News At 11.

I's a busy girl this weekend, so I'm turning it over to you....


How was your January? What's your highlight reel?


What are you looking forward to in February? What are your coming attractions?


Um, why am I speaking in movie metaphors? Oscar season overload maybe?

My Own Little Sit-Com

So you know that thing that they do in movies and tv shows when they're trying to make the main characters look really silly?

That thing where two of them are looking for each other and one goes into the room through one door while the other goes into the hall through the other door and then they both realize that the person's in the place they just left so they go back in but of course the other person's just gone in the other direction and it takes them a minute to realize this but then they both go back the other way which of course means they both miss each other again?

Yeah, you know what I'm talking about? Well, my co-worker and I did that yesterday, without even meaning to, I'm not exaggerating, FIVE TIMES!

Seriously, if I hadn't done it myself I wouldn't have believed me.

*shakin' my head at us*

I'm Totally Blushing Right Now.

Yay for saving energy!*

*And thanks to Nola for the opportunity to help her spread the word about how easy it is to be Power Smart!

Look, Shiny!

The main purpose (nay, the sole purpose!) of this photo is to distract you from the embarrassing story I'm about to tell you.

Although, it's really not that embarrassing, I just feel pretty dumb about it.

See, my brother's heading out of country for a month and since he has a PC and my parents have a Mac (yay Macs!) it was suggested they Skype while he was away instead of iChatting. (Which is a word I just made up, methinks)

So I went over to their place and helped them set up their Skype account. Turns out I'd already done this in previous years and they already had an account.

And the embarrassing thing is? I did too.

And had no idea.

So now I have a Skype account and have no recollection of my password or the email address I use to initially sign up.

Which means both my parents and my brother can Skype me but I'll never be able to answer because I don't know I exist.

Or something.

Letting it All Out

I was a ball of emotions last week and found myself sobbing and sobbing at what I thought was a very moving Grey's Anatomy episode.

I was so upset that I couldn't stop crying and since I had to get to sleep at some point to look decent for work the next day, I went on YouTube and watched Friends bloopers. (I'm not sure how I ended up watching them, just that I knew I needed something funny to watch and "Friends" stuff came up and from there I made it to bloopers and that totally made me smile)

So last night, I decided to just see what came up when I searched for "bloopers" in YouTube and I laughed so hard I cried and couldn't breathe at this little collection. Seriously, tears streaming down my face laughing.

I think the first clip and last clip were what really did me in. Enjoy!


 TV News Bloopers

Looking Out For Each Other

I'm driving home from a spy gig last night when my co-worker and girlfriend Dee (she of cute single friend fame) calls me on my cell.

"Turn around and come back." she says. We were both at the same location and left at about the same time so I thought she might be having car troubles.

"Why, what's up?" I ask, angling my car to the side in order to pull a U-turn to head back.

"Seriously hot guys are running by, you have to come back and check them out. Seriously. So hot."

And that, my friends, is what friends are for.

I Almost Forgot!

To wish you a Happy Chinese New Year!

Sleeping it Off

I guess it's flu season, what with all the hacking and coughing and people who sound like they're lifelong 80 year old smokers surrounding me. Not to mention the stomach thing that's going around, which may or may not be the flu but oh lord please stay home when you're sick because I do not wants what you has.

One of the ways I know that my immune system is working its butt off to keep the germs at bay is what happened Saturday. I came home from a lunch out with some girlfriends and got caught up on Lost (which, really, how did that episode go by so quickly, was I caught in my own time warp or something?) and then realized I just needed a few minutes with my eyes closed before I headed to the gym, or caught up on emails or something.

And when I woke up it was nine o'clock.

At night.

Starve a fever, feed a cold? Not me. For me it's sleep a fever and a cold.

Plus some Vitamin C and hand washing just for good measure.

Today We Celebrate

To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough

by Robert Burns

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion,
Has broken nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell-
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e'e.
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!



Happy Burns Day y'all.

Whew

My alarm went off last night at 6:30 pm.

Which was good, because it meant I found out I'd set it incorrectly last night instead of Monday morning.

When, you know, it wouldn't have gone off.

Yikes.

A Light Haunting

I keep seeing Smith this week.

