Haven't posted in a while.

I know, I'm terrible.

I vacuumed up a spider today. It was quite liberating. The spider was huge, too - probably the size of a quarter, at least the size of a nickel, anyway.

Crap, now I have a sharp pain in the back of my head. We must be getting rain this week.

I watched The Breakfast Club today. It was AWESOME :) The DVD I have out of the library has a couple of featurettes, both of which were interesting.

But now I'm feeling melancholy again. It has a bit to do with an upcoming family reunion, and the fact that I can't even bring a book to said reunion (because Mom says it's 'rude'). It's gonna suck: outdoors, in the middle of frickin' July, with a bunch of people who aren't gonna take me seriously. At least my sister's gonna try to come up for this thing, and Justin will probably come with us, so I won't be completely alone. I'll still be bored to death, though.

If I didn't care about how Mom would react, I'd just stay home. But I hate to upset her, so I'll go and try to behave. I really don't want to go. I don't think Dad does, either, because he keeps joking about how he wants to go visit friends elsewhere. I can't say I blame him for wanting to ditch. Neither of us seem to be well received by relatives.

I still don't think it's fair that I can't bring a book. What else am I supposed to do?

Also, this video is awesome...

Finished, and started

I finished the dishcloth and started another one, with the same colour yarn, same needles and same pattern. I think I'm going to use up a partial economy skein of Bernat Handicrafter and just make dishcloths to my heart's content. After all, it keeps me from going crazy.

So lately I've been addicted to Kristin Chenoweth's rendition of 'Hopelessly Devoted To You', from the first season of Pushing Daisies...



I prefer it over Olivia Newton John.

So it's eleven days 'til Easter Sunday, and I've got this feeling of impending doom. But then again, I feel that way about most holidays. At least now I'm no longer at a young and impressionable age, which means I can be snarky if I like. I like that.

At least some people I like will be there for Easter dinner. It's going to be at Uncle Brent's, so Justin and Breanne should be there. Plus, Glen (my mom's cousin) and Maxine (his wife) are coming, from what I heard via eavesdropping (hehe...). I haven't seen them in a while, so it'll be nice to see them. And it'll be nice for Grandma.

As for the rest of my extended family, I honestly couldn't care less. Uncle Brent, while I like him, can be very Jekyll and Hyde at times. Grandpa is a jerk, period. Aunt Patti didn't put my name on our Christmas card, just my mom's name, my dad's name, and 'and family', while my brother and sister got their own cards - if she addresses me by my name, I plan on saying, "Wait, what did you call me? I thought my name was And Family - after all, that's what you put on the Christmas card." Petty? Perhaps, but it's about time I stopped letting myself be a verbal doormat with my relatives.

Yesterday I took a practice test thing in my GED books on run-on sentences and sentence fragments, and I got every question right. I was utterly gobsmacked.

Yay, I'm going out tomorrow...

I hope my sarcasm in the title was easy to detect. My humor is often very British and hard to under stand (think Ricky Gervais-like).

I have to decide what I want to wear tomorrow. I'm not wearing my black shoes, because they're a bit of a pain to walk and stand in (even when I'm sitting I take them off), so it's either running shoes or my hiking boots. I'd like to wear my black shoes, though, because they look so cute. They're Clarks (a British company) shoes, kind of work-casual, and they look great with knee socks scrunched up at the ankle. I just wish they didn't make my feet hurt. Then again, if I wear them more often, my feet would probably get used to them... argh, now I wanna wear them! Maybe I will. Grah.

Anyway, I might wear one of my long cotton skirts. One is red with a kind of paisley print on it in blue and black, and the other is blue and sandy brown. The blue and brown one would go with my brown Old Navy v-neck shirt, only it's kinda stretched out from me being dumb and wrapping my arms in it while wearing it. I have a cream-coloured shirt that goes with the red skirt, or I can wear my Led Zeppelin t-shirt with it ;) Another option is a pair of jeans and my pale yellow v-neck shirt.

Damn, I really wanna wear those shoes now.

I have two short stories brewing in my head, but I don't know how to start them. Hate it when that happens.

I have also avoided math for two - almost three - weeks. eep.

In which Merenwen battles a library self-checkout, her family, and high-sodium food.

For some weird reason, Blogger just posted as I was typing the title the first time. Odd.

So I went to the library to pick up my stuff, and I was having a hard time with the self-checkout machine. It was recognizing a manga as two items, which I don't understand, and then I selected 'finish' by accident, so I had to dig my card out again. I was having the same problem with other items.

