Wednesday, June 30, 2004

hey

Finally, today, we saw Fahrenheit/911. It was supposed to open here on Friday but, for some mysterious reason, it didn't start until today. We went to the first screening actually, this afternoon.

Honestly, I cannot remember a time when I have cried so much during a film. The sounds and images were just heart breaking. I can't say that I learned anything that I'd not either read or heard before but it was amazing how Michael Moore and his team connected the dots. We've known all along exactly how fucked up the Bush administration is but this films really cements, for folks who didn't want to see it before, what's really been happening down south, over the past 3.5 years. Another thing happened at the end of the screening that I can't recall happening in recent years: the entire audience applauded, almost the entire way through the credits at the end!

I was very relieved the other night when the Liberals won the election. I know that it's just a minority government but they're a heck of lot less evil than the Conservatives. It was great to see how much steam the NDP picked up and although my Green's didn't get any seats, they did get enough of the vote overall to qualify for federal funding. I think that the Canadian voters were frightened by what's been happening in the States and didn't want to see Harper get into power and jump into Iraq with Bush.

Anyway, on a lighter note...stolen, with love, from Erin:

Take the quiz: "Which Random Irish Gaelic Phrase Are You? "

Ta mo bhriste tri thine
Ta mo bhriste tri thine - 'My trousers are on fire.'You're a few bricks short of a load, aren't you? You're probably not allowed to use sharp objects and you should be locked in a rubber room. With Rubber rats. Rubber rats? I hate rubber rats. They drive me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a rubber room. With rubber rats. Rubber rats? I hate rubber rats...

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

more berries for us

On the way home from doing errands this afternoon we found a stand at the west end Canadian Tire store selling local strawberries. On Father's Day, we picked up a basket of them at a berry farm west of my folks' place and they were delicious. We had half planned to trek back out there again today but through we'd try this stand before we took that trip again. The ones we got today are lovely too. Really big and juicy. They are from a farm in Wellington I think. We also picked up some fresh peas, yum!

So far my week off is going really well. I've been getting some stuff done around the house (which is very good) and today we got all of our errands done (for a few days anyway). It's been sort of weird, winding down after things being so nutso at work. Weird but not too hard, it's been lovely actually, not having to be anywhere or do anything at specific times.

As much as possible, I'm trying to stick to my normal routine. Mark worked yesterday and part of today so that has helped as far as routine goes. He's booked off tomorrow and Thursday so we have some plans to get one more big project finished up as far as our bedroom / office stuff goes. It's mostly involving moving furniture around doing wiring. Fun huh??

It'll be really nice to get it done though. Once it's finished up, we can focus our energies on the garden. Right now it's basically thriving on neglect. The flower beds need weeded, the lawn needs mowed and a bunch of stuff my mum gave us needs planted. Once this moving/wiring project is done, I can putter in the garden all weekend. Again, fun fun fun huh??

Hopefully the weather will stay like is right now. We just got in from a nice walk around the neighbourhood and there is an absolutely gorgeous breeze blowing out there. It can stay like this all summer long and I won't complain a bit!!

Sunday, June 27, 2004

zippity doooooo

Today was a bit of a whirl-wind. This morning we slept in a little bit and hadn't planned on doing much of anything at all. About 45 minutes after waking, that changed. Mark suggested that we zip up to Ottawa to get some replacement parts for the Ikea dressers we have (that are totally wonky as far as the drawer tracks go). We didn't bother to call anyone to say that were going because we weren't planning on being there for very long (sorry Pat!!). We basically raced up, grabbed lunch, went to Ikea and zoomed home.

For the first time ever I think, I got out of Ikea for under $20. All I picked up was some tea lights and a new door mat for our side door (the old one had been beaten to death last winter). Mark had great luck at the customer service desk. They gave us enough new track to fix both dressers plus the screws. I noticed that they no longer carry this particular dresser so I think they had a lot of problems with them. The new furniture we got for his dad in May had totally different (much better) mechanisms on them for the slider.

Anyway, we just got home a little while ago and we're both kind of pooped. Hopefully next time we go up, it won't be as rushed a trip. I'd love to go up for a whole weekend, actually visit with my brother and maybe spend some time wandering around a little more than we did.

