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| What happens when 1 million odd women jump up and down and say YAY? |
| 06.30.04 (8:40 pm) [edit] |
I dunno, but if there's been an earthquake or unexplained shifting of the earth's surface lately, this might have something to do with it.
ICON Productions (Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey) have optioned the IN DEATH series by J. D. Robb for a full feature length movie. See Nora's Website for the little blurb and further information. The dream casting has begun, with from the quick little scan read I did, Orlando Bloom high up for Trueheart.
I KNOW Mel's not quite right for Roarke (DAMNIT) but I sure hope he considers a few characters and gets in front of the camera in this one. There's one in particular I'd love to see him play... let's hope he's on the same wavelength.
I devoured this series, and have actually been holding off reading the last two released to savour them on a weekend of binge reading I'm planning for myself.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
Thursday July 1st, 2004 is Canada's 137th birthday.
Happy Birthday Canada. I wish I could really feel more than just relief of an excuse of a day off with pay. :(
We're not in great shape. And we won't be until we start really working together as a country. I grew up on the prairies and was raised within a farming family and community. I didn't pay a lot of attention, but it was pretty easy to listen to the parents at the dinner table and get a clue that the easterners (by which I mean Ontario and Quebec, we hardly thought about the maritimes :() didn't give a good ***damn about the west and you know what, 30 some odd years later and they still don't. In fact, going by the reports from the polls they barely cared about the election, compared to what's going on out here.
Wake up Canada... wake up now!
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| a test, a test, oh yes let's have a test... |
| 06.27.04 (7:44 pm) [edit] |
:)
I simply want to see if anyone else thinks like me... so no cool piccys to put on your blog, no pithy remarks about how you'll change the world, or kill a vampire or win a dodge dakota truck (who'd wanna?) Just tell me if these short little phrases ring any bells or blow any whistles :).
By the way, no quotes, cause I mostly am not quoting, I'm paraphrasing *GRIN*... and because I can't remember the lines verbatim.. but I know what I mean.
(tip :) they're all movie dialogue.. ) Bonus points for starring cast, and year. Extra bonus points if you use them in your daily conversations like I do.
1. Ye Gods! -- You watch your phraseology.
2. Uh oh... what uh oh, no uh oh.
3. We love you ****ie, oh yes we dooooo...
4. danke schön
5. I'm too old for this shit. (I know I know, but reference which one where someone else says it and win a point :) )
6. Mr. Wiggley's been on short rations. (yeah, ok so it's time for a movie marathon weekend or something. I blame Lisa ;) ) (serious points if you know which Lisa I mean and get in touch damnit)
7. Do you want to be back where you were, in Greenland, unemployed?
8. I'll have what she's having.
... more to be added as they come to me.
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| Protecting the idiots |
| 06.21.04 (8:26 pm) [edit] |
Hah!
Apparently that is not possible... so shall we just say that a not so great day was had by your grumpy, old, cranky correspondent and leave it at that.
Then I get home, and seeking some cheer I go to Special K's site for a little good cheer and some sarcastic to the point commentary and find out her roommate has turned into a slug and decided to move out, leaving her stuck with the rent. For the record, K's usually a fun read... but everyone has their off days, and hers is being helped along by the not so nice about to be ex roomie.
GAAAAH...
:twisted: can we spell obnoxious cretinous nasty person who deserves a plague of locusts? Not that I'm judging...
I hit two more of my favourite blogs and all they have to say is how great iPods in BMW's are. :roll: Well, granted that is sort of cool :) now that I think of it... but since I have neither an iPod nor a BMW and the last Tarot reading didn't show any turns of fortune or great wads of money floating down on me from above :) I rather doubt I'll have either in the near future... so... no joy there.
Then I went here... Critter Lover And now I feel better. She's got a beautiful blog and if I might be so bold to make assumptions based on a few colour selections and words on a personal page, a beautiful soul. Very peaceful and honest. And don't miss the link to her husband's site, if you're in the mood for a little teasing jibe or two... because you know, we can only be sweetness and light for short periods of time. Otherwise we gets all sappy and silly.
Ahh... I really do feel better now.
So... guess it's time I updated my favourite reads list. Hmm.. maybe tomorrow, when I'm fuming?
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| taking a moment... |
| 06.21.04 (10:47 am) [edit] |
I find myself with 15 minutes of busy time to fill.
