another bloody election...

i'm trying to be positive....

some things i took comfort in from last night's election results.

1. no conservatives were elected in newfoundland and labrador. i did so love danny williams' abc (anything but conservative) campaign. the way things are going, i may have to move there.

2. the fact that cabinet member/ex- senator michael fortier was soundly defeated in his first election. perhaps steve will make him a senator again? because obviously the people are wrong. steve knows best.

3. justin trudeau winning. being a westerner, i am not overly fond of his father. but him, i like.

4. the fact that the conservatives did not win all of alberta's seats. yay edmonton-strathcona! whoo hoo!

5. the fact that the conservatives finished third in vancouver - kingsway. take that david emerson!

6. that my riding stayed ndp.

7. the conservatives did not get a majority.

however, mainly i am disappointed. and who is not voting? i don't understand. i would say that 90% of the people i know vote ( and i'm lowballing this). in fact i only know of one person that doesn't vote and i have trouble dealing with it. especially since it's a riding of one of top five canadian politicians i hate. yes, i do have a top five but that's another post.

rock the vote...

i am obsessed with the election.

some random thoughts and links.

i'm disappointed by the lack of contact with any of the people running in my riding. i have received two flyers from the conservatives, one flyer from the ndp and a phone call from the liberals. that's it.

i'm shocked by the fact that according to some polls, the conservatives are in the lead in b.c. really?

i get the concept of vote swapping but my fear with that is, what if they pull another david emerson? and speaking of him, i am so mad that he is not running this election. be a man mr. emerson, face up to the voters and let them have a fair shot at you. and i do fear that it doesn't matter that he is not running. that steve harper will just give him a cabinet position without him being elected. it wouldn't be the first time.

sadly, i missed the wrecking ball event. it was packed, they turned people away and it rocked. of course, the best bit was the tory candidate lorne mayencourt turned up with 15 minutes left and wanted to participate. um, sorry no.

here is rick mercer's rant on voting. you can also view it on cbc.ca but i can't link directly to it. stupid website.

don't forget to vote people.

i am the girl of 100 lists...

i have these lists of things i want to do. some of them are major things and others are minor things. one of the things on my list is to go and see a taping of the mercer report. i was planning on doing this maybe next year.

tickets for this season became available this week. it's supposed to be super hard to get tickets, so i put my name in. surprise! i got tickets. on halloween. kinda cool no? and there's a flight sale.

i can't decide on whether i should go or not. i probably shouldn't. but it would be kinda fun to spend halloween weekend in toronto. decisions decisions....

let's take the whole day off . .

i got the day off today! of course, i still had to get up early but that's ok.

i am not alone anymore in my house. i'm a little disappointed. but i think i will get more time alone in october.

i went and saw 'burn after reading' this afternoon. i love afternoon movies. i also love eating popcorn at the movies. i like to get the kids combo. tiny popcorn, tiny drink and a kinder egg. this killed my brother. especially since the straw was about two times the size of the drink.

i enjoyed it, in the typical wtf mindset i have when watching a coen brothers film. i wouldn't call it their best movie (i have a rather soft spot for 'blood simple') but still entertaining. however, the biggest laugh of the day came from the sports talk show we listened to on the way in. the guy said his friend went on a first date and took her to see 'bound'. we couldnt' stop laughing all the way in.

i leave you with one of the many reasons i think sarah palin is evil. when she was mayor, her town starting charging rape victims for their own rape kits!

tomorrow, i'm back at work and i really need to get a new cell phone. i'm rather enjoying not having one. it's driving other people crazy but yesterday was the first time i really missed it. i had to walk up two flights of stairs to pick up my friend. i was tempted just to honk (heck, it's not my neighbours!) but i was good.

alone again, naturally...

i'm trying to write more. it's hard. so i'll just be putting down random things for awhile.

i have been the only human in my house for the past few days. it's been very enjoyable. i never get lonely being alone in my house. and since having goober, i never really worry about being alone either. even if he is a big goof.

tonight, we went to stella's on the drive. i feel like i should like stella's more than i do. kinda the way i feel about broken social scene.

