Welcome to paradise.

Well, not really. The title is completely drenched in sarcasm.

Something's up, and people aren't telling me what or who or how or why. It's pissing me off. And eventually I'm gonna get to the bottom of it. I think it has something to do with Angela - my estranged grandmother on my father's side. I've talked about her before. She's the one who sent my siblings and I birthday cards and stickers (yes. stickers.) once every few years, and when we got older it would be a card and money (usually, like, $15). Something about Grandpa wondering why Dad won't talk to Angela. I don't know. But it's pissing me off.

Also, my birthday is days away. I'm not happy. I don't really want to do anything on my birthday except go out for dinner. That's it. I want to stay in my room all morning with some books, magazines (knitting magazines, of course), CDs and knitting close by. And I know Grandpa's going to be a dick in some way, shape or form. I just know it. He has a talent for being an asshole.

I can't wait for the fall HPKCHC classes to start so I have something to keep me busy - not that my preexisting knitting projects aren't keeping me busy, it's just that I think that if I have a deadline to meet, it'll take my mind off the bullshit that is my extended family (and immediate family, at times). I also can't wait for youth group on Wednesday, where I'll be around sane people. And then there's knit night tomorrow. Hopefully I can go. I couldn't go last week because Mom wasn't feeling well.

I think I'm going to start reading The Folk Keeper again. I started it and lost track of what was going on, so I have to re-read it. It's a good book. I highly recommend it.

I also want to read Coraline. I watched the movie yesterday. Mom was being a total bitch about it - she wanted to watch it in 3-D, so I thought, okay, let's give it a shot, even if I have to wear my 3-D glasses while knitting, even if we have to have all the lights off. Well, then she starts fiddling with the TV settings to get it just right. I can't watch a movie if someone's fiddling with settings! She's as bad as Dad sometimes! So I said we should just watch it in 2-D, and she got all huffy and 'maybe I'll make you watch it on the little TV!' and all that shit. Honestly. I just want to watch my frikkin' movie. When did MY library materials become HER library materials?! It's like when I had The Wrestler out of the library. I had to watch it when SHE wanted to watch it because 'Dad's going back to work tomorrow and won't be able to see it'. Um... he's got a library card. So does Mom. It's not rocket science to reserve a DVD.

I miss kickboxing, dammit.

A little shaky.

I'm a little shaky today - not so much now, but at dinner my hands were shaking. Mom thinks it's because of my period, but I've never had that happen before. Huh. She also thought it could be low blood sugar.

I was also ravenously hungry at dinner. Just as Mom was getting the roast ready to go in the oven, I ate up the last of the pretzel sticks and drank a Coke while watching Toronto FC's match against the Seattle Sounders. Boy, were Seattle playing dirty. And the referee was being a complete jerk, too. Like when one of our players got elbowed by a Seattle player, and the ref didn't give him a yellow card! What the hell?! It was a 0-0 tie game, anyhow.

Oh yeah, I finished my fun fur scarf yesterday during my MTV binge. Weaving in the ends was a bit tricky, but once I got used to it, it went fine.

I went to the library today and picked up The Soloist, The Wedding Singer, Super-Cute Crochet and U2's newest album No Line on the Horizon. I also cruised the manga section and grabbed volume 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist. When I went to renew my card, though, they told me I needed a piece of ID other than a piece of addressed mail, which was what another librarian told me, so next time I have to bring my health card. They changed the status of my teen card to an adult card, though.

I actually watched MTV today

Yup. I watched MTV, which I don't do very often unless there's something interesting on, like Engaged & Underaged. But Mom put on 16 and Pregnant, which is an interesting show - today was the second time I've watched it. Near the end of it Mom and Dad had to leave to go to Mom's doctor's appointment, so I grabbed my knitting and watched three episodes of True Life, which was quite interesting. The first one was about college basketball players, the second was about kids starting high school (I don't get why they haze the grade nines. It's stupid.), and the third was about three people starting college. Neat.