Whatever shall I do, I ask myself. I know... I'll update my blog.
Yeah right, I've been dying to get on here and moan and rip into a few things, but given the public aspect of this blog, let's just stick with I'M PISSED.
Anyhoo... :)
More tonight, when I figure out how to protect the idiots.
Shazbat...
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| More Men are Funny, stuff... |
| 06.18.04 (11:34 pm) [edit] |
Wedding Dress for sale
I checked my email one last time after posting in preparation for shutting down and found that a dear friend had sent this little gem.
I've said it before, you can buy *anything* on eBay. :)
This guy is right in his comments (near the bottom, do read them all and if anyone has a url for the website he mentions send it to me) (and of course if this is a hoax or a joke site and I'm a boob for posting it in the context of it being real, then too bad, I'm still laughing about it, and that's what counts :))
Anyways, I think he's right, where he addresses some negative remarks. Few people get the true joy of making a tonne (I'm Canadian, deal!) of people Laugh OUT Loud.
Enjoy.
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| shameless filling of my blog entry with stolen material ;) |
| 06.18.04 (11:11 pm) [edit] |
To Be Happy You Only Need to be Born a Man
Okay, ladies, are we going to let this fellow get all the laughs?
I thought not. :lol:
On the other hand, some men really feel this way... or at the very least... portray this to the world, as it's much easier than letting who they truly are be out and about and seen.
Rather like a dear friend, who maintains a luxurious blonde head of hair with regular applications. She was a brunette for years and quite good at being one. Then one day, she discovered (after one of those weekends where you experiment out of sheer boredom) that blondes, may or may not have more fun, but they certainly deal with less expectations of knowledge, sense or effort. Mind you, this is her personal take on things and is only one example there of. But, after watching this very intelligent, profound lady in action for a few years I have to agree. People simply don't expect her to know directions to places. Or how to do things, or to sometimes, even have an opinion on something. She says she's thought about letting her hair go dark again, but she rather enjoys the light workload. :roll:
Heck, I do it myself. I'll look at her and be about to ask her something and buy right into that whole cliche of the dumb blonde. When I talk with her on the phone I don't, but in person I tend to want to hmmm it's either protect her from the world, or the world from her, sometimes it's a bit unclear. *giggle*
I'm too tired and wired at the same time, right now, to really put this into words but more on *emasculated, in a female version there of* women at a later date.
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| Well the picture's sort of nice. |
| 06.17.04 (8:04 pm) [edit] |
Cunning. Through use of many of life's faculties,
you've managed to suceed greatly. It may not
seem so to many, but isn't the the point most
times? It's only a matter of knowing more then
the others, right? I'm scared of people like
you, but in the same time, admire the ability
to see more then just the big picture; you see
yourself in it every time. You survived the end
by knowing who to knock down so you got that
last spot in the bunker... nicely done.
How would you survive the end of the world?
brought to you by Quizilla
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| Ah.... that's why... |
| 06.15.04 (9:13 pm) [edit] |
My dear friend, one I've been missing way more than I realized, popped back into my life today... dropping by for an unexpected but most wonderful visit... that cheered me beyond belief. Now it's not like she'd dropped off the face of the earth, we talk online now and then, when we can... but it's not the same as the hours long chats in water up to our necks at the lake. You see, the kids couldn't swim out that far so we could be alone *GRIN*, and just gab. About this or that or even the proverbial other thing.
During our visit... she told me the funniest of stories, and with her kind permission I'm going to post it here. I could only wish I'd given a why not to be rude lesson this well. :)
My friend's a driver. I met her as she climbed out of a semi, or just after anyways. So it's not that surprising that she's currently driving bus. You know, big yellow school bus, hauling this or that group of kids to this or that game/function/outing/comp etiton, which ever. While at one recently she was sitting in her bus, waiting for her group to be ready to go when a cute lil car pulls up and effectively blocks her in. She asks the sweet young girls if they will move, offering to let them have her spot instead. After an exchange that involves "Eh, why should I?" and the ubiquitous "Whatever!" (not many words make me nuts... freedom of expression and all that, but the word 'whatever' is one that hits the mustkillnow switch rather quickly for me), they lock their car and wander off. Leaving my friend with a 72 passenger bus, blocked in a parking lot, needing to be able to leave as soon as her charter is ready to do so, to be able to get them back to school in time.
