candle party devirginisation

i went to my first candle party this evening. have i mentioned my sister is also having a candle party?

today we had poffertjes. which were really pannekoek batter in sorta balls. let me explain: poffertjes and pannekoek taste different. they are both good, but different and they are supposed to be round, not random. i would go back there, it's no india grill. BUT i would have different expectations.

caleb, ian and i played scrabble today. if caleb hadn't challenged me so many times, he might have won. we did eat lots of chips and ian got acupuncture and a massage... for his broken back.

also, as i mentioned in my stinky guy story, i was going to email kits workout today, but they don't have email on their crappy website. i will have to say something next time i go in.

i just ate a banana and peanut butter, blah blah natural is better, whaterever... i love kraft peanut butter. SOMEtimes we were allowed to have it as kids. mostly we had the natural stuff until i got slightly older. i don't know what happened to my mom, but now she totally buys the kraft stuff and she buys lots of other things we weren't normally allowed as kids. for example: twinkies, soda, instant noodle side dishes. it's weird... we weren't allowed to have granny smith apples, but now she'll buy ding dongs. it's always a surprise when i go to her house. i think she's fallen off her rocker.

fall update

so, on thursday, i was at the gym (this is THAT story, so skip ahead, if i've told you) just riding the bike, cause i was going to have tacos for dinner (there were so many shells leftover from my mom's) so i didn't want to go to yoga and be all farty. so, you know, i'm probably at 7 minute mark starting to sweat and really get into it, when i smell something, ugh! really strong cologne. so then i'm like, okay try to focus, but i had to look at who it was, and the guy was in ankle, wrist and chest weights, with tinted perscription sunglasses (it was pouring pouring rain that day) and a pink starbucks water bottle. as he started working out, i was overwhelmed but the extra smell of cologne building up. i tried to cover my mouth, but that's hard when you're trying work out. and then i had to leave. i finished my time on the bike, didn't get to experiment with anything else, almost vomited, and left. i'm going to email them today and ask that a sign be put up regarding cologne. it was sooo brutal.

anyway, we are going for poffertjes today. i am sooooo stoked, it's be forever since i had them...since i was last in holland... no, that's not true... they're mostly a winter treat there... hmmm... i don't know the last time. weird.

last night a few people came over for clean-up. thanks to ned and lola for being there at the begining. yvonne for being stoked about tequila. caleb for loving fall clean-up more than anything. janet and brian for showing up, with whiskey no less! and ian for making it... bad back and all. and james, especially for your high-quality (one might say german-style) pumping skills.

oh yeah, now i don't work tomorrow. so maybe if anyone wants to play some games, we could. i have some left over chipies and pop.

lick-her reminder

don't forget! come around 7-7.30ish and let the games begin!

i'm at work til 6 (at least) so don't come before 7.

:o)

i have food!

whoo hoo! i FINALLY bought groceries. so, i actually have something at my house to eat, including (this is for you ang hold) eggplant. it's very exciting. also exciting, is that i didn't buy bread from cobs. but that could change anytime now.

i don't really have much to do today, so i think i'll just go to the gym and ride a bike for a while. then i guess i should get ready for tomorrow.

worked

thank you lola for relieving what would have otherwise been a boring day of only work. we went to sophie's, watched CSI and i priced jewelry, read some american version of OK! and i worked too.

martha's going to jail. she wants to start serving her sentence as soon as possible, so she'll be home in time to plant her garden. her stock's already going up. believe it. hopefully she makes it out alright.

tomorrow is the start of survivor. i'm gonna watch again, cause really, what other channels do i have? i never do anything on thursday nights anyway.

i heart you clinique

i got some free stuff from clinique today. some of which i immediately passed on to janet, yvonne and toren. some of which i did not. especially the deluxe size scrubber that i like. and the moisturiser, which everyone except me seems to find too oily. i purchased a soap for the shower, and a mask for my teen-style zit problem of late. i've already used the mask. wish me luck.

a stupid, but almost true thing i said today: that's the best thing about europe, the great bags!

i wish i had bought groceries today. i still don't have any food. so i had sushi and tofu agadeshi for dinner. it was pretty decent the sweet potato rolls were WAY too big, so i have some for tomorrow. maybe i can pretend they're a breakfast item.

p.s. i'm still pissed about the crappy indian from last night.

today canada won the world cup. i OF COURSE watched the game. i have no idea if there will even be hockey this year, brian burke thinks that by december we should have hockey again. i really really hope so. i mean come on, what else happens in winter that's cool? back to the game. it was pretty intense and well played. yay canada! also, yay CBC coverage of every game, and yay wayne gretzky. if this isn't the most exciting to happen this autumn, i'm going to be a very happy girl!

