Irritating

I don't know why, or who, but someone is irritating me in a big way. I've started noticing when I come out to my car in the morning that someone has written on it. Most often I can't read exactly what it says (the person in question has poor writing), but there have been a few 'messages' that I can see properly. Everything from F-bombs on the roof of my car, to something with the word 'suck' on my hood. I had 'F*** Yah' (apparently there was confusion over how to spell "yeah") on the driver's side rear window, and and a reference to male genitalia on my front driver's side window. Most often it's just written in the frost that builds up on my car, but the past two words/phrases were written in road dust. It doesn't really bother me, except that I have to do a walk-around of my car each morning to make sure I don't drive off with something really offensive scrawled on the side.
I'm really not sure what bothers me more; that they're writing on my car every morning, or that they're not writing anything of value and are spelling things wrong. Please, go ahead and scrawl on my car, but make it something interesting! "Balls" just doesn't cut it.

Elves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Birthday!

Sunday was the first birthday of my sweet little buddy, Alex! I can't believe how big he's gotten over the past year! Brad and I went to Rob and Bev's on Sunday to wish the little toddler (and boy does he toddle around!) a happy birthday. Usually a really active kid, Alex snuggled right down when I picked him up. I guess he just felt cuddly for a change, but I was delighted to take advantage of the moment. Afterwards it was play time! He was eager to show off his new toys and show us how much fun they were.

Nice knowin ya...

It wasn't the way I hoped things would end, but since I'm not willing to lead La Resistance against the alien overlords, I'll just have to bow out gracefully when the war of the worlds begins. Since this is probably only making sense to people who live in Saskatchewan or Alberta, I'll explain a wee bit.
Last night around 6:30 or so a meteor was spotted by just about everyone who was outside or by a window in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The best part is how many people are completely convinced it crashed in their backyard, or just over that hill, or in the next town, or behind the mall. (At this point it's believed it may have actually just skipped along the atmosphere, but if it did land it might be around Lethbridge)

Regarldess, this seems an awful lot like It Came from the Desert. Clearly, it's all over.
I have no regrets.

How far we've come

It's been four years...

2004
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2005
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2006
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2007
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2008
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...and we're still smiling, that's gotta mean something good, right? Haha!

Spam, spam, spam, spam! Spam, spam, spam, spam!

I do believe I have been spammed. Or something.

I checked my email this afternoon to find three new comments. One just said "visit our blog"...but the whole thing was Spanish, which leads me to believe it was spam. Two other comments were legit (I think), so I posted them. I was curious to find out how they found me, so I opened up trusty old SiteMeter to find the origins and locations of my visitors. Apparently I had 230 visitors today. From all over the world. Since I'm fairly certain I don't have any friends in Espoo Southern Finland, Zaragoza Aragon, or Radevormwald Nordrhein-Westfalen, I'm guessing I got spammed.

...Though there is always the distinct possibility that everyone I know has suddenly scattered around the globe and decided that I am, in fact, the most interesting person they've ever encountered and they just can't wait to read about my escapades. Hey, it could happen!

Made in China? You don't say!

The station is holding a contest called Dollies for Dolly in which listeners donate dolls and toys for the chance to win tickets to Dolly Parton.

Darwin picked up a doll set to donate. Sure it's a Barbie knock-off, but let's take a closer look...

Why, for just 15 dollars you too could own your own Dignity Girl!!! from the ever reputable company Fajaiboa. That's right, it's the "Beautiful Set"...not to be confused with the many other sets available....

...such as the High Sofa set which is described as "more funny to play it with different modes". Or the "Collecter Happy" which is "Design for The Children with funny function"...????

And remember, Dignity Girl wants to be played with. It says so! "Please always stand by me. I am happy today because you are with me and still world is beautiful and worthy".
Not to mention the warning about not letting kids play "rnder 3" with it, and making sure that parents "remove any staplers" before letting their children play.
Ohhh dear...seems that something was perhaps lost in translation.

Breaking from Routine

I've always heard that animals are creatures of habit. It's very very true. Animals love their routine. It goes beyond that though, they don't just like having things a set way, they get distressed when that routine is changed.

Brad has gone to Saskatoon for a two day conference. He left yesterday afternoon and won't be back until Wednesday after work. That means it's just me, Ollie, Nibs (chinchilla), and Peet (budgie).

Oliver is a smart little pooch. He knows what time Brad usually comes home from work and damned if he didn't want to be outside to greet him at 5 oclock yesterday. The problem was, Brad didn't come home. Ollie was out of sorts for the rest of the night. He sat on my lap, or curled up next to me at all times and kept giving me a look that was brimming with blame as if to say "You made him go, didn't you?" I tried my best to calm him and convince him it was nothing out of the ordinary and that things would be just fine with just me around. He wasn't buying. As bedtime crept closer, the poor little guy kept looking to the door. When we went out for his evening constitutional, he kept looking to the driveway, totally confused as to why the Escape was parked there but Brad wasn't around.

Ok, so a dog who is a little messed up about a break in routine is not terribly uncommon, but a chinchilla? Nibbler was right irritated that Brad wasn't around. All evening she sat in the corner of the cage glaring at me. If you've ever had a chinchilla glare at you, you know how unnerving this can be. I fed her, and gave her fresh hay...but I committed a sin most foul. I forgot to give her a bedtime snack of a Shreddie. I paid dearly for this transgression. Throughout the night she crashed around in her cage, waking me up at 1:21, and again at 2:55 when she threw her food dish to the ground. After refilling her dish, I went back to bed and closed the bedroom door.

I like a good solid routine as much as the next guy, and I'll admit it can be a little disconcerting when that routine is changed through no fault of your own...but can we please keep the tantrums to a minimum?

Halloween Fun

This year for Halloween I retired the tried and true pirate attire and went with a different look. I bought two packages of rubber snakes, curled my hair, pinned them in, donned a toga and went as Medusa. At work the snakes as the finishing touch earned me Best Costume. That was truly a feat as there were a number of really good costumes at work.On Thursday Brad came home at lunch and announced to me that I needed to find him a Halloween costume. So I started the search and came up with and idea that we altered and expanded on. This is what we ended up with:


After around 20 kids came to the door trick or treating, Brad and I got dressed and went to Vince and Shay's for their annual Halloween Party. It was a good time, but we're so lame we had to leave around midnight to go to sleep.