Don't really have much to say tonight...went to work at 8 this morning, left at 5:30, came home and have been working since about 6:30. Blech. Ah well, it will all be worth it tomorrow when I have some stuff done before people are panicking for it...ha,ha that never happens. The work I'm doing tonight is stuff people were freaking about 2 days ago. Sigh...it seems as though the vicious circle never ends, but it's funny that some people don't realize - if you hand it in late, you are going to receive it back from me late. Plain and simple. It is not some new far-out way of thinking. Late equals late. But enough about that. Went for lunch with the work peeps today and it has come out that not one, not two, but three of my co-workers have also been feeling the way I have been. Not really sick per se, but just not well. We all seem to have the same symptoms: occasional upset stomach, a general downbeat attitude, and completely exhausted. If I didn't have so much work to do I would have been in bed 3 hours ago, I have no doubt. I find it quite depressing actually, I'm a little perkier at work (but still not anywhere near the level I am normally at) but I just feel so down and tired. It's driving me crazy because I can feel that I'm in a funk and don't seem to be able to pull myself out of it. Hopefully the big dose of home will do something to brighten me up this weekend. God knows that I can't stand feeling and writing this way, so I can't imagine what a drag it is for the dudes that read this. Sorry guys, I'll try to get over it.
Lately I've been feeling very exhausted and just not very Ali-like. Tonight, though, I'm feeling a little bit more like myself. Still tired, but a little more happy. I think I've just been trying to get adjusted to having so much on my plate at work - learning new stuff and trying not to frustrate everyone around me too much. I worry that I'm going to drive the designers crazy by asking them too many questions all the time. But I feel like I am slowly getting a little bit more of a handle on the whole situation. It's only been a week and a half since I've been the one and only editor, but it's coming along, very slowly...but surely. I was thinking that I just need to chill out a little and take some time to do the things I like. So tonight I came home, got into my jammies, called one of my girlfriends, called my brother to see how his first day of high school was, cleaned off my kitchen table (sort of) and did a little writing. Writing for me, not for any particular job, which was nice. Then I decided to take pictures of myself blowing bubbles, to get back to my nerdy roots. I also realized that I haven't given a mean girl update in quite a while. I have only seen her once in the past 3 weeks or so, but I seem to be running into her boyfriend a lot more who seems even more friendly than usual. He always makes sure to yell hello to me or wave as he's leaving the parking lot in the morning. It's too bad that his snaggle-tooth girlfriend hasn't reared her ugly head in a while - I could use a little angry girl excitement.
I'm planning on heading back to my parent's house this weekend - it's a long weekend here in Canada (the 4th is a holiday) so it's going to be another great weekend. There will be lots going on there though - my uncle's surprise 50th birthday party, a few new babies to meet and friends to visit. Plus, I always feel that my parent's house is the only place I can really relax. They live in this quiet, sleepy little town and last summer they built this gorgeous sunroom onto the sundeck. This room has quickly become my favourite, as I can sit in there and write to my heart's content with windows open all around me and not be bothered by anyone. There is barely any traffic and nighttime is my favourite. I can sit in there in the dark (actually see the stars because there are no city lights) and listen to the river and the crickets outside. Ahhh, so relaxing. My mom's family is all very close so it's rare that there isn't a barbeque or some sort of celebration going on. A small barbeque with only a couple brothers or sisters is usually a minimum 20 person event; I love my mom's huge family. Now I want to go there right now...oh well, 2 more days of the grind then I'm off to 3 days of relaxation. Goodnight!
Have you ever seen such enormous blackberries? While the husband and I were out getting groceries last night we decided to stop by our favourite fresh fruit stand.They will only be open till mid-September so we're trying to squeeze in as much fresh fruit as possible till then. Anyhoo, I love blackberries and when I saw the size of the ones they had I just had to buy some. The one in the middle is your average sized blackberry, the two on the outsides are what the ones from the fruit stand look like. I even stuck my thumb in the picture for you to get the full idea of just how huge they are!
Wow, I'm very excited about these berries - maybe I need to get out more!
