These days, if I didn't blog from work, I'd not blog at all...yikes!! Can you believe it, it's the Back to School version of the Friday Five:

1. Are you going to school this year?

I'm not enrolled in classes but I do go to school everyday. I work at a University.

2. If yes, where are you going (high school, college, etc.)? If no, when did you graduate?

I graduated from community college in 1987 and 1/3 of the way through my bachelors of arts degree, not sure when I'll actually convocate.

3. What are/were your favorite school subjects?

I've always enjoyed English Literature, well, specifically Canadian Lit.

4. What are/were your least favorite school subjects?

I went to Catholic school and really resented having to take religious studies because it was a really huge crock of shit. The alternative to this would have been to go a local public high school in a rural area. I put up with the religion and the nuns to be close to my friends and go to school in the city.

5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite?

One of my favourite teachers is my English 110 prof, Donna Vitorio. She's an interesting lecturer, a really fair person, and she's able to put a feminist slant on Chaucer!

The week is just flying by. I'm busier than the proverbial one-armed paper hanger.

We did take some time out on Monday and Tuesday night to get our Canadian Idol fix. Again, I was completely disappointed by the results on Tuesday night. Probably the most talented person in the top five is now gone, Jenny Gear. It was down to her and our Ryan. After Toya's elimination last week, I wouldn't have been shocked to see him go. I felt bad for Jenny and Ryan because they have beautiful voices and had to pick some schmaltzy Elton John sing to sing. Jenny, quite frankly, sang the shit out of Rocketman but her voice was way too good for the song. It looks, seriously, like everyone in la belle province is voting for the skank from Quebec and that the west is voting for Billy Goat. Either one of them should be long gone already.

I still find myself a little surprised that I'm so into it. I think it's because Ryan's from Amherstview. It's very cool to drive around town and see "vote for Ryan Malcolm" plastered everywhere. I am pretty sure that more people are voting for him on Monday nights than voted in the last election. That is a sad comment on our electoral process of late but there you have it.



Fortunately, it's almost the weekend. I'm not sure exactly why I'm looking forward to it as we're both working this weekend. Maybe it's because it's Labour Day weekend and things will be getting back to "normal" again once September rolls around. It sure feels like September today, not that I'm complaining. It's just weird that a week ago, I thought I would explode (literally) from the heat and today I have long pants and cold hands. August is a weird month, I won't be sad to see it end!

Fotolog is being a huge pain lately. When I first joined, I had a gold membership and happily posted lots of pictures every day. The first few days were okay, good service and all, but it got to a point where it would time out on me every time I'd try to upload something. If I had the free membership, I wouldn't have minded so much, you get what you pay for and all, but with a gold membership, I figured that the thing should at least work more often than not. I let my membership lapse because of this. I still post stuff, I try to do it daily, when I can get on. It's a little frustrating.

The weekend was pretty busy for us and I wasn't in front of the computer at home much. Work's getting really really busy right now and will be for the next 6 weeks. This is our "peak" time of year. We're busy in our office all year 'round but late August and the month of September are particularly nutty. We get to catch our breath for a bit in mid October but that doesn't last for long.

Finally, the humidity broke over the weekend. I actually had to put on long pants on Sunday, for the first time in, well, almost forever. It got really chilly and nice on Sunday actually. The temperature has started to rise again (and the humidity too) but at least now, we can use our air conditioning again. It's busy in here but at least we have air again. Let's hear it for the ability to breathe!

I feel like vomitting and crying at the same time (from the alt tentacles newsletter):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
R.I.P. WESLEY WILLIS

Dear Friends and fellow Wesleynauts,

We are deeply saddened to report that one of our artists, Wesley Willis passed away yesterday, Thursday, August 21st. Wesley will be greatly missed by all that had the privilege to know him, as well as the fans who have been fortunate enough to experience his genius.

Wesley was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) at the end of 2002, and had to undergo emergency surgery on June 2nd to identify the source of, and to suppress internal bleeding. It is not clear if this bleeding was related to his leukemia or not, and the exact cause of death is still unknown. Wesley had been recovering at a Hospice in Illinois, and since the surgery his health had declined.

