hangs head in shame

yeah yeah i know... i'm like the absentee blogger. it's been what - a week? this isn't going to be a normal occurence. i'd like to promise that but hey - who can promise? i'm like the wind beneath your wings constantly changing and scratching at the legs that you forgot to shave this morning. oh wait - that's me too 'cause both the kiddo and i slept in so had to make a mad dash through the house trying to put ourselves together so we wouldn't be late for work.

well it's not such a big deal for me 'cause no one else is here in the morning so i can show up a few minutes late and get myself put together, but he needs to be there for 8 on the nose.

so the architect is down in san diego, and has been there for over a week now. i'm going quite nutso about the whole thing. the house is very quiet and i have a great deal of trouble falling asleep at night. (no trouble at all sleeping in the early hours of the morning though. clearly.)

OH MY GOD i forgot - last night i opened a beer bottle with another beer bottle and didn't spill any. i rock.

if i get the money honey would you love me love me love me

so i received not one but THREE emails from the UK national lottery yesterday. apparently i'm now 19million pounds richer. dang rufus i'm goin on vacation!

so the architect has gone down to san diego for work. he'll be away for 2 weeks and already things are starting to fall apart. well that's not true - they could def. be worse. for example, this municipal strike currently castrating the lower mainland *could* be affecting my garbage pickup. this would be bad because a) i'd have to send the kiddo on commando missions around the neighbourhood to get rid of it and b) i don't have a lid to my garbage can. the suburb i live in, fortunately, hires independent contractors to handle the garbage, though, so all i have to do is nag him into hauling it down to the curb.

also - i've had to start washing my own dishes. i *don't* do dishes. i cook. dishes. sheesh. who does dishes.

er.. me for 2 weeks. fuck.

also - after almost 8 months of living in that house, i've decided it's time to get the boxes out of the bedroom and hang some pictures. so i started on sunday and had some wine. then i put the hammer down.

somewhere.

heh.

those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it

is anyone else horrified by proposed reforms to educational curricula in the UK? maybe i'm just old-fashioned but it seems to me that eliminating the pinnacles of the 20th century from textbooks (churchill? hitler? ghandi? king? seriously?) in favour of 'good nutrition' is nearly laughable. while i am 100% behind the idea of evolving educational practices, at the same time i see absolutely no value in neglecting to instill in youth the sacrifices and triumphs and horrors inflicted upon our society within our grandparents memory. it boggles my mind.

i can stand my own ground

crazy stuff that happened at soundwave this weekend:
1) a massive thunderstorm struck on friday morning. the architect and i hid in our screened dining tent eating homemade wholewheat blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup and drank french press espresso with baileys for the duration.
2) the architect had a massive bout of relationship angst and spent friday night in the tent instead of hanging out having a good time. he apparently almost left via the thumb express.
3) i sat on my favourite sunglasses.
4) after eating about 1.5 grams of mushrooms, i was lying on the beach admiring the fluffy clouds when i was suddenly stung by a wasp. i railed against the universe for harshing my mellow.
5) relationship angst forgotten, the architect and i retired to the tent mid saturday night festivities, during which time his gum somehow ended up lodged in my hair. i had to cut it out with a swiss army knife.

all things considered, it was still a great time. funny how such random things can happen and still not take the shine off a fun weekend with friends, huh?

random crapola from the sundae sanatorium

in lieu of doing any kind of coherent thinking of my own, i offer you the results of my morning coffee web surfing.

ok first off dave grohl. nuff said.

next up: things white folk shouldn't ever say: "get your drink/smoke/sex on"; "that's whack"; "get jiggy with it" (actually those last two should be slapped from everyone's lips, regardless of race or gender).

from the realm of the ridiculous: ecouture. seriously. a stella mccartney shopping bag? mind you, i did see a small example of this at vancouver's own eco-fair. $45 cloth grocery bags. yeah not so much for me, but thanks, eh? i prefer to go to value village and pick up the discarded cloth bags from tradeshows (like, say, the ecofair) for .75 or so. maybe not as chic as buying new but they probably have a smaller carbon footprint (add that last phrase to my list above). on the other hand, i wouldn't say no to a solar powered vibrator.

and from the land of holy mother of god how cool is this: adam freeland is playing at shambhala this year.

the economy of movement

i'm getting fairly excited about going up to soundwave this weekend. we're taking off on thursday afternoon, coming back sunday, and i have started packing-slash-getting organized already. heh. OH and i had the coolest idea for making lanterns for this weekend and the lantern festival... Ms. U and i are going to have a 'wine and crafts' night tomorrow or wednesday and get it all sorted. well mostly sorted anyway, depending on how much wine is consumed....

no title

we found out yesterday that our diggity has lymphatic cancer. it's in her blood, and they think it's already moving into her lungs, because her breathing is becoming laboured and she has no energy.

there are three options.

1) chemo. the vet doesn't recommend this - she's 12, and isn't the most healthy of dogs to begin with. it's an awful process, is extremely expensive, and very few dogs survive. in fact, the vet said she's never seen a dog pull through after chemo.

2) steroids. the vet could inject her full of steroids, but it would just buy her around 2 months during which time she'd become more and more uncomfortable.

3) put her down.

my sister asked the vet what she'd do if it were her dog. the vet recommended option 3. she's an old dog, and she's not comfortable. she's not really eating (except for swedish meatballs from ikea, baked and fed to her one by one like treats), and watching her climb the stairs at my parents' place last night nearly broke my heart.

when i look at her, or at these photos of her (both taken in the last year or so), i can't put them together with the idea that she is getting weaker and weaker - that she is dying. in my head she's still the dog that hiked 30KM with me on a day when the temperature reached 32deg and was still running laps around the car at the end of it, wondering why we'd stopped. she's still the dog who i took up bobtail mountain. she's still the dog who hopped up onto the garage roof to break out of my parents' backyard and took herself on a walk to visit me a few KM and a very busy road away.

everybody in my family is pretty broken up. my brother is (un)fortunately home to attend a wedding, so he at least has the chance to say goodbye. i'm by no means a 'dog' person, but this puppy has so much personality - she's always happy, always friendly, always has a wagging tail, a big smile, and a shoe in her mouth. she's part of our family and i will miss her.

you've got your big cheese. i've got my hash pipe

are those the real words? i really have no idea, but whenever i hear that song i picture an uber baked rivers cuomo leering at some semi-greasy hipster girl holding a giant wheel of american cheddar. heh. i crack myself up.