Thursday, September 28, 2006

you're a star!

so, as will happen when you're missing someone, i was driving home from work wishing gerry was here. it wasn't just cause he'd have dinner ready for me (as i've mentioned, it's quarter end) and probably a fire lit. but because i'd come home and have a nice hug and kiss.

then i was thinking about the great speach he did at jim's wedding (there was only one "bridesmaid...lovely" comment) he was really funny. like really funny. and despite leaving his suit on the roof of the car overnight (it rained) and a couple of other hiccups, he was a great bestman... and certainly, he raised the bar.

(it's a long drive home at that time, there's a lot of time for thinking) turns out, it's not just because gerry does nice things for me; it's also the emotional side that he pulls through on.

now, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying we never push each others' buttons. and lately i've been kinda on edge with work, family and all the fun things that go with it. so it was nice to reflect on the good things i do have, a great fellah, friends and adoptive family.

i guess i just had a moment of thankfullness for all the good things i have, despite struggling with some of the other ones. it was nice. and since i feel free to whinge and moan on here, it seemed appropriate to praise as well.

thanks friends. thanks fellah.

lonely girl 15

when gerry said everyone was watching to utv (or whatever it's called) i had no idea that everyone (except for me) was.

on jon stewart last night there was a reference to it.

i still don't like lonely girl.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

my clock's got wings

as of last saturday, it's been a year since i left home. a whole year. one whole one. yup.

i'd say i've learned a lot in this year, especially about ireland. knowing a place is like knowing a person, you've got to live with them to really get it.

typing this now, i'm recalling my most recent learning event here: really really really don't get door handles with knobbley bits. they equal danger.

having been away a year means a few things too, for example, despite celebrating our 'one year' anniversary in april, coming up in less than a week, will be a year after meeting gerry in person. crazy to think that a year ago i was freaking out about meeting him... and look where i am now... okay, well, i'm alone in bed, and gerry's in boston, but i'm alone in *our* bed, at *our* house.

it also means that in less than two months (it was exactly 2 months last saturday) i will be turning thirty. so far i feel like i've been embracing this event. thirty is meant to be the new twenty, you know. :o) i do have a bit of a 'i want to have experienced that, i don't want to be experiencing it now' attitude, and i don't want to think that i'm wishing my life away. but i really do expect 30 to hold a few surprises and some really cool adventures. i'm looking forward to the adventures, and can only hope that the surprises are good ones.

it's hard to imagine where i'll be a year from now. i expect i'd either be working on my masters or at job here, if i can somehow psych myself up for another year and a half here, or we'll be on the road somewhere.

maybe i'll set myself some short-term goals here in the meantime. i'm working on friends at work... went for dinner with a girl today, unfortunately she's leaving at the end of the week. also, i want to do more organising around the house, i made a start on sunday. when we first moved into the house we bought this suction cup thingy for the shower. the directions do say to clean and put it back up once a month. it was so hard to put up in the first place, we never deliberately took it down. but it would fall on occasion.i tried putting it back up last week, but no luck. finally, on sunday, while thinking i was buying fax paper, but really was buying the wrong fax paper, i also picked up a spring loaded, pole with little triangle shaped shelves on it, so it will fit in the corner. i've fixed it into the shower, and so far so good. the top shelf is ridiculously high and i would never use/reach it, but there's still heaps of storage space, so it's great.

anyway, i've got a couple of other projects that i want to take care of this coming month. gerry's working all the weekends in october, except for this one, so i'll have lots of time. then again, time has been flying.

did i do that?

i fully admit to being tired. because it's month and quarter end, there's been a lot of overtime. because gerry's in boston all week i'm responsible for lighting the fire and cooking my dinner by myself. it's certainly cut back on my pavlova consumption.

having anticipated this, on sunday i picked up some irish specialties: food that fits into my routine of: get home, turn on stove, go pee, light fire, put in food, have shower, sit on my ass researching travel plans and watch an episode of america's/britain's NTM, jon stewart and law & order while chatting to friends online.