His songs were simultaneously disturbing, hilarious, blunt, and intoxicating. Wesley's sheer excitement and unaffected honesty about every cultural phenomenon, defined his music as truly individual, and truly punk rock. Wesley released well over 50 albums - 3 of which are on Alternative Tentacles, and a 4th, entitled, Wesley Willis Greatest Hits Vol. 3 (LP/CD) had already been scheduled for release in October of this year.

For more information on Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, please visit http://leukemia-lymphoma.org

For more info:
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/wesleywillis.htm

This week's Friday Five, hot off the press:

1. When was the last time you laughed?

This morning, while I worked out, watching Will & Grace on DVD.

2. Who was the last person you had an argument with?

A silly woman I work with.

3. Who was the last person you emailed?

I can't remember who exactly but it was work related and it was yesterday afternoon, at the office.

4. When was the last time you bathed?

Yesterday, in the morning. I'm heading off to the shower again soon.

5. What was the last thing you ate?

A blue freezee pop last night, while we watched TV. It was yummy!

Weee...another silly quiz!!


Venus Flytrap


What classic sitcom character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Hotness Report:

It's still hot here.

I'm sure that it's still hot where you are.

It's not as disgusting at my desk right now as it was yesterday though. We ran a dehumidifier last night and have kept our windows closed today. It's really gross whenever you move from room to room. When it's cool and breezy you don't notice the aromas of this building. This building is almost 200 years old so it's got a lot of must and dust stuff going on. It can be quite stinky in this weather.

I'll be glad when the conservation thing is over because it's just making everyone physically ill. Not good! I guess it doesn't help that it's going on during the hottest days of the summer either.

Other than the weather, there's not a lot going on. We took Mark's dad for groceries last night. That was a little weird. Loblaws had the A/C on but most of the lights were out. I actually quite liked it. I think it's an overly bright store anyway. Fortunately, they had the boxes of 50 jumbo freeze pops on sale for $3.99 so I picked up 2 of them. This weekend, it'll be sit in front of the fan and eat freezees time.

We've been receiving parcels every day this week. At the beginning of the summer, I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon, well, pre-ordered actually, and had totally forgotten about it. So, in the past week, we've received: This is Coronation Street, Will & Grace: Season 1, The Awful Truth: Season 1 & 2, Bowling for Columbine, Futurama: Season 2, NYPD Blue: Season 2 and a double EBTG Disc.

It's hugely expensive but it will be nice to just veg out this weekend, and watch TV and avoid the heat. I also love that I have fun, commercial free stuff to watch while I workout. It makes it go SO much faster that way.

Well, I'm off to see how much longer I can avoid doing any real work...

It's hot here. Fucking hot. Insanely hot. hot hot! Change the record you say. I know that I keep complaining about the heat but it's only because it's 28 degrees in my office and there is 70% humidity at the moment. I've been drinking water all day and have only peed once. That's crazy. My eyeballs feel like they are going to cook solid and look like two hard boiled eggs in my sockets. For the past hour or so, not much work has been done in our office. It's too hot. It's actually hard to breathe in here. I think that the office should be closing at 2:30 every afternoon but who am I to say? Just a slow cooking egg eyeball person in a cube with a view.

Energy conservation is one thing but this is crazy. I think I'll go fill my blue box with water and soak my feet until it's time to go home. Yuck!

I've outted myself here before. I will admit it. I am hooked on Canadian Idol.

We're a Ryan Malcolm household as he is from the same subdivision that I am from, his family runs a business around the corner from my parents' home. I also love Jenny Gear, that newfie cutie. Love her!

I always figured that when it came down to the top three, it would be Ryan, Jenny and Toya Alexis. Unfortunately, she got voted off the show tonight. Ordinarily, if someone I like gets voted off, I'm like, "so, whatever" but she should not have been voted off. There is something really fishy going on. I'm not sure if the voting was fucked up because of the power outage or if Ajax didn't have cable last night (I know that they were one of the last communities to come back online after the blackout) so they didn't know what number to call to vote for her. Audrey and Billy should NOT be moving on. They were both weak last night.

