Nuit Blanche

A few weeks ago was Nuit Blanche. Jer and I went out for a few hours to check some things out. Here are the highlights, good and bad.

- A 'waterfall' at OPG (woooo!). It was a big sheet of intertwined plastic with a light shining on it. It was a little underwhelming.
- Cardboard houses with a tv in the window playing random people talking. Ummm, what?
- Cars with a light in the car. Ahhh, most of the cars were essentially empty. A couple had things in them. The only one that amused me was the one with a row of shoes. Whee shoes.
- People singing in Queen's park.
- Writing on a postcard to be randomly delivered to somebody at Nuit Blanche. This one was fun. See below for what I wrote on my postcard.
- Crazy guy in stilts, really tall and serious looking, walking right up and around us. So creepy!! I was hiding behind Jer. But so fun too. A couple guys playing the sax were following him around. I
loved it.
- Zombies.
- Lots of rubber duckies in this cool really blue foggy looking pond by Ryerson.
- An overhead ceiling installed in an alley by Massey Hall to look like an office. The alley was filled with lots of random garbage: christmas decorations, chinese new year decorations, hospital iv cords, file folders, and lots of other random things. I really liked it.
- A weird blue blob in the Eaton Centre. I got the underwhelmed feeling here again.
- City hall with lights in all the windows making shapes and designs. I saw a person running around at one point. Very cool.

After all that walking we were pretty tired. We took the path halfway home since it was a bit cold out and being melodramatic walking up the stairs at metro hall I flopped down and lay up/across the stairs. Jer joined me and we made tired noises which amused me. It gave me energy to make it home so I could rest in a chair and drink gingerale before curling up and sleeping.

And here's my postcard:

I have 5 minutes left to live, and I am using these last moments to write you this: hi.

Live life as if every moment is your last. I know I sure have!

Cheers,
Jen

Michelina's

I love Michelina's Lasagna with Meat Sauce and Cheese frozen dinners. In lazy times, they've been a staple in my life.

I bought a couple a while ago and later I realized that the label says New: Improved Flavour!

I was excited. And fooled. It was more like New: Removed Flavour! It seriously tastes like all they did was give half the sauce they used to.

It was barely worth the dollar I paid.

Quiet in the daytime, too loud at night

Last night as I was just falling asleep I heard my phone buzz across the room. Argghh. Stupid phone. Probably just facebook with a missed text notification. *grumble* Too tired to get up to turn off the buzzzzzzzzz (ie, i was sleeping before I really finished this thought).

I wake up early in the morning and can't get back to sleep. Buzz. NOoo Nooo I want to sleep. Alarm not off. GO away. Grrr stupid phone grumble pout grumble.

Eventually get out of bed, go pee, go on internets. Buzz. Buzz. Why won't it go away? It's literally in reaching territory in my purse but so much effort. It's too early.

*sigh* fine. The phone wins. I grab my phone to see no text msg. Oh. Hmm private call. Who could that be? Probably somebody stupid; I hate the phone, especially voice mail. Cue voice:

"Hi Jennifer, this is Di from So you think you can dance Canada calling to confirm your tickets for the show on Monday October 27."

OMG OMG!!!!! The phone is the greatest invention ever! (Okay not really, but jen happy!!!!) Girls night at the taping of So you think you can dance Canada!!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving long weekend was full of yummy food and interesting times. Although probably not in the sense that first comes to mind.

First the interesting times.

Saturday we were on a couch mission because it's not fun waiting for a couch to be delivered that may never arrive. Jer bought a couch a month and a half ago and the Brick kept calling with bad news, delaying when they expected the couch to be back in stock. You can only go so long with one chair and computer chair. Especially when tv is so awesome. So off to the Brick in hopes of solving this issue. Being new to this world we brought my dad to do the negotiations. We ended up saying bye bye chocolate truffle couch, and hello caramel happiness. The couch arrived yesterday and it's wonderful!!

Saturday night Jer and I went to the symphony. Jer had bought me tickets for my birthday. Some guy who's won awards was playing a solo and he was amazing. My favourite parts are still when the whole symphony plays in full force.

Sunday we did the whole family thing at Jer's sister's. It was the typical people talking, kids being kids, and perogies. Okay, the perogies aren't typical, see what I mean about defying expectations?

Alright, now on to the yummy food cause mmmm food so good!

