person must be a tourist.)

2) When I was checking out, I almost got what I'm pretty sure was bleach in my eye. I was putting a bottle of it on the counter and I touched my face somehow and noticed that my hand smelled like bleach which lead me to the conclusion that the bottle was leaking. It wasn't, but I'm pretty sure that there was dried bleach or something on the bottle that I very well could have gotten in my eye! Damn Zellers!

3) While leaving the store, the first set of automatic doors wasn't working and instead of holding the door for me who needed a shopping cart to carry my purchases, the woman walking in front of me slammed it in my face! Aren't small town people supposed to be polite?

4) At least the second set of automatic doors was working, but there was this big gang of seventh graders sloooooooowly walking in front of me, blocking my exit from the store which caused the automatic doors to close on me. Argh! I should have run them over with my cart!

5) While I was trying to leave the parking lot, some crazy woman in a mini-van came flying around the corner at about 60 km/h not realizing that it is much safer to drive slowly in a parking lot.

6) When I got home, it turned out that I'd gotten one wrong item on my mom's shopping list so I had to go back to the store and exchange it for the right thing. But, being such a nice daughter, I did not complain and just did it. (I did get to eat my parents food for free for a week after all.)

Anyway, tomorrow is my Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright concert. I'm soooooooo excited about that!!!

Here's a hilarious probing analysis of "Hollaback Girl" that I can across awhile ago via the blog in Eye Weekly. Great stuff.

Only in dreams

My dreams are always very vivid. I remember a lot of them, but sometimes they get lost five minutes after I wake up. Often something I come across during the day will make me remember my dream.

I'm watching the Daily Show in the background and they've got a bit about John Bolton's appointment as UN ambassador and it's made me remember one of my dreams from last night.

I decided since I still have month of vacation left, I should travel somewhere else, so I hopped on a bus to Washington DC. When I got there, I started to tour the government buildings and I wandered into one where John Bolton was giving a press conference and it was open to the public. That piqued my interest and I wandered in and sat down beside three twenty-something girls.

As we waited for the press conference to start, we discussed that we were all opposed to John Bolton's appointment. They thought it was great that I agreed with them because I could help them with their protest. Instead of shouting "boo!" at him, they each had a piece of paper that they would hold up to spell out the word "boo". They had wanted a fourth person to hold up the exclamation mark, so they asked if I would do it. I said sure.

Anyway, when John Bolton walked in we held up our signs. He looked at them and became really really upset. He asked us to come speak with him in the hall. He wanted to know why we disliked him so much and we explained we didn't think his attitudes would make him a very good ambassador for the UN. He said that he was very sorry for his comments in the past, and thought the UN was such a great organization and vowed to listen to other countries. He then asked us for our emails so he could keep us updated on his progress and gave us his, so that we could email with any comments or suggestions.

Yeah, so that was my dream. Maybe Bolton's not so bad. Yeah... right. Only in dreams, as the old Weezer song goes.

Metablogging...

Since I really did the grand total of nothing today (okay, that's a bit of a lie - I did meet up with a pal for coffee and show her my Australia pictures and then hang out with some pals at MJ's pool..), I will blog about blogging.

In teachers' college I learned that thinking about thinking is called metacognition, so I shall dub blogging about blogging "metablogging".

I'm surprised that I've kept up my blog for so long. When I started it, I figured that it would be like any other journal that I started, I'd go strong for a week or two or possibly even three, and then it would slowly stop. A few years later I'd pick it up, and then try to continue it in a sort of "Well, now it's three years later and my life is totally different and I can't believe I was concerned about all that crap since now my life is so much more complex but oh, if I could only re-live the innocence of three years ago" type statement. But surprisingly, I'm starting my 6th month of this blog, admittedly with a dry spell sometime in April and May.

So why have I kept up my blog for so long? I don't really know. Why do bloggers blog? I guess we all enjoy having our thoughts, beliefs, opinions and feelings up there on the web ready for someone to stumble across and say "Oh yeah, that's right" or perhaps "Whoa? What's this person thinking?" I think that might be why I blog.

One way I found that blogging has helped me is that I'm much better at writing down my thoughts. While I was travelling in Australia, I kept a pretty rigourous travel journal, and I found that writing in it was much easier than usual. I attributed to this to my blogging. Not only was writing easier, I found that I felt freer to jot down any thought, no matter how inconsequential or meaningless it may seem at the time. When reading back over my journal, I found that these "meaningless" thoughts were my favourites. Such as the time when I was flying over the Mississippi River, eating a pretzel, and I decided to pull out my journal and write about it. I liked that moment and I probably would have forgotten it. So, thank you blogging, for allowing me to save my Mississippi-pretzel moment forever.

Metablogging... over.

99 red balloons floating in the summer sky...

Well, I had a good day yesterday in London hanging out with my TO pals. We went shopping for awhile where I bought some frivolous stuff - but at least it was all on sale. It makes me grumpy about how all of the stores have their fall stuff out already. I don't want to think about that yet.

After shopping we had dinner then headed over to the London Balloon Festival. It was pretty neat. I wish I had brought my camera to take pictures, but I'd forgotten it in TO. We watched the balloons go up, which was neat. The first two balloons that went up were huge and very patriotic. One was a big Maple Leaf and the other was a flag. We were standing very close to them as they were filling them up with air and at one point it felt like they were going to fall over on us. After those two, a bunch of regular shaped balloons went up and then there was la piece de resistance - a huge green T-rex. It was so cool - I wish I had a picture of it! Unfortunately, his tail didn't really get inflated and his hindquarters deflated while he was in the air, but it was a really good balloon.

After we'd had our fill of balloons we played a round of mini-golf. I love mini-golf even though I lost. Yeesh, and I thought mini-golf was my sport.