The Pros and Cons of Fluffy Snow

Today has been an interesting day. And somewhat terrifying.

My parents and I went to a Chinese buffet restaurant today for a relative's birthday. On the way there, it was starting to snow, in big and fluffy flakes. It started out as being okay for visibility, but the closer we got to the restaurant, the worse it got.

Now, crazy weather and I don't mix well. I get a little tense, because I sit and hope that nobody hits us, because the roads are usually greasy and slippery, and some drivers tend to drive like idiots, which makes matters worse :p So I sat in the backseat of our van, trying to look at the snowy buildings instead of the traffic and focus on the songs being played on the radio. One of those songs was 'Time Stand Still' by Rush, which is one song by Rush that I seem to hear waaaay too much, but I hummed along to the song anyway. What was funny was when the radio DJ was talking about the snow, and said something like, "Coming up next, a song by The Scorpions about weather that isn't quite as bad as what we have," and after the commercials he played 'Rock You Like a Hurricane' :p

It got a little easier once we got in the parking lot. The lot was a lot less greasy than the roads, so getting into a parking space wasn't too tricky. When we got inside the restaurant, I kept my coat on, because even though it was fairly warm inside I was still pretty cold.

The restaurant was one we'd tried almost a year ago, on my dad's birthday. They were only open for a week or two, so the food had been mediocre and the layout of the tables was pretty tight. However, they seemed to have changed the layout since then, so there was a lot more elbow room :)

The food was okay - I generally prefer the food at Mandarin, another Chinese buffet in my city. Some of their food was fairly good: the torpedo shrimp were very tender and flavourful, and not too greasy; the shrimp dumplings were tasty (I got one that was a little crunchy, though), and the pork siu mai was tasty as well. However, the noodles were a bit greasy, there weren't a lot of vegetable dishes, and the General Chicken had too much breading for my taste. The desserts were better, I think: I picked up some Jello, a brownie, a mango-flavoured cake slice that Mom had liked (it had mousse between the cake layers :D), some blackberries, and a cream puff. The cream puff was a little dry, and the Jello seemed crunchy in texture (that's the best way I can describe it :p), but the brownie was pretty good, the mango cake was delicious (so much so, I want to attempt to make a similar cake :p), and the blackberries were delicious - I'd already tried one of Mom's blackberries, so I knew they were good. Oh, and I'd had won-ton soup to start, and it was delicious as well - the won-tons were packed with meat, which was nice to see.

Once we were done, the weather quieted. The roads were still a little greasy, but it had stopped snowing, so we could see things :p Right now, it looks like a Christmas card outside the spare room window.

In knitting news (it seems I don't post enough about my knitting anymore!), I'm almost done the garter stitch half of my bobble pillow from... June '09 :p It had been living in my wardrobe too long, so I'm trying to get it finished. Of course, I might not get it done for a while, because I'll have to buy a pillow form. But getting it off the needles is enough of an accomplishment for me :)

And in reading news, I'm trying to finish Blood and Chocolate. I've only got a few more chapters to go, but because of my habit of re-reading sentences, I was reading too slowly :p I'm trying to break that habit, though, because I miss being able to read books very quickly. I think I'm getting back to a better reading pace :)

That's pretty much it. Well, except that I made some late-ish goals for the new year: get out of the house more (which I did yesterday - I went shopping for a birthday gift with my parents, and my mom and I walked to Shopper's Drug Mart to buy a birthday card :D), drink less soda (because there's quite a bit of sugar in a can of soda), and eat for fruits and vegetables.

Until next time... :)

Shameless shopping

I'll get to that later.

First, I'm not sure if I want to watch Precious. It's supposed to be very hard to watch, and I don't know if I can handle it - I mean, I barely kept it together when I watched the last fifteen minutes or so of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. So I might just let Mom watch it and take it back.

On shopping... me, Katie and Mom went to Winners last night. I got three tops - a black sorta-sleeveless top that Katie had to talk me into trying on, a white top with a bow in the middle of it (Katie tried on the same one and said she didn't like how it fit on her), and a blue hippie-style top with a drawstring in it to cinch it up around your waist. I fell in love with a blue and black plaid shirt, but it was a little tight in the arms, and I couldn't find it in XL. Bah.

