Since before you were born

Last night we checked out the band Laureate at EA because a couple of Heather's friends play in it and they have a song called God and Dr. Seuss and we like to support that. Craig Harris played first and any man that can make Michael Jackson sound like that is pure musical genius and ok by me. And his own stuff is pretty great too.

Now, I think I rememer the fiasco happening during Craig's set. We're sitting on some couches, enjoying various hot beverages and basking in the glow of the large mugs while catching up on each other's days. Behind us are a gaggle of emo kids sitting on their couches and doing emo-esque things...probably crying or something. Hey, I used to love the emo and then it got all weird. If I have to wear pants that tight and dye my hair black to listen to your music, I'm out. And does anyone know the proper term for a gathering of emo kids? Gaggle just seemed appropriate. I digress.

At some point I felt something hit my hair and when I turned around to see what it was (it should have landed by my shoulder) nothing was there. And the emo kids were all turning to take a look too. Then, as I swung my head from side to side, I could feel something in my hair. I'm frantically asking Heather "What is in my hair?", my voice peppered not so much with panic as it was with vexation. It was then she uttered it. She said..."gum". This caused me, in my vexation, to turn around to the emo kids and shout angrily "Which one of you a**es put gum in my hair!!!" Meanwhile, dear Heather keeps having to repeat "Linds, turn around. Linds, turn around so I can get it out." So as I stew Heather removes the offending wad out of my already short locks (these things are extra frightening when you're a girl with semi-short hair). Mike then asks "What's going on?" to which I reply "One of these a**es threw gum in my hair!" Then Mike uses a voice that none of us have been privy to before (he later informed me that it's his power voice) to turn to the emo kids and say "Which one of you is throwing gum?!!" Shortly after a young emo girl comes over and says hurridly "I threw the gum, I didn't mean to hit you, I'm sorry". I say thank you and it's mostly done.

Later I remarked to Heather that it's been about forever since I had gum stuck in my hair...maybe back when I was 6 or 7 years old. She then she brought up the point that, in any case, the last time I got gum stuck in my hair was before any of them were ever born. We chuckled heartily about that one. For any of you out there who may find yourself in a like-situation, Mike advises that oil gets gum out of hair very well. When I was a kid, we believed in something about toothpaste or ice-cubes. I can't remember. It's been awhile. So here I sit finishing this post 3 days later, happy that I didn't have to inflict any nonsense on my hair. Chew responsibly kids!

Holy Costco Batman!

So after church today I did the usual type things, chatted to a few people, held little baby Joshua (we're best friends), and then we went out to lunch. Heather, Mike and I trucked it out to The White Spot by Costco, because it's the closest classy White Spot we know, and then we went on an adventure to Costco itself. I've never had such a drastic fantastic Costco experience.

After we toured random items and the book section (DaVinci much?) we worked our way past produce which is usually not so promising but this time they had a magnificant swing set up. The kind with an awning and little half tabletops on the sides. We sat on that swing and swung. And then swung some more. And some more. And, yes, more. The consensus between us 3 was that the swing made us feel relaxed and happy. So we stayed on there for somewhere bewteen 15 or 20 minutes, swinging to our hearts content. We made friends with people, chatted them up. Some people tried to ignore us and you know that wasn't easy. We were sitting across the way from samples of iced tea and some kind of strawberry smoothie thing. We made friends with one couple to the point where they brought us iced tea samples. When they handed us the iced tea samples the man said "Grandma Mussolini said you can't drink them on the swing so be careful". It was gold. We even had another lady invite us to come over anytime to use her bench swing. It was the cats pajamas. Onto bigger and better random, dear friends!

Of Cupcakes and Anatomy

Well, the cupcakes didn't fly off the table at the manor party. I think I should have used labels because it's seems that people didn't know what to make of them. But my compadre's thought they were yummy. Heather tried a cherry one. Mike opted for a couple of lemon. Guess I should have just gone with some pretty icing so people knew what they were getting into. Such creatures of habit, aren't we?