It started with a pint of cream. 20(?) minutes later came fresh butter and buttermilk. The buttermilk was used to make blueberry pancakes Monday morning. I don't know if it was the buttermilk, but the pancakes were the best we've made. The butter was used with bread from Le Pain Quotidien. Delicious.

Next on our menu was gnocchi. I'm still figuring out gnocchi. It's coming along but I was mislead by a blog post saying to test the gnocchi to see if it falls apart or tastes gummy. If so, add more flour. Well, it always tasted gummy fresh out of the water. The best it tasted was my second attempt where I wasn't afraid of the flour but didn't keep adding flour because the dough was sticky, because no matter how much I added the dough was always sticky. Okay, this isn't amusing. Are you amused? no, well, on to the fun part. Tiramisu!!

Yep, that's right. This weekend I decided it was time to tackle Tiramisu. I've been wanting to make it for months. I bought the ladyfingers in July in fact. I debated making it in August around my birthday, but I got a little overwhelmed with all the recipes. Egg whites, whipped cream, cooked eggs, not cooked, this liquor, that liquor oh goodness make it go away. So I set it aside for the time being. Then one day I did a bit of research to understand the differences in recipes. The classic way uses raw eggs. Some people don't like the risk of getting sick so they cook the egg. This makes it more dense. Some will use raw egg yolk, but skip the raw egg white since it's more likely the whites will make you sick. So they replace the egg white with whipped cream. Makes it significantly less healthy since it adds fat and removes the protein goodness of egg whites, but it doesn't use too much cream so I guess that's fine. Anyway, I decided to face my fears and use raw eggs. Oh wow am I ever glad!!

I went to St. Lawerence market to look for mascarpone. I was hoping they had some italian stuff since I was reading the north american version has gum this, other stuff that and makes it a heavier tiramisu. No such luck, but I did find out how to say mascarpone. I was waaayyy off. Speaking of how north american ruins things, my ladyfingers were the proper Savoiardi, but they also had lots of junk added to it but you know what? It turned out just fine with all the extras.

Here's the recipe I ended up using and a picture of my first tiramisu.

Mocha

SPoT coffee has a contest on right now to become a "SPoT celebrity". You tell them your favourite drink and why. Jer has become addicted to their Mochas in the past month, and with the prize of your favourite drink free every day for a month, I knew he had to enter. Saturday morning after breakfast we headed out to buy a couple mochas, find a comfy spot at SPoT (haha?) and come up with some ideas. I gave useful suggestions every so often, while Jer worked his creative writing skillz. Here's the final product:

What is your favourite SPoT coffee drink?
Mocha

Why is this your favourite SPoT coffee drink?
For 15 years I had been enslaved by the sweet, buttery aroma with flowery undertones of the percolated coffee bean, and its intoxicating caffeinated effects have ravaged my entire being for far too long. I courageously broke free from this hideous addiction over the span of many weeks. I sought refuge in a monastery where the soothing and rhythmic chants offered a quantum of solace to my frayed and frightened soul. Once I had successfully overcome these demons that had haunted me, I became calmer, serene, and significantly less jittery. But was I a better person?

One by one, people I had thought were friends began to disown me, as my lifeless corpse and empty gaze provided a stark reminder that I was but a shadow of my former self. Even my puppy sensed that something was seriously amiss. Taking the garbage out one day, the door was left slightly ajar. Puppy, seeing a glimmer of light, made a ferocious dash for the elevator and with all the strength in her tiny puppy heart, made a terrifically improbable leap hitting the ground floor button, a button to freedom.

I was broken.

That night I searched the streets of Toronto for her, and in a metaphorical sense, searched for myself. At 6 a.m. I stumbled across SPoT, and with tired eyes I dragged my heavy feet through the doors and ordered a Tall Mocha, which brought life back into my decrepit frame. For this I thank you.

And even though I still haven't found my puppy, and my friends won't return my calls, I don't care. I've found the one thing that can make sense of this topsy-turvy world: a delicious combination of espresso, 2% milk and chocolate in liquid form, put together by an angelic army stationed in SPoT.

- - -

So this may be a bit longer than an average response (considering I had to write in tiny print and use the back of the small sheet of paper provided) but I think it will be well appreciated. On the way out, Jer confirmed they do indeed read the entries. It is unclear whether they pick the winner by random or based on awesomeness. We're hoping for the latter.