First of all, I was emptying out a drawer looking for a specific item a couple of weeks ago and I found a CD. I wasn't sure what was on it, so I opened it up on my computer and found I'd kept all the early, romantic emails from Smith, and all the photos I'd ever taken of him, and us.

And it wasn't a nice feeling; seeing them and reading the couple of emails I opened. It made me miss what I thought we were going to have all over again.

But, I didn't linger long over the CD and I recycled it and moved on.

Until yesterday, when I was in the grocery store and the man in line in front of me struck up a conversation about chocolate with me. And, let me tell you, this guy could have been Smith.

Same look, same height, same hair, same way of talking and moving and all of it. Same.

It was weird, because I didn't realize it until mid-way through the conversation and when I did, I didn't quite know what to do with myself.

It made me want to run home and call him and get back together, because Smith had a certain charm about him, and this guy did too.

But, then again, don't they all?

I'm not sure why I keep running into Smith reminders lately, but maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it's a final purging before the Universe moves me on.

Or maybe it's a reminder.

I'm just not sure what of.

The Opposite of Fading

I had a dream a while ago, in fact, it's got to be close to a couple of weeks ago now (certainly long before that wonderful event), that I can still remember. And that's unusual.

When I woke up, I thought "I have to blog this" it was such a real/vivid dream and I was sure that someone out there (ie. y'all) would be able to figure out what my psyche was telling me (heh, I typed 'psycho' by mistake. giggle)

But I never got around to writing about it and I figured that the dream would just eventually fade away and I'd forget about it.

But I haven't and it isn't. So here goes:

I was playing outside in the backyard of the house I grew up in, it was summer, either the weekend or summer holidays. I was me, but younger, but not, all at the same time.

I looked up at an airplane in the sky to see it's vapour trail (you know, the long white line they sometimes leave behind in the blue sky?) and I noticed that the vapour trail was wobbly, not straight.

Since this is unusual, I followed the trail to see why the plane wasn't flying straight. The airplane, which was a big airliner, was towing stuff behind it. A lot of stuff. It was like a tug boat in the sky, carrying a whole lot of concrete and other building materials all tied together with a long, strong rope or cable stretching out behind it. And the plane was having to fly from side to side to keep things going, because, of course, they don't usually tow stuff.

As I was watching this and thinking it didn't look quite right, our boarder came out. (We never had a boarder when I was growing up, by the way) He was older than I was in the dream (21 or so?) and gorgeous. I, of course, had a crush on him. He came out and we both stood there watching the plane, when it began to bank and turn.

Apparently carrying cargo wasn't working out for the pilot and he needed to land. So he started to turn and circle, and before we knew it he was flying quite low over our neighbourhood. (Not far above the trees in my backyard, really)

Our boarder started to run, and I followed after him, and he went to the abandoned lot where the plane had landed, and I just stood at the end of the driveway and watched him go. I was about to get my bike to follow when I woke up.

What I remember from the dream is that it was very real. And it didn't occur to me until a bit after I'd woken up that planes don't tow things like that. And I feel like I should know who the boarder was, but I don't.

I just can't remember the last time a dream stuck with me for so long, but there you go.

Analyze away!

What If The Mightiest Word Is Love?

Praise song for the day. - Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each other's eyes -- or not -- about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise.

All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum, with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus. A farmer considers the changing sky. A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words -- words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side. I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe. We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle. Praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign, the figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "love thy neighbor as thyself." Others by "first, do no harm" or "take no more than you need."

What if the mightiest word is "love" -- love beyond marital, filial, national; love that casts a widening pool of light; love with no need to preempt grievance?

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun. On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp, praise song for walking forward in that light.

And Also?

Happy Inauguration Day, USA.

I'm excited for you.

Out of it

I was a little bit kerjumpled last week, which for those of you who don't understand the feeling of "kerjumpled" just means that things were bumpy.

Knowing that, it was still weird to find myself eating a spoonful of dry cookie mix (someone gave me a bag of Betty Crocker "add butter and an egg" sugar cookie mix) straight from the package.

It was putting the spoon back in for the second spoonful that made me question just how out of it I was.

My solution was to cook the damn things before I ate my way through an entire bag of dry cookie mix and had to figure out just what that said about my emotional state. It was either that or throw the rest of the bag out, and that just seemed like a waste.

Slightly burnt sugar cookies anyone?

Oooooooh

We've been having a lot of fog around these here parts lately.

