ahh, that's better...

every bad day is equalized with a good day. after my day on tuesday, this was my day today:

i had to do an exam mail-out. this usually involves a lot of frustration, wasting of paper and cursing at the photocopier. i printed the address labels on the FIRST try perfectly! then when i was printing the letters, the printer jams so i end up manually feeding it, one page at a time. this wasn't necessary today. i got the letters done in an hour (the last time i had to do this, with half the number of letters, it took something like four hours). aaaand i escaped the adventure with only one papercut!

then the school manager came up to me and told me that he knows i'm stressed out and working too hard. i thought that would be followed up with "but could you do this, this and this for me?" but he actually just wanted to invite me to the pot luck lunch the administration staff was having. free lunch!

it's a good day. i wonder what tomorrow will bring? other than rain, that is...?

forgetful miko

today was one of those days. this is a summary:

i forgot my work keys. this resulted in me trekking across the street to retrieve a set of keys, back to my office to open the door, then back to the main location to give the spare set of keys back, then back across the street to start working. in case you couldn't tell, the department head office is not in the same building or the same side of the street as the main school location.

i forgot music for a rehearsal at home. so i had to drive home to get the music in the middle of the day, then back to work. i could have gotten my keys while i was home, but of course i didn't think about it until pretty much right now.

before i went to teach, i made sure i had all my belongings so i could lock my office and go straight to the rehearsal. i forgot my purse in my locked office. i had to walk across the street, get the spare set of keys again, get my purse and return the spare set of keys. again. i think i crossed the street about 10 times today.

and my rehearsal didn't go that well. and my jaw has started to hurt again. and my neck and shoulders are all tense, i suspect from being hunched over my computer for too long. at least i can take solace in beginning my sentences with the word "and," when we were told never to do that in grade school. it's strangely satisfying. take that, miss papple.

i am glad to be heading to sleep right now. of course, i'll watch tv in bed to see the outcome of the jays game. at least frank thomas is having a memorable start to his year, in a good way, that makes me feel a little better. and you can bet i'll remember my keys tomorrow.

rrroll up the rim to win!

today was the last try. if i didn't win, i was going to turn heel on tim hortons and never go back (until next year, maybe? i know, i concede so easily! but this is really the only form of gambling i do, other than sometimes driving on the 401). so i bought my coffee and WON a coffee! it's as if tim horton reads my blog. if he does, he should know that his chili isn't as good as wendy's which is weird since they are owned by the same company. that, and he should only make his sprinkle donuts with the round sprinkles and not the long ones. the round ones are so much crunchier and in general, more satisfying.

whatever it was, the win is bittersweet; this means that now i've gotten a "taste" of the winner's circle, i have to keep patronizing tim hortons until the rim season is over.

rrroll up the rim to be disappointed

as always, despite my distaste for tim hortons' coffee, i have been participating in the annual "roll up the rim" campaign. i usually don't have a lot of luck in winning, but this year has been ridiculous. i think i've bought an average of 4.5 coffees a week since the beginning of march - that's about 18 coffees and i haven't won once. as if to rub it in, kris is 2 for 3.

i have received a pity tab to make me feel a little like a winner (thanks carson), but it still doesn't make it okay. i'm starting to think i should boycott the rest of the roll up the rim season and just go back to my good friend, starbucks (or shall i say, starbux?)...

the easter bunny makes a belated visit...

my favourite kind of chocolate is easter chocolate. there is nothing more satisfying than cadbury mini eggs - other than cadbury cream eggs.

about mini eggs. i made the mistake of buying the new micro mini eggs. i know this warning comes too late, but if you have a choice between the original mini eggs or the micro mini eggs, definitely go for the former. the candy shell on the micro mini eggs are thinner than the original, likening them to smarties that have been sucked by someone else for at least 2 minutes. i don't like the pop rocks or the dark chocolate mini eggs either. mini eggs ain't broke, so stop trying to fix them!

i scored some cheap easter candy at 50% off and nothing is sweeter than that! i had to dig to find a cream egg, but i finally found a solitary egg for 42 cents...it was definitely worth the strange looks i got from the other customers.

if a tree falls in the forest...

the last time we went to the movies, we both were able to redeem free movies with our scene cards. then we bought a combo and got a 2-for-1 movie pass for next time. it almost makes up for the fact that we paid $37 for popcorn. okay, maybe not $37, but still highway robbery.