Blueberry Pancakes

Yesterday Jer and I went to Kensington market to buy some meat and fresh produce, including blueberries. I had no immediate plans for the blueberries, but I remembered the beautiful pictures from Smitten Kitchen and knew for breakfast today I needed blueberry pancakes.

We made half a batch and put a small amount of batter on the pan because the first pancake doesn't work as well and I didn't want to waste too much batter. We watch it cook. Umm it looks weird. Okay okay, first pancake, whatever, throw it out and try again. The pan might not have been quite ready anyway.

Second pancake looked pretty much the same. Why isn't it rising? Pancakes are supposed to be fluffy and thick. This was flat and had a weird texture.

Well, the batter was a little runny, maybe if I add more flour that'll help. Nope, not so much.

What if I add more baking powder? Argh, it's a bit better but they're still not pancakes and taste bland and bleah.

Jer goes back to the computer and checks the recipe again. Oops, forgot sugar. That's not too bad, but I add some anyway. The recipe calls for baking powder and baking soda. Jer doesn't have baking soda so I just used a bunch of baking powder because baking powder is essentially just baking soda and cornstarch anyway. Oh crap. Realization hits.

See, one of the problems with splitting your time between two places is that rather than having two of everything, it means bringing things back and forth between apartments. For example, sherry for stir fry. Or what I like to do, is put some ingredient in a little baggy and just keep it at Jer's place. This is what I did for baking powder. And cornstarch.

Rather than adding baking powder, I had been adding cornstarch. That explains the flat pancakes and weird texture.

I dump some baking powder in and success!! Happy blueberry pancakes. So delicious.

Maybe it's time to buy some baking powder and cornstarch for Jer's place. Or you know, label the baggies perhaps.

TIFF 08

For the film fest this year I decided to try the 10-ticket package instead of buying single tickets when they went on sale to the general public. Both ways are a lot of work, but I found the advance ticket procedure less stressful.

It took a few hours reading through all the 300(ish) films to find ones I wanted to go to, then figure out movies that won't conflict with each other, but I think it'll get easier after I've done it a couple times. I guess the one thing is I get attached to all 10 movies, but know I'm only going to 5 of them. I definitely had favourites and ones I was less interested in, so it made the process an adventure. I went and dropped off my selections the day after the advance ticket books were available because I went to lunch at a restaurant near the box office. I decided not to worry too much on when to drop my choices off because I'd go crazy debating when the right time would be to get in 'the' box. Rather, I went with when it was convenient for me to go. I stick by this decision, despite it not working out too well. My order was in box 7, and box 9 was randomly drawn to be the first box processed. I couldn't believe I was in the 2nd last box. What
bad luck. I had the usual reaction of pouting and grumbling, but in the end it turned out just fine. I am very happy with what I ended up with and think it'll be a good mix of movies.

I start the film fest off with a France/UK/Belgium movie called Vinyan. The description says it leads to a confrontation with madness in a storm-torn jungle alive with feral children. I can't think of a better way to describe it and I'm very intrigued on what this movie turns out to be.

I like to go to a Canadian film each year, which started unintentionally but I do like this idea and plan on keeping it up. This year I'm going to the world premiere of Cooper's Camera, which is about a Christmas holiday with lots of awkward humour. Should be great.

Hooked will be my first subtitled movie at the film fest. I can't think of a better way to start than a movie about a couple killing a prostitute, oh wait, she's not dead! And she won't get out of their lives.

I'm not sure exactly what this movie is going to be like, but Adam Resurrected is about the Holocaust and coming to terms with something so tragic. The description says to imagine a theology class taught by a sad clown to get an idea of how disorienting the film actually is.

And last but not least... I'm going to my first midnight madness movie! Sexykiller is a Spanish movie about a serial killer that sounds amusing, disgusting, and has zombies. I don't quite know how I'm going to manage to stay awake yet, but I am so excited! This is also a world premiere and only adds to the excitement.

My 26th birthday

I'm not sure why, but this year I wasn't too excited or anxiously waiting my birthday like normal. When I realized it was approaching and I hadn't begun to think about planning anything, I tried to think of something but I couldn't think of anything I really felt like doing. A low-key birthday sounded just fine to me. I have to say, I ended up having a wonderful birthday.

