Another rainy night in the T-dot.

Hello out there. Just got home from some ventures I'll explain in a moment. The taste of my third chocolate cupcake is still lingering, and I gotta say, I'm regretting it just a bit. I've sort of been on this healthy eating kick lately, but today I just lost the dedication, and tonight has been filled with cupcakes, and also some ice cream.

Work sucked big time because things are super busy these days. Clients and non-clients alike call in with lame questions that take up tons of time. The most annoying thing is being asked if I'm free, when I'm clearly in the middle of something and NOT FREE. Know what I mean? Good laughs are usually had at work though, so that makes up for it.

After work I went to the grocery store to pick up some items, then met up with 4 of my friends at a nearby church where we cooked and served dinner for about 40 people from the neighborhood who are "down on their luck", if you know what I mean. It was pretty fun and we made them an amazing and tasty meal consisting of rice with beans and corn in it, and tacos with all the fixin's. And ice cream for dessert! I ate lots of ice cream. Blarg!

Then I came home, popped next door to the laundromat (actually it's 4 doors down, but who cares), fed the machines some loonies, then came back home. I gotta go back there right away to see if the clothes are clean and make sure no one steals them. Usually I sit and read a book while the clothes are spinning, but today I thought to myself, I don't want to spend my time in this dumb laundromat. So i'll just trust people not to take my socks and underwear. I'll let you know how it goes.

Weekend plans are shaping up at this point in the week. First on the list is to diss this Swine Flu at every opportunity. Don't even get me started on this, guys. Seriously, it's just another media ploy. I remember when I was about 13 or 14, living in the town of Edmonton, Alberta, there was this big scare about some kind of disease you could get by inhaling mouse turds. People could actually die from it, so there was this huge uproar about not going into your garage or doghouse or wherever mouse turds could be. Now I'm not saying Swine Flu is on the same level as this mouse turd thing, but the whole point is that the media on the whole likes to SCARE the population, and I feel that's what's goin on here.

Anyways! This weekend will see me travelling back to the Niagara region for a hair appointment, a party at my friend Colin's house, and most importantly, my dad's 60th bday bash. It's gonna be NUTS!!! I'll keep you guys posted. Gotta go check the laundry now.

WEEKEND REPORT.

Best thing I ate this weekend: Paska made by my mom.

Worst thing I ate this weekend: Paska made by some old lady at my parents' church that tasted like play-doh and poison.

Time I was happiest this weekend: Mostly all of it, but especially when I was reading/napping, or eating good food. Also when I laughed at a story this chick told me about being sick in India and the doctors shoving an orange in her face to cure the nausea.

Time I was the saddest this weekend: When my dad told me about how their cat killed a female yellow finch, and the male finch sat on the porch for a super long time just staring and waiting for its dead mate to return.

Time I was the most frustrated this weekend: Going for an early morning run on Saturday and practically being blown into the canal by the excessive ridiculous wind, and also being freezing and having to work thrice as hard as usual to run against the stupid wind, and also dodging huge piles of disgusting goose poo on the sidewalk. Ugggh worst run ever.

Best thing I watched this weekend: I love you man

Worst thing I watched this weekend: golf

Most interesting conversation this weekend: Discussing with dad whether Jesus' body vaporized out of the tomb, then moving on to souls and how they get to heaven, and my dad saying that sometimes airplanes hit souls when they're on their way to heaven. He was kidding, I think.

Worst conversation this weekend: When my brother and I went to a seedy bar and my brother's friend called me by the name of my brother's ex-girlfriend. Soooooo awkward.

Best song I listened to this weekend: Help I'm alive by metric.

Worst song I listened to this weekend: Crazy country gospel crap that was on the radio.

Time I realized I'm turning into a senior this weekend: When my ear hurt and crackled just from the noise of old ladies singing in church.

Time I realized I'm turning into my mom this weekend: When my mom told me I'm turning into her. And when she told me that my laugh sounds just like hers and is almost as loud.

