sideways

I'm the worst person in the world to write movie reviews. Because of this, I won't "review" sideways but I will say this, I enjoyed it. Not being a wine drinker, I'll admit that I was afraid that the lingo might sail over my head. It wasn't a problem though and the story was great. Both Mark and I are huge Sandra Oh fans and we agreed that she looked totally hot and was great in the role of Maya. The film itself was beautifully photographed. It reminded me of French films from the 60's and 70's. Of course, I think it would have been really difficult to make California vineyards look bad.

Over the past few years, we've not seen any of the Best Picture contenders for the Oscars, leading up to the actual ceremonies. This year, coincidentally, we've seen two already (the other being Ray). We also plan to see Million Dollar Baby, hopefully this weekend. Mark's a big Clint fan and we've been wanting to see this particular film since we first heard about it (I sure loves me a good boxing movie). I saw Hilary Swank on 60's minutes last night, being interviewed about it and the clips I saw look great. Who knows, by the time the Oscar broadcast rolls around, we may have seen all five films.

One thing that made me smile today: It was such a busy day today it's hard to think back to something that actually made me smile. Right now, the only thing I can think of (and it's pretty significant really) is seeing Mark when I left the office tonight. He always makes me smile.

movies

I've been watching a lot of movies the past couple of weeks. Older movies, some that I've been wanting to see, others that I thought I'd never bother watching. Our cable service started offering a "movies on demand" feature which is included with our digital service. It's been a nice treat to start and stop movies on my schedule. One of the things about watching so many movies is that you learn to take the good with the bad.

Last week I watched "Love Liza." I'd been looking forward to seeing it for a while and was not disappointed. It's not a "feel good" movie but it was (I thought) well written and the cast was strong. I always love Kathy Bates in whatever she does and Philip Seymour Hoffman is such a great actor and he's terrific in this tragic story of a man coping with the sudden suicide of his wife.

Friday afternoon, I watched "Down with Love." What a huge piece of crap. I know that this was supposed to be a tip of the hat to one of my all-time favourite films, "Pillow Talk" (I LOVE Doris Day & Rock Hudson). Sadly, it failed miserably. I could put a list together as long as my arm of things that were wrong about it not the least of which was the display of the Canadian flag (our maple leaf) in what's supposed to be 1962. The "new" flag wasn't introduced until 1965.

Last night, we watched a neat little piece of Canadian fluff called "The Last Casino." The film centers around three math students who are taught by their professor to count cards. The idea is that they'll raise enough money by playing black jack to dig him out of a financial hole. The professor was played by Charles Martin Smith (from American Graffiti). I don't think that anyone plays a nervous little man any better than he does. Overall, it was entertaining albeit, a smidgen predictable.

So, other than watching a bunch of movies and doing some laundry, we've done very little this weekend.

One thing that made me smile today: We're planning to see Sideways this afternoon. There are a bunch of movies that I'm really looking forward to seeing but none of them are playing here in Kingston yet (sad but true). Finally, Sideways is playing here and I'm sure it'll only last a week so we're hitting the matinee this afternoon.

old tunes made new

Ordinarily, I listen to Air America while I'm working (I stream it). This week though, I have been bringing four different CD's with me each day. I've not been feeling well so talk radio and a headache make getting any work done kind of difficult. I've been enjoying some old gems that I've pulled out of my collection at home and ripped onto my machine here. I had almost forgotten how much I love John Prine. It's funny how hearing an old favourite song again can just make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Good to know that something can warm me up, it's still really cold here.

Work's been kind of busy this week. January has felt like a very long month for some reason. Partly it could be the cold I guess. I'm taking tomorrow off as a vacation day. I have felt like crap all week and I thought that I'd just take a day, get my errands and running around done in the morning. If I can get my "chores" done in the afternoon, I'll be able to just veg out and rest up for the rest of the weekend. We'll see how that all goes.

One thing that made me smile today: I didn't have to shovel this morning. We didn't get any snow last night and you can actually see the pavement in spots on our driveway.

too cold to post

The week is sailing by, a little too quickly if you ask me. The temperature started to crawl back up today but not fast enough for my liking. All week, my hands have been frozen. I've been so cold at work, even with my space heater pumping, that it's hard to concentrate at times. I'm such a wimp. Ordinarily the cold doesn't bother me much but over the past week or so, it's just making me crazy.