It started the day before my birthday when my co-workers took me out to cora's to celebrate. It was amusing like normal, except odd things kept happening. Like everyone randomly picking up their knives. So I picked up my spoon. Knifey-spoony. When the food arrived, Wendy asked for scissors, and because that's just a normal thing to ask at lunch the waitress brought her a Caeser drink. Later Alan took his glasses off. We never see him without his glasses so this is strange to us. Me and Jer end up staring at him strangely, some may say in disgust, but I think that's a little too far. Thankfully he put back his glasses on and he went back to looking like Alan. A bit later I see a sparkler and groan. I thought I had talked them out of singing happy birthday to me! ack. But it didn't stop there. On came a sash, a tiara, and then a wand. But at least the odd things now made sense. The knives all came out because wendy took hers to try to take off the tags off the tiara/wand, and asked for scissors when that didn't work. And Alan took off his glasses because they said it was the birthday of the one with glasses. To top off the outing, I had to put back on the tiara/wand/sash (because I refused to wear it walking back to work) when we got to the dog statues outside of metro hall so we could take pictures sitting on the doggies. Clearly Wendy's idea if you've seen any of the other stuff she's had us do.

For *wing* night I choose Terroni's because I was craving their rigatoni with cherry tomatoes and zucchini. So amazing. I've had it a few times now and I still have no urge to order anything else from the menu. It's just too good. Afterwards I went home and Holly was making me birthday cupcakes! I asked for confetti cupcakes and they looked amazing. I was full from all the food that day so they'd have to wait for dessert on my birthday.

So now the big day!!

Before work I got to see Holly and she gave me my birthday present. The whole gift was extremely amusing. To start it off was something that looked like a Hershey's chocolate bar, but it said calculator. With more inspection, it's an actual calculator, that looks like chocolate,
and even smells like chocolate! No, you may not eat my Chocolator. It's for simple math only! Next, I got magnets which will make a great addition to our fridge, but you have to come see that for the full experience. And finally books, because I think a gift from Holly and no books would be incomplete. A great way to start the day off; Laughter with one of my oldest friends.

In the morning at work my boss dropped by my desk and gave me a package and said it was in the mail. Cool. So I open it, to find a pair of fun unmatching socks!! People asked where the other pair was... unknown. It also had a mint aero, skittles, dark dove chocolate, and a letter. Best interoffice mail ever. So I open the letter and confirm it was from Jer, and read that these were not my official birthday socks, and that the other pair of socks have been mailed to Alan and I will have to ask him nicely if I want them. I thought that was hilarious and also curious if it was true. I then look at Alan's desk who's away at a meeting and I see a package. He did send the other pair to Alan!! Later I was helping a coworker when Alan came back to his desk, where he proceded to open the package, see a pair of mismatched socks and had the most confused look on his face, for at least a full minute, while everyone just laughed. Too funny.

For lunch I met up with my dad and we went for chinese. Crispy beef and broccoli. So delicious. It's been a while since we've ate there so it was a great birthday lunch.

Later in the day JWAM! gave me a gift - A Nascar Nextel mug and coaster, socks, and of course candy and chocolate. So sweet of them. Another coworker randomly came by, said happy birthday, then came back like 10 minutes later and dropped off a pile of chocolate saying "I know you like dark chocolate, happy birthday". I guess people at work knowing your birth date isn't so bad after all!

After work I went to Jeremy's because he's barbecuing for me. What's the perfect bbqd food (in my opinion)? Filet mignon of course. We also grilled some zucchini on there, and made mashed potatoes as well. The steak was tender and flavourful and so delicious. The veggies completed the meal and it was perfect. For dessert, the aforementioned (I love that word, I don't know why, or when my love for this word came to be. I somehow think Jeremy may be part of the reason) cupcakes and oh wow, fluffy icing and sweet cake is awesome.

Other points of fun:

• The official birthday socks came from the san diego zoo and are absolutely adorable!
• My sash said Miss Arms 2008 and had stars on it.
• Don't tell people you don't like hugs (while sober). You get a lot of them.
  
• I had a cupcake for breakfast this morning.
• Jen happy.

This & That Part 2

You know when you get a taste for something and just can't get enough and want it eat it breakfast, lunch, and dinner? The other day I had Alapha-bit cereal for breakfast, and all day I was craving the alphabet so for supper I had Alphagetti.

Yesterday I got a free piece of Stride gum on my walk to work. It's supposed to last a really long time. My way of testing this is for Jeremy to eat a piece of Excel, while I eat my Stride gum. When we're sick of chewing gum we switch to see who's has more flavour left. Conclusion of experiment: they both still had flavour so it didn't really matter which lasted longer. Maybe people who like to chew for a very long time should try this sometime.

