Today's song of the day:



and I finally found a picture of my new glasses, which are perched lovingly upon my nez, today:




also: the sun is out (for now) i have a lunch date (woo) digitalgunfireradio is in full swing (yeehaw) and somehow i finagled my way OUT of going to the stampede (phew)

so, yes, today is good. I'm at my new desk. The view is OUTSTANDING.

man, i do not expect to have SAD in June July (thanks D'ado, you cheeky monkey), but it's happening. I do not KNOW how you people live in Vancouver but if there is not a speck of sunshine for me today, there is going to be KICKS AND PUNCHES.

I've almost cleared out 150 emails, which is pretty good. Somehow I have to update 2 powerpoints by end of day (complete rehaul) and my outlook tells me I have 7 hours of meetings tomorrow.

SEVEN HOURS OF MEETINGS.

no wonder I am drinking my healing orange crush.

and my new specs are in, but I have no time to go pick them up. Boo.

gods, hand me my velcro, loretta, I need to swoon with much melodrama.

Am home again, sorry no phone calls, life has been a whirlwind!

Camping trip was pretty good, but, I am unlikely to go back to Cypress Hills. I think it is better suited to families with small kids. It's very scenic and lovely but the hiking trails, even the ones rated as "difficult" were really easy for Andrew and I - and we are not that hardcore. The park just didn't hold up well in comparison to last year's trip to Waterton, which has trails that are far more challenging and is even more beautiful, but also has more in the little town in terms of restaurants, coffee shops, etc. for when we are tired of roughing it. Still, it was pleasant to be out of the city (especially during the craziness of Stampede) and we did some hiking and went for a canoe around the lake, photos on facebook.

Got home just in time to catch thedirtyground's barbeque on Saturday night and then Sunday was frantically getting in the usual weekend stuff of shopping and laundry and cleaning out the Boler and so on.

And now I'm back at work and dressed like a cowgirl, since it is Stampede, and this will be a week of beef on a bun and pancake breakfasts and the golf tournament and not doing much work at all.

i have this misguided belief that the music i listen to, everyone listens to. I know this is incorrect, for the most part, and yet, I believe it. I read a lot of crafty blogs and all the crafty bloggers seem to listen to strange little indie bands like Bats for Lashes and Grizzly Bear and I think -

who are these bands that I have never heard of? Who!? Is this some Portland thing (everyone is in/from/around Portland, it seems) and is this why? Is there some seven block radius of indie, that's like the Bermuda Triangle?

I wonder. Anyway, I post about bands like you know who they are, and some of you do and I know this.

right now I'm not listening to those bands. I'm listening to my Mattie and I didn't really know the song, because it's some b-side from somewhere and I had to go to itunes and investigate and there it was - "Go Fly Blind", genre: AWESOME.

the rest of the Mattie is all labeled "Alternative+Punk" or "Rock" (for the record there is nothing 'Punk' about Matt Good). But the AWESOME makes me giggle.

this morning we had the single worst breakfast buffet on the PLANET. I am mad because its my day to pay and also because I didn't think anyone at restaurant would have given a rats ass if we complained. Lord knows there ain't no point in bitchin if something isn't going to be done about it and I assure you, they did not care.

afterwards there was farmer's market goodness and beads and I bought some lovely vintage lucite flowers and resin squares and the sunshiniest seed beads, ever.

I have no idea if this is a keep VS sell, and there won't be lampwork in it unless there's some matchy piece in my stash, here, but I wanted to make something crazy fun and summery and what else fits but vintage flowers?

i'm also felting a boat+seamonster, but I built my seamonster too short, so, back to the drawing board for that little guy.

(here be spoilers)

okay. Here's the deal. I loved, and i mean *loved* the first 40 minutes of this. I never, ever, ever have an issue with sympathetic villians. One of the major issues I had with Sin City was its lack of a moral compass -- even with, oh, was it Marv? There was no off/On, there was no distraction -- but for wee Mike Myers, there was. There was also the matter of his mother, and the love-in-spite-of, which I found really beautiful, and sweet, and entirely believable.

there was some Thousand Corpses/Devil's Rejects-ish stuff in there, namely the first ten minutes when we meet the Myers family, and then in the asylum with Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and I would have loved that to unfold using something slightly less cliche, but horror movies are what they are and later, I didn't mind at all the killing-during-sex horror movie standard.

i could have also managed less screaming. But the murders=the screaming, so I can get past it.

there was just so. much.

either way, I think it's kind of been an impressive weekend for SpookyFilm, all things considered.

or, earrings without wires.









and a giant flowergirl:

You know a movie is about to be creepy when it starts with a kid in a clown mask kissing a rat (and then some), and the gentleman of the house's sentiments of love include the phrase "skullfucking".

and the better question is, why on earth is Chips watching this.

gods this little kid is the Creepy.

