X-Ring!

Happy X-Ring to me. Dad was a wonderfully dutiful parent and drove all the way up here despite hte fact that it only meant getting to enjoy two and a half hours of gooey speeches about StFX. However, I now have some rockin university class ring bling. A couple of photos to document that I'm not lying, and there are more on Facebook, if you're interested. I'll probably put them up on Flickr, eventually.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that yes, I went to see Twilight when it came out. I think my cheeks were red with embarrassment (also called blushing, I suppose...) for the whole two hours. But I did enjoy how they did the Cullens.

Today was also the last day of classes, though obviously I didn't have to go to any since it was X-Ring. Oh, and a I bought a plane ticket for hte return, so I'm for sure coming to Columbus right after Christmas! Oh, Ben and Julie, is it alright if I come to Columbus? Haha, yeah...first things first, I suppose.

I'll be getting my portfolio back from my botanicals class in a week or so, so there will be a slew of "art studio" posts coming up.

Okay, the internet's being a punkass and not letting me load my photos. So head on over to Facebook if you're interested in seeing proof of my X-ring awesomeness.

Christmas List

Anthropologie additions!
T-shirt -$30
A water ballet of floaty mesh -$40
SUPER cute yoga pants -$30 I would do yoga just to wear these
adorable chemise -$40
love love love these pj/lounge pants -$30
hoodie -$50
cardigan -$60


Additions:
Wrap cardigan (definitely mustard) - $23

Roomba
External Hard Drive (use your own discretion. Just keep in mind that my laptop's as old as Croesus. Who is Croesus. Oh. King of Lydia. And the expression's rich as Croesus, right. My bad.)
retro alarm clock (easy to find at a thrift store?)
Laptop battery (I'll get details later)
Ohhh man, check out this VOIP phone. Only downer: Not USB
USB Hub Man...tempting. I never have enough ports.

Sweater -$23
Cardigan -$29
shawl collar cardigan -$78

Basically, I like grandpa cardigans. And shawl collars.

Dress -$25
Cute little slip -$54
Floral top -$30
Laceish top -$35/$48
scoop neck tee -$24
sweetheart top -$48

General ideas:

Cool jewelry (necklaces, especially earrings, bracelets, just not rings)
Two awesome watch necklaces. One. Two.
Scarves in bold colors
SOCKS. Lots of them

Dilly beans. Lots of them. ~$7


Sizes

In general, Medium
Pants/Dresses: 6-8

Whoever thought of the spiral things to release food in vending mchines, they are a genius.

I have some fun fabrics for Christmas presents, despite the fact that my only resource is an oldy lady quilting section in a dollar store. From that old lady quilting section I also have to someho find something to make my Christmas Ball gown...which could be interesting.

A Bookstore on Antigonish: Revisited

More about Antigonish's bookstore. I was looking back at my post on Word by Word, since someone commented on it saying how lovely the store is, and although I hadn't been in, I'd heard some mediocre things about it.

Well, I did go in, and sort of agreed with my friend that there's not so much in there as far as variety goes. BUT it is a local store, so of course you can't really cast your net too wide for stock, AND the woman who owns the store is a gem of a person, and you can order any book in that you like, which I think is worth it. Sooo, I just wanted to update that opinion on the bookstore, in case anyone else goes back and thinks the old entry still my current opinion. So go visit Word by Word, and give it your business! Thumbs up everywhere! Love and happiness!

My goings-on of late

I am experimenting with beets. Right now. As we speak. While also looking up classic cottage designs.

That is, I would be experimenting with beets if I could get this frickin jar open. The couple next door cans a lot, so they kept dropping off jars of pickles and jams and beets and pickled cauliflower and such. Once they even gave us dilly beans, which has been my favorite so far. I hope htey're not looking in hte window watching me beat this jar to high heaven with a fork. Ah-HA. The scissors worked.

...I'm skeptical. This smells foul.

I've just realized what makes me wary of beets, besides their unnatural purplish color. They look like that cranberry relish in that gelatin form of thing that some people have at Thanksgiving. I was somehow protected from that gross, terrible concoction thanks to always having Thanksgiving at home, until freshman year I made that little microwave version of a Thanksgiving dinner, and bought a can of "whole cranberry" cranberry relish. I was so shocked. Anyways. Beets look like that all gelatin-y one.

Conclusion: Beets are terrible.

I'm completely addicted to Freecell

Happy Halloween!! a little late

Halloween was fun. I was so focused on getting my costume togheter, though, that when the doorbell rang and there were little kids in costumes my mind was blank about what they wanted...until I realized they were trick-or-treaters. Imagine my horror at being the evil person telling the little kids I had no candy. But inspiration struck, and I stole some Hershey's kisses from Sarah's stash. Whew! To compound things, though, I was half in costume, so I just looked like a crazy lady.

