Category: Uncategorized

Thursday night marked the return of Date Night, as Taylor and I went out to see Inception instead of staying home to watch Burn Notice. We both liked it; Taylor REALLY liked it. I think I would have liked it more had my enjoyment not been marred by one thing: THEY CLOSED THE TACO BELL IN THE SCOTIABANK THEATRE FOOD COURT. I know; it’s completely unbelievable.

Anyhoo. Friday was a super easy day at work- I was supposed to have three kids but one didn’t show up and of the two that did, one left before lunch. I got to spend a nice afternoon with CT, reading and playing and going out for ice cream. In the evening we headed over to Taylor’s dad’s apartment for a barbecue, which was nice. We got home just before eleven and Sym and I both went straight to bed- she’d been up late the night before and I’d been up since 5:45. Ouch.

Saturday was another early morning for me- puppies really put the kibosh on sleeping in! Taylor and I got coffee and pastries and then Symphony and I ran errands while Taylor did an excellent job of vacuuming and dusting the house (I’d been complaining about feeling like no one helps me out with housework). Usually Sym goes to her dad’s on Saturday afternoons, but he was at a wedding so she got to go to her friend Ali’s house to play. She was there for most of the day, so after I did some housework of my own (dishes and mopping) Taylor and I had the opportunity to run errands without a cranky kid in tow.

Our list:
1. West End Farmer’s Market for veggies
2. Barking Babies for refills of Georgie’s poop-bags
3. New Balance so I could buy new running shoes (for my triumphant return to the gym)
4. HMV to pick up a dvd to watch that night if Sym was too tired for the fireworks (as it turned out, she was too tired for fireworks AND movies)
4. Sears or The Bay to look for an ironing board and a new microwave.

HOWEVER. Things didn’t go exactly as planned. Our trips to the market and Barking Babies were fine, and on our way from Yaletown to Downtown we swung by the Japadog restaurant for Terimayo dogs (teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, carmelized onions & nori).

Unfortunately things were about to get sucky. There’s this tiny falafel/schwarma place on Robson at Granville, and for some inexplicable reason the people there thought it was a good idea, on the busiest shopping street on the busiest day, to pour a huge bucket of greasy slime water all over the sidewalk, from the building to the curb, six feet across. Clearly that place is a real braintrust. I thought it was just regular water so I tried to step across it and OF COURSE I slipped and OF COURSE I feel on my ass in greasy grey sludge. It was so disgusting! It soaked through my shorts (which were dark denim, thankfully), splattered up my legs and was all over my left hand, which broke my fall, overextending my wrist in the process. I also wrenched my knee, bruised my bottom AND hurt my pride. It was humiliating!

I stormed off to wash my hands and legs in the Sears bathroom, but there was nothing I could do about my behind. Taylor said you couldn’t really tell and suggested we try to continue our errands. He went to HMV and I went to New Balance, but after standing there for a while being totally ignored by the entire sales staff I was like “FORGET THIS” and stormed off again. I sent Taylor a text saying I was going home and I may have cried a little bit on the way. When I got there I had to have a shower to get the slime residue off me, and as it turned out it was good I didn’t try on shoes because the slop had gotten into my sandals and the soles of my feet were black. I had to use a pumice to get them clean.

So after that whole mess I didn’t really feel like going back out to finish our errands, so we just went to get groceries for dinner. I made spicy chicken, carrot fries, teeny potatoes and corn on the cob. This meal was about 70% good: I forgot we were out of butter so we didn’t have any for the corn, and I misjudged the times for the carrots and potatoes. I should have put the potatoes on five minutes earlier and the carrots on five minutes later, but it was still pretty good.

I picked Sym up from Ali’s at 7:30, and found her in a state of near-hysterical near-meltdown from all the late nights and activity-filled days. I told her if she had a nap we might be able to go to the fireworks but that didn’t happen. She laid down for about fifteen minutes and came out with a puffy blotchy face and big black eye circles and said “I feel better now,” but I didn’t fall for her clever ruse and sent her back to bed. She ended up sleeping straight through from 8 until 7 on Sunday morning!

Sunday was another super-early morning for me as Georgie needed to go out at 5:30. I also somehow managed to slam the gate on the back of my ankle and ripped it open, but still had to walk the dog with blood dripping into my shoe. Not a good start to the day! I didn’t bother going back to bed and when Taylor woke up we spent an absurdly lazy morning looking at pictures of people’s cosplay outfits from Comic Con and eating cookies for breakfast. After a while I started to feel a little mental so I went to read in bed and fell asleep for an hour or so. I woke up when Clay arrived to pickup Sym and then I managed to get both Taylor and myself in gear to go get coffee.