It's been raining a lot since yesterday. When Dad and I were coming back from the library, there were two guys jogging on the road. I mean, come on, the sidewalk has to be drier than the pavement, plus it's safer, so why not jog on the sidewalk? I nearly got run over by the jerks as I was getting out of the car. Grr.

Katie's at Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner, because Grandpa brought Grandma home for dinner, so I'll probably eat leftovers for dinner.

Been a little while since I've posted...

So, here's a recap.

Friday

We went out to Michaels, thinking that their sale had already started. Turns out it didn't start until today (Saturday), so I got scolded for not reading the flyer properly, and then Mom made it sound like she wasn't going to let me go back the next sale for when the sale started, like some form of punishment. I freaked out in the store, and embarassed Mom. I also tried to refuse a coupon from someone, and Mom later told me off for 'being rude'.

I wound up getting two skeins of Phentex Worsted in a pretty yellow-green colourway. It literally looks like budgie feathers. I'm going to use that to make Grandma a Clapotis.

After that, we went to PetSmart to get breath-freshening dog treats (while walking the short distance to PetSmart, Mom told me off once more for my 'defeatist attitude'). We got these treats called Blue Chews for the dogs, and while we waited in line, Mom told me that the reason why I forgot to check the Michaels flyer was because I'm under stress, and that it was 'all right'. Huh.

When we got home, Mom checked the answering machine, and there was a message from Grandpa saying that Grandma's coming back here Monday. From what I've heard, they're taking her to a hospital downtown.

Saturday

I'm in bed, and Mom asks me if I want oatmeal. I say no. Then a few minutes later, she tells me that she's printing off a Michaels coupon. Then, she asks me if I'm dressed and if I've eaten, because we're going to Michaels in, like, 15 minutes!!! I needed a shower, too, but I didn't have enough time, so I had to have a very rushed wash. Meanwhile, I was screaming at my mother, who told me to act my age or she'd leave me at home.

SHE DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME THAT WE WERE GOING RIGHT AWAY!!!!! I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT WE WOULDN'T GO UNTIL THAT AFTERNOON!!!! IF SHE'D TOLD ME THAT WE WERE GOING, I WOULD HAVE HAD A SHOWER RIGHT AWAY!!!!!

I feel better now. Almost.

So I got six skeins of Patons Decor in a pretty blue. While I was looking at the Decor, Mom asked me how much yarn I needed for the Mrs. Darcy cardigan, and I told her that I was going to use my green superwash for that. So she told me in a snarky tone, "Do you want your sweater to be Christmas green?"

I can't believe her sometimes.

We went to Giant Tiger next, where my mother actually bought these Texas Toast things. She never buys that kind of thing - jalapeno pepper poppers, yes. Pop Tarts, sometimes. But never something like frozen Texas Toast things. She also got her favourite chips while Dad kinda wandered off, and she told me to go with him and wait for her while she got them. I told Dad that she was getting her chips, and he got ticked that she wasn't getting his chips. And when he told her that much, she got pissed off. Long story short, he got a bag of barbecue, a bag of salt and vinegar and a bag of plain. Halle-frickin'-lujah.

Then it was off to Metro to buy more groceries, and where Mom got pissed off again. Grocery shopping with her can be so fun.

When we got home, I ate a sandwich, then I dried dishes for Dad while we complained about Mom. You know, some days I'm mad at my dad and complain about him with my mom, other days it's vice versa. This was one of the vice versa days.

I get the metal post for my tooth put in on Monday. Whoo-hoo. I hope Dr. G has me hopped up on plenty of drugs.

My swap package came!!!

It came! It came!




