Category: Vancouver

Sundry and Various

Last night when I was coming home I realized I wanted retail therapy, so I got Robaxicet, a teach yourself to read music book (which actually taught me something I had not understood before in the first five minutes, so that was useful), a miniature Gumby and Pokey set for Jeff, Ecuadorian chocolate, Cutthroat beer & a proper set of headphones for work including volume control.  Now of course I realize that I’m an idiot and I just should have gone straight home, so I would have avoided a broken down bus and…

ick….

wait for it….

auditions for Canada’s Next Top Model in Brentwood Mall – when the batteries in my camera had just quit.  Oh, and my cell phone batteries quit in tandem, so I couldn’t fire off an irritated text message to Jeff. I wanted to take a picture of the swarm of identical, malnourished, streak haired, pointy faced hopefuls, but instead I got an eyeful of leering men and resigned looking parents.  Rechargeable NiMh batteries do not cut it for this application.

I am just about finished my laundry, finally, and will be moving on to other interesting events today, like trying to sweet talk Jeff into accompanying me on a shopping expedition.  Yes, I know, but I want two things you can’t get nearby or easily, being my favourite kind of soap (French, honeysuckle scented) and more Sculpey so Katie can finish her chess set. And more paint.  I think I need blue, clear coat, and maybe a bronze or silver metallic.  And a fatter brush so I can really slop it on.  ScaryClown says he paints everything he does flat black and then paints overtop of that.  I will defer to the master on that one. He has severely restricted his alcohol intake, but frankly, he doesn’t look happier. And he’s bringing his lunches these days. So has the Dalai Jarmo, but that’s traditional for Finnfolk in early January, and he looks very happy these days and he’s going to be sitting close but not too close to me in the new regime.  PS note to self I need one of those who the **** is behind me mirrors for work.

Katie, bless her, did not actually look for work yesterday, rrr.  But Keith fitted his first set of contact lenses (perfectly, so he says) the day before yesterday so it appears that continuing to support his efforts to get edumacated is wise.

Jim and Jan are here this weekend and I can’t wait to see them.  They are so wonderful.  I wish I could just buy a city block and move everybody I love here. Except that many of them, like a kitty cat struggling to escape, would not be happy about living in Vancouver.  It’s a nice place to visit, etc.  And when I get a house I want laundry on the same level as my bedroom.  I got that when I was living in the Cornerstone building and gosh darn, I want that again, although that might have something to do with how steep the basement stairs are.  I nearly fell down them this week and it was scary as hell, because Jeff had his headphones on and I might have had a very poor time of it.

Biscotti.  Again.  I will be shipping it off to people by mail.

Valentine cards.  Since I am sending work valentines to Barcelona, California, Indiana and Washington, I have to start early this year.  There are 150 people on the list!!! I have created a monster, yet again.

I know somebody personally who is going to the inauguration, and I will be able to hear about it later this month.  Me happy.

Singing into the can for $5

Last thing before I went to bed last night I had a song in my head, and instead of doing what I normally do which is not record it, I did.  I listened to it again this morning and all I want to do is harmonize to it.  I can hear it done jazz combo style, snare, upright bass, tenor sax and piano.  Smooth!

Off to the Penny and Hastings Steam & Sauna last night with the Luddite, who is much the same as always, only more so.  Then home in time to watch some Robot Chicken with Jeff.  The Steam joint alas had no music, which I’ve come to expect, but it was a lovely chance to warm my bones all the way through and also take the single goofiest picture of me ever.  I ended up looking like that guy on Babylon 5 – but don’t expect me to post my pic from last night, it’s that very bad.  Apply in person or via email and I’ll forward a copy, but be prepared – the expression on my face is…. a little over the top.

Facts and data please

Safe injection sites ARE HUMANE and SAVE TAXPAYER MONEY. Anybody who thinks that Jesus wants drug users to die of AIDS, suffering, and at great public expense, should go back and read the New Testament, because you’re missing something….

Dr Filk (who is occasionally blogging on LJ now, woo hoo!) forwards this link – he says it’s the best column he’s ever read.

