Thursday, August 24, 2006

I Officially Have Keys to my New Apartment!

All day yesterday I was antsy and anxious for the workday to be over because it was the day I finally got the keys to my apartment!

By 4:30 I was ready to go, and bolted from work to catch the bus and train home to pick up my car and grab a few cleaning-type things that weren't already in my car. Chatted with my roommate for a few seconds, giving her the heads up on the "plan" for the rest of the week. By 5:30 I was off to the building since I had an appointment @ 6. Or at least, I should've had an appointment at 6. Good thing I knew, cuz no one else did.....poor maintenance/on call guy had no idea....

But, everything worked out in the end, and I'm in!

Tonight the real moving begins. Mom & Dad are up from Oshawa, and I have the elevator booked from 5-8. Also, for the first time ever, I'll apparently be meeting the landlady I've talked with many times on the phone and by email, but have yet to see in person. Hopefully she won't yell at me again about my elevator bookings, and will actually have a parking spot for me finally!

I had planned to bring my camera and document all the moving excitement, but I forgot :-( I also asked Matt if we could bring his today, but we both forgot.....maybe he can grab it mid-move tonight when thery pick up the stuff I have in his garage :-)

I will post 'em once I've got 'em though!

side note: I finally remembered what I'd been meaning to ask my mom to bring for the past week...argh....the coffee! maybe she thought of it herself.... :-D

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Begg Added to Olympic Qualifier Roster!!

Yay Chris! After much negotiating with his current team, I'm sure, my cousin has finally been allowed to join Team Canada and participate in the Olympic Qualifier next week in Cuba. As you may or may not know, Chris has played several times with the national team over the past 3 years, including the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 World Baseball Classic where he pitched in the now infamous U.S.EH! game where Canada's mostly minor leaguer team defeated the heavily major league laden US squad 8-6.


This season Chris has gone 12-10 with a 3.53 ERA with the Connecticut Defenders, San Francisco's AA affiliate. In fact he's supposed to be pitching tonight at 7:05 EST, so log on to ctdefenders.com and check him out.

Best of luck Chris! I want a reason to plan for Beijing in 2008!!

GO CANADA GO!!

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Work vs. Prison

Thanks to Elky for this one....

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If you ever get these two environments confused, this should make things a little bit clearer.

IN PRISON......you spend the majority of your time in a 10X10 cell.
AT WORK........you spend the majority of your time in an 8X8 cubicle.

IN PRISON....... you get three meals a day.
AT WORK........ you get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.

IN PRISON.......... you get time off for good behaviour.
AT WORK........... you get more work for good behaviour.

IN PRISON.......... the guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK........... you're often required to carry a security card and open all the doors yourself.

IN PRISON......... you can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK........... you get fired for watching TV and playing games.

IN PRISON........ you get your own toilet.
AT WORK.......... you share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat.

IN PRISON.......... they allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK........... you're not supposed to even speak to your family.

IN PRISON......... all expenses are paid by the taxpayers.
AT WORK......... you pay all your expenses to get to work, and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

IN PRISON......... you must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK........... they're called managers.

IN PRISON..... you spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK ...... you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.

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So.....who said prison was bad??

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Literary Art

Thanks to Tanya for sending me this....
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Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners . . .

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Friday, August 04, 2006

A Family, a Policeman, a Thief and a Raft....

Here's a challenge for all you puzzle lovers out there...

Try out this game

Website: http://freeweb.siol.net/danej/riverIQGame.swf
To start: Press big blue button
The Goal: To move everyone to the other side of the river
Rules: Only two people are allowed on the raft at a time. The father cannot stay with any of the daughters without their mother's presence. The mother cannot stay with any of the sons without their father's presence. The thief cannot stay with any family member if the policeman is not there. Only the father, the mother and the policeman know how to operate the raft.


I got it eventually, but it took a while.

Thanks to Jen for the link.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Fernie Fest 2006

Well, Fernie Fest 2006 has officially come to a close, and now the Organizing Committee can take a break before diving back into Fernie Fest 2007 planning.

What's Fernie Fest, you ask?

Well, let's just start by saying my family is crazy. Really crazy. We're talking tie 8 people together and run them around the neighbourhood on a scavenger hunt crazy. Just for fun :-) And obviously I mean fun for my mom, dad & me (aka the Organizing Committee) since the official rules of Fernie Fest state that everything is solely for the entertainment of the Organizing Committee.

Essentially, every year we get together at my parents place for what's become a weekend-long family barbeque/competition. It's named in honour of my late Great-Granny Fern who, although she never attended, would have thought it was hilarious. We love you Great-Granny!!

There is a new theme every year, complete with a logo and themed decorations and activities. Normally it is a potluck affair, but this year we even went as far as ordering in chinese (to suit the theme of course). The activities range from *almost* regular sports like ball hockey and volleyball, to crazy things we come up with or are inspired by like bubble wrap sumo wrestling and frozen t-shirt relays.

It's always a blast, and for only the first time in 5 years, we had to deal with rain this year. It kinda slowed down the momentum a little, but overall it still made for a great weekend. If you'd like a participant's (& also a newbie's) take on the whole experience, check out Matt's blog.

Interested in trying it out with your own clan? Get in touch....but keep in mind, my superior creative and organizational services don't come cheap! ;-)