We're On A Boat (Yes, With Flippy Floppies) [updated]

Soooo, last weekend a couple of roommates' parents brought their bought up to our place and we took it out. Possibly at one point we found ourselves in a week channel meeting some sizable swells coming in from Lake Ontario. Here is some topsy turny (mostly what you'll have to do with your head) footage:

(UPDATE - you can actually watch it now)

Watching People In Labour

Willem and I took in Hamilton's Labour Day parade. There was a dragon, and we got a frisbee and some candy and there were dogs and buses and trucks and an old timey school teacher and whistles and pipers and waving and fun. Awww.

Testing, Testing

If you're on facebook you may have been subjected to a barrage of requests asking you to take quizzes testing your knowledge of friends and family. I'm proud to say that I have managed not to take any of these quizzes. But I can say that I am intrigued by them. Every so often I like to give my loyal blog readers an edge over facebook peeps.

In that spirit, I am creating a "How Well Do You Know Lstew? quiz right here, right now. Read the questions, jot down your answers somewhere and on Friday I'll post the answers. There will be a prize (or prizes) based on scores.

1. What year was I born?
2. What city was I born in?
3. How many children are in my family?
4. Where do they live?
   
5. What is my favourite colour?
6. What is my favourite sport?
7. How many citizenships do I have?
8. What is my favourite animal?
9. What colour is the stone in my nose ring?
10. How many piercings do I have?
11. How many tattoos do I have?
12. What were my high schools sports teams named? (like Spartans or Pioneers)
13. Excluding Canada, how many countries have I set foot in?
14. How many times have I been engaged?
15. Though what did I become a Christian? (although the Holy Spirit is technically a correct answer, it is not the one I'm looking for here)
16. Who is my favourite jazz artist?
17. Who is my favourite theologian?
18. What was the name of my first car?
19. What major(s) and minor(s) did I graduate with?
20. What year did I graduate from university?
21. If you know, I'll give you a hug to not tell anyone what year I graduated from high school.
22. Name 3 things I'm allergic to.
23. What is my favourite drink (I'll accept one of 3 answers here - or all three for bonus points)?
24. What is my favourite type of non-anglo food (or "ethnic" food)?
25. Name 4 jobs I've had since I left high school.
    

So Many Flightless Birds, So Little Time

If you're looking for something to do this weekend, might I suggest Wingfest at Pier 8 (that's the part of the bay front/harbour with Williams Coffee Pub).

It boasts:

• a whole lotta wings (and food)
  
• a midway - aka RIDES!
• an art show
• cheap boat cruises
  
• fireworks on Saturday night
• live music - including Henry Strong's current jazz band, The Spoons, Honeymoon Suite and April Wine

It's free to get in until 6pm at which point it'll cost ya a whole two bucks. You should probably check it out. I am.

How To Earn A Dollar (In 15 Easy Steps)

1. Begin clearing kitchen table
2. Notice bowl of hot peppers
3. Notice loony sitting in front of friend
4. Notice urge to put a hot pepper in your nose
5. Express urge to put hot pepper in your nose
6. Listen to friend offer 1$ in return for putting the hot pepper in your nose and then eating it
7. Let friend pick the pickled hot pepper ring
   
8. Take hot pepper and insert pickled hot pepper ring fully into one nostril
9. Sniff (at request of friend)
10. Carefully remove hot pepper from nose
11. Put hot pepper in mouth
12. Chew
13. Swallow
14. Go upstairs and blow your nose and feel your nose ring throbbing
15. Put loony in wallet
    

Good For The Ego

I got legitimately beat in cards by a 5 year old this weekend.

Ouch.

Happy Pagan Death Candy Scary Day!

Did you know that palm trees are the opposite of Halloween?
(as usual - click for larger versions)



By carving a palm tree into a pumpkin, I have created a rift in the space-time continuum. We're all doomed.



If I stare long enough into the rift I think I see the Red Sea being parted... oh, wait, that's just me doing a canon ball at the old cottage. My bad.



This what happens when you let an over achieving ed student near a creative outlet (that involves) knives after she's finished her last exam (which was math).



Same deal. We're praying that her sanity will be restored.



Back row (l-r) by: Tashley, Chelsea, Michelle, Chelsea
Front row (l-r) by: Shawna, Tashley, Me, Alyssa, Chelsea



What a bunch of spooky over achievers. Boo!

For Halloween Week

I took this picture of Leah



She took this picture of me.