My friend is a good driver...thus she manueuvered her way out of the tight spot and was over at the loading spot in good time. As she's sitting in her bus, still fuming, she spots a man walking a rather large german shepherd. She has a dog (a golden...) she has to walk the golden... she has plastic bags in her pockets. As fate would have it, the shepherd needed to relieve himself. She waits and watches and when the pair move along she wanders over with her plastic bag at ready. Poor fellow with the dog is looking over his shoulder and obviously wondering whether he should come back and clean up after his dog or what. My friend is looking over her shoulder, wondering just how she's going to explain that she wants to clean this up. After much glancing and odd looks back and forth she gathers up enough of the dog's stuff and heads over to the cute lil car.
It's such a nice sunny day, everyone is wearing shorts. You know how when you get into a car you tend to drag your leg against the bottom where the door fits... she applies some of the stuff along there. And well, since she had some left over, she felt it only a good deal to coat the door handles to all four doors. She admits she's a bit embarrassed at this, and might not find this quite so fitting another time... but for this one time, it felt just the right sort of retribution for the sweet young girls' can't be bothered attitudes.
The topping on the cake? While she's loading her charter, along come the young girls. She watches as they open their doors, chuckling a little at all the hollering. As she'd driving away, it occurs to her "that's why."
So, what's the worse thing you've ever done such as this? Sometimes it's not really important to 'get someone back' but you know... sometimes it just is.
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| Shawls, pictures of shawls, finally... |
| 06.13.04 (4:53 pm) [edit] |
Finally the pictures are here. Not THE pictures... they still reside in peaceful, uninterrupted slumber somewhere inside my digital. They are *good* pictures... nice sunny day, light breeze but only just enough of one to furl the shawls out to their true beauty.
Bitter, you ask? Not at all. I will prevail and someday get them to come out onto my harddrive. *wink*. In the meantime we have pictures... of shawls... My shawls... the ones I've been yammering about for some time now.
So, with thanks to my unnamed model and without further ado... TaDAAAH!!!!!!
The first of them to be completed... (although not the first to be started...)
The Wool Pedlar Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's exquisite _Folk Shawls_ worked in Paton's Decor (Barn Red) I have quite a bit of yarn left over from the 11 skeins I thought I'd need. Enough for a smaller version for each of the girls, maybe? I guess we'll see. For those counting, I think I've got 5 full balls and 1 nearly full ball left. I actually had 12 skiens now that I think about it but I bought 11 for the dyelot, being red.
The second to be completed (and yet, strangely enough not the second to be started, go figure...)
The Irish Diamond Shawl again from Cheryl Oberle's _Folk Shawls_ worked in Paton's Decor (Woodbine) I used 9 1/2 skeins of this and have far more stitches along the bottom edge than the pattern called for... yet the patterning always worked. I'm not sure if there was an actual error in the pattern or my interpretation there of, but the sound you hear is the thudding hooves of a horse and rider galloping by... wait for it... yep, *whew* passed the galloping horse test :).
Finally, the Faroese Shawl from _Best of Knitters Shawls and Scarves_ (I might have the title incorrect) worked in 2 shades of Mexican Wave. I'm sorry, the ball bands for these are long gone...but one was a pink-to-blue and the other a mid green to pink colourway. This was the first of the three to be started, but due to not fully understanding the faroese shaping, plus a serious underestimate on the amount of yarn required, it stalled for quite some time. It was frogged at least 3 times from various states of completion... and the yarn held up incredibly well.
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| Musings of a Driver... |
| 06.09.04 (1:40 pm) [edit] |
I learned to drive in a little brown Toyota Corolla. Hmm...I'm gonna say a 1974 or '76 maybe older still. Hmms, well technically it was on a farm tractor, and I might have steered the old red faded to pink and silver 50'ssomething International once or twice before that, but I got my learners' in Driver's Ed through school, and practiced in the evil green Chevvie with the 3 on the tree. I learned to love to drive in that little Toyota. Five of us learned to shift and stay on the road in that poor little car that belonged to a friend. Along the way he also taught us to smoke, drink, swear and think. I miss him. He was the older brother of a friend, boyfriend to my cousin and my hero. He died at the age of 26 in a very dumb and tragic accident. Such is life, the good truly do sometimes die young. I don't know why he's coming up so much in my thinking of late.
