Well that's a relief

You Are 60% Normal

Otherwise known as the normal amount of normal You're like most people most of the time But you've got those quirks that make you endearing You're unique, yes... but not frighteningly so!

How Normal Are You?

Also a very good sign:

You Could Definitely Be a Vegetarian

You would make a great vegetarian - if you aren't one already. You're adventurous enough to try all sorts of new veggie foods... And your commitment to animal welfare will motivate you to stay meat free!

Could You Be a Vegetarian?

This is total crap! I'm way more Irish than that.

You're 40% Irish

You're probably less Irish than you think you are... But you're still more Irish than most.

How Irish Are You?

I also have good manners 78% of the time (sure) and my celebrity boob twin is a mix between Lucy Lawless and Chalize Theron. Obviously I was hoping for Scarlett Johannson or maybe Angelina. Damn. Thanks to Catherine for the time waster link on her blog.

Mark Your Calendar!

April 18th is the start of the annual Army and Navy shoe sale. Nothing better than cheap shoes. You can look at the online flyer here: http://www.armyandnavy.ca/

Lesson learned from last year, don't bring a purse, it just gets in your way. Wear slip on shoes, and be prepared for lots of pushing and shoving!!

Little kid birthdays

It's springtime, so that means lots of birthdays. First was Kaitlyn's pirate themed 8th birthday party, complete with a treasure chest cake.

And a tresure chest pinata


Then it was Kassie's 5th birthday

Then Trey's 7th birthday at Cultus Lake, and the Canucks won their game too!

mmmm, ice cream cake!

Easter Bunny

After this Bobby always started eatting at the ears, not the tail.

It sounds like an April fools day joke, but it's not. It is snowing. I think this is the latest I've seen snow. Umm it's April, right?

UPDATE- it's now 11:25am on the 2nd and it is snowing again! I also lied when I said it was the latest I've seen snow. After reading Cathy's post, I remembered that it snowed on Sarah's birthday May 10th in Kaslo in 1985 or 1986. But this is Vancouver, whole different thing.

The One

I really am going to put an fake ad in the "I saw you" section.

I have a theory that people will pretend to be the person in the ad. My other theory is that other people are also making up false ads to meet people. But I don't know how to test that, other than to respond to every ad and seeing how many people don't care that I'm not "the one." So excercise your creativity and write a good "I saw you" ad. If it's good, you may see it published very soon. I'm going to put a 1 week deadline on submissions.

"I saw you"

Yes I know that I have done a post about "I saw you" messages before. I check them about every few months, just to see. I think some are funny, others are so vague that they could be about anyone. I have been thinking about posting a fake one just to see how many responses I get. Do you want to help me write one?

I'm thinking super general like :
New West station to Granville w4m "We kept making eye contact on the skytrain last night. I kept hoping you would ask for my number, but you never did. Just shy? I was wearing glasses, a black sweater and jeans. You had brown hair and were wearing jeans and a hoodie."

Or else it could be so specific it shouldn't result in any matches.
Starbucks at English Bay w4m "I was ordering a decaf soy caramel machiatto, you ordered the same thing. We are coffee soulmates! I was wearing Lou Lou Lemon, you had blonde dreadlocks. Coffee?"

What do you think? Maybe it is the psyc student in me that is super curious about the type of people that respond to these ads. Can anyone write a better one?

Vegan Lunch box blog

I have a favorite blog that I visit from time to time when I need inspiration. It's called the vegan lunchbox. It is written by a stay-at-home mom (and now author) who packs amazing lunches every monday for her son.

I mean amazing.

The tiger is fried tofu cut into a shape with nori on a bed of sushi rice. And there is a packet of soy sauce in the shape of a fish, with vegan doughnut holes.

Everything is vegan, and super healthy. This was a favorite week of mine. Fruit salad, blanched asparagus with soy sauce and sesame seeds, sushi and a cherry nut fruit bar. So this is a lunch for a teenager right? Wrong!!! He's in kindergarden. (Now he's in grade one). And yes, he eats all of the food. Each lunch is rated by the kid.

I liked this week's lunch too:

It is "chilled Japanese buckwheat noodles topped with a sprinkle of nori and served with a flavorful dipping sauce. This time they are appearing without their traditional sidekick, daikon radish, which shmoo [her nickname for her son] didn't care for. But I did pack some edamame and one of my favorite fruit combos: fresh kiwi fruit mixed with fresh blueberries."

So if you need a little inspiration when packing your lunch, go check out her blog at: http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

Moving Whitney

Yup, Whitney moved today. There seemed to be a lot of discussion about where the sofa should go. I sat back and took pictures.
















Finally we got it just right. This took over an hour.



No one knew what to do with this box. She had the weirdest labels on her boxes.
Change Underwear, and weird clothes. Should we open it? We decided not.