I hope that someone looks into this because it just feels wrong. I know that it's just a TV show and it's not a matter of life and death but Toya kicked everyone's ass last night. When the judges boo a vote result, you know something is not right.

Toya was very gracious about it though and I'm sure she'll go further with her talent than any of the remaining competitors (Ryan and Jenny included).

Wow, I didn't post all weekend. It wasn't because I was super busy or anything (although I did get a lot of stuff done around the house). I guess it was because we weren't in front of the machine much, you know, trying to conserver energy and all.

I must admit that I'm a rather cheap so & so and, being that I'm old enough to remember the original broadcasts of Woodsey the Owl, I've also been big on not wasting hydro. I just can not give those bastards at the PUC any more money than is absolutely necessary. We like burning candles and very rarely have many lights on our house in the evening. We have 3 small, energy efficient window air conditioners which we run, sparingly, because I suffer with allergies all summer. We never use our oven in the spring / summer and barbecue as often as we cook on top of the stove.

We did try to do our part on the weekend though. When I finally gave up and had to vacuum, I made sure that everything else in the house was turned off. Same for laundry. It got to a point where I absolutely had to do wash. I did it in the middle of night or the wee hours of the morning, when I knew that consumption would be down and when I wasn't using any other hydro draining appliances.

I'm back at work today after a four day weekend. It wasn't as glamorous as it sounds, I did a lot of work in the garden at the back of the house. The weeds had practically taken over the patio, it was pretty gross. I filled an entire paper yard waste bag with what I pulled out of the patio and the four flower beds that surround it. Mark did the lawn while I was doing that and it looks really nice now. In fact, because the humidity finally broke over the weekend, we spent a lot of time out there on Sunday and Monday. When it's hot and muggy, it's easy for me to ignore the weeds because I keep the living room curtains closed. Once the weather got nice though, I had no choice but to deal with it. Also, while we sat out there during the blackout on Thursday night, the weeds were driving me batty!

Work is pretty busy today but not totally crazy. Fortunately, we have an awesome student who comes in part time to help us out. Her mum works with us so, on the days that she can't come in, I send stuff home with her mum and she works from home. She's completely saving our bacon this summer and she's making my job so much easier.

Speaking of work, I should get back to it. The day is just flying by!

Talk about an unholy alliance. I'm also a little confused, I thought that Bush was pissed at Jean about the whole pot thing and here he is, probing the blackout with a joint?!?

Bush, Chretien, agree to joint probe into blackout

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada and the United States agreed to a joint probe into the causes of a power outage in parts of Canada and the United States, Chretien's office said.

The two countries "have today agreed to form a joint task force to identify the causes of the recent power outage that affected North America and to seek solutions to help prevent future outages," the statement from Chretien's office said.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and US President George W. Bush spoke by telephone late Friday, an official said.

Governments on both sides of the US-Canada border have pointed the finger at each other. They have shown themselves to be confused about how and even where the massive blackout started.

Chretien said Thursday night it started in Niagara in New York State. However, Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum, speaking 20 minutes later and during the same press conference, said at first that it was a nuclear blast at a plant in Pennsylvania and later that it had occurred somewhere else.

By Friday morning, McCallum said it was all caused by a failure somewhere in the US Midwest. By Friday afternoon, he admitted "there has been a lot of confusing information" and he didn't know where it all started.

South of the border US leaders claimed the outage started somewhere in Canada. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg insisted it all started in Canada, a charge angrily denied by Canadian authorities.

The new joint task force will be jointly chaired by Canada's federal Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwa and US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, said Chretien's office.

The task forces will include other members from both federal governments, from Canadian provincial governments and US state administrations as well as private-sector electricity providers.

Well, we're pretty lucky. Our power has been on all day, without so much as a flicker. I was talking to some friends in Toronto this afternoon. They only just had had their power restored at around 3 p.m.

