The Force is Not Strong With Us All

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.

But stay tuned for pictures from Matt's 13th, errr 31st, birthday party! There was pizza, games and a guest appearance by an adorable baby bump!

Friends, Farmer's Market, Fun!

I love this time of year and I really love how my life is coming together these days. My job is going pretty good, I adore my apartment and the people who live with me and I have old friends resurfacing daily. Lucky, lucky me!

Friday was a long, busy, fantastic day. I worked from 7-3 and got a lot accomplished. Then I immediately went shopping and bought some things I really needed (like pants since it is getting pretty cold). I went home and picked up Bryn on the way. We hung out while Matt cooked us an epic Indian feast from scratch (Steph ended up over and had some too). With the kitchen in shambles we rushed out to the Princess Theatre and caught the late showing of the Invention of Lying (Hilarious! Love!) and then came home, cleaned up and fell fast asleep.

Saturday we got the burnt out headlight fixed on the Kiester before heading over to the Farmer's Market to meet up with Carole and Severin. I can't even remember the last time I saw Carole. She's doing fabulous and I really missed her. I loved all of the fall colors and foods at the market. We bought some amazing spanakopita, butter tarts, blackberries, gimchi and kettlecorn. There was a craft show going on so we explored that and I picked up a pretty, new necklace. We checked out an open house for a new wellness clinic and enjoyed some free juice and snacks. Finally we had a bite to eat at the Artisan's Resto-cafe. Excellent!

After saying goodbye to Carole, I decided to bake some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Donna came by for a visit and offered some moral support. The cookie dough was insanely amazing but the cookies ended up burnt, despite all my efforts. I have a few theories as to why this happened- I used natural peanut butter (which is a lot more oily), the temperature/time instructions for the recipe may have been off or maybe my oven is insanely hot? I don't know. The last couple pans were less burnt so I did try to fix the problem. I seriously baked one pan of them for 5 minutes! Insanity!!!

Later in the evening we started watching the season opener for the Oilers. They fought a mighty battle but lost at the last minute to the Flames. I was so sad!! We watched the last half of the game at a noraebang (Korean karaoke) place. It was so much fun but the song selection was a tad random and we had to write down all of our requests by hand. This led to us forgetting what we'd chosen (which was sort of hilarious) and meant we had less control overall. Apparently there are two other noraebang places in the city so I intend to check them out at some point and figure out which is the best. I have to say that this place (Now & Us) has huge rooms and an adorable owner! Basically Saturday was also awesome! I love my time off so much!

We have nothing but great plans for Sunday, also. We're going to see some more friends and Bryn is making us chili and cornbread. To be continued!!

24 Hour Film Contest

After working a 12 hour shift I was greeted by these silly boys. Sev decided to enter the 24 Hour Film Contest this year and recruited Matt to help him. They entered a few years ago but had been unable to finish their film in time. They decided to use a stop animation tableau style since it cut down on budget expenses, made reshooting scenes easier and they didn't have to worry about giving recognition to actors or getting permission to shoot at various locations.

The theme was "romantic western" so they had some sort of space cowboys thing going on. They also had to include some chocolate coins as props and have the words "reel" and "fabulous" somewhere in the dialogue. I'm not sure when they find out if they won anything but it's an accomplishment that they actually managed to make the whole thing (and not stay up all night doing so). I haven't seen the film yet but I'm looking forward to it!

Up

Matt and I decided to have a date night and go and see Up. I'd heard a lot of positive reviews about it and was really excited. Since we're thrifty, we went to the cheap theatre (that way it isn't ridiculously expensive if you get popcorn with your movie. Twelve dollars is just way too much for a ticket!).

I was given the task of finding seats while Matt stood in the popcorn line. I started scanning the theatre and climbing up the stairs to get a spot. Suddenly I heard my name being shouted frantically. I looked up and there were 2 of my work clients. What are the chances?! "Come sit with us hey how are you doing why aren't you at work today can we have some of your popcorn?". So date night was basically hijacked and confidentiality was out the window. Did I mention that I had just finished working two 12 hour shifts with them the previous two days.

The movie was fantastic though. I highly recommend it. It's funny, touching and makes you really think about the important things in life. It's a great date movie and good for all ages. My clients liked it too. Haha!

Pie and Other Adventures

Wednesday night I just wanted to relax and take my mind off of things. Severin was back in town and so we met up at South Common for dinner and a movie. We chose East Side Mario's and were excited to slip into a pizza deal because it was before 6pm. We noticed they could use a spell checker on some of their signs. The best part was that Sev bought a saskatoon pie!!! We brought it into the restaurant and asked if it was okay, primed and ready with outrageous birthday pie excuses if we met resistance. Fortunately no one cared and so we had our pizza pie and then our pie pie.

We went to see Year One which I liked even if it wasn't as funny as other movies I've seen lately. I thought it was sort of a cute attempt at Life of Brian or Lamb. I love Jack Black and Michael Cera so I tolerated the things that weren't as good about the movie. Plus it was nice to laugh at something. Sev also managed to score a sweet watch for only 25 cents. Who says that Canada is always more expensive than Asia? Haha.