Where do you live?

I've discovered that I'm living increasingly in my computer. Well, maybe not in it, but my world is shrinking. Email, this blog, instant messaging, text messages, and Facebook are all big contributors. I haven't quite figured out how the Facebook addiction happens, but talk to almost any Facebooker who I still speak to using spoken words, not typed words, and they will all say the same thing...something along the lines of "I'm SOOOOOOOO addicted."

I don't know why.

At the same time, I do know that there is a quiet revolt against technology happening amongst my friends. In the last month, I've received real mail from five or six people. Real mail as in on paper, not necessarily in an envelope, came through the slot in the front door, not bills or bank statements, REAL MAIL. Of those people, four of them have said they are stepping away from their email. They're attempting to send postcards, letters and cards. One even said she's trying to pick up the phone instead of sending an instant message or text when arranging a get together...

I like real mail. My mom told me when I was a kid if I wanted letters, I had to write letters. You know what, it worked then. Maybe it will work now. Maybe if I get addicted to real letters, I can kick my Facebook addiction...You know, the whole delayed gratification thing might just work.

So...if you don't get an email response from me, check your mail box in the next week...

But I don't think I'm ready to give up Facebook ... yet

The Police

We spent last night in GM Place, dying of heat but not caring. Because we had tickets to see The Police. I'm not entirely sure how he did it, but Alex managed to get four tickets to concert for us and his brother Steve and his girlfriend Jane. The concert was great. We were up behind the stage, looking right down into Stewart Copeland's drums and gong.

My ears are still ringing, the concert is still playing in my head, I have a second-hand-pot-hangover, but it's all good! And it's a good thing my boss is away because I can barely hear and don't think I'll be very productive today!

Remember When...

playing in the park was what kids did?


Big, old tires, partially buried in the dirt made fun playground equipment!!!

Birthdayness

Alex had a birthday on Friday. He's old. Well, that's probably debatable and disputable, but I think he's old, cause no matter what, he'll always be older than me...yeah, I stole that from my cousin Bret. Anyway, it was his birthday on Friday, but the lucky boy has the two day birthday thing going (possibly three day, but he hasn't emerged yet today, so who knows!)

Friday morning we continued a tradition he started on my birthday last year and we had cupcakes for breakfast...Mmmmm cupcakes from Cupcakes! Then the lucky boy got presents from me and my mom before he went off to work.


He returned home with his lovely balloons from his coworkers.


Yesterday we drove out to his parents' house for some family birthday time. It was a great afternoon.

The candy table in Alex's parents' living room. It's always well stocked...

Larry, Jane and Steve checking out old family pictures

Lemon meringue goodness...if you ask Alex it's better than cake! (notice the candy has been replaced with presents)

Alex, Joan, Larry and Grandma Ina

Fraser

Grandma Ina checking out Steve's 'do

Shannon, Alex, Jane and Steve

Birthdays that last more than one day seem to be becoming common in this household. But it's good Alex had a long birthday this year. It makes up for the missing birthday I'm going to have ;)


What a great day!

Happy Birthday Alex

Have a great day Alex!

xoxoxoxo

what more can I say!

Paperchase obsession

As previously documented, I have a fascination with paper, especially paper from Paperchase. Well today, in my internet wanderings, I quite accidentally discovered that while Paperchase still does not have an online shop, you can purchase some of their lovely paper items from Amazon.co.uk....bad news for the bank account...or I can just wait until I go to London later this year and indulge then.

My chanchito

Heather came to stay last week. Last year she was in Chile for a vacation and she brought me this little clay piggy with three legs. They are supposed to bring luck and good fortune, so I might just have to bring him everywhere with me. I'm in need of luck (the good kind) these days. Maybe he'll ward off the bad luck that's been following me around!!!

Remember When...(we had to go to flag every morning before we could eat breakfast)

I was talking to my friend Paula today and she was telling me that she is putting her photos from when we worked together at Pax Lodge in an album. So, that was eight years ago...anyway, that has meant a lot of remember whens for her as well as exclamations of WHAT THE HECK WERE WE DOING!

After talking to Paula and visiting with Heather and Virginia this week, my brain is totally in Remember When mode! And the three of them (and especially a conversation with Heather) made me think of...remember when we had to go to flag every morning before we could eat breakfast...

Morning Flag - October 2001
Three unknown guest Guides, Doreen, Paola, Shannon, Nadya, Suzanne, Astrid

Twelve Steps might help me kick the Crackbook habit...

but I'm not ready yet...