Not much doing

Has it been that long?  Rogers sent me a notice today about upgrading my phone because the contract I got with them after Dax tossed Katie’s phone into an intersection is up.  Wow. Time flies when you’re getting a c/l divorce and trying to keep your life on something resembling rails.  What they really want is for me to sign up with them again.  And on that subject, Dax called Katie and she called his PO.  I know I sound like a sap, but he’s not going to hurt her anymore, and I don’t want him to go to jail.  Katie is so blasé ’bout the whole thing that she doesn’t care if I stay in touch with him, which I am doing on facebook.  The family advice (nautilus3 will probably recognize its origin) is “Don’t argue with him and don’t lend him money.”

Over at Planet Bachelor last night; Keith is doing famously although not studying enough in school (grr) and already contemplating the education he wants to get after he gets his trade.  Considering that this is exactly what his maternal grandparents did with their lives, I am sure they are quietly hugging themselves at the moment. Paul is in fine form and fed us dinner.

When I got home, Jackie the downstairs neighbour was out having a smoke. I met Bear, Jason’s cat, learned that THEY TOO want to punt Romeo, the next door neighbour’s dog, into the Delta Quadrant, and THEY TOO have been bitten by the dog.  Yes, we know it’s because the neighbours have a substance resembling moldy guacamole for frontal lobes; it’s not the dog’s fault.  Jackie and I talked for the best part of an hour in a most neighbourly way, straightened out some normal housesharing stuff in a good commonsensical way and then I downloaded with Jeff this am. Happy sigh.  Jeff says, “It just goes to show you how ******* loud the people who lived downstairs before were.”  Amen brother.  They were loud like they were getting paid for it.

What’s with Toronto this summer? + added politics, movies

So much boomage.

I saw Thin Red Line last night, it being one of the lifetime list movies.  I really liked it; it sure was paced in a strange way.  Parts of it moved so fast that it was hard to maintain some understanding of the action, and parts were so slow that I felt like I was moving into glacier time.  The casting was great and I can see why Jim Caviezel’s performance made Mel Gibson think of him for Jesus six years later for the Passion of the Christ.

It was so nice having Keith here last night.  On the way out the door he told a joke that had me laughing so hard I cried.  Keith can do that do me.  I responded with, “Did you notice how McCain said Fight with me the other night in his speech?  I know he meant fight WITH me but when I read the headline I thought, Jeez, John, I may be a dumpy fifty year old woman with a bad back, but I’m going to kick the snot out of yaz.  By your invitation even.

I liked this commentary on the Republican National Convention.

Yippeeeee!  David Emerson is NOT running for office again here in this riding.  Excuse me while I’m thrilled; now I have to figure who to vote for to keep Harper’s Conservatives out.  Not a fan so far; the war drums, the social conservatism and the expletive insanity about DRM – which, may inertia be thanked, will died on the order table ‘fore the election – the smarmy letter I got in response to my complaint about the peacetime initiative to allow American troops on Canadian soilunder special circumstances’ = or whenever the Canadian government feels like asking them – oh yeah, not thrilled with the Conservatives.  That another political party would piss me off as bad in different ways is par for the course, and what a depressing prospect, etc.

Woo hoo!  Jerome/Shannon are getting married today!  I think I have to  bring a chair.  It’s happening outdoors rain or shine, so I wonder if I’m getting wet this afternoon.

No sign of Katie.  I just texted her.  It’s annoying but I suppose that’s an improvement, it used to be scary.

Lovely visit

ScaryClown showed us around his ‘hood, being Main St., and after a lovely (and on ScaryClown’s part, quite intensely liquid) brunch, we wandered over to Voltage and Solly’s Bagelry and the Organic Grocery store. I picked up a black and red squid Tshirt from Voltage (LMB probably knows the one I mean). I must say, I’ve never watched somebody pack away three lime margaritas before noon….I didn’t even know you could ORDER lime margaritas before noon. Much as I love alcohol, my day would end the instant I got home and kicked my shoes off. There’s only one beer left, but I’ll fix that tomorrow – I should probably lay off today. Anyway, we picked up sesame bagels and smoked salmon cream cheese and these little intensely chocolate swirly things, and Keith and ScaryClown got cinnamon buns. At the organic grocery I picked up a San Pellegrino for Keith – he loves it – and organic coffee, because I’m out, and organic walnuts, because I saw them and decided to go nuts. Yeah, very funny.