we found out the hard way that the 2-for-1 movie pass should really be called 2-for-1-movie-pass-only-on-mondays-wednesdays-and-thursdays. today was the day for the coupon to expire, so we ended up at the movie theatre.

when we initially got the 2-for-1-movie-pass-only-on-mondays-wednesdays-and-thursdays pass, we were about an hour early for the show (the bank job). we snuck into another movie that was just starting (spiderwick chronicles) and left after about half an hour. we quite enjoyed the first half an hour, so that's what we watched tonight. when we walked in, we were the only ones in the entire theatre! who says toronto is overcrowded? it almost felt like we were sitting in a blown-up version of our living room (with added essence de feetmixed with popcorn salt). then another couple came in, boo. and after that, another. and after that, another. i wondered only semi-audibly why there were strangers in our living room. but after that, no one else came in, so there were only 8 people in the theatre tonight. which leads me to my next question...if no one buys a ticket to see a movie, do they still show it? or do they just turn the projector off? what if someone wanted to come in halfway through? my guess is that the movie theatre staff shuts the room down and they have a dance party inside. i guess we will never know.

people who look like people: edmonton oilers

as the edmonton oilers make a run for the playoffs (i am crossing my fingers, holding my breath, knocking on wood and avoiding cracks on the sidewalk, all at once), here is an homage to one of their many fantastic young players, sam gagner.




sam's look-alike is from dexter, actor christian camargo, who plays rudy on the show.



goooo oilers!

she's baaack!

our buyer requested that she come in to take some measurements. so she came tonight. yes, you guessed it, we cleaned even though we really didn't have to.

i was looking forward to meeting our faceless buyer, finally face-to-face. it was a little awkward and she and her boyfriend both smelled like cigarettes. maybe they can befriend our neighbours who smoke, they can all pretend to be chimneys together. or smoke stacks.

while she was measuring the area for the buffet, we languidly told her that we were going to sell it, and did she want it? she asked what we wanted, she offered $100 lower, and we said no. just like the good old days.

people who look like people: bon jovi

the sale of our condo came at a good time. work has been very busy, with long days and some stressful moments, so i'm glad my home life is more relaxed.

we went to the bon jovi concert last week with friends who had extra tickets. we have seen them a few times; the last time we saw him, he was a little subdued, i think because it was the last of his three concerts that week. this time we saw the first concert of the week and he was definitely more perky and energetic, almost like a good-looking, sexy richard simmons. haha! he changed outfits three times, each of his shirts either being skin-tight or with an open chest, so the cougars (and kittens) weren't disappointed. his hair is still short, but not as geeky-looking as the time when he was on saturday night live. he did an acoustic version of leonard cohen's "hallelujah" which was well done and we had fantastic seats...we were in the first row of our section, and there were only 4 seats in the row so we weren't forced to be in close quarters with strangers.

it's been a long time since i've done a people who look like people post. you may have noticed that i've stopped numbering the titles because then i have to go back to see what installment i am on. that, and i don't want to test my knowledge of roman numerals once i get up into installment #8277.

so the bon jovi concert brought quite a few resemblances to mind...

tico torres, drummer for bon jovi:




steve staios, veteran defenceman from the edmonton oilers:





david bryan, bon jovi's keyboard player:





dominic monaghan as hobbit merry brandybuck:




and if my photos aren't enough proof, it looks like i'm not the only one who sees the resemblance...i also found this photo of both david and dominic:



actually, i also think jon and richie have their look-alikes too, but the evidence isn't compelling enough so i'll keep it to myself for now.

sell this house - season finale

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!!!

it was, of course without a bit of extra drama to take us to the end. we had heard nothing by 1pm today, so of course we were curious why there was a delay. we found out the status report said that the suite must be 65% carpeted. since we put down our own laminate in the living room/dining room and master bedroom after moving in, this appeared to be a problem. our agent told us to call the property management company and the builder, and get some kind of letter that says it's okay that we have less carpet. the builder said that they didn't know why this was even on the status report but that they couldn't do anything about it because they don't manage the building anymore. so kris called the property management company, and the only person that could help us wasn't in and wasn't returning messages. kris called twice and i called, and eventually we got a "floor waiver".

so it's good! our house is sold and the closing date is june 16. happiness happiness happiness!