Anyways, I sewed my dress all by myself, and I don't think it even turned otu that bad, really. So here are a few photos, and there are more on flickr. How mean is it that you can't create more than three sets on flickr unless you're a member. Evil.

Have I even told you guys what I'm being? Well, if I haven't, then you'll have to guess. And Sarah was a fire fairy. I'll include a sort of unflattering one so you can see my dress. It looks much better htough hwen the ribbon's actually arranged correctly on it, and not all bunched up like in this photo.





This dress even has a zipper in it. Oooooh! :) This is really for Paula and Erin, who know how little I can sew.

Oh I love happy news

Congratulations, Sam and Susie! Happy news is so wonderful. And I can't wait to meet Susie, she sounds awesome.

And happy anniversary, Ben and Jaime! Obviously I'm cheating, since I just read that it was today on your blog, Jaime. But I still get to say it. Happy anniversary!

Now on to my own self-obsessed life. Anne came to visit this weekend, and I had so much fun with her. We went to the lighthouse, I showed her around campus, went to see Nick in the Diary of Anne Frank, and did a walk-in haircut at the salon I go to. So now I will display the awesome haircuts of both of us on Anne's visit, for those of you who aren't facebook devotees.

Anne likes to take photos with her MacBook. That second photo is jut to illustrate the asymmetry of my hair. But it normally looks much better than that, not poking all out the side. :-P And Anne has a very cute angled bob! with really cute bangs!



Anne's so cute :)This, as you can imagine, was a joke. Entitled "serious photographer."
Long leggedness

I had so much fun with Anne.

Question. The sign up to get graduation photos has just started. Do I want graduation photos? Couldn't we just photoshop me into someone else's graduation gown?

Happiness!

Nothing irritates me more than when I miss-type a web address (gooogle.com/google.om, usually) and get sent to that stupid Unable to connect page with the big yellow exclamation point triangle. I'll rush over ot the stop loading button in an attempt to avoid that page. Amusingly, I just started typing random letters .com (vers.com wer.com etc.) to see exactly what teh annoying page says, and it took me a while to find one that wasn't a website.

So, I got my hair pretty drastically cut. And I really like it. For the first hour or so afterwards, I was sort of freaking out, wondering what the hell I'd been thinking. I have some pictures of it, but I'm going ot wait until Anne sees it first, since she's coming tomorrow. What I will show you, though, is what I thought of when I first got it: Dianne West's haircut in Edward Scissorhands. That, or any generic Flock of Seagulls hair. Haha, I shouldn't be that terrifying about it; I actually really like it.

And, as you may have noticed, Anne is coming!! Tomorrow afternoon! It's a shame that almost every surface of the house is covered in posters waiting for sticky tack.

I read engadget's review of T-Mobile's G1, and now I'm really excited and want one, despite my lack of actually caring abotu having a cell phone. If I were to actually pay attention to what I want to do with a ...thingie... I'd get the iTouch.

I have been sewing, and it's sooooo much fun. When I actually finish something, I'll post. I have been a very productive knitter, but of course those aren't postable.

I don't know if this is on tv a ton or what, so I'm sorry if the rest of the world is sick of this, but I really really love Discovery Channel's Boom de ya da commercial. It makes me so happy!

trials of nail polish

I own two things of nail polish. One is a lovely translucent-ish nude shade, reasonably tasteful, though boring. The other is black, for when I want to be a goth on Halloween. I've gotten pretty bored with my tasteful color after applying it a few times over the last year or two, so a few weeks or so ago, on a slow evening, I painted my toenails (sorry, Ben) black. A day or two later, though, imagine my horror when I discovered that I'd mislaid my nail polish remover and couldn't find it. Aaaa!!!!! The only thing worse than black nail polish is chipped black nail polish. Gross. So I've been applying coat after coat for the last two or three weeks to at least avoid chipped nail polish. This morning, however, while rooting around for one of my earrings of an ear of corn, heaven smiled upon me, and I finally found my nail polish remover. Words can't describe my excitement to go home after classes and take this off.

I hate to spoil the surprise element, but I have grandiose plans for some awesome snow art a la Calvin and Hobbes this winter. Just wait.

Autumn's here, and it feels great. I need to get outside more to enjoy it and all the leaves and hte crisp, grey evenings. Walks in the woods, etc. I'm just too lazy to actually take action. Crap!

I'm convinced that the introduction of Pirate English was a clever move by Facebook to distract people from the fact that they hate the new Facebook. Touche, Facebook. I actually like the new version.

even less in this one

I just watched The Accidental Husband, and loved it in all of its formulaic romantic comedy glory. It's true, I have no shame.