I am so tired. I know I said I would be back to post yesterday, but I really had nothing to say. I got into my pyjamas Friday night at my parent's house and only took them off when my mom dragged my ass to church with her on Saturday evening. I seriously spent the weekend in a nasty old shirt with a huge dragon on the front, a pair of pink flowered Winnie the Pooh pyjama bottoms and my old, ripped, holy GAP sweatshirt from about 1998. It was a fabulous weekend of absolutely nothing but hanging out with my parents and my little brother. Today was very busy, I worked a full day, came home, picked up the husband, went and got groceries, came back home and worked 3 hours of overtime. I am absolutely burned out and plan on going to bed in about 10 minutes. Have a wonderful evening and I promise to write a decent post tomorrow.
Today was another wild day at work. You know those days when you have a "To Do" list about 30 items long and you don't even get to one of the items? Such was my day. I got a lot done; just not what I was planning on working on. Then I came home where the husband had dinner waiting. We started fighting about 32 seconds after I walked in the door (actually I was yelling, he wasn't really saying much of anything). We sat down to start eating and I decided my spaghetti didn't taste right, so I pitched a little fit (I had a little break-down okay?) and wouldn't eat anymore. Then my husband asked what he could do to help me out and I told him that the only way I would be happy was if he went to Dairy Queen and got me a Moolate - which are so good they're almost orgasmic - and go to 7-11 and get me loonies to pay for my parking tomorrow. So he went. Sometimes I am such a pain in the ass, that dude must really love me...or else he knows what hell was in store for him for the rest of the night if I wasn't made happy. Regardless, I was happy once I had my chilled coffee drizzled in caramel in my system, and then I started to get sleepy. Which is how we ended up in our bed for a nap at about 7:15 tonight. I really do desperately want babies - but wow, is it great just to strip down and crawl into bed whenever you want. I think that quick "nap" made me even more tired, maybe it's time for bed for the night!
Oh yes, before I bid you adieu, I'll just tell you that I'm heading to the Land of Dial-Up for the weekend so I'm not sure if I'll be posting for a couple days or not. The small miracle with that is that the computer I ordered for my parents got delivered this week, so of course they need me to go home, dismantle the old one and set up the new system. The miracle is that the new computer is still dial-up, but it should move a little more quickly than their old one. Because when I say "old" I'm talking moldy. Moldy like a PC from 1994. Yes, 12 years old. And has never been cleaned out. Ever. We'll see how frustrated I am over the weekend. Have a good one!
Tonight I got a ride home from my boss - that is one awesome woman, let me tell ya! Anyways, I walked in the door and hubby had supper ready, as we usually do for each other when one of us is working. Supper was great, we saw each other for about a half hour then he was out the door to the hospital for a night shift. He'll breeze through the door about 10 minutes before I leave for work in the morning, quality time hey? So yeah, he closes the door behind him and I walk into the kitchen to put my plate in the dishwasher and I'm faced with what you see above. He did make supper for me, but my god, is it any wonder why I get so pissed off when I come home from a day of work (when he had the entire day off) and find a disaster area like this!? Whatever, I bit my tongue, I didn't swear once (really!) and began to clean up the disaster. Then I dragged my ass to the grocery store, came home and whipped up another veggie tray and dip that I have to take to work tomorrow, worked on some freelance, emailed Reggie the recipe for the muffins, watched Kink and now here I sit. And since the husband is gone for the night I'm listening to a mix of Johnny Cash, Chixdiggit and Etta James (a very weird combo, I know). I'm also enjoying my "wine" which I mentioned in my list of stuff (The Idiosyncrasieslink) is something I like to do when I'm by myself and feeling grown-up. Yum, think I'll finish off the bottle and go to bed...oh baby, I'm so in need of a full night of snore-free, bed-hogging deep sleep. Have a good night!