I Think It Was A Good Day

I spent some time at home on the weekend. I got pretty tired (for various reasons) and decided it wouldn't be safe for me to drive all the way back to London on Sunday night. Therefore I thought I would get a good jump after breakfast on Monday morning and be back to London just after lunch. That was a pipe dream.

The following are my facebook status updates that I made via my cell (with some commentary):

Laura is on the side of the 401 with a flat tire, although she is capable of changing said tire, she is glad to have caa. 10:51

-I'm just driving along and the car starts to handle all crazy and there is a bad bad noise coming from the back. I pull over and swear. Then I call CAA. Then I wait for CAA. Then CAA comes and puts the spare on and inflates it for me. Then I make phone calls to Dad and L.Bo for advice on where the heck to go and get this tire repaired. I end up at Northumberland Tire. They say its gonna be 45min or so. Alors, I take off on foot to kill the time.

Laura stly) replacement. Hurray! 12:01

-this was supposed to read "Laura is eating chinese buffet by herself in port hope. She was just informed that the tire cannot be fixed and she is waiting for them to put on a (likely costly) replacement. Hurray!" I had decided lunch was in order and a 6.50$ chinese lunch buffet is ok with me.

Laura gives up on trying to update this from her cell. Grrr. 12:03

-I was pretty frustrated that I had taken the time to put that whole long update up and it didn't work. though I think it may have worked over the mobile network because I got a text from L.bo saying that I was killing her. she felt sad that she was working and couldn't come and have 6.50$ chinese buffet with me.

Laura is killing Lesley, possibly slowly and with her song. 12:06

-so I thought I'd let everyone know that I was killing L.bo

Laura just watched some woman named Doris get surprised for her birthday at the aforementioned chinese place. 12:18

-yup, just as I was heading back to the buffet Doris and a couple of friends walked in and she spied a very long table full of more of her friends and very quietly and sporadically they started going "uh, surprise." "surprise Doris" "happy birthday Doris" I was pretty amused. And I was just killing time while I was waiting for N-Tire to put the newbie on my car.

Laura cannot do anything simple. Sigh. 12:42

-while I was in the bathroom my Dad called. he had just remembered that before I got the car, he and Mom had put new tires on it and they might be under warranty. but the warranty would be with Canadian Tire, which I was not at and which there is none in Port Hope. this frustrated me to know at this point. so I called Dad and said that it was too late for this tire as a new one was being put on, but I was glad to know for future tire 'incidents'. I got back to N-tire and the spare was still on my car. what? growl. they hadn't had time to find a suitable replacement. so I took that opportunity to check my glove box for anything that mentioned tire warranty. found it, called dad. after some discussion dad called cobourg CT for me and they said to bring the tire in. I got my tire back from N-tire and slowly headed to the 'burg.

Laura is on her way to cobourg canadian tire, frick. 13:00

-I was obviously thrilled to be back tracking and likely eating another hour of time. if I didn't leave cobourg by 3pm then I wouldn't be making it to London by 7 for rehearsal (because of traffic) and would just go back to my parents.

Laura was really wishing she would get an unsecured wireless signal at CT. that wish is going unfulfilled. 13:17

-I pulled out my laptop and thought I might get some work done while waiting for my 'free' replacement tire to be put on. this work would not be involving the internet

Laura has a new tire and is ready to take off across toronto (into traffic). Oh look, its raining. Fun. 13:51

-after about a million phone calls, a bunch of hours spent waiting on the 401, in port hope, and in cobourg, I was finally able to start heading westward again

Laura is back in London, thinking about supper and getting ready for rehearsal. 17:07

-traffic was nice, I made good time and I made it back with a bit of space to breath and have supper before choir rehearsal.

So I think that was a pretty stellar day and was in no way frustrating or a waste of an entire day. Cough.

Vote, Vote, Vote...

...unless you are a felon, 'cause felons can't vote.

I watch this every election day.

Also, ever since I became a laptop owner I spend my election nights with television coverage on and my laptop on my lap, checking the ridings of family, friends and roommates. I make a nice drink and I make popcorn and other snacks. Ohhh, its a good time.

Me = nerd.

Just In Case You Didn't Know

Monday = new cycle of American gladiators

Wednesday = season finale of America's Next Top Model

These truly are exciting times to be alive.

Not A Bodily Function

So I spent new year's eve with a fantastic group of friends that I often ring in the new year with. And we always have a good time. This year our good time was enhanced by a game that Lorraine got for Christmas.



This is quite possibly the more random game I have EVER played, and I have completed a Theatre Arts major. For real, this is a cracked out board game. Its like Cranium meets heroin, has a kid and that kid eats nothing but lead paint and magic mushrooms. Yeah.