Like a lot of kids my age I was all over the "Fun Cars" of my era :) the Shelby Cobras, the Mach I's, Barracudas and Javelins. Big Daddy Garlitz and Shirley Muldowney and jet cars *wow*. I didn't drive them of course, but I think I would have been more excited to get my first kiss from a 'cuda (possibly even the fish but that's another story) than the fellow I did get it from ;). I like cars, just not Chevs. OLD camaros being the obvious exception.
I forgot I liked cars for a while. Didn't care what I drove so long as it was a Ford, :) went down the road straight, and had room for me, the kids and groceries. An Aerostar van served for a good long time. Nice enough to drive, ran well enough to go to Saskatchewan one year, BC the next. But it finally died. There was the couple or 4 little mustang II's that I had fun with before that but that's about it in the way of For Fun cars.
I even forgot I liked car movies. Then my son convinced me to watch The Fast and the Furious with him. Then Gone in Sixty Seconds. Eh... for TF&TF it's not a bad movie, and the stunts are cool. Nothing *superb* for me in the way of cars or acting but the last... oh 15 minutes of the movie. It's a movie with a payoff... not a great one, but a payoff. Lots of movies don't have that these days, at least for me. And it's not just the interaction between the characters...it's the CAR. The OLD CAR, the BLACK CAR *GRIN*. More to the point it's that car, getting away...not the cop turning bad, or becoming one with the bad guy (what the hell kinda message is that about anyways?) The stunt is good, and it sums up the movie, what more do you want?
The car I have now is an '85 Celica Supra. A Toyota. Strangely enough this make of car has come into my life again. For the record, it didn't just land in my driveway like some sign from aliens or something, I sought it out. :) But it's helping me remember I LIKE cars. And WHY I like cars. And if you hear someone laughing just ignore him. :) He just has this thing about being right.
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| some poetry just makes sense. |
| 06.06.04 (11:00 pm) [edit] |
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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| GO QUIZZES GALORE |
| 06.03.04 (12:25 am) [edit] |
Another go-quiz... because well, just because : :) :
| therealunicorn may explode without warning | M
EXPLOSIVE |
From Go-Quiz.com
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| What's Wrong with People These Days? |
| 06.02.04 (3:52 pm) [edit] |
Today I spent the second of two long days in a local small town, dealing with petty bureaucrats and government agencies and one damn uppity kid at the Home Hardware. I just want that out there because there is the slightest of possibilities that my own patience level is a bit skewed at the moment.
That said, where the hell did manners and politeness go?
The highlight of my day is the wonderful older gentleman who works at the local IGA as a bag carrier. I can't quite bring myself to call this delightful man a bag boy but that's what he does. He's the sweetest guy, always smiling... a great sense of farmer/rancher humour and the sort of fellow you call sir because he just deserves it. I want to carry my own groceries and just have him walk out to the car with me for the chat *GRIN*. He's just that nice.
The flipside lowpoint was the uppity little snot at the HomeHardware store. After snottily telling my husband that it wasn't their problem and there was nothing the store would do, he actually walked by when I was sorting out the problem (which IS theirs) and getting the assistance I required (which another employee gladly provided) and tossed over his shoulder, "I already told them we can't fix that." I was just bitchy enough and pissed off enough to walk by him on my way out and toss over my shoulder, "Gee, guess nothing we can do, wasn't an option after all." It was that or bitch slap the little turd and I didn't feel like justifying it to a cop so...
In between these are the people I dealt with. One incredible lady, who does her job in the most perfect way. I've told her repeatedly that if anyone was ever more suited to their position I've yet to meet them. You go to where she works, when you're in need of assistance, with various things...and you know what, she always has it. Be it the right phone number to call, the right form to fill out, or just the hug you needed, she's got it. KUDOS To YOU (I can't name her ;) but she knows who she is :))
The rest... not so hot... see for yourselves. While at the Home Hardware, while the employee who was willing to sort stuff out for me was doing so, an older than me lady walked up and impatiently and repeatedly tapped her credit card on the counter. Much sighing went on, together with sidelong looks that were clearly intended to quell me so I would just melt out of HER way. I barely had a chance to get the thank you out of my mouth and collect my paperwork before she started speaking, brushing past me to the counter. Geez lady, let a person walk already.
