i fear for mankind....

Question:

When did THIS:

become sexy again??

I raise this question because i am rather disturbed. Mustaches seem to be appearing on men at an alarming rate! Wasn't there a law passed in 1992 saying that never again would the populace be tormented by the "soup strainer"?

i began to take serious notice when the Killers played Saturday Night Live. Dane Cook was hosting, and did a great job by-the-by, i noticed something wrong with Singer Brandon Flower's face. i mean, usually the guy's a pretty boy and all metro sexual like... but he looked like a lumberjack, and that was NOT okay. Moreover, he was sporting the "new Sexy 'Stache'" seen here:

To tell the truth, it looks creepy. there is nothing "sexy" about it. it looks like something that belongs on Alex Trebek, or maybe Weird Al - but even they both got wise eventually and ditched the face do.

i don't even remember how they played that night. I was so utterly distracted by the business all over his top lip that music was the last thing on my mind.

i turned to my friend, Lorenne, and said: "what the POOP is on that guy's face!" it filled me with a sense of dread for the future of mankind as we know it. or at the very least worry that this little Dirty Sanchez is going to pick up.

in my naivete i thought/hoped this would be an isolated incident. these dreams were shattered when in my channel flipping last eve'n i stumbled across CSI: Vegas, my most favourite of CSI, if only for Nick and Burke. You can imagine my surprise when super hottie Nick Stokes was sporting.... you guessed it.... a mustache!!

Oh my Lord in Heaven! I mean, seriously, how can he be expected to be taken seriously as a Cop, or even an actor who plays a Cop on TV, with that grotesqueness. You can't be a big macho hottie with a mustache. what was he thinking?? you could even see in his scenes with co-csi Sarah that even his peers think he looks ri-frikkin-diculous!

Now, i'm not saying that all facial hair is bad. I don't mind a goatee, and i find 5:00 shadow on some men (like my Boyfriend Dr. Greg House) quite sexy. I'd even be okay with handlebar mustaches that connect to the "chinstrap" beard a la James Hetfield of Metalica, but a loner mustache? it's just...OUT there!! hanging out, doing nothing, going nowhere... a facial hair misfit with no purpose other than to be a dark smudge on the oil painting of mankind!!

I tell you, people, this is not a good thing for society. if men keep getting the idea that it's okay for them to grow mustaches the world will hurl itself blindly into chaos. CHAOS!!!!! fear it.

i know i do.

Spread the word.

Mustaches are NOT okay.

i don't want this man ending up Number one on People's 50 Sexiest Men.

McDonalds, you've foiled me again

seriously.... WHY WON'T YOU LET ME FIND THE STUPID "SHORT LINE RAILROAD".
Stupid rare pieces and there stupid rareness. Stupid.

I HAT YOU MCDONALDS

...and i also hate you... but hat was too funny to erase.

Oh what a difference 40 years makes

Okay, i just got this picture in an email of the Calgary Skyline as it was way back in 1969.

As you can see, the Calgary Tower actually towers over something. At this point is was quite an amazing piece of the landscape.

And you can still see the mountains at this stage in the game.

I have to say that this is a far cry from the view that i see every day on my daily commute in the smelly bus. (Seriously, i think i must have the smelliest bus route in the whole city... and it's a big city. Honestly, is it that hard to change your clothes? or wash? or brush your teeth??... i mean COME ON!!)


This is the skyline i'm most accustomed to. Buildings everywhere, i mean, sure it's kinda pretty at night if you're not actually from here.

And they've already projected to fill the holes in the skyline with new buildings. More condos. More Office Space. More more more more more. It's a little sickening in a way. But also somewhat interesting.

They've decided to build THIS monstrocity..."The Bow" building. this is one of the new towers that EnCana is planning on building that will be the new biggest/tallest building in Calgary.

It's projected to be over 1.7 million square feet and house over 3,300 EnCana Employees.

Right now there are conflicting reports, one saying that it will be over 70 storeys high making it Canada's tallest, another report says it will actually be 2 towers spanning 2 city blocks. Either way The Bow will be Calgary's tallest building.

All the reporst say that it's starting construction next spring and will be done by 2010. But i'm sure it'll be longer than that.