Uma Thurman really reminds me of Anne, for some reason. Probably something about the hands. Anne (my sister) has very unique hands. Piano playing, nail-biting, athleticism have made them what they are. It probably sounds a little odd talking about Anne's hands, but somehow being so close, and mostly sitting with our finger tips together while we talk, has made them very familiar.

Hmm, that photo makes me think that every guy needs a brown wool coat.

Iron Man was great. I cannot beLIEVE they're doing a remake of Death Race 2000

nothing much in this post

I kind of doubt that anyone in my family reads Cyanide and Happiness, a web comic. It's a love it or hate it brand of humor. All of it is in very bad taste, and generally makes you cringe while you laugh, and hope that no one around can see you laughing at it.

Offensive example:

And I'd kind of wonder if they would ever try and actually be just funny, without being crude and/or offensive. Lo and behold, today's comic was neither offensive nor crude. I wonder if they're worried by that.

I had more interesting things to say...oh, art posts will be starting again soon. Anne said she might visit!!!! Though that doesn't mean that any guilt resulting from not visiting can be removed so that you don't feel bad enough to come to my graduation. Of course. :)

Knitting is going really well. I've successfully cabled for hte first time, and now that I own cable needles I feel like a real knitter. The next stop to becoming a Real Knitter will be learning fair isle. Though I will probably cheat somehow at first, of course.

Cable: Fair Isle:

Though I will never, ever do large scalle fair isle projects. So don't get hopes up about huge, cool Fair isle sweaters. :-P Anyway, the cables I did are much cooler than those regular cablse. Mine are like, postmodern cables.

Since this is the Christmas knitting season, there will be no photos of any of my projects. I love sharing what I'm working on, though, so showing my roommate Sarah and publishing photos on the knitting community Ravelry will have to suffice until after everything's been given. I have some pretty great patterns picked out.

X-Ring Invitation

It's a very strange thing, but already I'm a 4th year, and the X-Ring Ceremony will be December 3.

To some people this is the most important event at university. People's families come up for it, all the hotels and restaurants are probably already booked solid. Since everyone spends the next week posing for pictures with their hands up, most girls get manicures. ...a manicure could be fun. I like manicures. But they're awkward. Sitting across from someone you don't know who's holding your hand. Kind of weird. I might do it anyway.

Anyway, in case anyone feels like making a trip up to Nova Scotia on December 3, I have extra bedrooms. There will be a lot of partying to be done. You could participate. Or bring a friend/spouse/sibling to keep you company. And Nova Scotia isn't that cold in early December.

I'm all excited 'cause I just picked up my X-Ring eligibility form. So tomorrow I'll be off to the jeweler's to make a deposit and get sized! Some people grow up waiting for X-Ring, so there are those who are really. really. excited about this. Obviously, I'm not one of those, but it'll still be cool.

I don't think anyone will actually be able to come, but I thought I'd just let everyone know in case. So, it's an open invitation!

And here's an example of the X-Ring blingage that occurs for a solid month after X-Ring. This is Gregg with a lot of girls I don't know.

Argh, for some reasons the paragraph spaces won't stay when I publish. I have to go to class, so I'm not going to fix it!

oh and just a note that my Skype and Skype phone are totally up and running. I haven't tested it out yet, so I dont' know if it works well or not. Those of you who called me at my last place (Anne and Dad, I think), know that a) I was never there and b) the call quality SUCKED.

Aaaaand I have a webcam set up. The first time for that since...sometime last spring.

A general rule: Don't call me before noon. Oh, and if someone else picks up, it's probably Sarah, my housemate! She's very friendly. :)

I have found what I've been craving!

Today is apparently a day for blogging.

The only thing that ever tempted me to go mac was the iMac. I loved its all-in-oneness. So you can imagine that when I realized that they'd started making all-in-one PCs, I was pretty excited. But! None of them really did it for me. Most of them looked like they were intended to function as autonomous home media systems, which was not what I wanted. Or they only said they were all-in-one, and actually had peripherals. OR they didn't have a built-in webcam. Unforgivable.

Anyway, back to the point that while reading engadget tonight I finally saw an all-in-one that I really like the look of, and it's a Vaio! It even has that nice slim keyboard that the Macs have that I like. Well done. Vaio also had another all-in-one that was one of the gross "be my home theatre" ones. But this is the one I like:



I also want a netbook of some sort. :-[ Cute, with at least 20GB. Or just something tablet-y.

what I do when I'm angry:

I become very productive when I'm angry. All the things that I left sitting around, procrastinating about doing, I take care of. I make certain that I look nice when I'm angry. I think my logic is something along the lines of, "If I'm mad, I might as well look nice." Great logic. Inevitably, somewhere a ribbon is lying around the house, and I angrily put it in my hair while I scowl.

I can't stop amazingly annoying songs from getting stuck in my head. Rick Astley's No Stranger To Love is a particular offender in this area. I have a feeling that most of my brothers and sisters don't have problems with being Rick Rolled, so here's the video for demonstration.