Saturday, June 26, 2004

summer storms

I have a love/hate relationship with the weather at this time of year. I love how it's unpredictable and weird but I hate how this means that you can get caught in a huge rain storm one minute and be blinded by sunshine the next (while you're totally dripping wet and soaked to the skin). This very thing happened to us this afternoon. We were in Rona picking up some thing for a wiring project we'll be doing next weekend and just as we were about to check out, the sky got very black and it was absolutely pouring. It was raining so hard that we actually dicked around in the store for about 15 minutes waiting for it to let up. It didn't seem that it was ever going to happen so we made a run for it. Of course, by the time we got the car loaded, you could see the sun breaking in the west and about 2 minutes later, the rain had let up and it was gorgeous. Weird huh??

Errands aside, it's been a bit of a lazy day for us. I'm not complaining one bit though, we've slugged out guts out on stuff around the house for the past 8 weeks or so, a nice lazy weekend is feeling really good right now. Afterall, whatever I don't get to this weekend, I can always poke away at through the week, I am on holiday after all!!

Friday, June 25, 2004

happy friday

I worked my little fingers to the bone but I managed to get out of the office on time and with everything that absolutely needed doing, done. Don't get my wrong, I'll still have a crap-load of stuff waiting for me when I get back but at least the things that absolutely needed attending do are done. All of this for basically, 3 days out of the office, the mind boggles doesn't it?

The stress and angst seems to be related to the fact that this is still a new job for me. Everyone in our team seems to be muddling through right now and I feel good that everyone is basically in the same boat that I'm in. This time next year we'll all be in great shape I'm sure but this plodding along in the dark stuff isn't as much fun as you might think!!

So now I'm on holidays for a week. We may even actually go to the drive-in tonight. I haven't done that in years and years!!

Have a happy weekend folks!!

Thursday, June 24, 2004

the race is on

How did my journal become so boring with work related crap??

It's looking like I may actually get through my "to do" list before I head out of the office tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath mind you but it's looking much better right now than it had earlier in the week.

Btw, I don't think that I mentioned this earlier but we voted in the advance polls on Monday. The lady at the polling station told me that it was the busiest advance poll she'd ever seen. Having the election on the Monday of a short week is a bad idea in my books. A lot of folks will be at the cottage all of next week, it's poor planning if you ask me. People seem to be genuinely frightened about Stephen Harper and his message of hate. Hopefully they will have learned from all the horrible crap that is happening south of border and won't elect these assholes. From what I see, they plan to dismantle our health care system, get rid of gay marriage and take the decriminalization of marijuana off the table. Honestly, what good can come from any of that?? If Harper's conservatives are elected, we'll be no better than those poor folks in the states who have to suffer under GW!! I can't imagine that anyone wants that!!

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

sinking feelings

I have no idea how I will manage to get through all of this work I have to do before Friday. It's been a really meeting-heavy this week (hey, who am I trying to kid, they're all meeting-heavy these days!!).

Yesterday afternoon, the office was closed for the annual barbecue. Admittedly, I was not looking forward to going. Every year it's been held I've not been able to attend and I never really minded. It is held at our VP's cottage on the St. Lawrence River and it's a big pot luck. Tuesday morning started out really grey and yucky looking. On our way down to the cottage, it poured rain so hard you could hardly see where you were going. When we finally got there though, it had started to clear and it was a very nice afternoon. I was pretty surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's a beautiful spot and it felt like a place I'd be happy to spend my summer at.

Unfortunately, the time away from the office only added to my angst about getting everything that I need to do, done. At the moment, I'm trying to do my very best so that I won't have to stay late or come in on Saturday to tie up loose ends. Wish me luck!!

Monday, June 21, 2004

monday whirl

Today just flew by and I don't know that I actually accomplished anything at work. I really hate those kinds of days, don't you?

I'm going to be away from the office all of next week and I'm trying to get things sorted out before I go. Now technically, I'm only missing 3 days (because of the long weekend) but seeing how I'm still learning my job, I feel completely under-prepared to be going anywhere.

My hope is that by the end of the week, I'll have figured out what the heck I'm doing and will have a few things accomplished. If not, it'll all just have to wait until I get back. ugh!!

Sunday, June 20, 2004

happy father's day

We're having a fathery day today. We're going to be seeing both of our dad's today. Mark's dad is easy to see because he lives with us. My dad, well we'll be heading out to suburbia shortly to visit him. They are both getting cards and scratch tickets from us. Scratch tickets are like the only things that we can give them without an arguement. Oh and strawberries, we'll likely go to the berry patch and get some fresh local berries. mmm...yum, ya just gotta love June!!

Happy Sunday everyone!!

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Stolen from Trish...