Amount of times I dropped pieces of food on the floor while helping mom prepare meals this weekend: Approximately 37.

Amount of times I smiled this weekend: A gazillion.

Easter Saturday.

Hello! This morning I went for a nice little run using my new "Nike+ Sport" attachment, but that's not what I'm here to talk about.

First order of business: The Toronto Bus Terminal. This has got to be the most chaotic, poorly-run transportation system in a major North American city. I arrived there around 9pm on Friday night, got in line, and stepped up to a ticket booth around 9:07. Spent $22 and change on a bus ticket to St. Catharines, and asked ticket booth guy if I could still get on the 9:15 bus. He said, "Sure you can." I went outside to lineup #3, and assessed the situation by asking a number of people in line which bus they were waiting for - some said St. Catharines, some said Peterborough. One of the St. Catharines girls in line asked the bus driver if that was the St. Catharines bus, and he confirmed that it was, but it was full. Great.

So, me and the 4 other St. Catharines people in line went back inside, waited in the ticket line again, and exchanged our tickets for the 9:30 bus. Heading back outside to lineup #1, we saw at least 100 people already in this line. We joined the end of it and waited. Waited. Waited. W A I T E D. FINALLY a bus pulled up at 10, loaded half the people on, and then some genius figured out that there were WAY too many people waiting there, and another bus pulled up at 10:20 which the rest of us crowded onto. Keep in mind, that bus was supposed to leave at 9:30. So I did finally make it into St. Catharines at almost midnight that night, but in a bit of a sour mood, and freezing because the bus driver clearly thought that the 3-degree weather outside warranted blasting the air conditioning for the entire trip.

The annoying thing is this: WHY the heck did they sell so many tickets? I've come to the conclusion that there is NO logic going on here at all. The ticket guys inside are using these Apple II-E computers, circa 1985, where they just select the destination city and print out a ticket. I am absolutely convinced there is no correlation between how many tickets they sell and how many seats are available on a bus. They just keep taking the money and printing the tickets out, giving NO THOUGHT WHATSOEVER to how many people may be trying to get onto one bus. I mean, COME ON, you guys. There are over 100 people outside lined up for one bus, and you're STILL thinking it's a good idea to sell more tickets for that bus? Wouldn't that tiny customer service gland inside you make you want to actually inform someone that they may be better off coming back in an hour or two when they can actually buy a ticket and step onto the bus for which they bought the ticket? JUST A THOUGHT.

During the bus ride, I had the opportunity to listen to my ipod. I recently picked up two new albums that I'm thoroughly enjoying. Want to know which ones?

Those two. They are solid, solid albums that I'm loving right now. So if you like good music, you may like these. I was going to say a lot more about these two bands and how much I love their music, but I haven't got it in me. I'm going to go stuff myself with more Easter items such as paska (sweet bread covered in icing... mmmm.) Then I'll read a book and fall asleep on the couch. I know you envy me. You too could have an afternoon like this - just do it!

My time in the Twin Cities (but mostly Minneapolis)

Work is so slow right now that I could be asleep and no one would notice, so I might as well update my blog for the 3 people who always bug me to update it.

From Thursday to Sunday I pretended I was rich and famous, and along with that fantasy came a jetsetting weekend whirlwind trip to the great state of Minnesota. I flew Midwest Airlines, which was somewhat annoying because I had a stopover in Milwaukee (a very quiet, grey airport where the food selection is minimal.) The great thing about this airline though is that they give you "baked-on-board" chocolate chip cookies. You can even have two or three if you want. I realized pretty quickly that the cookies were pre-baked and then just heated up in the miniscule oven at the front, but warm cookies are always better than cold ones, so I'm not complaining. This is supposedly what it looked like.
But in reality, the armrests were regular size, and not huge with trays like this one.