Essentially you have to move your game piece around and be the first one to finish. The board itself just looks like a psychedelic yellow brick road. The game pieces are little cardboard characters, like The Dude, Mrs Picklefeather, Super Ninja Monkey... yeah. And every spot you land on is a colour and the colour matches up with a card. The cards make you do stuff - answer a question, brainstorm things within a certain category, write a roses are red poem about the player to your left, write a 5 line poem about your pet tuba named larry, you know pretty usual stuff. But some cards are a little crazy - like some of the personal rules (roolz) cards - Christine had to make a snorkel out of household materials and then wear it for the rest of the game, Justin had to wrap aluminum foil around one of his hands and leave it there. Or there was a rule for all of us - we had to imagine that there was a genie named Ned living on one of the cards and before we could start any turn we had to sing a song to him that said his name three times and included a wish. Um, ok.

One of the best quirky quirks to the game are the classified cards. These are supremely cracked out cards from many of the categories that no other player can read. Justin had to get someone to say farm equipment. I got a couple of these cards - the first one told me to get up, put the timer on and then pretend that i was trapped in a tree and being attacked by 5 lobsters and an angry dwarf. No one had to guess what I was doing, or anything like that, I just had to act that out for 30 seconds and then sit down and the game would continue. The other classified card I had asked me to ask myself if I would like a mint, slap myself across the face and reply that I would love one, then turn to the player on my left, ask them if they would care for a game of hopscotch, then giggle like a school girl, then pet my pet walrus who is on my lap, then tilt my head to the sky, smile and say something like "Chuckles always enjoys a good scratch behind the ear. I farm because I love it." There is a trick to these cards though - with such cracked out activities being asked of you and no one to check up on you, you could be cheating. So if someone decides they want to check your card they can, but there are penalties - sometimes they have to move back spaces, but sometimes, just sometimes its a positive penalty and they would advance.

I wouldn't play this game with Oma.

Christmas Morning

a little something i got in my stocking this morning...

Dashing Through The Snow

We went tobogganing. I think Chelsea had a good time.

(Warning this video may not be suitable for work as it contains the word 'ass')

Stuck For Halloween?

Are you stuck for a costume idea for Halloween? Try this and you're sure to be the light of the party.

Traffic Is Fun

Jealous?

This is me checking this blog on an iPhone.



This is me about to make a call on an iPhone that was 'dial-in'. I ended up calling home and also calling Felix - I knew he would drool.



Pretty much they are so nice and pretty much the 4GB was 499USD. Mmmmm.

Help! I Need Some Bodies! (And Some Cars, Oh And A Truck...)

Dear people who love me,

I love you too.

Guess what? I have an idea for how you can put your love into action! I am moving on August 1. That is one week from now! Hooray! Oh wait, moving sucks. But no, moving doesn't suck (so much) when you have a bunch of your friends to help you and then you fill your faces with pizza afterwards. (Are ya with me?)

Mostly what I need is people and vehicles. I'd like to do this is one shuh-bang - ie take everything over from one apartment to the other at once. So we all come to my place on Wednesday after work, we fill cars (and one truck, i need one truck, or a van...anyone?) with most of my earthly belongings and then we truck them up to my new place (10min drive) and drop them there. I will do all the work after that. But me, my back and my Honda Civic can't handle the rest.

So what says you? Honestly, with enough people and vehicles it shouldn't take a crazy long time. The biggest piece of furniture I have is a desk (my bed comes fully apart, there's a dresser and two practically cardboard ikea bookshelves). Let me know if you're in and then I'll coordinate things via email - like what time people are done work/when we can get this party started.

Thank you. I promise I love you for more than your muscles (as long as you love me for more than my neediness and pizza),

Laura

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Little Johnny is playing in Hamilton this Friday, Friday, Friday, June 29th.

The game takes place at 7:30pm at Bernie Arbour Stadium, admission is 5$ or really smooth talking (ask Rob and Gayle about that one).

Celebrities like Dan Postma and Laura Stewart will be there.

Blog stalkers, this a great time for you to tear yourself away from your computers and come mingle with real people. 2nd floor at 777 this applies to you!

Last week's game boasted the tossing of 2 Hamilton managers and one Hamilton pitcher; Kitchener stealing home; a baby in a Red Sox outfit; prizes for the best dancer; a lot of peanuts and a great night of ball!

"So if you're in the area and you must be in the area because this isn't a very powerful radio station, c'mon down to the ball park and bring the kiddies with ya." (4 points if you name the quote)

Gre-eeg Where Are You?