The 100 top-grossing movies - the ones I've seen are bolded and the ones we have on DVD have the ** next to them. I've seen 33 (I think) out of 100. I'm not surprised though, most of the movies on this list, I wouldn't watch if you paid me to. Anyway, it was a fun way to waste a few minutes. I also felt like doing this because today, for the first time since Dogma was released (fall of 1999 I think), Mark and I went to the movies. We saw Super Size Me this afternoon, if you haven't seen it yet, you should. It's really good.

1. Titanic (1997) $600,779,824
2. Star Wars (1977) $460,935,665
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $434,949,459
4. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $431,065,444
5. Spider-Man (2002) $403,706,375
6. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) $377,019,252
7. Passion of the Christ, The (2004) $370,025,697
8. Jurassic Park (1993) $356,784,000
9. Shrek 2 (2004) $356,211,000
10. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) $340,478,898
11. Finding Nemo (2003) $339,714,367 **
12. Forrest Gump (1994) $329,691,196
13. Lion King, The (1994) $328,423,001
14. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) $317,557,891
15. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) $313,837,577
16. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) $310,675,583
17. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) $309,125,409
18. Independence Day (1996) $306,124,059
19. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) $305,411,224 - have on video video
20. Sixth Sense, The (1999) $293,501,675
21. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) $290,158,751
22. Home Alone (1990) $285,761,243
23. Matrix Reloaded, The (2003) $281,492,479
24. Shrek (2001) $267,652,016 **
25. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)$261,970,615
26. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) $260,031,035
27. Jaws (1975) $260,000,000
28. Monsters, Inc. (2001) $255,870,172 **
29. Batman (1989) $251,188,924
30. Men in Black (1997) $250,147,615
31. Toy Story 2 (1999) $245,823,397
32. Bruce Almighty (2003) $242,589,580
33. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) $242,374,454
34. Twister (1996) $241,700,000
35. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) $241,437,427
36. Ghost Busters (1984) $238,600,000
37. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) $234,760,500

38. Cast Away (2000) $233,630,478
39. Lost World: Jurassic Park, The (1997) $229,074,524
40. Signs (2002) $227,965,690
41. Rush Hour 2 (2001) $226,138,454
42. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) $219,200,000
43. Ghost (1990) $217,631,306
44. Aladdin (1992) $217,350,219

45. Saving Private Ryan (1998) $216,119,491
46. Mission: Impossible II (2000) $215,397,30
47. X2 (2003) $214,948,780
48. Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) $213,079,163
49. Back to the Future (1985) $210,609,762
50. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) $205,399,422

51. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) $204,843,350
52. Exorcist, The (1973) $204,565,000
53. Mummy Returns, The (2001) $202,007,640
54. Armageddon (1998) $201,573,391
55. Gone with the Wind (1939) $198,655,278
56. Pearl Harbor (2001) $198,539,855
57. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) $197,171,806
58. Toy Story (1995) $191,800,000
59. Men in Black II (2002) $190,418,803
60. Gladiator (2000) $187,670,866
61. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) $184,925,485
62. Dances with Wolves (1990) $184,208,848
63. Batman Forever (1995) $184,031,112
64. Fugitive, The (1993) $183,875,760
65. Ocean's Eleven (2001) $183,405,771
66. What Women Want (2000) $182,805,123
67. Perfect Storm, The (2000) $182,618,434
68. Liar Liar (1997) $181,395,380
69. Grease (1978) $181,360,000
70. Jurassic Park III (2001) $181,166,115
71. Mission: Impossible (1996) $180,965,237
72. Planet of the Apes (2001) $180,011,740
73. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) $179,870,271
74. Pretty Woman (1990) $178,406,268
75. Tootsie (1982) $177,200,000
76. Top Gun (1986) $176,781,728
77. There's Something About Mary (1998) $176,483,808
**
78. Ice Age (2002) $176,387,405
79. Crocodile Dundee (1986) $174,635,000
80. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) $173,585,516
81. Elf (2003) $173,381,405
82. Air Force One (1997) $172,888,056
83. Rain Man (1988) $172,825,435
84. Apollo 13 (1995) $172,071,312
85. Matrix, The (1999) $171,383,253
86. Beauty and the Beast (1991) $171,301,428
87. Tarzan (1999) $171,085,177
88. Beautiful Mind, A (2001) $170,708,996
89. Chicago (2002) $170,684,505
90. Three Men and a Baby (1987) $167,780,960
91. Meet the Parents (2000) $166,225,040
92. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) $165,500,000
93. Hannibal (2001) $165,091,464
94. Catch Me If You Can (2002) $164,435,221
95. Big Daddy (1999) $163,479,795
96. Sound of Music, The (1965) $163,214,286 **
97. Batman Returns (1992) $162,831,698
98. Bug's Life, A (1998) $162,792,677
99. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) $161,963,000
100. Waterboy, The (1998) $161,487,252

Friday, June 18, 2004

messed up

All week, I've had a really tough time saying focused on any one thing. I start something and then leave it and move on to something else. I'm not normally like this, it's more than a little weird.