'the hour' opens tonight. i was talking to someone early who was excited by it. it fills me more with trepidation. last season they did manage to repair some of the damage caused by season three but who knows what they will do this year. plus if they don't change that damn theme song, i may go out of my mind.

i have been listening to a lot of xmas music in the past few days.

i interrupt this post to mention what a goof goober is. he is scratching himself but his tongue is flicking out in the same rhythm as his foot is moving.

i was at the library tonight, and this dad was letting his kid climb all over the security system. i wanted to say to him... look, if you want your kid to get injured that's fine. but do you know how expensive those systems are? i don't want my tax dollars going to pay for your stupidity.

i am trying to get out of working tomorrow. wish me luck.

the things we did last summer...

i took the summer off. i didn't mean to, but it just happened.

so, in spirit of back to school, here is what i did on my summer vacation. at least what i can remember right now.

1. drove to fernie and back. ate the best sausage rolls i ever had in my life. played with dogs. went to a cool bar called a bar named sue. saw a baby moose.
2. went to calgary for the tattoo festival. watched the hells angels duke it out in a killer game of dodgeball. trekked out to torrington to see the gopher hole museum. got snowed on in the rockies.
3. in one week, my camera, cell phone and computer monitor died.
4. saw my first show at deer lake. it confirmed to me how much i dislike rosie o'donnell.
5. went to the pne. the crazy food this year was deep fried oreos.

i also decided to add two more shows into my tv viewing habits. durham county and the riches.

last night, i saw spiritualized at the commodore. instead of facing out into the audience, they acutally faced each other. which made it great for me because we were on the side that jason pierce faced. not a word was spoken. normally this would have annoyed me, but it just seemed right last night. and at the end, he clapped for us. i love that.

i lack words these days but hopefully this will change.

dig yourself... laz'rus dig yourself...

i am currently living in chaos. the last few weeks have been insanely busy and stressful. not enough sleep, not enough proper food and not enough time to do anything. i woke up this morning and couldn't handle it. i called in sick (which i was) and attempted to put some order in my life.

while attempting to clean up the mail that has been stacking up, i found an official looking letter from the states. i couldn't figure out what it was. i opened it and found these...

(sorry, you will have to click on it, i can't figure out how to save it bigger)


in my chaotic life, i had totally forgot i had bought these.

i think i feel my life returning.

hell yeah, i remember aurora . . .

here is the second of two posts i've been promising our favourite zombie. the sexy musician post is on it's way. it's turned out to be a much harder task than expected. however, i am enjoying doing the research. :)

now, as some of you may or may not know, the zombies are heading down to seattle and beyond to go see some band called radiohead. i have offered up my skills as tourist guide/travel agent. (ps.. invoice is in the mail. ha ha)

one of my key pieces of advice was this. no matter how cheap or how tempting, do not stay in any hotel/motel on aurora avenue. here is why.

a few years back, a friend and i drove down to california and back. let's call her... goth girl. i do this mainly to amuse myself, as this would annoy her to no end. however, you get the basic idea of how she is. on the way back, in some hippie town in oregon, we picked up a friend from england (let's call her english rose) and continued on our way back home, stopping in seattle for the night.

goth girl and i are dead broke. so we decide to stay in a cheap motel on aurora avenue. home to many cheap motels. we check in, the room is clean and everything is fine. but we have no beer and no food. so english rose and i head out for both, while goth girl stays in. about an hour later, we are back in the hotel room with pizza and beer. goth girl is sitting up on the bed, flicking thru a magazine. a few seconds pass until i realize that the room is filled with the couple next door having sex. loudly. goth girl, while still casually flicking thru the magazine, says.... "by the way, that's the second time they've done it. "

we eat and drink and eventually next door stops. we head to bed, goth girl and i sharing the double bed, english rose on the floor. oh wait, they've recovered next door. another round of shagging. we turn up the tv loud. the head of our bed starts hitting the wall due to the action next door. we flip to sleep at the foot of the bed. we finally drift off to sleep.

we wake up a short time later. the room is quiet. we turn off the tv. within 30 seconds, the sounds of sex start up once again. we turn the tv back on. we drift off again, me finally noticing that this is either a gay couple next door or the girl is really not having a good time. or perhaps she's mute.