My internal narrative also falls apart when I'm angry. Instead of thoughts going smoothly from one to another, I can't finish them, and just end up cussing a lot in my head. This in turn makes me very absent-minded, and I do things like not realize that I left hte key in the car and the gas tank thing open.

Haha, wow, embedding the Rick Astley video was "disabled by request."

Just so you're all updated

Everyone. is. sick.

This entire campus is just one giant vat of contagion. Being off campus tends to help insulate from the sick population, and it's almost amusing seeing entire dorms fall ill together, but when my housemate and her best friend got sick, I knew that buffer was gone. The three of us played Settlers together Saturday evening, and I woke up that night with the taste of being sick in my mouth. By Sunday morning, I was down for the count. I missed all my classes on Monday entirely legitimately. Today I only had one class, Shakespeare, and I got to cough and sniffle with every other person in the class, and for once didn't have to feel guilty for being one of the very few healthy people in teh room. I don't know how professors can stand trying to lecture over all the coughing.

Haha, it's really not that bad, but everyone is noticeably sick.

Well, I finished a knitting project which I think is both attractive and useful. And i'm about to start another that is so cool that I'm jealous. It's going to be hard giving these things away.

The student union does a really great job of getting bands to come perform. East coast bands. I hardly ever take advantage of it, but there's a free concert tonight featuring 4 bands, and I'd feel bad passing up the opportunity. There are just so many people there.

I'm abotu to start my first cable knitting project. I have a feeling it's not going to be even half as bad as I've been fearing.

Minor youtube gaff

Well, I did what I knew I would do eventually. In an email to my professor, I *thought* I had copied a youtube link of the guy's cool stone henge project. But in fact, the puppy video I had just pasted into a friend's MSN conversation was still copied.... So yeah. I sent my professor a link to the puppy video.

It had to happen sometime. Why didn't I double-check? Anyways, I don't actually care, I'm just really amused. Really. Amused.

I'm almost up and running for Skype on my roomie's computer. I just have to ask if she minds me installing my phone's drivers.

Knitting is happening, but nothing will be revealed.

And other nefarious gifting schemes are also being hatched.

I am spending all of my money on buying meals between classes. Instead of taking Modern British Fiction, I'm taking Shakespeare. I opened up a play by Beckett, read a bit, and decided there was no way I was going to take a course on that material all year.

Pet peeve: dammit....what was it...right! I hate it when people HAVE the Google toolbar search engine thing, but instead they go to their address bar, type in www.google.com, and search on Google's homepage. What. is the point. of your toolbar? Why don't you remove it if you're not goign to use it? Gah.

I can't imagine how many things I must do that bug people.

I thought you'd all be relieved to know that I've moved past my issues with what bathroom stalls people pick. Sometimes I walk into a washroom and pick the center one just because.

Despite its keeping me away during North Carolina, I don't think anyone could have had a cooler summer job than mine. I had so much fun. Granted, it did take away every single evening of my entire summer (except Sundays), but it's not like I had anything better to do.

Sleep beckons. I'm enjoying all of my classes a ton. Drawing and Painting Botanicals is, surprisingly, my most stressful class. :-P

You're all sooooo sweet

My last post was my 400th post! Happy 400 to me.

But infinitely more important, is that I got the package from everyone at Cape Hatteras! It came totally out of the blue and unexpected. I was wandering around the house with my hair wrapped in a towel, when Sarah came upstairs with a package. What a perfect card, and what beeeautiful yarn (I happen to be a big fan of fine yarns, not bulky ones), and cute bag (I think I'm going to use it for a knitting bag, actually), and I laughed when I saw the Pop Tarts and knew that Ben was involved. :) Those are definitely only going to be brought out for a special occasion. They must be conserved. Hoarded.

Anyways, that was fantastic. Thank you guys so much!!!

soon I will be connected once more!

My internet's getting set up next Thursday. Hurray! So I won't have to walk to campus every time I want to check my email.

My first class is in..half an hour. Dad is coming to visit this weekend! I will take photos. I've gotten tickets for us to go see Sexy Laundry on Saturday, which should be fun. I've heard it a lot this summer backstage but never gotten to actually see it yet.

The Sky

Tonight is a night for blogging. The stars have aligned. I can feel it in my bones.

Actually, I have been looking at the stars tonight. Even in Antigonish, it can be hard to see many stars when you're trying to look up past five very bright streetlights to the sky. And the funny thing about Antigonish is how well illuminated the streets are. Even on my street, Orchard Terrace, where I think there are a grand total of EIGHT houses, we have like three street lamps. This town is over-lit. Anyways. I was sad, sitting outside the theatre, that I couldn't really see anything in the way of stars, and it was the same all the way home, which I thought was funny, since I often noticed the stars outside my house. And sure enough, just as I got home, I could see all of them, so brightly, as if there weren't any light pollution at all. I guess that my house sits in a bit of a corner with trees around in the perfect spots that blot out the street lights, so that we have a little cloak of darkness that make the stars very easy to see.