This morning when I woke up, I seriously thought it was Saturday. I woke up at my normal time and thought, "I'll get up and do a few things and let Mark sleep late." By the time I got to the bathroom, I was remembering how we'd put our trash and recycling out last night. No problem, my foggy brain said, Monday must have been a holiday and that's why we put it out on Friday night. Eventually, I figured out that it was Friday and I was really disappointed. Disappointed and totally fucked up. It's sort of set the tone for today so far.

ugh!

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

some sort of good news and some absolutely terrible bad news

Last night, I received an email from my brother about a friend of ours. He had committed suicide on Saturday. It's just tragically sad and almost unbelieveable. My heart goes out to his lovely wife, what she must be going through right now, I can't even begin to imagine.

The sort of good news is that my back is on the mend and, while I'm still moving slowly, I'm no longer crawling around on the floor.

Monday, June 14, 2004

Guess it doesn't matter if my back's better or not by Friday. The show's been cancelled. Yikes, this does not sound good:

JONATHAN RICHMAN POSTPONES TOUR
We have been advised that Jonathan Richman has been forced to cancel his current North American dates from June 13 to July 3 as a result of tragic personal circumstances. This includes the show scheduled for Zaphod Beeblebrox this Friday, June 18.

It appears that the tour may be rescheduled to November, but in the meantime we are advising Zaphod's ticketholders to return to the original point of purchase for refunds.

We know that this is disappointing for Jonathan and his fans. However, Jonathan personally called Eugene today and offered his apologies. He asks that his fans understand that the circumstances of this cancellation are truly due to very tragic circumstances which he must attend to immediately.

We hope to be able to announce a rescheduled date as soon as things are cleared up, however, in the meantime, we apologize on behalf of Zaphod's and Jonathan.
crawling around

I'm at work today but I'm not sure why. Actually, I know why, I had stuff to do. I've been really uncomfortable today and I'm not sure how productive I've been exactly but I'm doing my best.

Ordinarily, this back thing of mine goes away after a day or so. This time, it just keeps hanging on and on. We're supposed to go to Ottawa on Friday night to see Jonathan Richman. I better be feeling better by then because I've been looking forward to this show for over a month. One of the crawling around errands I had to do on Saturday involved finally picking up our tickets at ticket bastard.

At any rate, being at work and feeling yucky is not as boring as being at home on a heating pad. See, every cloud does have a silver lining!!

Sunday, June 13, 2004

still ill

well not ill so much as sore. Really sore. I'm actually feeling a little sick from all the ibuprofen I've been taking. This is really not fun at all.

My eyes are about ready to fall out. I've spent the best part of the past 16 hours either sleeping, reading or watching tv. It's really boring and I'd very much prefer to be in the garden or anywhere else but in bed.

Oh, on an unrelated note, Happy Birthday Meg. Hope you have a fabulous day!!

Saturday, June 12, 2004

ouch

When I was going to bed last night, my back was a little sore. I didn't pay much attention to it, I figured that I just needed a good night's sleep. Last night, I got a good night's sleep and woke up with a big ass pain in my back.

In attempt to get rid of the pain, I hobbled around, doing laundry and emptied out our bedroom closet (which desperately needed seeing to). Sore back and all, I'm sorting, I'm cleaning, I'm getting organized. I walk into the office to put some stuff in a bin (winter stuff, scarves and hats). I reach up to put the bin back on the shelf and hit my knuckles on the ceiling fan.

Okay, so bad back and bloody knuckles aside...I have a shower and get ready to do errands. While we're out doing errands, I'm limping and bent over and am banging into everything in sight. I'm in total klutz mode.

I just got home and am crawling onto the heating pad. This really bites.

Thursday, June 10, 2004

I feel so incredibly sad. Ray Charles passed away today.

Music Icon Ray Charles Dies in California at Age 73

LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
- Ray Charles, who overcame childhood poverty, blindness and heroin addiction to help create soul music and become one of America's most beloved singers, died on Thursday at the age of 73 after a long fight with liver disease, his spokesman said.

