International No-Blogging Month

I'm celebrating International No Blogging Month. See you all in September!

Today's retail discoveries

1) Habitat Restore. They have toilet tank lids for $10 in all sizes. It's a great store with friendly staff. The other customers are friendly, too. You could redo your whole kitchen, retile your bathroom...anything. It's all there, folks. No need for Home Depot.

2) I do not usually succumb to sales jobs... But I did to this one. If you walk in the Rideau Centre - main doors off Rideau street, pass the little store on the right, go up a couple of steps, pass the bank machines, you will arrive at some little stalls. A cute Israeli guy will ask for your hand. You give it to him. He puts some hand cream on it. You thank him. He then says: "You are natural woman. I see you keep your nails natural. I want to show you something." Then, he has me. He proceeds to file my nails with a kind of file block. After a few seconds of this filing process, it looks like I'm wearing a clear translucent polish. Think of all the money saved on manicures. Amazing! He tells me it will look beautiful like this for 2 weeks. And, the file block lasts for 2 years! Or, I can get my money back. He gave me a special special price and told me not to tell you. So, I won't.

Jesus in Kitten Fur

Have you seen this one?
I looked for Jesus in my cat's fur, but just found cat dandruff and Lauren Harper's face.

Aggie Update

I have not been in blogging mode/mood lately. Not much to report. The ESIs are giving me some support during this transition period, although they could be doing a whole lot more....

In other news: Scrabulous has been taken off Facebook. Thank God, Zoom weaned me off of Scrabulous and onto Scramble. I've taken to Scramble like a duck to water. Zoom continues to kick my ass.

I thought briefly today that I still "had it" after buying some new lip gloss called "Mango Juice", strutting my stuff on Bank Street, and receiving smiles from two attractive young men. Then, I realized my fly was down.

My cat

My cat went missing today, and is now found--locked in the next door neighbour's place. The neighbour's cat just died and left today with her owner to be buried in the country. The neighbour's cat hated my cat and tried to kill him every time they met. We made a point of keeping them apart. Somehow, while my neighbour was leaving with a freezer bag in hand, my cat slipped into her place. He has been wanting to get in there for a long long time. My cat never misses a meal, so when he didn't return, I assumed he was dead, too, and was bracing myself for a long period of mourning. But he's not dead. He's just trapped, we discovered when loud noises were heard over there. I sent dischevelled man over there with a screwdriver to break in, but he returned, saying he couldn't find a way to do it gracefully. He did manage to drop some dry cat food through the mail slot. We are not sure when the neighbour will return.

I Need a Toilet Top

No need to ask why, but can anyone tell me if and where I can buy just the top lid of a toilet. Not the seat lid, but the lid that covers the tank. I want ONLY the lid, not an entire toilet.

New Fabric

Isn't this nice? There is more. I bought $50 worth of fabric last weekend at a Montreal craft fair. I'm planning to make another quilt.

Feist sucked

I saw Feist last night. She wouldn't have sucked if she had been playing at the Manx or the Black Sheep Inn. But on the Main Stage of the Bluesfest, I didn't think she pulled it off, except for maybe the first 5 rows of people. She was doing her ambiant, artsy thing, which is pretty and everything, but doesn't work in that context. It annoyed me that she was a wanker last night. I wanted to see her rock, to be larger than life. I like Feist's schtick generally. Her voice is unique. The woman is capable of giving it when she wants to. But I'm over the whole 1, 2, 3, 4 shit.

Going Off Facebook

Zoom's delightful reruns made me take a look at what I was doing at this time last year. Tiana also does this on her blog (Congratulations, by the way, Tiana! Nice little fellow you got there).
Last year at this time I was just becoming a Facebook user and even had a mission statement worked out for myself. My year on Facebook has left me unsatisfied. Here are some reasons I'm going to go off Facebook:

1) I'm addicted to Scrabulous in a sick kind of way and could basically spend my whole life playing it if I let myself.
2) I've stopped caring about accumulating celebrity "friends". Friending up with these people has gotten me nothing!
3) Reconnecting with some people from my past has brought out some negative feelings in me: jealousy, regret, resentment. Instead of expressing these emotions, I have to write superficial things on their "walls" like, "Oh, I'm so happy for you, living in your beautiful space with your beautiful wife with your Canada Council grant and your gigantic studio and your insanely successful career"...
4) I've discovered that Facebook is a lazy man's pick-up joint. Facebook flirting is lame, lame. Lazy. Get off your ass, fellows! Go to a bar and flirt there!
5) Fun Walls are not fun. Fuck fun walls.
6) I don't want to look at people's family photo albums.
7) I end up in conversations with people on Facebook who would never normally send me an email or contact me. What's wrong with some boundaries? No, I don't want to catch up with my childhood classmate who has become born-again and hopes to save me via Facebook.
8) I have run out of witty things to say on my "status" line.
9) I don't ever want to be superpoked again.
10) Did I mention the Scrabulous addiction?