i'm the gamemaster, i'm the gamemaster...

say it fast and in a sort-of rock and roll voice.

so, yesterday james taught me how to play carcassonne. yay! it was fun. the first time i won because he was telling me what to do. but the second time, i won and made him cry like a wee baby! actually, i don't know the game well enough to teach someone else. but i think i could fumble along decently.

caleb's getting stoked about fall clean up. in an email he was like: only 3 days to fall clean up! that boy needs to let loose more often. whoo hoo! corrupt caleb even more this friday!!! luckily ally doesn't read this blog, cause i think she would start to panic!

also yesterday ian and i went for indian, after he umm... fixed my headlights. the indian (prepare yourself) sucked. i will never go to india grill again. it was so brutal that i was like, are we taking those leftovers? i didn't have seconds, and i totally collected my free dessert from ian (from when i oh-so-gloriously kicked his ass at scrabble). we should have known the indian would suck as soon as the water came. it tasted gross. but water in the couv isn't all that tasty. oh, and i asked if they could make me a dansak, and the girl didn't know what i was talking about! when did i get more indian than the little indian girl working at the indian restaurant?! if anyone knows of a killer dansak place here PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me. i'm desperate.

today i've been doing lots of work. webstuff and ads for the clinic. the game's on at 4, so i have to decide what i'm eating for dinner soon. oh, i do have some potatoes. and tonight's the Holt's special event thing, starting at 6.30. i desperately need a facial cleansing mask. i don't know what's going on, but a week ago i got a compliment on my skin. today, i'm back in highschool. i am looking for someone to come with. it's not 100% necessary, i guess. but it'd be more fun.

my mom may be coming to visit me soon. if she comes today, i don't know how we're going to go to k.i.t.b. but we might still be able to make it. i think people will like my mom. she'll probably just fall asleep. it's one of her favourite things. if she does come, i'll make a treat to bring.

back to work.

thai thai away

yummy dinner! good suggestion why-vonne. and good company to both j and y. yahoo!

so, today was a weird one at work, but nothing bad happened. pheush. 4 people that i know came into the store! right after i told a girl off (well, that's a total exaggeration, cause i was just giving her selling tips, you know, like the 33% rule... don't concetrate on one person kinda thing) anyway 4 people i know, and one (given last week's k.i.t.b) came in. they were a woman that was trying to get me a job where she works, that's another story, jessie, a girl named jen from queen's (that i haven't seen in at least 4 years...we were trying to figure out how we know each other) and janet. i did recognise brian this time... so maybe it can be 5 people. it was WEIRD-O. but fun. and i like who i worked with today, and my boss gave me a dirty girl foot kit. how fun! i was totally eyeing it, because the pink mail polish looked so cute!

and a girl broke my car key at work. i will try to fix it. i'm only annoyed because really, those keys cost too much.

i currently have no headlights on my car. they are both burnt out. incredible? true. brutal. but they are getting fixed tomorrow.

something else that's broken is my brita. the lid broke. now, i could take this as an opportunity to buy a new brita, the kind with the digital thingy. or i could wait untl it gets complained about by people who come over. i think i'll wait. besides, it's almost my birthday. :o)

i know soooo much more about planes and cars now that this engineering website is almost done. i now know what all these different parts like main langing gears and lycoming engines look like. it's a bit exciting. more exciting is almost being done this site. whoo hoo.

brigade days and school reunions

okay, i now officially did NOT go to one of my two 10 year highschool reunions. and, despite pressure from ian, i feel fine with that. i went to visit my mom, who lies to me about her health and then when i ask if she's lying, admits the truth. and i dragged danielle with me. it's brigade days weekend in hope, and the demolition derby is on tomorrow. i've only been a couple of times, but most people in hope go every year. like, they've never missed a year. ever.

we had tacos and black bean soup for dinner, and watched the wicked wicked wicked-assed game that was team canada vs. czech republic. whoo hoooo. in case you didn't know: canada won in sudden death OT. and it was tense! i learned something that i did not know about danielle, when she first met my brother-in-law's brother, she thought he was cute! how funny is that?

also, on the way home we discussed games we could play on friday: truth or dare (i always pick dare), spin the bottle, and 5 mins. in the closet. i said no to 5 mins. because caleb's married, and i don't think that would get the stamp of approval from ally. i KNOW this will appeal to lola who is desperate to make out with me. also, to prepare people, if caleb has his way, strippers will also be involved.