Wow, I did not mean to go on so much about the stars, only to say that they're so beautiful out. And the moon is lovely, bright, and LARGE tonight.

Also while I was walking home and looking up at the stars, a plane was flying overhead. For a second I thought it was two stars, til I saw the red lights blinking. But they were the same size, and I thought that if the plane looked the same size as the stars so close to us, that hte stars all of a sudden seem GINORMOUS to seem the same size from so far away. Which of course they are. And I was thinking that with that "comparing your thumb close up to yoru face to teh building far away = same size to you" logic, the size of hte universe makes perfect sense. But then I thought that it didn't, if you thought of the sky as black polymer craft clay, with golf balls stuck in it. And I was much happier thinking of the Earth encased in a shell of polymer clay, and that if I threw something hard enough, it would get stuck in the sky. That is a much more comforting thought than the universe.

I am applying for jobs for the school year right now, and I am moving into a new house next week.

And Nick has submitted a little thing for teh Hockey Night in Canada Anthem contest. You should check it out.

EIGHT slugs

The spiders have started doing this thing where they dangle down from the trees above the sidewalks, RIGHT where you will walk straight into them.

Today I got to register for classes, and I am so excited for this year. The only class I was going to sign up for that I wasn't toooooo psyched about was the history of the USSR. Lady luck was on my side, though, and when I was registering, I got an error message telling me that the course registration number for that wasn't valid. I checked, and the course was removed for this year! Luck was still with me when I looked for another history course to take its place, and the one that I really wanted, World War I, which had been in a time block that conflicted with another course, was moved to exactly the time I needed!! Score.

So, I'm taking World War I, Modern British Fiction, History of Art, Botanicals: Drawing and Painting, and Etching. Suhweet! Aaaand, I have no class earlier than 3:45, and no classes on Friday!

Of course, this is all only semi-permanent until I have a meeting with Dr. Austen, the psych advisor, to make certain all my credits are in order.

I was sitting on a bench yesterday and I saw EIGHT slugs within a square foot of each other. They are surprisingly fast.

So, yeah, now I'm hunting for a job for during the school year.

Worms

Well, tomorrow is my day off. I don't have to wake up, so I'm lounging about, and what am I doing with this rare night? I'm sitting in bed, all alone, drinking an iced cappuccino and eating TimBits. The bits of coconut are falling off of them and into my bed, but I'm still doing it anyways.

I've been reading the Watchmen comics in preparation for the movie. When I saw the trailer, and thought it rocked, and didn't know anything about it, I knew smething had to be done. So I downloaded al the volumes, and a cool program for reading them. I really really like it. I've also been reading a Starman Omnibus comic that my housemate Andrew left lying around the living room. Sorry if you've been looking for it, Andrew; it's been in my bed. :-[

Aw, I already posted teh trailer for Watchmen.

I have a strange and strong sympathy for worms. I've been meaning to post about this for a while. You know how when it rains, all teh worms come up to avoid drowning? So when you're walking along a sidewalk, you see lots of little worms crawling for their life to higher ground? Well, I feel really bad for these worms. They're most familiar with the dirt, and when they come up to try and save themselves, what do they discover but this big piece of concrete/blacktop that seems to stretch for eternity. So they crawl, and they crawl, and most likely they're stepped on or driven over or they don't make it across before it's the next day, and it's sunny, and they're fried to wormy bits on the baking hot asphalt. Poor worms!!

So whenever I'm walking along in the rain, and I see a worm slowly slugging his way away from the water, I reach down, pick him up, and plop him on a bit of high ground in the grass. One day, though, I was walking about a flight of stairs outside my dorm, and there are about forty steps or so. I saw a little worm, and moved him off and onto a nice high patch of grass, saw another one, and moved him, too. After I'd done this for about seven worms without proceeding another step, I actually looked around me, and saw that there were hundreds of worms all over the steps. I was so sad, and realized I couldn't move them all, and had to walk on, trying to not step on them. But I felt frustrated that I couldn't get everyone else to not step on them, and pay attention to where they're walking. Too many people don't look down when they're walking to make sure that they're not stepping on the poor worms.

Well, I bought a bike. A beautiful bike. But I won't unveil it with pictures until I can get the seat lowered.

The third play opened this last week, Gaslight. It was the most costume intensive, since it's period, so poor Erin and Paula were sewing like dervishes, and I was just stitching on button after button after button. And snaps and hook and eyes and all that fun stuff. I actually got a nice little blister on the side of my first finger from where I grip the needle.