Oh man, it's that time of the month when the hubby and I are really feeling the pinch. Bills are due, we need groceries, we need gas, all of a sudden there is no toilet paper, dish soap, salt, ketchup, coffee, laundry detergent or tylenol left in the entire apartment. You know...when every single thing you actually need seems to run out all at the same time? This has been an expensive week; gifts for people at work, buying food to take to parties at work, a wedding card that needed cash, going to the bar as a farewell party, my husband buying Bomber's football tickets because we got a deal through one of the players (of course he managed to persuade me that 2 for the price of 1 was too good a deal to pass up even though we're broke - damn him!) I am currently waiting on three (yes, three) freelance cheques that I should be getting any day now, and boy do we need them. The sucky part about it is that I do freelance because I love it. I mean, the money is great, don't get me wrong, but I actually really like doing the work and getting to meet all sorts of cool people. But part of the reason freelance is so great is because it's money on top of your regular paycheque. Usually it is reserved for spending on something really great that I've wanted but wouldn't splurge on with my regular paycheque, or going for a great dinner with my husband and putting the rest away for our trip in February or something like that. But what usually happens it that there is suddenly a bill in dire need of being paid, or our cars are both running on empty or something like that. The only good thing about having no money for the next 8 days or so is that it will seem like we won the lottery next week...the hubby and I both get paid on the 31st, Yay!
I have been wanting to make Banana Double Chocolate Chip muffins for about a month now. I am not what you'd call a chef or a professional baker by any means. I bake about 6 times a year and it's usually something out of a box, but when I make muffins I always make the same kind from scratch. Yummmmm! I was gonna make them a week or two ago, but Zig came to work and said that his wife had made some and he wrote about it on his blog so I didn't want to seem like a copier. I decided "that's fine, I'll just wait a week or so and then I'll whip some up" so I told another lady at work on Friday that I was going to make some and bring them to work this week. This morning we were talking about what we had done this past weekend and she told me her husband had made Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. Grrrr, again I didn't want to make them when someone else had eaten them lately. I wanted to make lots and bring some into work for everyone else to enjoy. This afternoon I couldn't take it anymore ( I was salivating at my desk), I called my husband and gave him a list of the essentials I needed to make them and came home tonight and made a double recipe. They are very yummy. I always leave some chunks of banana, and add a little cocoa to the mix to make them extra chocolatey and this time I mixed some sour cream in to make them extra moist. I've already eaten two, so no more for me tonight, but I have just packaged some up for my husband to take to work tomorrow and also a plate for me to take to the office and there is still a humongous plate leftover for us. I wish you could taste them...delish!
PS Doesn't the plate of mashed banana look disgusting!?
Guess what? It's late and, surprise, I'm tired! I should be in bed of course but I find that I've become addicted to the world of Blogger. Either posting on my own or reading other people's. I think I may actually be overtired - I was sitting here using the hammer to fix a clasp on a pair of my shoes, cleaning out my purse and reading some blogs. Three things happened while I was doing all that: I found a co-workers sunglasses in my purse from Friday night, I decided that I want to take some pickles to work to munch on tomorrow and I thought it would be really funny to do some "damage" to above mentioned co-workers sunglasses. Mwaaaa haaaa haaaa, what to do, what to do? I could smash them into itty bitty pieces and give them to him in a baggie all ground into plasticy dust, or I could pop the lenses out and say that that's the way he gave them to me...in the end I won't really do anything. I'm sure I'll get some sort of comment about this - but rest assured I am just tired, the sunglasses are safe and I'm sitting here laughing over this whole stupid post. Hmmmmmm, I think I need a pickle right now...
Last night me and one of my girlfriends went out to the Dixie Chicks concert here in Winnipeg. (This stems for my closet love affair with country music.) I have to say that this was one of the best concerts I've ever been to; the Chicks sounded awesome singing live, almost better that they do on their albums. We had a great time and I would highly recommend that if you're into country at all, they are a fabulous group to see live. Of course, it didn't hurt that they were so vocal about the whole President Bush thing. All I have to say about that is that I totally support them in that regard. And for those of you who don't - why don't you take a listen to Jay Leno or David Letterman or even Saturday Night Live and hear the things they say about their president, much worse I have to say. Hmmm, I wonder if the fact that they have penises has anything to do with the fact that people just laugh them off? I think so. Anyways, that's enough of my views on the subject. The Chicks were awesome, we had a great time and I hope I get to see them again sometime!