i also volunteered to babysite my boss's kid for free one evening, and take him to some lame kid's movie so his parents could go out for dinner or whatever. i feel really bad about the rings being stolen. it's the least i can do. and the least she can do is accept it! so they're going to decide what night. james is going to teach me carcassonne this week. i'm extremely excited about this. i got that and the alexander the great settlers expansion. whoo hoo!

instead of cutting my nails, which i said i would, after i had to use a pencil to work the calculator at work, i just put a clear coat of nailpolish on... so it looks like a french manicure, without the cost! whoo hoo! besides, doing a french manicure yourself is soooo hard, cause the lines are always crooked, and it's hard to do your opposite hand well.

okay, bed for me. i work tomorrow and don't want to be tired and careless.

i had a very weird day today

no, i'm not making out with anyone right now... but i am taking applications.

it was a very extreme day today.

1. the store was an f'ing mess today when i got there. so in the 4 hours that i was there, i had soooo much to do.

2. someone stole like $600-1000 of rings from the store, probably while i was on. i feel HORRIBLE and plan to cry about it after i've taken off my mascara so my eyes don't burn

3. i was supposed to get off at 2, but do to confusion, left at 3.45 and then slipped on my way back into the store because i forgot my keys and phone. and i hurt my already hurt, and f'd up toe.

4. i met up with turi and had fun with her. saw some of her new jewelry, saw her new place (okay, here's the thing with this, because i know some of you will ask. i KNOW that me not going to other peoples' houses is weird. i KNOW i KNOW i KNOW. because of this, sometimes if i really really like someone, i kinda psych myself up to it and just do it. had i been at home and she asked me over, i would have automatically said no. but we were at a pub near her house, i dropped her off and she asked me in. what could i do? say no, i've got issues. i DO still want to be her friend afterall!) also, we talked about siblings with schizophrenia. and it was nice to talk to someone else that has had similar experiences as me. and turi is so super nice. it was good to see her, cause we're both lamely busy.

5. i met up with kirsten and talked all about her stupid boyfriend and her very very very exciting trip (i'm not typing this for her benefit, she doesn't even know that i have a blog). it gets me so excited about traveling. why am i even in vancouver? i should just be living out of a bag in some warm place.

speaking of traveling, i've started to listen to the learn spanish tapes that i found at my mom's house. i'm getting ready for south america. it's coming!

in other news. last night i ate toast after yoga. i think it gave me heartburn. this could be a sign. it was the lekkerbrot, not the white. and i discovered while working my little heart out last night that i clench my teeth, which is why i had a sore jaw a couple of weeks ago. contrary to popular belief, it wasn't from sucking too much c.

at grounds for coffee, where KG and i met up, i bought some cinny buns for ian and for my mom, if i see her tomorrow. maybe i will go to hope. anyone want to go for a drive? it is brigade days weekend. yahoo.

friendly people

why are people so friendly at the gym? seriously. you know all those studies that are like :exercise makes you happy! well, they might be true.

i haven't been to yoga in forever. if you get off the bus at the wrong stop, it's suddenly a long run to try and get it at the next stop. i can tell you right now... i could have told you during downward dog... my shoulders are going to kill tomorrow. that'll learn me.

here's something that's sooooo kits. in my yoga class there were about twice as many boys as girls. boyz boyz all types a boyz.

dearest yoga, i've missed you. don't let me stray again. i heart you. ursula

also, a bit of a party has been planned for next week friday at my house. it's the annual lick-her cleanup party. where ian and caleb puke, and i don't because i know enough to not drink orange juice and eat mouthfulls of canned whipped cream. yahoo!!! maybe this time we'll actually be able to leave the house! :o) you know who you are, and i adore you. i bug you because i love you.

hip to be square

yay! i'm going to see the hip next month. i'm very excited. i missed them in vancity, cause i didn't think it was important to be part of their fanclub. now i know. if there is a band you'd like to see and they have a fanclub, join it. i've learned my lesson. tickets for the hip in vancouver were only available to their fanclub. brutal.

anyway... i've scored tickets for seattle, so it'll be a fun little trip south. whoo hoo!

new mailman

i've got a new mailman. he is also cute. not nearly as hot as postman pete (aka stu). also, he cannot read. i know this because he put junkmail in my mailbox. ihave a little note that requests no junkmail. hrrmm. great face, shame about the brain.

technical difficulties

sorry the blogs have been wonky. blogger's been wonky. bear with me during this wonky period!