And when I got home, my mom started bitching at me because I was supposed to bring two bags for the library stuff we were picking up (she said something about two bags, but she must've been mumbling or something). And then when I told her about my troubles with the self-checkout, she nattered at me to check my slip to make sure it didn't list it as two copies of each item. I told her it didn't matter, and she went into an 'it does matter!' speech. OMG. Seriously?! Duplicate items are the least of my problems! I got an e-mail at 10:49 last night from Stephen telling me that youth group would be cancelled until AUGUST 12TH, because he's in BATON ROUGE!!!

And now, more ranting about family, and a rant about high-sodium food. Because I can.

We went out for Chinese food on Monday with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Brent, Justin, Uncle Brent's girlfriend Heather and her daughter Tegan, Aunt Patti (I flashed her a snide smile when she thanked me for passing her a menu, but I don't think she saw it), Jesse (Patti's son and my cousin), PATTI'S FRIEND LORRAINE (why she was invited, I still don't know) and Grandma's cousin Donna.

And now the rant. WHY THE HELL WAS LORRAINE THERE?! SHE'S NOT FAMILY, AND UNLESS SHE MARRIES A SECOND-COUSIN OR SOMETHING SHE WILL NEVER BE FAMILY! I KNOW SHE DOESN'T HAVE A FAMILY OF HER OWN OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, BUT THIS ISN'T A HOLIDAY DINNER, IT'S A FAMILY, A FAMILY GET-TOGETHER!!!!!

M'kay. That's done. Oh yeah, there was also the part where Grandpa was being his usual cheap self with the bill and the tip, Patti bitching about there being no shrimp left in the one noodle dish (I got it before her, and had to wait forever for it to come my way, so I figured I was entitled to the last shrimp!) and me having to wait a little while for dishes to be passed to me - I know it wasn't intentional, but a lot of people could see my plate and, thus, see what I had and what I didn't have on it. Oh, and on the car ride home, Dad said something about everybody having to pay for Patti's soup. Must be nice for her. I wanted to get won ton soup, but Grandpa was kind of rushing us, and I should have spoken up, but I didn't want to look ungrateful by saying that I'd like soup, too. But dammit, I should have asked for soup. Patti got soup, and almost everybody else got a spring roll or an egg roll. I hate spring rolls and egg rolls!

The food was pretty good, though. Not as good as stuff you can get at Mandarin, but still decent. But it was so packed with sodium that Mom and I felt like roadkill.

We might be going to Michaels this week. I hope we do, because we have a coupon, and I want to look at circular needles. And they have Vanna's Choice on sale.

The Holiday Weekend in a Nutshell, Part 2

Time for part two, folks! :)

Sunday (yesterday)

Dad had to work again. Katie and Dan went to IKEA to eat the breakfast and look for stuff, so me and Mom had the house to ourselves. We watched SNL. Katie and Dan came back in time for the four of us to go to Len's Mill Store to buy yarn. We were there early - they weren't open yet. So we went to the nearest Tim Horton's to get something to drink (Mom and I got tea, Katie and Dan got chocolate milk). What was really funny was that an older couple drove into the Len's parking lot, and the woman got out to check the hours on the door, and was motioning to her hubby to park. It was cute. We were all laughing.

I bought some S.R. Kertzer On Your Toes and some marked down Patons Be Mine, using my money from The Other Grandmother (or, as I called it, 'The Angela Money'). It cost less than I thought, actually. I thought I'd have to pay a little over $10 for the On Your Toes, because I thought it was a print. It was actually considered a solid, so I had about $2 in change, plus the coins already in my changepurse. I might have just enough change to pay my library fines, but Mom said she'd pay them anyway. Katie got some Patons Decor.

Katie and Dan left for Grandma and Grandpa's before Dad came home, because they were eating dinner there. Dad came home at around 6:00-ish. We left shortly after. I was in casual clothes - my denim cargoes, my toothpaste green t-shirt with trees and stuff and 'Vernon Canada' printed on it (I got it from Katie), my green-and-blue plaid flannel shirt and my fluffy pink socks. Juno chic, with a touch of super-cute anime girl. Mom made cupcakes, but we didn't bring them with us because they were too warm to travel.