Even neater than that, we went out to an Italian-American-style restaurant for dinner. We were originally going to go to Swiss Chalet, but it was packed. Then Mom suggested fish and chips, but given that it was Friday, I said it would probably be packed, too (a lot of Catholics still eat fish on Fridays, which is why fish and chip places are often busy on Fridays). But anyway. The restaurant is one we've gone to for years, but we hadn't been there in a while. What's cool is that a lot of Dad's past and present co-workers go there, so Dad's always saying hi to somebody. Dad got wings, and me and Mom both got cheese tortellini. Mom said hers' was reheated, but mine tasted pretty good. What was funny was when Mom started talking to me about something, and I just stared at one of the TVs because there was an ad for Dissidia, the new Final Fantasy game for PSP. Sephiroth, yum ;P They also had some neat music on the stereo. The Beatles. Simon & Garfunkel. Jerry Lee Lewis. Heck yes :)

After that we stopped to get groceries... and I just remembered that I left a peppermint from the restaurant in my shorts. And they're in the wash. LOL.

I NEED TO WATCH MORE ANIME

Just as the titles says. Must watch anime. I might borrow the .hack//SIGN DVDs from the library. I love that series. I missed episodes of it because of karate.

Speaking of karate, I watched Fight Quest on Discovery HD the other day, and it makes me want to take karate classes again. I didn't realize how much I miss it. But there's no point in me signing up for classes now, because I still have to get my dental implant done. But maybe after Christmas I'll see about looking for a new dojo. If only Mr. Bishop's dojo weren't so far away!

Yesterday I got so upset because I couldn't find our Cooks Country magazines. Now I wonder if they got taken to Value Village. Either that, or my dad put them somewhere. He has a habit of boxing things up. He calls it 'cleaning'. I don't think they went to Value Village, because I remember them being in a box somewhere, probably with the holiday cooking magazines. If I can find out where the holiday magazines are, chances are I'll find the Cooks Country magazines.

Speaking of magazines. I spend way too much time on Wikipedia. Did you know that some manga magazines, like Ribon, are the size of phone books, and come with extras like notepads? I wonder if the library has Shojo Beat... according to Wiki, it's not being published anymore. Next time I'm in Indigo or Chapters, I'll have to see if they have any manga magazines.

Also yesterday, Mom let me borrow her fabulous Susan Bates size US 7 circular for my mandrake blanket, because the circular I was using is really stupid and won't stay de-kinked - when your left pinky goes numb when using a circular, that's not good ;P Hopefully I'll be able to zip through the blanket with this needle. I might take it to knit night on Tuesday.

But yeah. Anime. I watched a bit of InuYasha on YouTube last night. I must reserve one of the box sets from the library, because I lost track on InuYasha (again, because of karate). I might go on Wikipedia and read through the episode lists to see where I left off.

I wonder what anime YTV still has on. I should check their site.

Anyways. We didn't go down to see Grandma today because Mom was tired, so we'll probably go down tomorrow.

Guess where I went today???

I went to the Mary Maxim store's tent sale in Paris, Ontaro! :D

It was pretty awesome. Mom didn't get a lot of yarn - just some Patons Decor in the New Rose colourway - but I got loads of yarn. I got...

6 skeins of Patons Decor in New Rose
6 skeins of Bernat Boa in Cardinal
6 skeins of Bernat Boa in Tweety Bird
6 skeins of Patons Twister in Fruit Loops
6 skeins of Patons Twister in Sungold Twist
3 skeins of Caron Simply Soft Paints in Driftwood

I also got a small pair of scissors, two little notebooks with divider tabs, and a needle case.

The drive there was pretty interesting. This one truck driver was swerving all over the place, so we thought he was falling asleep at the wheel. After we passed him, me and Mom looked over, and he was sitting upright and alert. So now we think that he was having problems with his truck.

And then we got lost twice trying to find the road that takes you to the Mary Maxim store. At first we thought we went too far, but when we turned around we saw that we were going the right way after all, and eventually we were on the right track.

After our shopping expedition, we were going to eat at the family restaurant across the street, but they were lined up almost out the door, so we went to Ancaster to see if the new Texas grill place was open yet. They were lined up almost out the door, too, so we went to Jack Astor's. I got chicken strips, which were good except that they forgot the gravy for my fries, and when I did get my gravy it was so salty that I don't think I'll get it again. Now, I don't mind a bit of salt, but this gravy was ridiculously salty. And their fries were a tad over-seasoned, which was a bit disappointing.

Dad's on vacation now! :D I wonder if he'll take me and Mom to go yarn shopping in Toronto?

