Link - Four Litre Chocolate Milk

New Link on Right

I miss Anne. Since she we stopped working together at Natural Resources and she left Ottawa, I have missed her joy, beauty, and most of all humor. The funniest things happen to her and she tells the stories in the most interesting and entertaining way. She has recently started a blog; Four Litre Chocolate Milk. See the link to Anne's Blog in the My Links section.

Bad Blog Post

I want to write something good

I want to write something deep

But have been watching too much West Wing

And haven't had enough sleep

-C.S.-

Urban Walls

I bought these cool 3D flowers for my wall. I kept seeing them at the store up the street and thought they were so interesting and modern. They were actually designed by a Canadian industrial design student - Marion Lanktree. Umbra is now making them and they aren't expensive. You can buy them on the Umbra website, through Amazon, or in stores. They are called Wallflower Wall Decor and there are a bunch of colours. It is hard to really show or explain what they truly look like or how they are installed without seeing it in person. Basically, you put a magnetic tack into the wall and these light weight curved plastic pieces attach to that. The texture they create is really funky. Here they are up in my room:

So You Can Search

I often search my own blog. Actually, for the most part I am looking to copy and paste -Die Höhle- since the -ö- is a bit of a pain. I have been finding the Search Blog by Blogger (in the blue bar at the top of the page) hasn't been very good at this lately. It has really been bugging me actually, especially when I'm looking for a specific post and don't want to wade through almost three years in the Archive. I decided to add a Search Blog Archive by Google to the sidebar. I'm not totally happy with it since you have to scroll down to get to it and then scroll back to see the results. (However, I don't want to just have the search at the top of the sidebar so this is partially my fault.) For now it will do. Hopefully it will prove to be helpful and more reliable.

Weak Ankles

I twisted my ankle yesterday. I stumbled off a curb, randomly, for no reason. (And, before you ask, I was sober.) It is the opposite ankle as the one that I sprained a number of years ago. The sprained one is super ugly now, I call it 'The Hoof' since it is noticeably different and larger than the other. Now the other is a bit messed up too. It hurts when I twist it certain ways. I guess I should have slept with it elevated, or something. I'm going running tonight and am going to have to take it easy when I do.

And Then We Were Awesome

I bought a cheap little bathroom set over 6 months ago; towel rack, hand towel ring, and toilet paper holder. We don't want to use the towel rack so gave it away a while ago. We just need to put two things up. But, I don't own a drill to install them. Eventually I asked our landlord to borrow his. Jerrica and my first attempt didn't go well. Basically it was a total disaster. We abandoned the project for a couple of weeks, leaving some sizable holes in our nicely painted bathroom walls. Today we tried again. Success!! It was a struggle still and at times we were both shaking pretty bad, worried that more things would go wrong. However, we got the hand towel and toilet paper things up, I have never been so proud!!

Great Link

Jerrica and I have a new roommate, Lindz. She signed the lease with us back in May but went home for the summer and we had a boy subletter for a while. Now she is back for school and it is nice to have a Girl House again. When at home, Lindz works at Walmart. Right now her family is actually living in The States, so she works at an American Walmart. She showed me People of Walmart and has shared some good stories about her times working there. (Did you know they ID kids for Spray Paint, White Out and Sharpies? Yes, the markers. They have to be 16 or 18 or something to buy them. Crazy! I don't think we do that here. I'm pretty sure that poor little 13 year old Suzy is welcome to buy a black permanent market for her school project.) Anyway, People of Walmart is a great site, super funny!! Don't get me wrong I love the store, especially since the one in Ottawa went 24 Hours all year round. But I still like to laugh at pictures of trashy people; who are found in Walmarts in Canada as well as the US. Enjoy!

Good Morning

Question: Is it a bad idea to have Sour Patch Kids for breakfast?

Taking Over My Life

I love the boardgame Settlers. However, it is fairly complex and people rarely want to play with me. A couple of months ago I found a site online where I can play it with other people across the internet. I actually got my dad set up on it too and now sometimes at night we meet up and play each other, which is pretty cool for living 6 hours away. Last week though, the site went down. I know I was playing it a lot but I didn't know how much until I couldn't play it at all. Addicted!! I did however find its sister site which is exactly the same - only in Dutch. After wading through the Dutch to get a login and other such things once you are actually playing the game it is the same and set up in English. I am going to use this until the English one gets fixed. Anyone who wants to join me, keep an eye out for the main one to get fixed and in the mean time you can try the Dutch site or obviously I would always be up for the real life boardgame version!! Goedenavond!

Beautiful Hull

Bridge To Gatineau

By Christine Sweeton

Carving Off Time

I did the Army Run today. Start time was at 8am which is early and it was pretty frosty. I have a cold which meant that the run was hard this morning and for the rest of the day I have been feeling pretty achy and icky. Ottawa Erin and I ran together the whole way which made the race seem much faster than last year. Turns out I actually did it faster than last year too!! This years time: 39:09. Last years time: 44:22. My mom is in town and did the run as well. She beat Erin and I by 19 seconds! (Next year I will be faster than her, I swear.) Erin and I might do Run For The Cure in a couple of weeks too since we have had fun training and had a great time today at the race!!

HIMYM Drinking Game

I have one now for three different shows I like to watch; Friends, The Office, and now How I Met Your Mother. I pulled it off the internet but have made some of my own modifications.