They say that we could lose it again as they take parts of the grid down to fix others. I don't know for sure that our neighbourhood would be affected by this for a couple of reasons. One is that we're very close to a major sub-station and the other is that the substation we're close to, supports the command center for our local Utilities commission. We're very close to downtown. The black outs seems to be hitting the suburbs mostly.

We've kept our ceiling fans on all day and except for the computer and TV once in a while, we're conserving as much energy as possible. We didn't cook tonight and we're planning to barbecue on the weekend.

Today was quiet. I was sent home from work and Mark was so slow that he quit early. It was a nice, unplanned, long weekend. I wish that the circumstances were a little cheerier but a long weekend is a long weekend. I was really concerned about his dad through all of this. He's 78 and he had some heart trouble in the spring. His breathing isn't as great as it should be. Overall, he's a little fragile at the moment. Also, four years ago today, Mark's mum passed away so they have been both been thoughtful and a bit emotional today. It was almost a good thing that they both had the distraction of the black out today. Fortunately, Mark's dad's power came on a few hours after ours did and it's been on all day. We took him out for lunch today and he's doing well. I'm sure that the worst of this is behind us. I hope so anyway!

I don't have much planned for the weekend. We're on water and power restrictions so technically, we're not supposed to be doing too much. That's fine with me. I may just find a shady spot outside and read a little bit. The lawn needs cutting and the garden needs weeding but it may just have to wait. It's too damned hot out to do much of any of that kind of stuff. I think we can all use a lazy weekend after yesterday. Speaking of lazy, I'm off to bed now. 'night all!

So we still have power and a Friday Five, what more could ask for?

1. How much time do you spend online each day?

It varies. I use a computer at work and am constantly online for work purposes there. I'd say between 10 & 12 hours a day through the week, a couple of hours per day during the weekend.

2. What is your browser homepage set to?

my.yahoo.ca

3. Do you use any instant messaging programs? If so, which one(s)?

I use Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger and ICQ. I always have YM & ICQ open but I use MSN the most. I must say that I miss Powwow a lot, it was the first one I'd used and really liked it.

4. Where was your first webpage located?

Yikes, probably the school's server. I had an undergrad unix account and I had a small page on it. I can't even remember what it was called though it was so long ago!

5. How long have you had your current website?

I think it was in early 2002. I started the blog in September 2002 so I've been doing that for almost a year now. Wow! That's seems like a long time, yet not really.

Yay! The power is back on.

It came back on at 10:50 p.m. here. From a dead sleep, I heard our computer come on (our UPS had shut it down and I totally forgot to manually turn it off like I had done with everything else). I reset my alarm clock but I didn't turn the a/c on.

I'm prett surprised that I slept through an entire night without air conditioning, I'm such a spoiled baby! The one thing I did turn back on last night was our ceiling fan. Anyway, I'm off to workout, just wanted to let you all know (for those of you with power anyway!) that we're okay! Hope you're all well and safe too!!

I'm not sure what the situation on campus is this morning but I'm going to go to work. If they send us home that is fine but I do have power and live only 10 minutes from work so I should go in. I noticed that the Ontario Government is telling it's employees to stay home today. It should be an interesting day.

On Sunday, after my mum's Birthday Brunch, we dropped Mark's dad off at home and went to No Frills to grab some groceries. It was pretty busy in the store and we didn't need a whole heck of a lot of stuff, mostly just veggies and a bit of meat to get us through the week. We were in the rice aisle, discussing the poor selection of rice and how we'd just pick some up the next time we were at the Asian Market on Princess Street. While we were chatting, I looked up and noticed that a fellow I used to work with had passed me. He didn't see me and he looked pretty focused (I think his wife was at the front of the store with her buggy) so I didn't say "hello."

My first job that didn't involve any babysitting, was working in our local grocery store, Boucher's Amherstview supermarket. I was a cashier and this fellow, Mike, was a full-time grocery guy. At that time, there were 3 full-time grocery guys. Mike was someone who would answer any of my questions with patience and was a lot of fun to work with. This side of Mike surprised me somewhat because he looked kind of scary. At least to me, when I was a little kid. Mike was probably 6 or 7 years older than me, he had a younger sister who was 2 years ahead of me in school and she was a huge bully. I didn't like her at all. Mike's family went to the same church as ours so I knew who he was pretty much my whole life and I figured (wrongly as it happened) that he was a big meanie like his sister.