St. Patrick's Day

A few years ago I was really into researching my Irish roots. We really are Irish, from Pontypool, Armagh. It's the north eastern part of Ireland. This got Whitney excited because she thinks maybe our ancestors were IRA. I doubt it. I can't figure out which side is loyal to England and which side isn't.






This is the church that my great great great great grandparents were baptised at in the 1700's Vinecash Presbyterian, this isn't the actual church. It has been rebuilt since then.

Anyways, a toast: 'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!' <--- Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pie

Yet another blackberry pie. My freezer is getting awfully empty. I am running low on blackberries. So many hours of picking, but I should have done a little more. Remember the duffle bag that may or may not have contained a body or money? Yeah. I like risked death by cougar to get these berries.


This is a wheat-free dairy-free pie, totally from scratch. Looks good right? Oh so wrong. It was like a lemon pie made with cardboard crust. Far and away the worst pie I have ever made- even worse than the dairy-free cheese cake. I am going to buy ice cream, to see if that makes it edible. I don't want to throw it out, because so much time went into it.

The Ultimate Test of Canadian-ness

I understood about 95% of this, but that's probably because I spent some time in Nfld. Some of the weird stuff is pure newfie slang. How did you do?

"How's she goin' - I was born a herring choker, but brought up a blue noser, a caper to be sure - me paw was from the rock but me maw was née en acadee.. Anyhoo I was working the rigs out by fort mac, and later by cowtown - ended up on compo and drove the #1 to the hammer where I live now. So's the other day I went by the sev for a deck of players and a carton of ****, and then down by the LCB for a halfsack of moosehead and a forty pounder of screech. I had a couple of toonies left so I popped in on the tims for a double double and a maple glazed.. by gar if it didn't remind me of parti sucre weekends at the sugar shack. but the darn metis chucklehead working the joe-job behind the counter forgot to give me a serviette. I asked him right nice, but buddy called me a newf and gave me a trudeau salute. Well lard thunder I got right chippy, he was an FBI from the rez, but I pulled a goon - suckered him in the chicklets, and skedaddled before the RCs got there"
I don't know what the *** is supposed to be. Some sort of slang for milk?



And here's another one



"They'd cut off my E.I. and the pogey was still a week away, so I rounded up all the twoonies and loonies I could find in the chesterfield, and hiked a coupla clicks to the LC to pick up a half sack and a mickey, but settled on a flat and a twenty-sixer and a plan to get right p¡ssed. It was a skookum plan, but I shoulda paid the hydro, cuz they cut me off and now my two-four froze along with the taps and I'm huddled in my tuque, johnnies and mack - without enough left for a hot double double and a jambuster. I'm set for butts though and I've got a whack of KD (but nowheres to cook it). I'm also late for rent on my bachelor, so I'm dekeing my Jean-gee Pepsi landlord as I promised I'd sign over my GST rebate when I got it from revcan. He's somewhat of a goof but I don't want a kerfuffle cuz HNIC and Coaches Corner is tonight and I want to see the Habs knock out the Leafs (like a good 'pegger I'm rootin for anyone but Hogtown)."



Again, it was crystal clear. These were posted on an american website asking for a translation. The translations americans attempted were WAY off. Nobody knew that "hiking a couple of clicks to the LC" was walking a couple miles to the liquor store. Or that butts are cigarettes. Duh! so obvious. The only thing I don't know is the Jean-gee Pepsi reference.

Kaitlyn's birthday

Nothing like getting the flu for your birthday...



Well maybe getting the new Cinderella movie makes up for it.

New Editions

Okay so I went to the store for something and came home with new fish. The big one is Sarah's, it's gotta be like 5 years old. The four little ones are new. I only had 3 fish, and Sarah's fish is so aggressive that it will kill anything that it is put with. So I bought more fish that are aggressive too.

So its like really hard to take a good picture of fish. I spent like half an hour taking a hundred pictures or so and most of the time the fish weren't even in the picture. This is the other new edition. He's a shark. I've never owned a shark, apparently they are aggressive. Unfortunately, mine looks unhappy.

I think it has nothing to do with my camera skills. I think this might have been the problem...

She spends about 1/3 of her awake time at the fish tank like this. She has her favorite fish, the algae eatter. The little bugger was camera shy last night. But I caught a good pic of Salem's #2 favorite fish (my favorite). Ironically it is a catfish.

This is the best picture of the bunch, and it still sucks.

The bike trainer

Yup that's my new bike trainer. Whitney and Rod came over on Sunday and set me up. Thanks!! I'm now going absolutely nowhere at a very fast rate. And yes, it does feel like at any moment, the bike is going to take off and I'll go flying into the wall. Let's hope that doesn't happen!

