and just 4 years ago i hated them

yes, the proviso was that there would be no more than one cat picture, but i just love this sequence. i don't want to turn into the cat lady, so i promise that's it for a while. from now on, just gratuitous pictures of jude law.

i'm at work right now on my break. it's a busy day, so i'm loving my fifteen minutes of lame. the weekend was great though. i actually feel ready for the week today. saturday i was sitting at william's coffee pub on richmond, flipping through vanity fair and eating a strawberry caramel waffle. and when i left i realise how relaxed i had been the whole time. i haven't felt like that in a dog's age. even in spite of the guy (a) who went ape shit on a pyramid schemer (b). (b) was presenting his material like it was a serious entrepeneurial endeavour. (a) was like canada's own woody allen yelling at (b) and telling him he's a schill; "how dare you." it was entertaining. after he was done and the yellee stormed off, woody shrugged his coat up on his shoulders and said "uh, that felt good."

the battle for catalan(ding)

clarence: what...the...hell? darcy: i saw you up here, and i thought it looked nice. i hug the bookshelf all day. whaddya gonna do about it?


clarence: i'll tell ya what i'm gonna do. i'm gonna kill you! darcy: get off me you pussy.


darcy: yeah, how ya like that? clarence: what are you talking about? i attacked you. darcy: whatever.


clarence: gimme back my spot. darcy: no dice. clarence: dis ain't over

next...cleaning the litter box

long week, no blog. things came to a head with the neighbour. we had to call the cops on her. she had a party that started at 3am and went until 11am. the cops showed up 2 ½ hours after we called, but the party was still going. she was totally surprised to see cops knocking on her door. “but there are only 5 of us up there….it’s an old house.” oh my gawd. the cops took their names and told them to turn the music down. they did, but it wasn’t enough. so chris and i didn’t sleep all night. i was so angry i was shaking, and i haven’t been that mad in a long time. when they turned the “morning after” music on at 11:30, i knocked on the door until my knuckles were red, and i told the sister to turn the music off with a few other choice words. i was obsessing about it all week. i just kept thinking of all the things i should have said to her. i’m so bitter about them now. and that sux.

ah well, other than that, the weather here is cold again. though one day, my weather pixie took her hat off. i was so excited. it was like seeing a robin in the spring. today i’m going downtown to cruise the market and the used bookstores. try to take advantage of the weekend and relax. the music is playing tonight at centennial hall, and i’m trying to decide if i want to go. i’d love to see them, but the winter hermit in me is taking over. the tickets are cheap, and there are still lots of seats, so i figure i can do a last minute thing if i want.

i have a zit on my chin that’s gonna go atomic.

current mood: tired
current music: 2 picks today: kasabian (slow loading site) & the weekend (awesome site)

save the adverb

i've felt kind of off this week. no real explanation, but really wound up and stressed out and all those other verbs and prepositions. i'm looking forward to some QT this evening, so I'll take the time to calm down. eat cookies. watch a scary movie or two. i rented ginger snaps 3: the beginning (i love the ginger snaps series - and it's canadian!), the first season of the office, and from dusk till dawn.

this morning on the walk to work the snow was so thick i couldn't see from one end of the park to the next. it reminded me of a story i'd heard when i was at upei. there's a building there called dalton hall which is home to the department of education. well over 30 years ago, when upei was st. dunstan's university, dalton hall was a nurses dormitory (as my co-worker puts it: "sexy"). one of the nurses was walking across the field coming home during a really bad snowstorm. i guess she was totally snowblind and ended up getting lost. they found her the next day frozen to death in the field. they say her ghost haunts the fourth floor of dalton hall. when i had an office in the basement, i loved all the stories people would tell me about the building. i suck at retelling them, but i love hearing them.

one of my favourite lessons when i was teaching in japan was to have my upper level students tell me ghost stories they had heard. i LOVE ghost stories. but i also really like all the japanese horror movies that have become so popular here in the past few years. they can do creepy like nobody's business. although i didn't really understand ju-on...maybe when i see the anglicized, buffy-friendly version.

revenge of the dollar store umbrella

walking to work this morning was a treat. freezing rain and blowing wind. when i wasn't shuffling my feet they were shooting out from under me. my poor umbrella, she get caught in a gust and blow inside out, then she blow back in, then i stopped talking like a fisherman. then the wind blew so hard, that the umbrella closed on my face. when i finally had it propped back open again, it blew sideways and whacked me on the side of the head. then i was splashed by a transfer truck. by the time i got to work, i was wet and cranky and my umbrella was a bundle of torn fabric and broken metal spokes. but in the elevator the pr girl said she'd give me a new umbrella. so, now i have a new brolly. it's big and black and has an insurance company logo on it. but i'm happy.