Aunt Patti and Becca's dog, Chelsea greeted us when we arrived. She's one of Bailey's puppies (Bailey, in case I haven't mentioned before, is my uncle's yellow Labrador), and she's rather cute. Everyone was still eating when we arrived, actually, so we sat by ourselves until they finished eating. I spoke with Justin for a bit, and Dad paid Chelsea some attention, which caused the coffee table to flip over. Justin's sock got covered in some kind of dip, but luckily, my pink socks were spared. I thought Patti was rather rude when she moved Justin's dip-dipped foot onto his lap. When he pointed out that his sock was soiled, she said, "Are you renting those jeans?" When he said he owns them, she replied snidely, "Then they can go in the wash." Uh, you don't talk to someone like that, Patti. Either before or after the table-flip, Patti said something about a fan being in the basement years ago for ventilation when they'd smoke in the basement, to which Uncle Brent replied, "That was only at your parties." ZING! And Dad said something like, "Is that what this burn mark here is from?", and he pointed at a spot on the carpet. Patti must've said it was at a New Years' party, because Mom said to Dad quietly, "It wasn't New Years', it was her sixteenth birthday party!"

I love having a blog that my extended family doesn't know about :D

So anyway, we ate some of the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard Cake, which had candles on it for my grandma's birthday. I'm not sure if her birthday was that day, or was coming up, or had already passed. I was feeling too bitter to sing 'happy birthday'. I later found out that Jack, our family friend who is in his nineties, told Katie, "You deserve a medal", because Katie made the cake. I thought that was so sweet of him.

I didn't get to talk to Breanne much, because she felt sick and went upstairs to lie down, but I did get to say "Nice shirt" to her, 'cause she was wearing a 'The Wall' shirt. I actually had a conversation with Becca, which was a bit surprising. She said she was reading Twilight, and I said that I liked it, but I would've liked it better if there wasn't such a hype, and that I don't think I'd own it (I might own it, but I'd rather buy other books first). Anyway, she told me that she's liking it, and that she's going to continue reading the series.

Grandma had these bags that someone she knows made, so she offered them to us. I picked one with lots of pockets, perfect for knitting projects. It has a flowery design on it, kinda like an old fashioned table runner, but I like it. Mom got a bag made out of fabric with saddles printed on it, and Katie got the bag with leaves printed on the fabric. Becca wanted Katie's bag so bad, and she didn't like the other ones. We went out to the car shortly after, and it was quite foggy. The car was slightly damp. I found out, to my disappointment, that I'd missed the beginning of The Legends of Classic Rock. I'll have to catch it on Saturday morning. When we got home, Dad moved the table downstairs and we ate some of the cupcakes. While everyone else was watching True Blood and Dexter, I went downstairs and read with my headphones on.

Monday (today)

Katie and Dan left close to noon. She took some of the cupcakes with her. Dad washed the dishes, and I dried, but when I opened a cupboard to put a muffin tin or something similar away, we had a slight avalanche. So that cupboard has to be reorganised. Yay. Other than the muffin pans and things on the table, the kitchen is clean. Dad deflated and packed up the air matress, and then moved the elyptical so I could get to my computer! Yay! I have eaten:

Two slices of pie (one pumpkin, one cherry)
Two strips of bacon
A bowl of mashed potato casserole mixed with gravy.

I have drank:

One glass of water
One glass of chocolate soy milk
One can of Pepsi

That's just today. I don't want to list everything I ate on Saturday and Sunday...

The Holiday Weekend in a Nutshell

I'm typing this using Dad's computer, because I can't get to mine. We put up an air mattress for Katie and Dan to sleep in, so Mom's elyptical workout machine thingy had to be moved to make room for the mattress. Said elyptical is behind my chair. A Rubbermaid tub is in my chair. I don't mind, I just find it funny that I'm not used to this monitor.

And now, the Holiday Weekend Thus Far. This section will probably be edited later to include dessert at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Saturday

As I mentioned before, Dad didn't bring up the table, so Mom and I had to haul it upstairs either during or after Letterman. Fun times. Mom also did some quick dusting. Dad did help clean before he went to work, but the floor still needed a sweep later that day.

Katie and Dan arrived first, because they had to pick up Nathan and Steph. When everyone except Dad was there (he was working that day, and came home around 6:00-ish), I put in disc 3 of SNL, season one. Nathan kept talking over it. He also asked me if I wanted their DS if he replaces it. I said that I was thinking there's more to it. He got all pissed off and changed his mind. When they went out later (to get bread so Steph could have a sandwich), I got upset. But I'm not upset anymore. Why should I be? I have a PSone. A piece of history.

We ate when Dad got home. I had to sit next to Steph, which I wasn't thrilled about. I told Katie that in private, and she told me to just sit through dinner. So I did. It wasn't so bad, until dessert. I was being goofy, smearing whipped cream on Mom's nose, and I accidentally got some on her glasses. She wasn't too mad about it, but that didn't stop Nathan calling me a jerk. So I went upstairs and ate my pie.

I'll add more later, I have to face the Grandparents. Yay us. Woo-hoo. I hope I get outta this alive.

edited for spelling