Well, yep, that's about it.

What?!

Rottentomatoes says a remake is being made of Clash of the Titans?!

I hate wild berry Skittles. They make me nauseous. Are they still being made? They shouldn't be, 'cause they're GROSS.

I saw a trailer for Watchmen (my f key is sticking, uggh), and I'm now totally excited for it, but now I need to get my hands on a copy of it before it comes out.

Yay, work and more official documentation!!

Well, ladies and gentleman, I am so official and legal and all-around legit that it's just ridiculous. After I got my work permit I got my Social Insurance Number, and opened up a bank account (again) in town. I'd had one here earlier, but I hated the fees associated with Canadian banks. Even the student accounts are like, "These are student checking accounts 'cause we're charging you a little less." Evil, if you ask me.

Work is fun. I spend most of my time with two fantastic ladies, Paula and Erin. Paula's the head of wardrobe, and does most of the sewing. Erin's the costume designer, and handles the rest of the sewing. I'm the wardrobe assistant, and I do all the odd jobs, organizing, laundry between the shows, maintaining between the shows, and help with all the quick changes backstage. Erin lives in Montreal, and just finished her degree in Design for Theatre, and she has a diploma in Textiles also, which is really cool.

Paula has been volunteering for the last year or so with the Bauer (it's a volunteer sort of thing during the academic year, then turns into Festival Antigonish during the summer), and is now being employed by Festival Antigonish. She has three (three?) lovely kids.

What's fun is all the cool stuff that Paula and Erin have been showing me how to do. They're constantly showing me little tricks to do, or giving me good advice. And generally, I just have a lot of fun sitting down in teh basement of the theatre with them talking.

It's really fun, 'cause I'm never doing the same thing (except for show nights). What I am a little disappointed by, though, is the hours. It's supposed to be a 4o hrs/wk job, but that some weeks I work more, and others I work less, and it just all balances out. But I hadn't realized that performances are essentially every night of the week (no Sundays), and I work every performance, so anything earlier than 10pm is just sort of cut out. I don't know why I was picturing like three performances a week, but I was.

I am pretty entertained by Roombas. And sort of interested in maybe eventually getting one, actually.

Right now the Highland Games are going in, which is a Big To-Do in Antigonish, but it seems a bit more like a tourist trap than anything else. There are beer tents up toight and last night, but I don't know what they are, and don't have any money to go in and find out. When people heard that I didn't know what a beer tent was it apparently revealed how much I'm not from the East Coast. Or is this a common thing everywhere?

Thank you sooooo much for Sidereel, Jaime. It's not like I can't access any sites, it's just things like NBC or whatever that are obnoxious. To be honest, I mostly use Youku or Tudou. I've been watching 30 Rock to my heart's content, though.

Okay, I have to go ot bed. I am le tired.

A Mandy-centric blogging world

I love 30 Rock toooo. But I've only seen the 1st season, 'cause I was watching on the Netflix watch it now feature, which of course can't be used outside the United States. Augh!

I have to say, when I looked at my Google Reader and saw two posts (at the time) with my name in them, I got sort of worried. Had I accidentally been typing in a blogging window, not realized, and posted something truly awful that everyone was responding to? Imagine my relief when I saw that Anne's "watch out, Mandy" post was about being eternally damned by an insecure god. Whew :) I laughed a lot at that, btw.

I'm sure I'm much more likely to go to hell for missing a family vacation than for not believing in god. Really.

I feel very privileged about the position of my picture on your desk, Sam? Any other siblings up there being represented?

GUESS what Iiiiii got? A work permit!!! I'm legal! I will be paid! And now, I will talk about work, which of course is only commencing now that I'm a legal worker. Since I'd never work without a work permit. ... Never.

Okay, time for hte old workaday.

Now there will be much posting merriment about work.

Introducing: My Housemates

There are two.

Housemate #1:

Sarah. She's from Newfoundland, and I met her from hanging out with Nick this last year. She transferred from Dal, and is a couple years older than me. You'll recall she was the little kid in The Yelling Bee. She's majoring in Information Systems, and is great at designing graphics and dresses out of weird things (strips of paper, condoms). She's the student union vice president of communications, which is actually pretty cool.





Housemate #2:

Andrew. Our third roommate was Stella, a friend of Sarah's from Dal(housie) I hadn't met yet. She subletted her room for the summer, though, and Andrew is that guy. We can sit around being dorky together. He likes Cowboy Bebop, and got me into Battlestar Galactica, and has the series for Ghost in Shell, and I'd just watched the movie. He works at teh local pizza store that people only like if they're drunk, unless they're a local, in which case they think it's the best pizza ever. Oh, and he's a local. Thanks to his DVD collection, I also watched all of Full Metal Alchemist (fuuun) and Samurai 7. Wow, I've wasted a lot of time this summer. Though Andrew would say it was time well spent.Eating a burger on the floor just makes it more delicious.