Sigh...you may have noticed, I certainly have, that I'm not posting anything very often at all, here or over there at p365 where I am still taking the pictures, it's just taking me forever to post them. I'm blaming that on two things. Crackbook which I joined under duress from peer pressure ;) and swimming. The pool reopened this week and I'm so smart I thought, hey, I haven't been in the pool for a month, so I'll just PICK UP WHERE I LEFT OFF...dumb dumb dumb...So now I'm tired.

To make up for it, although my guess is most of those who read my blog are probably also addicted to Crackbook, I posted my movie list...yeah...that's it, it's to make up for me being lazy...nothing to do with my obsession with lists.

On that note, I see the sun is out, so I'm off to take advantage of it before the rain comes back...

ps...I'm not ready to kick the habit, but I've done the first step...I recognize I have a problem!

Fifty-seven of 239

Okay, so in my facebook wanders, I discovered this...and I was curious to see how many of the 239 (what a random number) movies I've seen. Okay, okay, we all know I like lists too.

Apparently if you're seen more than 85 of these movies you have no life and according to this test I have a life...it's a strange assortment of movies and I've seen more of them than I thought, but I know some people will be appalled to see which ones I haven't seen. The ones I've seen are in red. Anyone else care to take the test?!?!?!

Rocky Horror Picture Show
Grease
Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
Boondock Saints
Fight Club
Starsky and Hutch
Neverending Story
Blazing Saddles
Airplane
The Princess Bride
AnchorMan
Napoleon Dynamite
Labyrinth
Saw
Saw II
White Noise
White Oleander
Anger Management
50 First Dates
The Princess Diaries
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Scream
Scream 2
Scream 3
Scary Movie
Scary Movie 2
Scary Movie 3
Scary Movie 4
American Pie
American Pie 2
American Wedding
American Pie Band Camp
Harry Potter 1
Harry Potter 2
Harry Potter 3
Harry Potter 4
Resident Evil 1
Resident Evil 2
The Wedding Singer
Little Black Book
The Village
Lilo & Stitch
Finding Nemo
Finding Neverland
Signs
The Grinch
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
White Chicks
Butterfly Effect
13 Going on 30
I, Robot
Robots
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Universal Soldier
Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
Along Came Polly
Deep Impact
KingPin
Never Been Kissed
Meet The Parents
Meet the Fockers
Eight Crazy Nights
Joe Dirt
KING KONG - only the original
A Cinderella Story
The Terminal
The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Passport to Paris
Dumb & Dumber
Dumber & Dumberer
Final Destination
Final Destination 2
Final Destination 3
Halloween
The Ring
The Ring 2
Surviving X-MAS
Flubber
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
Practical Magic
Chicago
Ghost Ship
From Hell
Hellboy
Secret Window
I Am Sam
The Whole Nine Yards
The Whole Ten Yards
The Day After Tomorrow
Child's Play
Seed of Chucky
Bride of Chucky
Ten Things I Hate About You
Just Married
Gothika
Nightmare on Elm Street
Sixteen Candles
Remember the Titans
Coach Carter
The Grudge
The Grudge 2
The Mask
Son Of The Mask
Bad Boys
Bad Boys 2
Joy Ride
Lucky Number Sleven
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Twelve
Bourne Identity
Bourne Supremecy
Lone Star
Bedazzled
Predator I
Predator II
The Fog
Ice Age
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Curious George
Independence Day
Cujo
A Bronx Tale
Darkness Falls
Christine
ET
Children of the Corn
My Boss's Daughter
Maid in Manhattan
War of the Worlds (original only)
Rush Hour
Rush Hour 2
Best Bet
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
She's All That
Calendar Girls
Sideways
Mars Attacks
Event Horizon
Ever After
Wizard of Oz
Forrest Gump
Big Trouble in Little China
The Terminator
The Terminator 2
The Terminator 3
X-Men
X-2
X-3
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Sky High
Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers 2
Catch Me If You Can
The Little Mermaid
Freaky Friday
Reign of Fire
The Skulls
Cruel Intentions
Cruel Intentions 2
The Hot Chick
Shrek
Shrek 2
Swimfan
Miracle on 34th Street - original version
Old School
The Notebook
K-Pax
Krippendorf's Tribe
A Walk to Remember
Ice Castles
Boogeyman
The 40-year-old Virgin
Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Baseketball
Hostel
Waiting for Guffman
House of 1000 Corpses
Devils Rejects
Elf
Highlander
Mothman Prophecies
American History X
Three
The Jacket
Kung Fu Hustle
Shaolin Soccer
Night Watch
Monsters Inc.
Titanic
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Shaun Of the Dead
Willard
High Tension
Club Dread
Hulk
Dawn Of the Dead
Hook
Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
28 days later
Orgazmo
Phantasm
Waterworld
Kill Bill vol 1
Kill Bill vol 2
Mortal Kombat
Wolf Creek
Kingdom of Heaven
The Hills Have Eyes
I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
The Last House on the Left
Re-Animator
Army of Darkness
Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
Ewoks The Battle For Endor
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Animatrix
Evil Dead
Evil Dead 2
Team America: World Police
Red Dragon
Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal

Friends

My friend Virginia was in town on business for a few days. We spent Friday night at a hockey game, had dinner together on Saturday night, and last night the two of us rode the Seabus over to the North Shore, took some pictures and then rode the Seabus back again. At 10:00 we decided to find some pub fare since neither of us had thought to eat dinner...we sat in cozy little corner and ate and talked (talking, not really a problem for either of us!)...and both commented on how it didn't feel like five years had passed, really it could have been five months or five weeks or even only five days. It amazes me how quickly you can pick up the threads of a friendship and it's like there was no time lapse at all...It's just too bad she lives so far away...we should all have many friends like that!!!

Play-off hockey

Virginia, a good friend who I met at Pax Lodge and who I stayed with and travelled with in Australia, is in Vancouver for a very short period of time on business. We met up this afternoon and since she's never been to a hockey game before, I managed to get us tickets to the Giants game against Medicine Hat tonight. It was an entertaining game, complete with cute kids cheering for Medicine Hat in front of us and me getting a puck in the shoulder (okay, that's THREE THINGS...falling and hurting my back, being on that bus that had that accident, and getting dinged by a hockey puck...it's now time for the bad luck to GO AWAY!).

It's beautiful where I work

It makes it much much easier to go to work when it's this pretty where you work.


And when the view from the boss's office is something like this.

Gardening!

It's that time of year. I can't wait to plant some flowers, but first our deck needed some care and attention. I think it was feeling rather neglected. There were plants growing between the boards and leaves everywhere


a random nutella jar (deposited by our friendly squirrels last garbage day)


and lots of weeds, all making our favourite summer sitting place not so nice.


I discovered the parsley and oregano survived the winter, but the basil and cilantro did not...


there were three fuchsias hiding behind weeds


and my favourite pink flowers are coming back (too bad I don't know what they're called.


Now the weather just needs to stay nice for a few more weeks and then I can plant new stuff!!

Someone got a new toy

Did you know that ring tones come in annoying, more annoying, and super annoying?!?! New phones are fun...choosing ring tones, not so fun for the people around you...oh well, even though it's a fake smile, Alex loves his new phone!!! And that smile, it says the same thing parents say when they (or some well meaning friend or relative) buy their children loud toys with inaccessible batteries or drum sets...

HOW DID YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON THAT THING? Do you think maybe one day he/she will tire of the new toy?

...except in my case it's "Who thought it was a good idea to give you a camera? Maybe one day you'll get tired of it."

Hahahaha...

I don't think so!

Happy weekend

Too bad tomorrow is Monday already...but I feel pretty lucky! I got to see some of my favourite people this weekend.

Alex and I braved downtown yesterday morning. It wasn't so crazy from above...all the people looked like ants down there.

downtown

ant people in front of the Art Gallery

Robson square & the Courthouse

The Orpheum and the Vogue theatres

Heddy and D dropped by for dinner and some animated conversation...

say what?

D reflecting

Alex entertaining

Shannon talking with her hands...what else is new!

D doing skinnamarink...well, maybe not, but still

leftovers

what?!?!?!?!?!?!

belated birthday...mmmmm cheesecake

Heddy

laughter

Fifers at Federico's

Fiona just had a birthday and Friday night we went to Federico's Supper Club to celebrate. Over the last few years, okay, more than a few years, more than twenty years even, I've been to a few of Fiona's birthdays, but this one had to be one of the most unique!

The birthday girl looking GREAT!

The food was super, the company was great, and the entertainment was most entertaining! It was noisy and loud like Italian restaurants should be (noisy and loud are different, really!)

It started with the man with his accordion

and progressed to Federico, Uncle Emo, and Shannon the back-up singer.


We had a blast!

Duncan and Fiona tearing up the dance floor

Jessica teaching Fiona to salsa

Time to go home I think!

Those who comment...