The other day I was looking at Concierge Connection to see what events were coming up. Then I saw Monster Jam. I'm not sure why, but I got this giddy 'omg I totally want to go' reaction. But wait, does that make sense? It's Monster Jam. Trucks running over other cars, doing tricks. That's weird, right? Matt said it was Strange and confirmed my suspicion. I left it for a couple days, and then while walking to the theatre with Jer last night I randomly asked him how he feels about Monster Jam. He said he's always wanted to go and got super excited to hear they were coming in January. Looks like I'm going to Monster Jam!

Speaking of theatre, we went to see Avenue Q last night. Matt and Martha both had seen it in NY and highly recommended it. People compared it to sesame street, except bad ass. I never watched it as a kid, so I didn't have much commitment to going while it was here in Toronto. At work Martha mentioned a sale through Travel Zoo for the first week of the show. I was very willing to sit in crappy seats for cheaper. By crappy, I mean practically the worst in the place. It was at Elgin theatre which I had never been to before, and was surprised that the seats were very decent, and the seats were comfy. I just realized now my ass didn't hurt once which is a thing of beauty. I can't remember the last time that's happened at a theatre. Anyway, back to my point of which I wholeheartedly agree that Avenue Q rocks. I loved it and definitely think it's worth full-price tickets.

The other tickets I've bought recently are for the So You Think You Can Dance tour, wheee!!!

Not too much else is new, other than a bunch of cooking. Last weekend Jer and I went to St. Lawerence market for fruit and stuff to make beef and broccoli stir fry. I love beef and broccoli from chinese restaurants so it was fun to make it at home. It turned out great, despite the fact it uses oyster sauce which kinda creeps me out. And now we know how to cut beef to make those thin squares. Then on Sunday we made crepes for the cityplace crew which was yummy and fun. This weekend we're going to Jer's quasi-family cottage and we're going to make crepes for them since it was fun the first time. Although there will be quite a few more people so it shall be interesting.

This & That

Fried double-baked French toast. It may sound good, or at least
intriguing, but believe me when I say: not very good.

I think I can finally rest my fear of walking in to the men's washroom
without realizing it. Martha walked in by accident the other day and
immediately saw something wrong and was confused. This makes me
believe if I make it to the peeing stage I'm 99% confident I'm in the
right bathroom.

Speaking of bathrooms, we have a brand new Dyson Vac in there! It's
awesome. Some people have seen it in public places before, but so far
nobody else has the pleasure of using it on a daily basis. Believe me
when I say my life is better because of this development.

Banana update: there have been less black bananas at work lately. I
think it's because Martha realized bananas taste so much better when
they're still yellow. How did she not realize this before? She was
just used to the taste of rotting fruit.

Enjoying normal

My brain is at peace. It may not be working at full power yet, but it's just so happy to be resting that I expect a full recovery.

The last 4 months have been incredibly draining. Over 2000 pages of material to know in detail with 95% of the information being completely new. I learned a lot, but there is also a lot I could have known better. I understand now why hot shot lawyers are known/stereotyped to be big on coke. The brain just isn't meant to be worked so hard. There is no 'runner's high' for thinking. Bummer.

After my exam I spent the weekend recuperating. I slept a lot, watched a lot of tv/movies, and cleaned. It was relaxation time well over due.

Since then I've been enjoying doing normal things I just didn't have time for. It was very strange the first time leaving work without having to study. I got over that feeling quite quickly though.

Holly and I went to the opera on Wednesday. We went and saw Debussy's only opera and it was a great experience. I wasn't sure if I even liked opera but loved Debussy and had to go. The music was beautiful but very sad and slow.

This weekend was a long awaited market and cooking weekend. Jeremy and I decided it would be fun to make gnocchi so we bought stuff to make pasta sauce and backup gnocchi for just in case. I knew gnocchi is difficult to make but I found a good recipe with clear instructions so I figured it couldn't be too bad. It may not turn out great but I'd be happy with decent.

Oh. wow. I don't know this for sure (okay, yes, I do), but I'm pretty sure gnocchi isn't supposed to be lumpy. gross. Ignoring the lumps, the taste wasn't quite right either. It seems strange considering it's made of potato and flour, but it tasted too much like potato. Thankfully we had the backup gnocchi to salvage the meal.

The rest of the weekend was mostly lazying around due to the weather, but we did have two great brunches. One at Le Select, the other thin homemade pancakes with nutella and bananas.