Happy Canada Day (yesterday)

Admission of guilt: I like those cute animal photos. The ones with tiny kittens sitting in teacups, or Great Danes licking the head of a kitten with a tongue three times the size of the kitten's body. It's...pretty embarrassing.

Okay, I had no idea (at least didn't remember) that Anne, and now Jaime, are Battlestar Galactica fans. I was going to write a post on it and feel really embarrassed for coming out and saying I'm a fan, but now I can do it with (relative) pride! I love Battlestar Galactica! Gaius Baltar is awesome. Awkward situations with attractive robots who only exist in your head are awesome!

I hate sitting around with my muscles twitching. But I love Adobe Photoshop.

What I love even more is the Sixthreezero Scholar. I have finally found exactly the bike that I want. And it's only $175. First paycheck, after I pay off all my bills and buy some milk and fresh fruit, I am buying this baby.

Canada Day, I have to say, was muuuch better than the Fourth of July. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm in such a small town, though. It was just a bunch of barbecues, then sitting on the soccer field with the rest of the town for fifteen minutes watching the fireworks after listening to some live music on a stage in the middle of the field beforehand. It was all so low-key and relaxed.



Okay, I realize there are two of basically the same picture here. But I couldn't decide between the deer in the headlights look or the smile, and decided why not just do both, since Nick's a bit of a mystery to you guys anyways. I know these look odd, but it's because they were so dark that I had to lighten them a ton in photoshop, and I'm not good enough to make the coloring look normal.

Happy Father's Day, Daddio!

You don't check any of our blogs, though, so I guess there's sort of no point, except that my feeling of daughterly Father's Day love is especially strong this year.

Love you, Daddio! On a side note, you tend to look pretty awkward holding babies. Kind of like you're thinking, "Don't drop it..." the entire time. In a very charming way, of course.


Oh, and he bought a Corolla! Did I spill the beans on this one, or am I the absolute last one to know?

And a shout out to Ben and Ben and Dan for their awesome fatherliness, too.

Kitten in a bag!

Nick maintains that he didn't actually put her in the bag, but he may have rolled a tennis ball temptingly inside.

Sorry, Ben, for an entry that's a picture of a cat. :-P At least the Title forewarned you.

Asparagus sandwich

I had my first taste of an asparagus sandwich the other day, and it was delicious! Are these commonly made? It was just asparagus and mayonnaise on regular bread, and I was EXTREMELY extremely doubtful that anything that began with, "So I took a bite of the asparagus sandwich" could end well. But lo and behold, ye doubters, as soon as I was done I was making a second in half an hour. And that wasn't even quality asparagus, it was just mushy canned asparagus (don't judge me; I'm poor, and it was already sitting around the house). So I can only imagine how good it will be with nice asparagus and pepper and other trimmings. Though I don't know if I even want to add other stuff, 'cause it was so good by itself.
Weird. For some reason every photo I upload absolutely REFUSES to orient the way I want it. They're all going sideways! I wonder if I have it rotated the wrong way to begin with, if it will come out right... It didn't! What the hell. Weird.

The wind is gusting soo strongly today. It was rattling my window in its frame so constantly and loudly that it made it verydifficult to sleep in. Don't worry, though. I persevered.

A bookstore in Antigonish

Someone stumbled onto my blog a while ago, and was surprised to read that there was actually a bookstore in Antigonish, and they hadn't realized it yet. Well, person, I forget who you are and which post you commented on...maybe I'll go back after this and find it. BUT. I thought I'd address your comment.

Yes, there's a bookstore in Antigonish. It's called Word by Word, and it looks very appealing from the outside, though I haven't gone in, because I don't have enough money to spend, and I don't want to torture myself looking at things that I can't have. So I have no idea if they have good stuff or not. My friend, though, said that it's not as great as it looks from the outside.

So, there it is. Right on Main St. Next to Campbell's Printing.

sorry, hockey theme

Well, CBC lost the rights to the Hockey Theme song to CTV. Everyone seems pretty distraught about it, and it's understandable. They've had the theme for Hockey Night in Canada since 1968. I mean, I've hardly been here at all, and I've hardly watched any hockey, but I already feel affection for the song and Ron Maclean and Don Cherry. Don't worry, nothing's happening to Ron MacLean and Don Cherry. :-P CTV isn't stealing them away as well.

Anyways, this is the Hockey Theme, for those of you not familiar. Pardon the kids in diapers. I thought it was a nice example of how some people have probably grown up with it.



Here's Colbert making fun of it.



And here's a little unofficial anthem, since we're on the topic of hockey songs, and you guys should know it.