Makes me glad i'm getting out. Downtown already sucks. i can't imagine the fun traffic will be over the next 3-5 years.

What they do when we Turn our Backs...

THIS makes me giggle uncontrollably. ;)

What's In Your Bag Baby?

100 things Continued....

Number 18 "Spill Everything"





Here it is for all the world (of 6 readers) to see!! What's in my bag baby? Let's look, shall we?

• Warm Fuzzy Legwarmers These may look a little odd, but they are the warmest things ever. They are the handiwork of Anni Kuhn of "Concious Alterations" here in Calgary. She makes all kinds of cool stuff.
• Green Bag from Ten Thousand Villages I use this to hold all my iPod accessories like cables, plugs, and firewires.
• Cell Phone Charger
• 60G Video iPod my Christmas present to myself last year. I love it. i doubt i'll ever fill it. You can't really tell, but at the time i took this picture it was playing "The Age of Aquarius". Yeah.... let the sunshine in baby.
• Wallet why this isn't in my purse - i don't know.
• Cell Phone Complete with ClownFish Peek-a-Pooh
• Directions to Some Ladies House on a Used Post-It Note
• My Resume Cuz you never know
• One Brown Hair Elastic it's probably been there since my hair was long.
• Big Dorky Earphones they may look dorky, but they rock! and are better for your ears.
• One Crochet Hook Size 5 incase i have to make an emergency Granny Square.
• 2 Blue Pens
• 1 Mechanical Pencil i got from a Dude at Work
• Little Orange Post-it Flaggies
• Brush Ups Cuz sometimes you don't have time to brush
• Shelters of Stone - by Jean M Auel my public transportation Reading material. The last in the Clan of the Cave Bear Series. It's good.
• Raspberry Flavoured Softlips mmmmm softlips.
• 100 Blogging Ideas my guide to better blogging
• Brad's Toque i look like a nerd, but at least i'm warm.
• My Keys
• Plastic Chopsticks from Ikea you never know when someone is going to offer you some Ramen Noodles.
• Advil Cold and Sinus without this i'm a snivelling mess of snot.
• My Purse which has nothing in it except pens, tampons, gum, and some old receipts. Why do i even have a purse?? I don't know.

i actually didn't know my bag could hold this much stuff.

What's your Perfect Meal??

Here goes:

a few weeks ago i bought a book called: "No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog". Hopefully this will inspire me to write a little more creatively. Obviously, i have the bug - but sometimes its much easier to bitch about work than actually use that brain of mine to be inventive.

So. Maybe i need a little help. Okay. So... i'm starting with number 31 "DIG IN"

What makes your mouth water? A thick milkshake and salty fries on the boardwalk, or prime rib and bourbon creme brulee over a linen napkin - tell us about your perfect meal

---

I actually find this to be quite a difficult question. The issue of food is sooooo close to my heart. I love food. i love it. I love the smells, i love the sights and textures, i love the cultural view of sitting down and visiting while chowing down on some great grub.

When i was little, i used to say my favourite food was lasagne, although i'm pretty sure that it had about 2% to do with me actually liking lasagne, and 98% with me liking Garfield. I used to read the old comic strips at my Grandma's house and i particularly remember one frame where Garfield crawls right into the lasagne pan and covers himself with it like a blanket. Strips of flat noodle and splurts of sauce fly out. Now there was a cat who loved his food. Literally... a cat. and he loved his food.

There are the normal comfort foods growing up. The smell of Ham still makes me think of sunday nights at Grandmas... and yes, Garfield too.

Popcorn has always been at the top, but then, that's not really a meal - although Lord knows how many times i've actually had popcorn as a meal. shame on me.

Now, my current fave is Farmer Sausage, Perogies and Cream gravy. Mennonite meals at its finest.
Now, to have this meal, it can't be just any sausage. it has to be, nay *MUST* be sausage from J&Js in Warman, Sask. And the Perogies have to be potatoe and Cheddar. And if my hubby's Grandma can't make the cream gravy, then Brad's Cream Gravy is pretty damn good. in low german, cream gravy is called: Schmot Fat. which translates to..... "DELICIOUS!" or at least i think its "Cream Fat..." and those are actually the ingredients.