Anyway, I thought that this was kind of fun. Thanks to Bev for the link!

You are a Folkie. Good for you.


What kind of Sixties Person are you?
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One thing that made me smile today: Not having to do the dishes tonight. Right now, as I type this, Mark is cleaning up the kitchen. He's the best, really.

so very cold

It's just freezing here, still. Right now, there is a blizzard happening outside. I expect that we'll have a crapload of snow to shovel in the morning.

I didn't plan to do much today because I wasn't feeling that great when I woke up. I've been fighting a cold or something. At 5:30 this morning, I got up for a couple of hours and went back to bed because I couldn't get warm. When I finally crawled out of bed, I managed to get Joe's room cleaned from top to bottom (he normally does it himself but he's not been feeling well so I did it) and I changed both of the beds. Right now, I have my fourth load of laundry in but I'm not planning to do much more tonight. I think we're going to toddle off and watch a movie or something.

This afternoon, I snapped a picture of the ice that was slowly accumulating on the window next to my desk. Seeing this makes me so glad that we got new windows for the downstairs. Up here, on the second floor, it's always toasty roasty warm (because the morons who owned this house before us piled up insulation upon insulation in the attic instead of replacing the roof). Anyway, here's an example of what we were dealing with before:

snow snow and more snow

Okay, so I've shoveled the driveway twice in 12 hours. That is no fun at all. I shouldn't complain though, the snow was the light/fluffy variety. It was really windy though so it made it a little more difficult than it should have been. We probably could have gotten away without doing at all but the temperature is supposed to drop over the next day or so and I didn't think that a frozen, rutty mess in the driveway was a good idea.

I'm feeling a lot better today than I was earlier in the week. My mum is having a rough week though. She found out, later in the day on Monday, that another woman she knew had passed away. Now this particular lady is quite elderly and had been ill but all the same, it's beyond sad to lose two people in one day.

Anyway, I'm off to work in a bit so I should dash. Bundle up folks, it's gonna be a cold one today!

One thing that made me smile today: Being the first person on the block with a clean driveway. As much as I'm not a big fan of cleaning up snow, you do experience a good sense of accomplishment when it's all done. Unlike pushing papers around, you can actually stand back and see the result of all of your effort. Instant gratification.

sad

This morning, I got back to my desk after a meeting to find a message from my mother on my voice mail. She sounded terrible and I knew that something was wrong. My first thought when I heard the beginning of her message was that her good friend's husband had died after his bypass surgery (he's been in the hospital for the past week or so I knew he was awaiting surgery). She said, "I'm just calling to see how you're doing and to see if you heard about Janice on the news. Call me."

I felt like I'd suddenly been covered in ice. I thought, oh my goodness, Janice must be seriously injured or dead from an automobile accident. I hadn't heard the local news this morning so I thought that may have been it. I wish that had been the case. My mum's friend, Janice, was murdered at her home on Saturday. They have her son in custody. I don't know what happened. It's just heartbreaking. Janice was an amazing lady. Friendly, sweet, kind, helpful, strong. The kind of person that there are just way too few of on this planet. And she's gone. I cannot get my head around it.

One thing that made me smile today: I can't think of a thing. I'm just so sad right now, I could cry.

quiet

It was so nice, not having to jump out of bed and tear out to do early morning errands. That's my regular weekend routine. I try to get out and do what I need to do before it gets too busy. This morning, we slept in a little bit and then had a bit of a lazy morning. I didn't even get out of my pj's and into a shower until after 2. It sounds silly I know, but by not having to go out, tidying up and cleaning stuff up around the house didn't feel like such a chore. I puttered around the computer room / office and threw out a bunch of stuff, filed away some papers and dusted. The house looks pretty good and I feel rested and relaxed. It's very nice.

