But its cold out...

Since it is currently about -40 degrees outside, and I have a bad cold and am feeling sick and whiny, I am trying to convince Big Dog that lying in bed watching the Westminster Dog Show is a much better idea than going for a run. Judging by the sighing and "I am the saddest dog in the world" looks I am getting, I am not succeeding.

A little story about Desoto

In honour of the fact that Desoto and I are watching Turner and Hooch (our favorite movie) right now, here is a little story about Desoto, who just might be the smartest dog in the world. Or at least the neatest. I bought a big wicker basket a couple of weeks ago to keep all of Desoto's toys in. When I was home for lunch one day I put all of his toys away and as I was picking them up, I kept showing him where I was putting the toys. Of course this took a while because whenever I put a toy in the basket, he would run over and take it out again. Anyway, I eventually got them all cleaned up except for a few he was chewing on. When I came home after work that day, there were no toys on the floor, which I thought was wierd but I soon forgot about it. A couple of days later, I was watching tv and Desoto was chewing on one of his squeaky toys, and as I was watching, he took that toy to the basket, put it in and took out a different toy. Desoto puts his toys away after he is done playing with them! See, the smartest dog in the world. Now, if only I could teach him to pick up after me.

Do competitors ever die at the Olympics?

I have been camped in front of my television, watching as much of the olympics as possible, and marvelling at how insane some of these athletes have to be in order to compete in some of these sports. Skeleton? Luge? Do they really think that the helemet and spandex suit they wear is going to help as they hurtle down the track at 100 km per hour? Sheer insanity. The snowboard cross, where they can push each other out of the way (and did you not feel sooo bad for Lindsey Jacobellis when she lost the gold medal by pulling a little method air and falling?), not to mention any of the downhill skiing and jumping competitions. I watched a clip show of some of the accidents and crashes and it really amazed me that these athletes, who must have nerves of steel, can still compete after watching one of their competitors have a spectacular crash and be taken away on a stretcher. They showed one girl who competes in snowjumping, who had a bad fall and BROKE HER NECK and is now back competing! I am pretty sure that if I broke my neck doing something, I would stop doing it. But I guess thats why I don't have any medals. Unless taking to your bed becomes an olympic sport, 'cause I would totally take the gold in that.

Happy Houseiversary

A year ago this week, I became a home owner. It seems like just yesterday I was looking at houses trying to find the one that I belonged in, but on the other hand, it seems like I have lived here forever. This house had such a comfortable feeling, even the first time I came to see it, that I knew that I would be happy here. And I have been. I would be slightly happier if someone would give me free oil and if Desoto would learn how to work the vacuum cleaner, but it has been a happy year.

I wasn't sure how I would like owning my own house, it has always seemed like a little more responsibility than I was comfortable with, but I guess I put off becoming a full fledged adult for long enough. I haven't found the day to day responsibilities hard to handle at all, just once in a while things will come up, like bills for things that I have never had to deal with, or home repairs that I have no experience with, but a quick phone call to Dad usually resolves the issues.

So happy houseiversary to me.

Happy VD

Happy Valentines Day, everyone. Go check out these VD poems - so amazing and amazingly funny, you'll laugh until you cry!

Go Canada Go

I love the Olympics. If only I didn't have to go to work, I would watch the Olympics all day, every day while they are on. Ok, I might take a short break for Lost, but only if it's on against a boring event, like Cross Country Skiing (you really only have to watch the end of that to see who wins). I love them so much, sometimes I cry watching the athletes get so overwhelmed when they win. Except for the snowboarders - they are all "Hey dude, I was just, hanging, you know, trying to do my thing". I really have to question whether or not they drug test these guys, because they are so hilarious.

Holy shit, I am watching the pairs figure skating free skate and one of the chinese girls just took a monster fall and got back up and kept skating. Wow! That's why I love the Olympics.

Sawyer!!!

There's a new sherrif in town, boys!!!!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

It is my favorite sister's birthday today. Go here and wish her a happy birthday! And then tell her to update her blog!

Brokeback Mountain

I just saw Brokeback Mountain and I can honestly say it was one of the best movies that I have ever seen. I read the short story years ago, and while I was moved by it, it didn't resonate with me the way this movie has. It is an amazingly beautiful movie, both the story and the cinematography, about love and loss and longing and heartbreak. How anyone could see it and not be moved, or be offended by the material, I cannot comprehend. They must have no soul.

No excuses

Wow, I have been really lax lately in updating this blog. Unfortunately, my life has not been jam packed with exciting activity, leaving me no free time to update. There really has been no good reason for it, except pure lazyness. And procrastination. Although, I don't win the prize for best procrastinator - that award goes to my brother and sister-in-law, who have still not mailed their christmas presents to me and my parents. No, I am not kidding. Apparently the three of us will be having a hybrid christmas/valentines day. Although there is no guarantee that they will be here by then.

In other news, I am training for a marathon. It seemed like a really good idea at the time, but OW!!!! Ow, Ow, Ow. Running is not fun. I keep waiting for the day that I will wake up and love to run, but so far that has not happened. Since I left my old job that was making me sick, I have been feeling much, much better. So much better that I started out working out and running again. I used to run a lot years ago. I was thinner and a lot younger then. So, anyway, with all of the feeling good, I got this book "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" which has a 16 week program to running a marathon. Right now, I am still in the getting in good enough shape to start the program part of the program. I am now running 3 miles 4 times a week, and I start the 16 week program next Monday. The marathon is in Halifax on the 21st of May and hopefully my sister, who is starting to train as well, will be running with me.