Whew...I am drunk. I decisded that if I make any mistakes while I'm typing that I will just leave them because I wlil think it is even more funny in the morning - I am already laughing at the way I wrote wlil. Ha, Ha haaaaaaaaa. Anywats, ha ha anyways, I drank like 20 frigging drinks and did not feel so much as a buzz, but as soon as we left the second bar and strateed walking to the car I started to walk sideways and now I'm home and sitting here typing and it's hot and my tummey hurts and it turns out that I am drunik. I just ate like 15 tums, ha, ha if you could see how hard I'm laughing at this ridiculous typing (how did I possiby spell ridiculous right, twice!?) I wish I was making this uyp but I'm really not. We had fun and I need some wayrter ha, ha so I'm shutting this puppy down. Please do not judge me on thiss blog entry, I drink about 6 times a year and this is really funny for me to reead. Uh.......watyer....goodnitt...frigg let's try that again...goodnight!
Today I was feeling much better, still a little bit of a headache but I'm happy to report that there was not so much as a dry-heave in the night. Today was one wild day at work, lemme tell ya. Actually I'll just give you a brief overview. Uh hum, ok, let's see...my boss is sick, the other editor at work quit, her re-placement didn't show up today and apparently won't be showing up ever, I have a freelance piece due tomorrow that I'm having trouble writing since 2 of the people that I was supposed to interview never returned my phone calls, and there are some crazy deadlines that are suddenly looming overhead. That may not sound so crazy to you, but if you were in my shoes right now, you would either be peeing your pants or having a good cry - maybe a little of both. There are about 5 magazines on my plate right now that needed to go out, like, yesterday. Yikes! By 4 o'clock this afternoon I had heard so much bad news at work (there are other issues I won't go into) I was semi-delirious and laughing hysterically because there was nothing else I could do. I called my husband to tell him what was going on and then had to hang up on him because one of the non-returning phone call interviewees finally decided to call me back. Then my husband was late picking me up so I called and yelled at him that I had been standing there waiting for about 20 minutes for him (it was more like 6) and he said he was almost there. He pulled up about 30 seconds later and when I got in he handed me an envelope. Inside was a card - and no, I will not tell you what it said - however it went along the lines of he was sorry I had such a rotten day and he loved me. Then he pulled a half dozen Gerbera daisies out of the backseat, my favourite flower! Lemme tell you, it's moments like that where I thank my lucky stars that this man is willing to put up with my crap. He dishes out his fair share as well - but he always knows what to do to make me feel better when it's 'dire straits' time. Anyway, tomorrow is the other editor's last day and we're having a pot-luck lunch for her and then we're leaving work early to go to a pub and get very, very happy...actually very, very drunk...which will make us very, very happy. Everyone in my department at work deserves a crazy night of not worrying about deadlines and screaming clients, hopefully I will have some great pictures for Saturday!
Ever have one of those days where you just feel ugly? Today has been one of those days for me. I think it started yesterday because I had a wicked headache all day which started to make me a little cranky. Then this morning I was fine and about a half hour after I got to work my head started pounding again. This is turn is making me feel nauseous and I've also been getting waves of dizziness. I rarely ever get really sick, but it's beginning to feel like I just may be in for a doozy of a sick phase. Oh yeah, back to the ugliness. I also seem to be having one of the ugliest days that I've had in a long time. You know; when your hair looks retarted, and your clothes don't seem to fit right and your skin looks gross and you just feel like people are looking at you going "ew, she shouldn't have left the house this morning." Lucky for you I'm not subjecting you to a picture of myself today, it's not pretty. It's not that I usually feel smokin' hot or anything, far from it, but today was just one ugly-ass day. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I feel so lousy.
I apologize for my last couple of posts being so negative - I think I'm just in need of a good puke-fest or something to help me quit being such a Grump-a-tron. P.S. I herby patent the use of 'a-tron' tacked onto any such word that I see fit. Let it be known that I, not a certain somebody I know, should get full credit for any 'a-tron' references.