Here is a question for y'all: How do I gracefully remove myself from Facebook? Or, should I just rip myself off, like a bandaid?

Templates

I'm messing around with templates, and lost all my "favourites" in the process. I am hoping that by changing my template, I will be more inspired to write. Going for style over substance, in other words.

Aggie update and random thoughts

1) I'm still sick, but I won't blog about that because that's boring.

2) I am bracing for a big transition ahead: starting work next week, moving back to Ottawa, etc. You can bet I'll be calling an ESI emergency meeting to discuss--how to support Aggie while she goes through this rough transition.

3) I'm feeling ambivalent about blogging these days because I'm trying to reduce my screen time and do other things like a) cook
b) read c) get well d) sleep e) watch TV (it's a different screen, I know...) f) talk/communicate g) spend quality time with my person and cat unit h) make stuff out of fabric i) organize my life. I am aware that blogging itself doesn't take a lot of time. But, once I get on here, it's hard to get off. I'm definitely removing myself from Facebook. No point being on there now that I've reconnected with all my exes and discovered that they have become gay, breeders with SUVs, or really happy in some way that annoys me.

4) [Redacted] ... A rant about a friend getting married again, and me questioning that decision and the whole institution. I read what a wrote and I didn't like my tone. So .... redacted!

5) I'd better quit while I'm ahead.

Lost voice

I have laryngitis. I have decided to just "go with it" and stay silent. When folks talk to me, I don't respond except to smile weakly. I don't want to blame my family for my current condition, but ..... I was speaking before I spent the week with them.
In other news, I'm starting work again in a week. The transition will be rough, and no one will feel sorry for me. Another reason to stay silent.

Reasons I can't blog right now

1)I have been out in the sticks. I just came into civilization to shower.
2)I'm at a family reunion, relating to family, all of them, including in-laws and out-laws.
3)I'm sick despite gargling with salt water, taking Vitamin C, drinking oregano oil, ingesting garlic.
4)I'm too tired to blog.
5)There is no...

In the past 24 hours...

1) I have witnessed a sleepover with seven 11-year old girls. There was make-up, there were fancy clothes, there was screaming, there were brownies, there was opera singing, there was swimming, there was nail polish, there were romantic movies. The only casualty was a lost earring.

2) I made the acquaintance of a fellow who says he lives in a house with ghosts, one who he sees regularly (an old man in a black-hooded coat), and a group he hears (a bunch of kids who are around 5-6 years old).

3) I saw a mother spray Show Sheen (a spray for detangling a horse's mane) on her 11-year old daughter's curly hair.

4) I met a guy who played Jesus in his church's Easter pageant, and who showed me photos of himself nailed to a cross.

5) I made a quilt while drinking gin and tonic.

Things that annoy me...

My friends will attest to the fact that I am highly sensitive to inappropriate language. For example, I'm very particular about salutations in emails, so please don't address me with a "Hey Aggie"; that's "Dear Aggie", thank you very much. And, don't even get me started on "yep".

Here are two of my latest language annoyances.

1) "cats are OK- purrr"/"dogs are OK- wooof" - I'm reading this in rental listings, Craig's list, etc.. Why do they have to add the "purr" and "wooof" thing? And EVERYONE is writing this! I love cats and dogs, but it just annoys the crap out of me to constantly read this purr and woof shit.

2) "yummers" - This one is all over the food blog world and it makes me gag. I guess it means delicious. As if "yummy" wasn't bad enough! The Urban Dictionary has a nice first definition of yummers here.

Looking for Housing

I'm looking for a place to live. Not to buy. To rent. I will be a renter for the rest of my days. I don't really care (can we really own things anyway?), but I'd like to be able to find a decent place to rent. I haven't so far. Part of the problem is I haven't settled on a neighbourhood. Another problem is I don't want something shitty with an insane landlord. I also don't want to be dealing with nutty neighbours. I want a small patch of grass for my cat. I am looking for an interesting francophone or mixed (non-WASP) neighbourhood with a bit of a street life.