To finish off the great long weekend, I baked cookies and watched the finale of House.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Banana

On Wednesday, I arrived at work to find a very brown banana sitting on my chair. I wish I could say this was the first time this has happened, but sadly it is a recurring theme.

You may not know this about me, but I have leaky-banana-phobia. This means, much to my coworkers enjoyment, I make disgusted/upset noises when I find such bananas in my work area.

What exactly is leaky-banana-phobia? It's the fear of old bananas leaking gross juices. This means I also hate touching squishy bananas because I worry I'm going to touch a leaky spot. The smell even bothers me because it's a reminder it may leak at any point.

Wednesday morning I retaliate and put the banana in Martha's mug. She sees it when she gets in but is simply amused. Martha doesn't share my fear of horribly brown bananas.

Later that morning I decide to eat my normal, edible, banana. I ask Martha, "What's this yellow colour on my banana? I don't understand." She's sad I mock her banana. We continue to discuss the differences until I eat mine and throw the peel into the garbage by her desk. I missed, and it ended up landing on her work papers before falling down into the garbage.

HA, she may not fear the banana juices, but she sure doesn't like having them all over her work. She wipes it off the best she can then decides to throw her disgusting banana into the garbage can by me. She doesn't miss thankfully.

I don't exactly know why, but I decide I want to continue looking at the gross banana throughout the day, so we end up putting the banana on the edge of the garbage.



Later that day my boss comes by and notices the garbage and asks "What is that?" I respond, "It's a banana, feel free to poke it". He looks confused/intrigued and proceeds to stab it with his pen.

As Martha is leaving for the day, she examines the banana a bit further.



She realizes just how disgusting this banana is and states "I can't believe I debated eating that banana this morning".

Ew.

Martha then heads home and I reclaim the upper hand. I'm not ready for this banana to die. I pick it off the garbage and put it on her keyboard.

No, I can't do it. I felt there was a 50/50 chance the banana would start leaking all over her keyboard, and as much as my coworkers hope one day a banana will leak onto my keyboard, I just couldn't do it.



If you're having difficulty finding the banana in this picture, it's because it's so black it's camouflaged with the stapler. Look for the green grape.

Thursday morning Martha is in disbelief that the banana is still around. She then throws it hard into the garbage can and it lands with a thud.

As much as the thought of the leaky banana disgusted me, I couldn't help but look. I guess it's the same concept as a headless dead rat. You don't want to look, but you can't help but wonder just how much more disgusting it looks the next day you walk by it.



BANANA GUTS!!

Charity

So long have I searched for a way to express how important charity is to me. I can now rest easy, as my views will live on through my DIY Demotivator.

Earth Hour

A few weeks ago I read about Earth Hour and I marked it on my calendar because I really liked the concept and thought it would be cool to walk around the city in the dark.

A few of us met up at 8 to explore together. My first destination was walking down Bremner because I love the skyline of the financial district from there. Then we wandered up and made our way to Nathan Philip Square for the celebration.

It was there I got to see the big dipper. I was so excited! I can't remember the last time I've seen it.

We stayed and listened to Nelly Furtado and the Philosopher Kings then wandered back home.

I insisted on walking by work and then through the little Metro Hall park because another place I love the skyline is by Roy Thomson hall.

I am happy with how the pictures turned out and you can see them here.

Vertically Challenged

I've begun to realize I have a very skewed sense of height. If I'm less than half a foot shorter than somebody, I feel as if I'm almost as tall. If it's one or two inches shorter, I actually think I'm taller. I think my brain just isn't used to being almost eye level with people so it gets confused.

Iron Chef

Today at work I was defending my love for macaroni with butter (okay, and lots of salt). I brought it in for lunch one day and they haven't let it go yet. Alan and Martha both tried it, Alan agreed it's delicious, but Martha was not impressed at all.

Today I came up with a theory of why macaroni with butter is so good. Bread and butter is good, so replace one carb with another and you get macaroni and butter.

Martha was trying to ruin this theory by suggesting other combinations with macaroni that wouldn't work, like say jam and macaroni. Then after she said that she realized that did sound kind of good.

She tried to argue you wouldn't eat bread and butter for supper, but I do. Grandma's toast with butter and a little bit of peanut butter.

This was her next inspiration. I wouldn't eat peanut butter and macaroni. Or so she thought. I think that sounds good. The peanut butter would be all melty and warm. I told her I would try this for breakfast on the weekend, since toast with peanut butter is great for breakfast.