ScaryClown wanted to know why he hadn’t been told about Brian’s going away and I said, “But you’re always over at Uncle Jimmy’s, drinking, on Friday nights. You’ve been doing that every Friday since I met you, almost.” And he burst out laughing, because he thought he hadn’t been invited because he and LTGW are semi-feuding (which, by the way, I am not commenting on because I have a garage-sized crush on LTGW and consider ScaryClown to be my sibling, so there’s no way I can win no matter what I say on the subject, although I will say that they are both very smart and very sensitive).

Ah! Paul just phoned. He’s going to bring food over and we’ll have dinner together with Jeff and Keith AND he’s going to stop and get beer. So I’ve got about three hours to do the Tasmanian Devil cleanup (my room is a DUMP) and maybe blast through the bathroom like a pink tornado.

Jeff and I were thinking about opening Crazy Bob’s Discount Funeral Home. Some conditions apply, bagpipes not included. Hm. I guess it was funnier at the time.

Life is pretty good. Yes, my back still hurts, but I’ve learned that complaining about it never helps.

PARTAY

We saw Brian C off to his new job in fine style – and I used the opportunity to record Buy me a Beer in front of a live audience.  Yes, I got permission from Party Boy and the management of the Golf Course first, so I may be a self-involved putz, but I’m not entirely without a clue. Also, I distributed neck rubs all round, except for the people who said NO, and it’s amazing how many of them I just said, “I know YOU’RE passing” to, and they just looked at me… then the next person would openly mock them and thank their good fortune.  This happened more than once, so the cumulative effect was quite funny.  One of the people I worked on had been shit on by a crow, but I worked on her ANYWAY because the crow was considerate enough to let fly along her spine well below her shoulders.  Also recorded Housewife’s Lament.  There were forty people there at the height of the festivities, largest turnout I’ve seen in 11 years of employment…. Maybe 45.  There was a LOT of people there.  I was going to do a guest list.  LTGW gave me, Jeff, Keith and Patricia rides home, or roughly home- the 25 bus was waiting for us at Brentwood, as if it was meant to be.

Another NCIS blowout day.  I made waffles for breakfast, unbelievably good meatloaf for dinner, wiped off the back deck table, wiped off the kitchen counters, folded some laundry (which Jeff did, and thanks cats! for urinating on Keith’s bedclothes!) and otherwise did squat.  I’m having a lazy day.

Tomorrow Scary Clown and Keith and Jeff and I are going to eat brunch down on Main St.  Then in the afternoon I hope to see daughter Katie, who really is a very nice woman to talk to on the phone.  And I talked to Peggy, and I talked to my mother, and Mike called to tell me that Bounce’s clone, in the form of a 5 month old male kitten, has cruised into his life.  He’s been adopted.  That makes him happy.  Happier making still is that it’s Jerome’s stag tonight.  Mike vaguely quoted the email saying something about how Jerome didn’t want anything too stupid or strange, but uh, anytime I’VE ever gone drinking with those guys, magically delicious, improbably fun things happen, so seeing as how they will be drinking AND the Dalai Jarmo will be there, I suspect a good time will be had by all.

Jeff bought an elcheapo camera to record the antics of the cats in the living room, as time without number one of the cats has done something unutterably cute and we’re blocks from a camera.  It lives in the living room now.

I watched my newly posted video a couple of times, and about halfway through the video (deleted as being pretentious bushwah, with a side of smug).

The air conditioner is running.  A Kenyan took gold in the marathon.  The world is okay.

Sundry and various plus HDR

A picture of Vancouver at night in HDR format.

It’ll make a nice break from Tetris on my phone.

Guess where I’m going tonight?  You can tell Mike has been here! We fed him halibut and salad and ice cream and fresh mango last night.  We also drank beer and watched BSG. And traded bodywork, it would hardly be like seeing Mike if that didn’t happen.  I might as well just leave the massage table set up in the living room, but I’m trying to fix it so you can drink beer, watch tv and get worked on at the same  time and my tiny pea brain can’t fathom a solution.

I love science “Cinderella” stories.

You ever get the feeling that you MUST learn what the lyrics are?

I have had the worst 7777ing case of “mondegreen” for the last 6 weeks or so.  The playlist on my MP3 player currently includes the B52’s Love Shack.  Towards the end Cindy yells ….. something.  Honestly, I knew it wasn’t Tanned and Rested, but that’s the only thing my auditory skills could make of the syllables.  It’s actually Tinned roof, rusted.  Now how the hell was I s’posed to figure that out?