Oh, and here's an example of Ron MacLean and Don Cherry. Though Don Cherry's suits have gotten progressively more and more outlandish. And his statements have always been this crazy.

Once again, internet-less

We all suck at posting. But at least I have an excuse. Something wrong's with the router at my place, so I have no internet. I guess Anne has an excuse, too, 'cause she's moving.

At the moment, I'm watching Hellraiser. I have some movies rented right now that I'm sort of excited about seeing, like Annie Hall and Last Tango in Paris. I don't know if I wrote about this, but the second semester of this last year, I concentrated my efforts on seeing Movies That Should Be Seen. Annie Hall would fall into that category.

I did write an entry last week, but Martha likes to play on my keyboard, and I let her, 'cause she looks so cute batting at the screen, and sure enough she deleted the whole thing. I haven't taken pictures of my house yet, 'cause it's still pretty much a mess. I guess I can work on doing an introduction to my housemates entry. I have some unbelievably awesome decorating ideas for my room, though, and I hope to see those through before I take a picture for here. They'll probably never actually happen, though, so...be prepared to never know what my room looks like. Either that, or pressure me to cave early.

Ben, you're not allowed to complain about to cat posts. Besides, I did say that I was going to be a crazy cat lady. Though Martha, it is true, isn't even mine. I love the updating of flickr that you're doing, so I get to see Ella and Sophie. Together those names are so delicate and feminine.

I have been collecting knitting patterns like a demon. Consider last year's non-existent Christmas presents and this coming year's to be the same, and I'll just try and make it worth the wait, and I'm starting to work on them now, as opposed to two weeks before Christmas. Hopefully this is a better technique.

Well...heading back to my internet-less house.

Meet Martha

If I send you an invitation to any application on Facebook, I'm sorry. However, I carefully selected you because 1) I thought you may actually be interested in it (unlikely), 2) I know you're the type of person who doesn't pay attention to Facebook or deletes all invites, or 3) you're the one who sent me the invite, so hah.

Anyways, if I ever send you an application invitation, feel free to delete it without a thought. I probably sent it to you because that's what I thought you would do.

And on that note. I just took the Dr. Phil's Personality Test, courtesy of Ben I and Brad's invitation, and my results made me chuckle enough that I thought I'd share them:

Your Score: 43

Others see you as someone they should "handle with care." You're seen as vain, self-centered, and extremely dominant. Others may admire you, wishing they could be more like you. However, they don't always trust you, hesitating to become too deeply involved with you.


And here is more of the newly named Martha:

Kitten!

She's adorable. She doesn't have a name yet. And don't worry, she's not mine. I'm waiting til I get settled down in one location to get a kitten.

I knit a hat

An Amelia Earhart aviator cap. It took about a week, and I managed to mess up a ton. But all in all, I like it.

Soon!

Soon, my friends, I will have the internet up. And will be reconnected. So I will be Skypable and blogging. So I will put up pictures of who my housemates are and a little blurb about them. And then take you on a pictorial tour of my house.

Right now I'm applying for a work permit and jobs, yay. And knitting. And sewing. I'll have a fun hat to post on here in a couple of days, I believe.

I just watched all of Samurai 7 last week, which was an awesome anime show with a disappointing ending, and I'll be flying through Full Metal Alchemist this week, probably. I've been watching it, but not with a huge amount of dedication.

I got a haircut. Nothing crazy. The usual with some bangs. I can feel the itch to dye my hair returning. That should be fun.

Whether I make it out to Cape Hatteras or not is kind of up in the air and depends on whether I get this job that I really want. And as far as England for Christmas, I don't see why I wouldn't be able to go if Dad can spot a ticket. I'm so happy and jealous and sad that you're moving to England, Ben and Jaime. I'm so happy for you, but so sad for myself. Well, I guess I'm just sitting around in Nova Scotia anyways, so I can hardly label myself terribly accessible. Maybe I'll move to St. John's, Newfoundland, where I hear flights to London are super cheap.

Well, tonight I'll be sewing, and hilarity will no doubt ensue, and it will all, of course, be publicized on here.

Where I am

So, I'm back in Antigonish, and I have been for a couple of days, getting all settled in. So far, I think I'm liking Antigonish better in the summer. I'll be searching for garage sales in an attempt to find a much needed dresser for my room.

What sucks, though, is we don't have internet yet. Well we do, but it's in one room, and the wireless isn't set up yet, and my housemate who has the internet in her room is in Halifax this weekend. However, she was very cool (of course) and let me come into her room and use the internet here for a bit.

Anyways, I just thought I'd let you know that that's where I am. In a communication limbo.

And I got a sewing machine! (!!!!!!!!) Oh yes.

and more

This one's for Ben's dorkinessThis one's for Anne's surprising punkness

And this is because we're all so cute.