When I saw Mike in the store on Sunday, I thought to myself, "well, he's put on a little weight since I saw him last but he looks good, tanned and healthy and happy." This morning, my mum called me at work. She had been to mass this morning and was talking to Mrs Beneteau, Mike's neighbour. It turns out that Mike died last night. I guess it must have been his heart. I couldn't believe it. Mike, healthy looking Mike. 40-something Mike, dead, "suddenly at home" it will probably read in the paper tomorrow. It doesn't feel real.

I remember, clearly, when Mike's dad died. His dad was probably in his 50's but to me, a kid still in school, he might as well have been 80. I think he had a bad heart. I wonder if Mike inherited that from his dad. I feel really angry right now. Folks our age aren't supposed to be dropping dead, our parents are supposed to be getting older, winding down...selling their homes and moving into condos or apartments or retirement complexes...Maybe getting sick and dying...But one of us? We're supposed to still be young. We've still got mortgages, some of us have young families. How does something like this happen? I felt this way last year when my friend Elaine passed away. Elaine had breast cancer though so, although we knew that she was sick, we could hope that she would recover. Mike never had a chance, shopping on Sunday, dead on Tuesday. I know that I should be thinking "well then, live each day to the fullest" and stuff like that. What does that mean though? How do you do that exactly?

Not that it would have made one iota of difference at all but I'm thinking now that maybe I should have said hello when I saw him. I wish I could feel sad, say a prayer and feel better. Prayers don't help though, dead is dead. All the praying in the world isn't going to bring him back, it won't comfort his wife or his family. All I feel right now is anger. Dying at 42 just sucks.

I'm sleepy.

It's mid-afternoon, we got treated to a lovely lunch out today and it's making want to nod off. We ate at a French bistro downtown, on a patio in a gorgeous court yard. One of our volunteers took T & I out, it was a nice break in our hectic schedules. Unfortunately, it's made me not want to do too much this afternoon.

Luckily (unluckily?) I have a number of tasks on my desk which do not require a lot of brain power. I feel like I've had a couple of glasses of wine, but I didn't! Must just be too much fresh air. It was quite lovely down there.

Other than just being busy at work though, there's not much happening in my neck of the woods so far this week. That's good though, it's way too hot outside for any real excitement anyway. I know that this sounds lame and boring but these are the dog days of August after all!

Wow, I can't believe that Gregory Hines has passed away. Bob Hope, totally understandable, Gregory Hines...well, I'm in shock. He was a great actor and dancer and will truly be missed.

Gregory Hines Dies of Cancer at 57

By TIM MOLLOY, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Tony Award winner Gregory Hines, the tap-dancing actor who started on Broadway and in movies including "White Nights" and "Running Scared," has died, his publicist says. He was 57.

Hines died Saturday in Los Angeles of cancer, publicist Allen Eichorn said.

The dancer, among the best in his generation, won a 1993 Tony for the musical "Jelly's Last Jam."

Hines became internationally known as part of a jazz tap due with his brother, Maurice, and the two danced together in the musical revue "Eubie!" in 1978. The brothers later performed together in Broadway's "Sophisticated Ladies" and on film in 1984's "The Cotton Club."

In "The Cotton Club," Hines also had a lead acting role, which led to more work in film. He starred with Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1985's "White Nights" and with Billy Crystal in 1986's "Running Scared," and he appeared with Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett in 1995's "Waiting to Exhale," among other movies.

On television, he had his own sitcom in 1997 called "The Gregory Hines Show," as well as a recurring role on "Will and Grace." This past March, he appeared in the spring television series "Lost at Home."

Gregory Oliver Hines was born on February 14, 1946, in New York City. He has said his mother urged him and his older brother toward tap dancing because she wanted them to have a way out of the ghetto.

When he was a toddler, he said, his brother was already taking tap lessons and would come home and teach him steps. They began performing together when Gregory Hines was five, and they performed at the Apollo for two weeks when he was six. In 1974 they were cast in the Broadway musical "The Girl in Pink Tights," starring French ballerina Jeanmaire.