The three of us headed out on a Rocky Point excursion. Heather and I simply walked but Mike went all out and practiced his extreme walking skills. The judges loved him and he beat out the favoured Russian to take first place. And then we met up with a couple of coyotes. One on a bridge and one that Mike chased into the bush. We were walking through a part that makes me think of hobbits because the trees bend over the path in an arch all pretty-like and then these coyotes come out and it made me think of the movie Willow and those weird dog/pig animals (that is, if anyone else has had the misfortune of watching it...although it's hilarious in a horrible movie sort of way).

Then we hit a playground with a fantastic tube slide. I climbed over and up it. Heather made me think, for awhile, that she was going to do it too but shortly after 1/2 way up I realized it was not going to happen. But, hey, she cheered me on and that's cool too. And there are some fantastic pictures of us hanging onto said-slide on the upswing of our sugar rush (thank you 7-11 and Slurpee). We decided to make trains down the slide. Heather/Lindsey-this combo made Heather biff her head but we tried it again. Lindsey/Heather-it worked out just fine. Heather/Lindsey/Mike-the cusp of it all, though we moved as if in slow motion. Swings and slides and climbing, oh my!

Heather also sucked me into her world of watching an entire season of a show in one sitting, not that I'm complaining. Last night, enter Grey's Anatomy. Sure, Dr. McDreamy is sauve and his hair looks like perfection and he can rock the brown suede jacket, but I'll take George thank you. Shaggy haired, fumbly, kind, caring, wear his heart-on-his-sleeve, adorable George. I slipped in and out of sleep during the season 1 marathon but when I would wake up during snippets of an episode to Heather saying "Linds! Wake up! Did you just hear that line?!" I realized that I was missing parts of episodes that I had already seen and I felt okay about that. All in all, love Grey's Anatomy. I missed the season finale and that made me super sad, especially since Mike told us how they used a Snow Patrol song in it (fantastic band, thank you Mike). Grey's knows where it's at.

Tonight's agenda: The DaVinci Code! Or as Mike calls it, The DaVinci-Thon. Which means I better go finish up the book as I'm down to the wire!

Your Body is a Castle Fun Park

John Mayer reference, for those of you not in the know. Kudos to Jordan who made the Wonderland/Castle Fun Park connection some years ago (Je couer double entendre's...or however that's all spelt). In reality, Heather and Mike and I headed out to Jungle Mini-Golf at Castle Fun Park last night after Heather and I had enjoyed a birthday dinner with Sylvia. By the end of the night Mike was the only one who had his original orange ball. My green ball had turned blue and Heather's purple ball had morphed into pink. Both accounts of lost balls are attributed to my unstoppable urge to hit the golf ball as hard as I can when I play indoor mini-golf. I don't have the same urge when I play outdoor mini-golf or the couple of times I've played a real (albeit par 3) course. I can't explain it, but you know it's funny.

And then I thought I'd wake up at 7am before work and find a Martha recipe to try and top, or at least stay on par with, Edward the cheeseball snowman that was such a hit at the Manor Christmas party 2005. But once at the site I realized that Martha might have heard about my plans. My plans to, one day, overtake her empire.* This was confirmed by the fact that all I wanted was to hold onto my Manor Party food greatness (repeat performance via House Warming 2006 going down tonight) and everywhere I looked Martha was there, mocking my tired state. She wore me down. That domestic diva thwarted my plans-this time-but I have news for her...I made some yummy cupcakes! French vanilla cupcakes filled with either cherry or lemon pie-filling and topped with a sprinkle of icing sugar (shout out and thank you to Theresa who gave me the idea). I hope they're as well received as Edward, but I guess only time will tell! I make some pretty great regular, fancy frosted cupcakes so at least I'll always have those to fall back on should these go awry.




*This is only in jest. Martha doesn't seem to love life or people as much as me and I don't think I could live with myself if I really turned into her. I'm willing to entertain the very real possibilty that I've read Martha wrong but I think I speak for everyone who might have caught that made-for-tv-movie about Martha's life when I say "Psycho!" Essentially, I'm just crafty in more ways than one and could take over her empire if I so wished. It's a good thing...

From the mouths of babes

Grade 2 has been a great experience. Over the past week and a half I've been getting to know these little kids. They've annoyed me, they've moved me, they've made me laugh, and they have melted my heart. All in just over a week! I'm looking forward to the rest of the year and beyond.