Mark's friend arrived, on his own, this afternoon. His son's hockey team lost their game this afternoon. I'd like to wish them well tomorrow afternoon but they are playing our guys (the Queen's team) and I just can't not cheer for Queen's (even though I really don't get all excited about hockey). Anyway, we went out for a nice dinner and a good visit. He's still here but he and Mark are downstairs visiting. They haven't had a chance to just sit around and gab like for a good long time so I'm glad that they have the chance right now.

Anyway, I'm off to go find a movie to watch. Hope you're having a good weekend too.

One thing that made me smile today: Our internet connection is back to normal. Well I shouldn't say that. Recently, normal has been piss-poor. The past couple of days, it's been working almost perfectly. Of course, as I type this I realize that it'll probably drop dead as soon as I try to publish this post.

small town or what

I'm going to preface this by saying that we almost never run into folks we know when we're out and about. Okay?

So, Mark picked me up tonight after work. He does this every night. He runs me across campus so I drop something off at Human Resources on our way home. On the way out of the parking lot, we run into my wonderfully fabulous friend Annette and her super talented husband, Jamie. Now this isn't unusual, she works on campus too. It was really nice to see them (we haven't seen them in a while) and she and I decided to get together for lunch next week. Okay, that was neat.

We decide that because we are most likely going to have visitors (or maybe just one visitor) for dinner tomorrow night, we should maybe get some groceries tonight. Out to the west end we go. A quick stop at the grocery store and then onto Costco. On the spur of the moment, we decide to stop for dinner. We walk into the restaurant and my parents are sitting there. Of course, we all decide to eat together. We had a terrific visit and a very nice time. Not too weird,

Over to Costco we go. Mark heads into the store, I grab a buggy. I'm concentrating on my buggy. Another buggy is wheeling toward me. It's pretty full, I notice that it's a guy pushing it but I don't look at his face. Rather, I'm admiring the gorgeous sweet peppers he has in his cart. A woman's voice says, "PEGGY!" I look up, it's my work buddy Annalisa and her partner, Dan. I laugh and explain that I'm a bit brain dead and tell them about running into Annette & Jamie and then my folks. While I'm telling her this, the guy who installed our windows walks by and I look up toward the sound of a car honking it's horn. Our boss and another friend are driving by, honking and waving. It was a little bizarre.

I always knew that Kingston was a small town but that's just a little too much, don't you think?

One thing that made me smile today: It's Friday night and I've already finished all of my errands for the weekend. It feels really good!

thinking about John

Last October, when John Peel passed away suddenly, I didn't write about it. I couldn't really. I was speechless and shocked. Even now, just typing that, my eyes are burning with tears and my throat is tight. Yesterday, while at work, I finally listened to the BBC radio documentary, "Teenage Dreams So Hard To Beat." Listening to many of my favourite musicians talk about him reminded me of how much of an influence he was on my life. Someone said, in the documentary, that he had more of an influence on them than their own parents. I can certainly agree with that on a musical level anyway.

His name was legendary when I was younger. In high school, I'd pick up his "Peel Session" EP's and finally hear bands I'd only ever read about (living in the middle or no where like I did): The Fall, The Wedding Present, The Damned, Joy Division, The Undertones...the list goes on. So did I. I'd seek out bands that I'd heard he was playing, because I figured, if John Peel liked them, I'd like them too. It was a good hunch to follow. I don't ever remember him steering me wrong.

Years later, when I was working in community radio, we were sent a series of shows to broadcast called "Peel out in the States." I actually had John Peel, on CD in my office. Introducing me, all over again, to stuff that we weren't getting at our station. Also, we got to hear new or different songs by bands we already were into. Fast forward a couple of years and I was a happy girl. I finally owned a fast enough computer, with a high speed internet connection to stream his shows. I got onto the peel-list for fans and finally could keep up with my favourite DJ.

Personally, I think that he was the greatest DJ to ever walk the planet. I know that I'm not alone in that opinion. I can't imagine that anyone reading this wouldn't know who he was. Even if you have never heard his show, I would strongly urge you to take an hour and go listen to, at the very least, the documentary portion of tribute to John Peel. If you're a fan, you'll really enjoy hearing the stories about him and if you're not, you'll get a good appreciation for how far-reaching his influence was.