"I don't remember not dancing," Hines said in a 2001 interview with The Associated Press. "When I realized I was alive and these were my parents, and I could walk and talk, I could dance."

Paired with his brother Maurice, he was a professional child star. In his teens, joined by their father, Maurice Sr., on drums, they were known as Hines, Hines and Dad. Later he earned Tony nominations on Broadway in "Eubie," "Comin' Uptown" and "Sophisticated Ladies." He won a Tony for best actor in a musical playing jazz legend "Jelly Roll" Morton in "Jelly's Last Jam."

It's already Friday again. Yikes! Where did the week go?

It's been steamy and hot all week here. Last night, during a 31 degree humidex, we mowed our lawn. It was pretty brutal. Doing it wasn't so bad, we were both pretty drained afterwards. I had a hard time getting to sleep, probably because I was over heated. It only went down to 23 last night. Unbelievable. As I was falling asleep, I had a few Charley horses in my legs, just from the heat I'm sure. I slept really well though, once I got there. I could hardly get up this morning.

My mum is celebrating her 60th birthday tomorrow. We won't actually see her until Sunday though, we're taking her and my dad out for brunch. I would have liked to have thrown a big huge party for her but my folks' are not into stuff like that. They hate having a fuss made over them and don't really like loud crazy parties so to try and do it as a surprise would not go over well. Her birthday celebration will be low-key but still significant. My grandmother always stressed to us how important birthday's were (she used to say, "if it wasn't for your birthday, you wouldn't be around for Christmas.") I have a bunch of errands to do tomorrow but other than that, the weekend should be fairly quiet.

So, here's today's Friday Five:

1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?

We haven't been out of the province in a while. The last time we went out of province was probably last October when we went down to NYC for a long weekend. We've been out of town a lot but we've stayed within Ontario (it's a big place afterall!).

2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling?

We were able to get a parking spot, in Chinatown, in New York. We drive a big '93 Buick LeSabre and Mark was able to squeeze it into a spot, on the street, in front of a fish shop. I still can't believe that we did that. For those of you who have spent time in New York, you'll appreciate what a strange and unusual feat this is for out-of-towners.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?

The UK. I have never been and would love to go to England and Ireland and Scotland. To be able to take a lot of time to explore these places would be wonderful. My family's origins are in Northern Ireland so I'm particularly interested in exploring that particular part of the world.

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?

I love road trips. I love being a car and having the option of pulling off the road. I enjoy train and plane travel but once I get to where I'm going, I love having access to a car.

5. What's the next place on your list to visit?

Either Boston, MA or Vancouver, BC. We'll go to Boston if we get invited to a family wedding in October. If not, the next place I'm planning to go to is Vancouver. I've never been out west and I'm going to a conference there in the spring so that will be cool. On the other hand, we could road trip anywhere at anytime. We often don't plan trips, they just sort of happen.

I really miss the this or that Tuesday *pout*

It's really stinking hot here today. It's sort of bearable in our office because we have a half a dozen fans blowing at the moment. We have a small air conditioner that we turn on over night as it doesn't really do much more than act as a dehumidifier. As long as you don't move around too much it's not too bad, I guess. The humidex is 33 degrees at the moment so it's steamy.

Other than the weather though, there's not a lot happening. Work is busy, it always is after a long weekend. Funny how taking one day off can throw off your routine so badly. The weekend was relaxing, for a change, which was nice. Well, speaking of work, I should get back to it. Happy Tuesday all!

Happy Simcoe Day!

It's Simcoe day here in Ontario at least. I know that the reason for the civil holiday in August varies from province to province.

The sun has finally come out here. It's been rainy and humid all weekend. Now it's sunny and humid here, ugh! It was so hot and gross out yesterday that we hid out in the house, in the A/C. Today, we ventured out, had a nice breakfast at a neighbourhood diner and just got back from a drive in the country.