Sorry about the size of the picture. The yarn is Claudia Hand Painted Fingering Silk 55. And I also got chocolates!!! Thanks, Ari! :)

I also did some Christmas shopping today - I can't say what Dad and I got, because it's for Mom, and she's in the room at the moment. Eeep. All I can say is that she'll be happy :)

Dad paid my library fines, which makes me happy. Turns out that the fine for SNL was only about $2. I picked up a knitting book called Boutique Knits (which has a pattern for an earflap hat that uses super chunky!) and a book on Led Zeppelin called When Giants Walked the Earth, which is so thick that I had to take Little Women out of the top drawer of my night table to make room for it. I also had to shove stuff around in that drawer, because the book is wide, too!

ETA: Mom had to take the photo because my computer doesn't like my keychain camera, so Mom took the picture and e-mailed it to me, and it went in my Flickr.

Fridaaaaaaaaaayyyy :)

Now then. The MSN conversations.

I think it was last week that I spoke to Max on MSN, and he wants to read my NaNoWriMo novel when it's done. Now, I'll have to do some editing, but afterwards I might let him read it. I haven't decided yet.

Holly also asked to read it. I can't remember when she asked - a week ago? Two weeks ago?

I spoke to Erica for a bit, too. And she had the nerve to say that a 50k word novel was 'hardly a novel'. But when I told her the novels were only rough drafts, she said 'nvm', or something like that. So.... yeah.

I think I'm going to skip youth group for the month of December. I really don't feel like going from 'holiday cheer' mode to 'defend the mouth against a cushion attack' mode. I want to enjoy December, and I'm gonna enjoy it whether people like it or not.

So I did some Christmas shopping today, speaking of the holidays. Mom and I got some stuff for Dad, so that means I just have to finish Justin's scarf and get something for Mom - and maybe something for Breanne. I've decided not to make her that Calorimetry. I guess I'm feeling like a selfish knitter. But you know what? I rarely spend money on myself, and when I do, I often feel bad about spending the money. Maybe I should be a little self-indulgent, since Erica is being a narcissist, my brother rarely calls, and my grandparents continue to degrade my parents and I.

Life is bloody beautiful.

On the upside, Doctor Who and Don't Forget the Lyrics! are on tonight. And I still have time to volunteer for the Holiday Music Sunday if I want to, although I might not. I really want to sing 'Walking in the Air' from The Snowman, but at the same time I'm pissed off that our minister isn't coming back.

Oh, and I watched another holiday movie - a version of A Christmas Carol. It was a black-and-white version, although it wasn't the version I'm familiar with. This one was an American version, and the one I had seen before was a British version. It was still good, though. Elf is going to be on soon - Sunday, I think - on CBC, although CBC has a nasty habit of butchering movies to fit commercials in. They did that with Love Actually last year. Well, now we own Love Actually, so we'll probably watch the DVD.

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.

A bit of a recap.

First, Saturday.

I didn't do much on Saturday, actually, but I did watch Saturday Night Live because Coldplay was on. I wasn't going to watch it at first, but then I decided to bring the yellow scarf I was working on upstairs and knit while watching it. Good thing I came up, or I might have missed Coldplay. They sang 'Viva la Vida', 'Lost!', and 'Yellow', and they started another song as they were gonna roll the credits, but it got cut off. Dammit.

So anyway, I sat through the sketches and stuff because I only really wanted to see Coldplay. They were awesome. I had never seen Chris Martin play a guitar until that night, come to think of it. I watched a Coldplay concert (the concert had been from a few months previous, I think) on Bell's pay-per-view FreeVu! thing. A FreeVu! pretty much explains itself. It's free. It's awesome. But during that concert, I don't think Chris Martin ever played a guitar. Also, Amy Poehler gave birth that night! Congratulations, Amy! :)

On Sunday, we went to another NaNoWriMo meetup. This one was downtown, and it was the kick-off party. We each got a goody bag - mine was missing the notes/novel pocketguide, but Mom kindly gave me hers. Thanks, Mom :) The bags also contained some stationary, chocolate (!!!) and an 'affidavit'.