My stomach hurts, and Fruits Basket #5 is overdue

I'm not sure why my stomach hurts. Maybe I'm dehydrated.

And I haven't been able to focus on Fruits Basket #5 much, which is why I haven't finished it yet. It's interesting thus far, though. Kisa is so cute! I love how her haircut is similar to mine. I think Hatsuharu is protective of her.

Youth group was good until they all started playing some stupid game where you have to touch your nose, and then mocked me when I didn't. They were talking so fast that I didn't know what I was supposed to do, which is why I didn't touch my nose. So I left the loft and went to the bathroom. When I came out of the cubicle, Sela was there, and she asked me if I was okay. I didn't respond at first - I mean, they play some stupid game, don't tell me what I'm supposed to do, and mock me for it, and THEN ask me if I'm okay? Whatever. So as I was leaving the bathroom I said, "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

Oh, and our plug-in electric toothbrush is dead. Or, rather, dying. It wouldn't work for me the other day, so we went back to our manual toothbrushes. Then, last night/this morning (it was after midnight, anyway), it came on, and shut off. I think I swore out loud, and then continued brushing. Then it came on again, and I swore louder. When I told Mom about it, she said, "Well, I unplugged it from the wall!" I guess it still held a charge and was clicked on. Eh.

Oh, and I went to knit night on Tuesday, which was cool.

And I think the fall term of the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup starts in eight days! Yay!

ETA: no, the term doesn't start until September 1st, but the signups end on the 28th. oops!

Crazy, but fun

The weekend was nuts, but in a good way. I'll do a recap, starting with Friday.

Friday

The night before, Katie called to tell us she and Dan was coming up for the weekend because their plans to go to a friend's cottage fell through. She was coming up on Saturday, which meant that Friday would be a cleaning day.

And then, while my parents were out getting groceries, Justin (my cousin) called to ask if he could crash here for the night because he had errands to run in Toronto the next day. Mom and Dad weren't home at the time, so he said he'd call back. After he called back twice, I said, "Why don't I get them to call you back?" and he agreed. So when they got home, Mom called him and said he could come over.

So I vacuumed the stairs, then went to the library with Dad to pick up my stuff, then me and Dad went to Shoppers Drug Mart to get pop because it was on sale. Justin came over, we had dinner, we watched TV (Bollywood Hero on Super Channel, and then we watched the movie right after it called The Night of the White Pants, which was a weird but funny movie. Not reccomended for under-sixteens unless you have permission, 'cause of the drug use in it.), and we went to bed.

Saturday

I set my alarm for 7 AM, because I wanted to be up early for when Michaels opened, because they had a coupon for 25% off your purchase between 9 AM and 11 AM, or something like that. Mom got beads and stuff to make stitch markers, and I got a skein of Red Heart Soft Yarn to make a wrap.

After we got home, Justin got his stuff together and Dad drove him to the bus station. Katie and Dan came sometime after noon. Dan gave me and Mom each a sandalwood bookmark, which was nice of him. I don't know if Dad got one. Mine had a Chinese proverb on it, and I think Mom's did, too.

We had burgers and grilled veggies for dinner, and then we played UpWords while Dad was playing poker with the neighbors. We weren't used to the rules of UpWords, so we kept putting in words that worked one way but didn't work the other way. For instance, Katie put down one word, but the word crossing it became 'fancs', so she had to take it down. It was pretty funny. Dan won the game.

Sunday

Katie and Dan went down to the beach at around lunchtime. I think I was reading Fruits Basket to pass the time until they came back. After they came back, me, Mom and Katie went down to the hospital to see Grandma. We went in Katie's rental car - a Nissan Versa, which was a very nice car. It's very roomy in the back. I sat behind Mom, and her seat was moved almost all the way back from when Dan was sitting in it, and I still had loads of room for my knees. I think even Dad would have enough room to sit in the back, and he's pretty tall.

Grandma was asleep when we got to her room - she had been to an anniversary party the day before, so she was pretty tired. Katie woke her up, and she was quite happy to see Katie. She was able to move her right leg a little, which is great.

We had pasta with meatballs for dinner (Mom and I got in an argument over what pasta to use) and watched America's Funniest Home Videos. Katie and Dan left at around 9:00.

I should probably go eat soon...