1) Little Italy/Chinatown. Haven't seen anything good yet.
2) Vanier. Can't quite get my head around the Montreal Road/Beechwood disconnect.
3) Hintonburg. Haven't seen anything interesting yet.
4) Hull. Has potential, but haven't found a place I really want yet. Not really in love with St.Joseph Blvd, although it has its hidden charms. Old Hull? The bureaucrat/crack addict disconnect is also hard for me to get my head around.
5) Aylmer. Too far. Price of gas.

The Fate of the Don Cherry Trenchcoat

The Don Cherry trenchcoat accompanied me to Portugal, but didn't make it back. I first showed it to my travel companion on the early part of the trip, and she agreed that it was "pretty bad", followed by --"how much did you pay for that?" So, the trench stayed in my bag as I travelled all over Portugal. Then, I ended up in the Algarve with my brother, sister-in-law and niece. I pulled the trenchcoat out. My sister-in-law tried it on, and said, "Why don't you just get rid of it?" Earlier that day, my brother noticed that a group of Portugese animal rights folks had a little used clothing place where they raise funds for the critters. So, the trenchcoat went to a good cause. It is contributing to saving the Portugese beasts!

Good purchases/Bad purchases

I am on a shopping diet since my trip.
Here are a list of some of the better purchases I made, along with the more questionable ones.

Good purchases

- a manicure in the Lisbon airport. Perfect!
- a new blue jacket. Love it!
- a 5-Euro shirt from Zara. Sweet!
- a pomegranate-extract-smelling Swiss body spray. Nice!
- Italian-made panties that depict a field of poppies. Lovely!
- a truckload of lavender sachets. Adorable!
- a quilted wall hanging with appliqued scene of Portugese women in black sitting in front of pink house talking with a clothesline of bra and panties above them. Beautiful!

Bad purchases

- the Don Cherry trenchcoat (I'll talk about its fate later).
- Portugese tiles bought at a Lisbon flea market. I bought too many, and extras were thrown in to make the deal sweeter. They are very very heavy. I don't know what to do with them. I bought them early on in the trip then nearly broke my back carrying the damn things. Some of them are chipped from all the travelling.
- pre-paid internet access in a seedy little Lisbon hotel. The hotel computer broke, and I was told by the front desk dude that it was "not his problem". I wondered if he had read about Megan's "not my problem" filing system and had taken it to ridiculous extremes...
- Hermes body cream purchased in Paris airport. I thought I was being very chic and French by buying this. But the stuff stinks. And I have the nice Swiss pomegranate body spray. So I don't need it. Bad.
- A red suede handbag. I don't need this. I was convinced by a sales person that this bag was "me" -- that I was sassy, red and exciting, and that this bag would complete me. It's nice, but do I need it? No.

Travel soundtracks

When I travel, I sometimes have surreal soundtrack moments: when I hear music that either compliments or doesn't compliment a place. Here are some memorable travel soundtrack moments I've had:

Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia: Hearing this Vanilla Ice tune while -- in full tropical heat-- riding a Bemo, an Indonesian taxi, which is basically a pimped up minivan stuffed with more people and chickens than you can imagine.

Seoul, Korea: In a woman's underwear/lingerie store. I heard this Ace of Bass classic (as interpreted by Britney) while examining a pair of padded-ass panties. Yes, they sell padded-ass underwear in some parts of the world...

Malmo, Sweden: At a small outdoor skating rink in a public square on a crisp January morning, watching children skate to Abba's Take a Chance. This one made a lot of sense.

Nashville, Tennessee: I took control of this travel soundtrack. In downtown Nashville traffic, I was driving a minivan containing two very badly behaved nephews. To calm my nerves, I shoved Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline into the player. This one made a lot of sense to me, too.

Lisbon, Portugal: This is my latest soundtrack moment, and took place in a taxi, driving through a beautiful old neighbourhood with palm trees and tile-decorated homes with exquisite linens hanging out in the sun. My friendly, stocky, Portugese-only speaking driver was playing Bon Jovi's classic Shot Through the Heart. I have a great new appreciation for this tune:

"Shot through the heart,
And you're to blame
You give love a bad name
I play my part, and you play your game
You give love a bad name.
You give love a bad name."

update coming soon....

I am still on my European holiday. I will be updating the blog soon. I know you are dying to hear what happened to the Don Cherry trenchcoat...