yesterday, after finishing the dinner part of that and bringing my dishes into the kitchen, i was running back to the living room cause i'd just got a gust of smoke. i was closing the door between the hall and the kitchen when my claddagh ring caught on the door handle. it felt like my finger had been torn off. luckily it was just cut, the ring is completely warped (if it had been a thicker style, i'd probably be fingerless now) and my finger is killing me.

my diagnoses is that i've sprained my finger. (some of you may know me from such hits as 'kindgirl needs your help' which does clarify that i *am* in fact a doctor.) i have taken some aspirin and will bandage up my hand when i get home. i don't think it helps that my arthritis is especially bad in that hand.

at least i didn't lose my finger. i'm pretty happy about that.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

another weekend, another wedding

wow. i almost can't believe it. normally, i'm not a huge fan of weddings. i'd say gerry's brother's wedding was no exception. but! i've just discovered the absolute saving grace.

the siege of ennis

how much fun is this?

so MUCH FUN!

it's an irish set dance that is traditionally done at weddings. this last wedding was my first time doing, other than a very fumbly attempt in our living room.

i will try to explain it, mostly because if i ever get married, i'm sooooo having this happen!!! there are multiple lines of four people holding hands. it usually goes boy-girl-boy-girl. each line faces the other and dances back and forth three times. then each row splits into two couples and basically makes a circle. but with one couple dancing in front and going left, and the other couple going around the back and to the right. both still facing forward. then you go back to the line formation and each person goes forward separately to meet the person across from them. and they swing each other around a bunch of times. then it's back to the line formation and both lines go forward, with one line going under the arms of the other. each line will then be facing another line to which the whole thing repeats.

the whole thing was great. i did request it... who knows when i'll be at the next irish wedding (we're rsvping as "no" for the october wedding we've been invited to). but it was great that there were a whole bunch of people doing it. if anyone is looking for a good dance as part of a workout plan, i'd like to suggest irish set dancing. geesh!

the jumping church is still my favourite irish thing, but between the siege of ennis and the giant's causeway, it's pretty tight.

congrat's to jim and tara. good luck and best wishes!!!

Monday, September 18, 2006

syl

dear syl,

you were a good woman.

great humour, and an endearing quirkiness that was so cute!

funny and smart too.

you did a great job 'bringing sarah up'... well, you know what we mean. thanks for taking me in all those times that family should be together, and making me a part of yours. easter, thanksgiving, a warm welcome always met me... a warm welcome and a good laugh.

you are dearly loved and missed.

xo
ursula

Sunday, September 17, 2006

a weekend in london

thursday after work gerry and i caught a plane to london.

we met sean at the airport and had a drink with him... it was great to see him, since it'd been almost exactly a year since the last time. he happened to be in london and so did we, so last minute-ish we set it up. there's was some remembering of the good old days... like the time wade died at the casino in reno. and some general catching up too.

gerry and i basically got to the hotel and crashed that night. the next day we had some breakkie, went shopping and saw phantom that evening. saturday we say a matinee of the cantebury tales and checked out the market at covent garden. come to think of it, i should really rate that f'ing restaurant that had crap service and didn't bring me my salad but tried to charge me for it. hmmm... guess i just did.

anyway, the shows were great and it was a nice, but busy weekend away. what did i learn on this trip? what restaurant to *not* eat at in london, and that my hands are too old and arthritic to carry a handbag (no matter how new and cute) around all day. also, it makes sense to go to marks and sparks before a show because you can eat in the theatres, and the prices at M&S are waaaay more resonable.

good trip.

canadian killers

maybe it's just because it's not as usual as in the states, or maybe it's just because i'm canadian. in any case, i'm concerned canada's getting a bit messed up.

this is the second serious shooting that's happened in montreal in the last 15 years. it's been a bit hard to get information other than a guy in a trench coat shot a bunch of people at a school. (that's what happens when you don't get your news on the cbc, so i had to check out the website just this evening.)

i still can't find information on *why* this happened. i doubt it will make it easier for the parents of the girl who has died, but i can't help but wonder. will it be more of an "un-canadian" problem if we know the guy had a mental illness? will this make canadians realise that gun-control and acts of violence aren't just american issues?

the terms of this cannot be held down to a man who blamed women for his misfortune... gill attacked men and women and he didn't even apply to the school according to one of the administrators. can we find someone/thing else to blame or are we going to have to look at ourselves?

weirdly, in the marie claire that i bought this month, there was an article about karla and how she got the sweetest deal for murdering and raping girls by blaming her husband for controlling her.

is canada becoming the new america? what can we do to stop it?