Okay, so this was originally a Facebook thing, but I think it should be a blog thing too...just cause I'm bored. Now, I didn't think I had even twelve readers, let alone twelve people who comment. I went back back back and found the last twelve commenters and I really only know eight of them, of the other four, one googled herself to find me (Wendi Aarons) and I'm positive the other three "Next Blog" buttoned their way to me. Anyway, here it goes

Look at your comments and then take the names of the last twelve people who have commented on your blog. If they've commented more than once, only use their name once and skip to the next person. Got it?

1. Heddy
2. Chandra
3. Professor Howdy
4. Punk (Rebecca)
5. JOY
6. evie raven star
7. Lord Brat (Alex)
8. Wendi Aarons
9. Theana
10. raceface (Kelsey)
11. Fifers
12. Hans

Q: Have you ever kissed 7? Um, well, Alex is my fiance. When my cousin (guess which one family members) asked me if I ever kissed Alex, I asked her what she thought and she said NO! and walked away...you decide!

Q: What's the best memory you have of 9? Making leis for graduation and taking our last extended weekend at her place and sleeping in and stuff. Oh, and Theana making sure I knew the difference between left and right and practicing over and over and over with me for the hula for graduation.

Q: When's the next time you're gonna see 4? I just saw her on Sunday...probably see Rebecca again in June or July sometime.

Q: Is number 8 pretty? I don't know. I've never met her/seen a picture of her.

Q: What was your first impression of number 10? probably something along the lines of "oh great, there's one of the two screaming babies who stole my mommy and daddy" or "why doesn't she want to play games with me...I thought new babies were supposed to be instant playmates."

Q: How did you meet 3? Um, he just commented on my site.

Q: Is 11 your best friend? Oddly enough she is.

Q: Have you seen 5 in the last month? I don't know this person either. She just commented. I think she's from Ireland.

Q: Do you think 2 has a crush on you? Don't think so!

Q: When was the last time you saw 12? After his wedding in August for all you can eat sushi

Q: Have you ever been to 1's house? Yes!

Q: When's the next time you'll see 10? Probably when I see Rebecca aka #4, in June or July.

Q: Are you really close to 3? No, I don't know him.

Q: Have you ever been to the movies with 4? Umm, yeah. She used to get mad at me cause I used to take my shoes off...and I fidget

Q: Have you ever gotten in trouble with 2? Ummm...I don't think so

Q: Would you ever go out with number 7? I'm marrying him...so I guess I had to go out with him!

Q: What do you and number 3 talk about the most? Nothing. I don't know him.

Q: Do you even know 9? Yup! We went to high school together.

Q: Would you give number 3 a hug? Not likely. Like I said up there, I don't know him!

Q: Are you in love with number 12? No

Q: Do you know a secret about number 8? Nope

Q: Describe the relationship between number 9 and number 5. Theana is a friend of mine and JOY is a random commenter.

Q: What is the best thing about your friendship with number 10? She's AWESOME and my sister and fun.

Q: Have you ever danced with number 7? I think so.

Q: How long have you known number 12? Since 2001 when he swept Megan off her feet...or something like that.

Q: Have you ever been in a fight with number 8? Nope

Q: Would 2 and 4 make a good couple? Probably not, they're both girls who like boys.

Q: Have you ever wanted to punch number 2 in the face? No way.

Q: Has number 1 ever met your mother? Yes.

Q. How did you meet number 6? She left a comment.

Q: What would happen if you put 10 and 11 in a room together? Probably laughter.

Q: Did you ever accidentally physically hurt number 5? No.

Q: What is the best memory you have with number 1? Ummm...Friday night beer any night of the week, the Silverwing launch party (hehehehe....mwahahahaha), the "camping experience," working for Sammy...lots of other too.

Q: Do you live close to 7? Um, he lives in my house.

Q: What is number 2's favorite food? Stuff she can't have?

Q: Out of your top 12, which one would you say is the funniest? well, rebecca is cracks me up regularly, but the others who I actually know have been known to make me laugh many times, some of the have been known to induce tears of laughter and sore tummy muscles....

Q: Who is the most flirtatious? evie raven star (even though I don't know her...) I'm guessing

Q: Say something nice about number 11. I've know her for way too many years to count and we're still friends even though UBC made us live together and she's super and she's going to be my maid of honour.

Q: Which one lives the farthest away? Hans

Q: Which one do you hang out with the most? Alex

Q: The quietest? Fiona, but she's totally deceptive!!!

Q: What kind of car does number 12 have? I'm not sure.

Q: Have you traveled anywhere with number 8? cyberspace?

Q: If you gave number 3 $100 dollars tonight, what would they spend it on? I don't know. Don't know Professor Howdy.