---

although, nice lack of music until the themesong kicks in.

agendas, or what are we going to do today, brain -

some late night tv recordings -- Rob Zombie's Halloween (weird, since we were JUST discussing this), and The Prophecy was on and who DOESN'T want to have a copy of The Prophecy at their disposal? Hello.

At least Halloween will be watched today, we hope. There's still the matter of the unpainted picture frames, as well.

I'm requiring coffee and some bbq items for tomorrow. Then there's laundry and the Bathroom to tackle, but that's just not high on the list.

I added about eight words and deleted about 10 from "Ellis, Underground", which doesn't bode well but hey, fiddling is fiddling and that makes it good.

did go for a bike ride last night, not a very long one, about 40 blocks, but it was beautiful outside and that made it awesome.

and that, is my haircut blog for you.

man, i feel virtupous. The kitchen is clean, save the stove, but we need to move Dexter upstairs before we Release The ToXiNs.

the bedroom is all tidy, just requires a little zhuzh and a vacuum.

the trees are trimmed.

the pink is re-applied to my hair.

iTunes just sent me :SITD:'s "Relief" followed by Seabound's "Hooked"+"Domination", with a chaser of VNV Nation's "Honour". It's delightful and I danced about the haus in celebration.

and then! OMG AND THEN! I realized I never did purchase the new Diary of Dreams "If", and let me tell you, that is about to be rectified RIGHT NOW.


things I also want to do:

vacuum
zhuzh bedroom
eat spicy noodles (very soon here)
repaint the picture frames in the bedroom white
poke dexter in the bum (what? he's upside down in his cage. his bum is FUZZY)
watch Resident Evil: Degeneration*


*this seems like a good thing to do while repainting picture frames. I am usually in my Energy:Gone zone in the afternoon, so at least it's a semi-activitious activity to do while being SlothLike.

since I figured it out. #21 was The Wrestler, #22, The Reader, #23, The Hangover, so that makes The Strangers, #24.

So, there's going to be a spoiler in this, so stop reading if you have a plan to watch this creepy little number.

Anyway - yes, I found it delightfully spooky, if only because at least the first 3/4 is all suspense, as opposed to "gross them out so they can't eat their spaghettis".

I distinctly remembered part of the trailer, when spooky-in-mask says to Not So Happy Couple "Because you were home", as a reason/excuse for this particular brand of Home Invasion.

Unfortunately, and I mean this story-wise, not necessarily for the poor Unhappy Couple (although I found it interesting that we don't feel anything LESS for the couple b/c they are not having an Idyllic moment when the Story Starts), they kill the couple at the end.

I wondered this: why bother terrorizing someone if you are only going to kill them at the end. Yes, they have five hours of Intense WTF Creepy, but then you kill them. Their pain/suffering/torment?

is over.

I had such high, high hopes that the credits would roll after spooky-in-mask says "because you were home" - like wouldn't it be extra *awesome* (and do I have to say I mean this in the Horror Movie Way, not in any OTHER way), if the Spooky Mask Trio had said that, and then LEFT Liv and What's his Pants tied to their chairs, to have to somehow get help, deal with the fact that what's his face killed his BFF by accident, deal with the presumed end of their relationship, which might have been over anyway before the movie started and would absolutely be over, now, and then somehow get over all of the psychological remnant turmoil that would, most assuredly hang about after that kind of experience?

I'm sure most folks would be all "dumbest ending ever", but the idea of leaving the people to live through their horror, is far, far scarier than stabbing someone in the belly.

at least, that's my opinion.

today's list of done things include a haircut in which my stylist was ringing in my shampoo and said "damn this stuff is expensive".

Yes, it's true. I bought overly priced shampoozles. But, I'm sorry, people of the internet, drugstore hairproducts are not as good as salon. I know this, for I have tried them all.

I re-arranged part of the kitchen, putting the dishes from here ---> to there ---> and it just makes a heckuva lot more sense. Now there's a load in the dishwasher and the floor is almost swept and I bought a mop so washing may commence.

visited with upstairs K, talked with Co-Captain C, made about 4 pairs of earrings, that I'll photograph for amusement, but really, not much I can do with them until I get ear-wires, hey?

spent the day listening to tunes and I recorded "The Strangers" last night, and who doesn't love some extra spooky horror, so, may try that, although there is the small matter of "Resident Evil: Degeneration" and need we spend any more time on the awesome of Leon?



why yes, we do.

way home last night we stopped at the mall and i found 2 pairs of pants for like $45. I remember a day, not so long ago, when the hilight of my week was *not* finding dress pants on sale. It was other things, like cotton candy and dancing girls.

anyway, they're not the most perfect pair of dress pants, but lo', for twenty-two bucks or whatever, they are just kind of awesome. I was saying to upstairs-K that I never got bored of my wardrobe when it was all t-shirts and jeans and whatevers. Now? Omg, bored like what.

anyway.

soon there will be haircuts. and bicycle rides and i am pleased by the all of it.

gods, i love my Hank Moody thumbs-up icon.

and retro goth.

so my friend Mattie Good has this really awesome post up about Creativity and Michael Jackson and I'll wait here while you read it.

