I wish I had gotten you this cake. Anyway, I love you and hope you have a wonderful birthday. Now let's party it up with some seniors! (No, literally- it's the Eldercare Christmas party tonight and we're going.)
The best part? Pregnant friend! She is due one day before my birthday. I told her she has to have her baby on my birthday. Also if it's a girl, name it after me. It's just logical. *Note-Matt is not pregnant.
What kind of things do my friends do on the weekend? Well, not everyone has seen the Star Wars movies so Steve is hosting a marathon. I'm not even a huge fan but I do like popcorn. Oh, and my friends. I think we're only doing the original ones- I can't handle Pinocchio's, I mean, Hayden Christenson's, acting. So wooden and unnatural, if you didn't get that.
I seldom go into Pier One. I rarely think about Pier One. Most of my memories have to do with Cindy coming home with outrageous Christmas ornaments after shopping there. Like a pickle. I figured, they must have what Steph's looking for. Then I proceeded to buy one of everything in the store.
When I was driving home from my very long work day I was thinking to myself, "Hmmm... what do I blog about tonight?". Well Universe, this isn't what I had in mind.
I think this is the BBC list. I'm copping out tonight since I am exhausted. Matty and KB also did this recently. How many have you read?
I've always said I have a black thumb but someone that I work with gave me a few plant clippings. They didn't die! So of course the next logical step was to start growing things from seed in my kitchen, right? I searched online for Korean perilla (sort of like sesame) and found some on eBay. So I bought two packages. Clearly I have never done something like this before since it turns out two packages could grow me a field of the stuff and all I needed was a few seeds. Aka one thousandth of what one package held. Crap. Oh well, anyone want to grow some perilla? You eat the leaves and it's great for making gimbap!
The next step was to grow the herbs. They are looking pretty good but the oregano just didn't make it. So this weekend we cheated and bought a little oregano plant and stuffed it in with the others so we're good to go! Someone with more growing sense than me said this is working because we have a south facing window? Excellent! All I know is that it makes me smile, especially considering it's -31 Celsius outside and I get frostbite walking to my car.
Listening to Margaret Atwood speak, not once but twice, was thrilling! She's exactly as I imagined her- pint sized, well spoken and feisty! I was too chicken to ask a question but Matt prepared and asked one. She was gracious enough to take a picture with me! I tried to take pictures while she was speaking but I will spare you all from looking at those- they are all either blurry, grainy or there is a microphone blocking half her face.
November is crazy. It's going by in about 4 seconds. I am constantly exhausted, I have been eating terrible, sleeping terrible and barely exercising. What is going on? Maybe I'm booking too many fun events in? Nah, that can't be it! I haven't cleaned my house properly in ages. Things just seem to be sliding. I need to give my head a shake and get things back on track. I think I need to cut out my computer time and force myself to do other things. It's tough when you're tired though. It's so easy to just zone out and look at the screen.
I took about a million awesome pictures at the Dan Mangan show last night but this one was likely the best. I told you we were going to be best friends. Plus he signed my cd and the t-shirt I bought is super cute, fits amazing and has excellent fabric. Yeah, I'm talking about fabric.
Holy cow, I am going to get to cross an item off my bucket list this week! My hero, Canadian literary goddess extraordinaire, Margaret Atwood is coming to Edmonton. She is speaking at the U of A on Friday evening (so going) and will be doing a reading and book signing on Saturday at the Garneau (would rather die than miss this). The craziest thing? Tickets for the book signing (and likely the lecture) are still available and for the book signing they are only $5!! This blows my mind. Seriously. The kids are NOT all right if they aren't flocking to this. She is a Canadian legend and a national treasure. I will likely pee my pants when I meet her so I will need to stock up on depends beforehand. 2010 is the year of dreams- first Our Lady Peace and now Margaret Atwood? If I can somehow squeeze Tori Amos in next month I can basically die happy. Now the only questions are- what do I say to her and what book should I get signed???
Tonight I get to see Dan Mangan!!! I think it's going to be a mighty fine show! Plus since I left for Asia they started letting people take cameras into concerts. Holy crap that is exciting! Seriously, I remember the days when people tried to smuggle their Kodak disposable camera in their pants and the best picture you would get off the roll would vaguely resemble a humanoid Rorshach blob. But I digress...
Not a lot, unfortunately. I did a lot of playing on the computer. Some standing in line to buy shoes (hey! There was an exciting outlet sale!). We ate Indian food with a friend, went bowling (I won) and played video games until my brain started oozing out of my ear. I also baked some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and did so by improvising my own recipe after screwing up the recipes I looked at online. They still taste good.
Sometimes It's Sunday
I got this idea from my friend KB. I've always lamented my sub par vocabulary so this is a great remedy. For those of you who are concerned when they hear someone actually use "lol" in verbal conversation, this is for you! I think it's for everyone else too. Adopt your own word here!
I probably told everyone about this already but last month I managed to be caller 9 on a local radio context and won some money. It was one of the most exciting things to ever happen to me. For someone who loves winning, I don't often win contests or draws. This contest had nothing to do with skill or knowledge- you just had to know when to stop. I am the queen of restraint....... Well, with money anyway. So I ended up winning just over a grand. I'm saving most of the money (well, using it towards my car, really) but I did have a quick splurge and got a really nice Mat and Nat wallet.
Look at what my Mom gave Matt for his birthday!!! Holy crap is it cool!
I'm in a group on Facebook where you get randomly assigned a partner and make and send them a mix (complete with cover art). Last month was my first and here's what I came up with. What do you think?
I could hardly put down this book. Little Bee by Chris Cleave (also known as The Other Hand) is probably the best book I've read all year. It was funny, touching, endearing, heart-breaking and thought provoking all within the same chapter. It's the type of book that as I am reading it I can't wait to start re-reading it.
Look at my beautiful sista! Things were getting a bit blurry and so she decided to get her eyes checked. Low and behold she needs glasses... Taking after her gorgeous, intelligent, magnificent older sista in yet another way! Although she has fancy schmancy name brand stylish specs...
Everyone contributed and the goal was to get 30 different kinds of 'beer' (not all were the alcoholic sort). I think we ended up with closer to 45 though! Many I had never heard of- I wonder if that Pumpkin Pie Beer is any good?
I am going to make this post short and sweet because I have to get over to the local watering hole to watch tonight's game with Steph. I've always liked hockey but since returning from Asia I've been paying more attention. I think it helps that Steph likes it too so I don't have to watch the games alone. Matty's come a long way too (when I met him he used to ask me questions like, "What's a hat trick?" and "Who's Gretzky?") and the benefit of creating an adult hockey fan is that they automatically cheer for your team. I have hopes, not high but still hopeful, for our team this year. We've got a lot of great rookies and plenty of potential. Now we just had to get some experience and consistency going. Oh, and keep beating the current Stanley Cup champs 7-4. Heck, and everyone else too, please! Cross your fingers that one of us wins the draw for tickets!
Anyway, Sundays seem to be our most relaxed day. Usually filled with housework, grocery shopping and a home cooked meal. Yesterday was no exception and I was feeling ambitious so I tried a new recipe for supper. (Off of Smitten Kitchen, no less!) Behold my mushroom bourguignon! I feel like Julia Child or something! It was pretty easy to make (except for those annoying pearl onions- thanks Steph for doing my dirty work!) and really delicious. It's even vegetarian! (Side note- I wish I was able to take better pictures or learn how to edit better so that my food pictures actually looked appetizing.)
After supper I watched the Amazing Race and Matty decided to bake up a storm for the bake sale fundraiser at school. Weird. But it did make our house smell heavenly! So how was your Sunday?