Night

I am reading a really good book. Night by Elie Wiesel. It is his story of surviving Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He was a teenager in Transylvania, when his family was transported to the concentration camp in 1944. As I read it, I keep thinking that it's a novel. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a memoir. About a year ago, Oprah interviewed him as they walked through Auschwitz, it was far and away the best interview I've seen Oprah do in years. Oprah hardly speaks, she just listened to him. They walked through the grounds and buildings all alone in the snow.

In the book, he tells how even in 1944, up until he was in the camps and saw what was going on, nobody knew. Eventhough the Nazi's had killed so many people by this point, no one knew what was really happening. Wiesel says that they thought they were going to a place to be segregated from the non-Jewish people. He'd never heard of Auschwitz. It is a short story about 120 pages long, but it is such a big story. Go get it.

Spring!

Has anybody else woken up to the bird singing? I love spring. My daffodils are thinking about opening up. My snow drops and blue bells are taking this year off apparently. They are usually blooming right now, but I don't see them. I am already planning Garden 2007. I have an idea of what I want to do, but I am limited by the lack of sun I get. Hopefully I can find a new place to garden in next year.




Just a reminder, this Sunday is the new start to daylight savings time. Spring ahead! It was only after I downloaded this picture that I realized something was wrong with it.

D-List Celebrity Sighting

Remember this guy? Charlotte's super gay friend on Sex and the City? Sarah and I spotted him at Granville and Robson last week after dinner at Saltlik. I was like 90% sure it was him. But I searched imdb and found out that he is in town filming Men in Trees- the show that I am addicted to. It's supposed to be in Alaska, but they are actually filming in Squamish. So it is a 100% sure sighting now.

to protect my ass, photo credit Janet Mayer

Proof that I live in the ghetto

I was walking past my window and happened to look out at the street. I see a guy getting dressed at the dumpster.

It took him about 45 minutes to do. I wish I had a better zoom on my camera. When I looked out, he had a shirt and black dresspants and loafers on, but the pants were undone, and he was trying to tuck in his I heart NY t shirt. After that came a pair of suspenders. And then a head scarf thing as if he was in Kung-Fu. Then a trench coat 5 sizes too big. That messed up the Kung-Fu headband. So he had to start over. After a lot of adjusting he got all his clothes on.









He also had a breifcase and a duffle bag and a walking cane. It took him a very long time to get everything as he wanted. I tried to get a picture of the final outfit, but it didn't turn out very well. But he was talking to himself in a pretty loud voice.


It is by far the strangest thing I have seen this week. I don't know if there was some sort of costume party or if it is

somehow linked to the lunar cycle.

Really not a good picture. This is on max zoom through a dirty window and a window screen. To me he looks a little columbine.

NOTE- if you click on the above pictures you can see more detail.

What's going on?

I think this picture must have been taken while I was in the bathroom.

I'm not sure what prompted this surge of Hippie Love. But it is very reminiscent of the time Sarah and Shannon staged a anti-war walk out in elementary school.

Sarah requested more pictures from Saltlik, so this on is of Kristen and I chowing down.

Salem

The Co-op sent guys to clean out the dryer vents today. Salem didn't like it. Basically it was a giant vaccum. After she came out of her hiding spot, she jumped up here. She went to the highest spot she could get to. Poor girl, it isn't easy being a scaredy cat.

Dryers can start fires if you don't clean the exhaust thingy (in the wall). It gets done here every 2 years. If you haven't done it recently, make sure you get it cleaned.

Guilty Pleasures

I never walk down the cookie aisle. But when I do, I always check to see if Viva Puffs are on sale. I love them. Cookie, jam, marshmellow and chocolate all rolled into one cookie? Yum.

There are other rules besides that they have to be on sale. Only one treat per grocery shop. Everything else in my basket has to be healthy. Essentially I shop to impress. Do you ever look at what other people are buying and make judgements about what sort of person they are? I do. The hot guy that is buying 5 package of meat, is probably not the guy for me. Or people that don't buy veggies. I don't know how they survive. Anyways, I want people to think, wow, she's a healthy eatter. I know, so stupid. And that's where the one treat per basket rule came in. No one will ever think that I am a healthy gal if all I'm buying is junk food. Seriously, what would you think if the person in front of you at the check out was only buying junk food?

So what's your guilty pleasure- food wise?

Downtown

We all met at downtown at Saltlik, a steakhouse. It was pretty good.


The martini's were yummy. I was definately in need of a drink. I spent most of the day talking to police after a customer destroyed the store and we had to shut the store down. The even stranger thing is that the same customer then kept calling the store after trashing the joint. He told me on the phone that he saw vampires in the store and he had to do it. My response? "Hold, please..."





