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

wedding bliss

friday, gerry and i made our way to celbridge for his friend's engagement party. we were on our way to his brother's wedding, so it seemed appropriate. we got there late, but not too late to have a few drinks and chat to the soon-to-be bride and groom.

we stayed in celbridge and went for breakkie the next morning, on our way to 'dumdum' where i bought not one, but two furlas. one named ursula and one not. :o) both uber-adorable.

also this past weekend was gerry's brother's wedding. i'm guessing it was the bride's dream wedding.

it was at a big catholic church and the ladies were wearing hats. the reception was at cabra castle–– a castle that works as a hotel and reception-type place.

it was a big wedding with a multi-course meal, lots of wine and eventually dancing and fireworks. all the while full of questions similar to, "should we keep our hats for your wedding?".

i still think vegas is a better idea.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

there's just one more thing

ah, columbo... how i love you.

the smell at work has been solved. when i found out what it was, it grossed me out so much i dry-heaved. no kidding.

it was coming from the tray in the water cooler near the printers (the ones whose paper we had smelled to see if it was coming from there).

someone put some coffee or some juice or, maybe it was just water that didn't evaporate into the tray and it went, um... bad.

in a lucky coincidence, the water guy came that day and i asked him to change the tray. he said he'd never seen anything that bad before. i wasn't as concerned with how it looked, but more so with the smell. i was happy i'd never taken a glass of water from that cooler and had been drinking the bottled water which is also provided for free from the canteen.

gosh, the idea is making me sick. yucky.

more on my weekend (4 days of wedding fullness) on my lunch break tomorrow; or else when i get home.

Monday, September 04, 2006

csi cork

today at work near the printers that my side of the department use, there was a weird pukey smell.

matilda first told me about it, and i warned her that it could be this guy's feet (i'd smelled them before at this terribly long meeting we had last week... well, before that too, but never for such an extended amount of time). anyway, we decided that could be it. then i went over to get some stuff from the printers, and i almost dry heaved from the grossness. it wasn't that guy's feet. it smelled like vomit.

periodically throughout the day, we'd get whiffs of it, even as far over as our desks. some theories as to what the mysterious smell was (since we made almost everyone in our department go over to see if they could figure out where/why/how it smelled) included:

a dead body dragged taken apart by rats and dragged over the ceiling
just a dead and rotting corpse
hidden vomit in the corner
a dead mouse
feet

it really smelled bad and grossed me out. i don't like to smell vomit. it makes me want to vomit.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

funny, that

i finished the hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy on friday. it was good. really funny.

funny thing? people were talking about it at work on friday. funnier? the mini-series was on this evening. i'd never even seen it 'til today. it didn't look as good as the movie.

weird when things like that happen.

Friday, September 01, 2006

ahhh sweet relief

today is the day after month end. this makes me happy. a nice easy-ish day with only filing and some small accounting things to do.

roll-on weekend!

this weekend gerry is going to do a motorcycle driving course on saturday and then head to carrickmacross on saturday evening. i can't remember the last weekend we had to ourselves to just relax and cuddle up. well, it will still be a few before that happens again.

my weekend will involve housework, chatting to danielle on saturday evening, going to the market and tv watching. it will also involve the final details of our paris trip (this week has not been conducive to getting personal things done). i will also be trying to plan some stuff for ian's visit here... i'm going to look into cities that would be good for him to fly into (we'll meet up with him and spend a couple of days there) and then places that are warm for a week's visit. he will also get the (now) traditional list of things to start getting together for me. mwah hah hah!

ian's trip here means a nice vacation for me so i think i'm putting the excitingness of both things together. i'm way too out of it today to fully wrap my head around it, but for now, i will leave it at being excited.

oh shoot... i should make a list, i also need to get jewelry for the weddings this weekend and possibly some kind of hair thing like feathers or a hat.

help me jeebus.