i wake up sometime later and head to the bathroom. oh good, they are now having sex in there. at least it's quiet in our bedroom now.

the morning finally arrives. we pack up and head out. and then i remember, all i know about aurora avenue. hookers. rooms to rent by the hour. it all made sense. so i repeat, do not stay on aurora avenue in seattle.

photograph, all i've got is a photograph ...

hello hello,

just a short little blurt just to prove i'm alive and well.

working on two posts for my favourite zombie.

saw american music club and the raconteurs (not together).

tried to quit my job twice. they refused to accept it. twice.

watching the tory scandals with glee.

decided to buy a digital slr camera... any tips?

i'll post this for all those people coming here for mr. stroumboulopoulos. canon does an celebrity photo exhibition every earth day. this year, not only is mr. stroumboulopoulos involved, but so is ronnie freakin' hawkins!

happy earth day.

hot time in the old town tonight...

on good friday, goober and i decided to explore new westminster. new westminster was actually the first capital of b.c. and is one of the few areas of the lower mainland that not only has history but recognizes it. it's very heritage oriented.

first stop, fraser cemetery.







we visited raymond burr.







the first policeman in new westminster.










good ole gassy jack. gotta love the fact that gastown is named after a saloon owner. one of the interesting things about this grave, is that it was unmarked until the 100th anniversary of his death.


terry hughes. terry hughes has a park named after him in new west. he died saving some kids who fell into the fraser river. i tried to find out more about him but there isn't much out there.


after that, goober and i heading to columbia street to meet up with a friend for more exploring.

here is a view of the patullo bridge, which crosses the fraser and hook new west up with surrey. you can also see where the skytrain crosses as well.


on columbia street is the raymond burr theatre. i'm not sure if it still has events going on it.

columbia street used to be very scary in a main and hastings kinda of way. but now it's starting to get all gentrified. even the salvation army there is fancy now.

there used to be this cool ole cafe which i think was called the pacific cafe on columbia. they had individual jukeboxes at the tables. we used to go and eat grilled cheese sandwiches there. it's long gone of course.

possibly the ugliest dress i have ever seen.










off we headed to sapperton landing. it's a really nice walk along the fraser river.

goober not happy. he's anxious to get going! there is no time for reading signs. there are trees and bushes to be peed on.

he's wearing his halloween leash because a few days earlier, he decided to go for a run, thru the muddy hills of hume park, dragging his leash behind him. i have yet been able to get the leash clean enough for human touch.


along the pathway, there is all these awesome tiles with fish. loads of crazy fish, and wacky colours. here is just a small sampling.




we then went to visit terry hughes park.






time for a pit stop at dairy queen. did you know that hot fudge comes in plastic pouches? i would have thought bottles or cans for easy pouring but no. a big ole plastic bag that seemed to be incredibly awkward to work with.

next we headed to city hall. there is a really nice friendship garden there that was given to the city by their sister city in japan.

goober went mental in the park. we think it was the ducks. which he never cared about before. but he took off like a maniac and we had to go running after him. we spied him above the pond, eyeing the ducks and the water with a look that said, "look out below!" i have never yelled "no" so loud before. there was no way i wanted to drive home a wet, smelly algae covered dog. thank god, for once in his life, he listened to me and just took off again. we finally caught up with him and continued thru the garden. we even managed to cross the stone steps without anyone falling in.

i just like the way these stones around city hall looked.

all in all, it was a good day and we will need to go back and explore some more.

put me on the slug line...

man, i have been so unmotivated lately. i'm not working currently and i feel like a bad cliche of an unemployed person. lounging around in my pj's until 4 in the afternoon. and i'm not even sure what i'm doing to fill my day. it's not like i'm sleeping until 4, i'm usually out of bed by 8 am at the latest. at least i'm not lying on the couch, watching tv. but i am starting to feel a bit more motivated. i actually made it out to dinner with friends last night and i spent today exploring today. i will post some pics later this weekend. i'm pooped and i think we are going to the movies tonight so i will have to make this one short.