Charles died at 11:35 a.m. PDT (2:35 p.m. EDT) at his Beverly Hills home, the singer's longtime publicist Jerry Digney said. Family members and co-workers of the legendary entertainer were with him when he died.

In one of his last public appearances, the singer-songwriter turned up in a motorized wheelchair for a ceremony in April conferring historic-building status on his longtime recording complex in a rundown part of Los Angeles.

Visibly frail, his voice reduced to a whisper, Charles' demeanor then was a far cry from the wildly enthusiastic performer known to millions of fans for more than half a century.

A prolific musician, Charles has been off the road for almost a year so that he could undergo a hip replacement. Unspecified complications forced him to scrap plans to resume touring with a performance in New York last month.

Charles, a pioneer of soul music whose biggest hits include "Georgia on My Mind" and "Hit the Road Jack," was a multiple Grammy winner who had been blind since the age of 6.

While known as "The Genius of Soul," Charles' music included standards, R&B, country pop and jazz.

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

bye bye jo jo

Poor Jo Jo, he's been sent home home. We laughed so hard last night, watching WB Superstar. Some folks would argue that the premise is mean but I love it anyway. My personal favorite is Mario but not because he's horrible. He seems like a really nice guy. We thought that Jo Jo's performance last night was really terrible though and were quite surprised that he didn't make it into the top 3.

bye bye jo jo

Now, here is this week's TV Tuesday:

1. Do you watch daytime talk TV? If so, which shows do you watch? Do you prefer the calm shows like Oprah or the wilder side like Jerry Springer?

I'm not home during the day but I tape Dr Phil so I'll have something mindless to watch while I work out. I work out at 5:30 a.m. so unless I want to watch infomercials, I better have something on tape. Having said that, Jerry Springer is on when we're getting dinner ready so we do bop into it once in a while, I prefer Jerry to Oprah anyday.

2. Which daytime talk TV show would you like to be on? What would the topic be?

I don't think that I would ever want to be on a talk show to be honest.

3. Is there a daytime talk TV show you miss that's no longer on the air? Is there someone you'd like to see get a daytime talk TV show?

I miss Phil Donahue. They should totally bring Phil back.

~Bonus~ Before talk TV took over game shows ruled the airways during the day, which do you prefer? Or are you a soap opera fan?

I really hate game shows. Mark's dad is addicted to them though so we have to endure a lot of them. I liked them more when I was younger but the appeal has definitely worn off. If I happen to be home during the day, and the TV is on, I'm more than likely watching TLC or one of the movie channels than anything else.

Monday, June 07, 2004

hockey hockey hockey

I am completely sick of hearing about hockey. I'll be so glad when the game is over tonight and we don't have to listen to folks going on and on about it all the time...or at least not for a few months anyway. I get a lot of strange look about my ambivilance toward our national sport. Kingston claims to be home to the first ever game and I live within spitting distance of the local Hockey Hall of Fame but I could care less about it.

It's getting really hot around here again. I almost hope we get some rain soon. I have a bunch of stuff at home that needs to be planted but the ground is too hard to do it right now. The lawns are starting to get really dry looking too, it's weird how quickly it's become summer.

We finally watched the finale to the Sopranos this evening. This morning when I tuned into Air America Radio, there was a big disclaimer that if you hadn't seen it yet, to turn off the radio...so I did. I'm glad I did too, I wouldn't have wanted to have heard about any of it. The finale was really good. I was happy with the way it ended and am really looking forward to the next season. I just wish that we didn't have to wait so long between seasons. Guess that's what the DVD's are for huh?

On that note, I'm heading off to bed. WB Superstar is on in a few minutes and yes, I'm addicted to it too. For completely different reasons than dah Idol of course! 'night!

Sunday, June 06, 2004

lazy sunday morning

I woke up feeling really relaxed and refreshed this morning. We slept in a bit ('til around 7 or so) and it always feel good to just laze around in the morning rather than jumping out of bed to start the weekday race.

At work, we've been talking a lot about vacation days. I'm still not sure when I'm going to use mine up. We've been given July 2 off (to make a lovely 4 day weekend of Canada Day) and I have some lieu time coming to me for the weekend I worked at the beginning May. I decided to use 2 vacation days with this stuff and take a whole week off at the end of June. We have some projects that we wanted to get sorted out around the house so we'll probably do them then. I'll still have almost 3 weeks left to take after that though. Given that I'm starting a new job, and that our new team is particularly busy over the summer months, it's not looking like I will get to take two weeks off (in a row) when the weather is nice. Mark and I had been talking about taking a road trip down to the states in August but I doubt very much that'll happen now.