we also had free pizza at work. good times! i gave out valentines to the folks at work, and they all thought i was

1. a darling cutiepie
   
2. a total nerd
3. a stalker weirdo
4. all of the above?

now i'm home and trying to decide what i should do for the evening. i've almost finished the plot against america by philip roth. it's very good, and more than a little creepy. so it'll be nice to move onto something less nazi-ish.

other than that, my weekend was busy. the valentine's party saturday night was a good time. i didn't stay too long, but i was decked all out in pink, the drinks were pink, the treats were pink. very cute. and it was nice to see my friend lily as always. sunday was game day: lord of the rings risk and poker. for about 8 hours! jinkies.

mr. darcy won't stop biting me, so i'm chasing him around with a remote control rat.

current mood: indecisive
current music: whatever's playing on x-posure with john kennedy on xfm

poster cat

so shan wrote me back and apologised. i was shocked, and now i feel like i should bake her cookies. like when you give a dog a treat to reinforce good behaviour. i know she's not evil, but i choose to believe that she might be.

i'm going to my friend lily's this evening for an unapologetically pink valentine's party. i have a great dress for the occasion, but i'm off to the mall to accessorise it with shoes. i hope. i know it's one of those laws of murphy's that you always find what you're looking for when you don't have any money. or something like that.

below is a picture of clarence as promised. i had a helluva time uploading it for some unknown reason. i've said it once, and i'll say it again: if someone from jameson marketing gets their hands on this picture, he'll be their spokescat.

i watched the brit awards the other night. i don't know half the people they're talking about, but the fact that robbie williams got 'best british single of the past 25 years' is very painful to me. i often look to the brits to save indie rock. alas.

current mood: headachy
current music: morrissey, you are the quarry


clarence and his beverage of choice

hooligana

so the list of 2005 ecma recipients is up. they did a really nice write up on my dad. i was talking to him the other day, and they had offered to fly him up from florida to cape breton to accept the award, but i found out that my dad doesn't like flying. i never knew that before. i said to him that i'd fly over if they paid for it, but that probably won't happen. i even had an idea for a speech all ready. about how when i was a teenager my dad and i had reverse roles. he was the one with the band practicing in the basement, and i was the one banging on the floor at 10pm when i was trying to get to sleep.

our neighbour, "shan", was having a party last night, and i think every super bowl idiot must have been in attendance. we had to move the bed into the back room to get to sleep. argh! it's so boring bitching about her all the time. i've composed a letter to remind her one more time to be quiet. after this, it's landlord time.


the dreaded v-day...
the candies are coming. run!

current mood: goofy, probably for watching napoleon dynamite last night.
current music: cowboy junkies, my own mix -- a couple of years ago, my office at the campus library was broken into and someone stole a laptop i was borrowing from a friend, my gym clothes (?!) and my walkman. the thing that pissed me off most, was that they didn't take the tape out of the walkman. i worked long and hard to compile the perfect cowboy junkies mix and some arsehole stole it. sigh. anyway, i hung onto that tape cover, and after much ado, i finally recompiled it. robbers and/or hooligans be damned. you can't keep a good mix down.

gracefuladies

long time no blog. it's been a busy week.

monday: just a normal day of people calling and being angry. actually, it was a rough one.
tuesday: i got my hair done. it looks good, but the guy was a total perfectionist. cutting every little strand. it took 3 hours. i shit you not. the best part was this cute turkish guy named samir who gave me a head massage.
wednesday: i went out for beer with a co-worker, which was nice, because we got to vent about work.
thursday: i went to the thee-ay-ter to see a street car named desire with my friend kristen. we're quite a pair i tell ya. when we walked in, i accidentally pulled a fake fern out of a flower pot with my coat and kristen leaned forward to talk to the teller and whacked her forehead on the glass. we're all about elegance.
friday: worked on building my web knowledge, drinking wine and eating cheese.

this week we've had my friend's cat clarence staying with us. he's mr. darcy's sleep over buddy. they're very cute together, except when i wake up and can hear them grooming each other on my pillow. slurp slurp slurp. right now they're staring at each other from across the room. but they're chillin' like villains. i'll try to get a pic of them on here sometime soon. i need a digicam!

current mood: glad that it's 0 degrees
current music: white stripes, de stijl