We set out in search of raspberries but we must have been too early for the road side stands or they're all taking the holiday too. Whichever the case, we're going to veg out for the afternoon and enjoy the rest of what's shaping up to have been a very relaxing weekend!

I'm not actually a mum but if I were, apparently, I'd be:

Marge Simpson: You are Marge from The Simpsons.
You may not share Marge's blue bouffant, but
you do share her animated style of mothering.
Sometimes the pressures of maintaining a happy
home may push you toward the edge, but at the
end of the day, you believe in your children
wholeheartedly, even when they're being rather,
um, spirited.


Which TV Mom are you?
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My hair has become incredibly long all of a sudden. Actually, it's been long for a while now but it's really bugging me lately and I have to do something about it. I don't really have a "style" per se. It's just long and thick and heavy. I'm thinking about trying to donate it to lock of love or some such organization so that it can be made into a wig or something. A family friend recently received a wig like this. She's 15 and has a condition that causes her hair to be very fine and brittle and it doesn't grow. She's on her second wig now and I know how happy having a funky hair do makes her. If some other kid can get some joy from my hair, that would be cool. One thing I've always been able to do well is grow hair.

Today was kind of busy. I took Joe for groceries and had a bunch of errands to do. I don't mind running around but I scared myself a little this afternoon. Call me paranoid but I have a huge fear of running out of gas. The car that we're driving right now used to belong to my dad. It's a '93 Buick LeSabre and we got it about a year go. Mark actually drives it more than I do so he's been able to figure out how close to 'E' you can get before you're out of gas. I was taking Joe home when the little light came on. Traffic was really heavy and moving slow and I was silently freaking out. I dropped him off and headed downtown. The light had been on for some time when I finally coasted (probably on fumes I'm thinking) into our Sunoco station. I like our Sunoco station because the kids there are really polite and genuinely friend and you get CAA points when you fill up. So I pull up and on the one side of the pumps, there is a middle aged doofus with a van and trailer and a huge, honking, Miami vice style power boat. On the other side, the side I need to use, two yuppie scum with "little man" (ie they were short) syndrome were parked. They were driving a huge SUV and were pulling a trailer with 2 SeaDoos on it. They had pulled up in such a fashion that not only were they blocking all three pumps but they were blocking the driveway so that there would be no way that I pull around them and use the other side of the pump. This particular station is full-serve but, of course, the kids working there wouldn't have been able to put gas in their car properly so they had to do it themselves and gas their stupid SeaDoos. Now, I have problems with both SUV's and SeaDoos. I've seen more folks have bad accidents in those stupid things and they totally pollute our water. You would not have believed how much of a production these guys made of gassing up a truck and two little water thingy's. I have a strong feeling that the SUV was an over-compensation for other kinds of "short" comings that they may have to deal with on a regular basis. I felt bad for the guy working at the garage because these two losers were being really rotten to him. Fortunately, they left before I ran out of gas and I was able to get home without being stranded in traffic.

It's become really steamy here all of a sudden. It was hot all day but it rained for a bit this afternoon and I'd hoped that it would cool things off a bit. It's just made things really really humid and gross. Hopefully, we'll get a thunder-storm tonight and that will clear the air. Goodness knows it could use it! I know that these are supposed to be the dog days of summer but this is a bit much!

The First Friday Five of August is here:

1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings?

Usually around 4:45 a.m. but this week, it's been around 5:30 a.m.

2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late?

Sometimes, Sunday generally. I usually get up around 7 or 7:30 a.m. if I sleep in.

3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning?

Get out of bed and go the bathroom!

4. How long does it take to get ready for your day?

Not too long, it takes me about an hour to make and eat breakfast, make lunch, shower and dress for work.

5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast?

That's a tough one as a lovely, big breakfast is my favorite meal. We've been looking for a favorite breakfast place here in town for a few years. When we had our restaurant, it was my favorite breakfast place. My favorite place in Toronto (the Swallow) is now closed. I have to say that any place I can get a really fresh poppyseed twister with cream cheese and lox is okay in my book. Sadly, there isn't a spot like that here in Kingston but we indulge ourselves whenever we get to Toronto.