Two ladies with laden grocery carts and 2 kids per (I have kids, I even like kids :) bratty little monkeys I'm not so fond of) who filled up an aisle at the grocery store, gossiping. Hey, I love to chat with my neighbours and friends too... but I usually notice when someone is waiting patiently to get through and move (And I was... I wasn't tapping anything or bumping them with my cart, and I didn't even run over the one child who was sitting on the floor pulling boxes of cookies off the shelf and opening them while his mom chatted). Finally I went up another aisle and doubled back, parked my cart and stepped forward, saying 'excuse my reach' and reached in behind the one woman for the item I required. She barely broke stride in her conversation and moved not a whit. No, I didn't hit her with the box of crackers but I REALLY WANTED to.
I came out of the store feeling a bit frazzled. Getting into the car, hubby remarks to me, "There was almost a fight out here." Apparently an elderly lady was crossing the main drive of the parking lot and a car had stopped for her. So far, so good. The *lady* in the second car didn't happen to notice (or possibly couldn't see) that the elderly lady had fallen trying to get around the speed bump. She was calling the first car's driver obsene names for not moving. Apparently first car driver had had my day as well, as she got out of her car and proceeded to inform second car driver just what her upbringing really was, among other things. The sad part, no one helped the elderly lady up :( (for the record, hubby's got a back injury, or he would have. As it is, had he tried, there'd have been two bodies on the street and the famous tagline of I've fallen and can't get up would have been revived. :))
So what I want to know is what happened to waiting your turn? People used to wait in line at the bank, the grocery store, the dry cleaners, pretty much every where you went. No one went postal... people would pass the time chatting with the person in front or behind, leafing through a magazine they weren't going to buy or just thinking. They didn't push and shove, they didn't act oblivious to anyone else in the world having any needs so long as theirs were met, and they sure didn't almost drive over old ladies in the street.
Tomorrow, I'm staying home. Safe and sound on the internet, where when someone is a complete jackass to you, there's a delete button handy.
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| I hate Chevvies! |
| 06.01.04 (11:57 pm) [edit] |
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From the previous posts you might have made the assumption that I don't much care for Chevs. I'm not a Chev FAN by any stretch of the imagination. They try to kill me. My dad's vile green, evil Chev 1/2 ton left me stuck on the side of the road too many times to mention. The '87 Cavelier we had was evil. Don't even ask about the stupid fuel pump issues it had among other little *quirks*. Add to that, every car that's hit one of mine over the years has been a flippin' Chev. In 1978 a big old Parisienne glanced off my dear little T37. Later that same year, when I had gotten it all fixed up and back on the road, another bloody one (this one driven by a drunk no less) careened around a corner and sent my parked darling into the neighbour's big old tree trunk. Voila instant accordian car. :( In 1991, a Chev pickup rearended us, and killed our trusty little Mustang II. Only the little sweetie didn't know it was dead and ran for 2 years longer. To be honest, that wasn't the driver of the Chev's fault, *technically*. He did rearend me so was "following too close", but the real whodidit was the idiot in the big, ugly... yep you guessed it, Parisienne in front of me. Halfway past a driveway to a mall (with another one about 50 feet ahead) he just HAD TO TURN RIGHT NOW. So he did, without signalling and without any regard for anyone else on the road. I managed to avoid him since I wasn't "following too close", but got smucked by the truck as a result of having to stop so suddenly and short. Then, in 1994, a Grand Am. Rearended again, sitting innocently at a red light, 4 cars back, waiting to go, boom! My eldest daughter, then 13, says to the fellow after listening to him tell us he couldn't see our brake lights because they were dusty, "But didn't you see the car?" Yeah you moron... it's a car... Yeesh. The topping on the cake, in 1997, a Sierra, again driven by a drunk driver, that crossed the line and even though I'd angled my car to run into the ditch to avoid being hit by him, still caught our rear quarter panel and tore off the bumper, snapping us sharply back on the road. HE claimed he'd hit a deer when detained by police officers a ways up the road. Yep, a great big flipping gray 1985 Park Avenue (a car which was originally sold with oars for yip's sake). A big, grey deer, with a horn? Yep, hit and run...by a CHEVY. Go Away. Go away NOW.
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