So here I sit, very hot, very tired, my head is pounding and I'm trying to think of what to write in this post so I can hit the shower, hit the sack, hit it and then fall asleep. I was scanning my apartment thinking "okay Ali, it doesn't have to be particularly enthralling, just some retarted-ass thing that makes you laugh..." when all of a sudden my eyes fell upon the hideous floor of my galley kitchen. As you can see, it is a grotesque combo of brown, beige and taupe swirls, flowers and triangles. I'm sure back in the day that it was hip and modern, however now it is simply uncool. As much as I hate it though, it's still in awesome shape - not so much as a crack or a tear - and it goes great with our baby shit coloured fridge and stove (which, by the way, are also in awesome shape considering they were first around when people sported 'fros in porn). So yeah, that's my gross kitchen floor - hope you all enjoyed this brief foray into the land of Ali.
Babies, sex, new mommies and daddies...such was my weekend. Right now I know about 15 people who are pregnant, about 6 that have new babies and I guess that means I know 12 new parents. This past weekend I spent most of the time with my best friend, the one who's down from the Bahamas (I call her the Bahama Mama, she doesn't actually have kids yet, but she does have an incredibly spoiled Daschund), and we travelled around our hometown area visiting all our friends who are expecting or who have new babies and kids. One of our closest friends has a 3 month old son, he's the one in the picture below, and Bahama Mama hadn't seen him yet so we took off Saturday morning for the 45 minute drive to our friends house. We spent about 4 hours there playing with the baby and visiting our friend and her husband. Then off we went another 20 minutes down the road to visit another one of our friends and her 3 kids. While we were at that friends house she told us about one of our other pregnant friends who happened to be in labour at that very moment. After about 3 hours of visiting there, Bahama Mama and I started to make our way home (to our parent's houses) and began talking about another one of our friends who was due on Sunday. Sunday morning rolls around and I got a phone call; the friend who was in labour the night before, she had a girl - Grace, not sure on the weight - then we had another message waiting on the answering machine when we got back to Manitoba that our other friend (who was due on Sunday), actually had her baby that day, a boy - 8 lbs, 1oz.
It's funny, I don't know about anybody else out there - but to me, it seems that as soon as I get my mind set on something or want something, everyone else seems to have it. Like you finally decide to buy a new iPod - all of a sudden everyone has one. You finally decide that you can afford to buy a new car, so you buy the new Honda Civic - 2 weeks later someone you know pulls up in the new Honda Accord. That is exactly what happened to me...except not with an iPod or a car, but with a baby. I won't go into details, but lets just say that as soon as we decided it was the right time for us to have a baby, it seems like everyone that even looked at each other cock-eyed was knocked up that day. I am being bombarded with tales of people saying "Oh yeah, the first time Harry and I got it on without birth control I was pregnant...I guess it was just meant to be you know?" To which I want to respond "Why don't you just shut your pretty little face? If I wasn't concerned that I would give your unborn baby brain damage, I'd kick you in the stomach!" I'm just being impatient and know that nobody needs to know about all this junk, but it's on my mind, so what are ya gonna do? For now I guess I'll just have to be happy being Auntie Ali, which I have to admit is pretty cool, there are lots of babies who call me Auntie.
*Please note that I am speaking entirely from frustration here and would never intentionally hurt a pregnant woman or her unborn child! Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a baby-aholic.
Today was an incredibly busy day, it's midnight and I am actually tired and plan on going to bed immediately after posting this. Was at work most of the day, left early to go to the "doctor", went and did an interview, went and got my nails done, ran home and picked up a change of clothes for the husband, met him at the stadium, watched the football game, came home and ate supper at about 10:30 and have been writing a freelance piece that is due tomorrow ever since. The interview I got to do was with the head cheerleader of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (that's in the Canadian Football League for all you Yankee-doodles out there). Gotta say, I was pretty stoked about interviewing her - and she was awesome. I'm doing a freelance piece on her for a magazine I recently started writing for, so I met her at the stadium today and she showed me around the locker room and we sat in the stands and talked for about an hour and a half. When we were done she gave me two tickets to tonight's game against the B.C. Lions and told me that if I want to come and hang out with her and the rest of the cheerleaders during Grey Cup week (Greycup is like the Superbowl in the states) that I should just call her and I'm welcome to come along. Does she sound like one of the coolest chicks ever or what? I scored major points with the husband for this too because the financial situation is dire right now, and I had told him he couldn't go to this game due to lack of moolah. So when I called him and told him I had free tickets he was pretty happy with me - poor boy is a die hard when it comes to football, no matter if it's CFL or NFL. Anyways, this was a busy day, busy but great, and I am tired and stoked and now I shall bid you adieu and hopefully blog again on Sunday. I'll be away in dial-up land again and I'm just not patient enough to deal with it - sorry.