One thing that made me smile today: The freezing rain didn't start until after I got to work. Fortunately, it should be done and melted by the time I leave work tonight too. Hey, in the middle of the working week, you take what you get.

In lieu of a proper post today, here is this week's version of "The Monday Madness":

1. My lucky number is 13.
2. My favorite day of the week is Sunday because Mark doesn't work and we get to spend the whole day together.
3. I spend about 60 hours/minutes on the phone a week, and none of those are long distance.
4. My favorite cereal is Special K.
5. One hobby of mine is updating my blog.
6. I wish I could spend more time with Mark.
7. I wish I could spend less time working.
8. I am really proud of my home.

One thing that made me smile today: My blinds were installed in my office today. They are smelly (vinyl roll-ups) but they are in. At this time of the year, with the sun on such a wicked angle, we actually have a lot of sunshine bouncing off of our monitors in the mornings.

super lazy day

We slept soooo late this morning. The past week was totally exhausting. Between what was going on at work and Mark and Joe both being sick/injured, everything just caught up with me yesterday. My plan yesterday was to do very little but we ended up doing groceries/errands, I did 7 loads of laundry and shoveled the driveway, twice.

Today, so far, has been the opposite. Because we got everything done yesterday, we've been just relaxing today. Last night, we watched a couple of movies on tv, Last Days of Disco and Party Monster. In December and January, we seem to get more than our money's worth from our digital cable box. We ended up getting to bed quite and slept in until 9:30 a.m.

We just finished watching a movie we taped overnight. It was so silly and bad. Actually it was a lot of fun, we did end up laughing out loud a couple of times. I would suggest that you only watch it though, if you are already a South Park fan. Yeah, that's right, we watched Orgazmo.

Joe is finally feeling a little better so we're finally going to have our New Years meal tonight. We've had lobster tails in the freezer for almost 2 weeks. He's still spending the best part of the day in bed but at least he's been going downstairs for meals (this is a huge improvement over last week). So, we're on a little week late but, as they say, better late than never, right?

hopeless

If Brad and Jennifer can't make it in this world, what chance is there for the rest of us to be happy in our own relationships??

Oh yeah, I'm worth $2,205,772.79! How much are you worth? Thanks to Carla for the link!

I'm finally back at my desk. It's a new desk in a freshly painted office and it's very nice. Finding a spot for all of my crap is something that I'm not worrying about too much. Right now, I'm just happy to be back at my own desk, in my regular chair. Funny how little things like that can make your whole day better, isn't it?

hump day, already?

Not much is happening. It's quiet and cold here today. Our brief fling with spring has passed I guess. I won't complain too loudly, afterall, it is January, the weather could be a whole lot worse.

At work, we're all still stuck at the table. Dropping like flies though. One person was off sick yesterday, another one today. It's hard to stay healthy while you're basically in each other's pockets. It's weird to say the least.

Mark is starting to feel better. They didn't do anything for him yesterday other than the x-ray. His doctor will have them in a few days I guess and we'll go from there. The painkillers are allowing him to get some sleep which is helping him recover. He is starting to get some increased mobility in his knee which is a huge improvement. Joe's still feeling sore but I know he's on the mend, even if he won't admit.

Hopefully, the end of this week, they'll both be up and around and back to normal. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

One thing that made me smile today: My "new" office is really sweet. The furniture is assembled and it looks fabulous with the new paint and carpet. I cannot wait to get back in there, get unpacked and get some work done!!

displaced

We're still sitting 'round the table together. The furniture, in pieces, is here though. It came in 3 trucks and took a large crew of men all morning to unload. It looks like the world's largest lego set in our offices. Hopefully, by the end of the week, we'll be in our spiffed up spaces.

Joe was still in bed all day yesterday with is back problems. When I left for work though, I heard him up and moving around so I'm hopeful that he's feeling better today. I had to "yell" at him last night. He didn't want to eat or take his pills because he didn't care about it. I explained to him that he would never get better if he was weak from not eating. The way I did it, made him laugh so hard that his back shot him a pain. I felt bad about the pain but he needed to laugh. He needed some perspective. At least he has a warm house and a bed and he's not so sick that we need to take him to emerge. When you're almost 80, things take longer to heal.