If I enjoy it, this means my theory is correct and she can no longer mock my macaroni and butter.

I've asked other people if they think macaroni with peanut butter would be good, and I've gotten positive responses. Okay... responses, plural, may be exaggerating, but one person did agree it sounds yummy.

Speaking of exaggerating, I've recently been told I act very exaggerated while drunk, but I don't know if me being drunk is really a requirement. Holly just asked if I needed anything sewed because she had to sew on a button and when she said she'd sew on my button for me I got realllly excited. That's just so cool. Thanks again!!!

Crunchy is the new Juicy

So I've finally decided to join the CIA. I am somewhat amused by the order in which things happened.

I mailed in my application form with a cheque (ew, but they had no spot for mastercard) and waited. Quite a while.

Then I was added to their mailing list and started receiving emails.

A few weeks later the cheque was finally cashed.

Now I'm waiting for confirmation that I am in fact a member and hopefully receive my member ID so I can log into the CIA website and such.

I don't understand why more people don't want to study actsc. You get to become a member of the CIA, make fap and DP jokes.. what more can you ask for really? Oh, right. A life.

hot dawg

Things I'd rather do at lunch than watch one guy eat nine hot dogs in an hour

1. study
2. clean the bathroom
3. wax my legs
4. throw out the moldy mystery food in the fridge
5. feed the homeless

The concept of seeing how many hot dogs a coworker could eat at lunch seemed like a good idea, but in reality, it was incredibly boring and disappointing.

Need Snacks, Stat!

You know you have the munchies bad when you eat a bunch of chips, then chocolate, then start craving something in sugar form so you have a couple breath mints. Now onto grapes.

Kangaroo says: creme eggs rock

If they ever discontinued cadbury creme eggs, I think I would die a little inside. I imagine I would need to take a week of sick leave before I could face the world again. Then I'd create a candy hall of fame to appropriately honour the greatness that is the creme egg.

I feel the urge to find a rich husband, so he can buy me Cadbury for my birthday, and I can have creme eggs whenever I please.   My friends can of course have them whenever they want as well... for cost + 10% that is.  Okay, maybe 5%.  But only if I like you a lot.

Hahahahaha

I see now that posting from my work email is not the best idea.

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Fight People, not Poverty

... or was it the other way around? I can't remember.

I arrived at work today at 1, after a successful half study day, to be greeted by a protest outside my building. It was a peaceful protest to stop the war, but there was still a high level of security in place. There was only one door open and security people were checking passes and lots of extra police inside to make sure us office workers were kept safe. I have no idea why they choose my building but there have been other times when we were warned of possible protests so maybe it's just a fun spot.

In other news, what not to wear would shoot me right now if they saw my boots. They are so worn now that the little rubber end on my stiletto fell off, so I have a screw sticking out of the end. Yet I'm still wearing them. It's probably slightly unsafe to walk on them since the screw as a heel is a bit small and slippery but until I find new boots I don't care and I'll commit my fashion crime until somebody throws them away. Don't get any ideas.

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Peeing in fear

At work, I'm in the washroom, peeing, and then I realize I don't completely remember the walk to the washroom.  I zone out or go on desk-to-toilet autopilot or something.  And then my mind panics slightly. 

I am in the women's washroom... right??! 
No no, I am... I didn't see any urinals. 
And there's the napkin/tampon disposal. 
I'm where I should be. 
Phew.
Continue peeing.

It's sad how often this happens.

Caution Contents Hot

This morning on my way to work to study for the morning, I dropped in to Spot to grab a coffee.  I get to my empty, completely gloriously quiet office, with only sporadic lights on (since I don't know how to turn on the lights on the weekend) and settle in.  I look down at my coffee cap as I remove it to add x spoonfuls of sugar from my sugar stash, and see "Patented".  I thought, "I was there when it all started, when the lid said Patent Pending!". I am happy to see this wonderful traveler plus cap (which has a switch to close the drinking hole whenever you please, if you're not fortunate enough to have had one before) did in fact get their patent.

 

On another note, Cora's on a Sunday before 8 o'clock... not so busy.  No line up and I could see many empty tables as I walked by.  Spot wasn't busy either for that matter.  In fact, the girl working there looked slightly surprised to see a customer.  I guess most sane people were still sleeping or being lazy. 

 

But my studying is going well, so I will end on that note to read more about ALM.