Remember that fishing trip I sent my husband off on last week or the week before or something like that? He went with my dad and brother and my dad's best childhood friend and they caught 82 fish in one day. Of course they only kept their limit (4 each) but who wouldn't like fishing with a turnout like that?! Well, tonight we decided to cook up the walleye that my husband brought home. We decided to try to cook it a little differently, normally it is battered and then deep fried, and tonight we're going to bake it as a healthy alternative. In this pic he's getting it all battered and I was daring him to eat a piece of it raw; I thought he might actually try it, but although we like sushi, raw lake fish is just gross. Oh, and he just told me that he saw mean girl today, it's been ages since I've seen her, and that she was a little freaked when she saw him. He was coming home from dropping me off at work and she was leaving her apartment, and when he locked our car doors (a little squeak, squeakem sound comes out of the alarm) she looked all freaked out at our car. He said when she realized it was him and not me she appeared to relax and gave him a forced smile. Mwwaaa haaa haaaa, mean girl is scared of me and not my husband - I'm so tough. Anyhoo, time for walleye!
I am at work. I am bored. So very, very bored. My commrades are all hard at it and here I sit...bored. There is some weird, wannabe rap playing in the background in a co-workers office. Sigh...I know something else that I can not pull off being cool at; rapping. I am probably almost as good at it as the guy rapping in the background though, I might even be better. Nah, I am a little white, catholic, gemini girl that needs a serious dose of caffeine. So now I am bored again. I was excited about the prospect of being a rap-star for about 30 seconds but that has faded now. Ugh, sooooo bored. I feel like going to get my nails done and gossiping with the chick who does my nails, we always have fun. But I can't do that til tomorrow after work, so I guess I'll just be bored the rest of the day. So very, very bored.
Think, think, think...I was having trouble thinking of an idea of what to write about in my blog today. Nothing particularly exciting happened to me, work was busy as per usual, I went to the chiropractor right after, came home, de-pantsed and sat down in front of the computer. I was looking up at my poster of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. and thinking about how cool they were back in the day. Of course Dean is one of my favourite crooners and I still think he is super cool, but they used to be reeeaaaaall cool. In the poster they are all drinking, smoking and laughing and they all look cool doing it. That got me thinking about things people do that they seem cool doing. Some people can totally pull off smoking and looking cool, that's not as easy to do as it was years ago because of the health risks and stink and stuff; but there are still people that can do it. Another thing is winking. Everyone knows someone that winks at you about everything. For me it's usually a sales rep or someone like that, that just breezes into a room to drop something off, say something cute and give you a wink and it makes you feel oooh, he's cool. I've only known one woman in my life that could pull it off and she was this fantastic little greek woman who would tut, tut at you and then give you a wink, like she had let you in on a secret. I took a picture of me giving a wink (and the kck, kck gun shot just to add some coolness) and as I expected; I am not one of those people that can pull it off. Rather I look like a cheeseball with something in her eye.