We still had the previous day’s errands to finish but after the lame excuse for customer service at New Balance I wasn’t about to go back there! Instead we went to the Nike Store (which is closer to my house anyway) and while the service wasn’t much better (I hate having to walk all the way across a store to find an associate and ask for help, like, running shoes are SCIENTIFIC and COMPLICATED they should be there to answer your questions, not gossiping at the cashdesk!) I did find a pair of Pegasuses I liked. They’re kind of ugly and somewhat cheesily Livestrong-branded, but they are like FOOT CLOUDS.

Taylor went to bed not long after we got home. I have a terrible habit of pestering him to stay up until 5 or 6 hanging out with me, but he hits his second awakeness wind around that time and ends up not getting enough sleep. To keep myself from bothering him I decided to go out and took Georgie on a big walk downtown. First we walked past the falafel/schwarma place and I gave them the biggest stink eye in the history of stink eyes. Next we did some shopping- I wanted to get a picnic blanket so I checked HomeSense (nothing, although I did buy some hangers and Georgie peed on the floor, oops) and The Bay, but I didn’t see anything there either. The last place we went was H&M where I got a $15 dress (grey, of course). By this point Georgie was getting really squirrelly so I took her home to read and relax for a while.

I was feeling pretty excited about my new gym shoes so I decided to make my return to the gym that evening instead of waiting until Tuesday. First, though, I needed to walk Georgie so she wouldn’t have any accidents while I was out, and it’s a good thing too. She likes to hide under the couch, and usually I have to poke her out with a stick, but this time she was whining and whimpering, so I pulled the ottoman out and discovered she’d wrapped herself up in an extension cord! I untangled her and then shoved this big stuffed rabbit under the couch so she couldn’t get back there again.

Usually I don’t wear my gym shoes outside, but I really didn’t feel like carrying my whole gym bag and having to lock stuff up so instead I used this great little LeSportsac wristlet my friend Marissa sent me. It’s perfect for carrying my phone, keys, ipod, gym card (and a picture of Taylor and I a friend took in Seattle). I also added some bandaids because of my torn-up ankle, and along with my water bottle this was all I had to bring!

Anyway, I got home from the gym just after eight to find Taylor was awake already! I guess him going to bed earlier doesn’t necessarily mean we have less time to spend together! After I showered we went out to the grocery store again to get stuff for spaghetti, although I’m the only one who ended up eating as Taylor only made enough for one. I think he had a peanut butter sandwich instead. We watched the season 4 premiere of Mad Men and then Taylor went to work and I went to bed. Unfortunately I didn’t have a restful sleep- Claire was poking me in the face all night and Kichou has this weird, honking cough that kept waking me up. Taylor actually has him at the vet right now, so everyone keep your fingers crossed it isn’t something serious!

I’ve been feeling really bummed out recently. Like, sad tired overwhelmed depressed exhausted drained stressed bummed out. It sucks and I’m sick of it since most of the stuff that’s bumming me out are things I have no control over anyway. I feel low physically, emotionally and creatively. I need to shake myself OUT of this funk and here’s how I’m going to do it:

1. Starting next Tuesday (the 27th) I’m going to start going to the gym again. I know that if I start working out again I’ll feel way better about myself AND have more energy.
2. As soon as we finish all the water for the cooler, I’m canceling the delivery service and donating the money I used to spend on it to a charity (tbd- any ideas?) that helps people in developing nations get access to clean water. I’ll feel better because I’m reducing my ecological footprint AND helping others. Win-win! Besides, who am I to argue with the Metro Vancouver tap water campaign?
3. I’m going to (re)start work on my self-portrait painting today. Right now. This will get me out of my creative rut and inspire to create more!

You have questions. Everyone does. Unless you’re Pacey Witter. He may only a fictitious character from a 90’s television show but you’d be an idiot to think that his wisdom isn’t on par with the greatest thinkers of all time.
Did you lose your virginity to your 10th grade English teacher? Of course not. But you could have if you had asked Pacey.
Have you sailed a boat to the Caribbean? Become a stockbroker without any formal schooling? Stole your best friend’s love interest? Have a history of assault on authority figures? If you’ve answered ‘no’ to even one of these questions then you’re dangerously unqualified to make decisions for yourself. Let Pacey carry this burden for you.