And while I don't have a photo of it, even if I did it wouldn't show you what it's been like.

Maybe it's just me and my memory, but I don't know when I've last seen fog like this so many days in a row.

Now, I'm sure there are people from we-get-lots-of-fog places (San Fransisco perhaps?) who are rolling their collective eyes at me right now, but bear with me, this is a bit of a novelty.

See, usually if we get fog, it's just kind of there. And sometimes it's there, but not really, or you can see that the clouds are a little low on the Sooke Hills or something, but that's about it.

This fog has been very much here. As in, right there kind of here. You can walk out to your car and have cloud rolling in front of your very eyes. It's bizarre to me because the fog that I'm used to is just there, but this stuff moves. This fog rolls and it's the rolling and moving that gets me. And it's chilly, this fog-moving-cloud-stuff that we've been having lately and there's been more than a few days of it.

Usually our fog comes in the morning and is gone before lunch. Well before lunch. This stuff is coming in morning and staying through afternoons and collecting itself after dinner for a solid night.

I went over to my girlfriend's house the other night and I'm not making it up, got lost on her sidestreets on the way home because I could not see. So because I could not see the signs, and could barely see the streets themselves, I drove on instinct and since they moved to their house not too long ago, the instincts they weren't so good and I got lost. In the fog. For reals.

As I write this, it's a clear, bright, sunny day and I'm loving it, and we'll see what the next week or so brings us. But for now, the fog has been pretty cool. I've liked the feeling of being able to see the clouds on the same level as I am. Made me feel magical, somehow.

How's your weather been?

Bleargh

Today is a make decisions kind of day and I just don't want to.

So, people:

Yes or no?

and should I

Stay or go?

and should I

Not bother or just sign up and see?

Make my decisions for me pleeeeeeeeease?

Kthxbye.

I Lightened Up

I've got the power!

Well, actually, I've cut the power.

My power.

Usage, that is.

You probably don't remember this post from over a year ago, (go on, read it, you know you want to) but in November of 2007 I committed to cutting my electricity usage by 20%.

I just got my results, and I'm really proud to say that last year, (drum roll please) I cut my power consumption by (dramatic pause while the envelope is opened)


25%!


YAY ME!

Now, I know most of you non BC residents won't know what I'm talking about, but for the rest of you, can you now sing me the "I've got the power" song like in the commercials? (Or you could just sing along to this (which, I'm going to admit is a song I quite possibly know all the words to)


Snap - I Got The Power

And also I found this while searching for the BC Hydro Power ads and it made me smile.


Power Smart Man

The point is, if I can do it, you can do it. So go out there and reduce your energy use!

Um, but don't unplug your computer til after you've read this post, kay?

Hmmmm

I was changing out of my top at the gym yesterday, a top that my Mom bought in Europe but then decided she didn't like, and it looks really cute on me, but the thing is, as I was taking it off, I decided to take a look at the label, where I found the warning "keep away from flame".

Um, so, are you telling me I'm going to, like, explode if I accidentally catch this thing on fire? What if I wear it in the sun? Can I still dry it in my building's "roast everything dry" industrial dryer?

I'm a little concerned.

And Nine?

My car was overdue for an oil change.

I know this because the oil change people sent me a reminder to let me know that my car was overdue for an oil change and they looked forward to seeing me again.

So I went in. On Sunday.

I thought that going in on a Sunday would mean I wouldn't have to wait in line for so long, and it was a little shorter of a wait, but still, that place must be making a killing, because whenever I go in I'm one of a bunch of people waiting at the three service bays. It boggles the mind.

Or, at least, it boggles mine. That's not always hard to do.

But it's never good news when I go in for an oil change. I know part of it is them upselling, trying to squeeze a little more money out of me by letting me know that this needs a filter change or that needs a transmission blow out or something (which, I may have remembered the name wrong, because isn't a blow out something women get done to their hair?) and this time was no different. Not great news.

My car has leaks. My sweet, serving me well, starting to be over the hill '91 has leaks. Gasket and transmission or some such stuff.

Does anyone go into those places and have good news? Like, hello, your car is in awesome shape and nothing's wrong with it so we changed the oil and have a nice day?

I feel sorry for my car.

And, in unrelated news, I can't believe it's 2009. Two thousand and nine? Really?