Today's looking promising, weather-wise. I think it's supposed to be nice. We were supposed to go see my folks yesterday but never made it so I think we'll see them later on this afternoon. Besides seeing them and doing a little laundry, I actually don't have much that I have to do today. Knowing that is a terrific feeling!

Saturday, June 05, 2004

The Dolt is Dead

One down, two to go. Ronnie's dead (yay!) and now we just have to wait for Mulroney and Thatcher to go and the cancer of the 80's will be gone. By the way, does anyone know of a song about Ronnie or Brian that's as good as this Hefner tune about Thatcher?

The Day That Thatcher Dies

We will laugh the day that Thatcher dies,
Even though we know it's not right,
We will dance and sing all night.
I was blind in 1979, by '82 I had clues,
By 1986 I was mad as hell.
The teachers at school, they took us for fools,
They never taught us what to do,
But Christ we were strong, we knew all along,
We taught ourselves the right from wrong.
And the punk rock kids, and the techno kids,
No, it's not their fault.
And the hip hop boys and heavy metal girls,
No, it's not their fault.
It was love, but Tories don't know what that means,
She was Michelle Cox from the lower stream,
She wore high-heeled shoes while the rest wore flat soles.
And the playground taught her how to be cruel,
I talked politics and she called me a fool,
She wrapped her ankle chain round my left wing heart.
Ding dong, the witch is dead, which old witch?
The wicked witch.
Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead.

Friday, June 04, 2004

happy friday!

Wow, it's almost the weekend. It's actually supposed to be sunny this weekend so, yay!

So, it is possible to O.D. on dah Idol. Not only was it on Tuesday night, it was also on Wednesday and Thursday. We didn't watch it last night, just taped it. I don't think I could stomach three nights of Jake Gold's mug to be honest. Anyway, we'll zoom through it on the weekend (gotta love watching junk tv on tape!!).

My parent's are celebrating their 38th Wedding Anniversary today. I just talked to my mum and they are spending the day shovelling topsoil around their back yard. Not exactly romantic but I suppose that's to be expected after 38 years. Maybe dirt is romantic anyway. They're working on it together without killing one another so that's definitely something to say about their relationship.

I don't think we have much planned for the weekend. Some gardening and lawn work, definitely. We'll probably barbecue at some point too (maybe more than once even, if it's nice). Whatever we get up to, it should be fun. I'm actually feeling like I might want to take a trip down to Gan to the casino for a couple of hours.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

it's baaaack!

Dah Idol returned last night. I can't wait, it's sick I know but hey, what's a girl to do?

I won't watch the yank version of it, I don't do reality television but Canadian Idol, I love. We got right into it from the beginning last year because I had heard that this kid from the neighbourhood I grew up in (where my folks still live), who's family I vaguely knew, had tried out. Actually being able to vote for something was a draw too, again, it's sick, I know, but hey, what do you want from me? Anyway, this kid from around the corner was Ryan Malcolm. Funny how that happens huh?

We had a lot of laughs at last night's episode. I love the beginning shows because the truly bad folks are shown and I love a genuinely bad singer any day. It's early I know but my money's on Brock Groombridge right now. He's completely charming and has a wonderful Beck-esque quality about him that Mark and I really love. He's also from Schomberg, Ontario so we would love to see another small town boy take it...again!

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

happy June!

Where did May go? Wowsa!

Anyway, I'm a little brain-dead today and don't have much that I'd care to share so I'm just going to leave you with this week's TV Tuesday:

1. In the US many stations run "marathons" all day on Monday, many stations have also went to running all weekend marathons of old sitcoms. So question number one is: Did you watch any of the marathons running this year? In part? In whole?

I didn't watch any US Memorial Day marathons because I'm Canadian and we had to work yesterday.

2. Is there a show you'd like to see run an all day marathon? On the flipside is there a show you'd avoid in marathon?

I could watch days of Coronation Street marathons. We're slipping further and further behind the UK broadcast dates all of the time. Right now, we're currently watching October 2003 shows and it's June! The list of shows I would avoid in marathon would be too long to publish here!

3. Is there a show/movie/program that brings back special memories for you and what is it?

Anytime I see promos for old Disney movies, it always reminds me of going to the pictures with my dad. When we were kids, my dad always took us to see any and all Disney films as they came out. I guess it was partly because he loved movies and also because it was his way of getting us out from under my mum's feet for a few hours a couple of times a year.