I'm feeling bitter today.

I'm feeling bitter because I feel cheated. You know how I said that they had the Unitarian church's minister down as on 'parental leave (January)' on the orders of service - the pamphlets for each service? They lied. She did resign. Obviously, she was forced to resign. They probably made things so uncomfortable for her that she resigned, because I'm sure she would have loved to come back as our minister. And so the search for a new one begins.

I feel that they gave people false hope by printing 'on parental leave (January)' on the orders of service, and I'm pissed. She didn't do a damn thing wrong, the minister.

I'd like to dedicate the following song to her, because, as the song says, "If you walk away, walk away, I walk away, walk away, I will follow." I may not be able to physically follow her, but that won't stop my mind from following her. Where ever she goes, my heart, my mind, will follow.

I IZ NANOWRIMO WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, kids! I GOT TO 50K!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And LIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hyper kids and baked beans.

It'll all make sense in a minute. First, the hyper kids.

Yesterday went alright, until we got to Chapters. First, though, we went to Costco. Mom got pissed off because she stopped, turned, and went back to look at something, and I instinctively turned to follow. She yelled at me to "Follow your dad!" So Dad and I browsed and complained about Mom.

Winners was bad for Dad. He turned and wrenched his leg, so he was hobbling around for the rest of the night. He was still okay to drive, though, it was walking that gave him trouble.

Chapters was the worst. Dad told us he'd sit in Starbucks while we looked at books, because of his leg. Mom and I had to dodge kids, because there was a fundraiser or something going on. I think the kids were part of a choir, because they gathered on the stairs and sang 'We're All in This Together'. Gah. I'm so sick of all that music from High School Musical. I didn't get anything, because I couldn't really look at any books because we had to keep dodging kids. Plus, I hate crowds. Always have, always will. When I was little, I used to get so edgy around crowds, loud buses, etc. Buses don't bother me now (just the bus drivers who act like they own the road), but crowds still bother me. When we got home, I took an Advil and went upstairs to write.

And then, I saw that my parents had eaten perogies, and didn't ask me if I wanted any. That made me so mad. So, I had leftover baked beans.

I woke up this morning with the worst gas I've had in months.

And then I discovered later that morning that Mother Nature inflicted her stupid curse on me.

So, I had gas and cramps this morning. I took an Advil and drank some water, and when the cramps went away I ate a banana. Then I read Terrier, ate a sandwich, drank some awesome caramel hot chocolate, read Terrier some more, and then at noon I put it on BBC Canada so that Mom could watch EastEnders.

While I was reading Terrier (which is an awesome book by Tamora Pierce, by the way), I was listening to music on a few Galaxie channels. I can't wait till the holiday channel is added on Monday :)

I watched a Christmas movie! I watched a Christmas movie!

I watched one of the movies on my Holiday Movies to Watch list - the original, black-and-white version of Miracle on 34th St. It was on after the National Dog Show, which was on after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends on Ravelry :)

One holiday movie down, 27 to go. Am I being a bit overambitious?

Perhaps.

Oh, and I watched Rosie O'Donnell's holiday variety show yesterday.

Holiday to-do list.

I got the idea from AJ's blog. Hope you don't mind, AJ :)

Holiday To-do List

1. Help Mom clean up the house for Christmas. This includes sweeping, dusting, washing the couch covers, maybe vacuuming the couch (ah, the joys of having a Jack Russell Terrier!) and washing the dog bed.

2. Play lotsa Christmas music!

3. Help Mom with the holiday baking.

4. Get Justin's scarf finished.

5. Start and finish Breanne's Calorimetry.

6. Buy Mom and Dad's Christmas presents.

7. Wrap presents.

8. Make sure my room is relatively clean. This is a bit difficult, since my room is the basement!

9. Watch as many movies off the Holiday Movies to Watch list I made (see this post).

10. At least finish the pockets for my vest.

11. Attend the Christmas Eve service at the Unitarian church, even if Reverend Barrett isn't there. I miss her :( I hope she DOES come back in January. At first I thought she was forced to resign, but now they're putting the minister down as 'parental leave (January)'. So hopefully she'll come back. If they DID force her to resign, I might cut down on services.