Watched The Hangover, can't remember what movie # it is, so I'll add that later, but yeah. Didn't love it. No surprise because I kind of hate funny movies and any movie that starts out with someone calling someone a faggot as the big first joke, kind of loses my attention. It had a couple funny moments, but.

Yeah. You know where I'm coming from, people of the interwebs.

anyway, i have extra days off, so watch for the haircut blog, also known as the "lj to do list of much accountability"

I'm not even feeling all weird or crisis-y over having a milestone birthday; I've been calling myself 30 for a little while now to ease the shock of it actually happening, and I think it worked. I guess it also helps to be turning 30 as I complete articles and about to become a lawyer at a great firm, happily married, with friends and a life I enjoy. I don't have that "I am 30 and what have done with my life so far" thing going on; I know exactly what I've done with my life.

Spent the milestone birthday weekend with the MD crew - the firm gave us a budget to plan an event to celebrate completing articles, and we realize it would go much further if we camped out and bought food and booze at Costco than if we did a catered dinner or a restaurant or anything like that. So we headed out to Beth's parents' cabin at Gull Lake... and by "cabin" you should read "heavenly gorgeous dream home." We were not allowed to use the cabin other than the bathroom and kitchen; the actual camping was on a vacant lot next door that Beth's parents also own. We golfed nine holes at the local course, cooked up a steak dinner on the BBQ and then settled around the campfire with plenty of beer into the wee hours of the morning.

I'm now feeling tired in the way that comes with lots of sun, lots of booze, and sleeping poorly in a tent on lumpy ground and being waken by the sun only a few short hours after going to bed. But I'm happy.

Next adventure: southern Alberta/Saskatchewan camping odyssey. Taking advantage of the official holiday on the 1st and the unofficial holiday on the 3rd (Stampede parade day for those not in Cowtown; my office is closed for the day) and taking the 2nd as a vacation day to continue the exploration of the prairies in the Boler. Destinations: Red Red Coulee Natural Area, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, and Writing-on-Stone Park.

J-Bear!! also bold_text.

I am glad you are finally in the same decade as the rest of us.

Got up at 4:15 this morning for the horse and wasn't home until 9 p.m. So I will make this brief before heading do bed. Great horse show - probably the best hunter rounds Arwen and I have ever done. We picked up some assorted placings with the highest being 3rd. Which is why I like jumpers better - we can have a great hunter course but there will always be someone else with a fancier horse who can also put in a nice round. The riders I was competing against all looked great to me so to be placing consistently was enough.

I'm leaving at 9 tomorrow morning for the MD camping weekend... so family, no need to call for my birthday tomorrow, I will phone sometime soon. The second package arrived the other day, too.

Tonight we are apparently going to go watch some robots. Meh, after reading all the shiteous reviews about the sequel, I could kinda care less. They already lost my respect with the first one. And I am worried they might make W cry with this one. Apparently, Soundwave is in it. And if they ruin Soundwave, oh noes!

Plus, is anyone else sick and tired of fricking Megan Fox? Serious.

But still, with a summer blockbuster such as this, maybe we'll get some decent trailers out of it. So here's hoping! :)

Despite his super weird idiosyncracies, the alleged child molestations, the plastic surgeries, and all the fucking weird crap that has surrounded that dude for decades, I am still sad about Michael Jackson's passing. Thriller will always be one of my most favouritest albums of all time. It was one of the first albums I ever listened to and to this day, I don't think it can be touched. It just can't. It's one of those albums that shaped who I became from a musical perspective. Much like Nevermind did. And, it might surprise some to learn that I usually have at least one MJ song on my iPod at any given time (just like Nirvana).

So, I prefer to mourn the artist, not the extremely troubled man. I don't care what you think of MJ as a human, no one - absolutely no one - can deny his influence on music and dance.

And on a personal note, I'll always remember him as the person who taught an awkward 8 year old Canadian girl that dancing zombies were FUCKING COOL.

RIP Michael.

On the flipside, there is the passing of Farrah Fawcett. Now, she was a bit more before my time, I'll admit. And as such, she had less of an influence on me. But I'm still sad. Still, I think her passing is probably a bit easier to accept given that the poor woman was so sick for so long. Now, she is at peace.

RIP Farrah.

Its been a crazy fricking week in the world of entertainment, my friends.