For the three or four of you that might actually read this blog...you may have been wondering what has happened to me. It's unusual for me to miss three days of posting unless there is a legitimate reason for it. I have a great reason for it - I have been "Ali M. Camper Extraordinaire" for the past 3 days. The husband and I went camping with another couple we hang out with and we got home late yesterday afternoon. In Canada, today is a Civic Holiday so I'm taking it to post a new blog, clean up all the camping gear, get some more freelance done and catch up on some sleep. We went to this gorgeous campsite in Manitoba; the sites were beautiful and private, there was a great beach, canoe and paddleboat rentals, a store, mini golf, camp sing-a-longs, real flushing toilets and showers (yay!) and lots of people. I really do consider myself a true camper - we sleep in tents and don't use electricity and cook most of our food over the campfire; but so help me god, I am terrified of outhouses and I hate not showering for 3 days straight, but I am still a real camper. Most people nowadays sleep in a camper with their tv, playstation, microwave, oven and complete bathroom; those people are not real campers. We had a great time, I love and miss camping. The only scary time was the first night when we were there - we had done a fair bit of drinking and my husband was snoring loudly beside me - so I poked him and said to shush, I couldn't sleep. He apologized and drifted back to sleep. Thirty seconds later I hear a growl on his side of the tent. Now, this wasn't like a chipmunk that was pissed because we didn't leave the sunflower seeds out - this was a growl like the original killer grizly was 4 feet from my head. I poked hubby again and whispered "wake up, there is a bear outside the tent." His eyes flew open and he sat straight up and I immediately pulled him back down. I hissed at him that it was right beside us and to sshhh. We heard it walk around the front of the tent and then it started growling, I almost peed my sleeping bag. Two seconds later it's on my side of the tent up against me. I started doing the breathing like on the Blair Witch movie and breathed "I'm gonna die" to my husband "how the hell are we gonna get out of here?" All of a sudden I heard L. yell at her husband J. from across the campsite "Ohmygod, there's something out there." The killer grizly snorted and turned towards their tent and I just kept thinking "shut up, shut up" and thinking that if we stayed quiet it would go away. I was sure we had put all the food away, but right when I thought that I heard plastic tearing and another animal hissing at the first one. I'm lying beside hubby clutching him so tight that I'm sure I drew blood and I can hear L. telling J. to get up and go see what it is. And then I heard him open their tent...of all the crazy things to do...I was almost crying trying to think how I was going to tell his parents why he was dead. Anyways, he gets out of the tent and there is complete silence. Then I hear him get back in the tent and close the zipper. What the hell? Where is the killer grizly? I can hear L. shrieking incoherently that she's scared and I couldn't make out the rest. My husband starts telling me that it's okay, the killer grizly is gone and we are all fine, then he's sleeping within 60 seconds. I slept about 20 minutes through the rest of the night. In the morning when we all got up it turns out that J. had left a bag of hotdog buns on the picnic table and that's what the killer grizly was after. And it also turns out that the killer grizly was actually 2 racoons. I know you're sitting there laughing right now, but the night you wake up in a tent and realize that there is a living, snorting, growling creature up against you when you're in the bush and you aren't scared - you will be my hero. The killer 'coons were back the next night even though we made sure every speck of food was put away, this time they got into the screen tent and dumped out a couple boxes of non-edible supplies just to make a point.
Anyhoo, here are a few snapshots of us having fun in the bush. Enjoy.
Oh yeah, I should mention the little green skeleton pirate that appears in half of the pictures. His name is Hypoglycemic Hermaphadite Herpes - aka Hypo Hermie - aka Triple H. On the drive out to the lake I was a little hyper and found this thing in the car (it's a Pirates of the Carribean toy from MacDonalds) and decided to name him and make him our weekend mascot. He ended up going with us everywhere and is in most of the pictures - it's funny, even the guys ended up bringing him with us wherever we went. Whatever, we're losers but it's still funny...
Hypo Hermie's first photo op. He looks thrilled to be going to the lake for a weekend of camping with us.
The husband and J. Saturday morning - first time lighting this new Coleman stove (it was pouring outside so we decided to make the eggs and bacon for breakfast on it). The flames were kind of high to begin with - hubby and J. nearly singed their brows off when the flame caught, needless to say L. and I were having a laughing fit behind the camera.
Here's Hypo Hermie passed out after a night of bonfire drinking, poor guy, he was out there passed out while our campsite was being ravaged by killer 'coons. Luckily they didn't get their dirty little rabbie infested paws on him.
Triple H looks pretty happy about being at the lake...good thing he's an excellent swimmer.
J. and L. relaxing with a couple beer after the first swim of the afternoon.
Here's J. charging into the lake; it was freezing cold and he was fearing for his "man pieces" so he decided to just run full tilt into the lake to get it over with quickly. My husband is in the background already submerged, guess he's a little more manly than J.