1. everyday i love you less and less- kaiser chiefs
2. edge of seventeen - stevie nicks
3. breed (working mix) - nirvana
4. big pants dance - lee press-on and the nails (this song makes me laugh so much)
5. poison arrow - abc
6. in the colors - ben harper & the innocent criminals
7. lyla - oasis
8. tower of song - martha wainwright
9. welcome to the black parade - my chemical romance (ok, the reason i have this song is because it gets stuck in my brain and the only way to get it out is to play it.)
10. memphis tennessee - the animals

remember, according to christian tv, today is the day we celebrate the death of jesus.

have a good long weekend my canadian buddies and for my american ones, i can't believe it's not a holiday for you! i learned that fact the hard way by getting a parking ticket a few years back. i didn't put any money in the meter because i assumed good friday was a stat. i would have fought it, but it was only $3.50 so i was ok with paying it.

ring ring...

my apologies for the delay in continuing the saga of the mysterious ring. it took me a long time to find something i could offer up as visual solution.

so, the answer is not in the ring itself, but that the ring is also owned by someone else.

here is your visual clue.












if you still need an answer, go here.

birthday boy...

we interrupt the mysterious saga of the ring to bring you this....

a celebration of the wonder that is 'goober'.

happy birthday buddy! sorry, no snow today but i did try to fit in all of the stuff you like. you got pizza for breakfast!






you went for many walks and peed on many things.










you got to sleep in the sun in the car. and drink water from a cup. sorry no ice cubes today!









we didn't make it swimming but you did get to play in a stream.







and of course, there was ball.










um, no, not for you.










but i will let you pick out your dinner tonight. mmmm, new zealand summer. with real sausages.

he will also carry these to his blanket and unwrap them at christmas.



you didn't make out like you did at christmas. but you did get a big meaty bone.

i can't believe it's been eight years.

ps... stop hogging the bed. :)

she's a mystery girl ...

so, here's a weird little tale. my brother comes home yesterday, says try this on and throws a big chunky silver ring at me. knocking me senseless. no, no, just kiddin'. :)

he hands me the ring and tells me to try it on. he bought it for himself and decided it wasn't really him and it was more me. (i am not sure what this says about us, that my brother is buying girl jewelry or that i am wearing mens). i try it on and it's a bit big but workable. and it looks pretty cool but there is something odd about it. i can't put my finger on it.

i try the ring on again a few hours later. i'm looking at it, thinking. what is with this ring? and then it hits me! jesus christ, i don't believe this!

but before we get to the exciting conclusion of the ring, a word from our sponsers... friday random top ten.

1. straighten up and fly right - nat king cole with the king cole trio
2. vixens in space - the dirtbombs
3. you are my sister- antony and the johnsons
4. take my money and run - cuff the duke
5. ballroom blitz- the sweet
6. henrietta- the fratellis
7. steal my sunshine - len (really? again? i swear i have more songs on my player)
8. nihilism- rancid
9. the times they are a-changin' - me first and the gimme gimmes
10. hanging on the telephone - blondie

here is a picture of the ring in question. i'm curious to see if anyone else will figure out what is up with it.

happy friday everyone!

cigarettes and alcohol...

here are two quotes that i am currently enjoying.

"cigarettes may be bad for you, but so is getting hit by a bus" - michael flocker.

"why don't you go play in the food processor"- hobbes (to calvin, of course).

the first quote is enjoyed in a personal mantra sort of way. (i do not smoke by the way). the second is enjoyed purely as a potential insult to be hurled. plus i really admire bill watterson and the way he has retired and not been tempted to come back. or merchandise the crap out of his creations.

ps... 'goober' has this weird new habit of smelling my breath when he comes in from outside. umm, no, i haven't been eating peanut butter without you.

tick tick tick boom...

i heart the hives. who knew?

mellowlee and i headed down to the commodore friday night to catch the hives/the donnas rockin' it out. sadly, no photo evidence as i neglected to check the battery on my camera before the show. :(

we got there nice and early ( a surprise to anyone that knows me) and managed to snag a table at the totally sold out show.