Touchy feeley

It is amazing how many times a day I unconsciously touch my nose. Ouch!

Betcha can't guess what I got for Christmas...

A broken nose! My big goofy dog, whose giant head is apparently made of rock, hit my face with that giant head while we were playing and broke my nose. In his defense, he did feel really badly about it, and while I laid on the floor and cried, he laid down beside me and cried too, licking my elbow every few minutes to make me feel better. It is actually not completely broken, just a hairline fracture, but I still have a swollen face and 2 black eyes. Just the thing for pictures around the christmas tree. And, in case you didn't know, a broken nose is very, very painful. Sneezing will make me scream in pain, and I am now terrified of people hugging me, because that brings them a little too close to my face for me to be entirely comfortable. Last night, my friend playfully pretended to grab my nose and I immediately burst into tears just from the thought of the pain. I sure am a fun party guest.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Christine,
Happy birthday to you!

Now you have to imagine that sung in my very off-key voice and accompanied by the many and varied snorting stylings of Desoto to get the full effect. I hope you have a great day! Happy Birthday Christine!

Countdown

I go back to work tomorrow. I cannot believe that I have been home for almost a month already and tomorrow it is back to reality. Although, what is making this ok is the fact that I am going back to a new position, with a supervisor that I have worked with before, who is awesome. So other than the part where I have to actually go back to work and work, I am kind of excited about going back to work. It is kind of embarrasing to note that I have accomplished nothing in the time I had off work. Unless you count sleeping a lot and watching movies, then, well, I did a shit load of stuff.

I dream about wolves

Lately, I have been dreaming about wolves chasing me. Big, growling, scary wolves. I don't need a dream analysis book to tell me what these dreams mean. They mean that my giant, bed hogging dog growls in his sleep. You know when some dogs are asleep they make cute little yips and barks, and their legs twitch like they are chasing cats or cars in their sleep? When Desoto chases stuff in his sleep, he makes big, LOUD, scary growls, like he is Cujo and he is going to eat your head. And when his legs twitch, I gets scratches and bruises. One time, I landed on the floor.

While it is very easy to suggest to me, as does everyone I know, that I just don't let Desoto on to the bed, carrying out this plan is a whole other ball game. The dog is as big as I am, weighs as much and is very determined not to sleep on the floor. So until I convince Desoto that I am the alpha dog in this relationship and I get the bed, I'll be dreaming about big, scary wolves chasing me.

I have been busy

I have been busy lately trying to keep Desoto from eating my laptop. I watching a movie on the laptop the other day and there were cats in the movie. Desoto was lying on the couch with me with his big giant head in my lap and he heard the meowing coming from the laptop and he became convinced that there are kitties living inside the laptop. He hates the laptop anyway because sometimes I pay more attention to it than to him, but now he is just biding his time until I am not looking so he can destroy it and the kitties too. It is quite funny really watching him smell it and look all around it, convinced that if he just stares at it long enough or hard enough, he will find the kitties. I really shouldn't encourage this as it is mean and he really could eat my laptop if he was so inclined, but it's pretty funny.

Unbelievable

These are the 100 most challenged books from 1990 to 2000. As compared to the last list of books, the best english language books from 1923 to 2000 of which I had read 23, I have read almost 60 of these.

Bring on the Lost

Ok, it's Wednesday night and I am ready for Lost. I am all settled in on my couch with a pizza and a pitcher of pomegranate martinis. I am ready. Ready to watch Sayid put the boots to Ana Lucia. Go Sayid. And maybe Sawyer will take some clothes off. Go Sawyer.

Yes, I did watch Oprah today, but I didn't get the idea for the martinis from her show, I have been making pomegranate martinis and bellinis all summer at the hotel. Actually, you can put pomegranate jiuce with almost any liquor and it tastes good. And I cried AGAIN watching Oprah. I really shouldn't watch her, it always makes me cry, but today she and Habitat for Humanity gave 50 families houses. So cool. Don't you wish you were worth a bazillion dollars so you could give away houses and cars and stuff. Not that all the little bits regular people contribute don't count, but it would be so fun to give away BIG stuff. Oh, and I totally cried the other day watching her favorite things show, but that was just because I wasn't getting the cool stuff.

Dammit, I just burned my pizza and now the smoke alarm is going off and the dog is freaking out. This is why I don't cook. Maybe I will just skip the pizza and concentrate on the martinis. Note to self, always take the batteries out of the smoke alarms before going in to kitchen.

Petals around the Rose

I have been playing this game and almost went insane trying to figure out the secret. I finally did, but I may or may not be insane now. Stupid game.

Movies

Since I have been sick so much recently, I have been watching a lot of movies and I have a question...why do so many directors feel the need to make their movies so hard to watch. I have seen so many movies lately that are very darkly lit, use wierd camera angles and/or shaky camera work? Are they trying to look edgy or cool? Is it the sign of a brilliant director when you can only see what is happening in half the movie? For god's sakes, I might think you are, in fact, brilliant if I could only follow what is happening on the screen. It's hard to know whether or not a movie was good if I haven't been able to see most of it.

Christine, Domino sucked. While it isn't the worst movie I have ever seen (or half seen...see above) it is certainly in the top ten. Except for the spanish guy, he is cute, and the 90210 guys.