Anyway, other than sick folks at home and crammed in like sardines at work, not much is happening. I'm looking forward to going home tonight and taking it easy. Last night was a bit of a blur. After work, we got groceries, I made dinner, changed the beds, did laundry and looked after the sick folks. By the time 8 p.m. rolled around I was beyond beat. Hopefully, tonight won't be so nutty.

One thing that made me smile today: Mark is feeling less pain today than he was yesterday. He actually got a peaceful night's sleep thanks to the medication we picked up last night. He's having his knee x-rayed today so hopefully they will be able to tell him what's wrong with it.

back at it

It's a new week, the first week of the new year. Things are pretty much still in chaos here at work. Our offices have been painted and carpeted. They look really nice. Sadly, they are missing furniture. Right now, we're still working in the big boardroom but it's really difficult to get anything done. I am having a difficult time concentrating. Part of me is distracted because Joe and Mark are at home right now, not feeling very good. The other part of me is distracted by working in such close proximity to five other people. It's just a little weird and difficult to get used to. We may be like this for the biggest chunk of this week so I had better start adjusting I think.

Anyway, in keeping with my plan to not get too stressed or bothered about stuff I can't control, I am working at not letting it bug me. I'm keeping in perspective that I'm alive and healthy and have a very comfy home. Given how high the death toll has risen to in Asia, I'm feeling pretty lucky right now, all things considered.

One thing that made me smile today: Mark getting a prescription for painkillers and a referral for an xray. He's in a huge amount of pain with his knee right now and I can't stand seeing him suffer like he is. Hopefully he'll be feeling better sharpish.

marathon

So, it's almost 2 p.m. and I'm still in my pj's. It's not my fault, really. We slept in this morning, to make up for the lack of sleep on Friday. At 11, when I was planning to clean up my act and get dressed, a Kath & Kim marathon started.

We have been laughing our asses off ever since. The marathon doesn't end until 7 p.m. I will not feel guilty about this though. It's freezing rain outside so it's not safe to go anywhere. Also, this is probably the best way I could think of to relax before I go back to work tomorrow. So there!

a new and improved year

Happy New Year everyone.

So, it's 2005. To me, it feels like 2004 only sunnier. I say that because the sun is actually shining here. The temperature is crazy warm. All of our snow has melted and the roads are clear and dry. It's freaky but I like this new year. It all virginal, shiney and new and full of promise and nice weather. So far, so good.

We didn't do any big celebrating last night. Mark had to start work at 4 a.m. today so we were in bed by 9:30 p.m. I had set the alarm for 3:21 a.m. Sadly, I didn't trust the alarm, or myself and kept waking up every 45-60 minutes to check the time. By the time I actually woke him up at 3:28 a.m., I was completely awake. Overtired was the problem I guess. He left for work, I stayed up until a little after 5 and then went back to bed. It took me until almost 7 to fall asleep and then, I only slept for about an hour or so. Surprisingly, I'm not too tired. I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight though.

Because we knew we'd be having an early night last night, we made no plans for even a special meal. On Thursday, we picked up some lobster tails and were planning to have a really fancy/nice meal tonight. Unfortunately, Joe's still feeling like hammered shit (although much improved hammered shit over the way he'd been feeling on Thursday and Friday) so we're putting it off until tomorrow. Fortunately, the lobster is frozen. Mark's going to cook the lobster, I'm making scalloped potatoes. I'm not sure what vegetable we'll have but I'm sure it'll be lovely when it all comes together.

Thinking about the new year for me, is really thinking about spring. Now that January has arrived, it's really not that long until spring arrives again. For some reason, for me anyway, November and December always drag on and on. Once the solstice is behind us, and the days start to get longer again, all I can focus on is spring. I love seeing the tulips and daffodils pop up, the grass get greener, the buds pop out on our lilac bush. Please don't think I'm wishing the year away or anything, winter is fine in it's own frosty way. I just really love spring and am particularly excited about it this year.

One thing that made me smile today: The Simpsons Season 5 DVD. Mark got it for Christmas. We started watching disc one this afternoon when he got home from work. It's such a great season, we've been laughing our butts off watching it.