Normally I’m not scared of spiders but this was hanging from my living room ceiling and I almost walked into it. With my FACE.

The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir 53/104; Sweet Valley Confidential (Chapter One) 54/104; Everything Matters!: A Novel 55/104

You might think that the 12-page, first chapter of a Sweet Valley book doesn’t count, but YOU’D BE WRONG. Sweet Valley Confidential is the literary event of the decade. You also might have noticed that with every “What I’ve Been Reading” post I say less and less about the actual books. That’s because I don’t really like reviewing books, and I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from reading something just because I didn’t like it (I’ve disliked plenty of well-written books that others have loved). Basically just, READ EVERY BOOK YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON, but if you really want my opinion on something I’ve read feel free to ask.

Sometimes crazy little puppies that won’t calm down and keep trying to chew on babies need to spend a little quiet alone time in their crate.

Georgie has this stuffed pink elephant. It came from the breeder’s house and smells like all her brothers and sisters and mom, so I haven’t washed it. It’s been a month now so the elephant is getting pretty gross, especially since it is Georgie’s favorite toy for one particular activity: humping.

Georgie humping her elephant is basically the funniest thing in the world, like on Saturday night she was humpin’ around and I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. She can’t quite figure out how to do it. She bites to top of the elephant’s head and stands over it and then she kind of… spazzes out. Sometimes she humps it so hard she falls down, or even flips head over heels. I call this a “humpersault.” She’s also almost humped herself off the edge of the bed several times, going both forwards and backwards.

Humping like this is natural behavior for dogs, even female ones. It shows dominance over other dogs (or elephants, as the case may be). As long as is doesn’t get to the point where she starts humping everything I don’t see any reason to discourage it, and right now, Georgie and the elephant are monogamous

For dinner I made pork chops with apples & cranberries poached in white wine and white cranberry, apple and lemon juice. I was going to do like, potatoes or some sort of bread but I totally spaced and we ended up with just one side (broccoli and tomatoes). I’m so embarrassed!

My neighbor had a garden party that night so we hung out in the backyard and ate cakes and had drinks- I inadvertently drank and ENTIRE bottle of pink sparkling wine. WHOOPS. Sym had her friend Ali over for a couple of hours, and then they went over to Ali’s house to see her baby degus. Taylor and I picked Sym up at eleven and we all went to bed as soon as we got home.

I sort of slept in (ie got up to take the dog out at six and then went back to bed) and although I was surprisingly NOT hungover I was totally starving, so we all went to Joe’s for brunch. I’d originally planned on conscripting Sym and Taylor into my house cleaning army but I was feeling too lazy. Instead we spent most of the day reading in the backyard, interneting and sanding the new desk (me), watching cartoons and drawing (Sym), and playing video games (Taylor).

Once Sym was picked up Taylor and I made some tentative plans to go see a movie, but instead I fell asleep while reading. We ended up having nachos and watching Tales from Earthsea, a totally nonsensical and garbled Studio Ghibli film. I didn’t think it was great, but I also didn’t think it was any worse than Howl’s Moving Castle aka the ruination of my favorite book in anime form.

I got up early to take Georgie out again, but when I went back to bed Taylor REALLY let me sleep in – until almost eleven! When I finally got up and had a shower we decided to take the dogs for a walk on the beach. But not just any beach- Dog Beach! It’s down on False Creek just west of the Burrard Street Bridge. It’s kind of small and dank but what it lacks in charm it makes up for in dogs!

Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures, but there were TONS of dogs down there, running around being crazy. Georgie had tons of fun, and even Kichou played for a while! Afterwards we walked along the Seawall to English Bay before heading back up the hill to go home. We dropped off the dogs and had a late lunch at The Speakeasy, then wandered down to Robson St to do a little shopping (I was looking for sale dresses, but all I came home with was a grey striped tank top. Because clearly what I need is another grey tank top, haha).

Symphony was dropped off at around 6:30. We walked Georgie around the park and went grocery shopping for stuff for her lunches this week. Then I painted her nails and we watched cartoons and read in her room- we’re reading Stuart Little and I had promised to read her a chapter yesterday but forgot, so tonight we read extra.

She went to bed at nine o’clock and I spent the evening very lamely tidying (I have such a hard time cleaning anything on the weekend!) and playing with my puppins. Here you can finally see her cool, topaz-coloured eyes.

This weekend was totally low-key and uneventful but honestly, that is just so nice sometimes! I’m all calm and relaxed and ready to face another week of work!