12. Put up a post on Christmas Eve with 'Happy Xmas/War is Over' by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band in the post - via YouTube, of course.

13. Hopefully put up a post on Christmas Day.

14. Put up that video of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' in the Bruce Springsteen group on Ravelry.

15. Hopefully hang out with Holly before the new year.

16. Every year, the youth group volunteers at a place that is a food bank and a place for the poor to get Christmas presents for their families. If I can, I'll volunteer there with the youth group, but last year I didn't because of Dad's work schedule AND the fact that there were no permission forms.

17. Set up the tree, of course! We got a red tinsel tree last year with lights already on it, and it's really pretty, so maybe we'll put that up. We would have to stick with mostly silver-coloured ornaments, though, because gold would be too much for our yellow-painted living room! Actually, we have some pretty cool straw ornaments that would look pretty on the red tree.

18. Put on the Galaxie Traditional Holiday channel on December 1st. This also falls under #2.

19. Sort out my sister Katie's birthday present. Her birthday is in the first week of December, so it's a bit difficult!

20. Find out where Christmas dinner is going to be, so I can prepare myself for any bullshit.

21. If we're going over to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner, I want to put together a punk outfit ahead of time, to shock my grandparents and my least favourite aunt.

22. Play Grandma and Grandpa's piano, if I can. Usually they have a table in the way, though. Or then there was Grandma's 70th birthday party, when Aunt Patti (my least favourite aunt) got all pissy and wouldn't let me play the piano because it was annoying her. Well, it's not my fault it's out of tune, Princess Patti!

23. Stand up to Grandpa if he decides to be a complete asshole to someone I actually care about.

24. Hopefully go carolling, even if I go alone.

25. Send a Christmas card to Holly. And maybe one to Erica if I feel like it. Even though she usually sends me one, and I always forget to, we're still not as close as we were. But sending her a card would be a good gesture, I think.

26. Say 'happy birthday' to Holly on Facebook. It must be a real bummer to have a birthday shortly after Christmas.

27. Hopefully finish my fingerless gloves, but they can wait. Gifts come first.

28. Go with Dad to the Italian bakery we love on Christmas Eve to pick up some cannoli for our Christmas Day breakfast. Cannoli are Italian pastries, and they're GOOD!

Oh my god, 'Stuck in a Moment' by U2 just came on iTunes. I love that song, but it always reminds me of 9/11...

Rattle and Hum!

I'm borrowing U2's film Rattle and Hum from the library. I watched it today, and it was BRILLIANT!!!!!! I loved it!

So now I wanna borrow U2 CDs from the library sooooooooooo bad. But I already have 14 items out:

• The Who - My Generation (a CD)
• Ringo Starr - Liverpool 8 (another CD)
• U2: Rattle and Hum (DVD)
• Season one of Doc Martin (DVD)
• U2: Zoo TV Live in Sydney (DVD)
• Season two of Saturday Night Live (DVD)
• Terrier by Tamora Pierce
• "We're Going to See the Beatles!", which is a book, but I can't remember the author's name
• A book on nature and landscape photography
• John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman
• A book on Lucy Maud Montgomery
• 50 Nifty Beaded Cards
• The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting
• The Official Rules of Soccer

I think that's all.

I have two books in transit - one on the French Revolution and one about Rosa Parks. The book on The Beatles is due in three days, and the DVDs are due in four days, so I should be finished with three of the DVDs by the time I have to take that Beatles book back.

I did put U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb on my Christmas list for my sister, and The Joshua Tree on my Christmas list for my mom, so hopefully I'll get something U2-related for Christmas.

Instead of seeing Twilight...

I watched TV and read John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman :D

Doctor Who was interesting last night. And Rose is going to be in the next episode! Yaaaay!

I might go to Value Village soon to look for cardigans, because I only have two.