So when I arrived in Minneapolis, my friend Naomi picked me up and we stopped at her apartment to drop my stuff. Her apartment is HUGE and gorgeous and she barely pays anything for it. These are the "perks" for living in the midwest United States. It's tempting. Then we walked around the neighborhood, watched some court tv shoes including Judge Judy, and went out in the evening to a place called "The Shout House." This is their logo:

Pretty cool, I know. Definitely wouldn't have classified it as Rock 'n Roll, but I'm positive there were two pianos which seemed to be dueling. They had pints of beer for 3 dollars (!!!!) so we enjoyed a few, along with a pizza that might've been previously frozen. We nicknamed one of the piano players "Featherhead" because his hair was light and feathery, and the other one, we called him "Farm Boy" for obvious reasons. The music was pretty decent, and people made lots of requests on tiny slips of yellow paper.

The crowd in the Shout House was kind of odd, especially a table of dudes right at the front. At first it looked like a few regular guys out for a drink after work. Then odd things started happening. First, the guy we called "Mock-Turtleneck" (again for obvious reasons) fell sideways off his chair. Then his friend SkiJacket started flirting with all the other guys in the group and dancing really sensually. Mock-Turtleneck ended up getting on stage and dancing up a storm. I took a few photos but they're not on my work computer, so I can't upload them. Just picture a short asian guy in a white mock-neck and baggy Dockers (pleated) having the time of his life.

The next day (Friday, for those of you keeping track) we spent the entire day shopping, first at Target and then at Mall of America. The mall was kind of a mecca for country bumpkins, but had some good stores and we both SPLURGED on shoes. The spending wore Naomi and I both out, so we rented two movies from this thing at McDonald's called Redbox. It's such a great concept, and I can't figure out why we don't have it here. Every McDonald's there had a huge red box, aptly named Redbox, where you just select the movies you want to rent via a tv screen thing, then it drops them out of the box. When you return them (at ANY McDonald's location) you just pay $1 per night per movie. SO CHEAP.

Unfortunately we picked horrible movies. The first one was The Women, which I chose, featuring all women. The characters were annoying (especially Jada Pinkett-Smith's character) and the lack of men was simply maddening. Then we took a break for some brie and crackers and a quick Scrabble match. On to movie number two: Nights in Rodanthe. Naomi picked that one. Man, what a bad movie!! I actually cried at the end, but mostly because of how bad it was.

Saturday we went out for a delicious brunch, then ran/walked around Lake Calhoun in the gorgeous weather, then went out for numerous beverages in the evening and met some delightful new folks. Sunday I went home.... not a fun travel day. Felt kinda sick and took some anti-nausea pills which made me feel like I was 20% awake all day. I fell asleep on each flight plus in the Milwaukee airport and almost missed my flight. The free cookies were pretty good though.

If I've left anything out or you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

For your consideration.

It's Friday the 13th, AGAIN!!! Sweet. This must mean something good. Currently I'm halfway through my coffee, and two-thirds through my cereal. People tend to think it's gross that I like to let the milk sit in the cereal for about 10 minutes minimum before I eat it. It's just personal preference. What's wrong with that? Soggy cereal is a comforting and mushy way to start your day.

Yesterday I finally visited the mecca that is Whole Foods. It's this super posh grocery store in Yorkville, where things cost a ton and everything's organic. I must say that it was an extremely delightful experience. I felt like I was pretending to be from the Yorkville area and it was kind of fun. In the end I only spent $20, but it was fun just being there.

Last weekend I was in Chapters, just sitting and reading a book, when this guy approaches me and says, "Can I just say one thing?" I gave him my skeptical look and said, "Okay." He said, "You are truly beautiful." Then he went on to ask me for coffee, at which point I shot him down. Then he told me I was harsh. Then I escaped. He was for sure in his 40's! Ew. It's such a tough call with these things, because if he would've been a guy my age who was attractive, it's possible that it might have worked, after I stopped barfing at the cheesy pick-up line. But when it's an older guy who is not attractive, it's unpleasant all around.