Steven and Nicole













Whitney will kill me, but this is the only picture of Ben I got all night. He was more than happy to be the photog for the night.









After Saltlik, we headed out to a bar for a few more drinks. We walked down Granville street. I was definately over-dressed. Next time I will have to wear short shorts and stilleto heels. It seemed to be the uniform of every girl there!



Since we were in the area, we just had to get a shot of us infront of the 2010 clock. There was a security guard making sure that no one messed with the clock.

Good thing we all got the memo about wearing the same thing. Black coats all around






After, we left Whitney and Ben. Kristen was nice enough to offer us a ride to go and meet up with Darren and Blake.









But... where the hell is the car?

walking and walking and walking







20 minutes later....



There it is!!



After meeting up with Darren and Blake we got a cab to New West. Made it into bed just before 4am. I never last that long! Especially after working all day.

Clothing Swap

Friday night was the clothing swap. Whitney and I finally got the chance to give Sarah her Christmas stocking. We had Christmas dinner and gift exchange at Dad's on Wednesday.


Karen, winner of the 1000th blog visitor prize. Lucky girl got 3 racey romance novels. Sarah also recieved a pilot themed novel, and Whitney is currently reading her novels.

funny and scary

No posts for the last little while as I had entered midterm-hell.

I have a couple stories for you:
I was reading messages in a bookseller forum when I read that Anna Nicole Smith died. I thought "oh my god, is this true?" So where did I go to find out the truth? Perez Hilton. I went to a gossip columnist for breaking news. The irony of this hit me as I was waiting for the page to load.

My other story is from a few weeks ago. I was on the bus heading home about 8:00 at night. I young teenage girl got on the bus followed by a middle aged guy. He sat by her and was really in her personal space. Psychology student that I am, I was analyzing the body language. It was more than a little weird. Too close, really wrong. The girl got off at my stop followed by the guy. She goes left, so does he. She stops, goes right and so does he. She stops again, and he asks her which way they are going to go.

So for some reason I jumped in. I asked the guy if he knew her, he says that he is getting to know her. So I ask her if she wants to talk to him anymore. NO. I start telling the guy to leave and he starts telling me that he isn't planning on hurting her. (I never said anything about hurting her, which makes me think this is exactly what he had in mind.) This escalates until I am yelling at him and eventually he backs off and both the girl and I high-tail it home. This is so not like me, I don't confront creepy guys on the street and yell at them. Anyways, when I got home I realized how stupid that was. And then like 2 days later it occured to me I should have called the cops.

Swedish Twins

Anyone that was at Sarah's bridal shower will know why this is for Lila.

Click on the link. turn your speakers on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV7o76l4v_4

What a deal!

I was just shopping in Safeway and I saw a deal that was too good to pass up. They have marked down premium olive oil 50% off! I got a big bottle of organic EVOO (extra virgin olive oil for those not in the know) for $9. Other oils are also half off (walnut, sesame etc). I was at the McBride Safeway, but the markdowns should be at your store too.

Also very exciting news. They have re-done the Canada Food Guide. What should make up most of your diet? Why, fruits and veggies of course. As a veggie, I feel so vindicated! In the old food guide it was recommended that the biggest part of your diet be breads and grains. Also now recommended, add good oil to your diet (like EVOO), and limit bad oils.

So women between 19 and 50 should eat this everyday:
7-8 servings of vegetables and fruit
6-7 servings of grain products
2 servings of milk and alternatives
2 servings of meat and alternatives
30 - 45 mL (2 to 3 Tbsp) of unsaturated oils and fats

you can find out more here: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index_e.html

you can also order your free copy of the guide (I did)

If you are wondering what a serving is, you can also find this information on the website.

The old food guides definately reflected the times. Like war time, it was recommended that you eat at least 3 servings of veggies, at least one of them potato. And it was recommended children drink 1 quart of milk a day. Isn't that 1 Liter? And it was also recommended that you eat liver frequently. eww. No wonder liver is such a hit at old people restaurants!

Vintage

What was old, is new again. This seems to apply to just about everything. Clothes, home decor, hair styles, shoes etc. But there are some things that we just don't seem to want to revisit. Like the giant cell phone.

Remember this bad boy? Just look at that antenna! This a cell phone that cannot be lost. How many times have you been unable to find your ringing phone in your huge purse. You dig and you dig, people stare while you frantically search for your tiny phone. You leave it behind at home and work. And how in god's name do you pick the perfect ring tone that really represents you as a person?

But the giant phone solves all these problems. If you don't have 10 pounds of cell phone attached to your belt, you are definately missing something. There is no digging for this phone, it's easy to find. No more ring tones to choose from, there is only one.

I remember seeing these cell phones on Saved by the Bell, and thinking that Slater and Zack were soooo cool.