And I'll only go see Twilight if other people want to. Actually, I wonder if the youth group would want to go see it?

But seriously. The book was alright, the movie looks like it'll be alright, but I'm sick of hearing about Edward, Edward, Edward. Come on, people! Everyone knows that dog demons are hotter than vampires!

No offense to the Twilight fan-girls. I'm a Sesshomaru groupie through and through :)

10 more days of NaNoWriMo...

And so far, it's going good. I described my story to Holly, and she thinks it's interesting :)

My cat decided to keep me up last night. She was playing with a mouse, bringing it down to my room and back upstairs again, over and over. When Smiles found out that the cat had a mouse, she got all antsy, barking really loud. To my amazement, my mom slept through Smiles's barking (and me yelling at Smiles to shut up and let me sleep :p).

I've pretty much decided that, no matter what, I'm going to enjoy the holidays. I really want to go caroling, but I know that no one else will want to go with me - Nathan probably wouldn't want to be out in the cold that long, and Katie isn't coming up here for Christmas Eve. I guess it'll just be me and Dad going down to get Christmas Day breakfast. I'll tell you folks more about that in another post.

I think Mom wants to look forward to the holidays, too. She says that if we get invited over to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner, we'll go down. I'm not looking forward to seeing those two, but they are family. Practically the only extended family I have, since I don't really know my dad's side of the family well. It'll be cool to see Justin, Breanne and Uncle Brent, though. And Jack if he's up to coming. Hopefully we'll see Mom's cousin Glen and his wife Maxine, too.

What I really hate are the big family parties, for someone's birthday - usually Grandma's or Grandpa's. I usually only know about a quarter of the people there. Most of the guests are either family I barely know, family I don't know at all, or Grandma and Grandpa's friends. The last one was the worst - it was a double party, for Grandma's birthday and my grandparents' anniversary. I had a killer headache, so I was trying to stay away from noise. I have to feel sorry for the kind guests who asked me if I needed an Aspirin, though. They meant well. I didn't exactly snap at them, I just said, "No, thanks, I'm okay." In addition to the headache, my cute starry drop earrings kept falling out, I felt so awkward in the clothes and earrings that I was wearing (I picked them out, by the way), and then someone was trying to take a photo of me. I hate it when people just take photos of me without asking first. Katie thought I was being bratty, but I was really just irritated because of the noise and my earrings falling out. I must've looked so clumsy. And just as Grandma and Grandpa were arriving, we were all told to go upstairs to surprise them. So I was upstairs, and I was just so pissed off that I ignored the order and went down to the basement where my parents were. And I just cried, because of my headache. But Mom told me to just look happy, so that Grandma didn't see I was upset. I tried my best.

To top it all off, someone I only met once before at another family party asked me to go ask Grandma if her Avon order was there. I said, "I'm sorry, I don't even know who you are," and she replied, "Oh, I'm one of your aunts."

Uh, I only have two aunts.

But I will try to stay sane during Christmas. I will watch as many Christmas movies as possible. I will listen to lots of Christmas music.

And, I swear by all the gods, there will be Christmas cookies.

I got an advent calendar :)

So we went to Denninger's after church, because Dad wanted to get deli meat. As soon as we walked in, we saw the Christmas displays. So my mom said to me, "Go pick out an advent calendar." And I did :D

I missed the Toronto Santa Claus parade, though, because Dad was watching his Nascar race :( I hope it gets replayed.

BUT, if I remember correctly, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will be on next weekend! So that should be pretty sweet :)

We stopped in at Wal-Mart, too, because Dad needed work socks and stuff like that. The store was having trouble with the sensor-things at the entrance/exit, which was funny.

Painting the loft!

So we started putting the primer on the walls of the loft today. It went pretty well, even though Stone was driving me close to insanity.