summertime blues

so, i'm having a hard time dealing with are somewhat decent, but nothing to really brag about, weather of recent. boo-urns.

i should be asleep, but i just realised i haven't blogged since monday. so, not at all today. toren gave me the hockey tapes at knitting in the buff tonight. there was no knitting to be had. some hugging, and a slight amount of snogging, and the ever important: case of mistaken identity! (this involved me, who has no concept of what people look like, if you'll take but a moment to remember this, and me thinking that someone -that i've actually met before- was janet's boyfriend. that was pretty f'ing funny. at least i can laugh at myself. the best part is that i even made an especially sassy joke. oh the times we had!). we watched this nerd video about trekkies, which was great. and then we watched some japanese zombie movie, and then superman cartoons. why so much? well, i brought jewelry to price, and it took for f'ing ever! at least i get paid for it! then i left.

today eon the peon and i had dinner at moderne burger. i was pretty much jonesin' for a veggie burger and their oh-so-delish fries. yay! it was good, and the company was good. i only felt it necessary to be buggy a little bit. we also went to the homo depot, and didn't get what we were looking for. either of us. uh oh... i hope that isn't a hidden metaphor for something.

TWO important messages:

* wednesday 4pm, canada vs.slovakia (i'm not home ti 6.30, so i'll have to go and pick up the tape from toren's very soon afterwards...i hope that's okay, toren) interested in watching it replayed at my house? probably not, if you read this blog, but i will be watching it, if you have interest.

* don't forget my offer to do jobs/work for you to donate money to james in the run for life campaign. if you don't want me to bake you a cake, or do anything else for you, but you still want to donate, you can do that too! contact me within the next two weeks to set something up! (i'm also willing to allow you to give ME a massage. my back is sore. i know it's a hot hot hot offer, so order now... supplies are limited.)

all about the rest of calgary

oh india! your people make great food.

at puspah in calgary... somewhere totally out of the way. we had:

3 naan
2 rice
dansak (sooooo f'ing good, but next time i will ask for white meat only. but really, the sauce was sooo close to darbar's i have no reason to complain.
butter chicken
veggie curry
3 lassi (not the sassie kind)

my new goal is to make a wicked dansak based upon the recipe i got from darbar when i had lessons there.

after dinner we tried to call dan's 24 hour advice line (it was busy). we really wanted to know if bud got laid (from the improv soap, the night before). so we surfed the net and then, oh yes... and then we played settlers. my losing streak is over. first, i slaughtered ian at scrabble a few weeks ago, and then i won two times (jobs). bring it on, is what i'm sayin'. and we had icecream with catan, which made it even more magical. there is a reason haagen daaz icecream is so expensive. it's worth it. and i'd almost forgotten that.

also, canada beat russia 3-1 that day. i will watch the tape on wednesday. toren taped it for me.

the next day (sunday) i left for home. early. i was out the door at 8am. i wanted to avoid driving in the dark, getting tired, the masses of traffic, and i wanted to get home early enough to go to the PNE.
ian was already done the PNE by the time we talked, i didn't get tooooooo tired, but my back was/is sore, and there wasn't much traffic til surrey. decent.
i'm home now, and i have this week off, if you want to call me party i can do that, as long as you're a boy named crash.

crisis in ursulaland

so, more about my trip in the next blog. for now... i forgot to mention that on the friday, while rachel was at the wedding, and james and karen were at work, i watched oprah. it was an episode about hidden germs and stuff like that. it's recommended to dry stuffed animals that your children play with, on high heat, every week. also, and here comes the crisis... you know how i wash and reuse all of my plastic bags? and ziplocs, specially? (so does oprah) BUT the germ specialist was like: don't. WHAT?! he said that there are germs and bacteria (which are germs, i guess) that you're spreading to good food. okay, i NEVER reuse bags or plastic that have had something go bad in it. BUT i do reuse the cheese bag. apparently cheese and meat bags are the worst. which i GET. but i don't like. what should i do?

loosemoose

yay! i'm having fun in calgary!

yesterday rachel and i had lunch at the arden diner (i had serious garlic breath) and then i dropped her off for the wedding. i walked around 17th ave a bit and when i was ready for home, i EASILY found my way back. i must be getting used to calgary or something.

turns out we had pizza for dinner last night and then went to part of an improv group's 56 hour marathon. they're called the loosemoose. it was great. really funny. so, we didn't get to play settler's but that's a little more on the list for tonight. we're looking for people to play.