This campground was so beautiful, we will definitely be back. Here's the hubby crossing one of the bridges on a nature walk.
J. and L. enjoying the drinking game we were playing to get Dronk (as L. would say), she's holding her beer with 2 hands and her eyes are closed because that's part of the game.
Here's Hypo Hermie getting in on all the drinking game action, he was pretty looped when this picture was taken and he had just fallen through one of the cracks in the picnic table. He's not the safest of drunks.
Yay, my gross picture was posted! Last night Blogger wouldn't post my pictures so I had a little fit and went to bed cranky about it. While slurping back my first cup of coffee this morning I sat at my computer and checked my email - thank you to Reggie and Tee for their support through this crisis. Tee, if this happens again I'm all up for "operation yell at blogger." And Reggie, you were absolutely right. Occasionally in the past Blogger would give me some lame ass excuse about why it couldn't post my picture, so I would set it all up again and then minimize the window and do other stuff. It's like Blogger senses that if you really want a picture posted it will give you a hard time. But if you pretend like "I really could give a rat's ass if you bother posting this picture blogger, I'm just trying to add interest to your lame operation." Then Blogger senses that you don't even really care and they post it, almost to spite you. This morning I actually walked away from the computer and said "Well I hope that picture doesn't actually work." And sure as shit, when I came back to the computer - there it was. Anyway lovers, I have to get my ass ready for work - please enjoy this quite disgusting picture of the leftover strawberries that I purchased Monday night. They were already hairy yesterday - isn't that gross? Have a great day!
Hrrmmphh...I am really quite cranky at the moment. I've been happy all evening and then I go to write my blog for the day and Smack! Blogger gives me a slap in the face. For some reason I all of a sudden can't post any pictures...hmmm, I wonder if this was passed along from a certain Aussie I know? What the hell? Everytime it says it's loading my pictures a little window will pop up and say: This document contains no data. What exactly does that mean? Can somebody tell me? Boy I'm cranky...screw this, I'm not posting anything else tonight.
That might not actually be true - we'll see if I come up with any solutions.
Yikes, what a disaster area my desk is! I'm sitting here at home trying to imagine up about 25 hours of work that I can't account for over the past month to put on my timesheets. They were due today. Nothing like waiting to the last minute to think about stuff like this hey? Anyhoo, I'm supposed to have around 140 hours and I only had about 96 hours worth of stuff actually written down. God forbid I actually record it on the sheets day by day...oh no, I prefer to write on these wonderful multi-coloured stickies and little scraps of paper and old envelopes and grocery store receipts. It's so much more fun that way...not really, I'm just trying to convince myself of that. And each month I tell myself I'm going to record my hours properly and then all of a sudden it's the end of the month and I'm missing entire days worth of post-it notes! The thing is that I worked like crazy this month (and even had tons of overtime) but I can't for the life of me remember what it is I was doing. Anyways, it's very late (1:30am) and Australia will be checking in soon, so I should be going to bed. But just one more thing, I just had a quick shower and I was screaming (attempting to sing) the lyrics to Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain' over and over in the shower. After I got out I was thinking that I should be more quiet, most people are sleeping by now, but then I remembered that the only person that could probably hear me was Mean Girl. That made me laugh, and the thing is, she is so vain. So it's only fitting that if she got woke up, (if you know the lyrics to this song this is much funnier) she would figure that the song was about her! Alright, I'm delirious, I'm still hungover from last night (when I had 3.5 hours of sleep) and I was accused of being cranky at work today so I'm hitting the sac (ha, ha, I wrote sac) arggghhh...good night!
I’m a lover and a fighter. I’m extremely curious. I hunger for knowledge, but I’m hopelessly lazy. I have dreams nearly beyond the scope of imagination. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I adore curse words. I’m easy to read, yet amazingly complicated. Next to my daughter, belly laughs are the highlight of my day.
Essentially I’m a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, rolled in make-believe, dipped in immaturity, and sprinkled with sarcasm.
Don't really have much to say tonight...went to work at 8 this morning, left at 5:30, came home and have been working since about 6:30. Blech.