I was the first of the youth to arrive - in fact, I arrived before Stephen, who is one of our youth group leaders. Emma and her sister Nora came a bit later, with music. I was worried that the music wouldn't be my style, but Emma had Coldplay on her iPod! Sweet! She also had this really cool song on her iPod - I think it was called Hit Me by MIA. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong :p I wanted to bring some music, but Emma and Nora had an iPod dock, and I don't think anyone had a CD player that they could bring, so... yeah. I probably could have borrowed Mom's, but I decided not to - I probably would've been the only person bringing a CD anyhow. We took a photo of Jesse's chalice mural before we painted over it with primer. I posed like an anime character, with my fingers in a 'v'. You know, like in Pokemon. haha.

After lunch, we took a break, hanging around the piano near the back exit. Stone and Stephen hooked up their computers, and I did a couple of katas - okay, one and a quarter, if you want to be absolutely specific. I couldn't do all of Unsu because it invovles breakfalls, which I can't do because of the risk of getting an infected jaw (because of the bone graft in my mouth). Stone looked like he was mimicking me, but he said he didn't. Eh, no worries. When the piano wasn't being used by Stone or Nora, I decided to try playing something. Now, I have a keyboard at home, but it's smaller than that piano, so this was pretty cool :) So I started playing She's a Rainbow by The Rolling Stones. And, of course, Stone was singing Christmas carols loudly overtop of my piano playing. Eh. So I told him that I wasn't playing a Christmas carol, I was playing a Stones song. So he said, "A 'Stone's Song'?", and I said, "The Rolling Stones! You know, Mick Jagger!" And then a congregant said, "I know what she's trying to play! She's trying to play She's a Rainbow!", to which I replied, "THANK YOU!" hehe. He also came over to help me with the song a bit.

Micaela came late, but she got to help apply another coat of primer. I didn't get to help with the primer before lunch, because everyone else was, so Stephen had me putting another coat of paint on the door trim and the window, but after lunch he had me help with the primer. I think Dad came to pick me up close to 4:00, but I can't quite remember. Oh, and Micaela was around after lunch (I can't remember when she arrived...), and she checked her e-mail using Stone's teeny laptop, and she got a notification e-mail saying that I tagged her in a note on Facebook. Hehe.

ETA: Okay, it's actually 'Hit That' :p

Youth group was AWESOME.

Youth group was pretty cool last night. I haven't seen Sela in a while. We're not exactly bosom buddies, but I'm jsut curious as to why I haven't seen her at meetings.

We're going to paint the loft. I'm a bit sad about this, but it really does need to be painted. We had to sand down the rough edges from where past members of the youth group had stenciled on designs, because the whole surface needed to be a bit smoother for when the primer goes on the walls. We're keeping the wall to the right plain so that we can project stuff on it, but the other walls are probably going to be an apple green. I won't be able to bring music because, by the sound of it, it'll all be mp3 players because someone has an iPod dock thingy, and I have no iPod. So.... yeah. Dammit. Emma won't be there by the sound of it because of soccer stuff. I don't know if I'll be going yet, but I hope I can go. We're also going to help with the other painting in the church.

Gah, I slept in until 11-ish this morning, and I didn't actually come upstairs until close to 12:00. I was on my computer at 4-ish, and I didn't even realise what time it really was until I heard my dad come home, and I was like, holy crap, it feels like noon, but it's 4-ish!

graaaaaagh.

I have to finish Justin's scarf tomorrow. And my hood. And my fingerless gloves.

Woo-hoo.

I finally got around to taking photos!

So I finally for around to taking some photos of the yarn I got in my RAK.

First, the Lion Brand Fun Fur Solid in Ivory:




Next, the Lion Brand Fun Fur Stripes in Copacabana:




And finally, the Bernat Boa in Phoenix:




I also took a photo of my yellow skinny scarf:




My eyelid looks blue in that photo :p

And I also took a photo of my short rainbow skinny scarf:




Letterman's on! Yay!

Because I'm bored, and I need to write a new post...

I just posted a comment on Dianna's blog to add to the blog comment train, so I need to write some fresh material for someone to comment on.

So, how about another list?