Today I went to a local mall with my parents. There was construction going on, so a lot of people were slowing down to look at the pretty orange signs :p Dad was driving like a jerk, but what else is new? Mom actually threatened to get out of the car. And then, when we got in the mall, Mom turned around with her envelope in her hand - she had to mail something via the Canada Post counter at the Shopper's Drug Mart - to ask Dad something, and he just took the envelope and went into Shopper's. Mom was angry about that, because all she wanted to do was to ask him if he wanted to go do the banking while she mailed her stuff. So Dad came back and Mom made it clear that she was ticked with him. He went to do the banking, and Mom and I looked at some stuff in a nearby store. There's quite a few small businesses in this mall, and they have some interesting merchandise, so we sometimes look at what they have.

Next, we went to the Wal-Mart in this mall, because I needed socks (I know I should knit some, but I have to finish Justin's scarf). I wound up getting 20 pairs of socks - 10 white, 10 black. So Mom thinks I should keep five of each colour in my dresser and put the rest in my wardrobe, so that I have backup socks after I wear out the first 10. We also got some chocolate for when we start writing our NaNo novels. I wanted to look at yarn while we were there, but it was busy so I didn't bother asking Mom if we could look at yarn. I really don't like how that Wal-Mart is organised. Plus, people can be rather pushy - someone with earbuds in their ears decided to push past me in one of the aisles.

Our next stop was No Frills, which is a grocery store chain for anyone who doesn't know. Mom wanted to get stuff like baking powder and refried beans, and we wound up getting other stuff like tinned flakes of chicken.

The last stop in our shopping adventure was Value Village. I found three pairs of jeans that fit me, a pair of orange flowery lounge pants, a pair of purple pants with white flowers on them (they remind me of those pants that the Japanese wear for working in the garden), a pair of maroon pants and a pair of white pants with buttons on the cuffs! How awesome is that? So now I have jeans. Now I just need to get rid of my ugly track pants...

This is ridiculous.

I'm so mad at Erica. I wanted to go shopping with just her and Holly, and she pretty much extended the invitation to some of her friends. Even worse, she didn't use the 'Bcc' tool in her e-mail invitation, so her friends now have my e-mail. Nice, huh?

But here's the best part - I told her that I can't commit to the dates she suggested, the 26th and 27th, because my dad works on the 26th and his holidays start on the 27th, so we might be out of the city. Who knows - we might even visit my sister during his holidays. So she says I could take the bus to the mall on the 26th. I told her I wasn't comfortable with that - after all, I've never taken the bus anywhere. She says, "Yes? No? Bus?" I think I told her that I couldn't commit to those dates once more, or something like that, she she said "Mmmhmm."

Does she think I'm just gonna accommodate her social life and put everything else on hold? It doesn't work like that. I think she's got a lot of nerve to do this - extend the invitation, say that I could bus down to the mall...

This is driving me nuts. First she was flip-flopping on whether or not she could make it to the Festival of Friends, and now she's pulling this stunt. I've tried. The gods know I've tried. I would send her an e-mail and not hear back from her. I thought she was a best friend, not a complete... well, you get the idea.

Not a very good morning...

It started early this morning. I couldn't get to sleep because the cat was playing with a mouse. Yes, I said 'playing'. I kept a light on in my room so that I could keep an eye on her - after all, who wants their cat to drop a mouse on their bed?

I somehow fell asleep and had the weirdest dream about going for a run, going to a yard sale and phoning Q107 to try out for their Joe Bloe Radio Show (basically, once a month, they pick someone from the phone-in auditions to co-host an hour of the evening show). Oh, and the dream also involved my mom meditating, if I remember correctly.

I woke up to find Smiles licking a dead mouse. Ugh. So I had to dispose of the mouse, then I had a shower.

So, not only am I feeling fatigued, but I also have a headache. I have to talk to my friends, Erica and Holly, about a shopping trip. But I'm too tired to suggest any dates to them, so I'll e-mail them later. I really do need to get out of the house more often - I rarely go shopping, and I never really shop with friends. I just never seemed interested in that sort of thing until now. But after all the crap with certain people, I need some retail therapy.

At leastI managed half a page of algebra yesterday. I don't know if I'll finish the page today... maybe after having a snooze to regain the sleep I lost.