How I Met Your Mother Drinking Game

One Drink
Anyone says "Awesome!"
Anyone says "Bro" or "Bro-something"
Robin says "literally"
Barney says "legendary"
Barney uses a pickup line
Barney says "Suit up"
Lily talks about or is around her kindergartners
Anyone says "Have you met..."
Barney does magic
Anyone does a high five
Barney says "Ha, please."
Barney says "Daddy's home"
Marshall says "Lawyered!"
Ted does a voiceover
There is a flashback

Three Drinks
Barney says "What up?"
Barney mentions his blog
Marshall sings about what he's doing
Canada Mention!!
Barney calls himself Ted's best friend
Ted says "How I Met Your Mother"
Any mention of a slap bet
Telepathic Conversation
Ted makes a Star Wars reference

Hungry

I'm at work and I have no lunch. I had class at 8:30 this morning (a class which looks like it is going to be pretty awesome) and didn't have time to pull something together. However, I also have no one to go out to get lunch with me. I'm not keen on eating by myself as it is, but I hate spending money on food that I have to eat alone.

When OSAP Comes In

My expenses are piling up and OSAP is being a pain. I don't have it yet but when I do, I need to:
-pick up a bus pass
-pay off my parents for buying my plane ticket to Halifax
-get groceries
-buy textbooks and novels, there is a lot and they are expensive
-go to the dentist
-buy the Second Season of How I Met Your Mother
-get my eyebrows waxed, and maybe my legs
-pay off my credit card
-give Steph cash for chairs I'm buying from Dave's sister
-get cat food
-go shopping to get new bras, underwear, boots and a pair of jeans

Social Tick

I have a (new) social tick. I can't stop it. Now that I have noticed it, it bugs me every time I notice myself doing it!! I have discovered that I list examples with letters (and occasionally numbers). For example,"Yea, so I decided not to go out last night because A-it was raining B- I have no money and C- I was super tired." I have always done this, but now I have noticed I do it ALL THE TIME, like 3 or 4 times a conversation maybe even 20 times a day. It is so annoying (and I hate being annoying) but I cant seem to stop. (Often I'm doing it when only have two things to list so it is just going to be A&B or 1&2, which makes it even more stupid) I do sometimes catch myself about to do it and I then will try to say "because either such and such or such and such" or try to just list things normally. However, sometimes I don't catch myself doing it until after I have done it. I'm actually annoying myself. I have to fix this!!

Oh, Those Chicks

Brontë Sisters
By Patrick Branwell Brontë (c. 1834)

I'm reading Wuthering Heights for one of my English classes and am really enjoying it. It is written by one of the Brontë sisters but, while talking to Steph over e-mail about it, I couldn't remember for sure which one. In yet another example of why I'm a terrible literature student (English Major, What?) I told her that I knew there are three of them, but only from the painting (see above) and that one or more of them committed suicide but again didn't know which. Steph confirmed this; "Yeah there were definitely three Bronte sisters and they weren’t the most stable of chicks." Turns out none of them committed suicide, though they and their books, were pretty messed up.

The Brontë Sisters

They make me thankful for vaccinations!! For anyone else who is a little foggy on these writers here is the break down:

Maria and Elizabeth: Eldest sisters. Died of tuberculosis at 12 & 10 years old respectively.

Charlotte: Wrote Jane Eyre and other books/poetry. Married. Died in childbirth 39 years old.

Emily: Wrote Wuthering Heights and poetry. Died of tuberculosis, 30 years old.

Anne: Wrote Angnes Grey and other books/poetry. Died of tuberculosis, 29 years old.

Not Blocked

It looks as though I can post on my blog from work, which is strange since I thought it was blocked. I am not going to spend any time on this post right now, since I'm actually fairly busy at work these days. However, it is nice to know that I have access since right now at Die Höhle our internet is down. The router broke and we can't get online until they send us a new power adapter. Hopefully it comes soon!!

Cover To Cover

I arrived home this weekend to find a copy of the Sears Wish Book sitting on the coffee table. I sat down immediately to look at it. I tend to read all magazines cover to cover - Cosmo, gossip magazines, Cottage Life, news magazines, Natural Geographic, and even sometimes in doctors offices Parents Magazine. I like to look at all the advertisements and read every article. The Wish Book is the same. I look through it for hours, even the Men's Clothing and other irrelevant sections. I now have tons of ideas for what I want for Christmas, as well as some thoughts about what to get for others. I'm bringing a copy home to O-Town. If anyone wants their own copy you can request one (then you have to go pick it up at a Sears Store.)

Odd Sensation

I was trying to remember something I had been meaning to tell Jerrica, while I was thinking I started snapping my fingers. Then I realised - I have not snapped my fingers in years. It is the strangest sensation. I can do it with both hands and pretty loudly. I think I find it so amusing because I can't whistle and as aforementioned I can't even remember the last time I snapped my figures it was so long ago. I did then proceed to snap them for about an hour - very amused by this. Never did remember what it was I was supposed to tell Jerrica.

Epic Blog Mention

Not an epic mention of Always Standing actually, but of myself on Heather`s blog (See Link on Right). Heather is leaving for England soon and has been doing a series of posts about saying goodbye to her friends. I hung out with her on Monday and she has since written a glowing review of our friendship. She says so many nice things, I was positively beaming as I read it. However, many of them are more than little bit of a stretch, especially for anyone who actually knows me. I also had been trying to keep The Humus Story from appearing on the internet, but it really was only a matter of time. I am really excited for Heather and her awesome Masters program in the UK. I am looking forward to reading and hearing all about her experiences over the coming year.

Power

The Future of Farming
Wind Turbine at The Erie Shores Wind Farm near Long Point, Ontario.
By Christine Sweeton

Near my cottage is a wind farm. It isn't like the ones I have seen in the UK, which are fields solely dedicated to wind turbines in neat rows, but instead the windmills are dispersed over 25 kilometres of shoreline, scattered within farmers fields. Driving through it is an amazing and inspiring experience. I think they are beautiful!!