first up, the opening band. now, i'd like to offer a piece of advice to all opening bands. announce who you are! as much as possible! yes, granted they did say who they were in their very first sentence on stage. however, if you slur it into the next sentence, a lot of people won't catch who you are. and since you are the opening band, a lot of people are still arriving and wouldn't have heard it. if they liked you, they would have to try and find out who you were. never make people work to find out who you were. at the very least, one of the last things you should utter before leaving the stage is "thank you, we are "insert name of band here". if it wasn't for the donnas announcing you once and the hives announcing you a few times, i would have had no idea who you were and i actually thought, hey this band is ok, i wouldn't mind looking into them some more.

anyway, thanks to the hives (i'd forgotten by the time the donnas had left the stage), i found out the openers were vancouver's own "the hits". i enjoyed them as an opener, they fit the bill (garagey punk stuff) and i think i would like to check them out again. i really could have done without the 'jumpin' jack flash' cover tho. (shudder)

next up, the donnas. i haven't seen the donnas for a few years now. i used to go see them all the time. i enjoyed them as i always do. they are more polished than before, which is to be expected. and i would have like to have heard more older material but they still rocked. while watching them, a thought occured to me. when i was a wee lass, this was how i imagined being in a rock band would be. i can't imagine growing up and imagining that i'm hannah montana, rihanna or even avril lavigne. or god forbid, the pussycat dolls or fergie. are there girls that rock that are front and centre? if i was a young lass, who would i want to rock out like? i can think of tons of indie girls but off hand, i'm having trouble with the rocker chicks. but i digress.

the hives were up next. now, i like the hives. i mean, i bought the tickets (well, mellowlee did for me. because i got all mad at ticketmaster. grrrrr!). and i was excited to go. but man, was i blown away by them. they put on a show. maybe it's because i see so many indie bands, which i love. but some of them really need to work on their stage presence. good songs are good songs, but if i've paid the $$$ (which are getting even more insane. especially with ticketmaster. i've bought tickets where the fees were almost 50% of the ticket. and sadly, i am not exaggerating by that much).

but the hives were well worth the dosh. from the moment, they hit the stage, looking oh so su-ave, they were there to entertain. and howlin' pelle almqvist is an amazing front man. i totally get why spin put the hives in the top ten live acts to see and almqvist is in the top 50 of greatest frontmen. he danced, he strutted, he yakked it up. i expected him to jump into the crowd at any moment. (he did not). i see why some people call him a cross between iggy pop and mick jagger. i loved it when he said to someone in the audience something like "you want to give me that blue bracelet and i would love to wear it but i only wear black and white." i also love it when a band plays all their major hits before the encore. it makes it seem like a true encore. it's something i always say i would do if i was in a band.

the hives were loud, fast and tight. just like a rock n roll band should be. they, and especially almqvist, owned the stage friday night.

i heart the hives. and almqvist is my new rock n roll boyfriend.

xmas in february...

i haven't posted a friday random top ten for ages. so here goes...

1. american psycho - treble charger
2. leave the pieces - the wreckers
3. let 'em go - pride tiger
4. steal my sunshine - len
5. memphis tennessee - the animals
6. your daddy don't know - toronto
7. who taught you to live like that?- sloan
8. a northwest passage - the (international) noise conspiracy
9. i saw mommy kissing santa claus - gilby clarke
10. one way ticket - the darkness

hmmm, not very impressed with this selection. and yes, i still have xmas songs on my player.

i'm off to the hives/the donnas tonight! whooo hoooo!

hiding all away...

i have been away a long time. i didn't plan it, it just happened.

three things have kept me away.

1. i got sick. really sick. so sick, i demanded the doctor give me tests. which is so not me. i spent the whole weekend worrying and it turned out all i had was a virus. but a bad one. it's funny, once my tests came back negative, i got really, really, really sick. one night i woke up at midnight, and lay in bed for four hours shivering because i could not get warm. i could not make it out of bed to turn up the heat, get a blanket or put on more clothes. i seriously pondered sticking a note on goober's head and trying to get him to get help. sadly, i realized goober is no lassie.

2. super busy. both at my latest contract job and going to shows around town.

3. a very very bad online blogging experience. the reason my blog went private. i hated doing that but i could see no other option. i may or may not have to do this again. so, for all of my readers, please send me an email and i will officially invite you to read my blog. that way, you can always access it, no matter what is going on.

but i feel i am ready to return now. i've missed all of you.