YUK you say? that's what i thought... until i had it. But it is essentially sausage fat, salt, flour and cream. mmmmm.

BUT I DIGRESS... and i'm not answering the question at hand... to describe my perfect meal...

hm.

First - if it's gonna be the 'perfect' meal - there has to be some ground rules...
1. i can eat and never get full
2. Calories do not exist
3. i'm dripping in diamonds.

well, maybe not that part.

i'd like to be ambushed and stolen away to an undisclosed location, maybe near a bridge, where there would be a table made up for two. Preferably in the late summer months. Candles would be nice. the dishes would be heavy, like clay - and pretty. i'd like some wine please - a nice Shiraz.

and my handsome husband would have music playing - music that i like... probably some Ella... and we'd drink wine while our own personal waiter brought us Pear and Blue Cheese Salad. after the salad we will dine on Roasted chicken with fresh brocolli and tomatoes.

the next course would be a large order of CrackDonald's French Fries. Followed by a bag of Movie Theatre Popcorn.

After washing this down with a Coke, we'd then have slow roasted ribs and greek salad. with lots of feta. and black olives.

for desert we would have my mother in laws homemade pumpkin pie with whipped topping, followed by plain chocolate ice cream, a Churro, a Stampede Corn Dog, and a Jello Pudding Snack. Rocky Road Flavour.

All of this would be finished off with a Heavy Pottery Mug full of Earl Grey Tea, then some coffee. then one scotch mint.

After all this is done, the dishes would magically clean themselves while my husband and i dance over the water into the sky, like the cornball ending to Grease.

THAT would be one helluva meal. the perfect meal, if you will.

What's your perfect meal?

A Public Servic Announcement

...nobody looks good in white denim jackets with pretend fur collars.

Will be back up shortly!!

sorry, i've removed this post for now. i don't wanna end up dooced ha ha.

Frampton would be proud

So, in addition to working night and day on our stupid lawn, my house has also been quite busy with preparing my parents anniversary present. 30 years ago, on October 9th - 1976, my mom and dad tied the old knot. It's really amazing this day and age to get past 10 years. So GOOD ON YA mom and dad!!

My mom has said for years that she would love for us to throw them a big party with dinner and dancing, speaches and power points. But, that's not in the cards this year. I would have loved to do that, but the fact is Calgary is too far away to plan a party like that. Maybe for their 35th anniversary.

Anywho, since it's a pretty significant wedding anniversary, i thought i'd gather the whole crew of my brothers, my sister in law and my nephews together and we'd cut a cd. Seeing as we all have musical talent, and my hubby has talent up the wazoo for sound engineering and mixing...should be a breeze.



So Friday night - after the Elton John Concert (which i'll go into detail later) William arrived around 1.30 am. Brent and Pam and the kids arrived Saturday morning around 9ish. Brent was pretty hilarious. He was pretty sure he could just go in and lay down 3 or 4 songs in about an hour. .....about an hour and a half later, he'd barely finished one song.... i think he realized then that recording a song is not as easy as it seems. ;)

The little boys were easy enough to record, but tough to get levels on because they only wanted to sing once. They, of course, sound absolutely adorable. and they looked pretty cute too.



We spent most of Saturday recording songs over and over again... after our landlord gave us the letter our day was pretty much done, so we went to eat at Applebees....where we had the worst service/meal. I think my brother was ready to either strangle his kids or punch out the waiter. It was a little entertaining...

Sunday we took the day off recording. most everyone was done except Patrick who took a road trip to see Elton John in Edmonton. So we took the boys to the Science Centre where i think Brad and William had more fun than the little boys.




After William, Brent and family went home we waited for Patrick. He arrived and layed down some tracks to some stuff... one of which was a stirring rendition of "Sweet Caroline" that left us in tears.

So the rest of that week was spent doing the final touches, and Brad mixing the final versions. I had a friend of mine put together a CD Cover/Booklet and CD lable for me. It turned out pretty sweet!
The blank tape says: "Munkholms Come Alive...With a Little Help From a Harms..." and features such hits as "The Joker", "I Got You Babe", "Don't You want Sombody To Love", and Soo much more! Brought to you by K-Tel.

I ran down to an HMV downtown and sweet talked the manager in shrink wrapping it for me, and i had him add the price tag. $19.76 the year they were married.