This weekend I'm going to do my taxes, and I better not have to pay the government any more money, because if so, I'll flee the country. Have a good weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kitchen disasters.

The other day I wanted to make some soup, but should've known that it wouldn't really turn out. Every time I try a new recipe, something goes wrong. I started making the soup, then realized I didn't have about half of the ingredients, so I started substituting other things, and it ended up taking like 2 hours to be finished. I had to eat a pizza pop while I was waiting for the soup. ARRGGGHHHHHHH.

After that I decided to try making a new cookie recipe. When I finally got them into the oven, I was expecting to start smelling the lovely cookie aroma, but instead I smelled burning plastic. Turns out I had a large tupperware container sitting on one of the burners, where tons of steam was escaping from the oven. Picked up the tupperware and discovered the bottom of it had melted onto the burner. Also, the tupperware wasn't empty - it was full of white sugar. So white sugar ended up all over the stove and pretty much the whole kitchen. Just a lovely experience over all. And the cookies were probably the worst cookies I've ever made. Now they're in the freezer just hanging out.

This is my life.

"Cara Recommends...." - a series of tv shows that are pretty good.

Good evening, friends. I just got home from an attempt at running (a sorry one, I might add), and am now drinking some Sleepytime tea. I've seen billboards for it on buses and stuff, and it says something to the effect of "Brew some sleep." Not sure why I even bought it, because I sleep just fine without brewing Sleepytime tea, but it can't hurt.

The topic at hand is my current favourite tv shows, so let's get to it.

Dr. G: Medical Examiner. A really great show on the Discovery Health channel which features Dr. G examining bodies to figure out how the people died. It's super interesting as she goes through the steps to figure out what happened. She only does interesting deaths, not boring ones, like people dying of old age. My only beef with this show is that it could probably all be summed up in about 15 minutes, but they stretch it into an hour-long show (featuring 2 bodies) because there are all these "dramatizations" of her wearing her blood-splattered scrubs, making a Y-incision into the body. The Y-incision is ALWAYS the first incision. The cool part is when she can't figure anything out from the internal organs and she has to move to the cranial exam. This involves a drill cutting a hole into the skull to get to the brain. Neat!!

Mystery Diagnosis. In the same vein (pun intended) as Dr. G, this show features people who have odd diseases or conditions that no one can figure out. They all have harrowing stories of having gone to 20 or 30 doctors and no one being able to figure out their disease, and them almost dying before one doctor finally figured it out. The diseases are always really rare, and if you're a hypochondriac, you probably should stay away from this show.

Jon & Kate Plus 8. I love this family. The kids are so darn cute, and one of the twins even shares my name. Kate is so ridiculously bossy and Jon's always rolling his eyes, but they try to do cool activities with the kids. They recently moved into a new home, and got two new puppies.

Ace of Cakes. OHHHH man. If you haven't seen this Food Network gem, you are missing out. Chef Duff and his coworkers at Charm City Cakes (who are all hip cool people) make cakes for people. They make the coolest cakes EVER and are ridiculously creative. In one episode they made a cake version of Hogwarts for the Harry Potter premiere in Hollywood. Watching this show makes me so hungry for cake, and it makes me want to hang out with the Charm City Cakes people because they seem so fun.

Cash Cab. Ever seen this? It's a surprisingly entertaining little show, usually on the Discovery network, set in Toronto. It's just a guy driving a minivan-cab around, and when people get in, he tells them they're in the cash cab. From that point til they reach their destination, he asks them trivia questions, and then for every question, they win cash. On the last one I watched, two guys won almost $900 during their ride!! I'm constantly on the lookout for the cash cab but so far no luck. Best part about the cash cab is that when the passengers get the answer right, the inside ceiling of the cab lights up like a disco.

That's it - going to test out whether the Sleepytime tea has actually induced sleep.