after the improv we decided to try to find rachel and concrete some plans for today, what with her clothes being here, and her having to go to airpot. the guy at the hotel told me the reception was at the drinkwater, so we went there and i recognised the names on the sign "andrea and tully private wedding reception". so i went in and saw someone that looked like the bride, and said, oh congratulations, have you seen rachel? and she looked so confused, rachel who? and i started to panic, ummmm...maybe i'm at the wrong place. then she said that she's NOT the bride, so i looked around quickly and saw flea. yay! he told me where rachel was and everything got sorted.

as i was leaving i passed the parents table and one woman in particular was looking at me like she was about to ask what the h i was doing there. so i waved at her, said hi, and took off.

today we had bacon. or to quote karen,"bacon, bacon, bacon." and by bacon i mean veggie bacon, and by having it, i mean with our breakkie.

we went to a wool store, and MEC, then we dropped rachel's stuff off to her and then dropped rachel off at the airport. we did some shopping around. i was about to buy a new phone (which started off as a great thing. then the guy told me there would be a $35 charge for hardware upgrade. so i was like, oh...well my phone works fine now. i don't really need a new one. and he was like, it's only 35 bucks. whatev. i'll get one for free at the bell store in vancity. as IF i'd pay for a company to keep me as a customer, so that i can pay them each month to use a phone.

karen found some shorts. i didn't find shoes. james found shorts. karen got shirts. i didn't get a phone. james got soap.

in preparation for tonight's dinner, james is now scanning the famous indian note. so we can ask around what it says, post dinner, in case the guy, puspah, takes it. i'm going on record as saying i think it says, "these are my friends. treat them well." or something like that. maybe we'll ask tonight and then if we ask others, we'll know if the guy at the restaurant is a liar. :o) and if ashok is a jerk that made FOOOOOOLS out of us! i'm also planning to take a pic outside the restaurant. if anyone has a photo of themselves, and would like it to look like they also ate at the restaurant, email is to my gmail account, and i'll see what i can do!

have fun at scrabble party everyone!

happy birthday lola!

see you even got a title shoutout!

so, after lots of driving, we arrived at james and karen's place. it was super rainy almost the whole trip, and i was very very tired at the end of it. so was rach.

highlights include: "you'd better pull the fuck over, buddy." rachel. followed by giving the old hippy lady the finger and, "sianara suckah!"
and a guy in kamloops wearing a shirt that read, "i may not be perfect, but i'm canadian and that's close."

today i dropped rachel off at the wedding after having lunch at the arden diner. then i walked around downtown a bit. now james and karen are both at work and i'm watching the people's court.

tonight is indian (i think) and settlers. apparently a friend of james has a queen version... i think this is perfect for me. :o) actually, i just reread the email, and james said he had the queen here, not a queen version. in any case, i AM here, and i'm ready to roll.

calgareeeeeeee! yeeee haw!

so, i'm off to calgary in 7.5 hrs. whooo hoooo! i'm excited. i'm excited to see james and karen. i'm excited to be on a road trip with rachel. i'm excited for ginger snap cookies and other treats made by rachel's mom. i'm excited for breakkie with my mom tomorrow morning. and i'm excited that i get to eat at that indian restaurant in calgary that's owned by ashok's (of curry village and darbar fame) brother-in-law.

the woman i work for wants to start a jewelry line with me. it would be fun sparkly stuff that is really well priced. i think it might be a good idea. she's talking about going to l.a. and rhode island before christmas on her airmiles with me and stuff. i told her i'll have an answer when i get back.

speaking of getting back, i was going to go to fort nelson on sunday, but those plans have been adjusted, so i'll be going to knitting in the buff on tuesday, and bringing april with me! yay! and i'll have time when i get back to focus on some graphics stuff. which i've had to put on hold a bit because of working at the store. world cup of hockey will be watched and websites will be made. it'll be a beautiful thing. especially cause jeopardy guy is back on, starting tuesday.

in other tv news:
canada won again tonight.
law & order svu is now on channel m

and i just got a phone call for woody. no, no woody here.

tonight toren got his ass KICKED HUGE!!! by everyone at mario party party. yoshi was first, princess and mario (hurting from the rejection of his one true love, janet) tied for second. it was like toren didn't even come out to play. BRUTAL! (the previous statement could be complete lies).

also tonight we had pizza. toren took away my old food that i thought might go bad while i'm away, with the promise of eating it. anghold took away my chair with the promise that she would shower me in golden coins and yvonne took tynan away with the promise of not bringing him back until he's got a nickname. :oD and i made more cupcakes cause i had shitloads of icing left over. from TWO eggs. believe it.