So, this thanksgiving weekend we gathered around my parents and we all listened to the disc together. There were Tears, there was Laughter... and i think they loved it!
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

the saga continues

I can't wait for this week to be over. Actually, there's a lot of things i can't wait for. Moving out of Paranoid-lady's house is one of them. I keep thinking to myself... "Just make it till January, jut make it till January" Nothing would make me happier than kissing Ms. Loh, her stupid house, my stupid job, and this stupid city a great big ol' GOODBYE!!!

My whole entire body is broken. After doing 3.5 hours of heavy weeding and yard work... it feels like my hamstrings are about to rip apart!! We still have to mow the lawn and do something with the dead flowers in the back yard, but at least the front yard looks all pretty and such. I think we'll just WEED WACKER them all down and shake out the seeds so they'll re-grow in the spring. That way we'll save the flowers, and it'll be less work. Yeah, i try to do as little *actual* work as possible. :)

fall...and fighting the landlord monster

Winter is fast approaching in this town of Cows. Each morning as i bundle myself up to trudge out to the bus stop, you can smell that it wants to snow, it just hasn't made that leap.

And, of course, this is also the weather that is freezing in the morning, but the busride home is sweltering. And there's nothing like being crammed into a moving sausage of sweaty, tired, and grumpy downtowners.

But i thought i would take advantage of the nice weather and walk on down to the river to capture some of Calgary's fall scenery. It was a really nice and relaxing walk. When all surrounded by the trees, with the sounds of the river next to you, you can almost imagine that you're not in the city at all, but trekking through the forest in the mountains. That is, until you stumble into a homeless person's camp.

At this point, there's nothing you can really do except say "oops! Sorry!" and back away slowly. and "no, i don't have any cigarettes" is another thing you'd probably have to say. ...i did.

this is, probably, one of the most awkward situations i've ever experienced. In a way, i felt like i'd just walked on in to somebody's living room and started taking pictures of their couches turning colour.

in other news, our landlord has turned out to be a "major fucking demon".

In January, our rent is going up - again. our new monthly rent will be $1,300 up from $1,050. (which, incidently just went up on July from $950) Not only that but she gave us a nice long list of things she wants done to the house, including weeding and watering the flowers in the flowerbed...uh...it's October. The flowers are long gone... and not only are we to weed the flowerbeds (and the driveway?) but we have to make sure that allllll the weeds are "Dug Out"...so gooooooodbye perrenials. We tried to save you, but seeing as we can't tell what's a flower and what's a weed (because it's October and the flowers are dead) we have to dig you all up.

In addition to all that, according to her letter, we have a new roomie.

"...you stated that when your brother Pat moved out that only you and Laura would be living in the house. It has come to my attention that you have a third person living in the house and you are in breach of faith of our lease"... uhm.... excuse me? third person??

As far as i know, there is only 2 people in the house. If not, that means i've been parading my naked body around the house in the presence our our mystery roommate. If i do have a mystery roommate, my sincerest apologies that you had to witness my white arse running through the hallway.

On one of her annual house inspections (which she forgot to come to until we called her asking whether or not she was still planning to attend) Brad's parents were visiting for the September long weekend and were staying in the guestroom. Apparently the suitcase indicates "roommate". Which is utter bullhonkey. I shouldn't have to call my landlord everytime we have family visit!

I talked to my Uncle, who's a lawyer in town, and he said that we can't do anything about the whole roommie thing pro-actively. All we can do at this point is tell her that there ISN'T anyone but us living there. He also said that the burden of proof is on her. she has to proove that we have a 3rd person living there. We don't have to proove anything. He also said that she sounds like a bitch, and i agreed. And, if she gives us a hard time to give him a call and he'd help us out. It's really nice to have a lawyer in the family.

Even if just to have a letter sent to her on his legal letterhead would be effective.

We have to be strong and fight this stupid paranoid lady as much as we can. She's the crazy scheister type who will try anything she can think of to keep our damage deposit. And when the time comes, i'm going to try to get my uncle to be present at the time of the walk through so he can tell what is and what isn't a result of "regular wear and tear". Because if it IS regular wear and tear, she can't take it out of our damage deposit.

Grr.