Holiday Movies To Watch This Year

1. Love Actually (not for younger audiences)
2. Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! - the original, animated one. I don't like the one with Jim Carey.
3. It's a Wonderful Life - just 'cause.
4. Elf
5. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Gotta love them Griswolds :)
6. The Snowman. Who says I'm too old?
7. Scrooged (Again, not for younger audiences.)
8. A Christmas Story - "You'll shoot your eye out!"
9. A Christmas Carol - if the black-and-white version is on, I'll watch it.
10. The Muppet Christmas Carol - because, although the black-and-white version is great, I love the Muppets. And Michael Caine was good in it as Scrooge.
11. A Charlie Brown Christmas - again, who says I'm too old?
12. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
13. Meet Me in St. Louis, which is a sort of multi-holiday movie, really. I might have to really hunt to find it on TV.
14. The Santa Clause, if Mom lets me watch it. We have the VHS tape somewhere.
15. The Santa Clause 2
16. White Christmas - my mom put her name down on for a copy from the library!
17. The Family Stone (not for younger audiences)
18. Little Women
19. Olive, the Other Reindeer
20. The Holiday
21. Mole's Christmas (The Wind in the Willows)
22. Miracle on 34th St (the original, although I don't mind the newer version)
23. This isn't exactly a movie, but I wanna catch the Mr. Bean Christmas special :)
24. Last Holiday
25. Shrek the Halls (another Christmas special)
26. The Polar Express
27. Not exactly a movie either, but I'd love to catch Robbie the Reindeer: The Lost Tribe
28. And the other Robbie the Reindeer TV special, if it's on.


That's all I can think of at the moment. If you have any other holiday movie suggestions, feel free to comment on this post with ideas. Thanks! :)

edited to add #18
edited to add #19
edited to add #20, #21 and #22
edited to add #23, #24 and #25
edited to add #26, #27 and #28

I haven't posted in three days :p

I went to Winners with my parents. I got my sister's Christmas present and my brother's Christmas present :) I think I've decided what I'll make for Breanne - a dropped-stitch scarf. I think she'll like it if it's in a colour she likes. I might have to either look through Mom's stash for yarn or go to Michaels, though. Or Len's. I heard Talk by Coldplay at Winners, too, which was pretty cool.

So, NaNoWriMo is going good. Just look at the widget! I'm not doing too bad! :D

Breanne, my cousin, was supposed to come over today, but it didn't happen :(

BUT, we have more chocolate in the house! :D

ETA: Hey, guys! I just put a Coldplay widget at the bottom of the page! What you do is click 'start', then rub the glass with your mouse. Don't click on it, just run your mouse across it back and forth. If you're lucky, you'll hear a portion of a song from their upcoming EP! I would have left it at the side of the posts, but it got chopped off when I put it there.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama has been elected. Even though I'm Canadian, I'm still pretty happy.

The world is still not perfect. While you watch this video, think about one thing: if John Lennon were still alive, what would it be like? How would he react to the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan? And if Lennon was still alive, would Aung San Suu Kyi still be under house arrest?

The following video does have some violence.




Give peace a chance - every one of us.

RIP John Lennon, 1940 - 1980.

i can haz chocolate!

I scarfed some Bridge Mixture while I wrote today.

We didn't go to church today. Good thing, 'cause I didn't really want to go. I got up this morning, went upstairs, looked at the clock and thought, why aren't we watching Sunday Morning? Turns out it was too early for Sunday Morning and Q107's Psychedelic Psunday program. And I thought that the time change wouldn't affect me. Hehe.

So lately I've been listening to Cheap Trick. Here's 'I Want You to Want Me'...

NaNo

So, have you noticed that my NaNo meter on the left-hand side of this blog has updated?

That's right, I started writing yesterday. I updated my wordcount today. Pretty cool :)

We bought more NaNo snacks, this time at the British imports shop. I got a raisin and biscuit Yorkie bar (it's chocolate with raisin and biscuit), some Munchies (chocolate, caramel and cookie squares) and a small bag of Dolly Mix, which is a candy mix. Plus, we have leftover Halloween candy.