Keith here for supper, to pick up the coffee maker and AGAIN forget his taxes (something he’d stop doing if he ever read this blog and learned the manner in which his uncle was mercilessly mocking all but his split screen geekery) and of course I haven’t done mine, so I can hardly lampoon anybody.

The low ebb continues.

The downstairs neighbours’ dog jumped on me.  Basically if the dog sees me it jumps on me.  There’s nothing mean or threatening about it, Meadow’s an adorable dog, just really really poorly trained.

Spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner.  Crudites on the side.

I hear crying from the basement.  Now yelling.  Certain areas of the downstairs resonate more than others.

It’s hard to practice.  I’m going to give the guitar a whirl and see if it stayed in tune.

Barbecue & sundry

The new barbecue got baptized in animal fat last night; Jeff seared three very creditable porkchops and I hacked away at the rest of dinner.  I received a phone call which got me thinking further along the lines of spring, and included an adjuration for me to be ‘more fun’; I have prepared a response for that but unleashing it would involve buying mental bleach for everyone who ever reads this blog.  Jeff and I finished Deadwood season 2.  That’s the one where Al is actually smiling a genuine smile for the last frame.

I hope everybody is thinking about having a great day.   I know I am.  I am not thinking about my taxes; I have filed that under U for Unpleasant, at least for the time being.  It’s not as if the feds aren’t pulling money out of my pocket with every fracking breath I take.

I lost my bank card – again.  Good thing I have another bank account at another bank.

I walked to and from the bus loop at work with ScaryClown yesterday.  Virtually every conversation of his starts with the expression “I was watching a documentary yesterday” and yesterday was no exception.  He had his umbrella with him, so he demonstrated how the little pink cheeked, pigtailed girls of the Cultural Revolution in China were trained to yell “Shia!” and mime disembowelling roundeyes.  All the way down from the bus loop.  I love him dearly, but sometimes…..

I should plan the next falldown.  I need to get everything breakable up off the floor.  I need to unpack, and a hundred thousand other things.  But right now, I need another cup of coffee, and I’m going to go to work.  The 27 bus is working properly again; the stop at Rupert and 22nd is functioning, which makes transiting easier in the morning.  My clothes are all clean and put away; my bed is made.  Perhaps I’m running a temperature.

Migraine aura yesterday.  I have learned that when they come in midday, if I sit tight and don’t look at a computer screen for about half an hour, or go outside and get a breath of air, I don’t get a full bore headache.  Thinking happy thoughts assists.

Weird weather in Vancouver

Last night at about 8:30, Keith and I were watching Cool Hand Luke (Keith’s first time, my fifth at least) when someone outside the house fired the biggest flashbulb ever.  At least, that’s what it looked like.  Both windows in my field of vision lit up like daylight for a fraction of a second.  I had time to look quizzically at Keith, then turn back and shrug, before the thunder arrived.  We estimated that it was about four seconds after the flash; long enough for both of us to dismiss the flash as something other than lightning.  We were wrong.  The thunder was like an earthquake; the house shook violently and I felt the shaking throughout my body.  I couldn’t figure out how the thunder could be that loud if the lightning strike was so far away; Keith suggested that it had indeed been far away, but right above us.  That would explain what we observed.  Of course, what made this particularly interesting for us was that it occurred at the point in the film where – you guessed it – there was a thunderstorm.  Anyway, soon after this event, it started to snow.  And this morning, snow covers the ground.  This is going to be a weird year for weather.

Fun evening

I am up rather earlier than I want to be, but I suppose it’s better than sleeping til two and then cursing the absence of daylight in which to run errands…

The mighty Lunch Bunch was reconstituted – Mike, me, Tom and Jerome.  Happy happy sigh. We watched 3:10 to Yuma and otherwise ate and talked and drank beers.  Brian and Chari turned up and added their brand of conviviality and rude remarks to the mix.  Keith turned up as well.  Jeff and the gang seemed to get along – it’s really hard to imagine that they wouldn’t; it felt kinda strange that after all these years my work family hadn’t met my kin.
I have one other piece of happy news – daughter Katie has been to the VCC and picked out what course she wants to take in September.

I am some contented kitty-cat this morning.  I’m going to laze around for a while and then clean up after the party and then go to the Spit… and a Spit is a Dorothy Dunnett Readers Association meetup, usually including food, books and alcohol.  Then, practicing some more.