One of the teacher's is getting married this Saturday and the topic of discussion this week has often been on letting him know "how to be a good husband". One teacher even showed me a booklet she was making for him, compiled by her class. Who knew there was a manual?! Men, this looks like a train you might want to board (anyone know of the wife manual...). This morning "how to be a good husband" was the precise topic of discussion in class. The advice the kids gave ranged from "always remember your anniversary" to "share the remote" to "don't take up all the bed". All noteworthy pieces of advice but there were 2 in particular-one made me laugh, the other was so practical yet oddly sort of touching-that I thought I would share them.

It went a little like this:
"Johnny, what do you think Mr. Jones needs to do to be a good husband?"
"He should make sure that he takes his wife to dinner at McDonald's."

"Bob, what does Mr. Jones need to do to be a good husband?"
"Make sure he marries the right girl."

So there it is fellas: according to 7 and 8 year olds you need take the right girl to McDonald's and you'll be up for the "Husband of The Year Award"...or something like that.

All you can handle

This past week or so has been a blur. One heck of a blur at that. I've had a couple people express their displeasure of checking the blog and finding it sans update so here are some highlights to please the masses.

Heather and I made it through seasons 1, 2, and 4 of Sex and the City this week. I just have to echo Heather's remark down the lines of: "If you can't do it, talk about it." With all that TV watching that also means I got a few touqes knit. Just in time for summer!?

I've mystified several of my friends. It seems that the longer you've known me, the more mystified you are. All this is due to the way I've been rocking the standard. Although on Friday night Heather and Michelle and I came to a point on Sumas Mountain when our fellow companions in huge trucks told us the Kia wouldn't make it so we hopped into the box of their truck-already full with firewood-and proceeded up the mountain. At one point we had to get out and hike and then when we were getting back in on steep a hill my bag weighed me down (I only had one leg in the box, hanging onto the tailgate) and they started driving. After a cry for help Heather decided that I should live a little longer and crawled across the wood to help me. Death: 0. Lindsey: 5ish.

The next night we participated in Mike's birthday celebration. In the words of Mike "Hey-oh!" He's a whole quarter-century's worth of drastic fantastic. Happy Birthday to you!

Sunday was filled with almost too much goodness for real life...so much so that I should probably keep it to point form: ~Church ~Dim sum at Kirin in VanCity with Aussies ~Amazing chopstick holders, courtesy of Kirin and Mike's pockets ~Homage to Anchorman shirt for Mike's birthday (i love Lamp) ~Bowling at the Commodore Lanes with (drunk) Aussies ~Free Frogstone meal thanks to that fantastic waitress (I should find out her name) ~Babysitting kids who are too cute for real life ~Grey's Anatomy (Dr. McDreamy!)

Highlights of this week will probably include Sylvia's birthday dinner and the (girls of the former) Manor Party (does that house have a name yet or should I be getting on that...?). Tune in soon for more random.

Aiyeee!

So the time has come...as of Saturday, Ruth has officially been replaced. Now I'm rocking the silver 2002 Kia Sportage. It's a 5-speed 4x4 so I've been having an adventure learning how to drive standard. I've conquered a minor hill, made it through a drive-thru (with a stall), worked on starts (there was a lot of me almost peeling out), and me generally trying to conquer the stick. This has consequently been an adventure for my friends Heather (she's the one who got me started off and has been a patient teacher) and Mike (he's been helping me in the finer points and directing me to little spoken of knowlege regarding standards). I think by the time I get my parents in the yet-nameless Kia (they're actually dying to get in but I don't want to give them whiplash) they won't be afraid...well, no more than when I drove an automatic. I'm toying around with a couple of names (this vehicle is defiantely male) but I'd like to sit on it a little more before I start thowing stuff out there. Until then...AIYEEEEE!!!

Pommelos & Priceless Buffoonery

We had a great time with Pommelo Pete. My friends have done a great job of writing about it so I'll just direct you there.

His humble beginnings can be found here (Pommelos Make Great Toys):

don't tell me you don't know

And the end is over here (Pommelo Pete):

http://www.thehisforhockey.blogspot.com

Enjoy!